Sensory overload

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Lachlan Wetherall

I visited a multilevel consumer sensory overload facility on the weekend (otherwise known as a Westfield shopping centre) and had difficulty in locating a particular shop. I grabbed a centre complex map from the info desk and was disappointed to find that it had no compass bearings or scale!

I suppose it’s all part of the design of prolonging your time inside in the hope of extracting more cash from the wallet.

Note to Westfield: please consider issuing visitors to your facility with emergency beacons that can be activated in times of sensory overload and severe disorientation, so that SWAT teams of consumer advocates can come to the rescue of dazed and confused shoppers.

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #144]

Wish fulfilment

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Lachlan Wetherall

Looks like another item from my election wishlist of last year is in the pipeline, with the government moving to ban the promotion of sports betting during sports telecasts.

Update 20 Feb 2015: While there is no longer spruiking of live odds during the games, there’s still a long, long way to go to excise the scourge of gambling advertising from sports telecasts.

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #143]

Birthday dreams

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Lachlan Wetherall

It’s my birthday next week. Last night I dreamed I got a theremin for my birthday. Truly I did. I wonder what it means?

Update: I think I figured out why I dreamed of a theremin. I’ve been listening to Sarah Blasko’s “As Day Follows Night” lately on which several tracks feature a musical saw, which has a theremin like sound.

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #142]

Nerd nirvana

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Lachlan Wetherall

Approaching nerd nirvana. Apple devotees inside an Apple retail store can now use their Apple device ask for technical assistance from someone in the same room as them, without having to go through that socially awkward hurdle of walking up to an actual person and actually speaking to them.

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #141]

Turgid

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Lachlan Wetherall

With the return of MasterChef I get to pull out, dust off, and expose to the daylight one of my favourite underused words of the English vocabulary:

turgid = inflated, overblown, or pompous; bombastic

It’s almost like they made MasterChef with the explicit purpose of illustrating the meaning of this word.

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #140]

Wishful thinking #2

Posted on May 21, 2011 by Lachlan Wetherall

Things I wish for but probably will never get:

“Mythbusters Express” – a 30 minute version of Mythbusters with the exact same content as the 1hr version, but with all the repetition cut out.

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #139]

Wishful thinking #1

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Lachlan Wetherall

Things I wish for but probably will never get:

For Microsoft to not develop and release new versions of products until they get the existing version fixed and documented properly. Yes SharePoint, that’s you I’m talking about.

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #138]

Dumb ideas

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Lachlan Wetherall

Dumb ideas^* of the digital age: Cloud music services where your music listening experience is dependent on the vagaries of internet connectivity.

^*To be fair, I thought that SMS on mobile phones was a dumb idea – billions of people disagreed with me. Incredible.

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #137]

A bit of this, a bit of that

Musings on life, technology, history and random stuff, handcrafted using the finest naturally occurring binary digits

Monthly Archives: May 2011