CentralStation – The PS2’s network gaming hub is now available on the web, or rather the Events and Player Reporting section is. The missing articles/features are basically marketing fluff anyway.
It’s good that Sony is beginning to realise that the PS2 should not be the exclusive access point for Central Station.
The Economist has several articles on Simplicity in Technology which are a good read.
I also noticed that Philips have simplicity as the theme of their entire advertising campaign at the moment.
K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) is one of the mantras of design – Simplicity is a good thing.
That’s why my blog posts are so short
I woke-up listening to XFM this morning. The DJ reads out request email from a guy in the queue at the Apple Store in Regent’s Street. She seems confused as to how he was able to email and queue at the same time.
I hopped over to Oxford Circus, took one look at the queue and thought “I’m not queuing that long to get in a shop!” , turned around and went to Maplins on Gt. Portland St. instead. Not as glamourous, but there was no queue, and it was far geekier. 
It’s common knowledge that we British love to queue, but it seems the Americans have a strong need to be No.1 in every field: The first three in the queue were all American. One of them goes to every opening – it appears.
I think I’ll have a proper look another day…
Great magazine-style PDF reviewing all the iPod accessories
Alas – I’ve got bored (strangely) of wading through tens of comment authorisations every day – each of which is a variation on poker, fake pharmaceuticals and pr0n.
So I’ve added a turing test to the comments – a CAPTCHA.
Here’s where it came from.
There are accessibility issues with the CAPTCHA – because it can exclude partially-sighted or blind readers – but I hope it’s not a permanent solution. (I hoping that Kitten’s captcha for the blind will become an official WordPress Plug-in soon.)
It’s sad – because it’s another barrier to posting (even though it’s not too difficult) – but I’m hoping it’ll work (at least in the short term.)
Mouse-wise I currently use a Logitech MX700. It’s a fantastic 8-button (!) mouse. It’s wireless which is great, but uses its own wireless system – so requires an USB receiver/dock thingamy which acts as a charger when it get low on juice.
I don’t think I’ll replace the mouse until it’s broken. However, I saw something today that sorely tempted me to upgrade unnecessarily. (something Logitech’s Laser-guided mouse that looks like a sci-fi parasite didn’t make me want to do.)
You see I’ve always thought that the logitech dock-a-majig was a component too much – and it has a real usability problem:
When the battery runs low you have to stop using it while it recharges.
This mouse, solves both those irritations:
It’s a bluetooth mouse that assumes you already have bluetooth on your computer (so no receivers to plug-in) and when the batteries run low… you plug in a USB cable and it charges from it and acts just like a corded mouse!
(Now if only it had more buttons… )
