Obscure Box

It was back in August 2008 when I first mentioned my frustration at what I called the Gates' Breath, in Just wait a Gates’ breath.

Now the brainy people at chip manufacturer Intel have revealed figures on a similar condition that's called Hourglass Syndrome.

The Reuters story Stressed by slow computers? You are not alone (Friday 9 April 2010) talks about the frustrations people experience in waiting for the computers to catch up with their actions.

"We found that 41 percent of adults said they are waiting for the computer to catch up with them and they are stressing out while waiting," said Agnes Kwan, of Intel which develops processor technology, said referring to survey results.

The increasing use of Facebook, Twitter and some music and video websites (no doubt including YouTube) were all causing problems for slow computers that struggled to keep up.

A Harris poll for Intel of 2,315 people in the United States found the average computer user was spending about 13 minutes a day waiting for their technology to catch up, which adds up to a total wait of about three days a year.

The clever folk at Intel even created a video to highlight the problems caused by Hourglass Syndrome.

Naturally Intell is using the research to plug its new, faster chips, as revealed in the company's blog posting Hourglass Syndrome: Do You Suffer? (Thursday 31 March 2010).

Of course, another solution could be to develop websites that don't take up so much of a processor's grunt.

No matter what machine I use these days it seems to take longer and longer to access content on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and a host of other news and information websites.

Cressida Cowell

British author Cressida Cowell may know a thing or two about dragons but her knowledge of Vikings might need a little updating.

Her series of children's books are the basis for the new 3D animated blockbuster How to Train Your Dragon.

It's a fascinating movie that's entertaining for all ages and I confess I shed a tear or two towards the end when I went to a preview screening in Brisbane recently.

(Still puzzled though by the Scottish accents on those Vikings.)

Keen to know more about the movie's origins I was directed towards Cowell's website and information on her series of books on dragons and Vikings.

There I plunged into the Frequently Asked Questions and found this amusing entry:

When did the Vikings invade Britain?

Now I'm no expert on Vikings - and a half century ago is still just a few years before I was born in the UK - but I don't recall my parents ever telling me tales of what life was like when the Vikings invaded Britain.

Nor do I recall any of my Scottish friends telling me tales of Viking settlements on the Western Isles of Scotland in the mid 20th Century.

Surely such news would have made great headlines in the British media but a search of the BBC's excellent website finds no results for Viking invasions of Britain in the 1950s or 1960s.

The public sector broadcaster does have a great website on British history and the section on Britain from 1945 onwards makes no mention of any Viking invasion.

Where the Vikings do crop up on the website is in the ancient history section with a series of raids that began at the end of the eighth century AD.

BBC's ancient history of the Vikings

Read on and we discover the reign of the Vikings actually extended from about 800 through to 1066 and the Norman invasion.

A half century ago? More like a 1,000 years ago, give or take a full century.

Cowell may well have spent time as a child on an un-named Scottish island, staring out to sea but neither she nor anyone else at the time would ever have seen the sails of a genuine Viking ship appear on the horizon.

I howled listening the ABC radio report last night about the assassination of a Hamas leader.

The report itself was very disturbing and my laughter was not directed at the content of the story itself. What is it with Israel?

My laughter was at the reaction the assassination was creating in the countries.

In the report Gang that assassinated Hamas leader used stolen European passports on PM (Wednesday 17 February 2010) presenter Mark Colvin was speaking with Fairfax correspondent Paul McGeough who had written a book that described a failed assassination attempt by Israel in 1997 against another Hamas leader.

The conversation described how stolen British, Irish, German and French passports had been used by the assassins and that had the potential to cause a diplomatic row.

How concerned then were these four countries?

PAUL MCGEOUGH: Well the British Government is very upset. The Irish Government is very upset. The German Government is quite upset and the French are annoyed.

MARK COLVIN: All of them had passports used?

PAUL MCGEOUGH: All of them had passports used. Six Israelis, three Irish, one German, one French.

So the French are only annoyed? Come on guys, some more outrage would be appropriate.

That's why I howled.

Many style guides for news organisations here in Australia are lax of the use of commas in numbers 1,000 t0 9,999.

They prefer to drop the comma and opt for 1000 to 9999. Commas are fine higher numbers with digits grouped in threes so it's 10,000 and 1,000,000 and so on.

I think the commas should be there from 1,000 onwards. Why? Why not!

Why have a split rule? Why not be consistent? Most computing technology these days allows for the comma to e used from 1,000 onwards. No split rule.

I also think there's a risk of some ambiguity on what's being said, especially when general style allows the commas to be dropped from street numbers and years.

Take this line from the Oscar preview story Aussie filmmakers at Oscar's luncheon posted on the Sky News website (Tuesday 16 February 2010).

For many of the other 2010 nominees - make-up artists, editors, special effects geeks and Aussie short filmmakers Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey - the Oscar luncheon was another magical experience full of pomp and ceremony on the way to the highlight of their working lives, the March 7 Academy Awards ceremony at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.

How many nominees?

The sentence is ambiguous. It can be read to say there are 2,010 nominees or it can be read to say the nominees for the year 2010.

The actual number of nominees for the year 2010 is 121, according to the news report.

A consistent policy on commas in numbers would have avoided any potential confusion.

Okay, this was only an Oscar preview story. The context and familiarity of the story should avoid any confusion. Why worry?

What if I was talking about many of the 2002 Bali bombing victims?

How many victims? As time goes by the context and familiarity of a story can fade.

The Australian Federal Police says in Bali bombings 2002 (Page Updated: May 2, 2008) that 202 people died in the bombings, including 88 Australians.

See my point?

Not by telephone, if you're thinking of contacting Australia's Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd.

Just been trawling the PM's website www.pm.gov.au and I can't find a telephone number listed on any of the pages.

Nice office but not a telephone in sight. (Not sure what the blur is hiding either)

None. Not a single contact number listed anywhere. Not even on the
Media Releases.

I can follow the PM's Blog or Twitter, engage in a web chat, even send
him an e-mail but I can't pick up the phone and give him a call because
I can't find a telephone listed anywhere.

Now I can find a couple of numbers listed for the PM if I head over to
the Parliamentary website and look up Kevin Rudd's personal page. Both Canberra and
Electorate office numbers are listed.

But that's not the point.

You'd have thought the best place to look for a telephone number for
the PM would be the PM's website.

Good look then to any potential investor, donator, contributor, world
leader or whoever wants to give him a call in the future.