April 29, 2004
Is Ebay the new Microsoft?
Has Ebay become so monopolistic that it is incapable of policing itself? Take a look at the digital camera section of French ebay. Of the 757 items this section, 429 of them are listed as 6 Megapixels plus. What is the average NEW camera at the moment? 3 Megapixels?
Then take a look at that 6 Megapixel plus section. Only very few of them actually are over that amount. Pity the poor sods who actually are trying to sell something that actually fits the category.
When was the last time an Ebay employee actually looked at the digicam listings? Needless to say, I have sent an "email" to that effect, but one gets the impression that they are sometimes (say every six months) read by a part time employee in Laos.
April 27, 2004
Insight
"Some Picture a friend brought back from Iraq"
Oliver Willis provided the link. Like he says, they are "good, bad and in between." Not for family viewing, certainly.
Will we be seeing a lot more of this? Digicam snaps of events on the ground.
During WW1 the British Government had an agreement with the press that they would not print any photos of corpses. "How ridiculous," I thought when my father told me of this, "that would never happen now."
plus ça change
April 25, 2004
Don't let's be beastly to the Germans
IHT: U.K. press baron turns 'German'
Proof, if any was needed, that Richard Desmond is a lunatic.
Is he not bankrolled by Commerzbank?
April 24, 2004
Le Halles
> Quatre projets pour les Halles / Novaplanet.com
Les Halles, Paris's central shopping precinct, is about to get a facelift. The above link takes you to the candidates. Click on "voir les images" to see more pictures.
My preference (and, it seems, that of most others) is for the third one. Do most city dwellers yearn for the color green? I remember when I used to live in Vermont. The winters there were so monochromatic (it went from white ground to dark grey trees to middling grey sky) that one would have an experience akin to an orgasm when the first green schutes appeared.
April 23, 2004
Only in France
French Prime minister Jean Pierre Raffarin's communication's director Dominique Baudis was arrested for being with an underage prostitute.
His lawyer claims that he let the girl get in his car because she was being attacked.
CLARIFICATION: The reason I entitled this piece "only in France" is because the story only got a third or fourth billing in last night's TV news, not because the Republic is alone in sex scandals, far from it. Profumo anybody?
April 20, 2004
April 14, 2004
Ah Firenze
Was in Florence a couple of weeks ago. Took some pics. My ex step grandmother (how's that for a relative) was having an exhibition at the Palazzo Petit (as one does.)
I played the Paparazzo
April 06, 2004
Woosh
Went to Italy this weekend. Took the "Orlyval" light railway from Paris's old school airport. Astoundingly fast for a driverless train. Nice that you can stand in the front.