Van Gogh

received this vai email - usual caveats to the author.

Van Gogh family tree -

His dizzy aunt-----------------------Verti Gogh

The brother who ate prunes-----------Gotta Gogh

The brother who worked at a convenience store----Stop an Gogh

The grandfather from Yugoslavia-------U Gogh

The cousin from Illinois------------- Chica Gogh

His magician uncle--------------Where-diddy Gogh

His Mexican cousin------------------- A mee Gogh

The Mexican cousin's American half-brother----Ring Gogh

The nephew who drove a stage coach - Wells-far Gogh

The constipated uncle----------------- Cant Gogh

The ballroom dancing aunt------------- Tang Gogh

The bird lover uncle----------------Flaming Gogh

His nephew psychoanalyst---------------- E Gogh

The fruit loving cousin-----------------Man Gogh

An aunt who taught positive thinking----- Way-to Gogh

The little bouncy nephew--------------- Poe Gogh

A sister who loved disco--------------- Go Gogh

And his niece who traveled the country in a van - Winnie Bay Gogh

iPhone

There has been a lot of positive and negative press about the Apple iPhone. From the evidence in the US, there is a market with 500,000 sold in the first weekend. So people want it, but why?

Functionally, it doesn't break any moulds. There are phones which make calls, take photos, can play music and sync your diary too. There are also touch screen phones, although these have not exactly set the world alight as they are typically difficult to use or are on basic phones so they phone has a reasonable purchase price.

Design wise, it's stunning, as you would expect from Apple. Other maunfacturers have made decent looking phones (the Motorolla Pebl springs to mind) but no mainstream company has made anything like this before. You get the high end stuff that sells in low numbers but with high sale prices (over £1000), but Apple are marketing the phone as a high end design phone with ipod looks and functionality, for about £300. Nothing comes close to that - not many people really buy phones anymore as it's all in the contracts, and most people have an ipod (or a few!).

So why and who? Well, the why is that Apple can use the mobile network to have a mobile edition of iTunes, which is a massive revenue generator for Apple. The people who buy the iPhone will likely be heavy iTunes users, so it's a new market for them. The mobile companies are happy as they get the carrier revenue while the tracks download, and again a new market that Sony have tried to tap into but hasn't really succeded. Who? Well existing heavy iPod users will lap it up.

Then there is how it works. Simply, it's an amazingly good piece of software. It does everything a Windows Smartphone does, but simpler, better, and faster. Apple got it right, they didn't try and break any moulds, they just had to do it with the right design and the right level of functionality that users were going to go for.

Do I want one? Yes. Will I buy one? Not at 300 quid plus a heavy contract price. Do I need one? No - I have a phone and an iPod. So I'll stick with that thank you very much :-)

Hectic weekend, but very enjoyable. Catching up with mates and family is always good fun.

So some people drove a jeep into the airport in Glasgow. It got me thinking - had these people never done a reccy before? Surely you'd realise the only thing that will fit through airport doors is a Smart car? I can't get through it with my luggage, so a big jeep has no chance!

I dropped my other half at the airport this morning (on her way to Glasgow!) and there is a huge police prescence. But the rest of the airport was deserted - hardly any traffic on the drive to and around the airport. Riot vans, police dogs, armed police, all looking menacing but not actually searching anyone.

If a large police prescence is all that it takes to sort out the traffic at Heathrow, long may the police stay there!