Status-Q

Keen though I am to reduce the amount of paper in my life, I am still hesitant about switching all of my utility bills to electronic form because they are often useful, in the UK, as proof of your residential address.

Mobile phone bills, however, tend to be excluded, and since almost every gadget I buy comes with a SIM, I now have quite a few of these! But there's a different problem when it comes to switching many of these to paperless billing, as illustrated just now by my iPad contract with Vodafone. How do you do it?

Well, you go to Vodafone's site, and register for an online account. The first thing you need to do is enter your phone number. What is the phone number of my iPhone? Fortunately I had a recent bill handy, so I could look it up, never having needed it for anything other than this before.

Then you hit a second problem. They send you a text message with a security code in it, which you need to enter into the web site. Except, as they well know, this is an iPad, on a special iPad-only contract, and it sadly has no way of reading text messages. (Nor does my Mifi. Nor my 3G dongle, at least with a Mac.) Mmm....

OK, well, SMS messages are sent to the number identified by the SIM, not the device, so I can take the SIM out of the iPad and put it in a phone. (As a matter of course, I always have all my devices unlocked whenever I possibly can, just to make this sort of thing possible.)

Then you hit the third problem. My whopping great iPad has a micro-SIM, while my decidedly smaller iPhone has a regular sized SIM. Fortunately, you can buy adapters which convert one to the other. (If you need to go the other way, you can do so with a pair of scissors, or with a special cutter.)

So the process becomes: move SIM from non-SMS-receiving device to receiving device, having previously unlocked the latter if they're on different networks, and making use of cutters or adapters as required, then register on first device's network website, noting and entering any codes that may be texted to you, then restore everything to its previous state afterwards. In the States, where there's a reasonable chance that your different devices wouldn't have compatible radio circuitry, it would be even worse.

One feels that this might be a bit of an oversight on the part of the service providers...

One of the first apps I installed on my first iPod Touch was 'Shakespeare', a conveniently-pocketable version of The Complete Works.

I've been surprised how often I refer to it, and I rather like the century-spanning blend of content and media.

But as the operating system and the application have matured and been updated, they've developed new and spooky abilities. I'm now getting messages from beyond the grave...

I like the fact that "Shakespeare" is in quotation marks. Even in the afterlife, perhaps, the authorship is disputed?

DisplayLink have just released an iPad app!

It turns the 'pad into an extension monitor for just a couple of bucks. Not much use to me until there's a Mac version, but it's a step in the right direction. There are Mac drivers for their other products, so I'm hoping it won't be too far away...

If at first you don't succeed, remove all evidence you ever tried.

David Brent

End of an era...

Last year, the National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry was given the last roll of Kodachrome produced by Kodak. Yesterday, the last lab still developing the format took its last orders. He delivered it to them by hand.

He made good use of the roll, though.

In some ways it seems inappropriate to mourn the death of a media format - it's happening all the time now. But this one is unusual, firstly in having lasted for 75 years, and secondly, in having so much of people's lives bound up in it.

One day, we, or perhaps our grandchildren, may feel the same about paper.

The security group at the University here found a flaw in the Chip and PIN system, and told the banking industry about it.

A year later, the industry body responsible for such cards, whose slogan is 'Representing, Informing, Advancing,' sent a notice to the University, asking that they take down the thesis of a student in the group who had published further information about it, and not to do that again, please.

Unfortunately for them, universities are not companies. Ross Anderson wrote a masterful response.

Details here.

My American readers will know the expression 'to say uncle' or 'to cry uncle', meaning to submit, admit defeat, ask for mercy.

It's not a phrase we use over here, and I've often wondered about its origins.

Michael Quinion's excellent site, which I've recommended before, has a plausible answer.

Useless fact of the day....

2011 is a prime number.

Only 13 prime-numbered years in the last century. Must be a good omen.

Actually, I'm rather tempted to write a spoof astrological-type book.

The Power of Primes, I'll call it. How ancient Greek mathematical concepts can forge your destiny!

I'll dig up lots of powerful correlations showing that prime numbers are indeed a good omen, and that non-primes are much more dodgy. There were no prime-numbered years during the two world wars, for example. The Sept 11th attacks happened in 2001, which was not a prime year, even though the surrounding 1997, 1999 and 2003 all were. Pretty sinister, eh? Yes, I think the first person to expose this hitherto-unknown law of nature could make a packet.

I shall set to work. I think 2011 will be a good year.

So will 2017, by the way...

As we shiver through what, for the UK at least, is a very chilly winter, it struck me just how much more unpleasant such weather would be without the wonders of modern heating systems. Lest we forget this blessing, I offer a small carol in honour of one of science's great achievements, which I would encourage you to sing as you go on your way, and share throughout your community... Pilot light, glowing light All is warm, while you're bright Round yon pipes, radiators and tanks For our comfort we give you our thanks And sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace.

Pilot light, went out in the night! Frozen toes at dawn's first light. The boiler's a new one, so how do we fix? Knew the old one and all of its tricks. Now the pipes will be frozen At Christmas, I'm starting to fear...

Pilot light, dark as night Who can help, in our plight? Give me a bonfire, I know what to do; Pressurised system? I haven't a clue! Plumbers are sure to be pricey Especially at this time of year.

Pilot light, once more alight! Found the instructions and they set us right. At the back of the filing drawer All that was needed for furnace to roar So, sleep in heavenly peace Sleep in heavenly peace!

Another nice TED talk from Michael Shermer, which will help you understand the world, or at least, understand how you understand the world. (Watch this one first if you haven't seen it it already).