Status-Q

While I've now seen several Segways, I still don't own one. This may mean that I'm gaining a certain amount of sanity in my old age, because there's no doubt that I'd like one. This is partly because I love toys, but mostly because I think it a beautiful bit of engineering. Three years ago, I met Dean Kamen at a conference where he was demonstrating his balancing 'iBot' wheelchair - the predecessor to the Segway - and I thought it one of the most inspiring examples of engineering I've ever seen.

It can balance on two wheels and is incredibly stable. The idea is that people in wheelchairs shouldn't have to be lower than everybody else. It can go up stairs, too. iBots are expensive, though - at $29,000 they cost more than a nice car - and I've heard that it was partly the desire to reduce the cost of the technology that made Dean think of a mass-market product like the Segway.

The view from the Newnham Research office this evening.

My brother Simon, who's a doctor in Southampton, took this photo of a rather nice sign there:

If there's one word I would use to describe Las Vegas after my first visit, it's 'fake'. From the Venetian bridges to the voluptuous breasts, this is a town built primarily to pretend to be something it isn't. That's not to say that some of the fakes aren't very well done - the half-size Eiffel tower at the Paris, the small section of the Grand Canal on the second floor of the Venetian, and, indeed, many of the breasts. (These, in contrast, tend to be larger than the real thing).

The hotels are vast, and include sufficient restaurants, shops, streets that you hardly need to leave them at all, which is, no doubt, the idea. Some of them, such as the Bellagio, would be quite superb if they weren't spoiled by acres of garish and sometimes noisy slot machines, which deprive them of all dignity. Interestingly, most of these seemed not to be much used, which may mean they've gone out of fashion, but is probably an indication that during the week of the Consumer Electronics Show, most people aren't primarily there to gamble. Or that the ridiculously high prices of hotel rooms that week are not appealing to those who only gamble at the slot-machine level.

Las Vegas is a place that everyone should visit once, if only to see how low we can fall, but that nobody should be made to visit twice. The thing that keeps the whole thing in proportion is the fact that from the main 'strip' you can sometimes get glimpses of the spectacular mountains in the distance, the beginning of some of the most dramatic and beautiful scenery on earth, which reminded me that in the overall scale of things, the city is a comparatively small blot on the landscape.

Zion National park, a few hours' drive from Vegas

The long dry summer here has brought out some of the best autumn colours I can remember seeing in Britain. So I can't help posting a few photos from last weekend in Derbyshire.

I like this place.

Definitely summer today.

Anyway, John and I have the same problem, which is a need to protect our heads from the sun, in much the same way as Cray supercomputers require substantial cooling systems. But we both have a natural aversion to baseball caps, and John, who has been experimenting with various options including a rather elegant panama asks whether I have a secret hat habit?

And the answer is yes. I also have a panama, which I bought one year at Henley Regatta, but I don't think I can carry it off except when wearing a blazer, which isn't often. My other hats tend to be sufficiently embarrassing that I don't wear them except when well away from my home turf where, let's face it, the heat of the noonday sun is seldom much of a problem anyway.

My first hat I bought in Ambleside because it cost less than the tube of sun cream I was thinking of buying. I call it my "guess which country I'm from..." hat because nobody but a Brit on holiday would be seen dead in it. Looking back through my photos, I don't seem to have a picture of it. Which is just too bad.

My main hat is made by the Henschel Hat Co. of St Louis, Missouri and was purchased in Georgetown in Washington DC.

Mmm. Works in all weathers, too. This is Brussels in mid-winter:

The trouble is that it doesn't fold, roll or collapse in any way and so takes up quite a bit of my suitcase, so I often don't have it when I need it, like last week.

So last week I bought this rather fetching little number:

OK, say what you like, but it's comfortable and fits in my pocket. Not sure any of these suggestions would be quite right for a man of John's standing, though!

Just back from the Lake District, which was as beautiful as ever.

This time, however, we had a week of the best weather I can remember ever having in many many visits. A real joy.

Here's a picture I took today in Windermere in the English Lake District:

Note the implication of the logo. The internet, in all its glory, is represented by a letter 'e'...