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Sony have announced that in 2011, after 30 long and years they will cease to produce the Floppy Disk. I haven’t actually seen one in the wild for some time, but apparently one of Sony’s best selling peripherals has been a USB floppy disk drive. The image of the floppy disk is so synonomous with saving files that most programs still have a floppy disk style icon you click on when you want to save documents, or games.

It’s easy to see why Floppy disks have fallen by the wayside, mostly the arrival of much larger capacity, and even more portable memory sources have become commn place with USB sticks, flash memory cards, and CDs the methods of choice now for backing up data and installing programs. What once it took 24 or more floppy disks to install can now be easily held on a single CD. Years of documents and spreadsheets can be backed up safely on a single USB stick. Of course the floppy cause hasn’t been helped since floppy drives started going missing from new PCs around about 1996.

There are still niche uses for floppy disks with some high end devices, until very recently, still coming with floppy drives installed as standard, such as the vast desks that control sound and light settings in theatres and music venues. The English national Opera being one example of an organisation of an organisation that still uses the trusty floppy.

Will the floppy end up like Vinyl is to CD at the moment? Something of a niche item that still has a strong following, or will it disappear entirely? I suppose only time will tell, but I know I won’t miss installing something on 25 floppy disks only to find disk 24 is corrupt! (more…)

I’ve always had a certain fascination with optical illusions. Whether it be impossible objects, or images that look like they are one thing at first, but then suddenly appear to be something completely different I’ve always marvelled at how our brains interpret these things. Whilst, metaphorically, strolling around the internet yesterday I happened across a type of illusion that I have not seen before.

The image above shows a woman sat a her desk with all manner of clutter around her. But take a few steps away from your monitor, and both the woman and her clutter mysteriously vanish! This effect is created by, and I shall quote at this point: “Using high spatial frequency superimposition of colour onto a black and white low frequency field“. This works because as you increase the distance between you and the picture the low colour tones fade into the sea of grey scale that makes up the rest of the picture.

Happy St. George’s Day to one and all!

What a glorious day it is for Morris Dancing, flying of the St. George’s Cross, wearing of red roses, and all those other English traditions. I was listening to the radio this morning and they were asking people to phone/text in and say what they loved most about England. Of course there was a wide range of different answers, but it got me to thinking what it is that I love most about England. It’s no secret that I’m very proud to be able to call myself English, and I’m equally proud of our country and its history and traditions.

I think what I like about England the most is the contrasts. The fact that whilst being a very small country on the global scale of things, it somehow manages to pack so much into such a small space. For example you can be among the hubub of urban life in the heart of central London, enjoying the sights, the lights, and the nightlife. Just 20-30 minutes journey away you can be in the heart of the countryside enjoying a picnic in the sunshine under an Oak tree, or a quiet drink in a traditional English pub garden. Magnificent mountains, beautiful beaches, fantastic forests, peaceful parkland, we really are very lucky to be able to enjoy all of it as we do.

I shall be headed to the St. George’s Day rugby match at Twickenham tomorrow with the weather set to be glorious. This is a charity match raising money for the Help For Heroes campaign, set to be a fixture in the calendar for the next three years at least. Of course Sunday will see the London Marathon take place, and many thousands of runners taking to the streets of London to raise money for a wide range of charities.

What will you be doing with your weekend?

I hope you all had a good weekend and enjoyed this glorious weather. I certainly did, I managed to get out for a nice long walk and then also a bike ride along the canal on Sunday, it certainly was a very active weekend! However next time I must remember  to put on sun cream as I was glowing quite a bit by the end of the weekend.

So as its new week we have a new cart promo. This week we have the Beep Egg on special offer, normal price £14.95, cart price £9.95. So that’s a saving of £5 when purchased with any other item.

The Beep Egg is a musical egg timer in the shape of an egg. Just pop it in the pan with the rest of your eggs and it will play a tune when the eggs are done, it has three different tunes depending on whether you like them, soft, medium or hard boiled.  With this little gadget you’ll have perfect eggs every time!

M x

This week we’ve been sifting through our product range and putting all our summer related products together in one place to make it easier for you.

In our new Summer Fun category you’ll find everything you need for those wonderful long summer days to come. From BBQ Gadgets to Garden Games theres plenty to keep the whole family entertained and with items from as little as £4.95 there is something for every budget. We’ll also be adding lots more over the coming months so remember to check back!

I’m off to test out some of the potential new products, have a great weekend!

M x