Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Nov 2, 2011, 7:55 am
We went to the Mediterranean for a holiday, at the Club Med Palmiye, which was brilliant.  Club Med is not cheap, but you go there and there is huge range of activity, and goings on, which you basically get as part of the package, and all food drink, etc. is also in the agreement, so you can really...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Oct 21, 2011, 3:02 pm
Hmm.  Been watching the Euro rescue.  Waiting for the rescue. MiGosh.  You would be hard pressed to see a more complex comedic clusterfuck if you tried, but... It's about everything in financial stability, even a functioning monetary system, but no-one seems to have any concrete pla...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Oct 21, 2011, 2:40 pm
Just been chilling here in the Spaceship, getting better, and relaxing.  Reading Neal Stephenson's Readme.  Everything he does is a kind of bonkers stream of consciousness, but I do like his stuff.  Tomorrow we go to Turkey for a week of much needed family holiday before we all go b...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Oct 13, 2011, 10:39 am
RIM have had the Blackberry service down in EMEA for the last three or four days, which is a disaster for a company that is so central to mobile comms.  Given that their products are pretty lacklustre right now, the one thing that everyone always said was "well, at least e-mail works." Best ...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Oct 4, 2011, 10:09 am
Man, if you had to do a text book case of how to mishandle a complex and escalating situation, you could not do a more mangled and screwed up job than the vast numbers of people who all seem to have conflicting roles in the demise or whatever happens next to the Euro. Greece will default, it'...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Oct 4, 2011, 9:45 am
Went into see the Head of Lumps in the cantonal hospital, and he gave me the official "all-clear," so that's the end of that episode.  I still have to do follow up scans and so on as a matter of routine, but it should be recuperation and rehabilitation from now on.  I will start back with SAP in m...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Oct 4, 2011, 9:33 am
This weekend we celebrated here in the Spaceship, as Mrs Spaceship hit the half century.  As I have always graciously said of this event, "I can't believe it's me bird who's 50, and not her mum."  A feeling that my spouse shares, as she cannot believe herself that she is not 25 anymore. So,...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Sep 13, 2011, 1:18 pm
One of the options frequently mentioned to solve the Euro problem is to issue Eurobonds, because then the bonds will attract the high credit ratings of the core countries.  Only the exact opposite seems to be true according to this from Standard and Poors: "A joint bond issue by euro ...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Sep 13, 2011, 1:00 pm
Hello Spaceshippers, back again.  Whence has I been?  In the local hospital, having my first, and hopefully only, major side effect of the treatment of the Attack of Lumps. Now, remember, Chemotherapy is where a group of skilled and experienced oncologists fill you full of very toxic chemic...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Sep 7, 2011, 1:09 pm
Sometimes I wonder if I have right perspective, as I am very disturbed about the situation in Fukushima.   Is this an over-reaction?  Well, turns out that neither I nor anybody else really knew the half of the story.  This is an English version of a story in one of the main Japanese Papers.  Re...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Sep 1, 2011, 6:14 am
I was foaming below about a new iPad that I got yesterday, and how come it was lacking basic elements of functionality.  Read on to see how we can sometimes reach completely the wrong conclusions, and so should spend life being modest and thoughtful in the face of other's assumed mistakes...    ...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Aug 30, 2011, 8:13 am
I finished my chemo for the Attack of Lumps on Friday, and took the last of the follow up drugs this morning, so now, I am officially in convalescence mode.  I was surprised to be told that I should not expect to go to work much before November, as I will need to recuperate more than I had expected...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Aug 22, 2011, 9:45 am
Interestingly enough, Hugh Macleod of Gaping Void, an old friend from school days and since, has renounced Facebook and Twitter, for reasons that he explains in a thoughtful post.  I spoke with Hugh on the phone for an hour or so the other days, for the first time in a long time, and he was...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Aug 20, 2011, 5:06 am
Leo Apotheker was CEO at SAP in the interlude between the brilliant Professor Henning Kagermann, and the Dynamic Duo of Bill McDermott, and Jim Hagemann Snabe, who do sales and tech respectively, and are both rather good at what they do.   He got ousted after nine months in the middle of som...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Aug 20, 2011, 4:44 am
Sitting here in the garden at the Spaceship, clearly in a lighter frame of mind now that the Attack of Lumps is in abeyance.  Finally, like the rest of Europe, rain has turned into some sunshine, and I am taking advantage of a bit of time in the hammock, all of which is balm for the soul.  ...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Aug 11, 2011, 4:51 am
Well, I went to see Head of Lumps at the local hospital today, having done a CT PET Scan last week, and apparently there is no remaining trace of the erstwhile Attack of Lumps.  Obviously this is good news. I still have to do a couple more chemo, more or less as a belt and braces, but...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Aug 5, 2011, 10:50 am
I saw in the middle of a long Internet noodling session, where I was looking for the latest financial news, this little, totally unrelated, gem:  Both the US advanced fighters, the F-22 Raptor, and the F-35 Lightning are completely grounded due to technical SNAFUs.  The F-22 oxygen system doesn't ...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Aug 5, 2011, 7:36 am
You can always rely on Ambrose Evans Pritchard of the UK's Daily Telegraph for some clarity of thought, even if he can be alarmingly pessimistic sometimes.  Here he is on the Euro Crisis, unfolding as we speak. "In a nutshell, unless the ECB is willing to step in – I mean really step in, ...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Aug 5, 2011, 4:40 am
Well, we hoped that there would be a sweep of democratic thought through Egypt, Libya, Syria, etc.  No, turns out it isn't the dictators first rodeo, and they aren't giving up lightly.  The Libyans assassinated their rebel leader, and now that has collapsed into anarchy, with the West bombi...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Aug 5, 2011, 4:34 am
Latest news from Fukushima, they have found hotspots at 10 Seiverts an hour.  What's the context here?  Maximum safe annual exposure for a worker at the Tepco site was raised to 250 milliSeiverts a year, from the original non-emergency 100 milliSeiverts a year.  Peter Burns, former chief e...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Aug 5, 2011, 4:13 am
Well, we knew the PIIGS were in trouble, and have been for some time, but now it is the turn of Italy and Spain, and that means game over for the Euro in one of two directions:  either full fiscal integration right now, like today, or a bust up.  Problem is, neither is actually legally poss...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Aug 5, 2011, 4:01 am
As regular reader(s) will know, I am in treatment for what I think of as being the "Attack of Lumps," aka B-Cell Lymphoma, and I pleased to say that progress continues to be good. I had my sixth chemo last Friday, and it may be the last, depending on the results of a scan that I did yesterday...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Aug 5, 2011, 3:47 am
Well, been just taking it easy this time around in the Spaceship, but one event of note was the 1st of August, which is Swiss National Day, and incidentally also my birthday.  (Guaranteed party!) The treat this year was that the Smallest Space Cadet Of Them All, my son, was asked to read the...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Jul 26, 2011, 10:39 am
The Smallest Space Cadet Of Them All has been in London for a week, by himself, and when he came back his friend Jonty came with him, so that's a great adventure.  Here they are feeding the local donkeys, one of which has given birth, which given that they are two adult females puzzles me, b...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Jul 26, 2011, 10:34 am
The harvest has been taken in, and is traditional here in Jussy, the farmers and helpers get their tractors, combines, and other agricultural machinery out for a parade.  The attitude is one of care-free fun, with white wine flowing in abundance, making it an entertaining, and highly dangerous spec...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Jul 12, 2011, 5:40 am
Well, here we are in the middle of what is turning out to be a rather agreeable summer. The Smallest Space Cadet of them all has finished primary school here in the village, and so this was his last promotion, or parade and celebration of finishing another year.  Usual tractor parade:...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Jun 28, 2011, 11:58 am
Here's a heartwarming picture.  The daughter of our good friends from London, the Hoseins, ran a charity course of 5km the other day, and here she is in her tabard before the start. The charity is cancer relief, and so sweetly she ran with my name on her badge.  Thanks Rose! N...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Jun 23, 2011, 7:48 am
Not going to posting a lot in the next little while, as I am taking it easy over the summer as we make excellent progress in treating the Attack of Lumps.  Went to see the Head of Lumps at the local Geneva hospital, and apparently I am making very good progress.  Have one stubborn one, right under...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Jun 16, 2011, 7:52 am
In about the least surprising thing since, well, just about ever, Greece is now running at record highs in terms of what it is paying to get money: "Greek two-year bond yields, which have an inverse relationship with prices, lurched 160 basis points higher, one of the biggest daily moves of...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Jun 14, 2011, 8:45 am
Well, have been meaning to blog a bit during my enforced idleness, but haven't really been doing so due to blogger's block again - mainly, the news that worries me isn't getting any better, and it seems a bit pointless just to stand in the headlights of the train shouting "ohmigod, it's a train!" th...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Jun 14, 2011, 8:31 am
Well, I've had my second dose of chemo now, and I get my third on Friday, so I'm getting to half-way on that treatment, and the good news is that it seems to be working.  Rather than having great lumpy glands on the various bits of my lymph system I have more or less nothing, so here's hoping that ...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Jun 7, 2011, 10:25 am
My long time firend Hugh MacLeod's Evil Plan thang is being referenced on the finanical apocalypse / commentray site Zero Hedge as a go to read.  Dunno, that's a crossover for me.  Well done Hugh, that's a tough crowd to excite, as most of them have already got several shotguns, and a lot o...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - May 30, 2011, 11:01 am
If you like alternative views of what is going on in the financial and hence rest of the world, you can end up reading some sites that might not be mainstream, but what to look for?  Here is the best summary of the go-to financial nutcase sites that I have ever seen, courtesy of "And the Ban...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - May 30, 2011, 10:57 am
Stumbled across this article in the good old Torygraph the other day, about who trades global commodities, not a trivial subject given some of the recent rises in commodity prices, and the impacts that this has had globally, including to some points of view, the uprisings of the Arabian Spring cause...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - May 30, 2011, 7:54 am
Some friends of ours in the village had moved to the Valais for a bit, to see if they wanted to live there.  They didn't in the end, but when they came back they had two new family members, in the form of two donkeys that had nowhere else to go.  So, we went to see them on one of our walks....
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - May 27, 2011, 4:08 am
I was musing about what do with the prospective Summer of Lumps, and what would I do with 14-16 weeks of more or less enforced idleness.  Andy Todd of Half-Cooked proposed in the comments that I might buy a Kindle, and that his filled up with a year's reading in a matter of days.  Ex...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - May 23, 2011, 8:25 am
Lots of people have written in with encouragement and cheerful advice, so thanks for that, it really has a good effect on morale which is good to start with, and certainly makes us all feel that we have a burden shared here in the Spaceship.  Normal economic doom and gloom reporting after th...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - May 20, 2011, 5:11 am
Well, I have referred to an illness that I had with swollen lymph glands, as the Attack of Lumps, and it really wasn't seeming to go away.  So I had a hospital appointment for a couple of overnights in the Cantonal here in Geneva, it kind of snowballed from there.  First they did CT scan an...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - May 6, 2011, 5:08 am
More to the case that global warming is overstated, and mainly being talked up on economic grounds.  This report from former EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) employee Alan Carlin, whose work was at best sat on, if not actively repressed, when he was at the EPA.  He published the journal as no...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - May 5, 2011, 11:30 am
Not content with Easter, we had the chance to participate in a Pagan Ritual with actually some significance.  A friend of ours in the village is a M. Benoit Junod, a very witty and engaging man, who works for the Aga Khan foundation setting up interesting global exhibitions and so on.  He h...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - May 5, 2011, 11:12 am
Easter and Oestrous come from the same root concept, I discovered when reading Neil Gaiman.  Here is celebration of a very early hot spring, and sunshine, is the local Colza (rapeseed) crop in flower. We had friends come round to hunt the Easter eggs, dropped by the friendly Easter Bu...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - May 5, 2011, 11:04 am
I'm on sick leave from the day job at the moment, and have been for about ten days.  I've been feeling a bit off colour now and then recently, which is abnormal for me.  I started to have puffy lymph glands in my neck, and that then went kinda solid, so Mrs Spaceship told me to go and get it check...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Apr 15, 2011, 3:15 pm
Returned from my trip to Germany, and found a postcard from my father and his wife, who had been down in Antibes in the South of la Belle France, reporting on the Antibes Yacht Show.  Being a very experienced and successful travel writer, this makes sense.  Oil has recently reached r...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Apr 15, 2011, 7:12 am
Well, now that's interesting, sitting in a meeting with a bunch of people from a European Bank, and we were just sitting down after lunch, when one of the guests got out a Rubik's cube, turns out he is/was one of the fastest in the world, second in the world championship, and he just solved a cube t...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Apr 13, 2011, 6:39 am
As I have just been through a busy period, I thought I would sit down and catch up with the blog for a bit, but find myself with blogger's block.  So much going on in the world, Fukushima, tsunamis, Middle Eastern turmoil, Portuguese bailout, possibly leading to Spain, and then Euro bust-up, record...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Apr 5, 2011, 6:14 am
Whew!  Real Life(TM) has been pretty full on the last couple of weeks.  I had to give a days workshops at SAP's Financial Services event in London, and then worked for a couple of days as the "Demo Dolly" for the customer booths.  Event seemed to be a success, despite a few last minute wrangles b...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Mar 31, 2011, 4:09 pm
The Scars were a an Edinburgh group at the time that Edinburgh was doing the Postcard Thang.  I have posted the Fire Engines, and Josef K, and others on this blog, but tonight I found the origin of origins:   Man, that is 1980's Edinburgh on a plate.  Brilli...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Mar 19, 2011, 9:57 am
As no doubt with all the world, you have been following the unfolding horror in Japan, I country I was sitting in when I started Cardboard Spaceship.  The debacle of the Fukushima nuclear plant collapse is harrowing to watch, as it seems only to underline the fragility of civilized life in general....
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Mar 15, 2011, 8:12 am
Not updated for a couple of weeks, as I had to go to Germany, (Bensheim) and France (Paris).  Then last week, it just seemed that it was one damned thing after another, as the historians describe it.  (Also avoid Minecraft, as though it were an open chalice of crack laced with heroin, and covered ...
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Hamish N. posted an article on Cardboard Spaceship - Feb 28, 2011, 10:16 am
Well, Ireland has had an election, and in the least surprising results since Christians versus the Lions, the incumbent Fianna Fail got their collective heads handed to them by the electorate.  Which now raises the question:  will the new government default now explicitly, or wait until the...
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