Thanks to the recent grinding of stones I’ve not had chance to get out and about to check the pulse of the average technology lunch in recent months. One of the concerns that’s obviously been forefront of my mind is whether the credit crunch has affected the standard of conference lunches. Yesterday’s JISC event in Edinburgh gave me the opportunity to conduct a little market research and I’m pleased to report that all is alive and well – the only crunch evident was the honeycomb sprinkles that sat atop the rather wonderful dark chocolate and honeycomb tart that I had for pud.
Archive for the ‘Lunch’ Category
Credit Lunch
March 25, 2009The utter twitterings of your local MP
March 5, 2009Not content with bloating Hansard with their backbench ramblings, many MPs are starting to fill twitter space. A new service to help collate these twitterings, Tweetminster, was launched last week. It allows you to “track UK politics in real time” using a handy search tool and also a “Hot in Westminster” tag cloud.
All in all it’s a nicely laid out Web 2.0 style tool, but I suspect there will be much fun to be had with this one. Harriet Harmen, for example has said nothing in over two weeks. Is this because she has been busy secretly plotting to get her hands on the leadership? Or take a look at Michael Fabricant (the Guardian’s favourite MP) whose latest posting reveals he is in the cinema crying at a film. And then there’s Lembit Öpik…
The disappointing thing though, from the point of view of this blog, is the singular failure of our expense-accounted representatives to post what they are having for lunch.
Twitter on toast
December 19, 2008In a truly inspired combination of breakfast and technology, a man in Pittsburgh, USA, has connected his toaster to twitter. On his blog, Hans Scharler explains how he has wired his toaster up to the Web via a device called the ioBridge. You can follow the progress of toast production in his house and, quite wonderfully, his toaster already has 61 twitter followers. Even more interesting, perhaps, is that his toaster is in turn following eight other twitters. I don’t know about this passing the Turing test, but it shows some signs of basic artificial intelligence.
Seems a great item to end the technology year on and many thanks to my old college friend Martin for raising this one.
Merry Christmas everyone!
DustBot: R2D2 cleans up
December 9, 2008
DustBot
Talking of robots I came across the following whilst touring the exhibition hall at last month’s conference. The DustBot project aims to improve urban hygiene by developing a network of autonomous, but co-operating, cleaning robots. There are two types: the cleaning robot is equipped with things like a vacuum cleaner whilst the dustcart robot (see photo) is an ‘on-demand’ service that lets you drop a full bin liner into its holder and then carries it away.
Apart from investigating general aspects of robotics it turns out that there is also a pressing need for a system that can handle rubbish collection from the really old, touristy parts of European cities. In places like these there’s often no space for bins and the dustcarts just can’t fit down the narrow streets.
There are going to be five demonstrators set up in cities in Italy, Spain and Sweden, but I’m toying with the idea of requesting a sixth, in Nottingham, to be tested in an ‘industrial’ environment. I reckon it’s just what we need in the office. I can sit here, finishing off a packet or two of sandwiches, and then call up DustBot for a spot of post-prandial waste disposal. Who knows, I might even get a bit of light dusting into the bargain.
Mêlée
November 28, 2008It is no accident that the word mêlée is French. It pretty accurately describes their understanding of the concept of queueing – a kind of cross between mingling and hand-to-hand combat, to be deployed when defending access to meat-based products at lunchtime.
However, all has not been lost from the Techlunch point of view. The French custom of serving wine at lunch in order to make the afternoon speakers more interesting has been maintained. And cakes have been served at every possible opportunity to absorb the heart-stopping levels of caffeine. The most interesting of these was a very thin, flat, rectangular shaped waffle thing coated in a lemon flavoured icing sugar. Not only were these very tasty but they were also a novel source of entertainment. I had great fun spotting those delegates who had just eaten one, given away by the shower of white dust on the front of their fancy shirts and expensive suits!
ICT 2008
November 26, 2008
Red Pizza Man Statue, Lyon
You know you’ve arrived at ICT 2008, the EU’s biggest research technology conference, when you round a corner and narrowly miss being knocked off your feet by a suited and booted segway rider. There are further techie references as you cross the courtyard of the Centre de Congrès in Lyon. The thirty-foot high, plastic pizza delivery boy for example, complete with plastic scooter, proffers an appropriately scaled pizza box. This is either something to do with the contemporary arts building next door, or a municipal French tribute to that staple of the late-night, carbohydrate-fuelled code-fest.
I’m here as part of my work for JISC TechWatch. I’ll be blogging some of the more technical stuff at TechWatch’s newly launched blog – Notes from the Future – but for the foodie stuff, stay tuned. There’s more to come on cakes, caffeine, and the comedy of European manners.
Liquid lunch 2.0
September 23, 2008
Tipping the iPhone pint
The key thing about anything bearing the ‘2.0’ moniker is that it’s not real. And so it is with iPhone’s pint of lager.
In order to get the pint you have to play a virtual game of skittles, a viral advert courtesy of a well-known UK lager company. If you score enough points you ‘win’ a virtual pint.
The trouble is, thanks to the quality of the visuals, the pint looks really realistic. And because of the iPhone’s built-in motion detector and accelerometer you can actually nurse your pint and watch it disappear as you tip the iPhone as though it were a glass.
The idea is very clever and it does leave you wondering what better use the bright sparks that came up with it could be put to. It goes without saying, however, that as a liquid lunch it leaves much to be desired.
Coconut water
June 6, 2008
As the title of this blog would suggest technology-themed lunches are an important part of our repertoire. Although it’s nice to be treated to the odd gourmet surprise at a conference or workshop, the reality is that techie types often don’t get the chance to leave their desk. If, like me, you fall in to this category, you’ll always be on the look out for new things to liven up your lunch-hour.
With this in mind, a good friend of mine (thanks Alan) has brought to my attention the following liquid accompaniment to a desk-bound lunch: young coconut water. It comes in the form of a canned drink and, although I’ve not yet tried it, I am assured that it is fantastic stuff.
I’ve no idea why the coconuts have to be young, but thinking about it hairy, wrinkly milk doesn’t sound too appetising.
Great chieftain o the puddin’-race!
April 25, 2008This week, a successful trip to Glasgow for the Open Group’s Enterprise Architecture conference was topped off by some fine culinary experiences. The formal conference dinner was held at the city’s Kelvingrove art gallery and included the traditional piping in of the haggis and reading of Robert Burns’ poem “Address to a haggis”. I was delighted to find that the chefs had bowed to the modern world and prepared a vegetarian version and I was able to tuck into the national dish of haggis, neeps and tatties (twice).
Fine as this was, the meal of the week award has to go to the City Merchant restaurant which is based in the merchant’s quarter in the heart of the old city. The restaurant prides itself on its wide selection of seafood sourced from the coastal waters of Scotland. However, my vote goes to its Clootie Dumpling pudding⎯a traditional Scottish steamed dessert made from a rich combination of spices, black treacle, fruit, breadcrumbs and flour which is boiled in a cloth bag (the ‘cloot’ or ‘clout’).
I’ve managed to find a recipe for anyone who fancies having a go: http://www.scotlandforvisitors.com/dumpling.php
Oxford dining
March 21, 2008My brief sojourn to the dreaming spires was completed with a day at the Towards Low Carbon ICT conference. A series of academic and business speakers explored issues around developing and procuring ICT equipment that saves energy and uses less of the world’s resources in its manufacture. All this will be useful as I gear myself up to begin editing JISC’s forthcoming report on greening ICT.
In the true spirit of the occasion, the conference lunch was officially described as consisting of “fair trade, organic, local produce and, where possible, open source, food.” I wasn’t quite sure which parts of the lunch were open source – I suppose it must have been the dishes made to recipes that have fallen out of copyright – but it seemed to go down well with the attendees.
This eco-lunch was extremely tasty, but I have to confess was trumped by a business lunch I had had earlier in the week at Raymond Blanc’s Brasserie Blanc: the tarte citron was sublime. However, my Bed and Breakfast establishment won first prize for the most unusual meal of the week – they had the following on offer for breakfast:
Marmalade Omelette.
Tech Lunch 