Posted on April 8, 2012 by Simon Phipps
The architect who designed this church in Venice (Chiesa di San Vidal) tried to hide the building behind it, but ordinary life goes on behind the façade. There’s an ice cream shop doing brisk business, and the apartments above the shop seem to have no relation to the huge church window on the façade.
So it is everywhere. Religious or secular, business or personal, male or female, gay or straight. No matter how impressive the façade, real life goes on behind it if you look. It has to.
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Filed under: Spirituality, Travel | Tagged: Italy | Comments Off on ✈ Behind the façade
Posted on April 7, 2012 by Simon Phipps
I was in Italy on business this week and as I was flying in and out of Venice airport had the chance to spend a half-day in Venice. It was foggy and damp, but still enjoyable to walk around for a while. While I was there I stumbled on the gondola maintenance yard. It had to be there in Venice somewhere, but I’d never seen it before. It was clearly a place that had been there for a very long time – since the 17th century, apparently.
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Filed under: Photography, Travel | Tagged: Italy | 2 Comments »
Posted on March 29, 2012 by Simon Phipps
I expect to be in the USA in early-to-mid May (and possibly again in July). If you would like me to speak at a private or public event, or to provide consulting services, I would be pleased to hear from you. Combining multiple engagements saves money, saves energy and is good for us all! Please use my contact form to get in touch and I or my agent will get back to you.
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Filed under: Travel, Webmink | Tagged: USA | Comments Off on ✈ Available For US Engagements
Posted on February 1, 2012 by Simon Phipps
I need to go back.
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Filed under: Travel | Tagged: Video, Yosemite | Comments Off on ✈ Yosemite HD
Posted on November 4, 2011 by Simon Phipps
I’m just setting out for Eindhoven in The Netherlands, where I will be delivering the keynote at 10:00 tomorrow (Saturday November 5th) at T-DOSE. I’ll be considering how open source springs from a wider trend that also includes the Occupy* movement, and explaining why businesses should specify software freedom in their procurement activities. I’d love to see you there!
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Filed under: Events, Travel | Tagged: Keynote | Comments Off on ✈ T-DOSE in Eindhoven
Posted on October 27, 2011 by Simon Phipps
In the Place de la Bastille in Paris, this statue stands at the top of a column commemorating the citizens of France who took up arms to finally rid themselves of a hereditary monarchy. Despite accepting its reinstatement a few years before, the king was creating unjust, self-serving laws without accountability and the citizens mounted “Occupy Paris” to end the problem. Hundreds died in the defence of liberty and the defeat of the unaccountable.
Which is why I find it deeply ironic to find surveillance cameras on the column.
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Filed under: Privacy, Travel | Comments Off on ✈ Liberty and Vigilance
Posted on October 24, 2011 by Simon Phipps
About a decade ago I started a “spool” of the comments I had been making on my personal website (which had been running since the late 90s – I actually started editing web pages in 1992, for IBM’s Person to Person product). It became a regular feature, and I decided I needed to manage it more competently so used a handy website by Pyra Labs called Blogger which I moved to. The rest, as they say, is history.
Back in those early days, I wrote an essay describing two visits to the Great Wall of China. It still seems to bear relevance to several things that continue to hold my interest, so to celebrate a decade of “blogging”, I’ve moved the article – Modern Hero – to this site along with some of the photos I took back then. I hope you enjoy it.
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Filed under: Travel, Webmink | Tagged: China | Comments Off on ✈ Modern Hero Revisited
Posted on October 23, 2011 by Simon Phipps
Today has been a beautiful day in Paris, spent walking and talking in the brilliant autumnal sunlight with dear and charming friends – which has been the theme for the whole weekend, actually. The distance between here and the things that usually hold my attention could hardly be greater and it’s an unusual but welcome break from routine.
All the devices with me are perfectly capable of relaying the e-mail, social networks, instant messages and more, but the combination of the HADOPI-inspired absence of open WiFi hotspots and the self-destructively over-priced 3G data roaming (hey Orange: if it was cheaper people would buy it and you’d make more money, not less) means I spend my vacation days here in the heart of Europe blissfully unaware of the rest of the electronic world.
Which I suppose is by way of apologising for not answering any e-mails this week!
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Filed under: Travel | Tagged: France, Paris | Comments Off on ✈ In Sunlight
Posted on October 14, 2011 by Simon Phipps
Is it a requirement for users of this parking garage in Paris to share their cars with others?
[Note to non-geeks: “GPL” in software is a popular open source license that requires software developers to share their work with others]
[Note to geeks: Yes, I am very well aware that “GPL” means liquified petroleum gas in French]
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Filed under: Links, Open Source, Travel | 6 Comments »
Posted on July 22, 2011 by Simon Phipps
A delightfully clear afternoon flying across Nevada to San Francisco allowed me to take some splendid photographs. Check out especially the shot of Half Dome and the colours of the salt pans in San Francisco Bay.
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Filed under: Photography, Travel | 2 Comments »
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