To print: Click here or Select File and then Print from your browser's menu

This story was printed from silicon.com, located at http://www.silicon.com/

Story URL: http://comment.silicon.com/weeklyroundup/0,39024756,39294208,00.htm

The Weekly Round-Up: 26.09.08
Do you want the smell to go with the box?

By silicon.com

Published: Friday 26 September 2008

The Round-Up doesn't have much call to use public payphones nowadays, not being a heavy breather or a spy, as you will be no doubt be relieved to hear.

But for those in the aforementioned categories, or the people without mobile phones (yes there really are some) there was good news this week, with BT giving local councils more time to save some of the UK's few remaining iconic red phone boxes which are facing the axe.

There are around 12,000 red phone boxes in the UK, of which 4,500 are under threat of closure and through BT's 'adopt a kiosk' scheme, councils can pay £1 to retain the red phone boxes earmarked for removal in their area. For that you get the box but not the telephone.

It's not clear whether the smell of stale urine, cigarette ends and cards advertising massage parlours are thrown in too.

Because the high cost of maintaining public pay phone services in many areas makes it too unprofitable for BT as more people rely on mobiles, it will cost councils £500 per year if they want the box and a working phone service.

Of course, if you want one for yourself, the other option is eBay, where a classic 'K6' red phone box, first introduced in 1936, will go for anything from £300 for one in need of restoration, to almost £4,000 for a fully refurbished original (for boxophiles out there it is the 'K2', introduced in 1926, with the now famous dome top that is regarded by many as the ultimate red box design).

For anyone planning on going down that route the Round-Up advises collection rather than postage, as 850kg of red metal is an awful lot of stamps and the postman will have a hell of a job getting it through your letterbox anyway.

On the subject of the quintessentially British relics, tousled blonde bombshell Boris Johnson has been in the headlines again this week.

Boris was on the radio, harrumphing something about the capital becoming a 'wi-fi' city ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games.

The Round-Up is disappointed to say Boris did not tell BBC London radio: "Cripes!"

What Boris did say was: "Actually, one thing I learnt from the Chinese [is] one thing we've got to do for the Olympics in 2012, we've got to have a wi-fi city. Never mind having the internet, what we need is a city where anywhere you go, you can log on, you can get on the web. They've done it in other parts of the world, why on earth can't we do it?"

But Boris hasn't always been a fan of the internet. Indeed, this was his recent pearl of wisdom about people working from home:

"Working from home is simply a euphemism for sloth, apathy, staring out of the window and random surfing of the internet: What with all those trips to the kettle and the television, and keeping the central heating on, I am not even sure that staying at home is the eco-friendly option."

Actually, the Round-Up finds it quite hard to argue with you there Boris.

The mayor doesn't say whether this London-wide wi-fi would be free and, if it was, who would pay for that ubiquitous wireless access, for they are mere details.

If Boris' plan isn't for free wi-fi then his advisors might want to point out to him that the capital is already pretty well served in terms of charging wi-fi hotspots.

In fact, a report this week claims London sees the most wi-fi use by business of all the world's cities, with more than 31,000 user sessions in the first half of this year and an average wi-fi session length of 57 minutes.

In an attempt to make science 'cool' and appeal to 'young people' a Nasa magazine has commissioned a postgraduate science student from the University of Glamorgan to write an 'Astrobiology Rap'.

Student Jonathan Chase, who has undergraduate degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Science and Science Fiction, performs the rap using the name Oort Kuiper.

"We've been on Earth for many years and we are still producing answers; as time passes, collective knowledge advances," raps Oort.

The Round-Up has watched the YouTube video of the Astrobiology Rap here and reckons Oort's made a better fist of it than the eggheads at Cern…

Not content with building a giant atom-smashing machine that had people fearing the end of the world, some of the boffins behind the Large Hadron Collider at Cern in Geneva have decided to allay those concerns by making a rap video that has been doing the rounds on the web over the last few weeks.

Written by Cern science writer Kate McAlpine using the moniker 'Alpine Kat', the song opens up with the line: "I'm about to rock some particle physics in da club. The LHC is supa dupa fly you know what I'm saying...check it." In a feat of rapping cliché that would make even Vanilla Ice or Robbie Williams cringe the song builds to its catchy chorus...

"LHCb sees where the antimatter's gone
ALICE looks at collisions of lead ions
CMS and Atlas are two of a kind
They're looking for whatever
New particles they can find"

The full wonder is captured on video here.

If you had time to watch those last two video clips the Round-Up's guessing you've probably had a long lunch and what with it being Friday, quite possibly a liquid one, and you're now back at your desk engaged in all manner of work avoidance tactics as the clock ticks down to the start of the weekend.

So it probably won't come as much of a surprise to know that you're not alone. In fact, folks, we're a nation of slackers and work dodgers - and proud of it. It's official.

Almost half of British workers waste a third of their day at the office pretending to work, while a third of office slackers admit to wasting just over three hours every day on non-work tasks.

As well as idly surfing the net instead of finishing that finance spreadsheet, other popular work avoidance tactics include making rounds of tea and tidying desks.

Which, judging by the parched and thirsty hacks and nests of paper and rubbish surrounding their desks, means the silicon.com team must be a really hard-working lot. Ease off guys, you're making the Round-Up look bad.

Talking to colleagues - imagine the brazen cheek of it - and gossiping by the water cooler are other favoured work dodging ruses. Based on this the survey claims employers are paying staff for 12 additional hours per week.

It came as a shock to Lisette Howlett, MD of recruitment website HireScores.com, which carried out the survey of 3,000 office workers.

She said: "To discover that people believe that they personally waste so many hours per year comes as a complete surprise."

So you lot - get back to work.

But before you do check out some of the other news this week...

Become a virtual bounty hunter by exploring shipwrecks from the comfort of your desk without having to squeeze into a wetsuit.

It certainly won't win any beauty contests but Google's banking on the web browsing and advanced software features of its newly unveiled Android phone to shake up the smart phone market.

It may only be September but that means just 90 shopping days to Christmas. Get some gift ideas from this crop of the latest Bluetooth gadgets.

And of course, don't forget the caption competition.