Dr Laura James's writings

Terence Blacker in the Independent derides the aggressive style of The Apprentice . Although as a rule I agree that this kind of ruthless competitiveness is counter-productive, I wonder how many of today's successful executives still exhibit it; I doubt that it is as out of date as Blacker suggests. The current vogue for entrepreneurship is in evidence outside the world of reality TV. In Cambridge, it has been popular for at least the last decade to trumpet the ability of anyone (and everyone) to have an idea, get some funding, and have a blast running their own business. From undergraduate lectures to seminars for people looking for a career change, starting your own business is sold as the ultimate aspiration, and whilst there is normally a mention of how it might be hard work at times, it is assumed that anyone could do it, particularly with the support networks available in the area. The goal is, of course, not as material as a simple personal fortune, but that the aspirant

On April 24th 2002, AT&T Laboratories Cambridge closed down. Daisy organised a great reunion for ex-ORL people last night, and Quentin has put up some photos of us all. It was great to catch up with people, and see that everyone seems to be doing well. Thanks Daisy!

As Michael reported , we had a nice short break on the Norfolk Broads last weekend. You can also get these images as a Photocast , which your RSS reader will eat, or iPhoto might if you have the right version of it. As John commented the other week, this was Coot Club territory - many of the place names were familiar to me, and it was lovely to finally see the environment I read about in Ransome 's books. The area around Wroxham in particular may still be home to Hullabaloos , but most of the trip was very peaceful, and the River Ant where we canoed was idyllic.

I was at the House of Lords on Monday for the inaugural meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Engineering and IT Group, which was essentially an excuse for a very fine lunch, and some useful networking. Alec Broers introduced the main speaker, Lord Browne of Madingley (and of BP). His speech was fairly lightweight, although the topic (raising the profile of engineers and engineering in society) was quite serious. As well as the challenges of education, he discussed the role engineers play in the "greening" of society (climate change and One Laptop Per Child got mentions). One thing which struck me was the call for the constituency of Chartered Engineers to push for more debate of technology topics, demonstrate how they are driving development of cleaner technologies, and so forth. Although I gather there are still a fair few CEngs in traditional industry, even amongst younger engineers, I do not think there are many in the high tech field - AlertMe has just hired its sec

Karen Spärck Jones died yesterday. She was an amazing woman, both in her own research and her support for other women in the Computer Lab at Cambridge. "Computing is too important to be left to men."

Apparently not just any red wine is good for the heart; you have to pick the right one , says the Independent . Luckily I'm quite fond of tannat grapes, and don't mind the old world style tannic reds; or the dark chocolate and cranberries the article also recommends!