Dr Laura James's writings

Yesterday I was at the Science Museum in London, helping out with the first FaraDay (groan), where school groups who have tried the IET Faraday activities online came together to celebrate their work, and learn about engineering advances in the field of technology for life. You can read my official report over on the Faraday blog .

Having only ever heard of the wonders of Katamari before, I'm delighted to see that there's a version coming out soon for the XBox 360. I played the demo last night, and had no idea what was going on, but it was fun, and extremely pretty. The style is psychedelic 1960s, similar to Amped3; who'd've thought that would be in this year? When I returned from holidays on Monday, my colleague Nik mentioned that he'd been up late watching the SuperBowl. I always like to keep up with the state of the art in expensive TV advertising, and as ever, you can see the ads online .

All being well, our online shop will be open on Monday. Exciting times!

Yesterday, I spotted the wonderful Cambridge Joy parkour video: It turns out that one of the stars is from the Wirral, like me! Indeed, the Wirral is evidently a hotbed of urban sports; there's also a nice YouTube video of some young skateboarders in Morrisons car park in West Kirby. These kids are just amazing.

Yesterday, Amyas let his tea get cold on his desk. I mentioned that a USB cup warmer would stop this happening; Amyas, being a sensible chap, seemed surprised that such a thing existed. Well, I knew I'd seen them somewhere, and I thought I might purchase one for fun. I looked on the internet... and there were USB cup warmers . Great. But it isn't that simple. You can pay anything from £2 to £20, it seems, for a single warmer. You can choose between silver, white, black, gold, all in different shapes and sizes. You can get a USB cup warmer with integrated 4-port USB hub. Some cup warmers come with cups. Or stainless steel cups with lids. Some are flat-topped, some have round indents, some have on-off switches and LEDs. Some - very rare, this kind - have LCD clocks and temperature readouts! Some offer 50-60C warming; some 40C to 80C, from outer edge to centre. I'm overwhelmed by the variety! I am awed that so many people should have designed these gizmos and had them manufa...

I haven't drawn anything for a very, very long time. Yesterday I sketched a bluetit, and today a robin, which I then watercoloured. I think the bluetit is better.

We talked about backup solutions for our data. Michael said that by now, 5 years ago he would have expected to give his credit card and some words to a software agent, and it would go off and find the right thing online, and a box would just show up at the house with a backup solution in it. I said that the agent would actually be off looking at kitten pictures; Joy of Tech said so in their Web N.0 predictions . Michael said he didn't know about kittens, but that some of his friends are into cat pictures with captions of the form "I am in your blah, blahhing your blah" and that these were deemed extremely funny. We had to look it up. Apparently, the concept is called Lolcatz. We found a nice, clear definition , which says: an LOLCAT is any photo of a cute cat along with an irony-free caption... An LOLCATZ is a photo similar in content, but one that captures the aggressive stupidity found in some parts of the Internet, such as 12-year-old boys who grew with the Internet t...

Michael and I had a lovely time in Paris last weekend.

AlertMe is keen to find out what our customers, and potential customers, think we should be creating in the future. Cast your vote, and leave us your thoughts, by taking our survey . (It's also a prize draw, if you need any more incentive!)

At the Silicon Valley Innovation Forum tonight (of which more later!) I met the delightful editor of Radio 4's In Business . Stephen Chilcott. He was quite rightly chuffed that more than 730,000 people downloaded the In Business podcast in September, thoroughly beating supposedly more popular shows. I've always enjoyed In Business, and wish Stephen and Peter Day continuing success with this excellent programme, which always has something new to teach me.

The Union debate last Thursday was a lively affair, with venture capitalists and other entrepreneurial types attempting to decide whether Europe, or the Valley, will be the best place to start billion dollar companies in the future. In the end I felt i had to abstain though - I can't bring myself to care much where innovation happens most. It was encouraging to see that some of the leading lights of entrepreneurship can also compose a strong speech and present it with panache, although most of the points were comical rather than intellectual. NESTA and Silicon Valley Connect had organised last night's forum in London, as part of a tour for visiting Valley luminaries. It had rather more content than the debate! (As ever, I am reminded of an old colleague of mine, who always called it the valley of the silly clones.) George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor, spoke coherently and well about the need for university and industry interaction, the importance of an encouraging tax regime,...

It's been quiet of here late, although Michael has been tracking what we've been up to quite well! Last night we saw Paul Merton at the Corn Exchange, hosting an evening of silent film comedies. The pianist accompanying the films was excellent, and the selection of comic moments from Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin and more was excellent. Merton introduced the films briefly, but didn't really give enough information for me. I caught references to names and years, but not enough detail about the world of films, or the stars and directors, to feel I'd learnt anything. Still, at least the presence of a big name has some of these wonderful films in front of people again. The second half was Lloyd's splendid Safety Last , which remains an engaging story after 80-odd years.

On Monday, a lecture by Jorge Cham, who creates the wonderful Piled Higher and Deeper comics. Yesterday, a Mitch Benn gig - actually Mitch Benn and the Distractions. I hadn't really known what to expect of this, as I only really knew of Benn through the Now Show on Radio 4 . But it was wonderful - a really vibrant live performance, and some stunning funny songs, reminiscent of Weird Al (only more topical, perhaps, and certainly more British). It turns out that Mitch is from Liverpool, has an accent that fluctuates madly, and does a very fine rendition of Macbeth in the style of Eminem. Tonight, we're off to see Stardust , which I'm really looking forward to! Tomorrow, less culture, at a Web2.0 discussion meeting. No idea of what to expect there!

Many engineers remember the annual Faraday Lecture, as an inspiration in their childhood or teens. The IEE (now IET), which ran it, took the decision that a lecture tour could only ever reach a small number of people, and have this year launched The Faraday , which is a set of videos and activities presented online, and supported by a team of Faraday Engineers around the UK. The website includes various games for you to try, and challenges for school teams to undertake (with the incentive of starring in a film, if their competition entry video is a winner). If they need any help, any school can call the IET and request a Faraday Engineer to come in and support them with activity help, careers advice, or whatever. Yesterday was the launch event in London, compered by Dr Jack , the "face" of Faraday 08. He seems a lively chap, with a real PhD (neuroscience), and very hip, which is undoubtedly what science needs these days. There was quite a party atmosphere.

AlertMe's first corporate video is out! You can play at spotting your favourite AlertMe staff in it.

A very nicely done example of viral marketing: Smart Enlightenment . Are you vacuuming the carpet of pain? If so, Dr Tridion can help. (Thanks to Mum for the link!)

then I'd strongly recommend going to see "I am Shakespeare" at the Arts Theatre. This was, sadly, somewhat poorly attended tonight, but was a great show, starring Sean Foley (of The Right Size, a duo I admire hugely) and Mark Rylance of the Globe. If you are interested in Shakespeare, or the internet, or just enjoy a lively show, go see it.

Michael has a new passport. It contains a wide selection of images of British birds. However, the note that came with it, full of puff about the high tech security features, fails to describe the birds! A great deal of effort with Google reveals one leaflet about the birds ( here , on a very unofficial site), but the bird on the "chip" page is unnamed. Does anyone know what it is? It's pictured in the leaflet I've linked- twice, in fact.

Yesterday, the podcast. Today, I was interviewed by Rory Cellan-Jones for BBC News 24! The video is linked from the image of a tasteful toy Post Office in that article, half way down. As well as showing some of the first bits of AlertMe kit we've revealed to the public, it was nice to be asked about the reasons I moved from academia to industry, too.

I'm featured in the latest SET Women podcast , produced by Cobi Smith. It's very strange to hear your voice and words, processed and tidied up by someone else! Cobi has done a good job on the podcast series though, even if I don't feature until number 6 :)