Status-Q

The Guardian sent a photographer round this evening – they’re likely to run an article about Ndiyo later this week. John Robertson turned out to be a fun guy to work with; he has just the temperament you would need to do this kind of thing late at night on your supposed day off and keep both yourself and others cheerful.

He obviously really enjoys his work – and he has a fabulous portfolio on his website. I like this one and this one, for example, but there’s a wide variety of styles. Worth watching all the way through.

So I was quite flattered that he was photographing me. We had fun coming up with ways to try and make interesting pictures of yours truly holding a circuit board, in an office. Not the most naturally inspiring subject matter. I wonder how it’ll work out…

In this week’s Economist, HP have a full-page ad – which can’t be cheap – extolling one particular virtue of their CP3505 printer. It’s called Colour Access Control.

This lets you set up lists of people who are entitled to print in colour. The others only get black and white.

Now, I’m sure printing costs are an issue for some businesses, but I can’t help being somewhat bemused by this. I have visions of people wasting large amounts of time trying to find someone who can print a document for them. Of secretaries noticing that you can actually buy a colour laser printer for less than the cost of a set of toner refills, and ‘accidentally’ ordering the wrong thing. But mostly of annual performance reviews: “Now, Fred, you’ve done some outstanding work this year. I’m sorry that we can’t give you a pay rise, but we will put you on the Colour Access List”.