So here I am sat in an airport in Japan 19 hours (roughly halfway) into my journey to Australia. I spent what was my body clock’s last night trying to minimise jet-lag by staying as awake as possible on a plane with no lights on. I was doing pretty well, it wasn’t until effectively 2am when we overtook time and there was a beautiful sunrise over Siberia and the man sitting next to me wanted to sleep so I had to pull the shutter on the window and sit awake in the dark for about 6 hours watching the view through the plane external camera feed. You’ll see a lot of photos of this over at Flickr because you know I love webcams and making data that was previously invisible visible. There’s one amazing shot that I thought I might have just dreamt taking - it’s of what I think is a huge siberian mine that I remember seeing in a magazine sometime, couldn’t believe we flew right over it and I was probably the only passenger awake and with my little L.C.D. screen tuned into that camera.

There’s also a picture of me after freshening up at Osaka airport so you can extrapolate back just how rough I’m feeling now - I’ve been awake for 24 hours now with another six or so before I can try to sleep on the plane to Sydney.

Enjoy the photos, I’ll try to explain what they are. I’ve got to remember to take a photo of the next Japanese Airlines meal I get too - it was unbelievably pretty!

The Royal College of Art is seeking to appoint a number of tutors to form a core team and work closely with the new Head of Department in Interaction Design defining the creative and intellectual direction of the department as it moves into a new and exciting phase of its development.

Electronics and computing will continue to be the technological focus of the department, but we are also interested in people with design skills and knowledge related to other emerging technologies such as biotech and nanotechnology.

Senior Tutor (2 or 3 days per week)
Salary £37,558 – 42,573 pro rata p.a.

This post will involve supporting the Head of Department in the strategic planning, academic development and day-to-day running of the department.

Candidates should be practising designers or teachers with excellent management skills.

Please quote reference: ST/ID/06

Tutors (1 day per week)
Salary £27,989 - £35,883 pro rata p. a.

These posts will involve setting briefs and tutoring projects on a regular basis, participating in curriculum development through attendance at course review meetings.

Please quote reference: T/ID/06

Candidates for both posts should have experience of teaching at different levels, an active professional practice / research profile and knowledge, and understanding of the historical and other broader contextual issues relevant to design and technology.

Further information and an application form (no CVs) is available from the Personnel Assistant, Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2EU. Tel: 020 7590 4138. E-mail: personnel@rca.ac.uk or see www.rca.ac.uk.

Closing date: Thursday 4 August 2005

The Royal College of Art is committed to equal opportunities for all.

I’m not going to say too much about the bombs yesterday as I think a lot of it has already been said. But from the safety of my bunker in Vauxhall the main effects for me were some really heart warming conversations with friends and family that probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Thanks to everyone that banded together in iChat, over the phones and via S.M.S. to make sure everyone knew what was going on and that everyone was O.K.

If anyone reading this is worried about joining the Interaction Design M.A. next year just ask me for the iChat transcript if you want proof that you’ll be looked after.

The last and perhaps the most important thing I’ll say on the topic is: can we please keep it innocent until proven guilty.

There were a couple of bits of good news that I wanted to write up before the bombs hit that seemed drowned in insignificance yesterday, but as London returns to normal and we’re continually told to carry on as if nothing happened the desire to mention them returns.

Mainly I wanted to thank and congratulate everyone that opposed the European Software Patents bill, we beat it and we beat it good. Three extra special thanks go out to Grzesiek Sedek, Lee Parry and mySociety. Thanks to Grzesiek for his presentation at the Exploiting Potential symposium for re-stating just how much damage the introduction of the bill could have caused. Thanks to Lee for berating me all weekend about writing to my M.P. and M.E.P.s and thanks to mySociety for creating www.writetothem.com and making it so easy do so.

The second bit of good news is that I’m finally going to get out of this country for a bit - I’ve traditionally been plagued with the inability to leave these shores without being dragged by another but next Friday I leave for 3 weeks in Australia via Japan. At last I too will have one of those Flickr accounts that feature photos taken out of plane windows and make you really angry that you’re not the one behind the lens. You can find the link to my Flickr account on the right under other resources.

I’ve got a group chat going on to try to cover the major incident unfolding in London right now.

AIM or iChat me to join: ethermole