Author Archives: Tim Cederman-Haysom

Beer pilgrimage – advice for lovers of Westvleteren 12 from Abdij St Sixtus

One of my main objectives for Belgium was to pick up a case or two of the Westvleteren 12, widely considered the best beer in the world.  It is brewed by monks in Westvleteren and is notoriously difficult to get … Continue reading

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How not to run customer support

I just got back from vacation last week.  It was a whirlwind tour of Norway, Denmark, Belgium and the UK.  I had a great time, sampling a lot of beer and seeing a lot of cool places. At the start … Continue reading

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Is something usable, or is something useful?

One thing I’ve been reflecting on lately is how often I will use something because I find it incredibly useful – and yet in a lot of cases it’s quite unusable. A potential reason for companies overlooking the importance of … Continue reading

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Ancient Pompeii

Forking street in ancient Pompeii, originally uploaded by gisleh. Check out the grooves worn into the roads in ancient Pompeii by the chariots. Apparently they were also subject to detours from roadwork, one-way streets and traffic jams. Darn New York … Continue reading

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Georgia Tech?

Can someone attending Georgia Tech please tell me why so many people from there are Googling “Tim Cederman”? :)

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Random Wikipedia factoid of the day

Beer was prohibited in Iceland until 1989. This was too crazy a fact for me to just trust Wikipedia on.  Sure enough: Beer was illegal in Iceland until 1989.  Yes, this is not a misprint.  Iceland, like the USA, underwent … Continue reading

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Cuil.com – the next Google?

From the way Mike Arrington carries on about it (oh and a bit more here too), you’d think so.  My initial impressions are quite different (to be fair, he does state “…it doesn’t appear to have the depth of results … Continue reading

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Best analysis of a PhD I’ve ever read

Found over at Jamie Lawrence’s blog. I found myself nodding the whole way through. I remember hearing that, on average, 1.6 people will read your PhD thesis. I’m pretty sure that includes yourself, your spouse, your supervisor, your second supervisor … Continue reading

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iRobot and lessons for design

It’s funny how something can be a great design, and yet with a few tweaks, it becomes completely awful. Witness the Roomba.  I love my Roomba – I bought it in October 2006 when I moved in to my cottage … Continue reading

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Random Wikipedia link of the day

Half plus seven rule.

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