There’s a new theory in quantum mechanics about the paradox surrounding time travel. That is, if someone could travel back in time and alter history then this could affect the present.

Scientists claim that since this doesn’t happen – people don’t just disappear if their parents never meet in a revised history: either time travel is not possible or something prevents things from happening in the past that affect the future. Apparently it’s all about knowing the present. How much you know about the present affects what you can do in the past if you were able to get there.

However, I reckon that argument is flawed. It supposes that we would notice people disappearing. Which we wouldn’t, because everything, memories included, would be affected. What we consider to be ‘the present’ could be in a continual state of flux.

That’s assuming that we’re not just part of universal simulator where time travel is simply not allowed.

There’s this great little website called Tileclick from which you can order tiles for your bathroom or kitchen etc. They even have a scheme where you can order up to 3 sample tiles for £10 and have the payment refunded if you then place a full order later.

So how do you get to order a sample. Well, there’s a link called ‘view samples’ which gives you your Sample Order Form. But the first time you visit it, it states that you have no sample tiles selected. Fair enough methinks – just find a tile you like and click on a button ‘Order Sample’.

Which is what I wanted to do. Except if you browse through the tiles you won’t find such a button. There’s no obvious way of ordering a sample. Nor is there any help to tell you what to do.

How do you do it? Well, there’s also a list of Favourites. When you browse a tile, you can add it to your list of favourite tiles. To order a sample, you then need to view your list of favourites and click on the ‘order a sample’ link alongside each appropriate tile. Which is just too many clicks for my liking.

Remember the real winners of Live Aid? Of course you do. They’re the artists who appeared at Live Aid and revitalised, or in some cases launched their careers. Take U2 for example, who until Live Aid were absolutely nothing on the radar.

So isn’t it great that eBay has stopped listing the tickets to the London Live 8 concert, having bowed to the pressure of Bob Geldof who called the service an ‘electronic pimp’ for allowing ‘sick profiteering’ users to sell tickets to the free concert?

No doubt we can expect similar responses from the artists and record companies of those involved in the Live Aid concerts when their sales increase due to the free exposure? Or perhaps not.

There was a time when everyone in the sales business was called a ‘sales executive’. Even those who spent their life driving around the country in their Vauxhall cars.

Okay, this is still the case. But it now seems everyone that has a view on something calls themselves an analyst.

For example, the recent decision by Apple to migrate to Intel processors over the next two years has caused a lot of ‘analysis’. Mostly good. But here’s a quote from someone:

“Apple absolutely should not simply switch between architectures. It should provide support for both architectures and allow Intel and IBM to fight it out in terms of innovation and performance, while letting the market decide which architecture to invest in”.

Um, in case this guy missed the WWDC keynote, that’s exactly what Apple have been doing since MacOS X was first released. As for the ‘market’ deciding which architecture to invest in.. well, I think that decision has already been made, judging by the number of Intel-based PCs that have been sold. In any case, IBM / Freescale are now more interested in the gaming and mobile markets.

I finished work early today. It’s a staggering achievement given the extraordinary amount of work I had to do at the start of the week, having come back from Canada. But maybe the break helped, or perhaps my estimating is better (which allows me to compensate for other things), or perhaps I was just in the zone. For all the hassle I gave myself last week, for not getting on with stuff, and for all the hassle I gave myself when I was on holiday – should I really have taken four weeks’ off? It all worked out well. I’m just slightly behind schedule. Extremely chilled out – I think the summer weather helps immensely. Lots of lovely sunshine when you finish work. Or it could be my new hi-fi.

This weekend I will be mostly getting started on Getting Things Done. So after I have breakfast in Inverness with my Dad, I will be coming back to my house. Lots of loud music (both my neighbours are away at the moment and Ayria is gonna be on the top of that list somewhere), plenty of rubbish bags – at this moment I wanna chuck everything away, and start again. Anyway, I was thinking – isn’t this how I should feel all the time?

Mark thinks I should use the vacuum cleaner in my office. Bets are 6-4 against at present.

The first step of my ‘revitalise my hi-fi’ 43things item was completed yesterday. I won’t bore you with the gory details of selection of what I got and why, but those nice folks at Telly on the Blink in Inverness helped me choose. And in the process completely changed my mind on what I was going to consider.

So I ditched by old Arcam Delta 90 amplifier which served me well for the past 15 years and the Acoustic Research speakers that I’d bought from Laskys in Manchester when I was at university.

I now have an Arcam Solo which serves as both my amplifier and CD player. It also has DAB. My aging Linn Axis turntable goes through a Goldring pre-amp before it meets the Solo. My new speakers are a pair of Quad L21s [PDF link] which not only sound absolutely gorgeous, but feel lovely too. I also took the opportunity to replace all the interconnect cables with some rather well specified hand made cables – including one made specifically for connecting iPods (or indeed Mac minis!)

After a few listens yesterday I thought I’d give my old Sennheiser HD600 headphones a go with my Mac mini, via the Solo. First up was Cornflake Girl. Gosh, what a difference. It was like a new track. Specifically, whole bunches of instrumentation which I simply hadn’t heard before, an acoustic guitar I’d not noticed and some screechy synth or guitar line. A rediscovered, sonically and lyrically amazing track which I’m going to be playing to all my friends.

I’m writing this whilst listening to Electrelane’s 2004 album The Power Out through my speakers and I’m in love… the last track You make me weak at the knees is genius.