If there's beauty in madness

Nice to see that Hobotalk aren't defunct. New album just out, apparently, and a concert this week at Cabaret Voltaire, that I can't make it to. Oh well. Another time, maybe.

In other news, there are some Beltane photos here, and (pause for effect) Celera have left the genome market. I will expand on both of these points later - I apologise in advance for going into full Sobchak mode on the latter.

Flame and Impact

So. Now I know what ten and a half thousand people look like.

( Overlong Beltane summary. Probably best avoided )

Not only, but also. (aka "Craig Venter has Left the Building")

Well, as you've probably guessed, the weekend was an absolute blast. And not only that, around the time I started to wake up again I got some startlingly excellent news. Celera Genomics (as was) has decided to admit that they can't make a living selling their version of the genome. Slashdot's take on this (which is mainly people's comments rather than in itself being terribly informative) is here. It does, however, link to a Business Week story here and a New York Times story (free registration required) here.

They are publishing their data freely on the usual public databases once existing subscriptions run out.

Now, in a sense this is now fairly irrelevant, but as I spent a couple of years trying, with a small army of other people, to spike their business plan, I find it hard not to take a continuing personal interest.

All opinions expressed after this point are those of the author and are not necessarily factual. This is how I remember it, and while I have a fairly good memory it's not infallible. All points should be readily (dis)provable by someone with a few minutes to spare, though.

( Overly long, badly written and probably not of any remaining interest to anyone not at least slightly obsessive. Possibly also a little technical at points. )