Planet Shengsters

A Day Out

2008-08-27T21:00:05+00:00

On Friday I not only ventured out of South East London, I ventured out of London altogether and took Freyja and Theo, with a couple of our friends, to Brighton. And I survived! I even managed to park the car (by Honor Oak station that is - I took the train).

Freyja cried when the merry-go-round finished and didn't want to get off. But luckily I managed to prise her away with the promise of cake at Bills.

Old Friends New (best) Friends

2008-08-27T21:00:05+00:00

My friend Tash came to visit recently. Tash and I met in York just over 10 years ago at a time in our lives when we were partying and generally having fun - or at least what seemed like fun at the time. I now live in London and Tash is in York so we don't see each other very often anymore, but it's always lovely when we do meet up.

Tash arrived and Freyja eyed her up suspiciously for all of 30 seconds, before deciding that 'Stash' was her new best friend.

Mind you, she's very fickle. A few days later it was Katie's sister Tara who was in favour and not long after that it was Rick. Although Rick did cheat a bit by turning up with a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts...

Modernism begins at home

2008-08-27T17:24:47+00:00

Definitely track of the week here at winjer towers.

TV over the web: job done?

2008-08-27T16:00:25+00:00

I had an interesting meeting this morning with someone who will remain nameless but is well placed to comment.

He said this of BBC execs and it amused me: "they've seen the future ... and totally misunderstood it".

He was bemoaning the fact that, in the opinion of some BBC execs, the Internet has, after years of pointless mucking about, finally been put to good use courtesy of iPlayer . In other words, now that we can watch TV on the web, we're done.

If only it were so easy!

Frok Hedanls

2008-08-27T13:00:07+00:00

We've all seen the research that says:

It deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae and you can sitll raed it.

Well now you can test it on the interwebs:

Reading Test
Strangely compelling...

As Broad As Its Long

2008-08-27T13:00:07+00:00

My Man Stu^(TM) does it again

South Africa 83 all out (Broad 5-23, Flintoff 3-29)
England 85 for 0 (Prior 45)

Whilst admiring the young paceman's achievement, I was struck by the similarity of the following two pictures:

Oh, come on, let a chap have his day :))

Links for 26th August

2008-08-26T12:03:27+00:00

Bah. It looks like Delicious is failing to post my new links to my blog, which is irritating since it was lots of my content! So, some manual links:

Dangerous Economic Fallacies - via the splendiforous Polymeme, some interesting economic “fallacies”.
Red Light Cameras Don’t Work - something we don’t have in the UK (yet) to my knowledge (update: apparently there are loads in London), but that is very popular in the US. The problem is that they don’t reduce accidents, they increase them - but hey, at least they increase revenue from fines, so that’s ok.
Creative Climate Change Containment - this is the kind of solution that might actually save the planet, not the Daily Mail waging war on plastic bags.

Woof

2008-08-26T08:53:39+00:00

How to draw anything; in 1 step.

Best free views in York

2008-08-25T20:16:47+00:00

What with the crap weather and generally not being around at weekends, I haven't been into York city centre in a while, despite living only 10 minutes away. Today I quite fancied mooching around with my sightseeing hat on (also needed to calm down after a little incident on the M62 yesterday, terminating an otherwise excellent weekend with Lord Ross in Manchester...)
The good thing about York is that most of the best sights are at street level. But there are some places worth investigating that offer quite spectacular views of the city from higher up; being a miser, I object to paying for my views, so all of these are also free:

Viking Hotel

The 1970s monstrosity that is the 'Park Inn' (Viking) Hotel has one redeeming feature - the view. Walk nonchalantly through the main entrance, get in a lift, ascend to the 8th floor and then check out the panorama. There's some renovation work going on a the moment, so the view is somewhat obscured by scaffolding; but well worth the visit anyway. The view above is a composite of two photos, showing the River Ouse, City Screen, the Guildhall , Lendal Bridge and the Minster.

Marks and Spencer

Believe it or not, take the escalator to the top floor in the Pavement branch of M&S, walk to the back wall, and you'll see an amazing view looking north over Newgate market towards St Samson's church and the Minster.

The walls

Obvious I know, but walking the walls affords some quality views of the city - and it's totally free. The best section IMHO is the stretch between Gillygate and Goodramgate bars (above), as it arcs around the edge of the Minster precinct.

Clifford's Tower

It costs to get into Clifford's Tower, but if you have the bottle to climb over the railings at the top of the flight of stairs, and ignore the 'keep off the bank' signs, then you'll get a pretty good 360deg view of the southern part of the city centre, without having to pay a cent. The not-very-inspiring view above shows the carpark (should've been a park) and Fairfax House. And a Nissan 350z convertible.

Grub

2008-08-25T20:50:09+00:00

It's not often I post baby pictures, but when she comes in from the garden quite this filthy, I can't resist. Sorry.

Ken Lee

2008-08-24T23:19:46+00:00

OK, I give up, failblog wins:

Tulibu dibu douchoo? Gesundheit!

Boom boom, shake the room

2008-08-24T09:25:02+00:00

They’ve finally gone - the landmark cooling towers alongside the Tinsley viaduct on the M1 at Sheffield were destroyed last night. Speaking as a non-resident who loved the strange juxtaposition of brutal industrial (the towers) and “shopping experience” (Meadowhall) I think it’s a sad day. Commemorate them with a print from welivehere.

Bad Hair Days

2008-08-24T03:46:27+00:00

If you haven't been messing around with Yearbook Yourself, what have you been doing? 1. Find a picture where you're looking straight ahead; 2. upload it; 3. choose from portraits that go back over 50 years. 1952: I like this, despite what's going on with my chin. I look like I speak in frightfully clipped Home Service tones, wear woollen no-nonsense panties, and can confidently make Victoria

Are We Charlton In Disguise?

2008-08-23T20:39:09+00:00

This is what an Arsenal shirt should look like:

This is what our current home shirt looks like:

And this is what a Charlton shirt looks like:

And this is today's result:

Fulham 1 - 0 Arsenal

Draw your own conclusions, I'm too furious.

Drink Beer

2008-08-22T16:00:04+00:00

Stolen from Photo Basement (I think)

all my own stupid fault

2008-08-22T16:00:04+00:00

I would have done a new blog post this evening. I have photos and everything... But then I was prompted to update my phone software online. Baaaad idea. In fact it was a terrible idea. Two hours later, nokia support won't help me (although after holding for nearly an hour, they told me they might phone me back tomorrow, if I am a good girl). Software update worked fine, according to my PC. It

Babies vs. Patio Heaters

2008-08-22T13:39:09+00:00

So… Having a third child is “worse than having a patio heater“, is it? In an age when this country’s birthrate is dropping rapidly and where the under eighteens are outnumbered by the over sixties for the first time it seems to be to be highly disingenuous to suggest that population growth is a problem in the UK. In fact, much opinion suggests that exactly the opposite is the case.

Not only are many couples opting to have either no children or only one child, we are also having our children much later in life. These two factors combine to cause a genuine risk of Britain not even achieving the “lowest low” (a birthrate of ~1.3, where population halves in 45 years and the decline becomes unrecoverable) let alone the “replacement rate” of 2.1. Countries like Japan, South Korea, Italy, Spain and Greece are already below 1.3, while the UK is at 1.65 and falling.

I may be biased (Claire is expecting our third child in January), but I can’t help feeling that a country at least maintaining its replacement rate can’t be anything but healthy. I can’t even persuade myself that this is controversial view, surely?

This article on the topic of birthrate at the New York Times is long (10 pages), but well worth the read if you’ve got 5 minutes.

What is wrong with this picture?

2008-08-22T09:22:18+00:00

This BBC news story “illustrates why UK families are under pressure” (apparently). That image is the first piece in a bunch of infographics ably demonstrating their point. What confuses me is this…

How many families pay for their food and petrol with capital from their houses?

That graphic, like so much reporting around this topic from the BBC, is a) meaningless and b) designed to scare. Tossers.

Shopping

2008-08-21T22:36:34+00:00

I think it's just as well the cricket season is drawing to an end. Every Wednesday when Adrian goes out for nets, I end up spending money internet shopping...sorry about that, Darling...at least our children will be the best dressed little tots in town (even if their mother is still roughing it in jeans she can only just do up...)

A year or so ago I made an unfortunate discovery. Unfortunate for our bank account, that is. I discovered Scandinavian kids brands and a whole new world of cool, funky childrens clothes opened up to me. Katvig, Ida T, Ej Sikke Lej etc etc- I love them all. Problem is, they are quite pricey - particularly to someone who tends to only buys kids clothes in the sales. Well, the sales are now on. Suddenly I feel I'm getting a bargain...

The little people aren’t little any more

2008-08-21T20:46:22+00:00

The lego minifig is 30 years old (watch the slideshow too). That makes me feel very very old. That said, is does give me a reason to link to my latest Tshirt purchase

Bitte blitzen nicht die Krake

2008-08-21T01:17:01+00:00

Gelieve te vlammen niet de octopus op Bitte blitzen nicht die Krake Veuillez ne pas clignoter le poulpe Παρακαλώ μην λάμψτε το χταπόδι Non infiamma prego il polipo No destella por favor el pulpo Пожалуйста не проблескивает восьминог

Sticky subject

2008-08-20T23:18:13+00:00

"Oh!" said Ian, this evening. "Remember those huuuuge stick insects we were looking at?" "Where were we?" "In the place where we were looking at huge stick insects." "No." "They were this long!" said Ian, holding his hands about 30cm apart. "And their bodies were like... er..." "Big sticks?" "Yes! But really... stick-like." "Stick insects that were like big sticks, but stick-like, in the place

The importance of good mackup strategy

2008-08-20T12:50:57+00:00

First up, I have to apologise for the mactard thing. I just liked the word…. Many of my good friends are mac users and many of them politely laughed but I could hear them muttering “wanker” as they pretended to cough… So - sorry about that. You can call me a freetard in return if you’d like

Anyhoo. One of the things I really like about Apple is the seamlessness of everything. The Time Machine particularly impresses me as one of the myriad of must have devices that Apple make. I know that Tom has been having some awful trouble with backing up his Mac (while trying to get his Time Machine working, natch). I was therefore pretty disturbed to read Simon Brunning’s problems with his Time Machine.

Is the seamlessness a myth? Is my back up strategy of rsyncing to a remote machine the only real way to ensure no data loss (at home at least)? Or are the economics of home back up still too skewed for anyone with ‘real’ amounts of data (photos, video, music)?

Nix Mux

2008-08-19T12:39:00+00:00

That didn't last long:

"Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA. "

Nicely underplayed...

Devon Knows

2008-08-19T09:57:29+00:00

A funny thing happened last Wednesday. I took the wicket of an England international cricketer. Clean bowled, middle stump, for a duck, at The Oval. Now before you start going through the bins to see what kind of absinthe I was on the night before, gentle reader, please carry on...

Ollie, one of the fine members of the Gentleman's Relish Amateur Cricket Club, won a prize draw to play in an invitational Twenty20 sponsored by Betfair. After we'd all stopped jumping up and down, details emerged that we were to play a representative team from that esteemed organ [insert your own joke here] The Sun, who were raising money for a war veterans charity. Each team was to be captained by an ex-England international; in our case, the very talented (6-60 against the Aussies) but sadly underused Dean Headley and for the Currant Bun, one Devon Malcolm, conquerer of the Saffers at the Oval with 9-57 in 1994.

Now a full report will be posted shortly on the GRACC site but it was a fantastic match, with two remarkably similar innings - early wickets, middle order taking back control, the extras mounting up before a flurry of runs and wickets again at the tail.

Even though we narrowly lost (by just 2 runs!) we had a brilliant day, the highlights being Dave ripping the heart out of their top order with 4 for 15, Damien's massive six into the stands and, without getting too carried away, the most amazing, astonishing, absolutely astounding moment of my cricketing career - bowling ex-England international fast bowling legend Devon Malcolm for 0. Inswinging yorker, beat the bat, right through the gate, timber everywhere. What's that you say? Yes, yes - but where are the photos*?

Oh, go on then...

* And huge thanks to Katie's dad, Gus, for the snaps; talk about shot(s) of a lifetime!

ABNAmro2004*

2008-08-19T09:33:45+00:00

Change those default router passwords, kids:

Default Logins/Passwords for Networked Devices

* this is funny to about three people :)

Barcamp Leeds

2008-08-18T21:57:12+00:00

I nipped over to Barcamp Leeds on Saturday at the Old Broadcasting House. Was good to hook up with some old friends and faces - especially Ian, Paul and Dean. Only stayed for a few hours, but it had a good laid-back atmosphere and, more importantly, a packed schedule of speakers. Well done to Imran, Linda et al for sorting it out. Hope Sunday went just as well.
PS the rather crap photo shows John Leach reciting a Wikipedia entry on a ukelele, as an example of the type of content to be found at Ukepedia.com which is, er... a site showcasing Wikipedia articles performed on the Ukelele. Someone asked the question 'why?' To which John replied 'do I really need to answer that?' No one pressed him further but in my head I thought not just 'why' but also 'WTF?' Still, it was quite funny.

Can’t believe what I’ve just seen

2008-08-18T20:46:16+00:00

Just watched ifoods.tv pitch on Dragon’s Den and am stunned they didn’t understand the need to rebrand. Makes me want to take Forkd on there

Blip

2008-08-18T16:13:08+00:00

http://blip.fm/offmessage - oh look, it’s another web property for me to exist at and update. That said, it’s pretty compelling. So compelling, in fact, that I’ve had to try and ignore it. I’ve often twittered about the music I’m listening to; blip.fm is just that service.

Damn.

Smelly Bears Seen Exiting Woods

2008-08-15T20:18:05+00:00

Following on from this and this, come the (renegade) masters of the bleedin' obvious with this:

Girl Talk Flouts Copyright Law (NYTimes.com)

You. Don't. Say.

However, this line from the wonderfully titled Barry Slotnick (happy days at school, Barry?) I think tilts it inadvertently more towards Greg Gillis (but then again I never did finish that law degree):

“What you can’t do is substitute someone else’s creativity for your own.”

No, that would be stealing. But there is a long history of putting bits and pieces and sounds together and calling it musique concrete, no? So who decides how much is a substantial part and how much is just a relatively insignificant bit of a larger work - that has to be the courts. This could get interesting, if someone really wants to challenge him. It's not just one (highly recognisable) sample looped over and over whilst MC Thingummy does his schtick over the top - this is possibly a new genre.

Of course, if they have any brains left up their noses, they will simply do the sensible thing and clamour like mad to be part of his next compilation - think of the publicity, dudes...

Thoughts?

Morning Has Bacon

2008-08-15T20:17:51+00:00

Saw this and thought of winjer:

Wake 'n' Bacon
When's yer birfday again?

Kith And Kinder

2008-08-15T20:17:42+00:00

Brooker spot on again - couldn't agree more, as I believe I said (perhaps with a shade less acerbity) here earlier in the year:

Mollycoddled prisoners

Old photo

2008-08-15T16:43:51+00:00

Think this might be the oldest photo I have seen with both myself and Chris in it, although this was still about five years after we actually met for the first time. Obviously, at this stage we were not yet together as Chris was still going out with Julian and I was having a torrid affair with Karen.

Fabulous Shoes

2008-08-15T16:35:39+00:00

Thats is all.

Ginormous

2008-08-15T15:34:01+00:00

Brilliant:

(click to enlarge)

Although when I think about it, there do seem to be less language nerds around than there used to be.

*waits*

Once bitten, twice shy

2008-08-15T11:20:42+00:00

jemimakiss: @JohnCleese The Twitterati demands proof!

Oh no, we shall not have another Richard Dawkins.

Just A Blip?

2008-08-15T10:55:38+00:00

Ian Tait over at crackunit thinks this might just be the best thing ever:

Blip.fm | Global Music Radar

As he says:

It’s like the best bits of last.fm, twitter, and muxtape all rolled into one. And it plays nicely with all the web stuff it ought to.

Agreed - get up and join blip.fm at once. Just do. See you over there...

How not to pull at a club. Instructions please?

2008-08-14T23:32:53+00:00

I finished my last day at work on Friday (woot!) and went for slightly dull drinks with work colleagues and their nylon nails. Proper nylon nails with full pieces of art on the tips. They are lovely girls, but I was still quite scared. I escaped the white wine spritzers at about 8:30 and wandered around wondering what to do with myself. I didn't want to go home. Chris was chilling in preparation

Overheard #49

2008-08-14T08:57:23+00:00

I'm still trying to work out the logic on this one:

It still would have been after you'd left, even if you'd left later, which you didn't.

Floored

2008-08-12T03:30:27+00:00

This weekend, Ian decided the time had come to fuck with our house again. In the last episode, we tore up the carpet on the stairs, because it was a stark choice between that or hoovering it. Well, not really. But, yes. It was the cheapest beige carpet in existence that reacted to everything by developing dark grey stains like amateur petri-dish experiments, and it had to go. We never finished

Grape Bees

2008-08-12T00:47:57+00:00

Oh look, it's suddenly August. I am really not very good at this blogging thing. But that's probably a good thing for everybody concerned. I feel I have to update to do a quick, boring update before I post. (No idea why, but I thought the whole point of blogging was self indulgence). Lots has happened. I was a recruiter for a bit, then I stopped doing that, now I am going to look after my

Holiday

2008-08-11T23:04:03+00:00

So, I'm back from my hols. Two weeks in the south of France - the first spent with friends (don't mention the quinoa...) and the second with my mum and dad. It was a great holiday - perfect weather, lots of wine (for which I decided to drop Theo's 10pm feed in order to participate - there's good mothering for you), delicious food (can't do up my jeans) and swimming, sunning and sleeping.

My worries about all 4 of us sharing a room for the first week were unfounded - Freyja slept well and dropping Theo's 10pm feed seems to actually have had a positive effect and he's now pretty much going through to 4.30/5.30am without a feed - but he is still waking frequently throughout the night. Freyja slept in my parents room for the second week which was wonderful - my parents are never happier than being woken up at 6.30am by a small child and as Theo likes to nod off back to sleep nestled between me and Adrian in the mornings, we actually got a few lie-ins.

Both my children aquired new skills while we were away. At 15 weeks, Theo learned to roll onto his tummy. And it turns out that Freyja can swim. I expected her to just sit on the steps and refuse to actually get in the water, as she has previously done. This time we couldn't get her out and, with her water wings on, she was soon happily padding all over the pool.

Theo wasnt so keen. I think it was a bit cold in the water - he preferred to lie back on a sun lounger and just take it all in.

By the end of the 2 weeks Freyja had gone feral. She spent all day completely naked, save for the occasional pair of shoes. Unfortunately this feral behaviour also extended to her toilet habits....but returning to London and a pair of knickers seems to have sorted that one out...

And as for that return to London - well, Freyja summed it up when we arrived home yesterday morning and I cheerily exclaimed 'Look! We're Home!', only for her to burst into tears and say 'I want to go on holiday.'

Review: The First Law Trilogy

2008-08-11T17:22:56+00:00

Since finishing the third book in the trilogy - Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie (he needs an illustrator called Stephen Fitch or similar) - I've read a few more tomes (currently The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan - more on this in future.) So am trying to recall the thoughts wot I had in my 'ead at the time of reading. What I do know is that all three books in this Fantasy sequence are very good indeed - otherwise I wouldn't bother posting a review. In summary, they're good because they defy cliche and expectation - none of this 'Lord Xathl'Yr of the Urh-Lweh stepped down from the Throne of Zht-Rel and strode across the gfej-encrusted floor, sword of the Xxtthyr - Hmuld in hand.' All the character and place names sound entirely appropriate and - important for a long book - are memorable. Also no elaborate speech patterns or Olympian Voice ('thrice-fold he didst address the spirit: "begone, thou fiend of Charon' etc.) Mr Abercrombie has an excellent ear for dialogue, and peppers his characters' speech with plenty of swearing and cynical asides. The characters themselves are morally opaque or even downright immoral, but all have a clear and distinct voice amongst the cast of thousands.
I won't go into the plot save, to paraphrase Samwise Gamgee (movie, not book), it involves a good deal about a weapon and a Powerful Magus, and something about the end of the world. I'd go so far to say that the plot is less important than the characters; unlike most Fantasy (where a lot of plot exposition and world-building takes place), these books are character-led and relatively light on the background fluff.
Also uncommon for novels of this genre, Mr Abercrombie attempts to impart a real-world message, though I'm not sure this is entirely successful as it's very subtle: references to the evils of capitalism, nuclear weapons etc.
Again, also uncommon: elements of the book are (intentionally) laugh-out loud funny, mainly as a result of some breath-takingly caustic comment from a character, or neatly-turned phrase. Practical Frost - a lumbering albino with a speech impediment cum trainee torturer with secret, is particularly hilarious whenever he opens his mouth.
Of all the myriad characters, groups and interwoven plot strands, my favourite is the Named Men - a gang of veteran fighters with evocative names such as Dogman, Threetrees and Black Dow, who resemble nothing less than a fantasy version of Sven Hassel's rag-tag penal regiment - no bad thing IMHO.

All in all, massively recommended: 9/10 for all three books.

Isaac Hayes, RIP

2008-08-11T15:49:10+00:00

Isaac Hayes has died. It’s easy to remember him for South Park and the Scientology spat that followed, but his work as a session musician and writer for Stax and his own, darker sound made him one of the cornerstones of seventies soul. Here is Walk On By, the opener from his breakthrough album, Hot Buttered Soul. Get the whole album - four 10 minute workouts of dark, brooding, groove driven soul that hasn’t been bettered. This video doesn’t do it justice, but it will give you a taste.

Winning Post(er)

2008-08-10T15:32:01+00:00

Now I am no film buff (or even fully-clothed) but this quiz from Empire is rather fun, being much better for those of us who have seen an awful lot of posters but, frankly, a pitiful number of films:

Poster Letters

"Can you guess the movie from just one letter of the poster?"

No cheating!*

Go on, reveal your score in the comments (and Alex, I expect absolutely 100% from you and Nick or there may be mocking...)

* by clicking on the letter which pops up the answer - anyway, as if you would... cheat... in an online quiz... I mean, really... tsk... etc...

No one actually cares about your web site

2008-08-08T14:29:43+00:00

Observing user testing of our new Channel4.com I was reminded of something that's easy to forget: noone actually cares about web sites. To most users, the web site is a means to an end. In the case of a media company such as us, the end is content. It is very tempting to spend a heck of a lot of time enthusing about the design and being frightfully clever but, in the end, the job is to draw as little attention as possible to the web site, keep it on brand and to get out of the way.

A nice prompt to think more about this is iPlayer versus iPlayerlist. The first is a lovely design to be sure; very expensive I expect and "on-brand". The second is ... a list. Until recently it was all on a single page. I wonder how much people actually care about iPlayer when really it's the programmes, stupid.

SweetKhorne - new album out now

2008-08-08T10:51:21+00:00

SweetKhorne - the UK-based extreme blackened Viking death-doom-sludge-drone duo has a new long player scheduled for release on Monday 11th August. Entitled 'Tropic of Doom', the full listing is:

1. Morbid Egg
2. Penetratum Diabolicus
3. Pan-dimensional Winged Warrior Stoats Descend from their Hole in the Empyrean of the Northern Wastes to Lay Siege at the Gates of the Impenetrable Fortress of the Giant Hyperborean Vole-Mages Whilst a Lone Hierophant Looks On from his Sacred Eyrie with a Slightly Worried Expression
4. Malevolent Cheddar
5. Khorne on the Khobbe
6. Throne of Empties
7. Carrion Luggage
8. Testiculum Geneticus Extremis
9. Women, Cheddar, Guns and Eggs
10. Rock 'n' Roll Genocide

The CD features a bonus track 'Biovore Party Trick'. A tour, with support from The Mature Fatties, BeefCorpse and Flids on Ponies is scheduled for some time in the 41st Milennium.

Worryingly accurate

2008-08-07T15:38:01+00:00

"The first audience research into the use of the iPlayer has been made available by the BBC. It paints a picture of the average user of the online catch-up TV service who is male, aged about 40, in a full time job, with a partner, but no children."

Pretty much spot on, give or take a few years.

Emma's Village Fete! Bunting! Dogs in trousers!

2008-08-07T14:51:41+00:00

You know that happy day when you stumble across a blog that makes you laugh and you keep reading more posts and it keeps making you laugh? I had one of those happy days just before I went away and in all the packing and insomnia I forgot to post a link to it. Belgian Waffle is written by Emma, and Emma is throwing an Internet village fete! With a craft contest! You can carve a turnip into a bust

Do Not Leave Your Camera on the Plane

2008-08-06T20:24:01+00:00

I left my Nikon D70S camera on the plane when we landed at Heathrow. But don't worry, this has a happy ending. I realised the mistake as we were on the Heathrow Express. But I blithely said, it's okay, we'll get it back. We flew British Airways, where everyone stands and salutes the Queen and throws down their cloak for you to exit the plane. This is the impression I've grown up with, anyway.

En Vacances

2008-08-06T16:13:25+00:00

Currently, here at Lascombe (just outside Cahors in southern France) the temperature is a blistering 34C (93F in old money) and the sky looks like an Yves Klein canvas:

Now some of you will be thinking, "Yeah, right, he's just put a bit of Yves Klein canvas up, the cheating monkey" so here is the same shot with a bit of foliage in it, innit:

It's bloody hot :)

Bloody Golden Gate Bloody Bridge

2008-08-06T02:37:22+00:00

Hello Internet. We are back home in rainy London. Not too rainy: just enough to make the streets smell of freshly drenched tarmac and the trees look new again. Perfect. I have my favourite old leather boots on - nine years old and counting - and a fresh cup of tea at hand. Esme is making as much mess as she wants (and still shouting "Boooom!"). I'll tell you some more about our holiday. So at

Unlikely bedfellows

2008-08-05T10:52:19+00:00

Weird. eircom's music downloads partner has its offices next door to the Embassy of Chile Office of the Naval Attache and Naval Mission.

New monoman + my first poem

2008-08-04T21:47:00+00:00

For those few who don't use an aggregator these days - I've updated the 'look and feel' of Monoman. The last design was almost three years old, so it's about time really.
I'm also going to stick my neck out and publish my first ever poem (or at least the first since school days.) I wrote it in Dublin whilst pining for ~~the Fjords~~ dear old Blighty. Some of you are aware of my interest in old trackways and green lanes, and this ditty is inspired by the same:

The Low Way

Through field, meadow, copse and coppiced wood,
Hidden by pleached hedgerow, ditch and oak,
The droveways, hollow ways and sunken lanes
Run to and from no-where;
Dead, dried rivers divorced from the sea.

Scars born from their aboriginal scarring
Are scarred by tribal Celtic, Belgic, Wealh;
Whipped by purple-dyed rough Roman wool;
By Frisian, Dane and Norman.
Lonely lanes beyond the lea;
Old, forgotten Wicherdis.

Past tun and burgh and boundried Ferding,
Hushed by hazel, ash, fern and blackthorn.
Secret black ditches carve and camber
The ancient Hundreds:
Joining lines of history.

As the sap rises, the trackway falls
Away from sight into Hadian forgetfulness.
The Low Way, The Furzeway, the Green Lanes
Are green lines of residual wish-ways.
Isophenes of ancient memory.

Water ice found on Mars

2008-08-02T19:20:51+00:00

Kind of old news by now I guess, but space.com has the story. It is a seriously important discovery though - perhaps much more important than it seems. First, of course, it means we can send a manned mission to mars - and then they can get home again. Second, if there’s enough then we can set up a self-sustaining presence on Mars (as long as someone fancies shelling out the money of course).

Finally, though, it has to alter our estimates for the presence of life not just on Mars, but everywhere. With only one data-point, Earth, it has been basically impossible to extrapolate the chances of there being life anywhere. But the more we discover about the universe, the more likely it seems there is life all over the place.

Of course this just makes the Fermi Paradox even more terrifying!

How to Raise Children

2008-08-01T19:05:47+00:00

Before I had Esme, I would often get annoyed not by other people's children, but by the parents. I'd rather children just ran around my house in my fancy-dress clothes than their parents constantly snapped at them to sit down and shut up. The sound of parental ticking-off is a thousand times more boring than the sound of a child. And now! Oh ho ho. I'm turning into one of those parents. Kill me

signposts to a summer

2008-07-30T13:54:07+00:00

yes it is time. we have now reached the 3 weeks of the british summer where the sun breaks through and the rest of the british public, when pushed, would say that they thought cricket was really rather jolly and wasn't it a nice day out with the kids and isn't Pimm's lovely. as opposed to the rest of the time when the focus groups consistently come back with: boring, incomprehensible, elitist and rained off.

So what are the england team doing to cash in on this fleeting ambivalence? yes they're carrying on their relentless search for top-class mediocrity and "the right areas" against the South Africans. so thank god for Roots Manuva who, in releasing this video has probably done more for English cricket than Wisden has managed in 10 years. tune too.

via musiclikedirt

the other event happening around now, is the annual UK Drug Policy Commission Report. This is the yearly reminder to the government that they would generally cause a lot less pain for all of us if they just gave the fuck up, had some Pimm's on the terrace and watched the cricket. i was pleased to note that so eye-stabbingly obvious are the conclusions of this report that the bbc have simply recycled last year's article with a couple of powerpoint slides tacked on the end. i expect next year's to just read: drug. policy. pointless.

last year

this year

pass the smack, blowers.

eircom innovation fund

2008-07-30T12:05:01+00:00

Phew. Now that it's all calming down slightly my thoughts are slowly turning to things *other than* work. Like scrawling the odd post occasionally. Unfortunately, this post is about work. This press release went out a week or so ago:

eircom today announced the four winning companies in the eircom €100,000 Web Innovation Fund. The Fund was launched in November last year to promote, mentor and sponsor innovative web applications in the Irish Internet industry.
The four winners have entered into agreements with eircom whereby concepts are developed through to production and, if appropriate, initially launched on the eircom.net platform. Funding will be released on a staged basis throughout the six-month development process, according to needs assessed on a per-case basis. eircom will provide ongoing monthly funding in order to continue development of the product in line with customer feedback, and as part of a standard content agreement.
The winners will also be given business development training and advice by Enterprise Ireland, as well as additional six-month post-launch funding and help with marketing and advertising of the web service.

The four chosen companies are:

HeyStaks - HeyStaks is a “personalised social search” service, which uses a new revolutionary type of search technology that works with existing search engines such as Google and Yahoo to harness the search experiences and patterns of communities of like-minded users. These preferences are then used to promote search results that are likely to be more relevant to their particular needs. HeyStaks will also facilitate users and online communities to create their own topical search engines that will continually adapt to the needs and preferences of the particular community.
Research has shown that HeyStaks can increase search success rates by up to 50% and trials have demonstrated that it can improve success rates of Google from 50% to up to 75%. This has benefits not only for the user, who will find what they are looking for more frequently, but also for search engines where increased performance can mean significant increases in click-thru revenue associated with search advertising.

Locle - Locle is a social mapping application for mobile phones that combines information from your mobile handset address book with social networks such as Bebo, Facebook and MySpace to create mapping services that show users where their friends are. Locle is an enhanced mobile web experience that facilitates “here’s where I am, and here’s where my friends are” for social networks and groups.
Locle is a combination of a web service and downloadable mobile phone software. When the Locle mobile client is activated, it identifies the user’s location and presents the location of “friends” who also use the application. Friends can be both contacts from your mobile phone address book or contacts from your social networks. As well as letting you know where your “friends” are, Locle can also keep you up to date on relevant information to your location such as local events, news, weather and provide details on local restaurants, cinemas and ATM machines etc.

Playza - With most popular online games focused squarely at the adult gaming market, Playza is a new social gaming proposition for “Digital Natives” – our 12 to 24 year olds who have grown up in a digital media environment where mobile phones, social networking, multiplayer online gaming, and music downloading have always been the norm.
Playza is made up of a series of connected mini games in which players complete tasks and earn points. Online game players are encouraged to bring their gaming colleagues to Playza and social networkers can invite their online friends to join. The main objective of the game is to form and control player groups. By getting new members into their group, players will increase their standing and capabilities within the games. Playza users can also create their own page to host their game account and mini games. Within their page, users can create their own game groups, receive feedback and messages and post the game to their other sites or blogs such as MySpace or Facebook.
Playza combines the addictive nature of online gaming with the community features of a social networking portal.

TouristR - TouristR is an integrated full-service trip-planning advisor, which cuts out the information overload online and minimises planning problems. It not only helps the traveller to plan a more complex travel itinerary - such as a trip with multiple destinations on a fixed budget and timeline – but it also draws on content submitted by a community of users which will help the traveller to decide on a destination by getting a sense of the type of experience available at their chosen destination.
A new breed of unique Web 2.0 travel service, TouristR will feature stories, adventures and photographs of destinations submitted by users as well as aid the traveller who needs to factor in multiple elements to their trip such as budgetary, geographical, temporal and other personal preferences and restrictions.

Commenting Mark Taylor, Head of Content & Services Strategy, eircom Online, said “This is a new departure for eircom and one we are very proud to develop. Ireland has a huge pool of entrepreneurial talent and this was clearly demonstrated by the sheer quality of applications we received for the Fund. eircom is committed to fostering entrepreneurship in the online sector and this Fund provides the ideal platform. We are very much looking forward to working with these four companies in the coming months and we are hugely excited about their potential”.

Debuts

2008-07-29T12:35:03+00:00

Hello again, it’s been a while I know.

There seem to have been a flood of decent debut novels recently. Well ok, flood is probably an exaggeration. I seem to have noticed some very good debuts, that are much better than you’d expect. Try some of these on for size. Something they all have in common is something of the Gormenghast, I think - occupying the more fabulous end of fantasy (no heroes here) but with a kind of mix of compassion and cynicism that I suspect is very hard to pull off as an author.

Scar Night, by Alan Cambell is a case in point. This is an excellently dark and rather trippy novel with some appropriate perverse and scary characters, beautifully rendered on a grotesque city.

The sequel I found initially disappointing, but I think I was expecting too much from it in some ways. It continues the weirdness of the original world, and is in much the same vein.

Anyway, highly enjoyable.

This one, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susannah Clarke, is even better. It has a unique tone to it - Lewis Caroll does Gormenghast, perhaps. It’s very English, and very very well written.

This novel is going to be classified as ‘fantasy’, which seems to be the end of a novel for some critics, which is unfortunate. Some of the finest writing in the language is in this genre, and the best (as with the best of all genres) transcends it’s genre.

I’d recommend this book to anyone.

I’ve not read this one yet (is this cheating?). It’s sat there waiting for me to finish the Dark Tower novels by Steven King. Those are great too, but hardly Debuts.

Anyway, The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch, looks like a real winner.

I’m cheating a bit here - this isn’t exactly a debut, it’s China Mieville’s second novel. However, Perdido Street Station is superb, as is pretty much everything else China Mieville has written.

If anything I think the sequel, The Scar is even better.

Interplanetary communication

2008-07-29T08:31:06+00:00

You decide - this or this?