- Shift Run Stop A new podcast to me, but definitely one I'll be returning to, this is devoted to games and general geekery with a nice sense of the absurd. Highly entertaining.
- Utter Shambles An unusual episode this week with regular Josie Long being replaced by podcast stand-in and general angry man Michael Legge. Worth listening to for the story of why the musician Robyn Hitchcock hates Michael Legge quite so much ...
- Collings & Herrin Even if you are not a regular listener, the live shows are always worth a go. These two have really perfected the art of waffling on for an hour and six minutes about nothing much in particular and making it laugh out loud funny. Highlights this time include genital buzzers as an aid to child safety, cryptic crosswords and the ingredients of a bottle of mouthwash.
- Alexei at the Seaside with the Unions When Alexei Sayle was a child, family holidays meant a trip to a seaside resort to attend a trade union annual conference. In this documentary he talks to current trade unionists and reminisces about the way things were in the 1970s. Funny and nostalgic for a by-gone era.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Podcast Thursday
Pump it up
Surprisingly enough, after last night's stressful drive and a wuffing incident (possibly kitteh/mowse related) at 2:00 am (the first for nearly a year), I didn't feel too bad this morning, thanks mainly to some glorious autumn sunshine glinting off fields shrouded in wisps of mist. The drive wasn't too bad either compared to yesterday, when it took me over an hour in both the morning and afternoon to drive thirty miles. Not good.
I reinstalled the custom style sheets on the web app that I was setting up, and it mysteriously sprang into life. Not entirely sure why, as I couldn't see anything that was different or any error messages indicating that this might be the cause. Doing this sort of installation is always a bit hit and miss - every environment is different in some way, and this is the first 64 bit SQL Server system that we have done. Sometimes it feels as if these things only work if you hit upon the right combination of voodoo configurations, spin three times widdershins and wave a kipper in the air.
The last episode of This is England:86 proved to be a gripping conclusion to the series, with *that* scene (no spoilers, but if you've seen it you'll know what I am referring to) being one of the most gripping and horrifying things I have ever seen on television. Superb stuff. I liked the ambiguous and low key ending as well, which was exactly the right way to finish things - life goes on, after all.
In technology news, two things have impressed me recently. I downloaded the Nav Free sat nav software for my phone, and it certainly does the job. I've never really used sat nav systems to any great extent, but this is certainly useful to have available for those occasions when I have to drive somewhere I haven't been before.
The second thing is my new Kindle, which truly is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. It is the most comfortable and convenient way to read books and documents, and it seems like a little miracle when I email something to it and it silently appears on the screen. After the battery hungry iphone, it is also hugely refreshing to have a device that is always on and only needs charging once a month. I am going to load up all of my OU course books to have them on hand for reference.
I reinstalled the custom style sheets on the web app that I was setting up, and it mysteriously sprang into life. Not entirely sure why, as I couldn't see anything that was different or any error messages indicating that this might be the cause. Doing this sort of installation is always a bit hit and miss - every environment is different in some way, and this is the first 64 bit SQL Server system that we have done. Sometimes it feels as if these things only work if you hit upon the right combination of voodoo configurations, spin three times widdershins and wave a kipper in the air.
The last episode of This is England:86 proved to be a gripping conclusion to the series, with *that* scene (no spoilers, but if you've seen it you'll know what I am referring to) being one of the most gripping and horrifying things I have ever seen on television. Superb stuff. I liked the ambiguous and low key ending as well, which was exactly the right way to finish things - life goes on, after all.
In technology news, two things have impressed me recently. I downloaded the Nav Free sat nav software for my phone, and it certainly does the job. I've never really used sat nav systems to any great extent, but this is certainly useful to have available for those occasions when I have to drive somewhere I haven't been before.
The second thing is my new Kindle, which truly is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. It is the most comfortable and convenient way to read books and documents, and it seems like a little miracle when I email something to it and it silently appears on the screen. After the battery hungry iphone, it is also hugely refreshing to have a device that is always on and only needs charging once a month. I am going to load up all of my OU course books to have them on hand for reference.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Point Blank
- Lot to write about, but tired, hence bullet points.
- Found a replacement shower door and went to pick it up last night. Wrong one. Misleading picture on website.
- Daisy brought another bird in this morning, but this one wasn't so fortunate.
- Busy day at work doing remote web installation. Had problems getting the web server talking to the database server.
- Is Ed Milliband's excuse for the Iraq War that a big boy did it and ran away?
- Took shower door back and swapped it for correct one.
- The box was too big for the car, so had to drive home with seat jammed forward and hatchback tied down.
- Nervewracking drive in the gloom, worrying about the hatchback coming loose or the shower slipping out.
- The instructions said it was the same model, so we thought we could just replace the door. However, it is slightly taller than the old one so we need to install the side panel as well. Job for the weekend.
- Now feeling shivery and shaky with exertion and stress.
- PS I haz a Kindle and it is ACES.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Spook Country by William Gibson
Spook Country by William GibsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Locative art maps
The virtual world onto
The geospatial
Data hidden in
Music tracks on an iPod
Steganography
Shipping container
Tagged with coded GPS
A Maguffin hunt
View all my reviews
Haikusday
I awake with a start
Unable to breath, unsure
Of my whereabouts
Another victim saved
From the ginger jaws of death
Birdie flies away
Meanwhile in the pond
The Golden Bruna Puncti
Is being elusive
Misty drive to work
At least the radiators
Have now been switched on
Customised stylesheets
Are fiddly little buggers
Firebug proves useful
Some hard fought battles
See me climb the leaderboard
Of Carcassonne
Unable to breath, unsure
Of my whereabouts
Another victim saved
From the ginger jaws of death
Birdie flies away
Meanwhile in the pond
The Golden Bruna Puncti
Is being elusive
Misty drive to work
At least the radiators
Have now been switched on
Customised stylesheets
Are fiddly little buggers
Firebug proves useful
Some hard fought battles
See me climb the leaderboard
Of Carcassonne
Monday, September 27, 2010
Freeze Tag
The world was a very dark place at twenty past six this morning and the skies steadfastly refused to brighten up all day. Not good.
It was cold in the office too, as the arrival of Autumn seems to have taken whoever is in charge of the central heating by surprise and the boiler wasn't working when they tried to turn it on. It's hard to believe that we have gone straight from air-con last week to needing the radiators on this week. You would expect at least a couple of weeks of grace in between the two, but apparently not.
We noticed that BBC4 were re-showing the classic 'Boys from the Blackstuff' last night, which is another series about the political and the personal, in this case the grinding hardship of life on the dole in the early 80s. For some reason I remembered it as being funnier than it actually was, which is odd really, although I suppose the bits about the two dole office snoops had elements of black farce to them. The ending was a lot grimmer than I remembered too. Not cheery viewing, but worthwhile when we have the political rhetoric about life on benefits being an easy option.
It was cold in the office too, as the arrival of Autumn seems to have taken whoever is in charge of the central heating by surprise and the boiler wasn't working when they tried to turn it on. It's hard to believe that we have gone straight from air-con last week to needing the radiators on this week. You would expect at least a couple of weeks of grace in between the two, but apparently not.
We noticed that BBC4 were re-showing the classic 'Boys from the Blackstuff' last night, which is another series about the political and the personal, in this case the grinding hardship of life on the dole in the early 80s. For some reason I remembered it as being funnier than it actually was, which is odd really, although I suppose the bits about the two dole office snoops had elements of black farce to them. The ending was a lot grimmer than I remembered too. Not cheery viewing, but worthwhile when we have the political rhetoric about life on benefits being an easy option.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday Links
- Little Peccary Piglets in Los Angeles - ZooBorns
- Maru in his rain coat Maru has a Twitpic account! You should all follow it immediately, but it the mean time here is a picture of the cat himself in the rain.
- The Strange Death of Political England Adam Curtis' ambitious new project to tell an emotional history of the last forty years, looking at the intersection of ordinary lives with the turbulent events of the time. This section deals with 1970, just before the election of that year and features terrorism, industrial action (including a bizarre wrestlers strike), fashions, political rallies and odd snapshots of life. Absolutely compelling viewing.
- America Before Pearl Harbor Early Kodachrome images - the great depression wasn't all black and white
- Moebius strip comic by Jim Woodring. Such a simple and marvellously effective idea, I amazed nobody has done this before
- Visual 6502 in JavaScript The inner workings of the 6502 microprocessor emulated in javascript and HTML 5
- Things Organized Neatly AS THEY SHOULD BE!
- The .DOC file of J Alfred Prufrock
- People Who Became Nouns A Photo Gallery from LIFE (H/T Rachel)
- Zombie Fela Kuti's classic track, now available as a free download. Funktastic!
- CLASH OF THE GEEKS A free e-book with an optional charity donation, featuring stories from Will Wheaton amongst others
- The 50 most interesting articles on Wikipedia
- 50 more of Wikipedia’s most interesting articles
- Grand Taxonomy of Rap Names What? You thought that they picked their names at random?
Heart of Glass
Today has been a bit stressful.
We were doing a bit of decorating in the bathroom and Jan was painting the ceiling when the ladder slipped. She fell backwards and knocked the shower door off its hinges, and it hit the wall and shattered, covering the floor in tiny bits of glass. She was a bit bruised but fortunately not seriously hurt, and the glass was safety glass so I managed to clear it all up without getting cut. The upshot is that we'll probably have to get a whole new surround, as it doesn't look like there is any way of just getting a replacement door. Annoyin'!
In better news, I managed to thoroughly embarrass the boy last night by singing vocals on Rock Band. I am happy to say that I have a marvelous singing voice (*aside*, I don't), but I reckon I made a decent job of 'Cool For Cats' and 'Blitzkrieg Bop', mainly because they are all on one note. An excellent way to spend a Saturday night!
We were doing a bit of decorating in the bathroom and Jan was painting the ceiling when the ladder slipped. She fell backwards and knocked the shower door off its hinges, and it hit the wall and shattered, covering the floor in tiny bits of glass. She was a bit bruised but fortunately not seriously hurt, and the glass was safety glass so I managed to clear it all up without getting cut. The upshot is that we'll probably have to get a whole new surround, as it doesn't look like there is any way of just getting a replacement door. Annoyin'!
In better news, I managed to thoroughly embarrass the boy last night by singing vocals on Rock Band. I am happy to say that I have a marvelous singing voice (*aside*, I don't), but I reckon I made a decent job of 'Cool For Cats' and 'Blitzkrieg Bop', mainly because they are all on one note. An excellent way to spend a Saturday night!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Exo-Politics
So, Ed Milliband is now Labour leader and my reaction is a resounding 'meh'. It has been interesting watching things like 'Alan Davies Teenage Revolution', 'This Is England' and Adam Curtis' latest documentary project (watch out for a link tomorrow folks!), all of which have touched on the way that politics intersects with ordinary life. I don't know if it is an inevitable consequence of getting older, but I feel disconnected from political life in a way that I never thought I would be. It's not a case of the old canard of becoming more conservative as the years go by, with me it's a case of becoming more apolitical.
The last election was a case in point, where after all of the hustings and policies banded around with promises of change, and the dust finally settles after polling day it is pretty much business as usual. The proposed cuts are a drop in the ocean next to the deficit - Labour spending £704bn vs Con Dems £698bn is peanuts, really. Similarly, when I see the Socialist Workers rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of some nice protests to go on, I think that for all of the rhetoric it is going to achieve absolutely bugger all in the grand scheme of things. Even the poll tax protests - arguably the high water mark of grass roots political action in the last century - only managed to replace Thatcher with Major and another five years of Conservatism before the only slightly less conservative New Labour.
Ah well, buggrit. Time to go and play some xbox, I think.
The last election was a case in point, where after all of the hustings and policies banded around with promises of change, and the dust finally settles after polling day it is pretty much business as usual. The proposed cuts are a drop in the ocean next to the deficit - Labour spending £704bn vs Con Dems £698bn is peanuts, really. Similarly, when I see the Socialist Workers rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of some nice protests to go on, I think that for all of the rhetoric it is going to achieve absolutely bugger all in the grand scheme of things. Even the poll tax protests - arguably the high water mark of grass roots political action in the last century - only managed to replace Thatcher with Major and another five years of Conservatism before the only slightly less conservative New Labour.
Ah well, buggrit. Time to go and play some xbox, I think.
Friday, September 24, 2010
I Talk to the Wind
Ten degrees today (compared with twenty two on Wednesday) and it felt much colder in a biting wind. Brrr. At least there was a bit of sunshine in between the various showers, and I had my light box for the gloomier bits of the day.
Work at home today, and I finished up the spec I was writing (I'll probably be doing the development on it too, but workflow processes is workflow processes) as well as identifying a bug-ette with zero lines in the manual transactions routine. So, yay me, I think.
More Pocket Frogs and I'm starting to see the rare and valuable frogs turning up now including Stellatas (with star markings) as well as a translucent glass frog making for some potentially very lucrative breeding possibilities. In other games news, if you cast your mind back a day or two you will recall that I was looking for a space trade 'n' shoot-em-up, and as luck would have it 'Galaxy on Fire' turned up on the app store as a freebie today. I've played a couple of missions in between frog related activity and it looks to be more or less what I was looking for. Rather nifty graphics with enemy ships leaving graceful swooping trails in space (just before you blow them into profitable smithereens). Worth a punt, I would say.
Anyhoo, you should all know the drill now. Friday night, rum based cocktail, Rock Band on the xbox - go and play!
Work at home today, and I finished up the spec I was writing (I'll probably be doing the development on it too, but workflow processes is workflow processes) as well as identifying a bug-ette with zero lines in the manual transactions routine. So, yay me, I think.
More Pocket Frogs and I'm starting to see the rare and valuable frogs turning up now including Stellatas (with star markings) as well as a translucent glass frog making for some potentially very lucrative breeding possibilities. In other games news, if you cast your mind back a day or two you will recall that I was looking for a space trade 'n' shoot-em-up, and as luck would have it 'Galaxy on Fire' turned up on the app store as a freebie today. I've played a couple of missions in between frog related activity and it looks to be more or less what I was looking for. Rather nifty graphics with enemy ships leaving graceful swooping trails in space (just before you blow them into profitable smithereens). Worth a punt, I would say.
Anyhoo, you should all know the drill now. Friday night, rum based cocktail, Rock Band on the xbox - go and play!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Peace Frog
It seems as if my prediction of the imminence of Autumn was on the mark. I opened the door this morning to a world so gloomy and dank that the dog took one look and went straight back to bed. Oddly enough the roads were relatively clear compared to the last couple of days and I was at my desk for twenty five past eight.
At work I have been trying to get my head around the HMRC specs for end of year submissions where the file is split into sections that are sent sequentially. It's a tricky bit of functionality and it doesn't help my concentration when I'm getting interrupted by other issues or phones going off with 'amusing' ringtones. Grrr.
In OU news, I now have my tutor for my next course, so it's all systems go. It seems ages since I sent off my last submissions, so I need to get myself back into study mode and sort out my work space. Bring it on!
In games news, I seem to have caught the Pocket Frogs bug. It's the sort of thing that can be played in short bursts, checking back to see if the froglets that you want have hatched out yet. I got to level five by randomly breeding different species, based on interesting looking patterns and colours, but I've now found the list of cheevos to aim for which give targets such as breeding eight yellow Tingo Anuras at once or getting a rainbow selection of Albeo Anuras. Oddly compelling, in a Pokemon 'gotta catch em all' sort of style, but relaxing too when hopping around the pond hunting flies and looking for presents.
At work I have been trying to get my head around the HMRC specs for end of year submissions where the file is split into sections that are sent sequentially. It's a tricky bit of functionality and it doesn't help my concentration when I'm getting interrupted by other issues or phones going off with 'amusing' ringtones. Grrr.
In OU news, I now have my tutor for my next course, so it's all systems go. It seems ages since I sent off my last submissions, so I need to get myself back into study mode and sort out my work space. Bring it on!
In games news, I seem to have caught the Pocket Frogs bug. It's the sort of thing that can be played in short bursts, checking back to see if the froglets that you want have hatched out yet. I got to level five by randomly breeding different species, based on interesting looking patterns and colours, but I've now found the list of cheevos to aim for which give targets such as breeding eight yellow Tingo Anuras at once or getting a rainbow selection of Albeo Anuras. Oddly compelling, in a Pokemon 'gotta catch em all' sort of style, but relaxing too when hopping around the pond hunting flies and looking for presents.
Podcast Thursday
- The Reunion : Playschool Anyone who was small at any time from the mid sixties to the late eighties will remember Playschool, the BBCs pioneering pre-school children's programme. It may seem twee and middle class now, but it broke boundaries at the time by featuring a mix of male and female presenters with (gasp!) regional accents and (horror!) people from ethnic minorities, one of whom was (faints!) pregnant. This programme brings together some of the presenters and producers (including Brian Cant and Floella Benjamin) from Playschool to reminisce, listen to classic clips and even demonstrate a bit of the show's famous improvised music. Perfect nostalgia for an age of innocence.
- Norn But Not Forgotten Some programmes are the audio equivalent of relaxing in a warm bath and this is one of them. The story of the language of the Shetlands, packed with examples of how this wonderfully mellifluous and expressive dialect is used now for everyday speech and poetry. Lovely.
- The Archive Hour - The Feynman Variations Professor Brian Cox looks at Richard Feynman's unique genius for explaining complex scientific ideas without compromising or dumbing down in any way. Also, serious respect is due to anybody, scientist or not, who plays the bongos wearing a propeller beanie hat.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
?
A gloriously crisp start to the day, turning surprisingly warm later on. I have a sneaking suspicion that this may be the last gasp of the Indian summer before the descent into autumnal chill.
I had the most gnomic email from our project manager this morning which consisted simply of the character '?' followed by a forwarded conversation. I was tempted to reply '!' but I resisted and tried to make sense of the thread of emails before giving up and simply ringing the person concerned which resolved the situation neatly.
On that subject, there was an interesting feature on the Guardian Tech Weekly podcast this morning about the future of email and how groaning inboxes are not helped by the poor design of Microsoft Outlook which makes following threaded conversations a nightmare. There are now heuristic tools available to distinguish between emails which are simply records of transactions, social networking notifications and those from real, live people that you might want to respond to. The problem is that all of these different things get dumped into the same inbox with no mechanisms for treating them differently unless you spend time setting up rules and filters (and monitoring them in case something important gets routed to a junk folder).
I forgot to top up my phone to qualify for my free internet allowance yesterday and the first I knew about it was at lunch time when my phone started bleeping that it needed at least 17p in credit to access WAP services. My usual email and twittering had drained all of my credit without warning me. Bah. Lesson learned, I suppose.
I had the most gnomic email from our project manager this morning which consisted simply of the character '?' followed by a forwarded conversation. I was tempted to reply '!' but I resisted and tried to make sense of the thread of emails before giving up and simply ringing the person concerned which resolved the situation neatly.
On that subject, there was an interesting feature on the Guardian Tech Weekly podcast this morning about the future of email and how groaning inboxes are not helped by the poor design of Microsoft Outlook which makes following threaded conversations a nightmare. There are now heuristic tools available to distinguish between emails which are simply records of transactions, social networking notifications and those from real, live people that you might want to respond to. The problem is that all of these different things get dumped into the same inbox with no mechanisms for treating them differently unless you spend time setting up rules and filters (and monitoring them in case something important gets routed to a junk folder).
I forgot to top up my phone to qualify for my free internet allowance yesterday and the first I knew about it was at lunch time when my phone started bleeping that it needed at least 17p in credit to access WAP services. My usual email and twittering had drained all of my credit without warning me. Bah. Lesson learned, I suppose.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Haikusday
Three cats constitutes
A feline critical mass
Damped only by food
The dark emperor
Returns to his secret base
Rebels defiant
Unexpected sun
Gladdens the heart, providing
A small ray of hope
A dream of flying
Swooping gracefully in an
Invisible chair
Shattered glass reflects
Blue lights and twisted metal
Drivers swap details
A feline critical mass
Damped only by food
The dark emperor
Returns to his secret base
Rebels defiant
Unexpected sun
Gladdens the heart, providing
A small ray of hope
A dream of flying
Swooping gracefully in an
Invisible chair
Shattered glass reflects
Blue lights and twisted metal
Drivers swap details
Monday, September 20, 2010
Billy the Human Bomb
Weather, gloomy and chilly to start, thankfully brightening briefly later.
Last night's movie was 'Four Lions' - Chris Morris' black comedy of suicide bombers, and an odd kettle of fish it was too. I don't think that any subject should be taboo where comedy is concerned and this is certainly a very funny film as the wannabe jihadis make their ludicrous farewell videos, attend training camps with disastrous results and assemble their bombs with the childish glee of a kid on Bonfire night playing with bangers.
The characters are a mix of the deluded, the stupid and the paranoid, but the one that I found most disturbing and affecting was Omar. He has a wife and young child, a steady job, a nice house and little time for the pompous religiosity of the imams at the mosque. So why does he tell his small son stories of Simba the jihadi and plan to blow himself up? The film does not answer this question, and perhaps it can't, and that truly is the blackest joke of all.
In more cheery games news, I played the space combat section of Reach yesterday and jolly impressive it was too, swooping around vast cruisers and orbital platforms picking off Covenant fighters, before boarding a ship for a zero g fight with the usual sounds of battle muffled by vacuum. It reminded me a little of the classic X-Wing game from 1993 (gulp - has it really been that long?) with a dash of Freelancer thrown in, and set me to wondering why space combat seems to have fallen out of favour as a genre in recent years, compared to the dominance of terrestrial FPS games on PC and console. The only one that I can think of currently is Eve Online, which seems fearsomely complex to the newbie, with its mix of inter-company battles and stock market shenanigans. I would still buy an Elite genre game, with a mix of shooting and trading, in a flash, even more so if it had a persistent MMO environment.
Last night's movie was 'Four Lions' - Chris Morris' black comedy of suicide bombers, and an odd kettle of fish it was too. I don't think that any subject should be taboo where comedy is concerned and this is certainly a very funny film as the wannabe jihadis make their ludicrous farewell videos, attend training camps with disastrous results and assemble their bombs with the childish glee of a kid on Bonfire night playing with bangers.
The characters are a mix of the deluded, the stupid and the paranoid, but the one that I found most disturbing and affecting was Omar. He has a wife and young child, a steady job, a nice house and little time for the pompous religiosity of the imams at the mosque. So why does he tell his small son stories of Simba the jihadi and plan to blow himself up? The film does not answer this question, and perhaps it can't, and that truly is the blackest joke of all.
In more cheery games news, I played the space combat section of Reach yesterday and jolly impressive it was too, swooping around vast cruisers and orbital platforms picking off Covenant fighters, before boarding a ship for a zero g fight with the usual sounds of battle muffled by vacuum. It reminded me a little of the classic X-Wing game from 1993 (gulp - has it really been that long?) with a dash of Freelancer thrown in, and set me to wondering why space combat seems to have fallen out of favour as a genre in recent years, compared to the dominance of terrestrial FPS games on PC and console. The only one that I can think of currently is Eve Online, which seems fearsomely complex to the newbie, with its mix of inter-company battles and stock market shenanigans. I would still buy an Elite genre game, with a mix of shooting and trading, in a flash, even more so if it had a persistent MMO environment.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Captain Morgan's Revenge
Avast, me hearties!
Ye all be knowing what day this be, so I'll merely tell ye all that I have shown due respect to our pirate forebears by swilling a tot or two of rum (with the Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum goin' down a rare treat) and playing a spot of Monkey Island II on that thar new fangled iphone. I trust that all of ye will be carousing for the rest of the day as the sun sets o'er the yard arm!
Ye all be knowing what day this be, so I'll merely tell ye all that I have shown due respect to our pirate forebears by swilling a tot or two of rum (with the Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum goin' down a rare treat) and playing a spot of Monkey Island II on that thar new fangled iphone. I trust that all of ye will be carousing for the rest of the day as the sun sets o'er the yard arm!
Sunday Pirate Links
In honour of Talk Like a Pirate Day and because that scurvy dog Capn Red Smartie asked politely, have some extra piratey links. Arrr!
- Jolly Roger Adam and the Ants at their piratey best
- Pirate Flags A handy guide to tell who be attackin' ye
- Rum Cocktail Recipes Time to splice the mainbrace!
- The Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project Dredging up Blackbeard's Flagship
- Pirates of New Jersey Mark P Donnelly, Daniel Diehl reveal all about plunder and high adventure on the garden state coastline
- The Trouble with Pirates Dealing with Somalian pirates
Sunday Links
- Tas Devil Baby and Wombat Joey for Zoo Australia Fair dinkum on Zooborns
- whitney music box No, not that Whitney. This is a series of mathematical sequences visualised to produce music.
- Spoiler Alert How many spoilers can you spot in this music video from MC Frontalot?
- Mexico's Bicentennial The Big Picture. (H/T Mexico Will!)
- The Museum of Soviet Arcade Games
- Papercraft steampunk mecha Wow. Just wow. (h/t Gareth!)
- William Burroughs on…Led Zeppelin!
- So You Need A Typeface A handy flowchart for all of your font choices
- A Doctor Who Master Class Stephen Moffat and Karen Gillan discuss Doctor Who at the Edinburgh TV festival
- The Sacrifice A Left 4 Dead comic that fills in some of the gaps in the story
- How Richard Feynman went from stirring jelly to a Nobel Prize Robin Ince provides a handy introduction to one of (if not *the*) greatest physics geniuses of the twentieth century
- The view from 24,000 meters A panoramic view of the world taken from a weather balloon
Saturday, September 18, 2010
The Battle of Epping Forest
Well, actually it was more the skirmish of the bushes at the end of the garden, but I did take advantage of the dry weather to do a bit of hacking and slashing until I had filled up a medium sized Hippo bag with branches (one cubic yard, fact fans). It conveniently fills the back of the car, so we took it to the dump and dumped it.
The rest of the day was taken up with nomming left over pizza, playing two simultaneous games of Carcassonne - one with the Lufferov in the UK and the other with Beck on hols in the Canaries, having a refreshing afternoon snooze and then a bit of Halo:Reach for good measure. I've played a couple of hours of the single player campaign now and I'm really enjoying it, even though I've only just figured out how to use the armour boosts. It's very satisfying to call in an airstrike and then activate the armour lock which freezes you in place but gives you temporary invulnerability. Suffice it to say that the resultant explosion gives the surround sound a real workout ...
It's getting dark outside now, so it's time to switch on my Lumie light and have a gingerbread latte.
The rest of the day was taken up with nomming left over pizza, playing two simultaneous games of Carcassonne - one with the Lufferov in the UK and the other with Beck on hols in the Canaries, having a refreshing afternoon snooze and then a bit of Halo:Reach for good measure. I've played a couple of hours of the single player campaign now and I'm really enjoying it, even though I've only just figured out how to use the armour boosts. It's very satisfying to call in an airstrike and then activate the armour lock which freezes you in place but gives you temporary invulnerability. Suffice it to say that the resultant explosion gives the surround sound a real workout ...
It's getting dark outside now, so it's time to switch on my Lumie light and have a gingerbread latte.
Friday, September 17, 2010
No Pressure
A cold start, but brilliant sunshine to follow. Not bad I reckon.
I needed the light today, as a series of minor stresses started to pile up one after the other. First up was an issue at work which got bounced back from testing a couple of times as different cases in the customers data showed up issues that needed to be catered for in the code. Not difficult, but life would have been easier if all of the possible cases had been specced out in the first place.
Secondly, my car was in for service today. Not usually a problem as the garage comes to collect it, does the work and brings it back again. Today though, I had a call from the mechanic at the MOT test centre saying that the parking brake was jammed on and he couldn't move the car. I had to call the lease company, who put me through to the RAC, who asked if the garage couldn't fix it and passed me back to the lease company, who rang the garage, who said they couldn't fix it, and passed me back to the RAC who sent out an engineer who went to the garage and found out that the mechanic didn't actually realise that it was a foot operated parking brake (the lack of a handbrake being a bit of a clue). This was at the same time as I was getting calls from work about issue number one above.
Thirdly, the car didn't get delivered back until six o'clock by which time the dog was whining for his walkies and then when I went into the kitchen to go out ...
One of the cats had brought in one of the doves that have been roosting on the side of the house. No prizes for guessing who the evil culprit was ...
Birdie? Wot birdie?
So, all in all I am about ready for a Friday night drinkie and Rock Band thrash - anyone else want to play?
I needed the light today, as a series of minor stresses started to pile up one after the other. First up was an issue at work which got bounced back from testing a couple of times as different cases in the customers data showed up issues that needed to be catered for in the code. Not difficult, but life would have been easier if all of the possible cases had been specced out in the first place.
Secondly, my car was in for service today. Not usually a problem as the garage comes to collect it, does the work and brings it back again. Today though, I had a call from the mechanic at the MOT test centre saying that the parking brake was jammed on and he couldn't move the car. I had to call the lease company, who put me through to the RAC, who asked if the garage couldn't fix it and passed me back to the lease company, who rang the garage, who said they couldn't fix it, and passed me back to the RAC who sent out an engineer who went to the garage and found out that the mechanic didn't actually realise that it was a foot operated parking brake (the lack of a handbrake being a bit of a clue). This was at the same time as I was getting calls from work about issue number one above.
Thirdly, the car didn't get delivered back until six o'clock by which time the dog was whining for his walkies and then when I went into the kitchen to go out ...
One of the cats had brought in one of the doves that have been roosting on the side of the house. No prizes for guessing who the evil culprit was ...
Birdie? Wot birdie?
So, all in all I am about ready for a Friday night drinkie and Rock Band thrash - anyone else want to play?
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Thirty Days of Music, Day 27
Day 27: One song in your mp3 folder you're pretty sure no one else has.
Ooh, this is tricky. I have a couple of tracks that I am certain only one other person has, including songs from Nancy and Creepy Lesbo. I have a few Attery Squash tracks from Revd Diva Schematic, but I know Burkesworks has a copy of 'Charlie Brooker is Right About Everything' at least. Possibly the rarest vinyl recording that I have is Wild Willy Barret's album 'Call of the Wild' that features the track 'I did it Otway' that I posted the other day, but I first heard that round at Tchernabelo's flat in Bristol back in the 80s so I suspect he may still have a copy of that too.
I think that I will plump for the intro music to 'Interstate 76' (mah favourite game as longstanding readers will know) that I acquired by recording the music off of the game cd. I think it's a pretty fair bet that no one else reading this has done that ...
Ooh, this is tricky. I have a couple of tracks that I am certain only one other person has, including songs from Nancy and Creepy Lesbo. I have a few Attery Squash tracks from Revd Diva Schematic, but I know Burkesworks has a copy of 'Charlie Brooker is Right About Everything' at least. Possibly the rarest vinyl recording that I have is Wild Willy Barret's album 'Call of the Wild' that features the track 'I did it Otway' that I posted the other day, but I first heard that round at Tchernabelo's flat in Bristol back in the 80s so I suspect he may still have a copy of that too.
I think that I will plump for the intro music to 'Interstate 76' (mah favourite game as longstanding readers will know) that I acquired by recording the music off of the game cd. I think it's a pretty fair bet that no one else reading this has done that ...
Devils, Monsters
Weather - surprisingly sunny, and the blustery breezes of recent days have abated somewhat too. If it stays like this for the weekend, I will make a start on tidying up some of the overgrown bushes at the back of the garden.
The day started with a rescue mission when Daisy brought a mousie in through the cat flap and then let it go, whereupon it scurried under the dog's basket to hide. I turfed the dog out (much to his disgruntlement) and managed to catch the mouse and let it go outside. Daisy spent the next hour looking at the basket in case it rematerialised, and eventually Doris went out, found it and scoffed it after I had left for work.
In the absence of Halo related fun, last night was a watch of Prince of Persia which was enjoyable, but a bit rambling and incoherent in places. There were an unexpected number of British sitcom actors in various roles, including somebody who was in 'Pete vs Life' the other week and Geoff out of Coupling as a rival prince. Most strange. It would be nice if Blu-Ray had a button to press to answer the question 'that's thingy out of wossname, who was in that thing with the other one' without having to look it up on IMDB.
So, Pope Ratzo has landed and immediately equated atheists with Nazis. Remind me again who was a member of the Hitler Youth and strutted around with 'Gott Mitt Uns' on his belt buckle - here's a clue, it wasn't Richard Dawkins. Also, apparently the windows of La Senza, a shop which sells fancy pants on Princes Street in Edinburgh, had to be boarded up in the case the sight of scanty undergarments offended the delicate sensibilities of his holiness. After all, it would be a major scandal if a priest was found in a lingerie department, wouldn't it?
Anyhoo, Play.com have failed to deliver me a copy of Halo:Reach, so Jan has jetpacked to the rescue and bought me a copy from Asda, so if you'll excuse me I have a glorious last stand against the ravening alien hordes to attend to ...
The day started with a rescue mission when Daisy brought a mousie in through the cat flap and then let it go, whereupon it scurried under the dog's basket to hide. I turfed the dog out (much to his disgruntlement) and managed to catch the mouse and let it go outside. Daisy spent the next hour looking at the basket in case it rematerialised, and eventually Doris went out, found it and scoffed it after I had left for work.
In the absence of Halo related fun, last night was a watch of Prince of Persia which was enjoyable, but a bit rambling and incoherent in places. There were an unexpected number of British sitcom actors in various roles, including somebody who was in 'Pete vs Life' the other week and Geoff out of Coupling as a rival prince. Most strange. It would be nice if Blu-Ray had a button to press to answer the question 'that's thingy out of wossname, who was in that thing with the other one' without having to look it up on IMDB.
So, Pope Ratzo has landed and immediately equated atheists with Nazis. Remind me again who was a member of the Hitler Youth and strutted around with 'Gott Mitt Uns' on his belt buckle - here's a clue, it wasn't Richard Dawkins. Also, apparently the windows of La Senza, a shop which sells fancy pants on Princes Street in Edinburgh, had to be boarded up in the case the sight of scanty undergarments offended the delicate sensibilities of his holiness. After all, it would be a major scandal if a priest was found in a lingerie department, wouldn't it?
Anyhoo, Play.com have failed to deliver me a copy of Halo:Reach, so Jan has jetpacked to the rescue and bought me a copy from Asda, so if you'll excuse me I have a glorious last stand against the ravening alien hordes to attend to ...
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Thirty Days of Music, Day 26
Day 26: Your favourite movie video
A slightly odd prompt for this meme today. I assume it means favourite music video, but I am going to interpret it a little more broadly and nominate 'Stop Making Sense' which is for me the definitive movie of a band in concert. Directed by Jonathan Demme, it opens in simple theatrical style with an empty stage onto which walks David Byrne carrying a ghetto blaster and an acoustic guitar. This is the opening sequence ...
A slightly odd prompt for this meme today. I assume it means favourite music video, but I am going to interpret it a little more broadly and nominate 'Stop Making Sense' which is for me the definitive movie of a band in concert. Directed by Jonathan Demme, it opens in simple theatrical style with an empty stage onto which walks David Byrne carrying a ghetto blaster and an acoustic guitar. This is the opening sequence ...
Stay Positive
Another blustery day, with the wind gusting across the motorway on the exposed stretches making overtaking the large lorries a tricky proposition. The levels of traffic are back to normal too after the long summer holidays, pushing my commute time up to forty minutes or so, and longer if there is an accident or other problem on the way.
I am thoroughly enjoying This Is England:86 as a piece of drama that makes you care about things that never happened to people who never existed. It is less overtly political than the original film, but no less moving or emotionally gut wrenching. It also avoids the trap that similar dramas have fallen into of being mainly a nostalgia piece (*cough* Full Monty *cough*), by making sparing use of the cultural icons and music of the time. It says a lot that it was not difficult for the producers of the series to find authentically grim council estates and run down shops to film in - things really haven't changed all that much in the last twenty five years. TV highlight of the year, for sure.
In games news, Halo Reach didn't materialise on my door mat yesterday but fortunately there were two alternatives. Monkey Island II deluxe edition was on sale in the app store so I downloaded it for old times' sake, even though I have played it many times before on platforms from the original Amiga onwards (and still have the boxed, floppy disk version up in the attic). It has been given a proper spit and polish, and is still a joy to play, and I could sit and listen to the music all day.
Secondly was Pocket Frogs from the makers of Dizzy Pad which I rather enjoyed earlier this year. This is a cute frog raising game with the same graphical style as the previous one, and plenty to do. It's a free app with in app purchases for extra actions (as with most games of this type) but you can access all of the content without buying anything. Which is nice. I've only had a brief look at it so far, but it is certainly worth a download.
I am thoroughly enjoying This Is England:86 as a piece of drama that makes you care about things that never happened to people who never existed. It is less overtly political than the original film, but no less moving or emotionally gut wrenching. It also avoids the trap that similar dramas have fallen into of being mainly a nostalgia piece (*cough* Full Monty *cough*), by making sparing use of the cultural icons and music of the time. It says a lot that it was not difficult for the producers of the series to find authentically grim council estates and run down shops to film in - things really haven't changed all that much in the last twenty five years. TV highlight of the year, for sure.
In games news, Halo Reach didn't materialise on my door mat yesterday but fortunately there were two alternatives. Monkey Island II deluxe edition was on sale in the app store so I downloaded it for old times' sake, even though I have played it many times before on platforms from the original Amiga onwards (and still have the boxed, floppy disk version up in the attic). It has been given a proper spit and polish, and is still a joy to play, and I could sit and listen to the music all day.
Secondly was Pocket Frogs from the makers of Dizzy Pad which I rather enjoyed earlier this year. This is a cute frog raising game with the same graphical style as the previous one, and plenty to do. It's a free app with in app purchases for extra actions (as with most games of this type) but you can access all of the content without buying anything. Which is nice. I've only had a brief look at it so far, but it is certainly worth a download.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Haikusday
Belief in Angels
Insults the gallantry of
The British Tommy
We watched the sky burn
On the day the Spartans died
We remember Reach
Bargain of the day
Monkey Island 2 deluxe
You fight like a cow!
Dark mornings are here
It must be time to put the
Central heating on
A blustery day
Motorway crosswinds make for
A tricky commute
Insults the gallantry of
The British Tommy
We watched the sky burn
On the day the Spartans died
We remember Reach
Bargain of the day
Monkey Island 2 deluxe
You fight like a cow!
Dark mornings are here
It must be time to put the
Central heating on
A blustery day
Motorway crosswinds make for
A tricky commute
Thirty Days of Music, Day 25
Day 25: Your favorite song from 2010 (so far)
Laurie Anderson
Words and music to describe
Bodies in motion
Laurie Anderson
Words and music to describe
Bodies in motion
Monday, September 13, 2010
Thirty Days of Music, Day 24
Day 24: Your favorite cover song.
I'm a big fan of cover music, particularly where the performer uses the original as a jumping off point to do something radically different. A case in point is Luther Wright & the Wrongs who have produced not just a single cover song, but a cover of all of The Wall by Pink Floyd in a bluegrass country stylee - enjoy this clip of Another Brick in the Wall, part 1 ...
I'm a big fan of cover music, particularly where the performer uses the original as a jumping off point to do something radically different. A case in point is Luther Wright & the Wrongs who have produced not just a single cover song, but a cover of all of The Wall by Pink Floyd in a bluegrass country stylee - enjoy this clip of Another Brick in the Wall, part 1 ...
Strange Angels
Fantastic talk at Sheffield Skeptics in the Pub tonight from David Clarke about the Angel of Mons. This wartime legend of ghostly bowmen led by Saint George coming to the rescue of beleaguered British troops proved to have its roots in a short story written by one Arthur Machen shortly after the battle. The story spread as a mixture of patriotic inspiration and urban legend, and one enterprising soldier swore a legal affidavit that he was an eye witness to the manifestation until a magistrate did a bit of checking and discovered that his unit hadn't even left for France until a month after the battle.
The truth of the matter is more likely to lie in the superior rate of rifle fire of the British troops as they defended the bridges over the canal and then fought a determined rear guard action on the retreat from Mons rather than any supernatural intervention, but why let the facts get in the way of a good story, eh? One important message to take away from the talk though is the importance of going back to primary sources of information to verify (or debunk) a story - contemporary newspaper stories, letters, diaries and interviews - rather than second or third hand reports.
The truth of the matter is more likely to lie in the superior rate of rifle fire of the British troops as they defended the bridges over the canal and then fought a determined rear guard action on the retreat from Mons rather than any supernatural intervention, but why let the facts get in the way of a good story, eh? One important message to take away from the talk though is the importance of going back to primary sources of information to verify (or debunk) a story - contemporary newspaper stories, letters, diaries and interviews - rather than second or third hand reports.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Psychokiller
After some overnight rain, the weather brightened up considerably giving me a chance to tidy up the garden and take in the sunshine. Lovely.
In Rock Band 2 news, I tried out the DLC code on the back of our second hand copy and was pleased to find that it was still valid and allowed us to download the twenty bonus tracks for the game. This gives us all of the tracks from Rock Band 1, 2, the bonus tracks and a couple more that we have downloaded for Green Day to play with. Which is nice. Highlights today have included Don't Fear the Reaper (with MORE COWBELL!), Cool for Cats, Pump it Up and Psychokiller (which turns out to be surprisingly difficult to type). Aces.
In other games news, after reading the reviews I caved in and ordered Halo : Reach. Long standing readers (pull up a chair, etc., etc.) will recall how much I enjoyed Halos 1 - 3, although oddly enough I seem to have skipped Halo : ODST, mainly because it seemed primarily to be a multiplayer game rather than an epic single player experience. Expect incoming Halo related blogging at some point this week.
In other slightly odd news, we seem to have had a phone book delivered to our doorstep. I can't remember the last time that I had reason to use such a thing (and I don't think we've seen hide nor hair of one for the last couple of years), so it seems like a phenomenal waste of paper as it will be going straight in the recycling. Does anybody else use phone books, or look forward to them being delivered?
In Rock Band 2 news, I tried out the DLC code on the back of our second hand copy and was pleased to find that it was still valid and allowed us to download the twenty bonus tracks for the game. This gives us all of the tracks from Rock Band 1, 2, the bonus tracks and a couple more that we have downloaded for Green Day to play with. Which is nice. Highlights today have included Don't Fear the Reaper (with MORE COWBELL!), Cool for Cats, Pump it Up and Psychokiller (which turns out to be surprisingly difficult to type). Aces.
In other games news, after reading the reviews I caved in and ordered Halo : Reach. Long standing readers (pull up a chair, etc., etc.) will recall how much I enjoyed Halos 1 - 3, although oddly enough I seem to have skipped Halo : ODST, mainly because it seemed primarily to be a multiplayer game rather than an epic single player experience. Expect incoming Halo related blogging at some point this week.
In other slightly odd news, we seem to have had a phone book delivered to our doorstep. I can't remember the last time that I had reason to use such a thing (and I don't think we've seen hide nor hair of one for the last couple of years), so it seems like a phenomenal waste of paper as it will be going straight in the recycling. Does anybody else use phone books, or look forward to them being delivered?
Thirty Days of Music, Day 23
Day 23: Your favorite duet
I racked my brains for a bit for this entry, but then inspiration struck with this 1984 collaboration between John Lydon, better known as Johnny Rotten, and Afrika Bambaata for this Timezone single. An excellent blend of early rap, post-punk attitude and an unexpected hint of Kraftwerk thrown in for good measure.
I racked my brains for a bit for this entry, but then inspiration struck with this 1984 collaboration between John Lydon, better known as Johnny Rotten, and Afrika Bambaata for this Timezone single. An excellent blend of early rap, post-punk attitude and an unexpected hint of Kraftwerk thrown in for good measure.
Sunday Links
- Roly + Poly Red Panda Cubs! Tanukis on ZooBorns!
- The Pope and the Axis of Terror Another fascinating post by Adam Curtis looking at the rise and fall (and rise) of the notion of a global terror network.
- Herding Cats 100 cats. 1 Ikea superstore. What could possibly go wrong?
- Extreme sheep LED art Does what it says on the tin!
- Western Swing 78s mix #9 Another excellent mix of classic Western Swing tunes - yee hah!
- Captured: New York City from Above
- Instant Elements Tom Lehrer's "Elements Song," with Google Instant (video)
- Globe Genie Go somewhere interesting with a random teleport on Google street view
- Map Envelope Make an envelope with a satellite picture from Google maps
- Youtube Time Machine Pick a year, click refresh, and TRAVEL THROUGH TIME.
- The great atomic bomb cake controversy of 1946 Best. Headline. EVAR
- What The Fuck Should I Make For Dinner? How the fuck should I know? Ask this website instead.
- Multiple Choice Games Fantastic choose your own story type games, to play as iPhone apps or free on the website. I particularly enjoyed 'Choice of Broadsides' which puts you in the shoes of a Hornblower type hero in Nelson's navy.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Bandits
So, the long promised Game Center is on the iPhone, but it's looking a little threadbare so far. The one positive thing is that it has got me playing the classic Flight Control again which I was pleased to see had acquired a couple of new air-fields to play with since the last time I looked at it. I can't quite see how the match-making is going to work, but the leaderboards and achievements are all very much in the xbox live vein. No bad thing really.
In spider news, our eight legged friend turned up again last night, although this time in the downstairs loo rather than the lounge. It is a rather handsome beastie with a fair turn of speed when I let it go on the wall outside again. I think this may become a regular thing ...
In other games news, we now have Rock Band 2, so I've exported all of our music out of RB1 and set up a new band tour. Jolly good fun as usual, and I'm certainly tempted by the new keyboard peripheral in the forthcoming Rock Band 3.
In spider news, our eight legged friend turned up again last night, although this time in the downstairs loo rather than the lounge. It is a rather handsome beastie with a fair turn of speed when I let it go on the wall outside again. I think this may become a regular thing ...
In other games news, we now have Rock Band 2, so I've exported all of our music out of RB1 and set up a new band tour. Jolly good fun as usual, and I'm certainly tempted by the new keyboard peripheral in the forthcoming Rock Band 3.
Thirty Days of Music, Day 22
Day 22: Your favorite song from a movie.
One thing (amongst many) that irritates me is when you see an advert on the telly for a soundtrack album for a hit movie, and then it turns out that the songs you like only feature on the end credits. A good movie song should become part of the story and not just be there to fill in the quiet bits. My choice is Don't You Forget About Me from the final scene of 'The Breakfast Club - a perfect way to underscore the plot of the film and guaranteed to send you out of the cinema humming the tune.
One thing (amongst many) that irritates me is when you see an advert on the telly for a soundtrack album for a hit movie, and then it turns out that the songs you like only feature on the end credits. A good movie song should become part of the story and not just be there to fill in the quiet bits. My choice is Don't You Forget About Me from the final scene of 'The Breakfast Club - a perfect way to underscore the plot of the film and guaranteed to send you out of the cinema humming the tune.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Thirty Days of Music, Day 21
Day 21: A song that makes you want to break stuff
To say too much would be to spoil the impact of this charming little track. Suffice it to say that this is Wild Willy Barrett playing one of John Otway's guitars ... I Did It Otway
To say too much would be to spoil the impact of this charming little track. Suffice it to say that this is Wild Willy Barrett playing one of John Otway's guitars ... I Did It Otway
Are we here?
Weather - sunshine, showers, the usual. It was actually a lot warmer than it first appeared when I peeked out into the early morning gloom.
We seem to be in the middle of an invasion of giant spiders (hopefully not from Metabelis 3) at the moment. For two nights in a row now, a spider has appeared from under the TV and on both occasions I have fetched a large glass and duly trapped said beastie before setting it free outside across the other side of the road. I don't know if it's the same one coming back - I wonder if it will reappear tonight as well?
Work today has been a sprint to the finish to get the code out of the door, hampered only by the several hours that the consultant spent testing the wrong bit of code. Cue a heavy sigh and much rolling of eyes.
Further to my rantette the other day, let us conduct a little thought experiment. If swivel eyed fundie loon Terry Jones does decide to burn a Koran, and if in response there is a riot in Afghanistan or Pakistan that ends up with people being injured or killed, whose fault will it be? Does any amount of offence, no matter how crass or insensitive the original cause, justify going out on the streets to commit violence? Thinking back further to the riots that followed the publication of the Satanic Verses and the Motoons, were the rioters justified in their actions, and who was ultimately responsible for the people (mostly Muslims) who died as a result? Does anything that a writer or a cartoonist puts down on a sheet of paper justify a violent response?
If the Muslims truly believed the words of the Koran, shouldn't their response to somebody burning it be to simply shrug their shoulders and say 'God is Great' safe in the knowledge that they will go to paradise? Similarly, shouldn't the response of Christians be to turn the other cheek and take comfort in their eternal place in heaven? The fact that neither side is capable of acting with any level of maturity beyond that of a spoilt toddler having a tantrum should tell you something about how secure they actually are in their beliefs.
I've said it before, but no matter how 'deeply held' your beliefs you do not have a right not to be offended by somebody of contrary beliefs, or none at all. The best response to somebody holding up an offensive sign is to stand behind them with a funnier one.
And on that note, I declare this Friday night to be well and truly open!
We seem to be in the middle of an invasion of giant spiders (hopefully not from Metabelis 3) at the moment. For two nights in a row now, a spider has appeared from under the TV and on both occasions I have fetched a large glass and duly trapped said beastie before setting it free outside across the other side of the road. I don't know if it's the same one coming back - I wonder if it will reappear tonight as well?
Work today has been a sprint to the finish to get the code out of the door, hampered only by the several hours that the consultant spent testing the wrong bit of code. Cue a heavy sigh and much rolling of eyes.
Further to my rantette the other day, let us conduct a little thought experiment. If swivel eyed fundie loon Terry Jones does decide to burn a Koran, and if in response there is a riot in Afghanistan or Pakistan that ends up with people being injured or killed, whose fault will it be? Does any amount of offence, no matter how crass or insensitive the original cause, justify going out on the streets to commit violence? Thinking back further to the riots that followed the publication of the Satanic Verses and the Motoons, were the rioters justified in their actions, and who was ultimately responsible for the people (mostly Muslims) who died as a result? Does anything that a writer or a cartoonist puts down on a sheet of paper justify a violent response?
If the Muslims truly believed the words of the Koran, shouldn't their response to somebody burning it be to simply shrug their shoulders and say 'God is Great' safe in the knowledge that they will go to paradise? Similarly, shouldn't the response of Christians be to turn the other cheek and take comfort in their eternal place in heaven? The fact that neither side is capable of acting with any level of maturity beyond that of a spoilt toddler having a tantrum should tell you something about how secure they actually are in their beliefs.
I've said it before, but no matter how 'deeply held' your beliefs you do not have a right not to be offended by somebody of contrary beliefs, or none at all. The best response to somebody holding up an offensive sign is to stand behind them with a funnier one.
And on that note, I declare this Friday night to be well and truly open!
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Know your enemy
Weather, sunny and reasonably warm.
Work, frustrating and busy trying to get a software delivery ready for a client after it had been promised to them for tomorrow. Guess when I was told of the deadline? Yesterday afternoon. Grmmph. I need to go into the office tomorrow to make sure it's all sorted, which I'm not overly thrilled about when I am still not feeling 100%. Needs must and all that, tho.
In better news, the books and materials for my OU Java course arrived this morning so I have unpacked them and stacked them on my book shelf in readiness. I'm having second thoughts about starting another course to run simultaneously from January now. I'll have to see how much time this course takes up once I get back into the swing of things before I make a decision about it.
Work, frustrating and busy trying to get a software delivery ready for a client after it had been promised to them for tomorrow. Guess when I was told of the deadline? Yesterday afternoon. Grmmph. I need to go into the office tomorrow to make sure it's all sorted, which I'm not overly thrilled about when I am still not feeling 100%. Needs must and all that, tho.
In better news, the books and materials for my OU Java course arrived this morning so I have unpacked them and stacked them on my book shelf in readiness. I'm having second thoughts about starting another course to run simultaneously from January now. I'll have to see how much time this course takes up once I get back into the swing of things before I make a decision about it.
Thirty Days of Music, Day 20
Day 20: Your favorite breakup song.
Breakups always seem to end up in those endless discussions that just go round in circles of recrimination - this song says it all ...
Breakups always seem to end up in those endless discussions that just go round in circles of recrimination - this song says it all ...
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Burning down the house
Sunny when I left the house this morning, but as soon as I hit the road the fog descended in swirling patches. Unfortunately somebody had taken the concept of hitting the road a little bit too literally and had sideswiped the central barrier on the motorway one junction up from where I join it. Oh joy. Still, it all means I am making a dent in my podcast backlog. Which is nice.
Now, it's time for a rantette.
I think the Koran is a despicable document, cruel and contemptuous of human life and used to justify the most barbarous acts. However, the way to deal with something like this that is to apply the tools of calm rationality to unravel the weave of its insane logic. Burning a book is the act of a FUCKING IDIOT. Mind you, what else do you expect from Christians who seem to be rapidly catching up with the Muslims in the race back to the dark ages (or as they prefer to call them 'the good ol' days').
In better news, I now have iOS 4.1 and my game center id is 'satsuma' ... :-)
Now, it's time for a rantette.
I think the Koran is a despicable document, cruel and contemptuous of human life and used to justify the most barbarous acts. However, the way to deal with something like this that is to apply the tools of calm rationality to unravel the weave of its insane logic. Burning a book is the act of a FUCKING IDIOT. Mind you, what else do you expect from Christians who seem to be rapidly catching up with the Muslims in the race back to the dark ages (or as they prefer to call them 'the good ol' days').
In better news, I now have iOS 4.1 and my game center id is 'satsuma' ... :-)
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Haikusday
Last week I lost track
Of days, due to holiday
Hence, no haikusday
Nights are drawing in
I need bright light to dispel
Dark skies, autumn rain
Sherlock Holmes Blu Ray
Preposterous adventure
Nifty baritsu
Squinting with tired eyes
Big red numbers out of focus
Five-ten, too early
Morning sun glints on
Rain slick roads, slowing traffic
Tuesday morning crawl
Day measured out in
Four hour blocks until my next
Paracetomol
Of days, due to holiday
Hence, no haikusday
Nights are drawing in
I need bright light to dispel
Dark skies, autumn rain
Sherlock Holmes Blu Ray
Preposterous adventure
Nifty baritsu
Squinting with tired eyes
Big red numbers out of focus
Five-ten, too early
Morning sun glints on
Rain slick roads, slowing traffic
Tuesday morning crawl
Day measured out in
Four hour blocks until my next
Paracetomol
Thirty Days of Music, Day 18
Day 18: An instrumental song you like.
Dick Dale's Misrlou
Proves that he is without doubt
King of Surf Guitar
Dick Dale's Misrlou
Proves that he is without doubt
King of Surf Guitar
Monday, September 06, 2010
The Other Side of Summer
In a perfect storm of reasons to feel sorry for myself, I'm back in the office tomorrow, it's dark and stormy outside and I seem to have caught a cold. Oh well, worse things happen at sea I suppose.
In better news, we watched the Blu-Ray of Watchmen last night on the new telly and I was mightily impressed. The picture is extraordinarily vivid and clear and it's probably as close to watching a film at the cinema at home as we are likely to get, but without the overpriced popcorn and half an hour of adverts and trailers before the film. I have now swapped all of the choices on my Lovefilm list to Blu-Ray discs.
The free app of the day today is Tower Madness which is an excellent example of the tower defense genre (bet you never would have guessed) with marauding flying saucers attempting to kidnap sheep. Bright, cartoony graphics and easy to control, and well worth picking up for a freebie.
In better news, we watched the Blu-Ray of Watchmen last night on the new telly and I was mightily impressed. The picture is extraordinarily vivid and clear and it's probably as close to watching a film at the cinema at home as we are likely to get, but without the overpriced popcorn and half an hour of adverts and trailers before the film. I have now swapped all of the choices on my Lovefilm list to Blu-Ray discs.
The free app of the day today is Tower Madness which is an excellent example of the tower defense genre (bet you never would have guessed) with marauding flying saucers attempting to kidnap sheep. Bright, cartoony graphics and easy to control, and well worth picking up for a freebie.
Thirty Days of Music, Day 17
Day 17: The last song in your mp3 folder.
In one of those odd twists of fate, it turns out that the last song alphabetically is 10538 Overture by the Electric Light Orchestra as the news has just been announced that cellist Mike Edwards of said group has been killed by a bale of hay in a freak accident.
In one of those odd twists of fate, it turns out that the last song alphabetically is 10538 Overture by the Electric Light Orchestra as the news has just been announced that cellist Mike Edwards of said group has been killed by a bale of hay in a freak accident.
Sunday, September 05, 2010
Ambient Wonder
For the sake of a quiet life, we shall not mention the boy getting it into his head to visit a friend across the other side of the city when he had agreed to be home on the seven o'clock bus. Not the ideal way to spend a Saturday night. Grumph.
Much more betterer is the sight of Barney and Doris sharing Barney's new dog cushion bed thing. It was sposed to be for Barney's sole use, but Doris plonked herself in the middle first. Still, at least they are both comfy.
In games news today, I have been playing with two stunning examples of the sort of technology available on the iPhone. First was Backbreaker, a simplified American football game available as a freebie on the app store today. All it involves is running the ball into the end zone and avoiding the defenders by dodging out of the way, but it does it with some amazing rag doll physics that make the inevitable tackles look *really* painful. Second, is Epic Citadel - a tech demo of the Unreal Tournament engine running on the iPhone that allows you explore a phenomenally detailed castle with smooth movement and spectacular lighting effects. The UT SDK is free to use now, so this promises good things for games using this technology.
Much more betterer is the sight of Barney and Doris sharing Barney's new dog cushion bed thing. It was sposed to be for Barney's sole use, but Doris plonked herself in the middle first. Still, at least they are both comfy.
In games news today, I have been playing with two stunning examples of the sort of technology available on the iPhone. First was Backbreaker, a simplified American football game available as a freebie on the app store today. All it involves is running the ball into the end zone and avoiding the defenders by dodging out of the way, but it does it with some amazing rag doll physics that make the inevitable tackles look *really* painful. Second, is Epic Citadel - a tech demo of the Unreal Tournament engine running on the iPhone that allows you explore a phenomenally detailed castle with smooth movement and spectacular lighting effects. The UT SDK is free to use now, so this promises good things for games using this technology.
Sunday Links
- Chester Zoo's Elephant Calf Charms the Crowds This is the baby heffalump that we saw last week!
- The Wilderness Downtown Just in case you haven't already seen this interactive music video, then it is well worth five minutes or so of your time - it works best on Chrome, but Firefox is ok too
- Danny & Annie A true story of a twenty seven year romance, between two remarkable people from Brooklyn, animated. Heartbreaking and uplifting
- The Apostrophe Song
- Glimpses An intriguing novel of parallel universes and rock'n'roll, available for free download
- A syllabus and book list for novice students of science fiction literature
- Subway Science Map
- Ye cannae change the laws of physics *Aside* You can ...turns out that the Fine Structure Constant isn't necessarily constant
- The hurricane-damaged remains of Six Flags New Orleans A theme park, abandoned after Hurricaine Katrina
- Action! Watch and learn Bruce Willis - *this* is what an action movie should look like
- Unanswerable Prayers Part one of a series by Christopher Hitchens
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Rock El Casbah
Not quite as warm, weather wise, today but perfectly acceptable in the grand scheme of things.
I think I've managed to hook everything up correctly with the xbox and the surround sound now, using the optical cable. We were having problems getting Rock Band to calibrate the audio delay properly but I spotted that there is a box to tick to enable Dolby Digital sound which caused the rear speakers to spring into life with crowd noises and allowed me to hear the 'tick' noise on the setup screen.
Other than that, it has been a spectacularly lazy day with not much to report other than finishing the book I have been reading and generally pottering about.
I think I've managed to hook everything up correctly with the xbox and the surround sound now, using the optical cable. We were having problems getting Rock Band to calibrate the audio delay properly but I spotted that there is a box to tick to enable Dolby Digital sound which caused the rear speakers to spring into life with crowd noises and allowed me to hear the 'tick' noise on the setup screen.
Other than that, it has been a spectacularly lazy day with not much to report other than finishing the book I have been reading and generally pottering about.
Thirty Days of Music, Day 15
Day 15: A song you liked in high school
I'll assume that 'High School' means 1984 or thereabouts, which allows me to pick this track. The 12" single was like a mini concept album with different mixes and artwork, and a classic bit of Trevor Horn/ZTT production. At the time it all seemed to fit with the general air of cold war paranoia and fear of imminent nuclear destruction, and it still recalls memories of that time for me now
I'll assume that 'High School' means 1984 or thereabouts, which allows me to pick this track. The 12" single was like a mini concept album with different mixes and artwork, and a classic bit of Trevor Horn/ZTT production. At the time it all seemed to fit with the general air of cold war paranoia and fear of imminent nuclear destruction, and it still recalls memories of that time for me now
How I Escaped My Certain Fate by Stewart Lee
How I Escaped My Certain Fate by Stewart LeeMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Clowns are scary.
From the Pueblo clowns of New Mexico to the Bouffons of medieval France, clowns stand outside the social order, marking out their own sacred space from which they can parody and decry the pretensions of the high and mighty with impunity. These are not the jolly, red nosed men with the custard pies and big shoes, but the mad men, smeared with excrement who caper and point and mock. As I said, scary, but also necessary.
In this book, Lee analyzes three of his recent stand up routines by annotating a transcript with extensive footnotes that are longer than the pieces themselves. If this was a directors commentary on a DVD, it would require the stand up routine to be paused after every section to allow the commentary to catch up. Each routine is put in the context of Lee’s life during the mid 2000s - his career hitting a low point where he considered giving up stand up, his health problems and most famously his involvement with ‘Jerry Springer - the Opera’ that saw him facing a charge of blasphemy and the producers of the TV broadcast receiving death threats.
Barry Cryer once said that analyzing comedy was like dissecting a frog - nobody laughs and the frog dies. In this analysis, Stewart Lee disproves this truism with a book that is both perceptive and very funny. He emulates the Pueblo clowns in the way that he demolishes the social conventions of taste and decency with remorseless logic and precise scatological intent, particularly in his routine about vomiting into the gaping anus of Christ that is simultaneously revolting, hilarious, thought provoking and most importantly the one joke that Joe Pasquale could never steal to use on a Royal Variety performance.
View all my reviews
Friday, September 03, 2010
Angelfish Decay
An overcast start to the day, and I was up at my usual time to feed the animals, make cups of tea and have some breakfast myself. After packing the boy off to school (oh dear, how sad, never mind) and doing some cleaning, I settled down to play some games.
First up was the third episode of the downloadable Doctor Who games, this one being entitled simply 'Tardis' and offering a tantalizing glimpse into the nether reaches of the eponymous time machine. I particularly enjoyed exploring the drawing room packed with artifacts from all of the Doctor's incarnations including the second Doctor's recorder and the fourth Doctor's scarf. No sign of the sixth Doctor's acting ability though ... :-)
I worked through my Diplomacy orders too. I'm not overly impressed with the Facebook implementation as I find the map confusing to read with fiddly lines and symbols. In contrast, the version at Play Diplomacy is much better, combining a simple, clear map display with a proper, text report of orders and results. The messaging interface - an essential component of Diplomacy - is similarly good and does what it says on the tin. Worth a look, if you have a hankering to play the game.
In other games news, I finished off the Alan Wake downloadable episode last night and wasn't overly impressed with the ending, which was just a battle with some shadow possessed TVs in a warehouse (no, really). I'm hoping this is just setting things up for the next episode, but it feels out of place with the six episodes of the main storyline.
The sky started to brighten up so we mooched off downtown and had some of the best fish and chips I have ever had in the Devonshire Cat, along with a smashing pint of Jaipur IPA. Yum.
Home again for a nap, a walk with the dog, a quick attack on the lawn with the hoover and it is now time for a Mojito and Rock Band ... your Friday night starts here!
First up was the third episode of the downloadable Doctor Who games, this one being entitled simply 'Tardis' and offering a tantalizing glimpse into the nether reaches of the eponymous time machine. I particularly enjoyed exploring the drawing room packed with artifacts from all of the Doctor's incarnations including the second Doctor's recorder and the fourth Doctor's scarf. No sign of the sixth Doctor's acting ability though ... :-)
I worked through my Diplomacy orders too. I'm not overly impressed with the Facebook implementation as I find the map confusing to read with fiddly lines and symbols. In contrast, the version at Play Diplomacy is much better, combining a simple, clear map display with a proper, text report of orders and results. The messaging interface - an essential component of Diplomacy - is similarly good and does what it says on the tin. Worth a look, if you have a hankering to play the game.
In other games news, I finished off the Alan Wake downloadable episode last night and wasn't overly impressed with the ending, which was just a battle with some shadow possessed TVs in a warehouse (no, really). I'm hoping this is just setting things up for the next episode, but it feels out of place with the six episodes of the main storyline.
The sky started to brighten up so we mooched off downtown and had some of the best fish and chips I have ever had in the Devonshire Cat, along with a smashing pint of Jaipur IPA. Yum.
Home again for a nap, a walk with the dog, a quick attack on the lawn with the hoover and it is now time for a Mojito and Rock Band ... your Friday night starts here!
Day 14: A song from the year you were born.
There were quite a few that I could have chosen from 1965, but in the end I went for this classic Beatles track, mainly because I have just been listening to it on Beatles Rock Band. This came just at the end of the Mersey Beat era, but with something of an edge to it - it's not difficult to interpret the line 'She's a big teaser - she took me half the way there' ... :-)
There were quite a few that I could have chosen from 1965, but in the end I went for this classic Beatles track, mainly because I have just been listening to it on Beatles Rock Band. This came just at the end of the Mersey Beat era, but with something of an edge to it - it's not difficult to interpret the line 'She's a big teaser - she took me half the way there' ... :-)
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Thirty Days of Music, Day 13
Day 13: A song you sing in the shower.
The version I sing has lyrics about the pets along the lines of :
Barney the dog and Frank the cat (Frank the cat!)
They are the pets, woof miaow (and they've all got paws on)
The version I sing has lyrics about the pets along the lines of :
Barney the dog and Frank the cat (Frank the cat!)
They are the pets, woof miaow (and they've all got paws on)
Tokyo Storm Warning
My, but the internet seems a snippy place today.
A lot of people seem to be concerned that Apple's new iTunes 10 social network Ping is censoring Lady Gaga when she posts pro-gay tweets. I've just updated my iTunes and as she was recommended as a person to follow I had a look to see and the missing tweets are there, with the option of 'liking them' (which several thousand of her followers do) and replying (as has a persistent spammer). It's more likely that the people producing the advert mocked up a screen and decided that they didn't want the word 'Manwhore' appearing in the middle of it. If Apple were anti-gay, why would they be promoting Gaga as their top artist to follow?
The second minor storm-ette is the option to re-tweet or post to Facebook comments that you make against a post. As far as I can see the option is off by default unless you actively choose to set it up and then tick the box to repost. It's nothing that you couldn't already do with cut and paste already, if you really wanted to. I can understand having buttons to crosspost a public post to a social network (as just about every blog post or news article now allows), but a comment out of context is not going to make much sense, surely?
The issue is not with the buttons, it's with the content that you post - if somebody can see your post, then there is nothing you can do to stop it from being copied elsewhere, short of enforcing a copyright takedown notice. If it's a personal matter that you don't want past/present/future friends/employers/partners/family (delete where applicable) to see, then think twice before posting it in the first place, rather than trusting to filters and privacy settings.
A lot of people seem to be concerned that Apple's new iTunes 10 social network Ping is censoring Lady Gaga when she posts pro-gay tweets. I've just updated my iTunes and as she was recommended as a person to follow I had a look to see and the missing tweets are there, with the option of 'liking them' (which several thousand of her followers do) and replying (as has a persistent spammer). It's more likely that the people producing the advert mocked up a screen and decided that they didn't want the word 'Manwhore' appearing in the middle of it. If Apple were anti-gay, why would they be promoting Gaga as their top artist to follow?
The second minor storm-ette is the option to re-tweet or post to Facebook comments that you make against a post. As far as I can see the option is off by default unless you actively choose to set it up and then tick the box to repost. It's nothing that you couldn't already do with cut and paste already, if you really wanted to. I can understand having buttons to crosspost a public post to a social network (as just about every blog post or news article now allows), but a comment out of context is not going to make much sense, surely?
The issue is not with the buttons, it's with the content that you post - if somebody can see your post, then there is nothing you can do to stop it from being copied elsewhere, short of enforcing a copyright takedown notice. If it's a personal matter that you don't want past/present/future friends/employers/partners/family (delete where applicable) to see, then think twice before posting it in the first place, rather than trusting to filters and privacy settings.
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Thirty Days of Music, Day 12
Day 12: A song that makes you want to have sex.
Teenage Kicks, famously the favourite song of the late John Peel, is an unashamed homage to those adolescent feelings of overwhelming desire. This cover version transforms the raw energy of the original into a breathy female viewpoint which certainly has the desired effect ...
Teenage Kicks, famously the favourite song of the late John Peel, is an unashamed homage to those adolescent feelings of overwhelming desire. This cover version transforms the raw energy of the original into a breathy female viewpoint which certainly has the desired effect ...
technologique park
Well, the blu-ray player arrived today, so I've spent a reasonable bit of time stripping out the old wires, hoovering up the dust bunnies behind the sofa, running the new wires along the skirting and tacking them neatly into place and then trying to figure out how the whole shebang works. The aerial signal coming into the house seems to be a bit on the weak side and I need to fiddle with everything to see if I can improve it sufficiently to provide a glitch free digital input. I think I might leave it and come back to it tomorrow when I have read the F manuals.
In other news, it's been a gloriously sunny day and perfect for dog walking and a spot of pottering about. I've read a bit more of Stewart Lee's book and it's both interesting as a detailed examination of a comedy routine and laugh out loud funny on most pages too.
In other news, it's been a gloriously sunny day and perfect for dog walking and a spot of pottering about. I've read a bit more of Stewart Lee's book and it's both interesting as a detailed examination of a comedy routine and laugh out loud funny on most pages too.
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