- 19:33 #ebz The prison is carved into the body of an immense stalactite, clinging to the roof of the Bazaar''... fallenlondon.com/c/26352 #
- 13:43 Last question on m150 tma done - 250 words exactly! Now to proof read and submish but first some lunch .., #
- 15:11 M150 tma done, dusted and submished! #
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Not so manic now
Not quiet so gray as yesterday, and even the odd moment of weak sunshine, so not a bad day weather wise really.
After my prevarication of yesterday, I knuckled down and trawled through all of the forum postings for our M150 online tutorial to write a summary and even got it to exactly 250 words with a minimal bit of editing. I printed out my submission document to proof read and then zipped it up with the two bits of code that were required for the other answers and then submitted it off into the OU ether. I'm onto the last block on both courses now, so it's just one more TMA on each of them and then the End of Course assessment (ECA).
Last night's movie was Moon, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It harks back to the design and feel of 70s sci-fi with echos of Dark Star, Space 1999 and 2001 in the mix. The plot concerns a mining engineer coming to the end of a three year solo shift on a base on the far side of the moon with only a robot for company. He starts to see other people in the base, but is he going mad or is something stranger still afoot? This is a classic bit of science fiction as a way of exploring ideas, with nary an explosion or a talking space squid to be seen. There's also an excellent short film by the same director included as an extra on the DVD which is worth watching too.
After my prevarication of yesterday, I knuckled down and trawled through all of the forum postings for our M150 online tutorial to write a summary and even got it to exactly 250 words with a minimal bit of editing. I printed out my submission document to proof read and then zipped it up with the two bits of code that were required for the other answers and then submitted it off into the OU ether. I'm onto the last block on both courses now, so it's just one more TMA on each of them and then the End of Course assessment (ECA).
Last night's movie was Moon, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It harks back to the design and feel of 70s sci-fi with echos of Dark Star, Space 1999 and 2001 in the mix. The plot concerns a mining engineer coming to the end of a three year solo shift on a base on the far side of the moon with only a robot for company. He starts to see other people in the base, but is he going mad or is something stranger still afoot? This is a classic bit of science fiction as a way of exploring ideas, with nary an explosion or a talking space squid to be seen. There's also an excellent short film by the same director included as an extra on the DVD which is worth watching too.
Sunday Links
- Baby Tapir says "Take me to your leader!" - ZooBorns
- Pic of the Shuttle reentry… from space!
- Passport Photos of Famous Artists
- The Boneyard the world's biggest plane cemetery up close
- Kacper Kowalski aerial photography Superbly designed photo site
- Video game weapons vs their real-life equivalents
- Grand Theft Gordo Taiwanese news report with a unique interpretation of Gordon Brown's behaviour (moar including Tangerinegate!)
- CleanText.org A very useful tool. Paste a chunk of ascii text into one box and get a tidied up version out of the other side
- How to Order a Beer in 50 Languages
- Snake Oil Supplements A handy guide to which supplements actually work for which conditions and which ones are snake oil
- Trailer :: Project Arbiter World War II with power armour mech suits? Hell yeah!
- The Leidenfrost Effect Nature’s Hovercraft. Watch the second video if you like dangerous science experiments ... :-)
- The Company of Myself Intriguing little game - remember that you are never alone with yourself
Saturday, February 27, 2010
- 20:11 Awww! RT @adamgilder: twitpic.com/15hb7a - Pupdate #17 26/02/10 #
- 09:53 Ahm ready for mah #caturday closeup nao ... twitpic.com/15lpo9 #
My own sun
Weather, gray and miserable. Again.
I don't know why I feel the need to keep mentioning it, but I'll keep pointing it out in the vain hope that some weather god somewhere might take note and sort out some sunshine and blue skies for me, please and thank you. Gosh, wouldn't it be nice if magical thinking, in the sense of affecting the world simply by wishing that it were different, actually worked? Probably not though, and this has just reminded me that I really should re-read Ursula Le Guin's 'Lathe of Heaven' in which the protagonist has the power to literally reshape reality with his dreams.
I've felt at a bit of a loose end today, and found it difficult to sit down and summarize a forum discussion which is the last bit of my M150 TMA that I need to do. I'll sleep on it and get it done tomorrow, I think.
At least I've got some blue skies to cheer me up, if only in the virtual world of Animal Crossing. The snow has melted now and there should be some new fish appearing in March which will give me something to try and catch. I made another loss on turnips this week, but I've got a steady income from harvesting coconuts and beach combing for shells, so I think I'll just concentrate on saving up for that set of swanky expensive furniture from Gracie's store in the city.
I don't know why I feel the need to keep mentioning it, but I'll keep pointing it out in the vain hope that some weather god somewhere might take note and sort out some sunshine and blue skies for me, please and thank you. Gosh, wouldn't it be nice if magical thinking, in the sense of affecting the world simply by wishing that it were different, actually worked? Probably not though, and this has just reminded me that I really should re-read Ursula Le Guin's 'Lathe of Heaven' in which the protagonist has the power to literally reshape reality with his dreams.
I've felt at a bit of a loose end today, and found it difficult to sit down and summarize a forum discussion which is the last bit of my M150 TMA that I need to do. I'll sleep on it and get it done tomorrow, I think.
At least I've got some blue skies to cheer me up, if only in the virtual world of Animal Crossing. The snow has melted now and there should be some new fish appearing in March which will give me something to try and catch. I made another loss on turnips this week, but I've got a steady income from harvesting coconuts and beach combing for shells, so I think I'll just concentrate on saving up for that set of swanky expensive furniture from Gracie's store in the city.
Friday, February 26, 2010
- 17:17 #ebz A spirifer, strictly, is anyone who trades in unlicensed souls. But the word usually means the vi... fallenlondon.com/c/25805 #
Six in the morning
Work at home Friday, so the miserable rainy weather outside can go boil it's anthropomorphic head as far as I'm concerned. Another disturbed night again, waking up at half four feeling like my arms and legs had been pummeled with iron bars, but I managed to nod off back to sleep again before too long.
I actually managed to connect onto the customer site this afternoon (see yesterday) and cleared six items off of the list of outstanding issues leaving only $hilariously_large_made_up_number to sort out next week. Not bad going, I reckon.
The unwelcome news today was a report in the Times that the BBC are going to be axing Six Music as part of swingeing cutbacks seemingly designed to make Rupert Murdoch happy. I might not listen to a great deal of Six's output, but it's surely exactly what the BBC should be doing. It plays a huge and diverse range of music, gives coverage to new bands and also has shows like Adam & Joe and Collins & Herring that regularly top the podcast charts. No commercial station does anything remotely similar, so it can't be said to crowding out the competition by any stretch of the imagination. It runs on a shoestring, financially speaking, so it is not going to save a huge amount of money compared to the salaries of the top execs and stars like Wossy and Brucie. Short sighted and stupid.
Anyhoo, tis Friday night which means a Mojito is on the way, followed by BEER and PIZZA and maybe an episode of Black Books or two from out of the box set that we picked up cheaply today.
I actually managed to connect onto the customer site this afternoon (see yesterday) and cleared six items off of the list of outstanding issues leaving only $hilariously_large_made_up_number to sort out next week. Not bad going, I reckon.
The unwelcome news today was a report in the Times that the BBC are going to be axing Six Music as part of swingeing cutbacks seemingly designed to make Rupert Murdoch happy. I might not listen to a great deal of Six's output, but it's surely exactly what the BBC should be doing. It plays a huge and diverse range of music, gives coverage to new bands and also has shows like Adam & Joe and Collins & Herring that regularly top the podcast charts. No commercial station does anything remotely similar, so it can't be said to crowding out the competition by any stretch of the imagination. It runs on a shoestring, financially speaking, so it is not going to save a huge amount of money compared to the salaries of the top execs and stars like Wossy and Brucie. Short sighted and stupid.
Anyhoo, tis Friday night which means a Mojito is on the way, followed by BEER and PIZZA and maybe an episode of Black Books or two from out of the box set that we picked up cheaply today.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The Raven
Foggy again this morning, but at least the temperature was on the right side of zero for a change. Journey time today was equivalent to a Perfect Ten (a very welcome and most amusing return).
Work has been busy with the main release finally out of the door and the problem that I was having traced to an obscure bit of code for threading processes. It wasn't manifesting on my steam powered laptop but when the QA team were looking at it the threaded process was running and completing successfully but actually vanishing before the status on the calling window could update itself correctly. Or something. At least there is only one customer using this and their processes will be running on honkingly huge databases which will take slightly longer to complete than on our test systems, so it is unlikely to occur for them.
A bit more frustration in the afternoon when I was supposed to be remote desktopping to a customer site to look at some issues, but the helpdesk took two hours to enable my log in and then when I finally connected they were doing server updates so I couldn't actually get to the areas that I needed to see. Grumph.
I'm feeling a bit run down at the moment. I actually fell asleep in front of the telly for the first time in what seems like ages last night, and I was aching and feeling shivery when I woke up this morning. The muscular twitch in my right hand seems to be back as well, which is most irritating when I am typing. Not good.
In more positive news, I've just finished a nailbitingly close game of Words with Friends with blackvelvet73. The early game saw some big gambles and high scoring words, and then the end saw the lead swapping hands several times as we infilled words until I clinched it with 'erg' on my last three letters. W00t!
Work has been busy with the main release finally out of the door and the problem that I was having traced to an obscure bit of code for threading processes. It wasn't manifesting on my steam powered laptop but when the QA team were looking at it the threaded process was running and completing successfully but actually vanishing before the status on the calling window could update itself correctly. Or something. At least there is only one customer using this and their processes will be running on honkingly huge databases which will take slightly longer to complete than on our test systems, so it is unlikely to occur for them.
A bit more frustration in the afternoon when I was supposed to be remote desktopping to a customer site to look at some issues, but the helpdesk took two hours to enable my log in and then when I finally connected they were doing server updates so I couldn't actually get to the areas that I needed to see. Grumph.
I'm feeling a bit run down at the moment. I actually fell asleep in front of the telly for the first time in what seems like ages last night, and I was aching and feeling shivery when I woke up this morning. The muscular twitch in my right hand seems to be back as well, which is most irritating when I am typing. Not good.
In more positive news, I've just finished a nailbitingly close game of Words with Friends with blackvelvet73. The early game saw some big gambles and high scoring words, and then the end saw the lead swapping hands several times as we infilled words until I clinched it with 'erg' on my last three letters. W00t!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
- 18:43 5 of 5 stars to The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov bit.ly/933b1t #
- 18:43 5 of 5 stars to The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov bit.ly/aCh8AD #
- 18:24 3 of 5 stars to Planescape Torment by Rhys Hess (compiled by) bit.ly/aG4iJf #
- 18:26 3 of 5 stars to Planescape Torment by Rhys Hess (compiled by) bit.ly/bBcdxG #
Predict the day
Foggy, damp and cold this morning, with just a hint of slush on the roads to make things interesting. A very slow commute into work, with time to listen to nearly all of a Collings and Herrin podcast whereas my usual journey is less than a Collins and Herring. At least it brightened up towards the end of the day.
My work laptop was on a go slow too, taking ten minutes to boot up and start Outlook and the application that I needed to work on. Oddly enough, after a warm reboot a bit later on it was much better, so it was probably one of those mysterious downloads that Microsoft and/or the IT department insists on shovelling on without any notification or choice as to when it might be convenient.
We celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary last night with a quiet night in, a nice curry and one or two drinks whilst watching something on the telly. It seems that anniversaries come around too quickly these days to want to make too big a deal of them, although we may well push the boat out a little for the tenth next year.
My work laptop was on a go slow too, taking ten minutes to boot up and start Outlook and the application that I needed to work on. Oddly enough, after a warm reboot a bit later on it was much better, so it was probably one of those mysterious downloads that Microsoft and/or the IT department insists on shovelling on without any notification or choice as to when it might be convenient.
We celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary last night with a quiet night in, a nice curry and one or two drinks whilst watching something on the telly. It seems that anniversaries come around too quickly these days to want to make too big a deal of them, although we may well push the boat out a little for the tenth next year.
Planescape Torment by Rhys Hess (compiled by)
Planescape Torment by Rhys Hess (compiled by)My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Nameless One awakes on a mortuary slab in the city of Sigil, the nexus of all of the planes of existence. He does not know who he is or how he came to be there, only that he can not die. His body is covered with strange scars and tatoos that may be a clue to his true identity and purpose.
This is something of an odd book to review. The author Rhyss Hess has taken the text from the computer role playing game 'Planescape : Torment' as written by Chris Avellone and Colin McComb, and added linking sections to combine it into a continuous narrative, with mixed results.
The game is widely regarded as a classic of the genre. It is certainly a long way from the traditional Dungeons and Dragons world, being set in a strange city that is riddled with portals to every part of the multiverse. Each portal has a key, that may be an object, a word or a memory and it is the task of the protagonist to explore this maze and find the clues that he has left himself to try to recover his memories.
If the setting is strange and baroque, that is nothing compared to characters that you meet. Morte the floating skull who still has an eye for the ladies, Ignus the burning man, a fallen angel and a mechanical creature from a plane of pure logic. The strangest of all is the Nameless One himself, and the reasons for his immortal, tormented existence.
If you have not played the game, then this book may be difficult to get into. There are sections where the gameplay imperative requires fetch quests and combat challenges that do not translate particularly well to a linear form. However, certain sequences really do stand out as masterful pieces of writing. The back stories of each of the Nameless One's companions, the stories in the Brothel of Slaking Intellectual Lusts, the maze of the night hag Ravel where the mystery starts to be resolved and the final section in the Fortress of Regret are all well worth reading.
If you haven't played the game, then you really should try to get hold of it, and read this book in conjunction with it. The narrative follows only one particular path through the game and there are other possibilities to explore.
View all my reviews >>
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
The Caves of Steel by Isaac AsimovMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Overpopulation forces the masses of humanity to huddle together in vast enclosed cities while the outer worlds maintain a token presence on Earth in the enclave of Space Town. The city dwellers view the spacers with suspicion, and some go further, harbouring medievalist sympathies that yearn for a simpler life, free from dependence on technology.
The final straw is the presence of the robots. The Earth robots are simple, menial creatures but still capable of taking over human jobs. Spacer robots are a different story - they are superior in almost every way and virtually indistinguishable from humans. If the presence of such a robot in the city became public knowledge it could provoke riots that would quickly disrupt the delicate network of systems that keep the city alive.
Such a crisis is threatened when a spacer robotics expert is found murdered, with a city dweller being the only possible suspect. Police officer Lije Baley is put on the case and assigned a spacer partner - a robot called R. Daneel Olivaw. Baley must overcome his personal antipathy and find a way for them to work together to find the murderer and crack the case before it escalates into a diplomatic incident with interplanetary ramifications.
I first read 'The Caves of Steel' thirty years ago, and it still feels as fresh and relevant now as it did then, and indeed as when it was first published in 1954. The issues of how technology affects our lives, with traditional jobs being subsumed and replaced, are even more pressing nowadays. The anti-robot sentiment also has uncomfortable echoes of racism and the current prejudice against economic migrants who are willing to work harder for less pay.
This book raises many questions about how different societies may function - the hallmark of classic science fiction - as well as being a tightly constructed murder mystery that maintains the tension right down to the wire.
View all my reviews >>
Haikusday
Battle lines drawn
Bogus definitions
Free speech on trial
We see an age of
Virtual revolution,
Digital dreams
Radio Broker
Gives way to Fusion FM
Sounds of Liberty
Millions of pounds
Spent on nothing more than a
Spoonful of sugar
Three 'I's and two 'E's
Followed by an 'A' and 'O'
Irritable vowels
Bug in code tracked down
Missing brackets cause problems
Boolean logic
Bogus definitions
Free speech on trial
We see an age of
Virtual revolution,
Digital dreams
Radio Broker
Gives way to Fusion FM
Sounds of Liberty
Millions of pounds
Spent on nothing more than a
Spoonful of sugar
Three 'I's and two 'E's
Followed by an 'A' and 'O'
Irritable vowels
Bug in code tracked down
Missing brackets cause problems
Boolean logic
- 22:20 According to @aleksk 's test I am a web hedgehog. Does this mean I will get run over on the information superhighway? bit.ly/at9ghI #
Monday, February 22, 2010
- 22:20 #ebz The Bazaar's conveniently located for Hell, and Hell's envoys keep stalls and warehouses here. Wh... fallenlondon.com/c/23496 #
- 22:20 #ebz The Bazaar's conveniently located for Hell, and Hell's envoys keep stalls and warehouses here. Wh... fallenlondon.com/c/23497 #
Season of Illusions
No more snow overnight, but the bits that remained had frozen solid, including large lump of ice on my car windscreen that required some concentrated chipping away with the scraper to remove. Frostbite is such a bracing way to start a Monday morning I find.
A slow commute this morning, for no particular reason other than that there was a bit of snow at the side of the road. It took most of the journey for my windscreen washers to defrost sufficiently to clear the accumulated grime too. Work was frustrating, with the image server containing all of our process maps being rather poorly. I really needed to do a bit of last minute testing on something before we send out the new release, but it looks like we'll just need to bite the bullet and go for it, and hotfix it later if needs be. Grumph.
I'm sort of in two minds about this season of Being Human (or B&Q man as it is now known in this house). It has taken seven episodes to bring all of the disparate narrative threads together with the requisite level of sturm und drang (and no small amount of gore, particularly in the scene on the train - yuck). All very dramatic, but I miss the cosy domesticity of the first season which was simply about the high concept of a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire sharing a house together and just, well, being human. Bombs and massacres and unlikely relationships and weird conspiracies and historical flashbacks sort of distract from that central conceit. Ah well, final episode next week.
D-day for the homeopathic lobby today, with a damning parliamentary report recommending that all NHS funding be withdrawn and the MHRA stop licensing arrangements. Apparently there are four homeopathic 'hospitals' dealing with around 50,000 patients, with the London one having had £20m spent in 2005 on 'refurbishments'. I reckon that means each hospital deals with just fifty patients in a day - no wonder they can give them such leisurely consultations. Given that the raw materials are nothing more than a bag of sugar and some water (and possibly a stray molecule of arsenic), one can only assume that the four million quid a year was being spent on pot plants and nice chairs for the consulting rooms with the rest being trousered by the homeopaths themselves. Lovely jubbly.
The most positive thing in the report though, is the emphasis on evidence and the use of proper randomised controlled trials with meta-reviews of different studies. Hopefully this will be seen as setting the benchmark for all alternative therapies, so that we can identify the ones that actually work and stop wasting money on the ones that do not.
Who could possibly disagree with that?
A slow commute this morning, for no particular reason other than that there was a bit of snow at the side of the road. It took most of the journey for my windscreen washers to defrost sufficiently to clear the accumulated grime too. Work was frustrating, with the image server containing all of our process maps being rather poorly. I really needed to do a bit of last minute testing on something before we send out the new release, but it looks like we'll just need to bite the bullet and go for it, and hotfix it later if needs be. Grumph.
I'm sort of in two minds about this season of Being Human (or B&Q man as it is now known in this house). It has taken seven episodes to bring all of the disparate narrative threads together with the requisite level of sturm und drang (and no small amount of gore, particularly in the scene on the train - yuck). All very dramatic, but I miss the cosy domesticity of the first season which was simply about the high concept of a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire sharing a house together and just, well, being human. Bombs and massacres and unlikely relationships and weird conspiracies and historical flashbacks sort of distract from that central conceit. Ah well, final episode next week.
D-day for the homeopathic lobby today, with a damning parliamentary report recommending that all NHS funding be withdrawn and the MHRA stop licensing arrangements. Apparently there are four homeopathic 'hospitals' dealing with around 50,000 patients, with the London one having had £20m spent in 2005 on 'refurbishments'. I reckon that means each hospital deals with just fifty patients in a day - no wonder they can give them such leisurely consultations. Given that the raw materials are nothing more than a bag of sugar and some water (and possibly a stray molecule of arsenic), one can only assume that the four million quid a year was being spent on pot plants and nice chairs for the consulting rooms with the rest being trousered by the homeopaths themselves. Lovely jubbly.
The most positive thing in the report though, is the emphasis on evidence and the use of proper randomised controlled trials with meta-reviews of different studies. Hopefully this will be seen as setting the benchmark for all alternative therapies, so that we can identify the ones that actually work and stop wasting money on the ones that do not.
Who could possibly disagree with that?
Sunday, February 21, 2010
- 08:04 Well that was unexpected - it's bucketing down with snow out there this morning. I want my blue skies back! #
White Light Generator
The skies were clear and frosty last night, so I was slightly surprised to look out of the window when I woke up this morning and saw it bucketing down with snow. Fortunately it eased off by mid-morning and the sun came out in time for our morning walk with the dog, and he happily snow-plowed his way across the field.
Last night's movie was 'Orphan' which concerned a couple adopting a rather odd child from a Russian orphanage, with hilarious consequences. Or not. The film was pitched as a horror flick, and the opening scenes with gruesome dreams, mysterious nuns and a frozen over pond put me very much in mind of Omen II and films of that ilk. Unfortunately after an intriguing setup the film tips its hand far too early turning into a rather risible thriller which is not even saved by a plot twist of genuine WTF proportions near the end. Not recommended.
In Words with Friends news, I had an extremely lucky break after a very cautious game of infilling, strategic play when I managed to clear all of my letters (including a V) with 'INDEVOUT'. I had 'devout' planned out first of all, but took a punt on including the 'in' and it was accepted - rah!
Last night's movie was 'Orphan' which concerned a couple adopting a rather odd child from a Russian orphanage, with hilarious consequences. Or not. The film was pitched as a horror flick, and the opening scenes with gruesome dreams, mysterious nuns and a frozen over pond put me very much in mind of Omen II and films of that ilk. Unfortunately after an intriguing setup the film tips its hand far too early turning into a rather risible thriller which is not even saved by a plot twist of genuine WTF proportions near the end. Not recommended.
In Words with Friends news, I had an extremely lucky break after a very cautious game of infilling, strategic play when I managed to clear all of my letters (including a V) with 'INDEVOUT'. I had 'devout' planned out first of all, but took a punt on including the 'in' and it was accepted - rah!
Sunday Links
- Berlin's Bashful Black Rhino Stays Close by Mom - ZooBorns
- Finding Ada Will you be blogging about your favourite female scientist on the 24th of March?
- When Space Opera Becomes Art
- Rocket launch blows away the sky Woah!
- I'd like it in Battleship Pink, please A slideshow on the surprising uses of the colour pink
- Nuit Blanche An extraordinary short film that uses slow motion to tell a story
- Ten rules for writing fiction From the Guardian ( More )
- Five Minutes With: Professor Brian Cox
- LEGO Robot Solves Any Rubik’s Cube
- A history of media technology scares from the printing press to Facebook
- "Doctor In Distress" The Worst Charity Single Of All Time and Space?
- The Last Lovecraft Ooooh - this looks like it could be fun.
- Play CycloManiacs
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Always the Sun
I could get used to this sunshine - blue skies and air as crisp as a stick of fresh celery. Lovely.
OU work today was putting the final spit and polish on my T175 TMA and submishing it off, along with the CMA which I actually did on paper a while ago. I always find filling in the multiple choice doo-dahs a bit stressful, as I'm convinced I will tick the wrong things or put the correct answers against the wrong questions or something. Still, it's done and sent off into the ether, so it's just a case of waiting for the results.
I've got back into playing Words with Friends on the iPhone recently (waves at BlackVelvet73). It's just the right pace for a game for me, and being portable means that I can check my moves if I happen to be walking round, say, PC World, hypothetically speaking. As I was this afternoon. I'm not obsessed and anyone who says I am is lying.
Anyone else out there with an iPhone/iTouch fancy a game?
OU work today was putting the final spit and polish on my T175 TMA and submishing it off, along with the CMA which I actually did on paper a while ago. I always find filling in the multiple choice doo-dahs a bit stressful, as I'm convinced I will tick the wrong things or put the correct answers against the wrong questions or something. Still, it's done and sent off into the ether, so it's just a case of waiting for the results.
I've got back into playing Words with Friends on the iPhone recently (waves at BlackVelvet73). It's just the right pace for a game for me, and being portable means that I can check my moves if I happen to be walking round, say, PC World, hypothetically speaking. As I was this afternoon. I'm not obsessed and anyone who says I am is lying.
Anyone else out there with an iPhone/iTouch fancy a game?
- 20:05 It's mojit-o'clock! twitpic.com/1462k6 #
- 10:49 Enjoying the #caturday sunshine twitpic.com/14at82 #
- 13:30 Five minutes with @ProfBrianCox - Particle physics & the big bang - well worth a watch! news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8522608.stm #
Friday, February 19, 2010
TDIF! *
Cold but brilliantly sunny, with a sprinkle of snow of the ground. Lovely - this is just the weather that I like at this time of year.
Slept in till half past seven this morning, albeit with some slightly strange dreams about playing Tunnels and Trolls in a flat that was having its windows dried with a giant hot air blower mounted on a double decker bus that sped off round the corner when I tried to take a picture of it on my iPhone. Or something.
In games news, I finally reached the end of my ambition quest in Echo Bazaar, and a fine tale it was too, concerning a fading music-hall singer, a conspiracy of clay men and the largest gem of the 'neath. This really is a most entertaining game and I commend it to you all.
Not a great deal to say tonight - we've just got in from the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is Asda on a Friday night, but I've got Captain Morgan's rum, fresh lime and mint so a Mojito is a very real possibility in the next couple of minutes, I suspect ... cheers!
*Thank Darwin it's Friday!
Slept in till half past seven this morning, albeit with some slightly strange dreams about playing Tunnels and Trolls in a flat that was having its windows dried with a giant hot air blower mounted on a double decker bus that sped off round the corner when I tried to take a picture of it on my iPhone. Or something.
In games news, I finally reached the end of my ambition quest in Echo Bazaar, and a fine tale it was too, concerning a fading music-hall singer, a conspiracy of clay men and the largest gem of the 'neath. This really is a most entertaining game and I commend it to you all.
Not a great deal to say tonight - we've just got in from the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is Asda on a Friday night, but I've got Captain Morgan's rum, fresh lime and mint so a Mojito is a very real possibility in the next couple of minutes, I suspect ... cheers!
*Thank Darwin it's Friday!
- 16:35 You've reached the end of this Ambition episode! More very soon. Feel free to mail us at eb@failb... fallenlondon.com/c/22600 #
Thursday, February 18, 2010
A Time to Hear (Who's Listening?)
Weather - grey. Again.
Work has been too many meetings about meetings about prioritising work rather than actually doing any work, which is both tedious and unproductive. Work at home tomorrow though, so at least I might be able to get something useful done.
The judgement is in on the odious Jan Moir article and in the proverbial nutshell the PCC is not taking any action. Jan Moir has a perfect right to write whatever she pleases (or more precisely what the editor of the Daily Mail judges to be in tune with what readers of the paper that says 'Hurrah for the Blackshirts!' like to read). We, the public, do not have any right not to be offended by her views, but we do have an perfect right to express our opinion about those views. We also have an expectation of factual accuracy in what is reported and a speedy correction in the case of something being wrong. In this case, Moir implied that Gately's death was not natural when the coroner had clearly stated that it was due to natural causes.
This also links in with libel reform. We should have an absolutely free press. If something is written or broadcast that is untrue or inaccurate then an ombudsman should be available to ensure that it is corrected quickly and with the same prominence as the original piece. If something has caused quantifiable damage to someone's reputation or business, then a fast track libel process should be available to make appropriate recompense in a reasonable timespan and at minimal legal cost. If all that is required is an apology and a retraction, then that should happen in weeks rather than years as is currently the case.
The BBC is in a different position though. They are expected to be neutral and unbiased, whereas newspapers can stick to one political viewpoint. I would say that the BBC should be able to broadcast a wide range of opinions and material, including comedy that it potentially offensive, with broad balance across the whole network rather than in just one programme.
Work has been too many meetings about meetings about prioritising work rather than actually doing any work, which is both tedious and unproductive. Work at home tomorrow though, so at least I might be able to get something useful done.
The judgement is in on the odious Jan Moir article and in the proverbial nutshell the PCC is not taking any action. Jan Moir has a perfect right to write whatever she pleases (or more precisely what the editor of the Daily Mail judges to be in tune with what readers of the paper that says 'Hurrah for the Blackshirts!' like to read). We, the public, do not have any right not to be offended by her views, but we do have an perfect right to express our opinion about those views. We also have an expectation of factual accuracy in what is reported and a speedy correction in the case of something being wrong. In this case, Moir implied that Gately's death was not natural when the coroner had clearly stated that it was due to natural causes.
This also links in with libel reform. We should have an absolutely free press. If something is written or broadcast that is untrue or inaccurate then an ombudsman should be available to ensure that it is corrected quickly and with the same prominence as the original piece. If something has caused quantifiable damage to someone's reputation or business, then a fast track libel process should be available to make appropriate recompense in a reasonable timespan and at minimal legal cost. If all that is required is an apology and a retraction, then that should happen in weeks rather than years as is currently the case.
The BBC is in a different position though. They are expected to be neutral and unbiased, whereas newspapers can stick to one political viewpoint. I would say that the BBC should be able to broadcast a wide range of opinions and material, including comedy that it potentially offensive, with broad balance across the whole network rather than in just one programme.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Revolution
Frosty and foggy this morning, or froggy if you prefer, and it persisted through most of the day too, hiding the tops of the tall office buildings nearby.
I enjoyed the Festivale games in Animal Crossing, although I only managed to collect four items of Pave furniture including two clocks and two closets which was not tremendously helpful. It seems a tough challenge to collect enough candy from the games of the right colours to get a complete set. You can't even put the candy down anywhere without it getting covered with ants too. Hmmm.
On the telly, we've been enjoying two excellent documentary series. How Earth Made Us looks at the way natural phenomena have shaped civilisations that have developed to take advantage of things like metals found near geological fault lines or trade winds that open up oceans for navigation. Educational and certainly full of the wow gosh factor at things like the crystal cave.
The other one is Dr Aleks Krotoski's 'Virtual Revolution' about the growth of the web from the very earliest days of ARPANET up to the present day, looking at things like social networks, privacy, copyright and the web as a force for social change (both positive and negative). This fits perfectly with the stuff that I am studying at the moment, and in fact the series is a joint production with the OU and the BBC. This really is what a public service broadcaster is for, and well worth the licence fee.
I enjoyed the Festivale games in Animal Crossing, although I only managed to collect four items of Pave furniture including two clocks and two closets which was not tremendously helpful. It seems a tough challenge to collect enough candy from the games of the right colours to get a complete set. You can't even put the candy down anywhere without it getting covered with ants too. Hmmm.
On the telly, we've been enjoying two excellent documentary series. How Earth Made Us looks at the way natural phenomena have shaped civilisations that have developed to take advantage of things like metals found near geological fault lines or trade winds that open up oceans for navigation. Educational and certainly full of the wow gosh factor at things like the crystal cave.
The other one is Dr Aleks Krotoski's 'Virtual Revolution' about the growth of the web from the very earliest days of ARPANET up to the present day, looking at things like social networks, privacy, copyright and the web as a force for social change (both positive and negative). This fits perfectly with the stuff that I am studying at the moment, and in fact the series is a joint production with the OU and the BBC. This really is what a public service broadcaster is for, and well worth the licence fee.
- 18:39 #ebz You may have heard that milliners tend towards insanity. The hat makers of the Neath are the madd... fallenlondon.com/c/21237 #
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Haikusday
Christopher Hitchens
Trenchant views expressed with wit
Freethought Radio
Starveling cats wage war
Running battles in the hall
Until they are fed
Dilettante poets
Compose scandalous verses
In Fallen London
The Children of Men
Great cinematography
Does not hide plot holes
Confetti showers
Gambling for rare candy treats
It's Festivalé time!
Which box holds the prize?
Simple guesswork vested with
Cosmic importance
Ducci's number game
An ancient puzzle solved by
Elegant coding
Trenchant views expressed with wit
Freethought Radio
Starveling cats wage war
Running battles in the hall
Until they are fed
Dilettante poets
Compose scandalous verses
In Fallen London
The Children of Men
Great cinematography
Does not hide plot holes
Confetti showers
Gambling for rare candy treats
It's Festivalé time!
Which box holds the prize?
Simple guesswork vested with
Cosmic importance
Ducci's number game
An ancient puzzle solved by
Elegant coding
Monday, February 15, 2010
Streets of London
Cold, drizzly and foggy again. Can we just fast forward to spring and get the winter over with, please?
Strange dreams again, although that may be partly due to my current obsession with Echo Bazaar where my ambition to track down the greatest treasures of Fallen London has led me down the route of deliberately triggering my own insanity in order to find a piece of the puzzle. Good, if rather strange, fun.
A bit of irritation at work where a project manager sent our internal list of issues and estimated development times out to a client on Friday evening without checking with us first. To compound the problem, she was off on holiday today as well. The development times do not include any time for QA testing or consultancy, which will give a rather misleading estimate of how quickly we will be able to get things done.
Jan and I have been pondering the idea of magical thinking recently, and we were discussing following the homeopathy demo the other week. It seems that humans (and other animals too) have a propensity for developing patterns of behaviour and then ascribing an outcome to how well the pattern was followed. In some ways, this is a good survival trait - if you always plant your crops when the sun rises in a particular place in the sky then they will do better than planting them at any other time of year. However, when you start adding bits on with no idea of whether they are having an effect then it is but a short leap to thinking that using the right invocation to a particular god or sacrificing the occasional virgin is what makes the wheat grow, rather than the plain old hard work of tilling the fields.
This could explain why people seem to think that seeing a man in a white coat preparing a potion by diluting something in water and banging it on a mat of horse hair is replicating the actual work of identifying an active ingredient, testing it and carefully noting the results until you find something that works reliably. In the words of Paul Daniels, now *that's* magic.
If somebody has a belief (no matter how 'deeply held' it may be), then why shouldn't it be held up to the same scrutiny and testing that has gone into the bottle of aspirin on the shelf that you reach for when you have a headache? Where is the benefit in just accepting things on faith rather than questioning them, and why does this make people so uncomfortable?
Strange dreams again, although that may be partly due to my current obsession with Echo Bazaar where my ambition to track down the greatest treasures of Fallen London has led me down the route of deliberately triggering my own insanity in order to find a piece of the puzzle. Good, if rather strange, fun.
A bit of irritation at work where a project manager sent our internal list of issues and estimated development times out to a client on Friday evening without checking with us first. To compound the problem, she was off on holiday today as well. The development times do not include any time for QA testing or consultancy, which will give a rather misleading estimate of how quickly we will be able to get things done.
Jan and I have been pondering the idea of magical thinking recently, and we were discussing following the homeopathy demo the other week. It seems that humans (and other animals too) have a propensity for developing patterns of behaviour and then ascribing an outcome to how well the pattern was followed. In some ways, this is a good survival trait - if you always plant your crops when the sun rises in a particular place in the sky then they will do better than planting them at any other time of year. However, when you start adding bits on with no idea of whether they are having an effect then it is but a short leap to thinking that using the right invocation to a particular god or sacrificing the occasional virgin is what makes the wheat grow, rather than the plain old hard work of tilling the fields.
This could explain why people seem to think that seeing a man in a white coat preparing a potion by diluting something in water and banging it on a mat of horse hair is replicating the actual work of identifying an active ingredient, testing it and carefully noting the results until you find something that works reliably. In the words of Paul Daniels, now *that's* magic.
If somebody has a belief (no matter how 'deeply held' it may be), then why shouldn't it be held up to the same scrutiny and testing that has gone into the bottle of aspirin on the shelf that you reach for when you have a headache? Where is the benefit in just accepting things on faith rather than questioning them, and why does this make people so uncomfortable?
- 20:20 #ebz Should any of my fellow inhabitants of Fallen London wish to unburden themselves of their nightmares, then I am, as they say, all ears #
Sunday, February 14, 2010
- 08:12 Lovely blue skies out there this morning - hurrah! #
- 14:57 #ebz They built the Fifth City's prison in a stalactite the size of a fair-sized village. Food and pri... fallenlondon.com/c/20252 #
Them Bones
Happy St Skeletor's day one and all!
I have to confess that even after saying I wasn't going to celebrate it in any way, I did get one Valentine's card today, from Winnie the horse in Animal Crossing which was nice. None of the other villagers sent me anything though, so the hate campaign to get them all to leave starts here.
Lovely sunny day this morning, making the walk in the woods particularly pleasant. This was followed by the usual Sunday brunch of crumpets and mushrooms which is becoming a regular treat now that we have cut back on eating meat. I can recommend it as a good alternative to a greasy fry-up.
One M150 question dusted this afternoon, leaving just one more to go, although the final one looks like a tricky bit of recursive coding to get my head around. I'll get it done this week though, I think.
Games wise, just the usual Sunday routine of Animal Crossing and quite a lot of Echo Bazaar which is fun but a touch on the slow side at the moment.
I have to confess that even after saying I wasn't going to celebrate it in any way, I did get one Valentine's card today, from Winnie the horse in Animal Crossing which was nice. None of the other villagers sent me anything though, so the hate campaign to get them all to leave starts here.
Lovely sunny day this morning, making the walk in the woods particularly pleasant. This was followed by the usual Sunday brunch of crumpets and mushrooms which is becoming a regular treat now that we have cut back on eating meat. I can recommend it as a good alternative to a greasy fry-up.
One M150 question dusted this afternoon, leaving just one more to go, although the final one looks like a tricky bit of recursive coding to get my head around. I'll get it done this week though, I think.
Games wise, just the usual Sunday routine of Animal Crossing and quite a lot of Echo Bazaar which is fun but a touch on the slow side at the moment.
Sunday Links
- Your Saturday Squeeze - ZooBorns A nice hug for Valentine's day
- Doctor Who's Concept Art The new Cybermen look set to send a whole new generation scurrying behind the sofa on a Saturday teatime
- What If Doctor Who Had Beaten Buffy To Doing A Musical Episode?
- Torchwood Exclusive web comic
- How many ways can you bow in Japan?
- Deep zoom into Mandelbrot set Watch the hi-res video and remember that you are zooming into something that is far bigger than the universe at a speed faster than light. Isn't maths amazing?
- Video of gadget that shoots down mosquitoes with lasers Next they'll be fitting sharks with frickin lasers ...
- Premium Gramophone Do want!
- Long walk to freedom Was it really twenty years ago?
- Battleship Island Eerie photos of an abandoned Japanese island
- Relaxing sounds Make your own ambient music
- What happened in my birth year? Does what it says on the tin
- Animated kaleidoscope
- One Button Bob Video game control systems at their very simplest
- Glitch Now, this looks intriguing. A massively multiplayer persistant world puzzle game - sign me up now!
Saturday, February 13, 2010
This is obviously some strange definition of the word 'Education'
Answers in Genesis (those well known Christian wackaloons who think that the Earth is 6000 years old and that dinosaurs had saddles) have a iPhone app out. Unfortunately it has been classed as being 'education'. You might like to download it and post a review to set the record straight ...
Sure got cold after the rain fell
Another grey day, chilly and with rain setting in as the dusk fell (perfectly timed for dog walking time). At least I now have my main Lumie light again which has really does turn my study into the equivalent of a bright sunny day.
I've finished my T175 TMA apart from the section where I need to include feedback from other members of the tutor group about my learning objectives. Bit tricky when there's only me and one other person who have posted on the tutorial in the last two weeks. I also got a question done for my next M150 TMA too. It was all about spotting bugs in bits of Javascript which is fiddly, but not over tricky. The two remaining questions should be fun though, and I'll have a go at them tomorrow.
In games news, I noticed that Mr Driller was on sale in the app store for Valentine's day. As Jan pointed out, it's a bit of an odd gift for your sweetheart, really.
Roses are red,
violets are blue,
my top score is 214315,
how about you?
Still, it's a classic game and worth a punt. It's not quite as easy to control with the touch screen but it does the job. I still think that Mr Driller 2 on the GBA is the definitive version, but this is pretty decent for the money and you can't beat the combination of strategic puzzling and quick thinking manoeuvrings.
I've finished my T175 TMA apart from the section where I need to include feedback from other members of the tutor group about my learning objectives. Bit tricky when there's only me and one other person who have posted on the tutorial in the last two weeks. I also got a question done for my next M150 TMA too. It was all about spotting bugs in bits of Javascript which is fiddly, but not over tricky. The two remaining questions should be fun though, and I'll have a go at them tomorrow.
In games news, I noticed that Mr Driller was on sale in the app store for Valentine's day. As Jan pointed out, it's a bit of an odd gift for your sweetheart, really.
Roses are red,
violets are blue,
my top score is 214315,
how about you?
Still, it's a classic game and worth a punt. It's not quite as easy to control with the touch screen but it does the job. I still think that Mr Driller 2 on the GBA is the definitive version, but this is pretty decent for the money and you can't beat the combination of strategic puzzling and quick thinking manoeuvrings.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Chime
Weather - chilly, work - busy, sleep - pretty good, for once.
OK, let's cut to the chase. I bought a game today. Four hundred MS points on the nail, or just over three squids in earth money, and an fairly hefty download netted me Chime, and wow - it could have been written for me. In a nutshell it involves fitting shapes together to form contiguous blocks against the clock. The bigger the block, the higher the score, and there are bonus points for filling in the grid as you go. So far, so tetris-a-like.
No, the real draw to this game is the music. There are five pieces from Phillip Glass, Paul Hartnoll (Orbital), Moby, Markus Schulze and Fred Deakin (Lemon Jelly). As the grid is built up, so are layers of each track are also added building into a unique and hypnotic experience. The graphical presentation is minimalist, but perfectly suited to the game play.
After a just a few plays this has already displaced Rez in mah favourite xbox arcade game. Actually, showing the game play trailer is easier than explaining it :
Go and buy it now. Trust me on this one.
PS Happy Darwin Day!
OK, let's cut to the chase. I bought a game today. Four hundred MS points on the nail, or just over three squids in earth money, and an fairly hefty download netted me Chime, and wow - it could have been written for me. In a nutshell it involves fitting shapes together to form contiguous blocks against the clock. The bigger the block, the higher the score, and there are bonus points for filling in the grid as you go. So far, so tetris-a-like.
No, the real draw to this game is the music. There are five pieces from Phillip Glass, Paul Hartnoll (Orbital), Moby, Markus Schulze and Fred Deakin (Lemon Jelly). As the grid is built up, so are layers of each track are also added building into a unique and hypnotic experience. The graphical presentation is minimalist, but perfectly suited to the game play.
After a just a few plays this has already displaced Rez in mah favourite xbox arcade game. Actually, showing the game play trailer is easier than explaining it :
Go and buy it now. Trust me on this one.
PS Happy Darwin Day!
- 11:58 #ebz In December, enterprising urchins sell bags of snow in Big King Square, even as the stuff lies in... fallenlondon.com/c/19249 #
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Reach for the sky
Another cold, but brilliantly clear, morning with a dusting of snow for added crispness. Lovely.
An oddly disturbed night last night though, with strange dreams of an evil looking Gordon Brown wielding a cutlass (badly) and an interlude where I woke up convinced that one or more of the cats had snucked into the bedroom and were either on top of the wardrobe or on the chair in the corner. Perhaps I have been spending too much time brooding about the mystery of the Starveling Cat in Echo Bazaar? Either that, or it was the section on 'Zoo Vet At Large' from off of Sky 3 that we watched whilst eating tea last night where our eponymous hero was rescuing a colony of feral (but very cute) kittehs from a derelict house, in between stunning a polar bear and re-hoofing a zebra.
The Starveling Cat!
The Starveling Cat!
Beats up mowsies with a baseball bat!
We finally finished the box set of 'Time Gentlemen Please' last night, leaving me feeling oddly bereft. It really is one of the great unsung British sitcoms of recent years and at 37 episodes is one of the more prolific as well. I think it was Richard Herring's attempt to write a US style sitcom, with the subtle difference being that they normally have large teams of writers working on them, rather than just one or two. No wonder it nearly sent him round the twist. Highly recommended, particularly if you can pick up the box set cheaply, or if not then it is probably on YouTube somewhere.
I know I've mentioned this before in various places, but if you haven't done so already could I please ask you to sign the petition at libelreform.org and leave me a note if you do - I'd like to get at least ten of you to sign up, if at all possible. For internet petitions to have any sort of effect they need to have both high profile signatories and also a respectable number of the general public behind them, and in the words of Mr Tesco, every little helps. This really is an issue that affects us all - if journalists, bloggers and scientists are discouraged from speaking out
on issues of public health or public interest then we are all potentially at risk from unscrupulous corporations, charlatans and mountebanks.
An oddly disturbed night last night though, with strange dreams of an evil looking Gordon Brown wielding a cutlass (badly) and an interlude where I woke up convinced that one or more of the cats had snucked into the bedroom and were either on top of the wardrobe or on the chair in the corner. Perhaps I have been spending too much time brooding about the mystery of the Starveling Cat in Echo Bazaar? Either that, or it was the section on 'Zoo Vet At Large' from off of Sky 3 that we watched whilst eating tea last night where our eponymous hero was rescuing a colony of feral (but very cute) kittehs from a derelict house, in between stunning a polar bear and re-hoofing a zebra.
The Starveling Cat!
The Starveling Cat!
Beats up mowsies with a baseball bat!
We finally finished the box set of 'Time Gentlemen Please' last night, leaving me feeling oddly bereft. It really is one of the great unsung British sitcoms of recent years and at 37 episodes is one of the more prolific as well. I think it was Richard Herring's attempt to write a US style sitcom, with the subtle difference being that they normally have large teams of writers working on them, rather than just one or two. No wonder it nearly sent him round the twist. Highly recommended, particularly if you can pick up the box set cheaply, or if not then it is probably on YouTube somewhere.
I know I've mentioned this before in various places, but if you haven't done so already could I please ask you to sign the petition at libelreform.org and leave me a note if you do - I'd like to get at least ten of you to sign up, if at all possible. For internet petitions to have any sort of effect they need to have both high profile signatories and also a respectable number of the general public behind them, and in the words of Mr Tesco, every little helps. This really is an issue that affects us all - if journalists, bloggers and scientists are discouraged from speaking out
on issues of public health or public interest then we are all potentially at risk from unscrupulous corporations, charlatans and mountebanks.
- 18:49 4 of 5 stars to Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett - goodreads.com/review/show/89057620 #
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett
Unseen Academicals by Terry PratchettMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Life is not easy for the ordinary people of Ankh Morpork - the kitchen maids and candle dribblers who work below stairs at the Unseen University. As long as you have a steady job and a roof over your head, it is foolish to dream of anything better. If you should happen to get ideas above your station, then you can be sure that somebody will drag you back down into the crab bucket.
Things are different in the Shove. A half day off, standing shoulder to shoulder in the rain with the promise of a hot pie if you are feeling flush (best not to ask what is in it) and if you are lucky you might even get a glimpse of the football.
Ah yes, the beautiful game, where a friendly match is one that doesn't involve edged weapons. Just make sure that you know who you are shouting for - the Dimmers of Dimwell Street or the Dollies of Dolly Sisters, bitter rivals for longer than anyone can remember. Not surprisingly this may prove a problem for Juliet the kitchen maid and Trevor the candle boy who happens to be from the wrong side of the street, even helped by the eminently sensible Glenda, who produces perfect ploughman's pies in the night kitchen. There is also the small matter of Mr Nutt, unfailing polite and well educated, and also the first goblin in Ankh Morpork - and everyone knows that the goblins are nothing more than common chicken thieves, don't they?
This is a very different sort of book from the early Discworld novels. Oh, there are occasional puns and sly allusions to footballing clichés (yes, we do get to find out who ate all the pies), but they are only a backdrop to a richer story. There is a lot of ground covered here - issues of class and community, prejudice against outsiders and the self imposed limits of the ordinary people who know their place and forsake the chance to dream. There are no world threatening villains or meddling deities, and even the political machinations of the Patrician Lord Vetinari go no further than taking football off the back streets and into the stadium. At the end of the day, it all comes down to a game of two halves, with the stakes being love and honour and decency and a sense of self worth.
One of the better Discworld novels of recent years, and I can recommend the unabridged audiobook version available from Audible.com, particularly for his interpretation of Pepe the dwarf - Discworld's answer to Gok Wan ... :-)
View all my reviews >>
Looking for Lewis and Clarke
It's lovely to be able to open the curtains in the morning and see the sun, and even better to leave the office in the evening and still have a bit of light to see me across the car park. Ok, so it's still chilly out there (five minutes of scraping to defrost the car this morning) but I can cope with that.
In a shock development, I ran out of podcasts this morning after listening to this week's Guardian Tech Weekly, and I haven't queued up a new audiobook yet, so I resorted to listening to music instead. My default playlist is my 'Not Heard Lately' list which is a smart selection of random tracks that I haven't heard lately (the clue is kind of in the name). Some real classics in there too - Dick Dale and the Del Tones, Monkey Swallows the Universe, The Wynona Ryders and John Coltrane popped up this morning. Aces.
In a shock development, I ran out of podcasts this morning after listening to this week's Guardian Tech Weekly, and I haven't queued up a new audiobook yet, so I resorted to listening to music instead. My default playlist is my 'Not Heard Lately' list which is a smart selection of random tracks that I haven't heard lately (the clue is kind of in the name). Some real classics in there too - Dick Dale and the Del Tones, Monkey Swallows the Universe, The Wynona Ryders and John Coltrane popped up this morning. Aces.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
- 21:48 Twas lovely to meet @incurablehippie and @threeleggedcat at @SheffieldSitP tonight! #
Simon Singh at Sheffield Skeptics - mini review
The monthly Sheffield Skeptics in the Pub meeting is rapidly turning into one of the best attended events in Sheffield. The back room at the Lescar last night was full to capacity, and then some, and it was clear that the bar staff were a bit unprepared for the sudden demand for large quantities of beer on a cold Monday night.
The speaker this time was Simon Singh, a scientist with a background in particle physics and cosmology (who famously once pedantically rewrote a verse of a Katie Melua song to be more scientifically accurate). His interest in alternative medicine was sparked four years ago when he saw a documentary about acupuncture on BBC2 which opened with an amazing scene of a woman having open heart surgery whilst fully conscious, supposedly with only needles for pain relief. On further investigation it became clear that the woman had also had three very strong sedatives and a local anesthetic, and the effect of the acupuncture was merely cosmetic.
He began to look at the evidence for different fields of alternative medicine, comparing studies and meta-analyses to see if there was anything in it, and wrote a book in conjunction with Professor Edzard Ernst called Trick or Treatment. He made it clear that he was not dogmatically against any form of alternative medicine, and that there are some studies where things like St John's Wort have been shown to have a mild anti-depressant effect. He also urged caution because there are also possible side-effects and interactions with other medicines, with St John's Wort affecting liver functions. To quote Tim Minchin, alternative medicine that works is called medicine and should be used with the same caveats as any other medicine.
He then moved on to the subject of chiropractic, which landed him with a libel suit when he wrote an article about in the Guardian two years ago. Chiropractic is founded on the belief that all ailments are due to misalignments (called 'subluxations') of the spine that interrupt energy flows to different parts of the body, and can therefore be cured by manipulating the corresponding vertebrae. While there is some evidence that manipulations can help with lower back pain there is no evidence that it can treat any other illness, and manipulation of the upper spine can be potentially very dangerous leading to strokes in some cases. Some chiropractors have claimed that it can cure things like childhood asthma and colic in babies, and it was these claims that Singh called 'bogus' in his piece.
The British Chiropractic Association launched their libel case based on a narrow legal interpretation of the meaning of the word 'bogus' and promised to produce a 'plethora of evidence' in support of their claims. After a lengthy period of prevarication they produced just 18 studies, which were, in the words of the British Medical Journal, 'demolished' by Ernst's review of them. The legal case continues with a new ruling due shortly.
The problem with the libel laws as they stand is that it is prohibitively expensive to defend a case - apparently it costs between 70 and 140 times more than anywhere else in Europe. If you lose a case then you will almost certainly be bankrupted, and even if you win, you can still be out of pocket by tens of thousands of pounds. This means that only wealthy individuals and corporations can ever afford to use the libel laws, and the advice generally given to those accused is settle out of court as quickly as possible regardless of the rights and wrongs of the case. Perversely, the libel laws put the burden of proof on the defendant, and the accuser does not have to quantify the actual value of damages caused. This can lead to absurd cases where somebody can be award millions of pounds of damages for an injured reputation where the victim of a violent assault may only receive a few thousand in compensation. The net result is that London has become a centre for 'libel tourism' where global corporations and individuals will bring cases, and this has a 'chilling' effect on publishers and institutions that are deterred from publishing anything that may potentially be the subject of an action.
Simon Singh bravely chose to defend the case and believes that he has a good chance of winning. As a successful author he is lucky enough to have resources to fall back on, unlike other cases he mentioned where people are facing financial ruin. Hopefully this case will highlight the need for urgent reform and there are signs of this happening, although pressure needs to maintained on politicians, particularly with an election in the offing.
After the main talk, there was a brief interval and then a very lively question and answer session, including a discussion with a somewhat aggrieved chiropractor in the audience. Unfortunately he didn't say whether he had any evidence that chiropractic was effective, but he was upset about what he saw as an attack on his profession. Singh pointed out that the BCA have really brought this trouble on their own heads by pursuing the case when they had been offered a 'right of reply' in the Guardian newspaper where they could have presented their evidence and concluded the matter.
He was also asked about the cost of staging trials of alternative therapies and pointed out that there is a lot of money being spent on such things so the professional bodies should be able to afford it. It also seems that money has been spent on flawed studies that do not include proper controls and double blind randomised elements. He mentioned a case of a German company that has tested and produced an effective treatment for some heart problems based on hawthorn, and has been very successful doing so. Perhaps some therapists avoid trials because they fear their treatments will be shown to be ineffective?
The final question covered how Singh is coping personally with the stress of the libel case, and it seems he is holding up fine particularly when he gets so much positive support from public meetings and groups like Skeptics in the Pub.
Very heartening to hear.
The speaker this time was Simon Singh, a scientist with a background in particle physics and cosmology (who famously once pedantically rewrote a verse of a Katie Melua song to be more scientifically accurate). His interest in alternative medicine was sparked four years ago when he saw a documentary about acupuncture on BBC2 which opened with an amazing scene of a woman having open heart surgery whilst fully conscious, supposedly with only needles for pain relief. On further investigation it became clear that the woman had also had three very strong sedatives and a local anesthetic, and the effect of the acupuncture was merely cosmetic.
He began to look at the evidence for different fields of alternative medicine, comparing studies and meta-analyses to see if there was anything in it, and wrote a book in conjunction with Professor Edzard Ernst called Trick or Treatment. He made it clear that he was not dogmatically against any form of alternative medicine, and that there are some studies where things like St John's Wort have been shown to have a mild anti-depressant effect. He also urged caution because there are also possible side-effects and interactions with other medicines, with St John's Wort affecting liver functions. To quote Tim Minchin, alternative medicine that works is called medicine and should be used with the same caveats as any other medicine.
He then moved on to the subject of chiropractic, which landed him with a libel suit when he wrote an article about in the Guardian two years ago. Chiropractic is founded on the belief that all ailments are due to misalignments (called 'subluxations') of the spine that interrupt energy flows to different parts of the body, and can therefore be cured by manipulating the corresponding vertebrae. While there is some evidence that manipulations can help with lower back pain there is no evidence that it can treat any other illness, and manipulation of the upper spine can be potentially very dangerous leading to strokes in some cases. Some chiropractors have claimed that it can cure things like childhood asthma and colic in babies, and it was these claims that Singh called 'bogus' in his piece.
The British Chiropractic Association launched their libel case based on a narrow legal interpretation of the meaning of the word 'bogus' and promised to produce a 'plethora of evidence' in support of their claims. After a lengthy period of prevarication they produced just 18 studies, which were, in the words of the British Medical Journal, 'demolished' by Ernst's review of them. The legal case continues with a new ruling due shortly.
The problem with the libel laws as they stand is that it is prohibitively expensive to defend a case - apparently it costs between 70 and 140 times more than anywhere else in Europe. If you lose a case then you will almost certainly be bankrupted, and even if you win, you can still be out of pocket by tens of thousands of pounds. This means that only wealthy individuals and corporations can ever afford to use the libel laws, and the advice generally given to those accused is settle out of court as quickly as possible regardless of the rights and wrongs of the case. Perversely, the libel laws put the burden of proof on the defendant, and the accuser does not have to quantify the actual value of damages caused. This can lead to absurd cases where somebody can be award millions of pounds of damages for an injured reputation where the victim of a violent assault may only receive a few thousand in compensation. The net result is that London has become a centre for 'libel tourism' where global corporations and individuals will bring cases, and this has a 'chilling' effect on publishers and institutions that are deterred from publishing anything that may potentially be the subject of an action.
Simon Singh bravely chose to defend the case and believes that he has a good chance of winning. As a successful author he is lucky enough to have resources to fall back on, unlike other cases he mentioned where people are facing financial ruin. Hopefully this case will highlight the need for urgent reform and there are signs of this happening, although pressure needs to maintained on politicians, particularly with an election in the offing.
After the main talk, there was a brief interval and then a very lively question and answer session, including a discussion with a somewhat aggrieved chiropractor in the audience. Unfortunately he didn't say whether he had any evidence that chiropractic was effective, but he was upset about what he saw as an attack on his profession. Singh pointed out that the BCA have really brought this trouble on their own heads by pursuing the case when they had been offered a 'right of reply' in the Guardian newspaper where they could have presented their evidence and concluded the matter.
He was also asked about the cost of staging trials of alternative therapies and pointed out that there is a lot of money being spent on such things so the professional bodies should be able to afford it. It also seems that money has been spent on flawed studies that do not include proper controls and double blind randomised elements. He mentioned a case of a German company that has tested and produced an effective treatment for some heart problems based on hawthorn, and has been very successful doing so. Perhaps some therapists avoid trials because they fear their treatments will be shown to be ineffective?
The final question covered how Singh is coping personally with the stress of the libel case, and it seems he is holding up fine particularly when he gets so much positive support from public meetings and groups like Skeptics in the Pub.
Very heartening to hear.
Haikusday
Cold night. Crowded pub
A natural habitat
For skeptical folk
We hear tales of an
Author sued by spine crackers
Shows he has backbone
Two pints of Landlord
Blogging friends met at long last
Kebab on way home
Another morning
Winter chill starting to fade
Ice melts on windscreen
Chilli cheese sarnies
How did I not know of these
Tasty lunchtime treats?
Brilliant blue skies
Setting sun reflected by
Silver office windows
A natural habitat
For skeptical folk
We hear tales of an
Author sued by spine crackers
Shows he has backbone
Two pints of Landlord
Blogging friends met at long last
Kebab on way home
Another morning
Winter chill starting to fade
Ice melts on windscreen
Chilli cheese sarnies
How did I not know of these
Tasty lunchtime treats?
Brilliant blue skies
Setting sun reflected by
Silver office windows
Podcasts
Punk badmouths a cop
Grandma clips him round the ear
Street story. Respect.
Prison guard learns
That despite the lies, sometimes
They are innocent
Collins and Herring
No swearing allowed on this
Six music podcast
Grandma clips him round the ear
Street story. Respect.
Prison guard learns
That despite the lies, sometimes
They are innocent
Collins and Herring
No swearing allowed on this
Six music podcast
Monday, February 08, 2010
Bad Medicine
So, the threatened snow turned out to nothing more than a half hearted dusting with a few desultory flakes. I know that I should stop paying attention to the five day forecast as it invariably changes by the time that the fifth day in the future rolls around, but you might expect the forecast for the next twenty four hours to be reasonably accurate. Still flipping cold though, and grey and overcast with it.
A bit of a disturbed night last night with strange melancholy dreams, including one that I think would make an interesting short story about time loops and altered mental states, if I can think of a way to structure it that doesn't turn it into something like Quantum Leap. I have a title for it though, "Getting Straight" which I shall record for posterity. Aching bones again this morning too, although last week's threatened bug seems to have retreated.
Some interesting twists on Being Human last night, although it still seems to be three different stories that are only tangentially related, with the vampire Mitchell's easily being the most interesting, with a ninety year back story to explore. I'll stick with it though, which makes it the only current drama that I am following at the moment. Time Gentlemen Please continues to be excellent fun, although we are on the last disc of that, and then we have the Peter Serafinowicz DVD which seems to have been purchased by just about everybody on Twitter.
Sheffield Skeptics at the Pub was another excellent night of thought provoking stuff, with Simon Singh talking about the evidence for and against alt-medicine and making a very strong case for libel reform. Even better I got to meet both Three Legged Cat and Incurable Hippie in person for the first time which was aces!
A bit of a disturbed night last night with strange melancholy dreams, including one that I think would make an interesting short story about time loops and altered mental states, if I can think of a way to structure it that doesn't turn it into something like Quantum Leap. I have a title for it though, "Getting Straight" which I shall record for posterity. Aching bones again this morning too, although last week's threatened bug seems to have retreated.
Some interesting twists on Being Human last night, although it still seems to be three different stories that are only tangentially related, with the vampire Mitchell's easily being the most interesting, with a ninety year back story to explore. I'll stick with it though, which makes it the only current drama that I am following at the moment. Time Gentlemen Please continues to be excellent fun, although we are on the last disc of that, and then we have the Peter Serafinowicz DVD which seems to have been purchased by just about everybody on Twitter.
Sheffield Skeptics at the Pub was another excellent night of thought provoking stuff, with Simon Singh talking about the evidence for and against alt-medicine and making a very strong case for libel reform. Even better I got to meet both Three Legged Cat and Incurable Hippie in person for the first time which was aces!
Sunday, February 07, 2010
- 18:43 #1stDraftBeatles I wanna hold your ham #
- 18:45 #1stDraftBeatles Twist and Shite #
- 18:52 #1stDraftBeatles Leonard is Rigsby #
- 19:10 #1stdraftbeatles While my catarrh gently seeps #
The Sun Always Shines on TV
Another miserable grey day, and according to the weather forecast we are due a full week of snow over the next five days. Oh joy.
Still, the now usual Sunday breakfast of mushrooms and hot, buttered crumpets set me up nicely for the day, and in a slight change of plan I decided to crack on with my TMA 03 for T175 instead of M150, as that is the one that is due first.
One question in particular grabbed my attention, which was to investigate the response of ISPs to the rapid growth in online streaming of TV programmes, with the BBCs iPlayer being the largest contributor. Apparently it now contributes to over 7% of total net traffic after its launch three years ago, and a substantial part of that demand is during prime time in the evenings when people are wanting to watch tv. Interesting stuff, and a real challenge for both ISPs and the infrastructure of the internet itself as people who have subscribed to 'unlimited' packages suddenly wonder why they are being limited when all they want to do is watch an old episode of EastEnders or something.
For thems that are interested, the excellent Simon Singh will be giving a talk at the Lescar tomorrow at 6:30pm about the evidence for and against alternative medicine. Should be very interesting - details at the Facebook page or at the usual website.
Still, the now usual Sunday breakfast of mushrooms and hot, buttered crumpets set me up nicely for the day, and in a slight change of plan I decided to crack on with my TMA 03 for T175 instead of M150, as that is the one that is due first.
One question in particular grabbed my attention, which was to investigate the response of ISPs to the rapid growth in online streaming of TV programmes, with the BBCs iPlayer being the largest contributor. Apparently it now contributes to over 7% of total net traffic after its launch three years ago, and a substantial part of that demand is during prime time in the evenings when people are wanting to watch tv. Interesting stuff, and a real challenge for both ISPs and the infrastructure of the internet itself as people who have subscribed to 'unlimited' packages suddenly wonder why they are being limited when all they want to do is watch an old episode of EastEnders or something.
For thems that are interested, the excellent Simon Singh will be giving a talk at the Lescar tomorrow at 6:30pm about the evidence for and against alternative medicine. Should be very interesting - details at the Facebook page or at the usual website.
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