Blogger Shepherd

Bristol Harbour

2012-01-07T01:41:00.001Z

I left The Watershed and saw

Posting from my iPhone

2012-01-01T17:51:00.000Z

I'm interested to see how well this works. I'm using Siri for the dictation so I guess things will turn out quite confused. I'm going to photograph something, attach it to the mail and then see how it looks on the blog. Guess what I got for Christmas.

Blue Aeroplanes 2011

2011-12-11T22:52:00.000Z

Another great night....

Them Heavy People

2011-11-17T21:20:00.001Z

and a new Kate Bush album.......

What a great gig

2011-11-05T10:20:00.001Z

I went to St Georges yesterday evening to see a performance of Tubular Bells by the Charles Hazelwood All Stars. It turned out to be cunning marketing. Yes, there was a performance of Tubular Bells, but it was preceded by three other pieces, Terry Riley's "A Rainbow in Curved Air", Steve Reich's "Four Organs", and "Harp Phase", an interpretation of Reich's "Piano Phase" played on harp. Despite an interest in avante garde music in my youth, I'd missed out on the minimalists, so these pieces were new to me.

The first piece performed was "A Rainbow in Curved Air". Absolutely stunning. A remarkable piece and an outstanding performance. The music was not unfamiliar; (I now know) the work has been so influential that there was no shock in hearing it. There was shock and awe in the performance though - the shock realisation that a piece like this, conceived of by one man in the studio, could be performed live by flesh-and-blood musicians, and the awesome skill and discipline of the musicians.

The second piece was "Four Organs". It seems this has a reputation as being "difficult"; it seemed just fine to me. Again a stunning live performance by musicians who really seemed to enjoy the challenge.

"Harp Phase" was interesting rather than moving. An experiment rather than a musical piece.

And then "Tubular Bells". It had been a long time since I'd listened to this and the performance made me realise why. Good in parts, very prog (in the worst sense of the word) in others. However, hearing the piece after the other three, put it into a context that I hadn't known about. And that the theme that runs through the piece is rather wonderful.

Mechanical Sympathy

2011-10-30T11:23:00.001Z

I like the term "mechanical sympathy"; it's up there with "technical debt". I came across it in an excellent article by Martin Fowler. He says:

"When pushing performance like this, it starts to become important to take account of the way modern hardware is constructed. The phrase Martin Thompson likes to use is "mechanical sympathy". The term comes from race car driving and it reflects the driver having an innate feel for the car, so they are able to feel how to get the best out of it. Many programmers, and I confess I fall into this camp, don't have much mechanical sympathy for how programming interacts with hardware. What's worse is that many programmers think they have mechanical sympathy, but it's built on notions of how hardware used to work that are now many years out of date."

After all these years....

2011-09-04T14:34:00.000+01:00

The Tender Trap at The Croft, Bristol, Friday 2nd September 2011.

I just loved Talulah Gosh. After all these years, I've finally gotten to see Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey perform live. Wow.

Hammond Multiplex

2011-08-21T17:32:00.000+01:00

Typewriters are fascinating devices and hold interest because they are fast disappearing as laser printer and inkjets take their place. This machine caught my eye in the Stellenbosch Village Museum, South Africa. I'd not seen a typewriter built like this before - it has the letters spread around a drum - I guessed to allow easy changing of typeface, as with an IBM Selectric golf-ball, or the Diablo Daisywheel. According to a page at the Virtual Typewriter Museum the Hammond Multiplex allowed you to switch between two fonts is a matter of seconds.

South Africa July 2011 - Animals

2011-08-14T12:15:00.000+01:00

So much to do, so little time....

2011-08-13T14:38:00.001+01:00

I'm going to get around to posting some thoughts about my recent holiday in South Africa but in the meantime here is a film about the rediscovery of a early British synthesiser.

Oramics from Nick Street on Vimeo.

Hypochondriac geeks

2011-06-26T10:22:00.001+01:00

One of Business Insider's iPhone apps of the week is a blood pressure monitor. I thought I'd see what else was available and, sure enough, Amazon have one:

The "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section throws light on the type of people who buys this type of expensive (£119) tech-gadget in preference to a cheaper one (£9.99). They are the type people who also buy Wifi Bathroom Scales (works with Linux!), Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Extended Edition on Blu-Ray, and Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate.

Shameless plug

2011-06-24T22:21:00.001+01:00

Support my local poet Trevor Parsons; his great new book of poems is available now. Get it before someone else does.

Bedside manners were extra in finishing school

2011-06-17T22:09:00.000+01:00

Rediscovery of the week. Yes, I admit it; I used to listen to prog.

Now that you know I'm not the kind to be kind to be cruel
Would you resist a small goodbye, but a kiss would be cool
Maybe you're too young to be fooled, I know
Bedside manners were extra at finishing school

Greenslade

Ashton Court MTB Trails

2011-06-14T21:43:00.000+01:00

I had a wonderful time in Ashton Court on Saturday riding around. There is a serious amount of trail creation going on - some which means that parts of the Timberland trail are closed off at the moment. There's some information on the Bristol Trails Group website but it doesn't prepare you for great experience of the new trail that has been completed. The Quarry loop has been transformed. There's very little that's technical - there's 50 Acre Wood for that - but the new trail is wonderfully fluid and swoopy. I'd never really found going up the old not-next-to-the-quarry leg very enjoyable - doing it the "wrong way" was better but still not great. The quarry leg was better - more interesting but not great. In summary, I was never very concerned if I did the Quarry loop or not - I'd happily escape to 50 Acre without a trip.

I did the new Quarry Loop four times on Saturday.

Quatre vingt dix neuf anneés de guerre

2011-04-29T23:12:00.001+01:00

It seems some people have been having an 80's fest today. My turn:

Actually, I prefer the German version - this one has English subtitles so you can study the difference in the lyrics:

There are lots of versions around; I like this Franco-German one:

And finally, a live version from 2002:

Is it the same keyboard player? I think so.

Programmers, pay and productivity

2011-04-26T22:59:00.000+01:00

Interesting blog post - this paragraph is the key:

Programmers are most effective when they avoid writing code. They may realize the problem they’re being asked to solve doesn't need to be solved, that the client doesn't actually want what they’re asking for. They may know where to find reusable or re-editable code that solves their problem. They may cheat. But just when they are being their most productive, nobody says “Wow! You were just 100x more productive than if you’d done this the hard way. You deserve a raise.” At best they say “Good idea!” and go on. It may take a while to realize that someone routinely comes up with such time-saving insights. Or to put it negatively, it may take a long time to realize that others are programming with sound and fury but producing nothing.

As I checked through this, it reminded me of something I wrote some time ago: "less is better".

So why is No.10 in thrall to this parasitic monster?

2011-04-12T07:06:00.000+01:00

The Daily Mail loses it.

Google threatens to destroy not only pop sensation Adele, but Britain's film and music industries. So why is No.10 in thrall to this parasitic monster?

Book - The Big Switch

2011-04-09T22:52:00.000+01:00

I bought The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr when I saw him speak in Bristol at The Watershed. Although the subject matter of his talk he was covered in his most recent book The Shallows, It was The Big Switch I bought after the talk. The Big Switch is about the rise of "The Cloud", of computing as a utility. Carr puts move to computing as a utility in the historical context of the move to electricity as a utility. Now, I like the book; I found some of the details of the rise of the electricity industry interesting and he sets out his basic thesis well. But, I didn't find the book provoked me as much as I had anticipated. Why? I'm not sure, but I think the root cause was that I already knew too much about Carr's subject matter.

So, gentle reader, why am I bothering to mention a three-year old book on my blog? Well, I spent a day last week in a meeting with some very high-powered technical experts looking at the impact of The Cloud on the future of the wireless semiconductor business; I was surprised at how the fact of the utilitization of computing had passed them by. And so it occurred to me that it may have passed you by as well, gentle reader. And that's why I mention The Big Switch - for your education.

Babbage - print your own difference engine

2011-04-07T21:30:00.000+01:00

This is remarkable. http://blog.makerbot.com/2011/04/07/printable-difference-engine/ I wish I'd thought of this but I didn't. All it needs now is someone to travel back in time to introduce a few difference engines into the Victorian era and.....

Japanese disaster

2011-03-26T16:53:00.001Z

I've found some of the reporting from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami disaster very upsetting with the destruction of so many people's lives, homes, businesses documented so clearly. The number of deaths now numbers more than 10,000 and it looks to me that there are many more to come. What I've not understood, given the scale of the disaster, is why there has been such an obsession with the problems of the nuclear power stations. I think the coverage takes attention away from the real problems of the unfortunate people directly affected by natural disaster. George Monbiot seems to be with me on this.

Perhaps the best gadget to compare with the iPad is the microwave oven

2011-03-24T23:59:00.000Z

See http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/03/ipad-usage/

So....

2011-03-14T22:48:00.002Z

Didn't work so brilliantly from the mobile device then.....

Blogging from the iTouch

2011-03-11T08:18:00.001Z

Sitting here in Geneva airport, having spent a very busy few days in Grenoble I've been overcome by the need to blog. It turns out I have a blogging app on my iTouch. So far, so good, I'll have to see what the post look like when
It's posted.

Toccata and Fugue

2011-02-10T21:43:00.001Z

Thanks to the wonderful Boing Boing

Strange Phenomenon

2011-01-29T04:46:00.000Z

I went to see my GP this week. While I was sitting in the waiting room I noticed that I was the only person playing Angry Birds.

Computer problems

2011-01-22T11:05:00.000Z

I'd like to claim computer problems as the reason I haven't blogged for over two months, but I can't. And the prodigious rate of blogging that my friend Skiing Jim has kept up over the past few days makes me feel ashamed.

Back to computer problems though. I've been pushed back to blogging by a sense that if I blog about the computer problem that afflicted me over Christmas and the New Year, I might help some other poor soul from going through the same hell.

I do most of my computer work on a 4-year old Medion 8818 Windows Media PC bought from Aldi. I've been pleased with this purchase in the main, even though I don't use the TV function. The only significant problem I'd had until recently was the power supply breaking after the PC had just moved out of warranty.

And then, a couple of weeks before Christmas, the computer wouldn't display things. I assumed, based on past experience, that the monitor had died, and since I was very busy I adopted the easy solution and started using a laptop. Then as I started my two week Christmas break, with only a family Christmas to attend to (buy the turkey, cook the turkey, eat the turkey, ...) I had time to start addressing the computer problem. First off, it wasn't the monitor. The 24" IIyama was working just fine, the problem was the computer. I diagnosed the graphics card as the source of the problem. I went through the usual "wouldn't this be a great time to buy a new computer" and rapidly decided that £50 for a graphics cards seemed like a good deal compared to £2500 for a fully configured 27" - besides which, what would I do with the spare 24" monitor?

The Medion 8818 had come fitted with an NVidia GeForce 7650 card. This was (note the tense) an OEM only card and my favoured approach of replacing the old card with an identical new one wasn't possible. We were now in the strange period between Christmas and New Year where it is not feasible to buy electronics on-line. So, after a bit of research it was off to Mr Curry Dixons Digital Emporium and Washing Machine Shop to pick up the PNY NVidia GeForce GT 430 graphics card I'd ordered on-line. It was a couple of days before I disassembled the PC and replaced the graphics card. I powered on, the PC went through its boot sequence (hooray), the XP splash screen displayed (hooray) and then the screen went blank and the PC went inactive. After the extensive use of safe-mode, VGA mode, etc. it seemed that whenever the PC got to the stage where it had to fire up the NVidia drivers the display system stopped working. The good news was that the PC worked fine in VGA mode so I could finally update the podcasts on my iPod. I used the PC like this for a couple of days, even getting into the habit of only scrolling a page at a time - just like the old days.

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed likely I had a software problem. I assumed that with the repeated powering-off while active, installing and removing drivers, etc., I'd messed up the operating system. Time to reinstall; something I didn't want to do, knowing that the next few weeks would be taken up re-installing all the infrequently used but necessary software that the machine had accumulated. It wasn't the easiest installation I've done. My backup disks didn't do what I expected and I had to install from the Windows OEM disks shipped with the PC. First, Media Centre Edition 200x, and then an upgrade installation of Media Centre Edition 200y. Then all the MS patches and SP3. And it didn't go smoothly. Windows XP MCE is not mainstream so you cannot slipstream the service packs and create a Windows XP MCE SP3. MCE's deviation also showed up once or twice with Microsoft Update moaning about version problems. Eventually, I was back where I'd started. Well, actually not, I had a fresh installation of Windows without my applications, which worked fine in VGA mode, but it still fell over when the NVidia drivers were invoked.

This time I turned to the forums. This always pisses me off. I hate being lured in to a forum where someone has asked my very question, only to find that that I'm expected to hand over my firstborn in return for the answer. I found nothing very conclusive - the usual "It worked for me after I sacrificed a goat", "I never have that sort of problem with my Apple", "Could be a power supply problem", "Cheap Viagra here", etc., etc.. I choose the "power supply" option. The last time I had a problem with a graphics card it was caused by an inadequate power supply, and although I thought the new graphics card would draw the same sort of power as the original one, I'm no expert. By now both I and the delivery services were back at work so I placed my order for a Rolls-Royce power supply from Ebuyer.

The unboxing experience was wonderful. Just like a high-end handbag, the power supply was wrapped in a linen bag; the cables from the supply were wonderfully engineered, lots of them and all with lots of connectors. It is worth paying that bit extra. Except, it didn't solve my problem. In fact, I hadn't been completely confident when approaching the installation, one of my colleagues had made dark mutterings about "motherboard incompatibilities". Trawling the forums again, I did find a few other people had had issues with NVidia cards in some early Via PCIe motherboards. I started looking at new motherboards, wondering about whether I would be able to salvage my PC's processor.

And then I came to my senses - be methodical. I had another PC in the house with a PCIe graphics board. So, I took my old, dead card and my new NVidia card with me and paid a visit to the other PC. First, I tried out the dead card - it was dead. Then I tried the new NVidia card - it worked. So evidence now favoured a motherboard issue and it was back to the first PC with the Radeon card from the second PC. It worked.

I guess it's now more than a month since the graphics card died and I'm nearly back to having everything working. The second PC has survived its graphics card transplant without too much problem. It took not much more than an hour to get things like the dual monitor setup working properly and the latest drivers installed. The Medion is working; I've still got some software to install but otherwise its fine.

So, for the benefit of posterity:

There is an incompatibility between the Via P4M890 based motherboard in the Medion 8818 Media PC which means that an NVidia GeForce GT 430 will not work. However, an ASUS EAH3650 (Radeon HD 3650 GPU) does work.

My boarding pass

2010-11-14T22:09:00.000Z

I made a trip to Geneva last week. I flew on British Airways and, on the way back, used the BA iThing app to check in. It gave me the option of storing my board pass on the iThing. I did. It worked. Here is a scan of my iThing showing the boarding pass.

And don't bother telling my that my inside leg measurement is coded in the 2D-bar code.

Build or Buy

2010-10-24T23:45:00.000+01:00

I've just read 30 lessons learned in computing over the last ten years. I was taken by:

If you are debating between Build or Buy, then you should Build. You are debating which means you don’t know enough about it to make a sound decision. When you build, at least you will get something working before you find what to Buy and how to design with it.

This seems to be correct to me.

It's not what you do, it's what you don't do

2010-10-14T22:10:00.000+01:00

Scully said:

5. Minimalism – “What makes Steve’s methodology different from everyone else’s is that he always believed the most important decisions you make are not the things you do – but the things that you decide not to do. He’s a minimalist.”

And it's really difficult to show off what you've done (not done) if you're a minimalist. I worked with a minimalist at one time. People would ask me about his contribution and I'd show them a picture of what we'd designed, point to the blank wall around the picture and say "That's Fred's contribution". I think some people got the point.

Programmable Vodka Bottle

2010-10-02T10:54:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Engadget for this one.

The Visual 6502

2010-09-19T21:26:00.001+01:00

What a project! What a concept!

This is an image of the 6502, snarfed off the wonderful visual6502.org which is building a visual, transistor level simulation of a 6502. If you go to the web site you can see it yourself. Anyone up for doing the whole of the BBC Micro?

Thanks to BunniesBlog for the lead.

Another convert

2010-09-19T21:11:00.002+01:00

Yes, another one of my friends has just bought a Mac.

Apple iPie

2010-09-11T23:35:00.000+01:00

More and more people I know are trying and buying Apple products. It's not just the entry level ones either, but MacBooks Pros and iMacs. Pondering why is a good pastime and I thought I'd give my thoughts.

Let's start by following my own first steps into Apple ownership. Sony introduced the Walkman in 1979, the year when I first acquired a disposable income. The Walkman wasn't the first portable music player I'd owned. I remember hearing Itchycoo Park for first time listening under the covers to my transistor radio, and I recall carrying a laptop sized cassette player with me so I could listen to whatever Pink Floyd or Henry Cow opus I wanted. But the Walkman was much better; small, high quality, personal and cool. So, for me the appeal of the iPod was clear - the noughties Walkman. But in the early noughties I no longer wanted to listen to music on a personal stereo so it was no iPod for me. Then came the RSS feed and podcasts; I could obtain all sorts of wonderful programming on my computer - music (thank you Tartan Podcast), science (thank you ABC for Occam's Razor), business (thank you BBC and Peter Day). However, I rapidly found that listening to podcasts on my computer wasn't what I wanted to do. So I bought my first MP3 player, I think it was a Creative Muvo with a 2 Gbyte hard disk. It was great until it broke. Then I tried some number of cheap solid-state MP3 players - why would you pay ~£100 for an iPod Nano when you could buy something just as good for ~£25? What I learned was that even if once playing an MP3 the cheap player worked well, getting it to play, and keep playing an MP3 was a bad experience. So I tried an iPod - job done; happy.

I'd like to pick out some lessons from this.

The first is that just because a computer can do something, it doesn't that the best way to do that thing is with a computer. And just because a device has a computer inside, it doesn't mean that device is a computer. If Apple is a computer company then Black and Dekker is an electric motor company. Apple understand this and the populous have some understanding of the. The iPod is not a computer. But what of the iPad?

Another lesson is that people will pay for well designed and ergonomic devices. This seems to come as a shock to some people, especially techies, who focus exclusively on function and not on form (and here I consider the ergonomics to be part of the form). Strangely enough, some of those people drive BMWs or Audis rather than Fords.

Let's now move from the personal stereo to the personal computer. Surely no one buying a computer with their own money would buy a MacBook? Everyone knows you can buy just as good a laptop for half the price. Except you can't. You can by worse laptops at half the price. They're not as responsive, their displays are worse, their keyboards are worse, their software is worse, their battery life is worse, they look cheap and nasty, etc. For a buyer who can pay Apple prices, why would they settle for anything less?

Actually, the really interesting question about personal computers is not which one people buy, but why people would buy any personal computer in the first place. Now let's be clear, by "people" I am excluding the hobbyists, the type of people who would own a personal CNC lathe or a personal arc-welder - I mean normal people who would no more write a computer program than build their own motor car. This question is one I remember being asked from when the first personal computers appeared until, I think, the nineties when the Web and CD-ROMs became commonplace. It should be asked again because I think the answer is now that people shouldn't buy a computer, they should buy an iPad. I didn't link to Wikipedia for "iPad" because Wikipedia describes the iPad as a "tablet computer" and I don't think it is any sort of a computer. There's a great post about the nature of the iPad by my friend Richard Taylor.

Once technology is "good enough", product form is as important as product function
People don't want general purpose computers.

and these are the basis of Apple's current run of successes. It will be interesting to see how the forthcoming iPad versus "tablet computer" war will progress. I'm expecting Apple to win this one, although based on my experience with my iPod touch, I'm holding out for an iPad with multitasking, a camera and a higher-resolution display - I don't think it will be very long before it's here.

Spotify

2010-08-25T22:36:00.000+01:00

Wonderful. But why is Morrisey's Suedehead skipping like a vinyl lp in a dancehall?

What to do with some old ACM journals

2010-08-22T18:17:00.001+01:00

I looked at a CD I received through the post this week. It was the SIGPLAN 2008 CD. Unlike in previous years, I stuck the CD into a computer and looked at what was on it. It had conference proceedings, SIGPLAN Notices, TOPLAS and the like for the full year. I could save some shelf space if I got rid of my paper copies and kept the CD. So I checked my shelves. The first thing I found was a whole set of CDs, SIGPLAN CDs back through 2004; even more shelf space! So, what am I to do with the paper copies? I can't just put them out for recycling can I?

Nest: fleeing?

2010-08-19T22:32:00.001+01:00

What a step. Son, aged 18, has achieved a place at medical school. Yes, in a month's time, he will be resident in Sheffield, home of stainless steel knives and scalpels.

Family.size = Family.size - 1;

or does it?

Wish I Were There

2010-08-17T20:01:00.001+01:00

Hoping Foundation benefit performance from Hoping Foundation on Vimeo.

And you thought Brooklyn was odd....

2010-08-06T20:47:00.000+01:00

Judge thinks Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii is extreme but Number 16 Bus Shelter is OK?

Uncanny valley?

2010-06-25T23:44:00.003+01:00

George Osborne 0463am
Originally uploaded by altogetherfool

Is George Osborne an inhabitant of the Uncanny Valley?

Martin Gardner RIP

2010-05-23T20:24:00.000+01:00

I started reading Martin Gardner's books in secondary school. He introduced me to a wonderful collection of mathematical entertainments - hexaflexagons, Conway's life, The Unexpected Hanging, ... I'm sad he's gone.

Mr Wiki, MSMBC

Weapons of Mass Dilution

2010-05-01T22:53:00.000+01:00

I'm not worried about the Homoeopathic Bomb, but some might be.

Illuminating talk by Ed Catmull of Pixar

2010-04-24T15:26:00.000+01:00

Comments

2010-04-20T08:06:00.000+01:00

To anyone who writes comments on this blog, I'm really sorry but I've had to enable the captcha on the blog comments, I'm getting too much spam.

50 Acre Wood

2010-04-18T17:15:00.000+01:00

I went riding in 50 Acre Wood this morning. I hadn't been in the wood for ages. I was shocked, I hardly recognised the place so many trees had been felled. The end of trail has been changed and is more difficult than it was. I'll be back soon.

The collapse of the old

2010-04-02T20:39:00.000+01:00

I've just read a very interesting article by Clay Sharky "The Collapse of Complex Business Models". His general argument feels sound and its specific object, the television industry, looks to me like an industry about to undergo violent reconfiguration. Whereas the music industry seems to be returning to the staple business model of the past - live performance* - television can't return to being cinema.

* See David Bowie (2002 New York Times), TechDirt (2009), Brian Eno (2009), and Brian Eno ("On the end of and era")

As I said.....

2010-03-26T07:58:00.002Z

Confirmation of my posting that Google pay people to use Android - see this post on PaidContent.

Blue Aeroplanes

2010-03-14T17:53:00.003Z

From Blue Aeroplanes Thunderbolt March 2010

I saw The Blue Aeroplanes play a great gig last week at the Thunderbolt, warming up their upcoming appearance at SXSW. They had a great line-up and played a cracking set. I'm really looking forward to buying a CD or something (new album) with "25 Kinds of Love" on it. As to the photos, Chris Sharpe lurks in the background a bit, so he's easy to miss, but Max Noble doesn't and John Langley was very visible so there's really no excuse for not having managed to snap them - but I didn't.

Thanks to Chris Sharpe I am able to tell you that the setwas:-

Nothing (new album)
Up In A Down World
Sulphur (new album)
Great Movie Clichés (new album)
Bury Your Love Like Treasure
Don't You Dare (Rita song)
Huh!
Cowardice & Caprice
Raise The Roof
Oak Apple Day (new album)
Go Along With Me On This One (Gerard Starkie song)
25 Kinds Of Love (new album)
Jacket Hangs
Yr Own World
Lover & Confidante
The Applicant
Warhol's 15
Breaking In My Heart

I recommend the support band, "Daddy Long Bones" as well.

Mathematics is like unicorn anatomy

2010-02-28T12:32:00.001Z

The best one liner I've read in ages. See this interview with Tom Henderson.

It's a long time since I've read so much rubbish....

2010-02-16T17:10:00.003Z

When I started working, at Inmos, young and naive, it came as a surprise that a great deal of the press coverage contained significant errors. My recent experience, reading blogs, tweets and assorted comments, about the Apple A4 chip, makes me pine for the good old days. I have come across a huge amount of ill-informed rubbish on the and very little informed analysis. Many tweets and blogs reference a few, unsourced, articles from which can can deduce that the A4 is not a processor, but a system-on-chip; it contains an ARM A8 processor, although someone else claims it is an ARM A9 - or maybe more than one. Great.

The best things I've read have been in Venture Beat,"Engineers correct stupid journalist" and "How Apple's A4 chip lets iPad run cooler". Of course, these don't actually tell us anything, but at least this is clear and the analysis is sound.

So, what do I think is in the A4? Well, I think it's an ARM compatible processor, or processors, together with a pile of other stuff - graphics, optimised interfaces, power management, ... I think there are two ways we might find out for sure - Apple might tell us, or it will reversed engineered. Some things should come out quickly - like the processor type and performance - this can be deduced by looking at the behaviour of suitable programs running on the processor.

Bristol Snow - Frostie the Snowman uses Apple

2010-01-17T14:56:00.004Z

Bristol has just returned to normal after what must be the longest period of snow-cover for the best part of 30 years. My road, which runs east-west and has tall houses on the southern side, had a good covering of snow before Christmas and didn't clear before the post-Christmas snow arrived a week and-a-bit ago. Last weekend Bristol really was a winter wonderland with all sorts of un-Bristolian things happening. There were people kite-skiing and -boarding on The Downs, and on the Ashton Court singletrack mountain-bike trail I was faced with the unusual hazard of cross-country skiers.

Of course the snow brings out the sculptors. I saw any number of snowmen but I missed this one, found near in Bristol University. A little bit of image enhancement shows that Frostie is using a MacBook - I'm not sure that Steve would be impressed by the headphones though.

Thanks to Trevor Parsons/Alana Cowan for the use of the photo.

Television in Trouble

2010-01-03T14:17:00.003Z

Richard Taylor's "Build and Break" makes some very good points. Although he writes about the US, I have no doubt that we are likely to see big changes in the near future in the UK as well. The biggest barrier to the revolution is the lack of broadband in many area of the UK; this needs fixing. Oh, and by broadband, I mean something fast - we should be aiming for 100 Mbit/s in to and out of the home at least. (Why so much upload? I'll addresses that in a blog post some other time).

Inmos Reunion

2009-12-31T12:41:00.003Z

I was going to blog about the Inmos reunion but as The Omnivorist has done such a good job on his blog I won't say much here except that it was good to see so many people there despite the short notice and the busy time of year. It was particularly good to see Brian Collins who I hadn't seen, or heard of, for well over twenty years.

Christmas has gone but my birthday is coming

2009-12-30T20:36:00.005Z

www.wiiwaaworld.com

Winter

2009-12-22T21:54:00.006Z

The recent wintery weather here in Bristol reminds me of my recent trip to California. I've been there enough to know that, despite what people think, they do have poor weather occasionally.

It seems they had the coldest weather for a decade while I was there. The picture on the left shows snow on the hills to the east of San Jose. I've seen a light dusting of snow on the hills before but not a blanketing.

However, in twenty-something years of visiting Silicon Valley I've never before had to scrape ice off my windscreen which I had to do for two days running.

It was really good to get back to the mild climate of Bristol.

Scoble again

2009-12-12T11:22:00.002Z

I recently posted about Robert Scoble's comments about how Europe is lagging behind the USA in its usage of the leading edge communications. Well, he's been at it again, with what seems to have been an attack on French entrepeneurs. I fear that, once again, he's right - we Europeans need to get our act together.

[As an aside, my previous post has attracted a lot of Japanese comments which, according to Google translate are of rather dubious content. I wonder why?]

Breakfast

2009-12-11T22:11:00.002Z

Inmos

2009-11-24T21:57:00.003Z

Contact Claire DOT Maudsley AT clairejayne.co.uk

Stuck with texting and the "Less Than Free Business Model"

2009-11-01T20:54:00.004Z

We are living in very interesting times as far as arrival of the personal computer/communicator goes. I'm not sure we Europeans really get what is happening as we "stuck on texting" as Robert Scoble has observed. In a July posting he said:

But here’s where my own observations in London’s tube (the subway system here) come in: the UK is stuck on texting. That’s all I see most people do with their phones.

That rut that Europeans are stuck in is going to doom them.

Nokia simply does not understand how important the Web is and it’s because they ride the same subways and see the same behaviours.

"Text-blindness" may also keep us from seeing what happens next. In a very interesting blog post Bill Gurley looks at the disruptive influence of Google on the "turn-by-turn" mapping business. Google not only uncut the incumbents, they reduce the price to below zero. Yes, if you build a phone and put Android on it (and hence gain the ability to use their navigation software) they pay you - the phone manufacturer - to use the software. How? Advertising. Who'd use Symbian - even if if were free?

And who'd bet against something similar happening in desktops, notebooks, tablets, .... At least Apple will be left with hardware to design and sell. Unlike Microsoft.

http://www.openupnow.org/

2009-10-20T23:31:00.001+01:00

RepRap

2009-10-12T21:27:00.002+01:00

I visted UWE this evening to attend a talk given by Adrian Bowyer of the University of Bath on the RepRap project. RepRap is a project to build a self-replicating rapid-prototyper. His talk was excellent and when he'd finished he gave a demonstration of "Mendal" the RepRap Version II. Although not yet complete - Mendal is due to grow multiple, interchangeable printing heads - Adrian was able to show the device printing a coat-hook (visible in the photograph).

I think 3D-printing is a very interesting technology; we're at the early stages of personal 3D-printers at the moment and who knows how this will develop.

Skype scam

2009-09-28T22:11:00.003+01:00

Skype messaging seems to be the source of much spam. Normally, women offering fleshly delights (or so they hint). But today I got my firm Nigerian scan:

[12:46:48] godtime_jamise.ab: Good day,

Please I crave your indulgence in reading through my mail to understand my predicaments. My names are jamise Abbas, i am a Sudanese by nationality but presently i live in Accra Ghana with my mother and my kid sister as refugees, since the political crisis in our country Sudan that took the life of my father who was a wealthy business man and a opposition politician to the present regime in our beloved country Sudan.

The main reason why I am contacting you now is to seek your assistance in the area of my future investment and also for a helping hand over some huge amount of money my late father deposited for me as next of kin. This money amount to ($12.750, 000, 00 USD) Twelve Million Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand United State Dollars only, my late father deposited for me here in Eco Bank Ghana Limited some years ago.

Since we escaped here to Accra after the death of my father, I have contacted the concern Managements of the Bank so many times but what they told me was due to our refugee status they will not release the fund to me,that I should present a foreign partner or a company to stand on my behalf for the transfer since then we are in search of a foreign partner to help us retrieve the money from the Bank and also help us relocate to your country and invest in real estates. Please help us stand as my foreign partner to make this transfer to you and in time of the investment and we can come and live with you. We are ready to give you 30% for your assistance.

Thanks and God bless you,

jamise Abbas.

You can contact me via my private email:jamiseabbas@hotmail.com

Great Literary Works

2009-09-20T12:20:00.001+01:00

I went to Leigh Woods on my bike today. The weather was wonderful - late September sunshine and a perfect temperature for cycling. The conditions in the woods were good too - very little mud so no need for a three hour bike clean after a two hour bike ride.

I think Leigh Woods must have been the inspiration behind a couple of literary ideas.

The first - chronologically - is the original Adventure game. In Leigh Woods you move from a maze of little twisty passages into a maze of twisty little passages, and the only way you can tell where you are is by spotting things you dropped previously.

The second is the staircase at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter stories(Author J K Rowling was brought up not far from Leigh Woods). You may recell that the staircases move about. Well, so do the trails in Leigh Woods. It's different every time and some of the most interesting parts are very good at hiding. It's months since I've encountered The Wall of Death.

In an alternative universe

2009-09-16T23:04:00.004+01:00

Maybe I'm becoming an Apple fanboy too late....

It's not time to make a change...

2009-09-04T21:00:00.001+01:00

One of the enjoyable things about being on holiday was having the time to listen to some of the podcasts I had stacked up. I was more than pleased I managed to catch Coverville 599 "The Cat Stevens Cover Story". It was very timely; the BBC had recently broadcast some Cat Stevens / Yusuf Islam material recently, probably prompted by 50 (?) years of Island Records celebrations.

It's hard but it's harder to ignore it

I remember buying and listening to "Tea for the Tillerman" when I was in my late teens - I'd play "Father and Son" over and over and over again. Never mind the sentiments, the arrangement is wonderful - especially the verse where the father sons are both singing. I think - although I'm not sure - the original recording has Cat Stevens singing both parts. The BBC's archive recording (Old Grey Whistle Test?) shows Cat Stevens playing the song with another guitarist (who's name escapes me at the moment) and they sing that verse together,

You're still young.... that's your fault

Until I saw the BBC's program I hadn't realised what a superstar Cat Stevens was in the 60s. I remember songs like "Lady D'Abanville" and "The First Cut Is The Deepest" I don't remember Cat Stevens as a celebrity - in fact, I'm sure that I didn't know that Cat Stevens had written "First Cut@ until Rod Stewart recorded the song. I think it was brought home to me when I watched a documentary about Island Records where he explained how wonderful it was to escape fame and to have the space to write and produce his music.

For you will still be here tomorrow but your dreams may not...

After years away from the music scene Yusuf Islam has reemerged. The Coverville podcast has a version of "Father and Son" by Ronan Keating "featuring Yusuf". I'm afraid it's not up to the original, nor more relevantly, up to the performance that Yusuf gives on a BBC recording of one of his recent concerts. I watched the programme minutes after I watched the BBC's archive recording. Yusuf played several of Cat's greatest hits including "Father and Son". Very interesting, the generational thing was underwritten by his referring to his granddaughter, and the arrangement was just like the original. Indeed, I was struck by the likeness of his collaborator to the guitarist who had played alongside him 35 years previously - indeed the same man. A great experience to witness but not as good as the archive materal; better than Ronan though. (Ronan's recording is severely let down by an arrangement which substitutes a rather nasty sounding synthtrument in place of a guitar in the original.

Away, I know I have to go...

Returning to Coverville 599. Brian Ibott has chosen very interesting tracks. Two of them have personal interest - the other one being "Sad Lisa" by "Naked Eyes" who featuring the late Rob Fisher who was a university friend of a friend. Mind you, I could without Ellen Greene's "Morning Has Broken" - I sang it better when I was at school.

Rokeby Venus

2009-09-02T22:56:00.001+01:00

Rokeby Venus
Originally uploaded by Roger Shepherd

Of the many reworkings of classic pictures I enjoyed this one greatly. One of my friends has a print of the original, by Diego Velazquez, in his bathroom. Banksy's reworking reminded me of that house on Melrose Place.

Been there, done that, got the stamp

2009-08-31T22:38:00.002+01:00

I've got your number written on the back of my hand
Originally uploaded by Roger Shepherd

Up early to visit the Banksy show today. Interesting. More comments to come.

What we need are better placebos

2009-08-26T22:24:00.003+01:00

I've many interesting things about the placebo effect over the years. For example, there is the effectiveness of a placebo can depend on how it is administered and the nationality of the patient. As we Brits would expect, placebos have most effect on the French if given as a suppository. I've also thought there was a flaw with a clinical testing process where a drug was only tested against a placebo - surely the test should be three way - nothing, drug or placebo. If the drug wasn't better than the placebo, and the placebo was better than nothing, than surely the placebo should be used as treatment? I'd never had it satisfactorily explained by this wasn't considered best practice. After, there tend to be very few bad side effects of placebos.

So, I was delighted to read an article in Wired entitled Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why. Great stuff. Among the revelations are that a drug called naloxone can block the pain-relieving power of placebo treatments. Whatever, it does seem that scientists are getting to understand a great deal more about placebos. Good; the sooner they can start formulating better ones the better.

Thanks to the wonderful Boing Boing for the lead.

Health Care in The UK

2009-08-16T16:37:00.001+01:00

I've noted the discussion that is going on in the US about healthcare reform. While I don't want to tell my American friends how to run their affairs, given the amount of disinformation flowing around I'd like to say something about healthcare in the UK.

Firstly, Stephen Hawking is British. And by the way, the French do have a word for entrepeneur.

Secondly, we have a universal healthcare system- the National Health Service (NHS). It's pretty good. However, it's not compulsory: you don't have to use it. There is an alternative/complementary private system. Of course, if you can't afford it you have no choice - you get your treatment on the NHS.

Gog, Magog, George Bush..... and Tony Blair?

2009-08-08T20:19:00.002+01:00

According to Free Enquiry "President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac in early 2003 that Iraq must be invaded to thwart Gog and Magog". It seems that Chirac has told this story more than once. So is that why the deeply committed christian Tony Blair took us in?

Blogging from my iPod

2009-08-04T23:50:00.001+01:00

It's been some time sinced I blogged. I hope that following the purchase of new iPod touch and the downloading of a blogging app I might start posting regularly again. I have to see how this looks.

The Web Has Won

2009-07-17T07:28:00.005+01:00

It is becoming more and more apparent that the web has won. Forget everything else (at least for five years), the web is becoming dominant. Key technologies (e.g. video in HTML-5) are going live in front of your eyes - literally if you are using a modern browser on your PC or phone. And I'm not alone in this view, in fact, I have this view because many of the big players believe this and are making it happen. Take a look at this article in the FT's tech blog.

iPlayer tribute

2009-07-12T15:31:00.001+01:00

Listening to the radio last night I heard a dicussion about mockumentaries and I realised that the BBC's iPlayer contained a loud tribute to Spinal Tap.

Michael Jackson - Paint a Vulgar Picture

2009-06-26T14:55:00.002+01:00

"At the record company meeting
On their hands - a dead star
And oh, the plans they weave
And oh, the sickening greed"

The Smiths

A Record Shop

2009-06-21T22:26:00.002+01:00

Another Sunday, another Bond movie; Goldfinger this time. A bit disappointing, I'm afraid, after "Dr No" and "From Russia With Love" both of which surpassed expectation. I think Goldfinger was brought down by a silly plot despite some good acting from the players of Bond, Goldfinger and Gallore. Too many smart alec wisecracks too. I'm not sure whether I'll go to On Her Majesty's Secret Service, although I'd like to see Diana Rigg. I could go on about Bond's women and Ursula Andress and Honour Blackman are much more plausible as real women than many of today's stick insects but I'll move on to the real topic of this posting.

When I leave the midday Bond movie I get to walk up Park Street and visit the shops at leisure. This is a rare treat as I work on some god forsaken "business park" miles from anything remotely interesting. And it has lead me to forming a relationship with Fopp. I don't think I'd ever been into a Fopp until a couple of years ago when I bought something ("Sound of Speed" by The Jesus and Mary Chain?) which was going cheap. And I certainly didn't think of Fopp as anything other than a cheap shop. But since I've started to go to the Bond movies at the Watershed, I've found that Fopp is more interesting than that - it shows all the signs of being a real record shop. I don't mean one which sell vinyl (which it does) but one which is full of people searching through the racks - people who look interested in music - and which plays interesting music. Today, wandering around the top floor, I heard this music which sounded like it came from 35 years ago. It was interesting, parts were excellent and compelling, parts were self indulgent and minimally musical. "What is it?" I wondered. It wasn't familiar so maybe it was new. So I asked. I was listening to Egg's "The Civil Surface". So, older than I thought, but it would have been 35 years since I heard any Egg. A interesting band from the Canterbury Scene; although not band members, many of the musicians later to be in Henry Cow played on their albums. Henry Cow's Concerts was my favourite album for many many years. Unfortunately I find most of my favourite music of that style, from that era, somewhat unlistenable to - with the possible exception of Hatfield and The North's The Rotters Club so I slipped downstairs without purchasing. But I didn't make it from the shop without The Eels' Electro-Shock Bluesbeing purchased. Oh the joys of record shops.

The Next 700 Programming Languages

2009-06-05T23:24:00.005+01:00

Yesterday I read of the death of Peter Landin in a post on Lambda The Ultimate - The Programming Languages Weblog. I'd come across the name many times - nearly always I suspect in the list of references for a paper on programming language design - but I was not familiar with his work. I know this is a dreadful admission from someone who has worked in computer science for many years, but I'd never bothered to look up any references - until last night that is. There was a link on Lambda The Ultimate to his classic 1966 paper The Next 700 Programming Languages and I followed it....

Amazing. I wish I'd read it 30 years ago. I think 30 years ago would have been about right - I would have had the theoretical background I needed to understand the paper and I would have been working in an environment where the subject matter would have been relevant. What about earlier? Well, it could have happened - I'd bought and read Burstall, Collins and Poplestone's "Programming in POP-2" while at school and it contains several references to Landin's language ISWIM and to his papers. But, I don't think I understood enough computer science at that time to have appreciated the paper.

I do appreciate the paper now. It's very well written, funny in places, and relevant. It's a shame it took Landin's death to make me read it.

Revellers in Bristol on Saturday

2009-06-01T20:09:00.000+01:00

A glorious day on Saturday. I went to the Watershed at lunchtime to see the excellent "Strange Case" - respect to all who put it together - and when I came out saw these people enjoying themselves. Wonderful.

Spoiled for Choice

2009-05-28T18:13:00.017+01:00

I got my ballot paper for the €uro elections through the post today. In the South West Region we have 17 parties standing. They are, in the order they appear on the ballot paper:

British National Party British National Party - Protecting Bristish Jobs

Christian Party "Proclaiming Christ's Lordship" The Christian Party - CPA

Conservative Party

English Democrats Party English Democrats - "Putting England First"

Fair Pay Fair Trade Import Only Fair Trade Products

Jury Team

Liberal Democrats

Mebyon Kernow - The Party for Cornwall

No2EU: Yes To Democracy

Pensioners Party For All Ages

Pro Democracy: Libertas.eu

Socialist Labour Party (LEADER ARTHUR SCARGILL)

The Green Party

The Labour Party

United Kingdom Independence Party UKIP

WAI D Your Decision

Katie Olivia Hopkins Independent

With very little in the way of election leaflets (at least in comparison to the number of parties standing) I've found Tory Blogger James Barlow's website very useful. I've learned that:-

CPA seem to be carpetbaggers from London

Fair Pay Fair Trade Party comes from Stroud (can't say I'm surprised)

Katie Hopkins was on the apprentice

Also a bit of Googling shows that the independent Jury Party seems to be a Cameronist front, and Wai D isn't the party of web design. So, all in all, the ballot paper is a bit like the Freeview EPG - lots of choice but little that you'd really like to watch.

Building blends into the sky

2009-05-25T18:30:00.003+01:00

Interesting design on the cladding recently added to one of Bristol's uglier buildings. The blue colour lightens as it goes up the building. In the right light it makes the building seem much taller than it actually is. Good.

Management and Mathematics

2009-05-25T08:42:00.005+01:00

Very interesting piece by Edsger Dijkstra. Things have changed since 1986. Or maybe not.

Thanks to Y Combinator Startup News

Tragic Life Stories

2009-05-17T14:56:00.001+01:00

I was shocked to discover a new literary genre yesterday - Tragic Life Stories. This is a bookshelf in W. H. Smiths in The Mall at Cribbs Causeway, and it's populated by books with spiritually uplifting titles like "Daddy Please Stop Beating Me".

Bristol Crime Map

2009-05-14T19:00:00.001+01:00

Interesting. I'm not going to comment about my area.

Cornell University Fart Detector

2009-05-10T20:09:00.004+01:00

It seems that farting is taking over the high-tech world. iFart is popular application for the iPhone, and the "Fart Intensity Detector" is a Cornell University project carried out by Robert Clain and Miguel Salas, two students taking the Designing with Microcontrollers course. I recommend their write-up to any interested in interfacing microcontrollers to sensors, or anyone amused by basic bodily functions.

Elvis Lives

2009-05-07T22:29:00.001+01:00

I've seen Elvis loads of times and I've never seen a bad gig. When he played in Bristol with "The Confederates", a backing band who seemed to be only doing it for money, he leterally pulled the audience to their feet and made the souless Colston Hall seem intimate. So, Elvis and a string quartet - what would that be like? I'd never heard "The Juliet Letters", the album he recorded with the Brodsky Quartet many years ago, but I seemed to recall it had been quite badly received, so was curious.

St George's is a small venue - 500 souls I guess - used normally for classical recitals - I've only been to the venue rarely, once memorably to sees Ronald Smith perform Alkan's "Concerto for solo piano". Elvis and the quartet came on stage and opened with "Accidents Will Happen" - I think the first song I ever saw him play on the "Armed Forces" tour in Coventry - excellent - a very good arrangement and a wonderful reinterpretation - I was knocked out by the quality of the musicianship. The evening covered a mixture of material. The Brodsky Quartet were showed at their stongest on pieces from The Juliet Letters - wonderful stuff. Of the material Elvis did with the quartet ,"Pills and Soap" and "Shipbuilding" stood out for me. But for me the highlights of Elvis's performance were the four songs he played solo, unamplified - all new and a couple of them never performed live before. The fourth song was great - Elvis started a little tentatively - unrehearsed - banging his foot on the stage dramatically and atmospherically - as he felt his way into the accoustic of St George's his performance grew and the song ended masterfully. Sorry for those who were there but missed this because they had to get back for the babysitter before he finished the fourth encore. Great show, great performers - and Elvis and the Brodskys seemed to enjoy the performance as much as the audience.

Perfect? No. Alison would have had to have been there.

Good day

2009-05-01T07:42:00.001+01:00

Up early to take son to rendevous with coach transporting him to battlefields of World War I. Front wing of my car (shown) hit by coach as it parked. Hope son's life is safe in the hands of driver.

Best gift for your wedding anniversary?

2009-04-30T21:43:00.009+01:00

I think this is really weird. The article doesn't link to anything useful. I don't think "For all the home hobbyists, this cute heart-shaped pendant is going to be the best gift for your wedding anniversary!" but maybe I'm the one who's weird.

Ever heard of global warming Rog? Or trains?

2009-04-30T00:03:00.002+01:00

Anonymous said "Ever heard of global warming Rog? Or trains?"

Ah trains. I used to use them a lot when they went fast - Bristol Parkway to London was great - it's slower now than when I used it 25 years ago.

About 12 years ago I used to travel from Bristol to Sheffield - about 180 miles - should be an hour and three-quarters on a fast train - twice as fast as a car. In fact, it was hard to do the journey by train in twice that time, about the same time as it took by car. And the car was door to door. And the car didn't take an hour longer if I was five minutes late.

Now traveling from Bristol to Newcastle - 300 miles. By train it's five hours or over, rather than the two and half it ought to be. If I want to be in Newcastle first thing in the morning I'd have to leave Bristol the evening before, let's assume I can't get away from the office until 5:30 - I'll be hard pressed to get an 18:30 train and that won't get to Newcastle until way after midnight. If I'm prepared to leave Newcastle in the middle of the afternoon I can get back with about a five hour journey. However, if I want to spend most of the day there I can't get back until gone midnight. Flying I can do the journey - door to door (my house to hotel in Newcastle) in four hours - I can leave in the evening at get to bed in Newcastle before midnight. I can wake up in Newcastle and spent the morning and afternoon there and still get to bed in Bristol before midnight.

Now if we had a french-like high-speed rail-service maybe I'd use the train but it's just not fast enough.

Good service

2009-04-29T17:42:00.003+01:00

Since I'm prepared to moan about bad service it's only right that I should comment on good service. In this case the service was from Bristol International Airport. I'm soon to travel to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, by air from Bristol. When I booked my flight I also booked parking at the airport. I should explain that I made two parking reservations that day, one for my February holiday in Switzerland, and for this trip to Newcastle. Recently I received a mail from Bristol Airport about the Newcastle trip which mentioned "Parking Arrangements". I couldn't remember making any so I used the airport's website to check my bookings. Nothing showed up for the dates of my trip to Newcastle, so I made a parking reservation.

However, when I went to file the (paper) details with the flight reservation , I found the details of my previous booking. Two parking spaces is one too many, so I mailed the parking administration people at the airport and they sorted me out quickly. Thanks.

Bristol Airport - good to be able to check parking reservation on-line, bad that two made on the same day don't show up, but very good service.

Spring In Bristol

2009-04-19T19:56:00.001+01:00

A lovely spring day for a bike ride. Sunny but not too hot. Off to Leigh Woods and The Docks.

The wild garlic is out in flower. You can capture the gentle aroma as you cycle past. It will be a few more weeks yet before the air becomes heavily laden with the small though.

The bluebells are are also out. And again, not yet at their peak, just beginning to lay down a carpet through the trees.

Finally Bristol Docks, and yes that is someone waterskiing.

Temporary strap has the strength of original rod

2009-04-13T12:57:00.001+01:00

A crack was found in one of the links holding up the Clifton Suspension Bridge about a week ago. Last Sunday a Heath-Robinson contraption had been set up around the cracked link and today I noticed that the link had been replaced. As you can see from the photo, the new link does not match the old ones. I am very relieved to discover that this is a temporary fixwhile a matching replacement is being designed and made.

Seasons In The Sun

2009-04-06T20:18:00.004+01:00

I don't think I can manage this blog post without admiting that I like - up to the cheesy key change - Terry Jacks' "Seasons In The Sun". I think it's the Beach Boys organ riff and the Duane Eddy guitar line that appeal. I've known for years that the lyric is a translation of a Jacques Brel song but I'd never heard Brel's version until today when I caught Coverville's "The Seasons In The Sun Cover Story". Very interesting podcast and recommended listening.

Amazing fact number one: Terry Jacks was producing a Beach Boys session and got them to record Seasons In The Sun but they decided not to release it. Terry Jacks then decided to record it himself and released it - it sounds very like the Beach Boys version which Brian Ibott includes iin the Coverville show.

Amazing fact number two: Terry Jacks altered the song to be much more positive than the original English translation. He also omitted the following verse:-

"Adieu, Francoise, my trusted wife, without you I'd have had a lonely life.
You cheated lots of times but then, I forgave you in the end though your lover was my friend.
Adieu, Francoise, it's hard to die when all the birds are singing in the sky. Now that spring is in the air
With your lovers ev'rywhere; just be careful, I'll be there."

I guess Sting was familiar with this when he wrote "Every Step"

Finally, there are some truely dreadful versions to be heard on Spotify.

Elvis, Jimmy, Noel, Sugarbabes, Stevie W, ...

2009-03-31T20:13:00.002+01:00

Science City Bristol

2009-03-26T19:12:00.004Z

See Science City Bristol

Maths is sexy

2009-03-26T19:10:00.000Z

The Concrete Was On Fire

2009-03-22T13:34:00.006Z

Following up a link to "In the pipeline", an industrial chemist's blog (don't ask), I found some interesting information about ClF3, a particularly nasty compound which "sets sand on fire". In a
safety notice about the compound, a manufacturer, Air Products, says:

... a major incident involving ClF3 occurred the first time a one-ton steel container was loaded with liquid ClF3 for bulk shipment. However, ... the steel container wall ... split, ... instantaneously releasing 907 kg of cold ClF3 liquid onto the building floor. The ClF3 dissolved the 30 cm thick concrete floor and another 90 cm of gravel underneath the spill. The fumes that were generated (chlorine trifluoride, hydrogen fluoride, chlorine, hydrogen chloride, etc.) severely corroded everything that was exposed. One eyewitness described the incident by stating, “The concrete was on fire!”

Still, it can't have been that bad if there was an eyewitness left alive to tell the tale.

Call for new Top Level Domain - .ent

2009-03-21T09:45:00.003Z

It occured to me today, as I mistyped my e-mail address for the millionth time, that there should be a top level domain for fans of "The Lord of The Rings". It would be ".ent".

Aeroplanes take off

2009-03-16T21:20:00.003Z

From Aeroplanes

What a great gig last night. Bristol's Blue Aeroplanes played a pre-SXSW gig at The Thunderbolt. The line-up was Max Noble (guitar), Dave Chapman (guitar), Chris Sharp (bass), Wojtek Dmochowski (dance), Gerard Starkey (guitar and vocals), John Langley (drums), Garard Langley (vocals), Rita Lynch (guitar and vocals) and John Stapleton (DJ). I don't know how long it is since John Stapleton has performed with the 'planes but I don't think I've seen gim since I saw the 'planes play the Hope Centre back in the year dot.

From Aeroplanes

The band played a great set ("Raise The Roof", "Warhol's 15", "Sulphur", "25 Kinds of Love", "Angela Carter", "Play On Empty", "Oak Apple Day", "Police 38 Divinity", "Lover and Confidante", "One World Passport", "Tied To You", "Nothing", "Birthday Suit And Badge", "Jacket Hangs", and "Bury Your Love Like Treasure") and great encore ("Your Own World", "Too Drunk To Fuck", and "Breaking In My Heart"). The new material sounds great - "Sulphur" is excellent on a first hearing (I think - maybe they played it at Christmas) and "25 Kinds of Love" is not enough. (Sorry, I mean is fast becoming a favourite).

From Aeroplanes

This gig was so much better than the sad years when the Christmas show seemed like a "Gerard Swaggers - a Blue Aeroplanes Tribute Band". It's great to hear the good new material and the old stuff being revisited. It's as though the "Swagger" is no longer weighing down the band and they have moved on to pastures new and old.

Hi-tech begging bowl

2009-03-07T22:26:00.003Z

My dear wife is running in a charity run tomorrow. She's made use of the wonderful justgiving site to try and raise sponsorship. Amazing how begging has got computerised.

Wincanton Races

2009-03-05T21:58:00.003Z

I went horse racing today for the first time in my life. I think backing two horses in a three horse race and not backing the winner was the high point for me.

Spotify

2009-02-28T13:57:00.003Z

I've found Spotify. I found it because someone posted on HotUKDeals that Spotify had the new U2 album available for streaming this week (i.e. prior to release) and I thought I'd give Spotify a try.

Well, I'm impressed. I've used last.fm on and off but it seems to stream me lots of stuff I don't like and it's catalogue doesn't seem to have all the stuff it want to listen to. Spotify is different. To start with you can programme the music you want - none of this "XYZ Station" stuff which gives you a track by "XYZ" every fifteen minutes. 1-nil to Spotify. The catalogue is pretty good - I've noticed the absence of Richard and Linda Thomspon's "Shoot Out The Lights" - and it is just so good being able to explore music at whim. I particularly like being able play several versions of a song. For example, there are versions of "I Only Want To Be With You" by Dusty Springfield (*****), The Bay City Rollers (*), The Tourists (****), Tina Area(**), Nicolette Larson (*), Michell (* German but she sounds Japanese to me), Michael Poss (nil points - worse than the BCR).

Well worth a try out.

What a difference two years make

2009-02-25T19:36:00.000Z

Compare and contrast with the picture published on this blog two years ago. Last week in the Verbier region provided fantastic skiing conditions. It had snowed a lot the week before and had been very cold. That meant that last week we had great snow.

Of course, this doesn't mean that global warming isn't happening.