It was fun - with the bonus of seeing (and hearing) a pair of traction engines chuffing towards the car park.
Our journey home diverted to the Whipsnade Tree Cathedral - which is an amazing venue for a wedding - to pick up a couple of geocaches, which marked a suitable start to the half term break.
A few photos of our trip are below, including (if it works!) an interactive panorama of the view from the Downs. It's only a first-attempt, using hugin to stitch the images, and a neat bit of jQuery by GayaDesign.com to display it (both free!)... I will try do make more sophisticated one on my next trip.
Oh, and as always, there are more photos in the gallery.
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Now powered by Yawcam - and hosted on my Linux box (so it may not be online all the time!)
Please note: This will stop streaming after 10 minutes to preserve bandwidth. Simply hit 'refresh' to start it again.
As another week ends, with the threat of snow and a wind chill factor that makes me glad I'm indoors (and yes, it is the penultimate week of March!) I thought I'd write a long-overdue blog post. This one is about podcasts.
I still listen to quite a few podcasts, although the method by which I receive them has changed over the years; it used to be Juice, which downloaded to my hard drive, so that I could copy the MP3s to my Samsung SGH-i600 until I got an iPod Touch and iTunes took over.
When Downcast eclipsed Apple's software offering, I considered it a worthwhile investment, given all the good reviews, and used that until I decided that carrying both an iPod Touch and an Android Phone was a little unnecessary. The question was, is there a decent 'podcatcher' for my Galaxy S?
Well, there is now - it seems that PocketCasts (for Android and IOS) has come of age, and I am really happy with it - the 'Smart Playlists' option is impressive, and, now I'm used to - and can remember - how the interface works (there's a fair amount of subtle gestures that are required to get things done) I don't really need anything else.
In fact, I think podcasts are the main listen for me, certainly while I'm doing the housework or sitting at my computer; driving tends to mean my attention is shared with the radio (either BBC Radio 4 or Radio 1 - for research purposes, naturally!)
Being a creature of habit, I have certain listens at various times of the week:
- Friday mornings
Podquiz
- Friday evenings (just before bed):
A Point Of View
- Saturday mornings
The Bugle (the perfect way to start the weekend with a laugh)
More Or Less
The BBC Friday Night Comedy Podcast
- Sunday evenings
The Colonel Radio Show (rather rude, but quite entertaining to fall asleep to)
It's just something I wanted to remark upon - in the same way as television broadcasts used to be 'appointments to watch' I now have certain times to listen to podcasts... I am sure there are others that pop up when they've been published on certain days of the week (Prime Minister's Questions on a Wednesday, for example).
The rest of the week is scattered with a variety of offerings - I nearly four years ago I wrote a blog post about the shows I listen to, and some of them still exist! A more recent arrival, however has been Audioboo and the art of the 'audio journal' - it's interesting to hear what's going on in other folks' lives and so - I guess a little like listening to the Archers, but in 'real life' I will have the narrative tales of Richard Vobes, Lloyd Bayley, StriderPaul and many others play out in my ear.
It's amazing how much audio content there is out there - especially speech based, and as a real alternative to the anodyne hit radio that squanders the FM (and DAB) broadcasting spectrum. And as for internet radio... well, I'll save that for another blogpost, I think!
If you're interested, here's the current list of podcasts I listen to in a rather untidy (but podcatcher compatible) XML format: http://www.mus-ic.co.uk/other/rss/podcasts.xml.
]]>Visit www.silophone.net to listen to the device. It suggests you need Realplayer, but it's possible to listen using VLC (which, if you don't already have it, is definitely worth having as a versatile media player) - downloadable from www.videolan.org/vlc. Simply select Media -> Open Network Stream and enter:
You can submit your own recordings to be played out - if I have a caveat it would be that it has to be as loud as possible; there is a fairly strong noise gate, so quiet sounds won't get through.
Here's an example of a recording I've made this evening, with the output from the Silophone, and then mixed (with a bit of stereo magic) to make the 'full' sound; you'll need Flash to hear it, although you can also download the associated MP3.
Silophone sound - 'dry'...
Amazing-Silophone-dry.mp3 (112kB MP3 @ 192kbps)
Silophone sound - 'wet'...
Amazing-Silophone-wet.mp3 (549kB MP3 @ 192kbps)
Silophone sound - 'mixed'...
Amazing-Silophone-mixed.mp3 (550kB MP3 @ 192kbps)
There's been a growth in free on-line storage services of late, both independent - like box.net and dropbox - and affiliated with service providers (like Google Drive and Microsoft Skydrive). Of course, if you want real peace of mind, you can spend anything from a little per GB (Amazon Glacier, which is like a 'long term savings account') to a fixed price for unlimited storage for one PC (Carbonite) - more of a 'current account'. At the moment, I'm currently opting for the 'as cheap as possible' approach to online storage - for reasons which I will explain, but there may well come a time where I invest in a live 'offsite backup'.
Here's what I'm using:
- dropbox.com
- box.net
- drive.google.com
I use Dropbox for two purposes - for collaboration (I have created a folder called 'shared', and within that are all the folders that are linked to others' dropboxes) and for transferring files between my mobile devices and desktop computers.
Much like the other cloud storage solutions, Dropbox works like a hard drive or shared folder in Windows, so it's easy to drag and drop information onto the internet. There's an excellent piece of sofware called ES File Explorer for Android that makes dropbox available within the filesystem there, too. Very handy for transferring lots of files!
The bonus with Dropbox is that the more people you refer (or who open an account to share with you) the more storage you get, up to a limit of 16GB.
Oh, and there's even a version for Linux - I use the command-line based Dropbox service to upload my security camera motion detected photos to the cloud; even if the computer gets stolen, I can at least get a glimpse of the perpetrators!
Much like Dropbox, Box can live as a shared folder both on my desktop and my phone; the main benefit to this is that they have had special offers to give away 50GB of storage. It's like having an enormous USB stick (although I obviously need an internet connection to use it!)
I use Google Drive somewhat differently; it's the on-line backup for my website, SQL databases and Linux configuration scripts.
To achieve this, I use a Linux command-line programme called Grive which simply synchronises items between the local drive and the cloud using web-based requests. It's a bit buggy and clunky, but I'm not after anything complicated - just a spare copy of my site in case the PC stops working, or I need to move it elsewhere.
All in all, then, I've got quite a few GB of data on-line, but nothing I don't keep a copy of at home as well. That said, there are some files - such as archive DVDs and backup drives - that I really could do with having a spare copy of... that's something to explore when I consider whether to pay a single on-off price for a large external hard drive (an enormous 3TB for less than £100) or a monthly 'rental' of on-line, secure, backed-up space. Decisions, decisions - as soon as I come to a conclusion, I'm sure I'll write a blog post!
]]>Who knows whether I'll be able to sustain posts into 2013, but it's worth a go. I started a new job back in October, which is really interesting (it's Unix and DB2 based, which gives me a chance to stretch my shell command line muscles!) but I need to find more to do in my leisure time. I have a studio to make music in; you can find some of my more recent noodlings here: cacophonyx.posterous.com and I'm working with my pal Simon on some collaborative music under the name 'Jamfolder'... hopefully I will be inspired to make more this year.
Onwards, then...
]]>It was rather serendipitous, really, since Eddie Izzard - the main sponsor of the artwork (which was part of the London 2012 Festival) was visiting, too; we left him to it, but it was rather good to be able to take a photo of him admiring the art he played a great part in funding.
A few photos of the day are below - there are, as always, more in the gallery.
(It's worthy of note that our journey back - via the A23 and M25 via Heathrow - was a lot less eventful... perhaps simply because it was late on a Saturday evening!)
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I thought I might see if I could get live data off the device, using the USB cable and the software that came with it. I was delighted to find that the latest version of the software - although it only works with Windows - can run in the background, and updates a fairly simple SQLite database with the latest data from the Owl.
It's therefore possible to run queries against the database, using the SQLite3.exe command line (which is obtainable from the http://www.sqlite.org/download.html>sqlite.org website (at the time of publishing, it's in the sqlite-shell-win32-x86-3071300.zip file) to output the data:
C:\Uses\james> echo select * from energy_history; | sqlite3 C:\ProgramData\2SE\be.db
The data will rattle up the screen - it's up to you how you use this information, but the key bit is getting the information from the fields of the database; the separator is |.
The important fields are (save for fields 2 to 6, which contain individual date and time elements) 7 and 15, which contain an electrical current value and the full date. To get the current kW reading, though, one has to multiply the current value by 60 and then by the voltage supply as set in the options of the Owl (generally 240) then dividing by 1000. In this case, then:
1719928|2012|9|2|12|34|0.0385|8.855|46|1292|0.0385|0.0385|8.855|8.855|2012-09-02 12:34:00.000
The current power at 12:34 on the 2nd September is 0.0385 * 60 * 240 /1000 = 0.5544kW
How you express this depends on what you'd like to do with it; I've written a bit of shell script that uses gawk to extract the data then compiles it into an RSS file, and I use the Simple RSS Widget on my Android phone to display the most recent state of our electricity use. For completeness, here's the script:
#!/bin/bash
webroot="/var/html/"
rssfile=owl.rss
webrss=$webroot"/"$rssfile
pubdate=`date +"%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %z"`
nowdate=`date +"%H:%M:%S %d-%m-%y"`
guid=`date +%Y%m%d%S%M%H`
thisdata=`echo "select * from energy_history;" | /usr/bin/sqlite3 /media/owl/be.db | /usr/bin/tail -n 1`
thisused=`echo $thisdata | /usr/bin/gawk -F "|" '{ avg = (int($7 * 60 * 240)) } END {print int(avg/10)/100} '`
thisdate=`echo $thisdata | /usr/bin/gawk -F "|" 'END {print substr($15, 1, 19)} '`
echo '' > $webrss echo ']]>' >> $webrss echo ' ' >> $webrss # do the test' >> $webrss echo ' ' >> $webrss echo 'Owl report ' >> $webrss echo 'Current status of Owl energy monitor ' >> $webrss echo ' http://www.your.site/'$rssfile'' >> $webrss echo ''$pubdate' ' >> $webrss echo ''$pubdate' ' >> $webrss echo '600 ' >> $webrss echo '- ' >> $webrss echo '
' >> $webrss echo 'Owl update at '$thisdate' ' >> $webrss echo 'Current Owl display: '$thisused'kW ' >> $webrss echo ''$guid' ' >> $webrss echo ''$pubdate' ' >> $webrss echo '
Jamfolder's Debut PerformanceI took a day off work on Friday to attend the annual get-together of contributors and audience of the BritishTech Network (formerly known as 'BagelTech') known as the British Tech Bash. The day had started extremely damp, with constant rain from early morning until late afternoon; fortunately the garden had been covered with a number of gazebos (either donated or bought for the event!) but there were still lots of drips everywhere.
Despite the damp, it would be impossible to name all the fine folk who turned up to the all-day party/podcast fiesta, but among them were such podcasting legends as Don McAllister from ScreenCastsONLINE, Will Green from British Mac and - of course Ewen Rankin (whose wife was extremely patient to put up with nearly fifty geeks invading her house!).
With this in mind, it was something of a daunting prospect to be playing music live in front of an discerning (yet hopefully friendly!) audience, especially since I've never really done that before. Ever. I am a member of Jamfolder, and we have written a couple of songs together already; this was to be their first public outing.. well, performed live anyway.
We also threw in a couple of other songs (cover versions, mainly) - we certainly made it to the end of the performance without too much damage, although, being my worst critic, I would have said the guitar could have done with being tuned again before I started playing it! I was so pleased to have had such a kind reaction from those forced to listen to us (I understand at one point a neighbour stuck his head out of the window, bemused at what he was hearing!), and, with my bandmate's kind support, I think we might actually try it again sometime...
Here's your chance to see what we looked like playing live - in our 'Jamfolder' t-shirts and everything! I would add that this was our opening song, and it didn't go quite to plan...
Luton Olympic Torch RelaySo.. that was Friday. Today (Sunday) was the day that the Olympic Torch came to Luton, stopping off on its way around the UK. We decided to welcome it to town - Beth's parents live not far from London Road, which formed part of the route, so we parked in their road and walked down to where a fair number of people had already assembled. It was raining pretty hard when we arrived, but - much like Friday - it stopped when it mattered!
Here, then, is the moment the Olympic torch passed by a cheerful throng of folk - it made me happy to see Luton in fine festival form enjoying such a good-natured event.
I'm not sure weekends get much more interesting and varied as this... hence, I guess, why I've revisited my blog after several months of existing mainly on Twitter!
]]>
I woke up on Thursday morning feeling, if not completely ready for work (since I'd returned the previous evening from another trip to MediaCity UK in Salford) generally OK, save for a rather annoying discomfort in my thorax that I put down to bolting my food the previous night. I took some antacid tablets and, in my usual rush, left the house for work.
I was conscious that what I thought was indigestion hadn't cleared when I arrived in the office, but wasn't overly concerned, since - although it affected my chest area, I was still able to walk the two-and-a-half miles of the on-foot part of my commute and felt generally well (when the coffee had taken effect!) Late morning, though, after several mugs of peppermint tea, I thought I might just check the NHS Direct website to see what it suggested I should do about it. All the options said "call 999" so I did the next best thing and went to a meeting. I made the decision (having taken the advice of Beth, Twitter and work colleagues) that I would go to the nearby University College London Hospital for a look over. At about quarter past three, I let my colleagues know I was just popping to the hospital, and then made the fiifteen minute walk to the A&E department there, not really knowing what to expect!
Accident & Emergency
When I entered A&E, I was surprised that there weren't more patients there - I was one of maybe fifteen people; I had heard tales (and seen them for myself) of long queues and three hour waits, but I was called in to the first set of cubicles in under thirty minutes, and had been wired up to an ECG machine within the hour. The doctors and nurses were friendly but extremely organised - this was a highly tuned machine, although there would occasionally be a call out from the tannoy "Has anyone seen the keys for majors..?"
The bays in this A&E were cleverly constructed - in a horse-shoe arc around a central desk area they could accommodate two trolleys at busy times and there must have been something like twenty-five bays, with curtained fronts for privacy and swift access. There were all sorts of folk being admitted - from stretchers being pushed passed bearing injured from ambulances to drunk people being wheeled around, security guards in attendance in case of a fracas. I cannot fault the dedication and the care they took.
Even after futher ECG tests and an X-ray, I was still hoping that, by about half-past six, I might be allowed to escape. My Twitter - and now real life - pal Brennig was waiting in his car for any news of my imminent release, but none came.
Ward T1
In fact, I was taken by trolley - always somewhat frustrating when I'm entirely mobile, but I was wired up to a monitor to be fair - to a hospital ward (T1 in the Acute Medical Unit - bed 25 in the green zone, if you're interested) where I perched for a while - after inviting Brennig up for a chat! He stayed for a while, and it was lovely to have his company - especially given the uncertainty of the situation. Being an optimist, I was hoping that they'd complete the tests (I had another ECG shortly after I arrived which I thought might be my key to freedom) but most of the people I spoke to suggested that things tend to take a lot longer with the NHS...
At half past ten my pal Ann turned up, kindly bringing some emergency things (toothpaste, toothbrush, biscuits) but she wasn't able to stay. In fact, Brennig was asked to leave, too - I had assumed, since the patient opposite had visitors, it would be OK for my companion to stay after the 9pm close of visiting hours, but it wasn't until the next morning that I discovered why my initial assumption was wrong!
Here's the evidence of our brief tweetup - and the reason I couldn't venture further than the reception of the ward.. a wireless cardiac monitoring device that would send an alarm if it lost contact with the central system... they really wanted to keep track of me!
Overnight - and my fellow inmates
By the time I made it to the ward, the dayshift nurses had handed over to the nightshift team - there is, from my observations, a significant difference between the two types of care... much to do with the tasks that need performing, I suppose. My sleep was fitful, not least because my bed was right next to the nurses' station and there was a light above it which shone onto my eyeline. Still, I had podcasts, and I did drift off on occasion (which is frustrating since I missed the end of quite a few shows!) only to be woken at half-past two for my observations to be taken and at 5am for bloods.
It was only when the curtains were drawn back around the bed opposite, shortly before breakfast was served that the mystery of the extra visitor was solved - there was a chain between him and the occupant of the bed, a frail old man in his late 70s, who was clearly a big fan of tea and a regular visitor, since the nursing assistants knew exactly what he liked, bringing it to him long before the breakfast trolley arrived. His companions (for there were, indeed, two people with him - obviously to make it possible for one or other to leave for a brief time, although he clearly wasn't going anywhere!) were guards from Pentonville prison (at a guess - their epaulets had "PV" on them) and he was in for treatment after his lungs and heart developed faults. They changed over during the course of the morning, replaced by some other guards whose sole job was to be there... a pleasant enough pair who were regailed with his stories of a life as a sailor, forger, husband and father in the East End, along with poems and opinions... whatever came to his mind, really. I really enjoyed listening to his words, knowing that he might not have much chance to share them with others (he did seem very unwell!) - as I get older myself, I value the historical perspective offered by those who have seen more of the past than I have. I'm really glad my Dad is writing his autobiography for just that reason.
Anyway, breakfast was served (rice crispies, a slice of toast with butter and jam and some dreadful coffee), and the nurse shift changed - I was assigned to Alex and Helen (a trainee in her third year) who were wonderful - and very tolerant! As Beth pointed out, since this was an acute unit, there is a lot closer ratio of nurses to patients, and I felt quite guilty considering those around me had much more severe ailments. However, it was a good opportunity to listen about life as a nurse, certainly to Helen, who had a little more time to spend with patients. My friend Ann joined me once again, so I had company for the remainder of my stay. I'd also arranged for one of my colleagues to sneak in a decent cup of coffee on his way to the office - I honestly needed it!
Ironically, shortly after I'd finished my coffee, I had another ECG, and was visited by doctors at about half-past eight, who reassured me that all my measurements showed a healthy heart, but there was an abnomality just after the beat (called the ST segment in an ECG) which needed further investigation. This hadn't, however, changed from the previous one taken on my arrival, hence the need for blood tests.
Waiting for the heart doctor
Nothing happened for a while, until I was visited by Doctor Vivienne Ezzat, a cardiac doctor from the Heart Hospital who explained the theory - that I had an inflammation of the sac around my heart (also known as pericarditis); the measurements tallied with this theory, and they just needed to wait until the consultant came over to confirm this.
Doctor Walker arrived shortly before lunchtime and brought up the interesting question of whether I'd done a lot of long-distance travelling recently. I told him that I'd just come back from Salford, so had probably done ten and a half hours travelling in two days... he requested that a further blood test was taken to ensure that I didn't have any blood clots.
Release!
Not much else happened until a little before 5pm, when Beth had settled the children with her parents and made her way down to London so she could meet up with me either before I came home or - in the worst possible case - had to stay another night! As it happened, though, Doctor James (I can't remember his surname!) came in with the results that I was hoping for - nothing came back on the final blood test, so all I needed was some anti-inflammatories and I could escape once all the letters were signed!
It was. therefore, lovely to sit in St Pancras station with Brennig, Sophie, Ann and Beth, celebrating my release before we all went our separate ways - during the time I was there, I was kept company both in person and on Twitter, with lots of words of support and kindness. It could so easily have been an unpleasant, challenging experience, but in the event, I learned a lot and got a free heart health-check into the bargain!
Thank you if you sent me a message on Facebook, Twitter or on my phone - it's at times like these when one really knows how much one is cared for. Let's just hope it doesn't happen again any time soon!
]]>Beth saw a special offer earlier in the year that intrigued her - and she (quite rightly!) thought I might be interested: a morning at the Birds Of Prey Centre near Biggleswade, learning about falconry and 'flying' some of the birds.
The session started at 10am, with a demonstration of owl flying, although we arrived slightly early, so we could have a browse round the avaries and bird perches. One of the misapprehensions about displays of falconry is that it's cruel that the birds sit all day tethered to their perches - in fact, they are (and this is true!) incredibly lazy, and would otherwise just be sitting in trees all day, only moving to hunt and catch their prey. In the wild they find a clifftop or another post to sit on and do.. nothing!
The falconers have a strict regimen of exercise for the birds - even down to the moulting and measurement of weight, and there are 'summer' birds and 'winter' birds, appropriate for the season of hunting or displays.
However, the owls that were brought into the arena for some flying - we took turns to wear leather gauntlets for this! - didn't really feel like playing. Birds of prey, as well being lazy are also rather stupid - even owls! As a consequence, if they're not hungry, they'll just sit there. And that is what they did.
More gregarious are the Harris Hawks - Aidan (our instructor - a friendly, professional and rather tall man) trained Galifianakis, who was a young hawk; Nathan was twelve years old and more experienced. We had intended to do a demonstration 'hawk walk' where the hawks and the humans work in partnership to rouse the prey from the undergrowth and tree cover so the hawks swoop down and chase them. In fact, although Galifianakis (last year's brood was named after actors - they also have celebrity chefs, too!) behaved well, Nathan decided that we were incompetent, so flew off to the trees by the lake to find his own prey. Beth managed to hold him while he was still co-operating, though, and Galifianakis flew to each of us in turn, when we could persuade him from a tree (they get very nervous in open spaces... see - I told you they were a bit thick!)
Beth with Nathan the Harris Hawk
Consequently, we were left waiting while Aidan looked for Nathan - the hawks have bells on their tails, because they (rather unusually!) waggle their tails whenever they land, which makes them easier to find! That didn't help Aidan, though - he had to call his boss, who said that if Nathan goes on a hunt and misses his prey he tends to go for a bath... that's where he was found!
It was clearly a lighthearted occasion, though - when Aidan emerged with a damp bird, we all saw the funny side; fortunately it was a sunny, warm morning, so it was actually very pleasant standing in the enormous field and enjoying the countryside.
To make it up to us for the rather unco-operative birds, Aidan gave us a treat - an opportunity to hold a juvenile - hence the dark plumage - bald eagle, called McCoy. This is the most mild-mannered eagles he'd ever known; the other bald eagle there was extremely fussy and would only be held by women, since he thought men were a threat... given they have no sense of smell, I have no idea how they can tell!
Here, then, is me with eight pounds of (fish-based, mainly) killer:
We were then invited to the bird display, where owls, falcons and even a stork showed their flying abilities, nearly knocking some of the spectators off their seats as they swooped overhead!
After the display we went to the wooded area, where the owl - who had been in the display - behaved much better, flying to our hands with almost no prompting. We were invited for coffee and cake - where we had the opportunity to ask questions about the birds; they supplied the hawks, for example, that cleared Trafalgar Square of pigeons a few years ago, making it a much more pleasant place to be a tourist!
And that was the end of the event - one that I would certainly recommend, and we'll definitely be bringing the children to enjoy a flying display! There are more photos in the gallery: www.mus-ic.co.uk/gallery/birdsofpreyoct2011.
In case you're wondering what the appeal of falconry is, here's a rather impressive bit of video that shows (in typically overdramatic style) how fast they can go:
Here's an Audioboo.fm recording I made near the hawks and owls - all the noise they're making is social - they like to squawk to each other!
]]>
At first, we thought it might be our connection to Virgin Media - not least because of my suspicions that the cabinet up the hill from us had been left unlocked and water might have got in to disrupt the connection. I have to say that, in the times we had trouble with the internet dropping out, the customer service centre and the social media team on Twitter have been remarkably helpful, to the point where I finally concluded that the router was at fault.
Linksys WRT54G - no longer usable.
Why? Well, the advice I received over the phone, when the internet connection next failed, the 'cable' light extinguished on the cable modem, was to plug a computer directly into the modem and enter "http://192.168.0.100" into a web browser. That would display a page that indicates whether the problem is 'upstream' (i.e. beyond the cable box in the street) or 'downstream' (i.e. from the cable modem to the box). Armed with this information, I didn't have long to wait until the next internet failure - I plugged a laptop into the network connection of the cable modem, and... straight away the internet started working!
This reminded me of something. Earlier on in the year, my Dad had been complaining that his desktop computer had been refusing to connect to the internet, and he was unable to connect his laptop to the wi-fi router, so he'd given up and plugged the computer straight into the cable modem, which seemed to work (although rendering his laptop frustratingly offline). Guess what.. yup - he had a WRT54GL.. practically identical to ours!
My theory is that, as broadband speeds have increased, the ability of such routers to cope with the amount of data that can be passed from WAN to LAN reduces to the extent that, on occasion, they simply give up.
I ordered a cheap - but modern - router to replace my Dad's ailing Linksys (a TP-Link TL-WR543G for less than £20) which seems to do the trick, and, since we have tens of wireless devices that might connect to the network from an iPod Touch to an internet radio - and since I had some savings, I thought we might need something a little more robust, so we ordered the DrayTek Vigor 2830n, which can do lots of cool interesting things like plot graphs of our internet usage and limit bandwidth to PCs which would otherwise use up the traffic limits Virgin media applies to their customers.
DrayTek Vigor 2830n Traffic Graph
Co-incidentally, I related my tale of woe to my brother Dave, who said that he had just replaced his router because it kept losing its internet connection. Yup.. it was a WRT54G! He's got himself a Draytek, too (a Vigor 2110 in his case) - they clearly come highly recommended.
So far, the new router's done us very well - at least the internet doesn't inexplicably stop working now!
]]>A few years ago a few friends of mine in Scranton, Pennsylvania received a letter with no return address. It contained a blank c.d. with about 10 tracks on it. Most of these tracks were awful sounds and children singing out of key, or bad pop-punk. The last track however, was 'sent fishing by your neighbor'. We listened to this track over and over, and while investigating it, someone decided to rewind the track using the search button. It clearly spoke sent fishing by your neighbor while played backwards. And forward search as well. This only worked on my stereo. Then the c.d. mysteriously disappeared. I just discovered your web page. Is this intentional? If not, you should be aware of your spooky powers. You have them. We want to know if our parachute works. Does it work? I have to know now. If it doesn't work, what am I supposed to do? Think about my death? You tell me friend.- Your Friend,
the Hubble space telescope.
This email refers to a piece of music that was created by a small collection of us (Suzanne, Beth, me, Ed and Beth's Mum) on a Monday evening as a contribution to MP3.com, a site which encouraged musicians to submit their own music, and showcased it to the world. In fact, at one point it even gave royalty payments for every time a track was played.
It was possible to create publically sharable 'playlists' of favourite songs, and it wasn't long until someone came up with the idea of collecting together the weaker, cringier and generally outsider songs onto a playlist, calling it "The Worst Of The Worst." This caught my imagination - along with a short-lived WFMU programme called The Incorrect Music Show, and one Monday evening, a small group of us got together to record our own interpretation something that was a little.. unusual, in the hope of getting onto the Worst Of The Worst list.
What was quite amazing was that Time magazine published an article on the Worst Of The Worst collection, and cited our song "Sent Fishing By Your Neighbour" as an 'alternadirge'. Unfortunately, the page is no longer available - I am fairly sure I scanned in the article, though... I wonder if I can find it.
edit: Thanks to Paul from Macsessed.com, here is the article in Time Magazine... great find, sir!
www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1000034,00.html
The work of Offwight Radiator, although somewhat hard to digest, is still available, although the band is on hiatus, so can no longer do personalised performances.
I'll mention in passing that another band that made it onto the Worst Of The Worst playlist was "PritStik" - a pair of Scottish siblings who recorded some lo-fi pop when they were about the age Chris and Lenni are now. MP3.com enabled musicians to create bespoke CDs with their music, making it available on 'hard copy' - I am one of (I believe) very few owners of the whole PritStik album. I wonder where PritStik Mik and PritStik Mej are now... MP3.com was sold in 2001 to Vivendi, and no longer encourages people to upload their own music.. the content was sold to Garageband.com, which is now part of iLike/MySpace. Ten years ago there was an internet phenomenon - it's just so odd that I got an echo of it this morning, but it brings back some wonderful memories.
What an interesting way to start a weekend, though... whoever sent that email: thank you! (I may have to ask the children to perform a moving tribute to it later, as a tribute to PritStik...)
I think it's by virtue of the fact that Holland Park lies in one of the most affluent areas of London that it is so well looked after, but the atmosphere was pleasant and relaxed (Regents Park has so many rules and regulations it doesn't feel like a traditional park at all in some ways) - in fact, while we were there, we saw three wedding parties arrive, and at least one children's party in the larger of the play areas.
We enjoyed a picnic, then, after some time in the playpark, the children were let loose on a 'wide game' with some of the other folk who attended - there's no doubt that they were good and tired when they got home, and the rain held off all afternoon!
Here, then, is a photo of Chris enjoying the Sculpture garden (aren't the best sculptures ones you can climb on?) and Lenni on the back of a tortoise in the D Garden. I definitely hope we'll go back - there's still plenty to explore.
