Monday, September 29, 2003
Online Radio Guide - Part 2 - Compost
I am still getting used to the fact that with my new Broadband connection I can be online all day, every day and it isn't going to cost me a fortune. I also can't believe I wont be getting any more of those snotty emails from BT telling me that BT Anytime doesn't mean BT AllTheTime. As I reported earlier, one of my favourite new pastimes is to explore the interwebbynet to find good sources of online music which, thanks to the speed afforded by ADSL, come across in MP3 quality stereo. Today's little treat is something called Compost Radio (Requires Real Audio Player ). This is a "show" which has been recorded online on behalf of German record label JazzanovaCompostRecords. Each show is over 2 hours long and they appear to be updated every month and the old ones archived. Net result is that there is now several hours of great music here for you to enjoy. Of particular note in this month's show is a preview of a, yet to be released, track called "Unclaimed" from Two Banks Of Four.
Ick-making Images
If you liked the moving optical illusions I found last week, then you are just going to love the site I came across this evening which is another that should have a health warning as it contains images that are likey to cause nausea, fits and all kinds of other reactions. The Wiggle pictures are on the site of one Jim Gasperini whom, it must be said, is a bit of a character. The picture on the right of this page is a good example of his work, achieved by taking a stereo pair of pictures and then superimposing them in a single animated GIF image. There are more on his site, including a naked rock climber, a nude by the sea, and some landscapes. If you are of a strong constitution, and have not eaten in the past 5 hours then you may want to take a closer look.
Friday, September 26, 2003
More Hutton Than You Can Handle
Most readers who live in the UK will, no doubt, have reached saturation point weeks ago on the media coverage of the Hutton Enquiry into the Death of Doctor David Kelly . For those who haven't or are not resident in the UK and would like to see just how open the UK establishment can be when it wants (or is forced) to be, you might be interested to take a peek at the online repository of (nearly) all the documentary evidence submitted during the past few weeks. One gets and amazing sense of voyeurism from reading diaries, emails and memos which were only ever intended for an audience of one single recipient. It is also interesting to see the language used by very senior government officials and advisors when they believe they are "off the record". As you read, bear in mind the fact that under normal conditions, (I.E. where there hasn't been a very public death of a key protagonist in a crisis of national importance forcing the Government to disclose and account for the minutiae of its daily activities) much of the contents of this website would not have seen the light of day until 30 years hence. The sheer volume of evidence submitted is amazing. No wonder it is going to take Lord Hutton six weeks to write up his findings. One word of warning - once you get into this library it becomes an incredibly distracting pastime and I have to confess to having spent many lost hours following threads of conversation, twisted logic and claim/counterclaim exchanges. Therefore, for those who are interested only in the juicy bits the BBC has an edited highlights page. Not so much fun but more focused and digestible.
Thursday, September 25, 2003
Wanted - Q - To Equip Double 0 Agents
Ever wondered where James Bond sent his application form to join MI5, the British Security Service? Why the answer is simple, he sent it to MSN TotalJobs, of course. And there was me thinking that Secret Service recruitment was achieved by a process of nods and winks and secret meetings in the pubs and coffee shops of Oxford and Cambridge. At least that is my excuse for spending so much time in those locations, hoping to get spotted by M or a very least (and to mix my metaphors) a George Smiley. Its not the danger or the intrigue I seek, you understand, but have you seen the cars, helicopters and other technological toys with which 007 gets to play? Closest I have ever come to getting my hands on such cool technology is the online store IWWOT, or the Security Shop in London.
Wednesday, September 24, 2003
No Post Today
Yet again I am without any post owing to an unofficial strike by postal workers. Not that I particularly mind, because it means that I don't have to worry about new bills arriving. I am however a tad anxious about the safe arrival of some photographic prints I ordered online. I need them to enter a competition to have one of my images included in a 2004 calendar. If they don't arrive before the closing date then I will have lost my chance to win. I have never joined a union, but then for most of my working life I have been employed by the high-technology industry where Union representation is very low. I do have sympathy for the need to show solidarity for workers who are ill-treated by employers, but surely there must be a way of achieving their collective aim without impacting hundreds of other businesses and thousands of consumers.
Tuesday, September 23, 2003
I Can Hear Clearly Now
I first encountered the splendours of Digital Radio when I purchased a Wavefinder device from Psion a couple of years ago. It looked pretty cool and had an interesting software interface but never really worked properly - something to do with a mismatch of my PC's motherboard the USB ports and some sub-standard XP drivers. As a result the crystal clear sound was interrupted with skipping, burbling and burping. Then Psion got out of the DAB receiver market and all hopes of a driver upgrade was lost. When I purchased my Freeview box, I could then hear the extra stations through my TV, but that was not ideal. I spent some time on the weekend looking at and listening to Bose equipment. I enquired whether or not they were planning to make any DAB equipment but as they are an American company the answer seems to be "No". Not really surprising as the USA has its own, different, digital broadcasting standard called XMRadio for which listeners have to pay for the privilege of tuning-in! As I walked from Oxford railway station to the bus stop this afternoon, I spotted this on sale in the window of Richer Sounds. Sale price was £79.99 but I got an ex-display model for £60. Fantastic sound quality and none of that skipping and burping I got with the Wavefinder. It seems that the price is reduced because the successor is now available at an RRP of £159.99. My new Evoke not only looks better than the Bose stuff I saw, but being DAB and well designed it also sounds infinitely better. The effect is improved when I channel the output through my Soundblaster 5.1 sound system on the PC. I can thoroughly recommend this little beauty. If you are a UK reader, go get one now and join the digital age.
Saturday, September 20, 2003
For the Man Who Has Everything
It seems that some people will buy (and sell) absolutely anything!
Thursday, September 18, 2003
Gandhi Remembered
I have just been listening to a play on BBC Radio 4 called Jallebies And Tea by Bettina Gracias. It was about a young Indian lady who finds herself alone in a London flat while her husband is at work. In her loneliness she finds solace in a cast of mysterious visitors including Gandhi, Shiva and other characters from the sub-continent's history. It reminded me that when the film Gandhi was breaking box office records and winning all the Golden Globes and Oscars, someone told me a few facts about the man of peace. Gandhi walked barefoot everywhere to the point that his feet became quite thick and hard. Even when he wasn't on a hunger strike he did not eat much and became quite thin and frail. He also was quite a spiritual person. Furthermore due to his diet he ended up with very bad breath. He became known as a super-calloused fragile mystic plagued with halitosis. Sorry!
Isabel on a Universal Scale
It seems that the Tropical Storm which is currently battering the East coast of the USA has a form similiar to other natural phenomena observed by scientists. A friend of mine lives on the British Virgin Islands and a week ago they were making everything secure in case the hurricane hit them. Then on Monday this week I recieved an email reporting that they were safe and well and the storm had, quite literally, passed.
Monday, September 15, 2003
Mine Eyes Dazzle!
Surfing around the web this evening I came across a Japanese site which contains some rather disturbing optical illusions. These are not those pictures which were popular in the mid-90s when you had to stare at a page for hours in the hope that the random mess of colours would suddenly reveal itself as a tableaux of the Queen of Sheba in full regalia passing through the Gates of Cheops. No these are altogether more immediate and ick-making is you are given to seasickness. (You have been warned!)
Saturday, September 13, 2003
The Best of Online Radio - Part 1 - KEXP
Ever since BT finally connected me on Broadband to the Internet I have been making maximum use of the bandwidth and unlimited time access to sample the audio and visual delights on offer from the many sites around the world. The first online radio station I checked out is the totally remarkable KEXP which broadcasts live from Seattle, WA, USA. Their music policy is extremely broad and thankfully contains nothing which might be considered "mainstream". I tune in for an hour or so everyday and it is a rare event indeed if I have previously heard any of the music they play, yet I enjoy nearly all of it. The station has a partnership with Seattle's Experience Music Project, which allows it to extend it's already eclectic music programming to provide "a richer musical experience for listeners". KEXP offer a variety of player streams so you probably already have on your PC the software required to listen. A very useful feature offered by KEXP is a live playlist. As each track finishes, the DJ back-announces by updating the website with track information including title, artist, and label name. I will continue to surf the IP-airwaves and see what other jewels I can find. As they say in radioland - stay tuned!
Friday, September 12, 2003
Temporary Webcam
My webcam is still not working again yet and so in the meantime I have borrowed/stolen the link from the BBC webcam in Oxford. This webcam on the 14th Century Carfax tower, facing east up the High Street. The tower is all that remains of Oxford's first city church, St Martin's. You can climb the tower's 99 steps to admire the view in person. During the day you can see the circular dome of the Radcliffe Camera, built by James Gibbs in 1737-49 and now part of the Bodleian library. At night you can watch the busses going up and down The High and spot a few drunks heading off down to the Kebab van which parks outside The Turl. (I wonder how many of them will have looked at the online consumer guide to eating kebabs in Oxford before making their choice?) [UPDATE 16th September 2003 - The BBC webcam seems to have stopped working. I hope it wasn't me!]
Thursday, September 11, 2003
A Moment for Remembrance
Two years ago today the world changed. There has been much written on the whys and wherefores surrounding the events of that day and I am not inclined to add to speculation or analysis. Minds greater than mine have already all but exhausted the topic. Last night I received an email from Ron and Pam, my good friends in Atlanta, GA, USA. Ron had been reminded of an email (containing a very embarrassing spelling mistake!) which I had sent to all my American friends on the morning of September 11th 2001 while watching the events live on TV. Rather than me tell the story, I will cut and paste Ron's email to me here and you can read his words first-hand. Dear Peter,
I had forgotten about the web site below until I followed a link to it from a news story about the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. I don't know if I ever told you about it, but sometime shortly after this site was created I submitted a copy of your touching e-mail to your American friends that you sent the morning of the attacks. Although I haven't forgotten your kindness in sending the e-mail, I had forgotten until today about the archive, and today was the first time I've seen that e-mail from you on their site. It's called the 911 Digital Archive, and here is the link to the page that has a copy of your e-mail, preserved (hopefully) for all posterity (e-mail addresses and last names were removed to protect privacy): Thanks again for the message you sent that awful morning. I think it's wonderful that both joy and grief can be shared almost instantly with those we care about (or even total strangers) across the oceans and continents.
RonAs I think Ron's email shows, it is the little acts of consideration that mean so much. So...... ....... Take some time today to think about your friends and loved ones around the world. Call them and drop them a line to tell them you are thinking about them. In today's connected world there really is no excuse for not keeping in touch.
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
Freerange Literature
Have you ever looked at the shelves full of paperback books you have in your house and wondered if you will ever read any of them again? Having just moved house I am currently speculating whether I unpack multiple boxes of books onto newly purchased shelves, or do something more productive with them. I have considered selling them via Amazon or Ebay but I have yet to investigate just how successful or profitable that could be. Last night I came across an interesting idea which might be a better alternative. Bookcrossing is a global book exchange program but with an emphasis on altruism. You release your books into the wild but tag them so that future readers (not owners, more borrowers) can let you know where they found it and how they like it. There is no expectation that you will get something in return for sharing your books, other than the satisfaction of tracking their lives after they have left your care. I am still trying to work out what, if any, business model sits behind this scheme. Websites of the quality and complexity required to run Bookcrossing are not cheap to develop or host so I am guessing the money came from somewhere. The site features some sponsorship, a few items of merchandise and some other items which are possibly revenue generating but for the most part it seems a completely free-to-use collaboration effort. It might be a pet project of an eccentric dot.com billionaire. The only real clue is a quote from someone called Ron Hornbaker who states that "BookCrossing is my software company's labor-of-love. I hope you enjoy it." The site also proclaims "- it's FREE and ALWAYS WILL BE!" So I don't think there is a catch. If you like what you've heard about BookCrossing so far, and want to share some of your books with the world and track where they go forever, take a quick minute and join BookCrossing now. Oh, and if you live in the Oxford area, keep an eye open for stray books and take care of them, they might once have been one of mine.
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
Reunited City
I am spending a couple of days in Berlin doing my "rent-a-mouth" bit for a conference. It has been a couple of years since I was last here and there have been dramatic changes as the city continues to evolve from a once divided populace and neglected buildings into one of Europe's more vibrant cities with some amazing architecture. My hotel is in the all new Potzdamerplatz. The original square was a crossroads which, after the building of the train station Potsdamer Bahnhof, became one of the busiest junctions in Europe. The square was badly damaged in the Second World War and subsequently became the the junction of the American, British and Soviet sectors. During this period it was cut through by the Wall, the wasteland decayed into a no man's land in the heart of the city. After the Fall of the Wall the area around Potsdamer Platz became the biggest building site in Europe. Between 1993 and 1998, the development arose on the land owned by DaimlerChrysler, with office buildings, shops, hotels, apartments and restaurants. Of particular note is the Sony Store, in which I spent a good deal of my spare time yesterday evening playing with all the cool technology.
Sunday, September 07, 2003
Long Time No Blog
It has been a while since I made a blog entry. This is partially because I have not had an Internet connection for over a week, but mostly because I have not been doing anything particularly interesting - at least not that I would think readers of this blog would want to know about. Since moving in much of my free time has consisted of unpacking seemingly unending boxes of stuff which I have accumulated and moved from house to house. Much of it has not seen the light of day since I last moved. I have therefore taken the decision to be brutal and consider my future need or use of any item I unpack. This has resulted in a few long thoughtful sessions and several trips to the rubbish dump. My life is now becoming far less cluttered and I am finding a new home for everything I want to keep. Yesterday morning the postman brought my BT Broadband starter pack and I am now online 24x7 at 500k. It is a fantastic liberating feeling to know that I no longer have to watch the clock on my internet connect time. The experience in getting a Broadband service has not been easy and will be the subject of another blog entry sometime in the next couple of days. Normal service should now return.
|