bignoseduglyguy

View from the sofa on a wet Saturday

2006-09-09T05:46:00.000+01:00

The rich, warm, orchestral tones of Joni Mitchell plays while the day-long rain turns the water pooled on the deck effervescent and bubbling like a dull sparkling wine.

The mild regret of a day's chores hijacked by rain is balanced by the peace of mind that the rising water in our tank brings.

The damp of the day is kept at bay by the burnt ochre glow of the gas fire and the smell of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies hanging in the air.

On the sofa, the sections of the weekend paper are jumbled up with remote controls and cushions. Those cushions not on the sofa are on the floor, where they support the dozing forms of a black cat and a mood-drained teenager.

Behind the music, differing rhythms are played out by the raindrops; the constant gravel-crunch on the flat roof above versus the bigger irregular splashes on the bay window in the kitchen.

As the rain eases for the first time since dawn, the strings of Barber's Adagio swell to mirror the sombre greyness of the sky, causing the teenager to stir and the cat to curl tighter.

Savouring the comfort and warmth of being submerged in the sofa is slowly giving way to the desire for tea and a cookie - but not just yet.

However, as soon as a hopeful thought of prolonging the moment occurs, the wail of the fire service siren calls the volunteers from their homes and the moment slowly dissolves. The teenager awakes and, inevitably, asks: are the cookies ready?

test

2006-06-24T01:44:00.000+01:00

test

No.8 Wire for wifi routers

2006-05-07T07:05:00.000+01:00

Effective though my DLink wifi router is, it isn't quite powerful enough for me to get a decent signal in my bedroom. This is a shame as I'd love to prop myself up in bed on lazy winter mornings and enjoy the pastoral view from the windows whilst reading email and feeds. As someone who lives in a country that prides itself on ingenious pocket money solutions, I think I have found the answer to my wifi woes.

Things to come?

2006-04-25T05:24:00.000+01:00

via Bike Lane Diary

Parallel bookmarking

2006-04-24T23:16:00.000+01:00

Late last night, I made one of those 'why didn't I look for this months ago?' finds on the web. I have flip-flopped between del.icio.us and Furl for ages, liking both del.icio.us' simplicity and Furl's ability to cache a page. As a merge of these two tools is unlikely, I have found that Alan's Marklet Maker site submission multi tool provides me with the next best thing: one toolbar button for the creation of two parallel submissions - I just add tags and save. The tools offers the user the choice to combine up to 20 popular social bookmarking/tagging tools in one bookmarklet, though I'd imagine generating more than three or four entry forms would be a little unwieldly and self-defeating.

Back to front Brompton bag

2006-04-13T23:53:00.000+01:00

In days gone by, bicycle saddle bags rested neatly on the rear stays which were, by and large, less acutely angled than they are today and provided stable storage for waterproofs and lunch. Likewise, conventional handlebars provided an ideal location for a handlebar bag into which small loads can be stuffed and on which maps can be stashed for easy reference. However, on unconventional bikes like my Brompton, the handle bars are of an unusual design and there are no rear stays as such. This means standard handlebar bag fixings don't fit and saddle bags either swing wildly from the strap loops on the saddle or need to be supported by an expensive saddle bag support mechanism. Although Bromptons have a range of panniers, the phrase 'Brompton pannier' is perhaps a little misleading in that they actually attach at right angles to a bracket on the head tube, rather than the rear rack (which not all models have). My large Brompton touring pannier is really too large and wind-resistant for simple day/club day rides and my Carradice saddle bag swings into my thighs when I'm riding. Pondering on these annoyances last night, I hit upon the idea of removing the frame from the large touring pannier (designed to do so for cleaning etc), mounting it on the front of the B and attaching the saddlebag to it. In this way, I get the stable carrying capacity I want on day rides in an accessible position. A brief Good Friday test ride through the deserted local township early was enough to prove the hack was worthwhile and worked as hoped for. The only improvement/tweak I want to try is to fashion a lightweight interior frame from a discarded realtor's sign (the corrugated plastic type) to provided a tad more shape and rigidity to the bag.

It was only a matter of time

2006-04-13T09:38:00.000+01:00

Welcome to Google Calendar

The wonder of wheels

2006-04-07T22:55:00.000+01:00

It is an oft quoted factoid that humankind has yet to devise a more efficient machine for turning human effort into motion than the bicycle. Saying this to non-cycling folk is all well and good but does little to place the information in context. This simple but enlightening set of images from World Bicycle Relief makes a similar point in a more accessible manner and neatly makes the case for how the simple technology of the bicycle can dramatically transform lives and livelihoods across the globe. I only mention this because I'm off to ride my Brompton to the local bike shop and I want to appear virtuous and enlightened this bright and sunny Saturday morning [removes tongue from cheek]. I'm going to measure up the knackered forks on my Dawes Discovery (which was mangled by the movers when we emigrated) for replacement. Once I have sourced the forks from the UK, via Gary, friend and Tower Hamlets Wheeler and Bicycle Magic, former local bike shop, I should have the Dawes looking more like it did on a Docklands ride last year.

Animation Interlude

2006-04-07T09:37:00.000+01:00

With the price of Broadband here in NZ, I don't watch a lot of animation online but I have just spent a minute watching the superb Shoo Fly, animated by the obviously talented John Su. Apparently, he created so many Flash frames for the main character, Nelly, the colour of his mouse button has changed through overuse! Discovered via Dave Seah.

For productivity geeks only

2006-04-06T07:20:00.000+01:00

If you have never heard of David Allen, never argued over Hipster PDAs with folks at 43Folders, have no firm opinions on stationery and don't give a stuff about personal productivity and organisation, The GTD Prayer will mean absolutely nothing. Those who identify with the clauses above will get it. via Alexia at the GTD Yahoo group.

Excel calendar hack

2006-04-05T08:02:00.000+01:00

Amongst the other smart productivity stuff bursting from David Seah's Better Living Through New Media I found a great year at a glance Excel calendar that'll suit the ever-evolving paper system inside my conference file/folder. Following the example of others, I have worked up a localised New Zealand version for myself and others in Aotearoa.

See this before it gets pulled

2006-03-31T10:19:00.000+01:00

A car advert the likes of which you'll never see on TV . The Chevy Tahoe: The Apprentice ®: effort is superb. Spotted at bikescape.

Meanwhile, on the South Island

2006-03-27T07:02:00.000+01:00

At 1 in 1.266, Baldwin Street in Dunedin is the steepest street in the world.

It had to happen

2006-03-18T09:50:00.000Z

I have long anticipated this day but often thought it may not come. SWMBO is launching her own blog. Whilst she is certainly not a Luddite, SWMBO is not an early adopter of most technology and has a pathological aversion to reading instruction manuals of any kind. This combination means that it has took the insertion of 12,000 miles between SWMBO and her friends to prompt her to embrace email as quick and effective way of closing that gap. A few weeks back,to support her first business venture, she put up a branded web presence and added a separate email address. This week, she has decided to put up a blog. Like me, she tried to keep friends and relatives up to date with family news and adventures with emails but has, I think, found it difficult to ensure that she gets the same news to everyone who wants to know and remember who has read what. I have just managed to sneak a quick preview and I can see that I am going to have to raise my game. So, if you have always wondered what SWMBO has to say for herself or why on Earth she puts up with me, head on over to A Word From Wendy to find out - and no prizes for guessing what SWMBO's real name is!

We've come a long way, you and I

2006-03-13T05:57:00.000Z

I must have clicked on a link to Internet Archive Wayback Machine at some point in recent times - probably while reading the excellent Ian's Messy Desk because I have just found this page of links to old versions of my blog open in a Firefox tab. Clicking through the links, I have found three earlier versions of my fledgling blog, not to mention links to my 'blog about a dog', my old HappyPalm column and a whole lot more besides. I even found a remnant from my first ever website, a web resource page about Williams Syndrome which even includes some text that utilises the dreaded blink html tag.

Hand-drawn graphic from my old blog c.2001

Patience and Persistence

2006-03-12T04:39:00.000Z

I am not normally one for made-for-TV movies. However, on a rainy Sunday, when I see look through the TV guide and see a movie that I have never heard but has a pedigree cast that includes William H Macy, Helen Mirren and Kathy Baker, I'm willing to take a chance. Door To Door turned out to be a great film with a tour de force performance from co-writer Bill Macy as Bill Porter, a Watkins door to door salesman who has cerebral palsy. The film tracks the change in American culture and values in the second half of the 20th century through the true story of Porter's life - one of patience and persistance and the value of the human spirit in an increasingly insular society. What could have easily been a mawkish and manipulative movie was, in fact, a great film with assured performances from all concerned. I encourage you to seek it out or failing that, you can read more at billporter.com or (as I am going to do) buying the book 'Ten Things I Learned From Bill Porter'. Interestingly Bill Macy's wife, Felicity Huffman, plays a small supporting role in the movie - she is now better known for her starring role as Lynette in 'Desperate Housewives'.

Lock down

2006-03-11T08:48:00.000Z

After much exasperation and effort, I have finally stopped trying to get Norton AntiVirus to update it's own virus definition files and canned it along with the firewall that was bundled with it in Norton Internet Security. The family PC is now watched over by AVG Plus Firewall Edition and probably will be until the very reasonable two-year license runs out and we buy a Mac desktop instead.

A great sports drink? You'd be surprised

2006-03-03T08:48:00.000Z

I just love stories like these. At just 50 calories more than certain branded sports recovery drinks, a decent chocolate milk will get my vote every time. Better living through (popular) science.

The best laugh I've had in ages

2006-02-27T22:31:00.000Z

Remember when you built your first web site? Remember how you thought it would be really cool to have all those images, blinking words and scrolling marquees? How you couldn't resist using all of the design elements provided in the web page builder you were using? I had completely forgotten just what the results of all that can look like until my friend Andy pointed folks to his own doctor's website. I laughed so hard the roofers working on our house came in to see what I was laughing at! Andy, I'd find another doctor.

Bike jump starts car

2006-02-26T08:56:00.000Z

Bike Blog by Jim Doherty has a great story about a bike jump starting a Toyota car.

Summer Sunday morning

2006-02-04T22:14:00.000Z

I'm having a lazy Sunday morning, baking bread, reading RSS feeds, answering emails, listening to iTunes and playing with ecto, the Mac blogging client. As I was doing this Waiting In Vain from the album "Legend Remastered" by Bob Marley popped into my ears and completed my mood. Such a simple yet superb song.

Have fun - Play

2006-02-01T06:19:00.000Z

Play by dustball is a great piece of fun and well worth the 'load' wait.

I must be bonkers

2006-01-24T10:18:00.000Z

Another late evening and I'm tinkering with stuff that ain't broke. Feeling the need for a change in email client, I'm currently experiencing the joy that is importing Mail.app maiboxes into Thunderbird. Readers with long memories will know that I do stuff like this on a fairly regular basis. For those idiotic enough to try this for themselves, I would advise that I am having so much trouble, I am now enabling 'pop access from forever' all my Gmail accounts and downloading all three accounts back catalogue from scratch. Like I say, I must be bonkers.

Slipping through my fingers

2006-01-22T06:40:00.000Z

For those who have endless time on their hands, the Falling Sand Game might prove to be a diversion worthy of an hour or several. Nice piece of coding.

The Winters Tale

2006-01-21T21:58:00.000Z

"I was drowned by Montgomery Clift, run over by both Alan Ladd and James Mason, knifed by Robert Mitchum and strangled by Ronald Colman ... I couldn't understand a word Michael Caine said, I just waited for the gaps and then said my lines." Two of many great quotes by the late Shelley Winters that makes me want to go and buy her kiss and tell autobiography.

Like a stock market tip, only it's music

2006-01-19T09:17:00.000Z

That cranefly will be the next big thing is indisputable. The only things that are not clear are when, where, for whom and quite how it will all come about. In the meantime, the studio session and gig photos are great - if you've ever been in a band, you'll know why - and the downloads will give you a flavour of something a little different. Though in no way musically the same, to my lo-fi ears cranefly are tapping the melodic vein of earlier times in much the same way as Grandaddy (listen to cranefly's Knocked Down and then Grandaddy's Pull the Curtains) has in the US and, to a lesser extent, Wolfmother are doing in Australia.

From the 'You couldn't make this up' desk

2006-01-18T07:30:00.000Z

Until today, I had no idea that a smoot was a unit of length. I shall never see the ISO (International Standards Organisation) symbol again without thinking of Oliver Smoot.

From Russia With Love

2006-01-14T09:41:00.000Z

A not so cool things about moving to New Zealand is that unless I maintain a credit card with a UK billing address - or go to the trouble of pretending at least - I have now joined the ranks of disenfranchised Kiwis who have no local iTunes Music Store portal. Luckily, the entrepreneurial comrades at ALLOFMP3 are happy to relieve me of my NZ$ without being sniffy about where I live. Another less than cool thing about iTunes 6 is that the mini store bundled with it includes a snoop feature that provides data back to Apple on your taste so they can recommend other stuff. Disabling it is no biggie but naughty not to be up front about it with the loyal Mac minions.

What a difference 21 years makes

2006-01-14T09:08:00.000Z

If you would like to see Moore's law exemplified in one photograph, then this one of a $40,000 Hard Drive should do the trick nicely.

Thoughts before retiring

2006-01-10T10:02:00.000Z

Reading the last few mails and scan the last few feeds before heading to bed, I have just caught myself having the most ridiculous thought: Wouldn't it be nice to get a job in a place where they use Macs? I mean I have just secured a job in a great company in a new country and I have a thought like this? The underlying cause is the fact that like many a fence-jumper before me, I am really loving the Mac experience - not the ubergeek hype that goes with Powerbook ownership or the Holy Grail of attending MWSF (if you need to ask, you ain't invited) - just the ease with which I can do my mail, surfing and 'ordinary bloke who's a bit interested in computers and technology' stuff. A great example of the whole Mac thing is Quicksilver - a 'unified, extensible interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data.' For those Mac users who, like me, are driven nuts by locked-down menu-bloated Windows machines in their workplaces, Quicksilver is the kind of thing you think about when clickety-clicking umpteen times to simply add a to-do to a text file on your USB thumb drive. And so to bed.

Nuts

2006-01-08T08:55:00.000Z

Want to know where your iBook or Powerbook were made and when? Want to know how efficient your 'book battery is compared to when it was new? coconutBattery and coconutIdentitiyCard will reveal all.

Biblical cellular plans

2006-01-06T21:09:00.000Z

My history with NZ's cellphone provider Vodafone has not been an entirely happy one, what with being sold phones that they then wouldn't connect, refusal to raise farcically low credit limits and receiving three month's billing on a phone I handed back after 24 hours. However last night, in a call with the lovely Marni during which I again vented my spleen, things took a bizzare turn. Having worked through my various annoyances and agreed on downgrading my call plan, I asked to be placed on the basic minimal off peak use plan. "Ah, so you'd be wanting to go on to Gethsemane then?" said Marni. "Sorry?!" I said, wondering that Vodafone were now offering spiritual connections as well as telephonic ones. "You're wanting to go on to Gethsemane then?" she repeated. "Gethsemane?" "No - Get 70 - the Get 70 call plan!" "Ah" said I. Well, it's a mistake anyone could make, isn't it?

Tired and emotional

2006-01-04T09:52:00.000Z

To paraphrase George Peppard in the of-it's-time TV show, 'The A Team', I hate it when a plan doesn't come together. My plans for the four day holiday that has just passed included:

Conducting an annual review of my GTD setup.
Getting some serious blogging done here and at No 8 Wire.
Beating my offspring at some retro games.
Researching running routes north of Auckland.

Instead, I managed to get my iBook to throw a hissy fit by:

Allowing a colleague to install VirtualPC against my better judgement.
Trying to get the aforementioned and Missing Sync to work.
Trying to bluff my way to fixing the ensuing chaos.
Managing to wipe out my iTunes library with a iBook reset.
Sending ecto into a crippling login/rsgistration loop.

Luckily, I stopped bluffing and fixed the iTunes snafu by doing lots of this kind of stuff and then got way too tired, gave up and went to sleep. Having had this gnaw away at me all day at work and the dentist[1] afterwards, I came home and did a lot of file trashing, back tracking and head scratching, followed by a bunch of stuff nicely detailed in here and fixing ecto by doing the clever thing. Lessons learned from the last fours days?

Install/load/attempt one thing at once - Macs don't like impatient humans any more than PCs.
RTFM - rather than blindly do the same thing over and over until your blood pressure's sky high.

In the midst of all this mayhem and destruction, I did happen across ZenCast and downloaded the latest podcast in the series, an excellent talk by Kusala Bhikshu who, as well as being a Bhikshu monk, appears to be an enlightened Mac user as well. This hour long look at 'Meditation - How and Why?' was just the calming influence I needed to see me through my morning and evening commutes earlier. With that, me, my karma and my Zen-attuned iBook will both now enter sleep mode. [1] $365 for a composite crown to replace a long-destroyed molar! Maybe it'd be cheaper to get to the third Buddhist state, where being at one with the pain means I would feel no pain because I would be the pain.

Major security hole in Windows WMF

2006-01-02T11:05:00.000Z

IMPORTANT: Major security hole in Windows WMF - from Guardian Unlimited Jack Schofield writes:

"Your Windows PC can now be infected with the nastiest malware imaginable just by viewing an image, or just by (say) Google Desktop or Lotus Notes or some other software accessing the image without you even seeing it. Using a recent version of Firefox or Opera is an improvement on IE but does not guarantee safety. Worst of all, this flaw in Microsoft's WMF picture file and fax viewer is a zero-day exploit for which there is no fix, officially."

No iBook smugness here - the family use a PC so I'll be busy slamming this door tomorrow if I can.

Run, forest, run

2006-01-02T01:47:00.000Z

This track and the forest beyond has become a regular haunt for me over the last week or so. Whilst I was running regularly back in London, I have lapsed severely since leaving the UK and have managed just one run each in Los Angeles, Rarotonga and Foxton. As we are now more settled and I'm no longer tearing around chasing interviews, I have started to get back into the groove. Thanks to the endless takeaways and a little too much beer and wine in this land of plenty, I guess that I am about about 5kg heavier than I was when I was in London. Add to this the usual Christmas and New Year festivities and you'll appreciate that it is proving to be something of a hard slog. However, I am now able to run amongst the tall firs of the local forests, swapping the pavements, car horns and fumes of London's East End for the birdsong, chirruping cicadas and pine scent of Riverhead. The difference is incredible, allowing me to enjoy the experience and focus on my running rather than watching traffic or teenage gangs out to hassle the unwary. All this is just as well because, somehow in amongst all the frantic activity of starting my new job, I have managed to sign up for at least one leg of the Great Lake Relay 06. The thought of driving down country in six week's time with a bunch of colleagues to spend the night running 160kms round the country's biggest lake has had a certain sobering effect, I can tell you.

FreeMind updated

2005-12-31T03:21:00.000Z

Since I started wandering around the world, FreeMind, the best open source Java mind-mapping application and one of my favourites has been enhanced and much improved. Regardless of whether you are on a Windows, Mac or Linux box, there's a release for you and - if you're on another OS - the binaries are available. This is great for me as I can share mind maps between my work PC and iBook without any pain.

Trying to pull it all together

2005-12-28T09:22:00.000Z

As I have mentioned recently to few folks like Michael, I'm trying to get my personal productivity and task management back on track, as is my wont this time of year. However, this year I have managed to complicate things a little by moving myself and family to the other side of the world, taking a challenging job in a whole new industry and spending the three months prior working from a briefcase and laptop at various wifi hotspots. To add to the disorientation, I'm required to use Outlook as my main PIM at work when the last time I used it, it was called Schedule+. Instead of the more usual laptop, I have been issued a new smart phone, an iMate Jam running Windows Mobile to hook into my mails and PIM functions via the company's Exchange server. All this is slightly at odds with my personal setup, where I've pretty much moved all my non-work computing/online activities to my iBook and my Mac-compatible Nokia 6680 3G phone. I have almost relinquished the PC to the women of the house, save for using it as the admin terminal for the ADSL service and my wifi router. I still have and cherish my Palm T3 but don't use it as I'm overloaded with gadgets and the Mac Palm Desktop is less than friendly in my opinion. And the point of all this is? Casting around for possible solutions, I happened upon BitPal, a cross-OS PIM that seems to offer the possibility of bridging the yawning gap between Windows environment at work and my Mac/Symbian. Small enough to sit comfortably on the smallest of my USB thumb drives, it'll be interesting to see how it works out, though the initial sync with the iBook is taking an awful long time - perhaps not the best of omens. [UPDATE] - Subsequent syncs were no faster so it's back to the drawing board for now. I like the premise of BitPal so I hope that the development of the idea continues.

NewsGator swallows NetNewsWire

2005-12-27T06:08:00.000Z

Yesterday evening, my buddy Chuck and I were talking over the variety of RSS aggregators available out there and what we prefer to use on which platform. Earlier today, I had a similar chat with Jason. All three of us now use both Windows and Mac machines on a daily basis and between us, we narrowed our preferred apps down to NetNewsWire Lite, Firefox with the Sage plug-in and the web-based Bloglines. It was, therefore, with interest that I saw whilst reading The Office Weblog feed just now I clicke-through on a link to discover that the NewsGator has acquired NetNewsWire. Regardless of the particular RSS client app I end up using, I will certainly create a recurring to-do on my PDA to periodically synchronise the OPML file in the client with one of the web-based feedreaders. That way I get to read my favourite feeds from anywhere and I also have my subscriptions backed up if the worst happens.

Back with a vengeance...

2005-12-26T10:42:00.000Z

I suspended blogging here a few months back in favour of more spasmodic output over at No. 8 Wire whilst we emigrated to New Zealand, secured a job, sorted visas and found a house to live in. Whilst I have never been the most consistent of bloggers, I now intend to resume blogging here as well as continuing elsewhere. This decision is prompted by the fact that I am back on a broadband connection after four months of email and internet access via Bluetooth connection to a 3G smartphone. Having said that, there's a lot to be said for regular paychecks, sleeping in the same bed every night and familiar surroundings too. After at least two minute's thought, I am pretty sure that I will now split my blogging across the two sites. No.8 Wire was always intended to be a collection of impressions and recollections centered around our experience as migrants in New Zealand. This being the case, I hope to keep that focus as the core of my writing there whilst broadening it a little to include things of interest to friends and family around the globe. bignoseduglyguy will resume where it left off - as a stream of bits and bobs, comments and critiques, fun and philosophy - namely a common or garden blog. As for writing elsewhere, I was involved in the London launch of the ever-growing Metroblogging franchise and still intend to post there occasionally as a 'foreign correspondent' though, now I have sorted shelter, food and warmth for the family, I might just have time to work on something else with Sean and the crew. Last but not least, I still hold out a small hope for making time to work on something with my good friends Chuck, Jason and Roger. Though we are all more than busy with our various lives, careers and families, I still fondly recall the fun we had writing for Chuck's most excellent but now-dormant happypalm.com.

First glimpse of our first NZ home

2005-11-19T00:29:00.000Z

SWMBO tackles the bush

2005-11-13T01:18:00.001Z

Manawutu River Walk, Foxton

2005-11-13T01:18:00.000Z

From your foreign correspondent

2005-10-06T10:25:00.000+01:00

Life is good but, for the time being, all the blogging I'm able to do will be over at my New Zealand blog, No. 8 Wire. I will resume blogging here when our lives are a little more settled and I have a dedicated connection again.

Pop up massacre

2005-08-22T01:00:00.000+01:00

I have had enough of the latest rash of pop ups and pop unders that seem to circumvent Firefox's Block Pop-Ups option. An hour's reading and research has led me to implement the hosts file solution detailed here, using Dan Pollock's hosts file text posted here. As well as seemingly halting the annoyances, it was also a useful first introduction to working in Mac OSX's Terminal app.

My connected life

2005-08-16T11:41:00.000+01:00

Click through to the Flickr version on the photo above and have a look at why I am having trouble remembering which mouse is connected to which computer...

funkypancake

2005-08-14T20:00:00.000+01:00

Dave aka funkypancake has posted a couple of photos that I snapped last week. If you are not familiar with his work, his photoblog is well worth perusing.

Fragile

2005-08-14T15:57:00.000+01:00

We had open house yesterday for folks to pop in and say goodbye before we leave so I feel a little fragile today.

The Guardian profile: Tim Berners-Lee

2005-08-12T23:39:00.000+01:00

The Guardian profile: Tim Berners-Lee, the godfather of the web, named last year as the greatest living Briton.

Little Mac

2005-08-12T22:09:00.000+01:00

Whereas previous posts to this blog have invariably been created with Blogjet on a variety of PCs, this one was crafted with ecto on my new 12" iBook G4. Whilst the leaning curve is moderate to steep in some places and I keep looking for keys and combos that aren't there, I'm having a ball and thoroughly enjoying the out-of-the-box wifi/bluetooth capability.

iPod versus iBook

2005-08-09T11:22:00.000+01:00

The long-awaited iBook has just arrived from the Far East via Copenhagen, the Netherlands and the obligatory smart-arsed & butter-fingered courier (note crumpled packing top-left of big box).

As it is sprog No.2's birthday today and she’s just unwrapped an mini iPod this morning, I’m trying so hard to ignore the siren call of the boxes so as not steal her thunder and spoil her day.

The weekend paper

2005-08-07T17:07:00.000+01:00

‘Since the London bombings, lots more people cycle around the place, which I suppose is a good thing. Though I don't know which is more annoying: those who race down the pavement, swerving past just before you realise that they are bearing down on you at 20mph, or those who bossily ring the bell to signal "get out of my way, pedestrians!" […] At this point I get lots of letters saying that this represents a small minority of cyclists. All I can say is that recent experience suggests it is not such a small minority.’

Simon Hoggart, talking out of his backside in Saturday’s Guardian. I only wish I could match his sweeping generalisations with some of my own. How about lazy journalists who have trouble generating enough fresh, witty column inches by their sub-editor’s deadline or who feel the need to add a codicil or rider to their argument to shore it up. I know diary pieces are meant to be personal and opinionated but I was under the impression that such opinions should be new and original, not hackneyed and anecdotal.

Meanwhile, on the Letters page on the day the world remembered the bombing of Hiroshima, Kiwi reader Craig Young points out the irony in New Zealand non-nuclear stance, given that Ernest Rutherford was a New Zealander. The main thrust of his letter is something that I have been mentioning when folks ask if we’re emigrating because of the recent terrorist attacks in London: that the only terrorist act visited upon New Zealand – the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour – was carried out by French secret service agents acting on their Government’s orders.

No.8 Wire

2005-08-07T13:35:00.000+01:00

My other blog, Looking for No.8 Wire, has been quiet of late for a variety of reasons. However, I have just written about my current thoughts and feelings regarding our impending emigration to New Zealand.

July 7th

2005-08-05T16:46:00.000+01:00

A couple of stills from my upcoming ‘fifteen minutes’ on BBC4. The documentary will be called ‘We Are Not Afraid’ and centres on the website that emerged following the July 7th bomb attacks in London. Called, We're Not Afraid, the site carries messages and images urging defiance against terrorism.

In the picture

2005-08-04T14:35:00.000+01:00

What with my brief wafflings on local radio and my looming BBC4 appearance, I have been giving no small amount of consideration to a career in the media, perhaps by becoming an A-list celebrity or, at the very least, a highly paid talking head. However, a quick flick through the latest edition of London Cyclist magazine, where I get a photo credit for this shot of Tower Hamlets Wheelers in Epping Forest would seem to point towards a new life as a paparazzo. Decisions, decisions...

Bike Powered Radio

2005-08-01T12:04:00.000+01:00

If you have a little slack time around 18.30hrs British Summer Time today (Monday 1st August), you could have the chance to hear me get tongue-tied on live radio! Jack Thurston (left) called with an invite to be a guest on his Bike show which is "a weekly show delving into the art, science, politics and transcendental pleasure of cycling, in London and beyond." Tonight's show will be dealing with cycling in London in the wake of the recent terrorist bombs - you can listen to the live stream or check out the show as an archive here or here (archive are in migration - hence two links).

A rose, by any other name...

2005-07-29T13:47:00.000+01:00

How refreshing to find a spammer who not only chooses a wholly apposite online indentity but, in doing so, also provides a suggested final destination for his wearisome output. Such honesty and civic-mindedness is to be applauded.

What did you do in the last four days?

2005-07-28T14:11:00.000+01:00

Lazy weekend with a bit of shopping and then down the local with the Sunday papers for a roast and a few pints? Slow Monday morning wading through emails and a Tuesday spent attending dreary meetings?

As previously mentioned, I and a few others did what we thought (at 120 miles in one night) was a long bike ride but this pales into insignificance compared to what my friend and fellow Tower Hamlets Wheeler Colin (above) did in the last four days. He cycled from London to Edinburgh and back. To get some sense of what that looks like, the green line on the map below is 100 miles (to scale) and he basically rode up the red line and then back down it with very few stops and not much sleep.

In an email to friends this morning, Colin provided an insight into what it had been like. “A very international field with a great spirit and amazing feeling of fraternity…fantastic considering they were also not sleeping more than a couple of hours at a stretch. My legs feel surprisingly good today, though they are a wee bit sore…recuperating at home with coffee, the largest amount of junk food you will ever see and Mister H. Potter. Nice!”

The hard numbers of Colin’s ride are as follows:

Distance: 1417km (885 miles)
Time: 102 hrs 18 mins (give or take a minute)
Sleep: To Edinburgh 5hrs; In Edinburgh 2hrs; To London 9hrs
Punctures: 0
Mechanical Failures: 0
Puddings with custard eaten: 19

Col, your humble friends salute you. Well done!

A grainy rod

2005-07-25T23:27:00.000+01:00

SWMBO has just found this photo amongst some papers in an old box. I have no idea how old the photo is. I cannot even recall the circumstances in which it was taken but it is a Polaroid test shot from a large format camera so it might have been from my acting days. Judging by the earring, straighter nose and abundant hair and compared to the studio shot below, I’d guess there’s a fifteen to twenty year gap between the shots. That the sprogs fell about laughing when they saw it has driven home the fact that I’m not what I used to be.

NB: First one to email me the relevance of this post’s title will win a spot prize of some description.

Dunwich Dynamo: T minus 3 hours

2005-07-23T19:09:00.000+01:00

I shall be attempting to blog the progress of myself and friends throughout tonight’s Dunwich Dynamo, an unsupported 120 mile night ride from London to the east coast so keep a look out over the next 14 hours or so.

Update: Due to GPRS issues and zero cell coverage in rural East Anglia, this plan completely failed. Mine and others pictures of the ride appear in this Flickr group.

Riding up the Thames

2005-07-22T13:14:00.000+01:00

After the events of recent weeks and to calm the nerves of a nervous mother, I decided that I would accompany my daughter to her school on the last day of term - not on the Tube as she would usually but choosing the river bus instead. So, after picking up her friend, we made our way to the Masthead Terrace Pier, where we boarded the Thames Clipper service which runs to Savoy Pier.

From here, it was a short walk along the Embankment and across Parliament Square, from where the girls headed to the school and I pedalled off towards Paddington Station. Once again, there is a great deal of police activity in London today including the fatal shooting by armed police of a man on the transport network this morning, followed by a suspect package at a mosque and now the search of an internet cafe. This being the case, I think I might just take a nice, quiet circuitous route home this afternoon.

Thoughts on ordinary people and terrorism

2005-07-21T17:22:00.000+01:00

Returning from an appointment in North London this morning, I turned on the car radio to hear that London was once again in the throes of dealing with another four bomb alerts. Although none of us were on the Tube network or near the stations affected this time, the No.26 bus that was attacked was not too far my eldest’s school.

It was only a couple of days ago, BBC4 sent a film crew and director to interview me about my reaction to being in fairly close proximity to the terrorist attacks two weeks ago and another nine years ago. Like many others, I blogged the experience and posted an image to the We’re Not Afraid web site. It was this image, along with others, that caught the eye of Alison, the director of BBC Arts Television, who contacted me through the press team at We’re Not Afraid.

The documentary, which is to air on the BBC4 digital channel on the 7th August (one month after the explosions), is to focus on why people posted images to the site and the story behind those images. Over a couple of hours, the small crew filmed me and the area near my home, which is a few hundred yards from the 1996 IRA bomb at South Quay. Ian, the cameraman, like a good friend of mine at Associated Press TV, had covered civil unrest in the Eastern Bloc and various conflicts around the globe and I was amused to learn that, whilst he didn’t get paid ‘danger money’, he had been allowed to claim overtime where appropriate, which seemed delightfully English to me.

During the course of the interview, I explained that I didn’t post the picture as an intentional act of defiance or as some knee-jerk nationalistic reaction. To be honest, I didn’t give it much thought at the time, pretty much taking and posting the image before I had even had time to ponder why I was doing it. Upon reflection, my feelings in the wake of the latest attack are similar to those I had nine years ago and I would sum them up in this way.

I am an ordinary person with a wonderful family, good friends and trusting colleagues. Just as I rely on them to be themselves, they all rely on me to do the same: to be the husband and father that provides a loving home and security; to be a friend who will be there in times of need and celebration; to be a leader, a peer and a team member who has integrity. To let the actions of terrorists change such things would be to allow the perpetrators and those that guide them to alter the most fundamental and important elements of who I am. Quite simply, that is not something that I can permit for, as well as the great, the good and the worthy, this world needs ordinary people because it is ordinary, everyday folk that we turn to first in our lives.

I hadn’t planned to write in this way and my thoughts are far from the polished platitudes that we are used to hearing these days but I felt that I needed to put a stake in the ground to mark my feelings on this.

Dunwich Dynamo route and map

2005-07-20T11:51:00.000+01:00

Although I am sure there will be the usual handout at the start, I thought I would plot out the general route and directions for this weekend’s Dunwich Dynamo for my own reference. Having done so, I thought I would make it available for others to use.

Using the list of villages on the Dunwich Dynamo FAQ listed on the DD FAQ and a bit of common sense, I ran the details through AutoRoute and have come up with with the shortest sensible route I can find. I want to stress that this isn't an official recommended route, a definitive guide or anything else of that nature; just a quick aide memoire I have knocked up to assist myself and others in their preparations. Likewise, the map is only an indicative overview and is not intended as a navigational aid. If I have time, I can work up more detailed maps.

Dunwich Dynamo Route and Direction (see below)

Dunwich Dynamo Overview Map (see below)

Feel free to give feedback on the route from the top of the Lea Bridge Road onwards…but there is no need to advise me of your favourite route from Hackney to the Waterworks roundabout at Woodford

Synching Files Between Remote PCs

2005-07-20T10:33:00.000+01:00

Just found this nice tutorial on secure file synching between two Windows machines via the good folks on the 43 Folders Google group, all with open source tools so the price is right as well.

Park and Ride

2005-07-19T12:33:00.000+01:00

PARK

Fans of Andy Cato and Tom Findlay should glide along to Groove Armada’s Lovebox Weekend which is taking place in Victoria Park on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th. It will be their only gig of the year and, apparently, the largest music event ever held in the park.

RIDE

Meanwhile, at the same time, I and a few hundred others will be embarking on the umpteenth Dunwich Dynamo. The Dynamo is a 120 mile unsupported overnight bike ride from London Fields to Dunwich on the Suffolk coast – with optional sea swim and fried breakfast upon arrival. If you’d like to get a feel for the event, listen to this evocative podcast from Jack Thurston’s Bike Show on Resonance FM.

Having Auntie over to visit

2005-07-18T19:12:00.000+01:00

It would seem that a few more folks read my online musings than I thought. If I was mildly amused and chuffed to have The Guardian quote a piece of mine last week, I am more than a little surprised to find that the BBC would like to have a chat with me tomorrow regarding an image I posted to the We’re Not Afraid website in the early hours of the 8th July. Following an email from the We’re Not Afraid media relations team yesterday, my commute home today was punctuated by a call from the director of BBC Arts Television asking if they could pop over tomorrow for a quick interview. Lawks! I’d better tidy up and run round with the Dyson.

I’ll keep you posted.

Hold the front page/index.html/SMS...

2005-07-11T21:07:00.000+01:00

A different take on the democratisation of the news process and the true birth of the "citizen reporter".

“It was a new kind of story. Not in the sense of what happened, which was thoroughly and depressingly as anticipated, but in the way it was reported and disseminated. The mobile phone photographers, the text messagers and the bloggers - a new advance guard of amateur reporters had the London bomb story in the can before the news crews got anywhere near the scene.”

Guardian Unlimited - 'We had 50 images within an hour'

Mixed feelings

2005-07-11T15:45:00.000+01:00

Since last Thursday’s bombings in London, I have been troubled. Like many other bloggers, I have posted a mixture of information, opinion and reflection on that day’s events. Whilst I believe that I have done so with good motives and a clear conscience, it is hard not to feel that one is, in some small way, taking advantage of a situation or exploiting it. Interestingly, when I shared this concern with fellow London blogger PinkFairyCat, she pointed me towards a post by Viennese Metroblogger Heinrich Hinterhalt, in which he questions where blogging ends and journalism begins. Although Heinrich’s piece is short and far from conclusive, it does go someway to starting to explore the nature of the relationship between newspaper reportage and ‘citizen journalism’.

“blogging is on the way to reestablish choice of news sources, an alternative to politically influenced (read: abused) mass media. bloggers were the first to announce bush's reelection, they tell you about all possible and impossible things you won't read elsewhere from every imaginable point of view […] in my personal opinion blogging and journalism are two very different things meant to coexist. journalism should be serious, well investigated, checked, double checked, spellchecked, authorised by independent editorial staff... not to speak of critical unbiased and well written. blogging on the other hand is fast, it's free and it's fun. and it opens it's readers a world of choice […] all in all it's yours - the readers - decision: read it, or delete it.” [all links are Heinrich’s]

How strange then that, this morning, I learnt from a friend that one of my posts to the London Metroblog had been quoted in today’s Guardian newspaper in Mark Honigsbaum’s article on the role that blogs play in covering such events.

“From messages of support superimposed on well-known London landmarks to angry weblogs and defiant postings on community message boards, the internet was fizzing with responses yesterday to the London bombings. Many of the messages were posted by commuters who narrowly missed becoming victims of Thursday morning's bomb atrocities. Others chronicled the appalled reaction of Arabs and Muslims eager to distance themselves from the acts of the terrorists. But interspersed with moving first-person accounts and agonised soul-searching there was also much defiant humour.”

Maybe I’m being arrogant and self-centred in thinking that folks actually care about what and how I write about in my blog posts. Whatever the truth is, I hope that what I do write is fair, has integrity and adds to the debate, rather than detracts from it.

ICE

2005-07-11T11:41:00.000+01:00

Today, as with most other days, my inbox has a bunch of forwarded emails, jokes, pictures and spam along with the legitimate stuff. Amongst these were a couple of emails on the same subject – the East Anglian Ambulance Service's In Case of Emergency (ICE) campaign. In light of Thursday's events in London and considering the distress of those who are waiting to hear from missing family members, I thought it deserved a wider audience.

"The idea is that you store the word " I C E " in your mobile phone address book, and against it enter the number of the person you would want to be contacted "In Case of Emergency". In an emergency situation ambulance and hospital staff will then be able to quickly find out who your next of kin are and be able to contact them. It's so simple that everyone can do it. Please do. Please will you also email this to everybody in your address book, it won't take too many 'forwards' before everybody will know about this. It really could save your life, or put a loved one's mind at rest. For more than one contact name ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc."

You can read more on the campaign at the following links:

“A Cambridge-based paramedic has launched a national campaign with Vodafone to encourage people to store emergency contact details in their mobile phones.” – East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust

“Eight out of ten people aren’t carrying information that would help if they were involved in an accident. Storing next-of-kin details in your mobile phone can assist the emergency services if you’re unable to tell them who to contact.” – ICE sponsor Vodafone

Glad to be here

2005-07-10T13:26:00.000+01:00

This morning, I am sobered by the fact that the revised timing of the Edgware Road blast last Thursday now places me about 2 minutes away at the next station, Paddington. With SWMBO evacuated from a train in the City of London area and our second eldest safely off the train and walking the last 100 yeards to school, I am thankful our family has been spared the pain and grief others are experiencing today. Having also missed the 1996 IRA bomb at South Quay by just a few minutes (we live 200 yards away), one is tempted to read all manner of significance into such near-misses. However, I am convinced that we are no different to millions of families who live in London, Belfast, Madrid, Jerusalem, Gaza, Bagdhad – ordinary folk who have little choice but to pause, reflect and then carry on as normal.

As we look forward to a sunny afternoon in the garden with our extended family gathered around us, my heart goes out to those whose loved ones perished on Thursday or have not been seen since. I wear my London shirt for you all.

Well, there goes the neighbourhood

2005-07-06T15:52:00.000+01:00

Local cyclists enjoying the Lea Valley in June 2005

The same view of the Lea Valley in 2012

Whilst the politicians and the business people and the sports people are all head over heels, I and a good many others are not so happy with today’s news. I was born at one end of the Lea Valley and have lived at the other for most of my life. I have cycled up and down it many a time and enjoyed many happy times taking in the flora and fauna, not to mention the peace and quiet the valley has to offer local city-dwellers and visitors alike. I am sad that riverine landscapes and marshland habitats are to be lost. I am sad that well-used existing grassroots open-to-all facilities will disappear in order to make way for open–only-to-some ‘centres of excellence’. I suspect that compulsory land purchases and aggressive building schedules will mean that we have but a few short weeks in which to enjoy the Lower Lea Valley before public access is withdrawn and lost forever.

The London 2012 web site is showing ‘unavailable’ at the time of posting. The irony of the that statement is sadly pertinent.

Live 8 and G8: It's about mortality not music

2005-07-03T14:19:00.000+01:00

This is a real picture of my kids – which one should I choose to lose?

Let’s play a game.

Stop what you are doing.
Leave the mouse and the keyboard alone for 60 seconds.
Close your eyes and visualise a nice group portrait of your nearest family or friends.
Once you have the picture nice and clear in your mind, now choose the one you love most right now – there are no favourites, of course, are there?.
Imagine them dying suddenly – crushed by a drunk driver, knifed by a mugger or killed in a workplace accident.
Imagine the police knocking at your door in ten minutes time and then imagine living the rest of your life without seeing them ever again.

Senseless? Inconceivable? Maybe. Try again:

Imagine your loved one dying slowly in your arms.
Imagine being unable to provide them with even one meal a day.
Imagine them fatally ill for the lack of over-the-counter medication.
Imagine holding them, touching them, smelling them, washing them, kissing them for weeks and months whilst you are completely and utterly powerless to prevent their passing.
Finally, imagine what it would be like to know that their death was all because of what is basically an overdraft. Your loss of a loved one was directly caused by the crippling conditions and interest charges levied against a bank loan you never knew you were liable for.

Senseless? Absolutely. Inconceivable? In London or any other major city perhaps, but it is all too conceivable in the 28,800 other places where it will happen today. What is a macabre and unsavoury mind game for you and me, surfing the web over a mug of conscience-salving Traidcraft coffee on a lazy Sunday is daily reality for millions in Africa and elsewhere around the world.

– – –

OK, you say, but what about the G8 summit next week, they’ll have it sorted. Not really. The much-vaunted debt relief and cancellation program, worked on for years by many unsung folks, will be announced in a blaze of PR and hype by Blair, Bush and Co. However, the eight will announce that like it's just happened since they got involved and the Live8 concerts were all they needed to finish the job. Ongoing aid, via the organisations and charities who were involved before the world took notice, will continue. Their efforts will continue to be fractured, uncoordinated and derailed by so-called first world governments extracting whatever political leverage and votes they can by piggy-backing the efforts of NGOs and aid agencies. Whatever trade solutions are proposed or implemented will undoubtedly have the sheen of philanthropy but will ultimately benefit the first world just as much if not more than at present.

Enough of the ‘the greatest gig ever’, pompous pop star politics and credit cards easing consciences.

Do something. Inform yourself. Involve yourself.

If you really can’t be bothered then, at the very least, copy the game above and email it to your elected political representative and ask them: what are you doing about this? My eight year old wrote to Blair recently and got a patronising brush-off letter in return. Do you know what she did? She wrote back and insisted he answer the question in her original letter. Now, are you going to stand beside her or are you going to leave it to someone else?

my lo-fi ears are listening to She Cries Your Name/Beth Orton/Pass in Time

Le Tour Prologue

2005-07-02T15:26:00.000+01:00

I’m getting in the mood for today’s Tour de France prologue time trial by listening to the excellent KRAFTWERK - TOUR DE FRANCE SOUNDTRACKS. The prologue will provide the first glimpse of the much-touted battle between six-times winner Lance Armstrong and arch rival Jan Ullrich. Free UK TV coverage will be on the ITV2 digital channel.

Later tonight, BBC4 digital channel will be having a Tour de France evening including Death on the Mountain, the story of Tom Simpson, who died whilst on the tour; Sunday in Hell, the classic documentary about the notoriously punishing Paris-Roubaix one day classic and Belleville Rendezvous, the animated movie featuring the Tour de France and some exploding frogs.

Tom Simpson

Put a mayor in your tank

2005-06-29T11:20:00.000+01:00

Dear Ken

Thanks for stating the obvious but tell me, what ever happened to putting a brick in your cistern or filled bottles in your tank?

Yours

Puzzled

Film star to buy our flat!

2005-06-27T19:35:00.000+01:00

We have just had a visit from two young women who are planning to buy our flat. One of them is either Toni Collette, the star of Muriel's Wedding, About a Boy and The Hours or her stunt double. If it is her, she must be ‘resting’ between roles or doing research because she told us she’s working in a London hotel.

Well, I'll be....

2005-06-27T17:27:00.000+01:00

Apple returned my iPod today via those jolly chaps in brown, UPS. The whole reformat your iPod, update you iTunes, upload your music saga that ensued reminded me that my Sony Fontopia earbuds had gone AWOL about the same time the iPod died.

Having accused all four offspring of ‘borrowing’ them previously, I though it best to carry out one more search of my belongings before accusing them again. During a thorough search of the umpteen pockets and compartments of my laptop bag, I not only came up with the aforementioned earbuds but also the dessicated remains of a bee. Yes, a bee. The mind boggles.

Tour De France

2005-06-25T22:47:00.000+01:00

The Tour de France, widely and rightly acknowledged as the most physically demanding sporting event in the world, begins in 7 days time. Once again, ITV1 & 2 will have early and late evening shows covering each days highlights.

Meanwhile, despite being unable to commute by bike because of a thief, I continue to try and keep my meagre weekly mileage up in order to participate in the Dunwich Dynamo 120 mile night ride, which finishes on the same Sunday as the Tour. Having tried and failed to locate my stolen Brompton amongst the stolen bikes being hawked by [expletives deleted] in East London’s street markets, I have swallowed my anger and ordered another. As new models have been released since the theft, I took advantage of Brompton’s new bespoke service and ordered a stripped-down P in stealth black. It is similar to the one below, though stripped of rack and lights but with the reduced gearing and Brooks saddle options. I’m looking forward to picking it up and getting back to my normal canalside ride to the station in the mornings.

Evening Mass

2005-06-24T15:59:00.000+01:00

Tonight’s Critical Mass ride meets, as always, at 6p.m. on the South Bank, just under Waterloo Bridge, outside the National Film Theatre. Departing around 7pm, the ride normally lasts about 2 hours but, with this weather, tonight's ride might just be longer and if we’re lucky, we may get a repeat of the beautiful sunset we were treated to on Greenwich Cyclists’ Afterworker Ride last night.

Yesterday’s sunset over the Isle Of Dogs

Le Bar � Chiens

2005-06-23T16:32:00.000+01:00

Check out Le Bar � Chiens, a most excellent photograph by fellow blogger, Anders Jacobsen.

BBC Podcast Trial

2005-06-21T17:20:00.000+01:00

BBC - Radio - Download and Podcast Trial

“As part of a trial we're offering some programmes and programme highlights as downloads and podcasts. The trial runs from May to December 2005 and programmes started appearing on Monday 16 May.”

The choice isn’t extensive – at least not what you’d expect of such a broadcasting giant – but it’s a start.

Midsummer Madness

2005-06-20T20:08:00.000+01:00

Tonight, or to be more exact tomorrow morning at 0200hrs, I will be joining a few hundred of London’s cyclists to observe a modern day Midsummer ritual.

Commuter folk, couriers, Critical Mass riders and ordinary everyday bike folk will cycle from local meeting points to converge upon a succession of beigel bakeries, all-night cafes and coffee shops before riding en mass to Primrose Hill.

Here, we’ll all chat, talk bikes and before watching the sun come up as the longest day of the year begins at 0423hrs.

Afterwards, we’ll no doubt head off for a full English breakfast and pints of coffee in an effort to charge our batteries for what will certainly feel like the longest day at work. If you fancy joining the ride, those north of the Thames can join Tower Hamlets Wheelers feeder ride, those ‘sarf’ of the river can hook up with Southwark Cyclists.

All photographs: Owen Pearson – Tower Hamlets Wheelers

my lo-fi ears are listening to Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm/Stevie Wonder/Song Review - A Greatest Hits

I'm all consulted-out

2005-06-17T21:14:00.000+01:00

Dilbert so knows what is going on in my company right now.

43 Foldered

2005-06-01T19:28:00.000+01:00

Whilst not quite in the same league as being slashdotted, I have been 43 Foldered – which is smaller, friendlier and involves more discerning folk. Merlin Mann dug out an old wiki scrap I wrote (GtD Rescue Plan or how to break the cycle of implementation) and posted his take on it (Fractal Implementation, or, On the Dangers of David Allen's Finger) to his increasingly popular GTD - Mac – lifehack blog, 43 Folders. It is fun to see a few lines I wrote months ago picked up, picked over and provoking further debate. Meanwhile, I have emailed my good friend and host, Chuck, who is standing by with a bucket of iced water, ready to cool off my webserver.

Friends in need

2005-05-22T23:11:00.000+01:00

More often than not, when it comes to the maillists, forums and chatrooms, we only hear about the darker side of human nature. This being the case, I just wanted to post something in mitigation.

As detailed in the post below, I have had my trusty commuting bike stolen and, despite trawling the local flea markets and back alley traders, I am no closer to finding it. This morning, I wrote a brief email describing my efforts to recover the bike. I then posted it to a thread on the Brompton Talk Yahoo group concerning the possible sale of stolen bikes on eBay which has been a recurring theme there for some time. Within a couple of hours of the post, I received two unbidden mails off-list from fellow Brompton owners offering the loan or sale of their spare or surplus bikes.

In the grand scheme of things, not earth-shattering acts but for me, an indication that, despite scaremongering to the contrary, the Internet can be a conduit through which the hand of friendship and good citizenship can reach out and make a difference.

my lo-fi ears are listening to All For Self/Fun Lovin' Criminals/100% Colombian

The dirty deed of a stolen steed

2005-05-10T21:55:00.000+01:00

Sadly, I became just another crime statistic a couple of hours ago when my Brompton folding bike was stolen in Spitalfields. It was taken from a group of three bikes locked together by the zebra crossing railings at the corner of Commercial and Fournier Streets, London E1 (http://snipurl.com/esgy) It was taken in the 20 minute period between 18.40 and 1900hrs and, whilst not particularly disctinctive, it has a number of non standard details.

Brompton L6
British Racing Green
2 part Brompton telescopic seat post - not standard
Front pannier bracket
Reflective green London Cycling Campaign sticker on headtube
Two yellow inline skate wheels on rear triangle - not standard
Cateye Krypton front light (silver in colour)
3 LED Cateye rear light
Frame No: 203863
Serial No: 0410031920

It has been reported to the Police via their online Non-Emergency Minor Crime Notification, so if you see a green Brompton on your travels, these photos of the bike and the distinctive skate wheels might help you work out if it’s mine. If you see it, please report it to the nearest police station, quoting Crime No: 4214303/05.

The browser that's a wowser!

2005-05-05T09:02:00.000+01:00

(about 15 of them are mine!)

Seems like the message is getting through. If you have no idea what this post is about, I will just say this: where have you been? A cave? The Horse-head Nebula? Browse secure, browse tabbed, browse Firefox.

Thanks to Ian for the heads up.

A few more than 43 Folders

2005-05-05T00:09:00.000+01:00

Along with a few of the other ‘Getting Things Done’ geeks and productivity pedants over at 43 Folders’ Google Group, I have recently revised how I store my personal papers. My old filing system consisted of a briefcase sized portable hanging file box (purple box below) which was full to overflowing years ago and was supplemented by an old aluminium camera case and numerous folders (also shown below).

After reading and contributing to a thread about banker’s boxes, I was tempted to follow suit and go the cardboard route. However, the distinct possibility of having to move house later this year (and, quite possibly, continents) left me with little doubt that the drawer-style cardboard banker’s boxes favoured by my correspondent wouldn’t be suitable. A wander up and down the aisles of my local Staples led me to find a variety of Really Useful Products polypropylene archive boxes. After trying out various ideas, I choose the 35 litre stacking boxes with transparent lids for a number of reasons:

The size seemed to offer a good capacity but not one that would mean that the boxes would be too heavy to move easily.
Each box has vertical guides moulded in several places on the four inner faces to allow hard dividers to be inserted.
The linear dimensions of each box allows the use of A4 hanging files in one orientation or the use of foolscap hanging files in the other.
The grey handles act as snap locks and have holes to allow locks or zip ties to be used.

The only drawback I can find with these boxes is that there is about 1” of play between the top of the hanging folders and the lid of the box. Whilst only a small thing, this could mean that, if they were tipped-over in transit, the files and folders could move enough to slip out. However, folded newspapers or a layer of stiff foam under each lid before sealing would resolve this entirely.

Decision made, I grabbed two of these, 50 hanging files, 100 buff folders, a large pack of 3X3 Post-Its, a decent marker and headed for home.

The long-delayed and equally long-overdue task of overhauling my filing involved a long evening’s blitz on the various nooks and crannies in my home office before order was finally wrought from the chaos. Papers were divided on the most basic level (a pile of tax papers, a bunch of pay slips and so on) but that was about it. As these files are primarily for historical archiving and reference material, I used simple, single level A-Z labelling, jazzed up with a few filing hacks from the 43 Folders wiki rather the 43 ‘store then bring forward’ folders of the GTD tickler system. After a good few hours work, I had managed to turn the mess partially illustrated by the top picture into the picture of organisation you see below.

Given all the recycling/burning/shredding significant amounts of papers, old folders and envelopes, I am surprised by the amount of materials I am left with but it is so much more accessible/managable now. That said, I have yet to file my computer manuals, software and family reference files so I suspect another trip to Staples is in order for more of the same and the CD-sized equivalents.

my lo-fi ears are listening to Falling/Balligomingo/Beneath the Surface

G(oogle E)rr(or)

2005-04-22T23:23:00.000+01:00

Is this a sign that I should give in, log off and go to bed? OK, so it’s the first time this has happened in ages but I’d still like to read my mail. Inspite of such occurences, the service is well-featured and it’s hard to beat the price.

Establishing Basecamp

2005-04-22T20:21:00.000+01:00

My work life has suddenly transformed from a fairly quiet, ordered environment to one of rapid change, adaptation and transformation. Whilst my own implementation of GTD[1] has allowed me to react appropriately and manage my own work activities, my company’s aged groupware and almost non-exsistent developer resources have been of little help in getting the project up and running. Luckily, through my incessant geekish trawling of various online resources, I was aware of a possible answer to such problems and had a solution to hand.

If, as I did this week, you have a need for a tool to help with either individual or collaborative project or task management but don't need or want the overhead of MS Project or other leviathan software, I would encourage you have a look at the hosted solution offered by Basecamp.

Imagine a powerful To Do list that is linked to a project team roster and contact manager which has a message board function and a timeline tool not to mention extranet potential thrown in and you’ll be about 70% of the way towards Basecamp. It is is very scaleable, offering everything from a free one-project-only package to a $99 per month corporate extranet solution. As you would expect in an ‘offsite’ web-based solution, there is secure 128-bit SSL data encryption, a SFTP option for file sharing (using your own server) and a nice touch is that the packages are scaled around the number of projects you wish to run, not the number of users. With an eye to the widest possible market, Basecamp works with IE 6 or later on the PC, Firefox on Mac, PC, Linux, and Safari on Mac. The well laid out UI is configurable in terms of colour and can be altered with hex codes to match your project logo, which can also be uploaded and displayed.

Rather than fancy Gantt charts and dependency diagrams that few folks can decypher, the focus of Basecamp is communication – clearly setting out what needs to be done in each area, along with when and who it should be done by. Collaboration is enabled with the provision of the message board function, which includes email notification (though negotiation with corporate sysads might be needed to breech aggressive firewalls) and team members can keep up to date via RSS feeds, saving the need for being permanently logged into the user-defined portal URL. The possibilities for Basecamp are pretty wide open as it can be used for low grade stuff like residents associations, clubs and writer’s groups through to enabling startups and small businesses to run and manage a customer-facing extranet with no IT expertise required[2].

In the short time I have been using it as a project manager, I have found that it has simplified the staging of a crucial project and allowed our team to envisage what we need to accomplish, who will own the actions and how we’ll go about it. Support for Basecamp is pretty good too, with extensive Help and FAQ pages and a support blog that details user tips, tricks, how-tos and hacks.

In closing, it is maybe worth mentioning that user interface again because it is eminently usable and positively encourages the user to update, communicate and leverage the information housed within. Sounds a little far-fetched? Well, it’s well past 8 o’clock on a Friday evening after a long hard week and I’m still using it and writing about it; not something many Microsoft Project users would be willing, let alone happy to admit, eh?

[1] Using Life Balance, a T3, a Hipster PDA and Doug Johnston’s D*I*Y Planner for those interested in productivity and life hacks.

[2] A basic knowledge of FTP and access to server space is needed if you wish to exploit the file sharing capability.

Paula Radcliffe ran down our road today

2005-04-17T19:15:00.000+01:00

She ran so fast…

…that she was heading for home…

…before we knew it.

The Reith Lectures on your iPod or PDA

2005-04-15T21:25:00.000+01:00

If you are interested in science and technology and support the ideals of good public radio, you may be interested to know that the BBC is MP3s and transcripts of the famous Reith lectures. If you're not familiar with these always enlightening and sometimes controversial broadcasts, the history and pedigree of these lectures is explained here. This year's Reith Lecturer is the distinguished engineer, Lord Broers, who is President of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Chairman of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee.

This year’s series is called The Triumph Of Technology and the component lectures, the first two of which are available now, are:

Lecture 1: Technology will Determine the Future of the Human Race
Lecture 2: Collaboration
Lecture 3: Innovation and Management
Lecture 4: Nanotechnology and Nanoscience
Lecture 5: Risk and Responsibility

The remaining three will be released tomorrow, next Wednesday and the following Saturday. Having listened to the first lecture and the Q&A session that followed, I can say that it is a thought provoking and necessary debate.

my lo-fi ears are listening to ITT Tech Chat - Time Management/Kevin H. Devin

The green-eyed monster

2005-04-15T18:48:00.000+01:00

My daily commute has been great enlivened recently by the addition of the superb and justly lauded Bike Or Die to the clutch of time-filling games on my T3. Whilst the physics engine and devilishly difficult courses make for addictive trials bike gameplay, the graphics have a charming retro feel.

Until this afternoon that is, when a much younger geek dropped into the seat next to me, whipped out his pristine imported-from-Japan PSP and fired up Ridge Racer. It took all of 5 seconds for PSP envy to set in and I spent the rest of the journey watching graphics like those below.

Make Poverty History

2005-04-09T18:44:00.000+01:00

“This parking meter earns more in an hour than 70% of the world’s population does in a day”

It’s late on Saturday afternoon and it suddenly occured to me that I haven’t written a thing here for six days. As is usual when I go on the missing list, my mind and focus has been elsewhere. However, the stuff I have been concerned with is meaningless and inconsequential when you consider the following fact:

30,000 children a day die as a direct result of living in extreme poverty.

Yet because the vast majority of these deaths do not occur in our own countries, it is so much easier to ignore this than do something about it. However, imagine that you opened your favourite newspaper or website and saw the headline:

Drunk drivers and car thieves kill a child every 3 seconds on our roads.

Let’s be honest, we’d be horrified, keeping our kids at home and demanding that someone do something to stop the carnage, wouldn’t we? Which begs the question: why, when the governments and financial institutions of the developed world have the means to prevent these deaths, are we not demanding that they bring an end to poverty?

Well, folks are and you can too. In the next five minutes, you could join the hundreds of charities, campaigns, trade unions, faith groups and celebrities, not to mention millions of folks worldwide who are campaigning to make poverty history by cancelling crippling debts and promoting trade justice across the globe.

If you are in the UK, you can do the following without even leaving your PC:

Email Tony Blair – this year he is hosting the G8 summit in Edinburgh and the UK will assume the EU Presidency.
Send a postcard to Tony Blair (pdf) – well, you can download and print it before you have to get off your bum.
Wear a white band (like mine below) - you can get one online, in the High Street, by phone, by text and good old-fashioned post.

If you are more inclined towards direct action and can spare a night, you can attend an overnight vigil outside Parliament and Downing Street next Friday.

If you are elsewhere in the world, you can get involved and take steps in your own country to make poverty history.

Whatever you do, please don’t do nothing – because another 100 children have died in the time it has taken you to read this.

Ricky owes me lunch

2005-04-05T13:12:00.000+01:00

... because I've just bought him this.

Peace and quiet

2005-04-03T11:34:00.000+01:00

On Friday, I took a day off work to ferry three of the sprogs to Norwich for a photo session. Whilst SWMBO acted as chaperone, the eldest and I took advantage of the spring sunshine and walked through the town to visit it’s cathedral. The building, with it’s soaring vaulted ceilings and numerous chapels, is simply magnificent.

In particular, walking the cloisters, it took very little to imagine myself doing the same in medieval times, listening to the bells strike the hour and lifting my gaze to take in the beautifully crafted ceiling bosses like the one below.

For those interested in the interior and the amazing stained glass West window, the BBC have a webcam inside the cathedral.

my lo-fi ears are listening to Fugitive Motel/Elbow

Palm panic

2005-04-01T21:15:00.000+01:00

There are some who would claim this would be me…

Who will be the next Doctor?

2005-03-31T21:14:00.000+01:00

Despite the pre-airing hype and attracting massive interest with the first episode of the revived ‘Doctor Who’, Christopher Eccleston has stepped down for fear of being type cast. The BBC is running a poll to see who will replace Eccleston as the Doctor but, as you can see form the screen shot below, the Beeb’s code monkeys look like they need the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver.

my lo-fi ears are listening to My Favorite Mistake/Sheryl Crow

Syndication!

2005-03-30T18:17:00.000+01:00

On my return to the UK from Australasia, I was asked by a website owner to write an article on the first days of my visit to New Zealand based on my posts to my No.8 Wire blog. Today, I noticed that the edited article, First Impressions, has been published on the British Expat website.

How I wish this were true

2005-03-30T10:24:00.000+01:00

“Can you give me the telephone number for Jack?”

Messenger memories

2005-03-29T12:19:00.000+01:00

It is perhaps a little strange that, of all days, it is today that I read Frank Duff’s great piece on Kuro5hin about giving up coding for a life on Toronto’s streets as a bike messenger. I say this because yesterday, whilst I was out bike riding with sprog No.3 round the docks, I bumped into an old courier friend Sally, who used to ride for the same firm and whom I haven’t have seen for at least 15 years. These events have brought memories flooding back and have made me more than a little nostalgic for the days I spent as a bike courier in the early eighties. Whether breaking the winter’s ice on the outdoor toilet at the courier office or wolfing down chocolate pudding and custard in the fuggy atmosphere of of the Court Cafe, I doubt I’ll ever find a job like it.

That said, it appears that whilst the radio technology has improved beyond all measure…

One of the defining items of the courier pastiche is the radio. Though, in fact, these days it is much more likely to be a phone. The phone my particular company uses is a really snazzy unix based number by Motorola with 'net access via the Telus network. We use text messaging for general communication and each courier has their own PHP generated webpage which they access to view their jobs. When voice communication is needed, the phones also function as MIC radios.

…the choice of bike hardware amongst those in the know remains pretty much the same:

The most common sort of bike you will see couriers on is your standard street bike. Light frame, slick tires, no suspension and between 18 and 24 gears. Among veterans however, the favoured bikes are single speeds. There is a large variety among single speeds as well (fixed drive or freewheel, coaster brakes or hand brakes, etc.) but they all share the advantage of being mechanically simple machines. When you are riding eight hours a day, any part that can fail, eventually will. And probably dramatically. Thus, the simpler the mechanism, the lower the mechanic's bill.

From Furl to del.icio.us

2005-03-28T20:32:00.000+01:00

Want to convert your numerous Furl listings to del.icio.us entries? I have just found a way to do this. Export your Furl listings to an .html file on your desktop. Surf to del.icio.us loader and point it at the .html file, enter your del.icio.us username and password and hit the upload button. Two hints: take the time to add tags as you go and, as the developer suggests, convert about 40 items at a time, wait for the loading page to refresh and show the upload has completed - then hit BACK and tag & convert the next forty and so on.