Category: Weekend

something for the weekend – interesting non work related posts

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End User fun stuff

Google maps captures commercial jet trying to land in Russell Square

russell square

russell square

russell square

russell square

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s going on? A plane trying to land on Russell Square? Surely not? If it needed an emergency landing there are better places nearby to do this. Hyde Park for example.

Probably wouldn’t have gone down well with the Royal Family. I’m sure we would have heard about this on the news. It would have hit global headlines. Unless the news was suppressed…

Makes you think doesn’t it? Wasn’t Russell Square closed off for refurbishment for a few weeks one summer? Can’t quite remember. Maybe it was whilst they were repairing the damage to the plants and removing the wreckage, bodies etc. It’s possible…

Maybe there wasn’t a crash. Perhaps the pilot came in low to wave to his mum or girlfriend or someone else. It’s possible. Although I’m not an expert on this sort of thing I don’t think this plane is on a standard flight path so he would have taken a risk to do this. Would have got told off by his boss when he got back to the office.

Before anyone says anything I doubt whether this photo has been photoshopped. Google just don’t od that sort of thing, I think. I certainly haven’t photoshopped it myself.

I have to say I don’t know. I just don’t know what’s going on here. If anyone else has any thoughts on this puzzling pic I’d be glad to hear them.

Thanks to Dan Winfield for pointing this out. He was trying to find out where my hotel was and out popped the plane! 🙂

Other reading:

Strategies for surviving boring flights

BA Exec Club Bronze is almosts within my grasp

Categories
End User food and drink fun stuff

Best topping for a pancake

pancakeBest toppings for pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.

pancakeSome things are more important than all things technical. Beer for example. Bacon  with brown sauce, especially after a night out on the beer.

Then there are pancakes. Pancakes are important. You have to make them yourselves because when bought in a cafe or restaurant they are not as good. Thinner usually. Although there are many recipes for batter mix it doesn’t seem to matter what proportions you use for your eggs, flour and milk. It all turns out ok usually, as long as you use a non stick pan and have it heated to a high enough temperature. The first one is never as good because of the temperature issue.

The most important and thing about the pancake is the topping.  This is also what starts more debates. I am happy to inform that the correct topping for a pancake is butter, lemon juice and sugar. No debate.

See below for useful images to help with your topping selection. Usually it would be a Jiff lemon but there is no culinary or scientific reason why this is so. Time was you could only get Jiff. I’m not sure the implied health benefits of this particular brand of lemon juice are any more applicable than any other brand. Freshly squeezed is probably best.

sugarThat is all.

Other food related posts:

breakfast cooking on George Foreman Grill

lemon_juice butter

Categories
eleanor cross End User

New Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – a project of national significance

quarry_landscapeNew Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – a project of national significance with exclusive coverage at the weekends on trefor.net.

Eleanor of Castile, wife of King Edward I of England died in 1290 in Harby in Nottinghamshire. Her body was taken to the Gibertine Priory at St Catherines in Lincoln where it was embalmed and the viscera remove to nearby Lincoln Cathedral.

After four days and nights in Lincoln the body was removed, accompanied by the King and his retinue to London, a journey that took twelve days. Following the burial in London King Edward commissioned a cross to be erected at each overnight stopping point.

Most of the crosses were destroyed by the Roundheads during the English Civil War.  A fragment of the original Lincoln cross remains inside Lincoln Castle. A new cross has been commissioned to be erected outside St Catherine’s Church, the starting point in Lincoln of the journey.

In December a meeting was held at St Catherine’s church at South Common to launch the project. The two videos below were recorded at the launch event. The first is with artist Alan Ward and the second is with the parish priest Father Ian who offers some particularly interesting insights into the history of the Eleanor Cross.

Tune in every weekend for updates on this project. Coverage was initially planned for philosopherontap.com but this is interesting enough to merit the wider readership that trefor.net offers.

Categories
End User fun stuff

1st daffs of year out on St David’s Day & bandwidth drivers in cafes

daffodilsIt’s St David’s Day and I am pleased to announce that the first daffodils of the year are out in the garden. Loads more threatening to bloom but not quite there yet. It’s also a fine day so we may see more before day is out.

This morning, it being a nice day and having no jobs list I went for a stroll into Lincoln’s Bailgate. It’s my custom and practice on occasion to record videos which I normally only share with the family. I do this once the vid is uploaded to Google+.

This morning I recorded one such video in front of the Cathedral in Lincoln and then went to the @BookStopCafe for a cuppa. As I was sat there relaxing to Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor (a particular fave of mine) and a pot of lemon tea the video uploaded to Goole+ over the caff’s WiFi.

Occurs to me that they don’t need many customers to be doing this to rack up big bandwidth usage. My 26 second video will have been a few tens of megs.  It won’t take long for cafes to need unlimited data bundles on their broadband connections. I’d like to bet that most such establishments  currently go for a low end package to save on costs.

The changing business landscape…

PS it wasn’t the Farmer’s Market. It was a craft market which for me doesn’t hold as much interest:)

Categories
End User fun stuff

Lincoln 10K – Finish Line

During this or any previous bout of running, I have always had a physical finish line during training, previously it was a bridge, currently its a sign post. I decided on this after my first ever training run as you know when to stop and helps you beat ‘the wall’.

This means that I plot my route backwards, previously I used a paper map, a piece of string ,a ruler and few choice words. A truly frustrating experience, with one too many calculations for me to be comfortable with. I’ve now discovered Mapometer.com. This simple, user friendly website even lets you plot ‘off piste’. A really useful tool as I’m sure most runners like parks. The phrase ‘off piste’ , wasn’t just thrown in there as you can select cross-country skiing as the sport your taking part in too.

finish

The finish line is just one of the ways I have tried to overcome the mind over matter of distance running. A few years ago I read the best book about running there is – What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. This is a memoir about running and writing that instils the reader with the mantra that “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”. This phrase is the most useful six words anyone has written or will ever write about running.

You will be in pain, but its up to you how you react to it, your body is capable of far more than your mind thinks it is.

As well as that incredible quote, the book also digs deep into how the running is of a huge help to Murakami’s writing. I’m finding that since ditching the MP3 player that my time spent running is valuable creative time, this helps me not only with my radio and writing work but keeps my mind from acknowledging that my knees are killing me and my face has invented a new shade of red. My imaginary finish line is helping this too, one less running question my brain has to think about, helping the creative process get to work.

I only intended to be temporary jogger – up to and including the 10k I told myself. But with the positive effects on my work, as well as seeing off the last of the Christmas weight I like to add at winter time, I might just carry on past this ‘mind-created’ finish line.

Paul Tyler is the presenter of Lincoln A to Z on Siren FM – Mondays 9pm

@lincolnatoz

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End User fun stuff

Nice picture of croci near Embankment tube station

I have total editorial control over this blog. What I say goes ok? Below is a nice picture of some flowers – crocuses (croci) seen growing in the gardens near the Embankment tube station this morning. Nice eh?

If any readers have nice photos of flowers they would like to share please let me know. Spring is in the air:)

crociI’m a big softie really. Innit?

More lovely phlower fotos inc a ladybird here.

Categories
End User events Regs

Larging it up in London – the NLC and American Bar at the Savoy

lloyd_georgeNight on the tiles last night. Dinner with Julian Huppert at the National Liberal Club followed by cocktails at London’s oldest cocktail bar – the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel.

I was thinking of using the American Bar for last year’s Xmas bash. Ended up not doing so because the capacity was only 78 persons, you couldn’t book it and a cocktail was around fifteen quid a go.

I’ve only been there once before. That was after my first year in Uni in 1981. Out on the town with my London based cousins we passed the Savoy and popped in for a swift one. It was very swift. Two halves of lager and a bourbon were £4.50. This was when a pint in my local was forty pence!

Last night seven drinks came to

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datacentre Engineer internet olympics peering

Regional Peering in the UK

When I was asked to write a piece about regional peering I thought it would be a quick update on the current state of affairs in the UK. Alas with all these things I realised that I need to add a little back story. Feel free to skip over the content to the end if you know all the bits…

The Internet (and what its not)

Most people know the Internet is not a single entity but rather a collective of networks that use common standards to create a single network made up of independently run and managed networks that allow their customers and end users exchange traffic and therefore create the Internet and its public face – the World Wide Web.

Peering/Transit/BGP

At the edge of each network there are a bunch of routers that communicate with other adjacent routers belonging to other networks using the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). At a basic level each network tells the other network what it knows about its network and (depending on commercial concerns) other networks it knows about using the BGP protocol. This information is shared in the form of “routes” which define a certain block of address space and how to get to it.

This leads naturally to a quick

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agricultural End User

Lumberjack weekend special & trailer maintenance tips

osgoodby_woodslumbertrefThis weekend sees a lumberjack special on trefor.net. All internet and no sawing doesn’t light the fire.

Costs five or six quid for a net of logs from the local garage. We could get a ton delivered for around £80 though have only ever done it once. Kept meaning to order more. Cousin Steffan has a gleaning license from the local forestry commission allowing him to “harvest” fallen trees. After this winter’s storms there are plenty of them. On Saturday the trailer was hitched up and we set off for Osgoodby woods north of Market Rasen.

Bit of a tip. Thought I’d check the tyre pressures on the car before going. With an expected load of wood I figured it had better have the right amount of air in it. What I hadn’t thought of was the tyre pressure on the trailer. After I got back from the Tesco garage I looked at the trailer tyres and they looked a bit low.

 

wood

I also happened to notice Anne’s car had a puncture so I called the AA out. The AA man turned up promptly (50 mins), sorted the puncture and in exchange for a cup of tea did the air on the trailer tyres.

That trailer is 10 years old this year and in that time I’ve not topped up the air once. They were meant to be at 35psi. They were at 20psi! Good job we checked innit?

dead treesNow there are only two things you need to know about a gleaning license. The first is that you aren’t allowed to use mechanical tools to cut up the wood. The second is that you can’t take vehicles onto the land so everything you cut (by hand) has to be carried to the car at the edge of the wood.

This is quite sensible really as it limits the amount of wood you can take. It makes it very hard work.  That stuff is heavy and the floor of the wood is boggy and covered in brambles.tref & steff

Steff used to be a forrester before a knee accident cut short his career. Having a professional in tow (though reality was he was towing me) was quite handy. He picked out the best wood, ie the stuff that had already dried out, and we set to with our saws.

Steff pointed out an interesting oak tree with what looked like two trunks. This tree was around hundred years old and be the woodpilepollarded regrowth of one felled for pit props during the first world war. Innerestin

I’m going to let the photos and video tell you the rest. Bloody hard work mind you. We were at it for three hours and when we got back to the house ate half a baguette each!

The last pic is my share of the take from the afternoon’s work. The video is a video.

Read about “the technical business of trees and the art of netting a boy”

PS v poor mob sig in woods fwiw.

Categories
End User fun stuff

How to walk up a Steep Hill and be sixty pounds lighter by the time you get to the top

Last night I walked up steep hill and was sixty pounds lighter by the time I go to the top. Another exciting episode in the life of Trefor  Davies.

Yesterday morning I walked to work and passed the Harlequin Antiquarian Bookshop as I went down Steep Hill. I’ve been meaning to go in there because I found that when Reader’s Rest closed the Oxford History books that I had been meaning to go in and buy but hadn’t got round to it had been passed up the road to the Harlequin. The shop didn’t open until 11am (why would you) but I noted the closing time of 5 – 5.30 (ish).

Up until yesterday my collection of Oxford History of England books had looked like this:

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End User fun stuff

Lincoln 10K – A Question Of Time

Its almost impossible to talk about running without talking about time. For most, simply finding time to run is not easy. Its possible to see the early morning jogger, though they are very rare as its difficult to resist the extra time snuggled up in the duvet playing the snooze game with the alarm. Then follows getting yourself ready for the day ahead, or persuading some little people with other ideas to go to school.

Some have the option of cycling to work of course, where you don’t get too puffed out and sweaty, but running seems to be a step too far. Work gets in the way of a daytime jaunt and there’s no such thing as a dinner hour any more, apart from those on flexitime and I don’t know anyone that doesn’t save up their flexitime to add to their annual leave.

Once home, its helping with homework, cooking tea, preparing packed lunches for the next day and persuading the same little people that they should  tidy up and go to bed. Once these tasks are complete, at this time of year at least, its cold and dark outside and the return to that comfy duvet is far more inviting than a cold, icy run in the dark. Weekends have more time available, but if your training for a distance run, you’ll require more frequency than this.

Time is also the main subject of conversation with regards to training and races. I have come to the assumption that once a runner says that they are doing the 10K you can put your house on the first question being “What time you aiming for?”

Time seems important for self improvement, the digits on the dial congratulate you if you get a better time, but kick you up the backside if you get a higher number. Endless GPS tracking Apps are available and information for that self improvement has never been easier or indeed, cheaper to come by. However, I’m finding myself in this bout of training wanting to shed all barriers and complications, this includes taking a watch or smart phone out whilst pounding the streets.

index

My only goal throughout these weeks building up to the 10K is to plot a course and complete it with out stopping, my mind is focused on the distance rather than the time. So far, so good, and its quite good to be able to shrug off the pressures of beating any previous times.

I’ve even contemplated cutting off the official timing chip from my race number, but maybe, just maybe, if I can find the time, I’ll log on to the website as soon as I get home to check the numbers.

Paul Tyler is the presenter of Lincoln A to Z on Siren FM, Mondays 9PM

@Lincolnatoz

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End User travel

Dear website, I know what I want – YOU don’t.

grrrrIt keeps happening. I go on a website to do a particular thing – e.g download Real Player onto a different computer or visit a website for a specific purpose – and the site makes assumptions and decisions for me which are completely erroneous.

Continue reading “Dear website, I know what I want – YOU don’t.”
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Business events UC webrtc

4th trefor.net UC Industry Executive Dinner

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End User fun stuff

Breakfast at Silva’s

Breakfast at Silva'sSometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. I present here a picture of what I had for breakfast this morning.

Silva’s, Shaftesbury Avenue. Nuff said.

Read all about how to cook breakfast using a George Foreman Grill here.

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End User fun stuff

Lincoln 10K – Mp3 Free

During my last fad of running, three years ago, it would have been incomprehensible to have gone for a run without putting on my trainers, shorts, special underwear and lucky T- Shirt – without the addition of a small electronic music player and some headphones.

For some, the generic Mp3 player is there to focus the mind and to exclude the inevitable pain, contributing greatly to the mind over matter approach required to complete a long distance run.

For me, it was used primarily to combat boredom, just as my Walk-man did onRunning with a walkman my paper round as a teenager. Thankfully technology has improved and I don’t need a pencil to rewind my cassette of Depeche Mode’s ‘Singles 81 – 85’. Talking of which, I seem to remember Philip Schofield on Saturday morning TV’s ‘Going Live’ pulling an April Fool trick on us. He suggested that in the future we’d be able to have a little stick like machine that you could speak into and it would play out the required song from a memory bank of thousands. Some on the internet even believe that Schofield is the inventor of such devices, I’ve seen more ridiculous conspiracies, although I do believe that the the April Fool is now on him.

Running with entertainment can

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End User fun stuff

Batten down them hatches

trefor_thumbTook the Docklands Light Railway from Bank to London City Airport. Used the DLR many times before to go to Telecity but this may have been my first time on the Woolwich Arsenal branch.

It’s also the first time I’ve ever given any thought to the area. Boy is it bleak. We are talking New York tenement type scenes. I may be exaggerating a little but I don’t think so. That’s how it felt. Blocks and blocks of flats with long external corridors open to the elements. Limehouse basin with its expensive yachts seemed to be a little haven amongst all the red brick and concrete.

Taking off on a grey day from London City Airport the view seemed to highlight the wasteland nature of the area. Large industrial plots with expanses of nothingness. Sewage works. Scrapyards. Dumps. Weeds.

I could visualise conditions on the ground. Not a place for strangers. You need to be streetwise. The police don’t get out of their squad cars. Psst wanna buy

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End User travel

Easy like Friday morning – London City Airport

trefor_thumbRemarkably relaxed sat in the bar after security at London City Airport. It’s curling on the telly, cmon girls, a cup of tea in front of me (ye-es) and a stress free experience getting here. The weather hasn’t yet hit and it looks as if all the planes are running to time. I have 3 bars of EE4G on the MiFi giving me a perfectly usable 9 megs down and 14 megs up. I checked in for BA3284 dep 11.20 to the Isle of Man using my BA Android app yesterday. The barcode on the phone just worked. That’s easily. No problem. No messing about. The only paperwork I have is a book – I’m not an e-reader, and a birthday card for me dear old dad who reaches yet another milestone next week. I also have a few beer vouchers to spend at the Whitehouse pub in Peel over the weekend.

Ah I see we are boarding. Good timing. Just finished my cuppa.

C ya later.

Categories
End User fun stuff

Schnooky hubbyband loves ickle bunny

valentines dayIt’s Friday, it’s Valentine’s Day and I’m on the way to the Isle of Man for the weekend before landing back for the LINX meeting on Monday.

There is no chef on this train so breakfast is a mere croissant and a bacon bap – the staff have striven valiantly to make up for the absence of the temperamental cook. I have visions of him flinging knives across the train galley  and storming off complaining about how can an artiste be expected to create magnificent dishes in such conditions. All I wanted was a Full English but hey… I expect he will be happier back at the Savoy.

Because the weekend is coming up hard on the rails I have permitted myself the luxury of

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Business fun stuff

Monday morning February form-filling frolicks

trefor_150It’s a Monday morning. This morning before driving to the pool I had to scrape the frost off the windscreen. It’s only the second time this winter I’ve had to do it.

Yesterday the birds were to be heard singing cheerfully in our back garden. I told them it was too soon. Winter hasn’t really started yet. It’s minus 1 this morning. Next time I see the birds I’ll tell them I told them so.

When I am rich and famous (I don’t want the famous bit) I will spend my Januaries and Februaries writing the occasional blog post from my villa. The palm trees will sway in the gentle offshore breeze that nudges in through my open window.

Every now and again I’ll take a break from my literary efforts and jump into the pool. Lunch will be taken barefoot on the veranda followed by a nap in the hammock set up under the shade of a square of canvas sail out the back.

I may or may not write some more that day. As the afternoon cools I’ll walk into town – it isn’t far – maybe buy some provisions, or nip into a bar for a cool drink.

You get the drift. January and February in the UK are tedious months. All that villa stuff will only work if there is internet access. I’ll need to check visitor numbers, sales levels, keep in touch with contributors, social media etc etc etc.

Hope it will be ok.

In the meantime it’s a Monday morning in February and there is stuff to be done. This week will be largely spent working on website evolution & editorial programmes for the next few months.

Oh and a bit of form filling for the local council – timely considering my post  last week on automation and change.

atb

Categories
Engineer social networking Weekend

Immediacy

I’ve done most of my jobs. Stuff taken to tip, wood piled up “neatly” at bottom of garden, Kid 4’s bag emptied after skiing holiday (that one was worth a few brownie points I’ll tell you), roast beef prep done with veg peeled etc, broken light bulbs replaced. I’m sure there was more. It felt like it (cue violins – I’m not proud). I only have the bit of wood to glue back on the towel hooks in the bathroom to do (again – different bit this time) which will wait for me to finish the cup of tea I am about to consume as a reward for getting most of the jobs done.

When I came in from the garden the news about Jenny Jones’ bronze medal was on the radio. Thing is that happened hours ago. I’ve even written a blog post about it. Very topical, me.

I suppose there must still be people who don’t pick things up as they happen,

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End User olympics Weekend

Jenny Jones wins bronze – drives up internet bandwidth

olympics_headerJenny Jones drove up internet bandwidth use as people watched her take bronze online.

I thought the London 2012 Olympics were great. I’ve not given any real thought to the winter Olympics other than to note the run up in which the media hit us with “terrorist” stories and then tales of unfinished hotel accommodation, presumably for journos. I didn’t even watch the opening ceremony. I think I was down the pub.

Now the games are in full flow I’m getting into the swing of it, especially with programmes like the one about Torvill and Dean being shown last night. Yesterday I followed @jamienichollsuk and @billymorgan89. I don’t normally do that sort of thing but they both seemed like such nice guys.

This morning we watched the women’s freestyle snowboard competition and cheered Jenny Jones to her bronze, also cheering loudly, though of course sympathetically, every time someone who might have knocked her off her podium spot fell or made a mistake.

Eventually we, the kids

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End User fun stuff

Lincoln 10K – Getting Started

I’ve accidentally entered this years Lincoln 10K run. After completing this a couple of years ago I vowed never to do it again – It hurt unnecessarily, and running is no longer my exercise of choice, I much prefer to cycle these days – less strain on the knees and you get a lot further for your effort.

I present a Community Radio program on Siren FM called Lincoln A to Z, where my producer and I travel to 52 randomly selected grids on the A to Z map of Lincoln and make a radio show and podcast about each one. It was noted in many a production meeting that the course of the Lincoln 10K goes through at least two of our selected grids. I managed to steer us through the Ermine West program without even a mention of the race. Then, late last year a surprising comment came from the exercise avoiding producer – “we should both do the 10K next year, could make for some good radio’. I put my foot down, “No” came the reply and I stood fast.

I was happy in my decision, until

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charitable End User

Donating Stem Cells (Part III)

It’s finally over. 8 million of my little stem cells are now on ice awaiting transplant.

The harvesting procedure itself is done on an outpatient basis and is relatively simple as I’ll describe shortly. The hard work is done in the build up to it. 16 injections of granulocyte colony stimulating factor (or GCSF) are administered over 4 days to get the bone marrow into stem cell production hyperdrive to ensure enough are in the blood for harvest.

These injections are done 4 at a time; in my case, two in the belly and one in each arm. They can be done in 8, but you have a choice – 4 relatively painless injections a day, or 2 slightly more painful ones. I opted for the former. These are administered by a nurse that visits you at home or work and who has to take your pulse, temperature and blood pressure before and 30 minutes after to ensure all is OK. In my case, 2 days were in the Supreme Court and I remain thankful to the help the staff extended in finding a room for this to happen.

I have been mulling over whether to tell the “no holes barred” truth about the process, or

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End User fun stuff

Strategies for surviving boring flights

Slept for much of the flight back from the weekend in Lisboa. Certainly for most of Welcome to the Pleasuredome. Not a reflection on Frankie Goes To Hollywood of whom I am enough of a fan to carry their music around on my dog and bone.

Lisbon to London is only 3 hours or so – not a bad length of flight. I do know many in the networking game who regularly do long haul, in their pursuit of tier points and status. For such trips – SFO/LHR etc – a survival strategy is required.

Mine was always to get a skinfull in before boarding and I would then sleep the whole flight. On one occasion whilst travelling with someone who had been upgraded to First Class coming back from Seattle he and I settled in to the First Class Lounge before the flight. I polished off a bottle of posh champagne but he drank only mineral water, saving himself for the on-board treats to come.

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End User fun stuff

Lisbon farewell or Portugese Tarts – dontcha just love em

Lisbon farewell.  It was great to see you. Very hospitable were you if somewhat cold but it being February I offer no complaints.

portugese tartThe brandy and the port kept me warm. Your generous portions were gratefully received. The tapas was good. The historic sights of the city were enjoyable, I climbed the castle ramparts and pictured Magellan, Vasgo de Gama and other intrepid Portugese of earlier times setting out on their voyages into the unknown.

As I leave the city, I thad my first experience of the splendid Portugese tart. A delicious custard concoction which made me wonder why on earth I had left it until the BA business class lounge to try one.

This was my first trip to Portugal but do have a Portugese story from my younger days.

When I was 19 I hitchhiked to Greece. It was a great adventure. Not in the league of Vasco de Gama but exciting nevertheless. There came a time, as I was sat in a bar on the beach one night, that  I needed

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charitable End User Regs Weekend

Donating Stem Cells (Part II)

It’s the final countdown.

I am writing this expecting my first of four daily injections of granuloycte colony stimulating factor, or “GCSF” anytime soon. A nurse appointed by the Anthony Nolan Trust will seek me out in London / at home and administer a drug which will get them stem cells moving out of my bone marrow into my blood stream ready for the aphoresis machine to filter them out for the adult lady with leukemia who is in desperate need of them.

Unfortunately, on that front, apparently she now has an infection, so they’ve had to stop her build up to treatment. This faced the medics with a bit of a Sophie’s choice apparently. They can cryogenically preserve my stem cells until she’s fit and well enough to receive them (and risk some of them being damaged in the process), or delay the harvest but hope all the planets align with the timings – not just my availability but a 6 day collection cycle which given predictions of narrow windows of opportunity when she may be well enough had to be traded against the slightly more optimal nature of the procedure.

The medical boffins went with the latter, so I am about to be injected and will still donate on Wednesday/Thursday.

Fitting this around work is interesting though……. well, I mean it’s fine Saturday/Sunday, I am just waiting on a nurse to pitch up, but when you are lead in your company for a litigation and the court hearing is on the Monday and Tuesday before the donation, things get interesting.

I know I, and others, can sometimes get down on the former incumbent in our industry….. and its regulator, and sometimes even the judiciary. In this case though, I have to express my extreme gratitude to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom for making the “Robing Room” available for the injections and BT offering their break-out room for the same if need be.

Many of you will have read the first article on this I posted here; and many of your have made or pledged financial support to Anthony Nolan Trust via JustGiving or otherwise. Importantly though, I am pleased to say that this story has encouraged at least 2 people so far to register themselves as potential donors – in amongst all this, and especially amongst the worrying news about the recipient, it’s truly heartening!

Google+

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End User fun stuff

Could a KITT-like car be driving down your road sometime soon?

While setting up a TomTom satnav (others are of course available) for a relative recently I noticed on their site you could purchase a William Daniels voice pack for their devices.

If you are a fan of the classic 80s series Knight Rider like me you will know that Mr Daniels was the original voice of KITT, the pretty much indestructible car with a razor sharp wit that regularly saved Michael Knight’s bacon.

Seeing this reminded me how much I loved the series when I was a kid so I had to buy the DVD boxset (the less said about the 1998 and 2008 remakes the better)

Watching a few of the episodes got me thinking, as 4G is expanding and the computing power that can be tapped via the cloud increases on a minute by minute basis could such a car be built with the human interaction code hosted in the cloud utilising neural network technology?

Yes I know Google are testing self driving cars and some are being put into service in Milton Keynes but I doubt very much these will have a personality at the moment.

Obviously anything safety related would be in the car itself in case of a loss of signal for example but wouldn’t it be a cracking idea to ask your car to drive you home after a session at your preferred watering hole or after a busy day at work, there would at long last be a use for that smart watch you’ve had your eye on.

I doubt the Department for Transport would approve the turbo boost function though, either to allow you to get somewhere quick or to jump over obstacles which would be a shame eh?

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charitable End User Regs Weekend

Donating Stem Cells (Part 1)

For those expecting some deep regulatory insights, alas, they will come in due course ….. But today I am hijacking Trefor.net to talk about my experiences to date helping someone suffering from leukemia.

There’s an adult female out there somewhere, afflicted with this cancer . Alas, that’s all I am allowed to know for 2 years….. and if she wants anonymity I’ll never know any more.

This time last year I had a phone call from Anthony Nolan, the charity that runs the UK’s largest register. I signed up in a moment of philanthropy 15 years ago…… And despite near misses before, this time I was supposed to be a proper bona-fide match.

More blood was taken (all the samples are done by your local practice nurse) and I kept getting holding emails thereafter. The recipients medical team where unsure whether or not to proceed. Then, two weeks ago, all of a sudden we were go…. and in a hurry.

I’ve now had my medical – this was 3 hours of poking and prodding and X-Rays and ECGs in a special unit in University College London Hospital. All apparently seems fine but I await the result. Assuming that’s OK, a week Wednesday I shall be in to donate.

In most circumstances, it’s allegedly complication free. Simply involves 4 days of injections to get stem cells moving out of your bone marrow into your blood, and then 5 hours on a special “dialysis” machine that centrifuges your blood and separates stem cells from the rest. Sounds like a very long blood donation, though involves bigger needles and one more of them.

This is nowhere like the general anaesthetic and excavation of the pelvis prevalent when I signed up….. and easily fitting around work – the injections are administered by a nurse wherever you are that day …… Though that operation may still have to happen yet (if enough aren’t collected). And for some recipients that is the best way of doing it, medically speaking.

I’ll let you know how it goes on the day; I might even live tweet it on the hospital WiFi. In the meantime though, there’s a shortage of donors, especially from ethnic minorities. If you’re between 16-30, you can sign up with Anthony Nolan here – read it all carefully and be sure before you commit!.

If you’re over 30, or it isn’t for you (there’s no shame in that), can I encourage you to give to the Anthony Nolan here via my JustGiving site, so they can continue to do their life saving work…… tissue typing isn’t cheap, and nor is the procedure. That, and they’ll have to keep me in coffee for a day!

PS. People have said that I’m brave – I don’t consider myself that…..the brave one is the anonymous adult woman battling this disease. That said, I will be teetotal for a week or so, which is probably, for me at least, the bravest bit!

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Business internet mobile connectivity social networking Weekend

No mobile network coverage but WiFi saves the day again

No mobile connectivity no longer a problem.

Went to a Burns Night dinner last night organised by the “Friends of William Farr School”. A good time was had by all and I got to wear my new Irish tartan kilt (photos withheld due to health and safety reasons).

The bash was at Hemswell Court, a former RAF Officers Mess – there will be quite a few such buildings in Lincolnshire which was known as bomber county during the second world war. It’s a v pleasant venue with memories of men in sheepskin flying jackets and the roar of Lancaster bomber engines echoing around the place.

Being in a rural spot, as most RAF bomber command airfields were, there is sod all mobile coverage at Hemswell Court. Ordinarily in town I’d feel somewhat naked without mobile coverage. In Hemswell I didn’t give it a second thought.

This is a) because

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Categories
agricultural End User

Should badgers get the vote and other jolly wheezes #banthecull

Should badgers get the vote? This blog post explores the motion…

When I were a lad with no cares other than the distant dark clouds of impending A Level examinations our form classroom was situated above an arch through which pupils passed at break times. Despite being supposedly the most mature class in school we used to escape the pressure of said impending exams by letting off a bit of steam (I’m sticking to that line).

Our class had a sink and we would have hours fun by filling up cups of water and pouring it on unsuspecting passers by below. This was a fairly inaccurate process because we had to guess when someone would be coming out from underneath the arch – F=mg and all that – it took time for the water to reach pupil height and more often than not we would miss.

Being a highly intelligent class we devised a process that would improve our accuracy. Someone would look out of the classroom window at the other side of the arch and start walking when a victim disappeared from view underneath. When our paceman reached the a few feet from the sink we would drop the water. We did score a few direct hits but never seemed to get into trouble for this.

Fast forwarding to the modern era

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