Category: Weekend

something for the weekend – interesting non work related posts

Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – Eleanor begins to emerge

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 10 May, 2014
No Comments on Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – Eleanor begins to emerge

The new Lincoln Eleanor Cross begins to emerge from it’s stone home. It’s pretty astounding that a solid lump or rock can contain a thing of such beauty and you already begin to get a sense for the character.

These two videos chart progress over a few days last week. A lot of time is spent just hacking out stone as opposed to making the shape of the statue itself. Better you watch the vids than me transcribing them here. It’s outdoors and there is a lot of wind around but it gives you a good feel for the working conditions of a jobbing sculptor 🙂

Previous Eleanor Cross for Lincoln posts include:

Eleanor Cross – the carving starts
Eleanor Cross – choosing the stone
New Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – a project of national significance

Warp drive & a forecast date for technology of teleporting

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 9 May, 2014
2 Comments on Warp drive & a forecast date for technology of teleporting

I was discussing my experiences of being without a phone for ten days concluding that the phone was something I’d rather have than not have despite the fact that to some extent the damn gadget takes over your life. It isn’t really a phone any more anyway. The percentage of its time spent making phone calls is tiny compared with all the other intergalactic communicating computer functions.

What is missing it seems to me is a Teleporting app. It just seems a natural evolution of the capability of the ~~hand held computer~~ personal computing device (it isn’t going to be hand held for very much longer). Who wouldn’t want to be able to just say “beam me up Scotty” and reappear in the pub saloon bar¹.

Yes this is all dreamland stuff but it is Friday afternoon and the weekend beckons. Clearly the problem is the lack of any technology available to make this happen. It would be easy enough to put together an App, integrate it with Google Maps for setting coordinates and provide a button with the words “beam” or “beam me up” (or even one with user-programmable text – let’s push the boat out). Of course it wouldn’t work but might look good.

The App could just be waiting for the back end tech to catch up and don’t worry, this it very much will do. We would also need more maps data than just for planet Earth

The question is when. When you think about it the answer to this is really obvious. Teleporting technology will become available at around the same time as dilithium crystal powered warp drives. Stands to reason, innit. This won’t be for a while yet but it will come.

I won’t be around to see it but that doesn’t matter. It’s the same principle as planting oak trees. You don’t do it for yourself. You do it for the enjoyment of later generations. The savvy amongst you (that’s pretty much everyone who reads this blog:) ) will have spotted that I’ve omitted to put a date against this. I don’t have an Alpha date let alone Beta or General Release. That’s cos I’ve been around the block. It can be fatal to put a date down that you are doomed to miss. Better to keep it vague.

This does make it harder to put a business case around it but lets face it. Business cases are often based on sales figures plucked out of thin air anyway. Either that or an analyst report that someone has paid a lot of money for so it must be right. Right?

The vagueness of the schedule also points to budget overruns. Whoever owns the project should factor in some additional capital up front. Lots of additional capital. Probably more capital than the Gross Domestic Product of the world. Totally buggers up the ROI numbers but well worth it. After all it is a Friday and the more time we have available to spend in the pub the better which is what Teleporting will do for us.

In considering the business case we shouldn’t forget ongoing operational costs. By buying additional drinking time it is going to mean we will be spending more money on beer. This is a difficult one to cost in because everyone drinks at a different pace although there must be an ONS report somewhere with an average number of pints drunk in a given time period. The average time saved by Teleporting would also need to be calculated and this will in all probability require some extensive primary research involving visiting many Public Houses ~~around the country~~ globally.

Finally we would need to forecast the cost of a pint at the time the tech becomes available. Hopefully the government won’t have upped the tax on beer too much by then².

So there you go. A take on the timeline for Teleporting. It will arrive at the same time as Warp drive…

¹ Mine’s a pint of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord bitter.
² I did say this was a dream.

Bad Stuff broadband End User fun stuff internet Net UC voip

Vastly Objectionable Ignominious Phrase

Post author By Kory Kessel
Post date Wednesday, 7 May, 2014
3 Comments on Vastly Objectionable Ignominious Phrase

What the lone acronym in “VoIP Week” does NOT represent.

As a longtime fan of Marvel’s super hero comic books — 40 years and happily counting — I find myself quite satisfied with the persisting Hollywood trend of putting these Fantastic! Incredible! Amazing! Uncanny! Mighty! characters on the Silver Surfer…er, silver screen. And almost as much fun as seeing these wonders brought to life is the narrative means used to tie them all together, that being the oh-so-shadowy government agency S.H.I.E.L.D., which as acronyms go is one heckuva Marvel-ous mouthful (originally “Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division”, then changed in 1991 to “Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate”…both way-cool).

S.H.I.E.L.D.

So what does all of this have to do with VoIP? Well, as great acronyms go absolutely nothing, as S.H.I.E.L.D. is way-cool while V-o-I-P is decidedly not. In fact, though the meaning behind V-o-I-P — Voice over Internet Protocol — is a cause célèbre, worthy of consideration, contemplation, conjecture, and cockeyed optimism, the “word” verbalized evokes images of a thick liquid dripping onto a badly-tuned piece of tin poised alongside a carnival microphone.

Say it with me. Or better yet, don’t.

As awful an acronym as V-o-I-P is, one has to wonder how it came to stick as the most common reference term for the technology it represents. Could it be that as bad as it is, V-o-I-P is actually the best of a really bad bunch? Let’s see…

		IPT (IP Telephony)? Difficult double-consonant at the end, and perhaps too easy to rhyme with “gypped”…
		IT (Internet Telephony)? Taken.
		VoBB (Voice over Broadband? Again, like IPT, too easy to set a negative rhyme to.
		BT (Broadband Telephony)? Taken.
		BPS (Broadband Phone Service)? Proves that an ugly-sounding acronym is better than one with absolutely nothing going for it.

OK, so maybe I am no longer wondering how V-o-I-P took hold in the tech-y lexicon. After all, nature abhors a vacuum and all that (Horror vacui!). Also, sadly, nothing better was in the ether (evidenced above), and it isn’t as if the average man-on-the-street is going to say “Voice over Internet Protocol” every time they need to refer to the concept (of course, there is no way said average man-on-the-street is ever going to comfortably use the acronymic word “VoIP” either, but let’s not get bogged down in reality’s messy details). Still, it sure would be nice to be able to lay blame for V-o-I-P at someone’s keyboard, but unlike the massive majority of Internet-based whatever-and-whatsis there is absolutely nobody out there laying claim to originating — starting? envisioning? founding? — the term. Even if we could force somebody to take responsibility for this *four-letter-word* of a four-letter acronym, though, a proper punishment could never be levied as any attempt to do so would likely raise the ire of the Kids from C.A.P.E.R.^*

At this point the Marvel-literate among you might be gasping (Gasp!) for me to return to espousing on and praising the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe, for those of you not in-the-know who have hung on this far). It is “VoIP Week” at trefor.net, however, and other than their diametrically opposed acronym quality no other useful correlation can be made between S.H.I.E.L.D. and V-o-I-P (other than the fact, that is, that S.H.I.E.L.D. agents likely make extensive and heretofore unknown — and way-cool — use of VoIP technology). Still, you can’t beat a good opening.

^*The Civilian Authority for the Protection of Everybody, Regardless

VoIP Week Posts:

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TVs, lost remotes and fish tank screensavers

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 6 May, 2014
4 Comments on TVs, lost remotes and fish tank screensavers

Our TV remote control is lost. It is almost certainly down the side of the settee or one of the armchairs. I did look. It must have been a fairly cursory glance because that bit of plastic was not found. Didn’t jump up at me saying “here I am Tref”.

Not that it knows my name. At least it never got it from me. Might have heard it while we were watching the snooker, I suppose.

The fact is that the TV remote being lost hasn’t really affected me. I discovered the manual buttons down the right hand side of the screen. They allowed me to switch on the snooker. Fortunately the faff of switching channels was unnecessary. It was already tuned to the snooker.

Since then TV has played no part in our lives. It is there flat against the wall. Red LED indicating it is powered up but on standby.

I could I suppose find an app on the droid that serves as a TV remote. Not bothered. I quite like the idea of a screensaver showing fish in a tank. Tropical job. I’d like a fish tank although I don’t want the hassle of looking after the fish.

Friend of mine from University, Rhys, had an undergraduate project to observe the behavioural patterns of goldfish. He was supposed to feed them at the same time of day in the same part of the fish tank to see if they would congregate there in hungry anticipation.

The problem was we would shoot off somewhere for the weekend so on Friday Rhys would give them enough food to last until Monday morning. Totally messed up the experiment. The fish began to die and by the end of the spring term 39 out of 40 of them had died. Kicked the aquatic bucket. Rhys had to totally fabricate his experimental results:)

My other university “fish tank” story related to one of the lads who declined to come out with “the boys” one sunday night because he had a date. In those days Bangor was dry on a Sunday. The only source of alcohol was through a private club such as the British Legion or the Students Union or at a restaurant. We frequented the Taj Mahal, sadly now defunct.

On this occasion we hit the cinema and ended up in the Taj for a chicken biryani (meat vindaloo, onion bhaji, pilau rice, plain naan etc) and a few pints of lager.

Upon arrival we were sat next to the fish tank, always a favourite place to sit. Very relaxing when combined with Bollywood’s Greatest Hits. Just a few minutes later our pal was ushered, girl in tow, to the table the other side of the tank. I have no idea whether he had noticed us but we could definitely see him. He was out to impress big time and ordered a bottle of Blue Nun, in those days the height of sophistication. You have to believe he had the mickey taken out of him big time when we got back to the hall of residence. Blue Nun!

Hey. He had the night out with the girl and we didn’t 🙂

In those days I didn’t watch the TV. In fact Kid1 was thirteen years old before we had our first TV. We have one now, as you know, although we don’t watch it because the remote is lost. Feels just like the good old days:) There’s always iPlayer and tinterweb anyway and we didn’t have that in the good old days!

PS pic is totally arbitrary – fancied sticking it up

food and drink fun stuff Weekend

Saturday Snapshot (3-May-2014)

Post author By Kory Kessel
Post date Monday, 5 May, 2014
1 Comment on Saturday Snapshot (3-May-2014)

Lest regular readership get the mistaken impression that every La Famille Kessel Saturday is filled full-up with memorable diversion, today I will not report on a Normandy beachside kite festival competition or a world-class photo exhibit attended or any such specialness. Instead, dear and generous reader, I will gladly bring you along on a short walk I took around my corner of Paris’s 18th Arrondissement in search of photographs and dinner party nibbles.

First, to set the pin on the map, the part of 18eme in which La Famille Kessel has made home since 2001 is on the arrondissement’s northern edge, and not the storied and well-trodden Montmartre (though it isn’t far removed, and we do have a view of Sacre Coeur, provided someone is holding the back of your pants when you lean out the window and look sharply to the right). It is an immigrant neighborhood in the strongest sense of the word, with over 160 nationalities represented (the most diverse such area in all of Europe, in fact…or so we have so often been told). The heterogeneousness, in fact, seeps into and around everything…streetlife, the shops, the wide disparity in the quality and condition of the vehicles…and for a person with a photography bent and a halfway decent camera, every blue-sky sunny day reeks of opportunity.

American friends living in Holland were in town over the weekend with four kids in tow, and Saturday evening we would welcome them for eats and drinks. I had the main course set and prepared — three tartes a la tomates (recipe some other time), an herb-infested green salad with pistachio and a garlic-tomato-balsamic vinaigrette — but we were were sorely lacking for food-before-the-food, so out the door I went, bang into what from my fourth floor window looked like one of the Top 10 Best days of the year.

Happily, my window didn’t lie, and from the moment my shoes hit the sidewalk I felt a bounce in my step. The day was glorious. A crisp light wind, temperature right around 18ºC (64ºF for the U.S.-bound), white puffy clouds, a screaming blue sky, and a pervasive airy mood that seemed infused into all. I could hear the buzz of easy conversation, comfortable laughter, the sounds of bicycle bells…I wasn’t sure what direction I would go in or what I would pick up along the way, but I was not the least bit concerned. I had an hour, a camera around my neck, and just enough purpose to ensure I wouldn’t wander too far.

End User fun stuff

I bought a drill – Makita #shed #disassembly

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 5 May, 2014
1 Comment on I bought a drill – Makita #shed #disassembly

I bought a drill. No it’s not it’s a screwdriver. Actually it’s both. It’s a Makita cordless job. My old Black & Decker cordless screwdriver I’ve had for years won’t charge and therefore won’t drive screws. I only used the B&D a few times. Ah well.

I needed it because the playhouse is being moved, if it is the will of a superior being, from it’s current position astride the basketball court to the compost heap which is now no longer a compost heap.

The basketball court isn’t currently a basketball court. It’s a patio base for the playhouse but it will be perfectly good as a basketball court. It has been pointed out to me that some branches from the pear tree in the corner overhang the “court” and “can we chop them off?” We shall have to wait and see. You don’t go lopping branches off a pear tree just like that, though it’s never been much good as a pear tree and every year the leaves develop brown spots. There is a fix for this involving some sort of insect repelling bands around the trunk but I’ve never bothered implementing it. The pears were never any good anyway and there’s a Tesco just down the road.

In fact Tesco are opening a new whizz bang all singing all dancing superstore in a couple of weeks and I’ve been invited to the preview night. It’s supposed to be packed with the latest retail tech which I’m hoping will make for some good blog content.

I’m drifting off the subject here which is meant to be my new cordless drill/screwdriver.

Kid3, who with a B at GCSE in Resistant Materials (woodwork) came with me to B&Q as my qualified advisor. He was supposed to be revising for his AS levels but the lure of the tool over rode the exam pressure. A bloke called Reg helped me out. He wasn’t called Reg really but I can’t remember his real name and Reg sounds appropriate for a highly experienced assistant in the tools section. Good job he was there really because he was able to explain the different types of screwdriver bits available. I didn’t realise that there was such a thing as a posidrive. It’s similar to the phillips cross head but different. Good job he was there because it turns out that all the screws in our playhouse are posidrive and not just simple cross heads. It would have taken me hours to get the job done.

We chose the best tool in stock or so I was advised by Reg. The Makita. It has to be said that the Makita does feel good in your hand. Chunky. Blokey. Solid stuff. It has a 1.5Ah Li-Ion Battery (gives me around 1 ½ hours of constant use says Reg), 2-Speed Variable & Reverse drive and employs a 13mm Keyless Chuck.

The Makita is something that every bloke should have. Even if screwing¹ is something you don’t do that often. It just feels good in the hand.

On this occasion the playhouse would have zero chance of a new life as the garden furniture store were it not for the power of the cordless screwdriver. There must have been forty screws to remove, many of which were long, deeply inserted and difficult to extract.

My mind drifts back to the silent movie~~s of my childhood~~² era where Buster Keaton would be dismantling a barn (for some reason) only to find it collapses around him whilst the Keystone Cops drive chaotically around the wreckage.

I had to abandon the dismantling yesterday in favour of a family trip to Pizza Express (good old Tesco vouchers). Progress had very much slowed as whoever assembled the darn playhouse in the first place had used heavy nails at the base and I’m worried about wrecking the wood which is quite soft cheap rubbish really.

Anyway the roof is off and one of the side walls removed. The job will get finished today. At least the dismantling will. We will have to see how the reassembly goes not least because I probably need to do some more leveling work on the base. Don’t want to rush these things.

Photos are courtesy of Anne’s iPhone because I haven’t got my SGS4 back from the menders yet.

The Weekend section of this blog feels as if it could do with a DIY section. Only prob is I don’t want to do anything that encourages me to do more DIY, even though I do now have a spanking new cordless screwdriver 🙂

Other posts relating to the bottom of the garden:

See the site that the shed is moving to here with video coverage of the wood store
Playhouse viewed from upstairs landing window
Fire fire – woodstore the sequel

Also if I were to check buy a new drill again I would probably check out some guides like the ones from Healthy Handyman first. Definitely gives some insight into the drill buying world.

¹ fnaa fnaa

² I’m not that old

End User events fun stuff gadgets google H/W internet mobile connectivity UC wearable

Band Camp Coincidences

Google Glass. Telephony. Synchronicity

At my age, you would think that I would be long past adolescent self-consciousness; that I wouldn’t feel awkward with the geeky way of thinking. A girl that I had a crush on back in the 2nd Grade said to me, “You talk funny. You talk like a scientist.”, referring to my vocabulary. At that age this wasn’t a compliment, nor was it really a criticism. It did not, though, bode well for any potential romantic entanglements.

On the way to the conference I find myself sitting next to two attractive, well dressed middle-age women, three abreast in the aisle seat. We start the long first leg of the flight with a little small talk. We are flying together from Dallas to Albuquerque, where they will leave the plane prior to its flying on to Seattle (my destination).

“What’s in Seattle?” they both ask.

I feel like I’m on my way to band camp. What do I say to them? I tell the truth.

“I’m going to speak at a conference on Content Management – a technology conference.”, I say.

“Oh. Technology stuff.”, from which they return to conversing among themselves for the remainder of the flight. It’s fine. I wanted time to think, anyway, to be quiet on the plane so that I could figure out what I am going to talk about at the conference. I booked the conference before deciding to leave my last corporate job. I opted to keep my commitment, though, and now I need to put my presentation in my own voice.

The plane is landing in Albuquerque. The small talk starts again, and it turns out that the two women also live in Austin. I hear them say something about two local radio hosts known as JB and Sandy. I ask a question regarding Sandy. They fill me in. It’s friendly, partly because we’re parting way in five minutes.

Nobody sits next to me on the Seattle leg of my flight, and I have time and space to think, to figure out a theme for my talk. I’m basically speaking on the lessons learned over the last year as a software team trying to buy the next generation of the solution instead of building the next generation of solution.

“Choosing a system is like a plane trip…”

“Choosing a system is like traveling through Mexico…”

Ugh.

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Is there a travel agent left in town? Internet upsides and downsides

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 2 May, 2014
No Comments on Is there a travel agent left in town? Internet upsides and downsides

Travel agents seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth. I’m not surprised. Everything like that is done online these days.

I’ve been researching the destination for a family holiday. For various reasons we can’t push the button until much nearer the end of school summer term. Doesn’t stop me looking to see what is out there though.

You can source ~~hundreds~~ thousands of holidays online. You can see the reviews, check out what’s on offer, look at average temperatures for that time of year, even see how much a pint of lager costs (we are talking overseas here).

My problem is that with of us in the family with a range of ages between 14 and 52 trying to identify a single location that will satisfy everyone is proving very difficult. Few of us like sitting on the beach but we all like nice weather though not too hot. We want to be able to mix doing stuff with lazing around, sightseeing with snorkelling, pool bars at the hotel with dinners out at great local restaurants (no doubt with a low key violinist or simlar playing away in the corner).

We don’t want something pitched at a lowest common denominator but we do want a combination of independence and hotel pampered luxury, without paying through the nose for it:). Somewhere everyone speaks English is a nono but the availability of discretely translating waiters when my own limited language skills prove inadequate is desirable. Pictures of food on the menu don’t cut it ~~j’ai peur~~ I’m afraid (pretentious moi?).

What I really need is to be able to go into a travel agent, tell her what I’ve just told you, and wait for a description of the perfect spot based on a fact finding trip made last summer where all of the above was showcased.

I don’t think I’m going to get it. I walked through Lincoln to where I knew there were a couple of travel agent shops but they are there no longer. The downside of the internet. One of them is now a Joules shop. What use is that? Probably end up camping in South Wales again! Where did I put the hammock!?

How to cook the perfect baked bean

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 1 May, 2014
1 Comment on How to cook the perfect baked bean

You have to hand it to the Guardian. Their lead story this afternoon, occupying a fair chunk of front page real estate is “How to cook perfect baked beans“.

At last a voice of common sense in a world full of bad news stories. The rest of the front page is either gore, boring politics or the mundane. The quality of the research that has gone into the article just further illustrates the Guardian’s leadership position the Guardian. My own attempts to describe the perfect bacon sandwich are fair enough but are a clear second best to the efforts of writer Felicity Cloake.

FC obviously had access to some of the UK’s top chefs in researching her piece – writing for the Guardian opens doors. I don’t begrudge her this. I can only stand back and admire.

This article also vindicates the trefor.net approach of chucking non tech related posts into what is meant to be a technology blog. The Guardian too has its serious side, and who is to say that baked beans or bacon sandwiches aren’t serious issues. Most of us eat them after all. In fact the humble baked bean and the majestic bacon sandwich complement¹ each other.

I may have to try the baked bean recipe. The issue is going to be time. For example this Saturday is going to be the obvious time to try it. I am attending the official opening of the new Lincoln Rugby Club ground by TV star and former Lincoln club captain John Inverdale (I name this rugby club Lincoln – gawd bless her and all who drink (yards of ale) in her).

The official opening commences at 11am. The band doesn’t come on until 7.30 pm. This is going to require significant fortitude – survival skills even. Part of the survival preparation involves the consumption of a hefty breakfast before hitting the lemonade and this is normally where the baked beans would come in. On this occasion I just can’t see there being time to cook the beans as directed by the Guardian. It’s going to have to be Heinz, again.

Someday though…

Regardless of the weather this coming Bank Holiday Monday, after publishing the launch post for VoIP week on trefor.net, the BBQ will come out again and attempts will be made to cook the perfect steak. Watch this space:)

¹They may even compliment each other – that’s a very nice looking baked bean – thank you mr bacon sandwich:)

School cricket match

I’m just off to watch a school cricket match. The weather is looking a bit dodgy but at the moment it isn’t raining so play should definitely happen.

The school cricket match is the epitome of low technology. Aside from all the expensive gear they have these days (pads, helmet, designer pants in which to fit box etc) there is absolutely no tech involved. There isn’t even a decent mobile signal at school thus rendering impotent any attempted use by spectators of imported tech (ie phones).

So all a parent can do is stand on the touchline and focus on the match. I say stand because it is too cold to sit with any degree of comfort.

A school cricket match is a nervous time for a parent. Will the kid get a chance to bat. Or bowl. Will he be out in the first over or will he settle in and provide as fluent a display of batting that ever graced the sports field thus allowing me to casually mention to the stranger stood nearby, “that’s my boy”.

Don’t worry. All will be well, as long as the rain keeps off. You’ll have to wait to hear the result, if I decide to mention it, because as you know there is no signal at school.

I wonder if they will provide cups of tea. I doubt it.

Play…

…………white noise representing no signal…………

video of rain on car>

Two Hours and 55 Minutes

I have 39 versions of the song “April in Paris” in my digital music library. The earliest recording is an Artie Shaw track from 1940 and the most recent is by Wynton Marsalis from his 1987 “Standards, Volume One” release, with many seminal versions threading in-between, delivered by a staggering array of artists that range from Frank Sinatra to Ella Fitzgerald to Nirvana (OK, that isn’t true…just checking wakefulness out there)…er, Blossom Dearie. Of course, considering “April in Paris”‘s status as a 20th Century classic and the size of my jazz collection, I shouldn’t be surprised that I have 39 versions of the song, and yet seeing them all before me on my monitor (the result of an iTunes search) is really just a couple of steps shy of astonishing.

If 14+ years ago someone had asked me when I first moved to Paris in 1999 (August — not April) “How many versions of “April in Paris” do you have in your music collection?”, I could not have answered the question with any kind of accuracy or authority. Not without taking hours to thumb through my 2000+ CDs with a notepad and pen at hand, anyway.

		I never knew the charm of spring I never met it face to face I never new my heart could sing I never missed a warm embrace

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Saturday Snapshot (26-April-2014)

Post author By Kory Kessel
Post date Monday, 28 April, 2014
No Comments on Saturday Snapshot (26-April-2014)

“Honey, turn the car around! You have to see that!”

My Missus, who for a few weeks has been doing most of the driving due to some new out-of-the-blue concern over insurance coverage (I drive on a valid Texas driver’s license, not the Permis de Conduire I should have by this point, some 14+ years in-country), shoots me a hard questioning look, to which I respond with “I saw an amazing falcon, perched on a fence post by the side fo the road. You have to see it. Go back.”

No argument. At the roundabout coming up My Missus takes the full turn and heads back the way we just came. Soon enough, all four of us (The Boy has a friend visiting) catch the profile of the remarkable animal, still proudly perched on the same fence post. Maybe two minutes have passed since my initial sighting. Three tops.

A hushed “Wow.” and other such murmurs run through the car, which My Missus has pulled over to the side of the road opposite the bird of prey, but mostly we are all just holding our collective breath in awe. The falcon is truly magnificent, and his regal quality…palpable. We wait, we watch, and just as I am starting to think “Hey, isn’t that a camera on that strap around my neck…?”…he takes wing. A wildlife documentary all our own. And then time starts again, and we continue making our way to Houlgate for an afternoon of watching other things taking to the sky…kites!

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Winner of most number of names for trousers competition

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 28 April, 2014
No Comments on Winner of most number of names for trousers competition

You will all remember the kecks are ready mega trousers competition where entrants had to find the most names for that article of clothing. Well we have a winner. Liz Fletcher reminded me of this at #UKNOF28 last week and I duly delivered her of her prize – a large glass of sauvignon blanc. Would have been cheaper had she been a beer drinker but hey, let’s not nit pick eh?

Congrats Liz. Look out for other terrific trefor.net prize competitions as they happen:)

Other trefor.net terrific prize comps:

Spot the IP Phone
Royal baby name competition winners
The trefor.net TGIF megamug prize with pens and tshirt competition

PS Notice the hearing aid coming out of Liz’ head – she should invest in something a little more discrete

End User fun stuff

Weekend financial advice – how to get a mortgage

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Sunday, 27 April, 2014
3 Comments on Weekend financial advice – how to get a mortgage

When Anne and I shacked up together we moved up from London to Lincoln. Dahn sarf we had grown accustomed to the notion of having to stretch to a 4 x joint salary mortgage to be able to afford a small flat. In Lincoln it wasn’t going to need anything like that. In fact we could have easily bought a house on 3 x one salary.

We found a suitable gaff/love nest and off I trotted to the Halifax Building Society to sort the mortgage out. The manager gave me a grilling: did I know that buying a house was an expensive game, solicitors fees, furniture, deposit etc. We would need a fair bit of cash to get going.

I told him I didn’t have any savings but didn’t they do 100% mortgages? After all that’s what I did on my previous house. Ah thought the manager, what happened to the profit on that first house. It went on wine, women and male voice choirs I replied.

Realising that the interview wasn’t going too well I said that the only reason I was giving Halifax first refusal was because my fiancee had a savings account with them. Ahah said the manager. How much money does she have? Well every month she puts £20 in and every other month she takes £40 out I said:)

We left the meeting with him wanting to arrange to see both of us before making a decision. Sod you I thought. Who’d want to do business with someone stupid enough to not just give me the money straight away.

I went next door to the Alliance & Leicester Building Society. Told the manger I had all the cash for the deposit/solicitors fees/furniture etc saved up and that either of us could afford the mortgage payments on one salary. He offered me a mortgage on the spot and gave me the paperwork to take home and complete.

When I got home I rang Lloyds Bank to ask for a £5k loan to cover the house deposit. Where was I getting the mortgage from said the manager? A&L. Why don’t you get it from us said he? Do you do 100% mortgages then? No he said but I’ll lend you the other 5% as well!!!

That was over 25 years ago and we’ve been with Lloyds Bank ever since.

That’s how you go about getting a mortgage:)

Look out for further helpful financial hints from trefor.net at the weekend – coming soon how to with the lottery and other pie in the sky hopeless aspirations.

The perfect bacon sandwich

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 26 April, 2014
7 Comments on The perfect bacon sandwich

This weekend we are featuring the humble bacon sandwich. I say humble but really the bacon sandwich is royalty in the culinary world, on a par with the finest dishes served by the best chefs in their Michelin starred mansions.

There are many ways of serving the bacon sandwich. Individuals will have their own views as to the best way and who is to say they aren’t all right. This is a highly subjective matter. In the analysis that follows the various variables for each aspect of the making of a bacon sandwich are discussed and my own preferred recipe is offered as a benchmark. Rank others in comparison, better or worse, as you see fit.

The bacon

The choice of bacon is of fundamental importance. In the first instance any bacon that comes in a package labelled BOGOF should be avoided at all cost. This will be cheap water filled rubbish. The slices will be so thin you will be able to see through them and when cooking the bacon will emit a yukky white substance that apparently is part of the preservative injected into the meat during processing. The water will steam the bacon and you will find it very difficult to get the right “finish”.

Reality is it is difficult to find any bacon that doesn’t have the white stuff in it. Experimentation will allow you to identify the brand that suits you best. Look for the words “dry cure” and “thick cut”. Your are most likely to find the best bacon at a real butchers and not in a supermarket. You have been warned.

There is a valid debate on whether to use back bacon or streaky. Streaky is undoubtedly more flavoursome due to its having more fat but back does tend to provide a meatier filling. The American habit of over-frying streaky is usually to be avoided and American bacon tends to be too salty.

The bread

The best bread to use for a bacon sandwich is undoubtedly crusty white unsliced. You can use pre-sliced crusty white but the uniformity of the slice doesn’t quite feel right. Self-slicing produces a variation in cut that suits the rustic nature of this sandwich and makes for a different culinary experience at each meal¹.

The mass produced sliced white bread that comes with brand names advertised on television is not appropriate for a bacon sandwich unless you are a guest at someone’s house and your host is providing the breakfast. One assumes in this instance that a considerable amount of beer was downed the night before and you are pretty grateful for anything that staves off the after-effects of the evening.

Under no circumstances should brown bread be used and if rolls are the only option the posher they are the better.

The debate over toasting has raged long and hard. Toasting the bread for your bacon sandwich is perfectly acceptable though it is a shame to do this if the bread is really fresh. Toasting crusty white bread more than two days old is the preferred method for this age of bread.

The bread/toast should be buttered. Margarine doesn’t cut it. Some people are known to prefer no butter. Whilst this is acceptable it should be understood that a bacon sandwich made without butter is never going to attain perfection.

Grilling versus frying

A no brainer really. Frying always produces the best flavour in a bacon sandwich. Grilling shrinks the meat. Lard is the best option for oil although it is recognised that the use of lard is controversial to the point of unacceptability in our modern health conscious society. Cooking oil is an acceptable alternative and need not be applied in large quantities. The fats from the meat will soon seep into the pan and provide the ideal base for frying. If cheapo bacon is being used then grilling will at least allow the water and white rubbish to drip off but you should take care to at least double the number of slices planned per person.

A minimum of two slices of bacon should normally be used but three or more are acceptable. Ideally the bacon once fried will have some crispy fat bits and some darker brown areas on the meat itself.

Unlike sausages which benefit from slow cooking, for best effect bacon should be cooked on a highish heat. We are looking for the right combination of softness and crispness and a slow cook will tend to err towards the soft side.

Seasoning

By seasoning I mean red sauce/brown sauce/no sauce. This is entirely a personal choice. The purist will almost certainly opt for “naked” but I am a brown sauce man. HP only. You can tell the difference. Tomato ketchup should be reserved for burgers and hot dogs.

Variety

It is perfectly respectable to experiment with different varieties to accompany the basic bacon filling. Mushrooms (fried) tomatoes (fried or uncooked – as you like) or even lettuce and tomato for the classic BLT are fine with added mayo. Bacon and lettuce without the tomato is a bit weird and should probably be avoided. Other filling combinations may be possible but are straying well away from the pure form. For example bacon and egg sandwiches should better be described as a “breakfast sandwich”.

Vegetarian bacon sandwiches

Nah!

Other bacon sandwich stories

In my experience the bacon sandwich is the one meat dish that is likely to convert vegetarians back to being carnivores (or omnivores/woteva) and I often use this as an icebreaker with people I have never met before but who are introduced to me as vegetarians – maybe at dinner. I tried this last year with a woman and she totally blanked me saying that it was never a problem. Set the tone for the whole evening. I found out weeks later that she was Jewish! Ah well!! A vegetarian friend told me that this conversation piece was as old as the hills and very boring. Ah well!!! Won’t stop me using it though…

Conclusion

So there you have it. The perfect bacon sandwich uses decent dry cured thick cut back bacon, probably sourced from a local butcher and fried. The bread needs to be fresh self sliced crusty white. The bread may be toasted if a couple of days old. The bread should be buttered and contain sensible amounts of HP sauce.

Serve with a fresh pot of tea and a glass of milk.

Hot Air Balloon lands on lawn at DeVere Wokingham Park #uknof28

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 26 April, 2014
No Comments on Hot Air Balloon lands on lawn at DeVere Wokingham Park #uknof28

Those of you who shot off straight after the UKNOF28 meeting missed a sight. It was a hot air balloon landing on the lawn of the hotel. V graceful. I dashed up to the 10th tee to take the vid so that you could share the experience. Good eh? 🙂

No Technology For Old Men

Post author By Marcos Campos
Post date Friday, 25 April, 2014
No Comments on No Technology For Old Men

Lying in bed in a motel room alongside the Mexican border, I was awakened just after midnight by a deadbolt clunk from the room next door. A loud clunk, jarring even though the person behind it was probably trying to be quiet. Fifteen minutes later, that clunk again.

I peer out the window and catch a glimpse of a sturdy looking fellow, wearing a kerchief around his neck.

Truck headlights beam in through the window, and are just as soon gone.

Who makes quick visits at this hour? “Drug deal,” comes straight to my mind (which can be prone to fantasy).

I lay back down and stare at the speckled popcorn ceiling. The carpet in the room is clean and new, though both the pattern and the color are straight out of the 70s, and there’s your typical motel art on the walls. Sleeping here is a form of time travel.

Driving through this desert country, staying in this motel…it all reminds me of the movie “No Country For Old Men”, based on the book by Cormac McCarthy. And McCarthy got his descriptions of west Texas just right — romantic and rough (which I can attest to not only because I was raised in the border town of El Paso, but because McCarthy lived a block down from one of my childhood friends). My mind may very well be prone to fantasy, but a childhood friend was shot in a drug deal. Reality and movie fantasy are usually quite different things, but on the border reality can sometimes play like a movie.

I’m on a road trip with my soon-to-be ex-wife, driving a cheap mini van we picked up in Austin for the purpose of transporting three of our dogs to her new home in Mexico. Road trips are one of the things that my wife and I do well together, and we have taken more than a few, but now we’re at the end of a long divorce and a road trip seems a weird thing to do as one of our last married rituals. It’s strange, creating something new while at the same time letting go.

It’s Maya, the Hindu concept of the illusion of reality. Or delusion. We think we are in control, involved and participating, however it is all impermanent…only illusion. I know that’s not the exact definition (though I am not sure there IS an exact definition), however lately that has been my experience of the illusion. I am engaged in the external world, but at the same time I am a distant observer. I am creating the reality, and at the same time I am part of the creation — subject and object at the same time.

Actually, I find my current perception similar to when we come together in software development teams. We create something together, putting a little of ourselves into code and scripts while simultaneously letting go of that creation.

Look…basically I am just a dumb DIY kind of technologist, one without much formal education with which to back up my opinions, and one who sometimes thinks he doesn’t really know what is happening in technology at all. And yet, over and over again, I end up in rooms with Ph.D geniuses, deep into philosophical discussions on the nature of reality that are at the same time all about technology.

While working at IBM in 1997 I learned object-oriented programming by watching an IBM Fellows whiteboard lecture on VHS tape. Then, over the next year while working on frameworks for CORBA, my officemate and I often discussed the nature of reality — all in terms of object-oriented lingo. This colleague’s name was Simon Peter Hemingway (a name I always loved). We would often take long walks and talk about the nature of defining objects, with Simon trying to convince me that reality was an illusion. He held a Ph.D. so he must have known what he was talking about, right?

Last night I popped onto the motel wifi. No password needed. Welcome to the Wild West.

Once online I used my phone to make a Facebook post on a television show…is this what the technology has come down to? I won’t use Twitter because I just don’t see the point, but I use FB to communicate with friends. I’m paranoid about security of the server at work, but I trust my phone’s network access to the unprotected motel wifi. I see news reports that say FB is for old fogies. Maybe I’m too old now for the technology game…maybe I’m blind now to what technology is all about. Or maybe technology is just emerging so quickly into every moment that it all cannot be grasped by our meager minds (prone to fantasy or not).

Before actually starting in my intention was to write about leaving my job with a semiconductor company. Before yesterday — my last day with the company — I created software with a team of people designed to help other engineers design chips. In leaving, I thought I would be able to capture some insights on the Zen concept of letting go. You know, the whole you must empty-you-cup before you can fill-your-cup thing? I have this idea that if we bring mindfulness to our creation of technology that we will somehow create beautiful innovation. Anyway, that’s what I wanted to write about today, the stuff I mean to explore during what I see as a short break from working again on some full-time project somewhere. But then my hotel neighbor clunked his deadbolt, and…

A thread of thought launched…not, not a thread, a stream…like I was dreaming all of this, and I had to get down the raw truth of it before I forgot the elements of the dream.

I suppose I am still processing what it means to leave a project, a team, and a software system. My subconscious is sorting out what it means to leave something into which I’ve poured my heart.

The last scene in “No Country For Old Men”: The Sheriff has a dream in which he sees his father walking ahead, holding an ancient fire. He feels compelled to follow, even though his business on earth is left undone.

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Engineer fun stuff

Bed Rooms at the DeVere Wokefield Park #UKNOF28

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 25 April, 2014
No Comments on Bed Rooms at the DeVere Wokefield Park #UKNOF28

I expect the manager at the DeVere Wokefield Park kicks himself (or herself) every time he walks up the stairs in the Mansion House. This is the first sign you see. Took me a couple of days to notice it. Was there for UKNOF28

It would probably ruin the wallpaper if they tried to move the word Bed a little to the right:)

For reference this is how the signs look elsewhere in the hotel.

Engineer fun stuff

#UKNOF28 pre meeting curry

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 24 April, 2014
No Comments on #UKNOF28 pre meeting curry

Nuff said!

Buyer beware – 50% off kids at Easter

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 23 April, 2014
No Comments on Buyer beware – 50% off kids at Easter

50% off kids at Easter! Sound too good to be true? You can bet your bottom dollar it is.

Take it from me. 50% off might sound like a good deal but get those kids home and the magic will soon wear off. They will want feeding, clothing, educating etc etc etc. That 50% will soon be a drop in the ocean compared with the ongoing maintenance and operational expenses.

Sure there are consolations. Fathers’ Day cards, new pairs of socks at Christmas. Nobody is going to turn those away. But before you buy take a long hard look in the mirror and ask yourself what you see in front of you. If you want to see your whole head and shoulders then don’t take them up on the 50% offer because pretty soon that mirror will need lowering so that the kids can see themselves in it before heading off to school. Brush their hair, adjust school uniform…

50% off kids at Easter? Buyer beware:)

Easter bunny – one for the ladies
As sure as chocolate eggs is chocolate eggs

End User fun stuff internet

Reality is a concrete slab off eBay

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 21 April, 2014
No Comments on Reality is a concrete slab off eBay

I ordered some concrete slabs off the internet. Bought them on eBay actually. 21 off 600 x 600mm for £57. Had I bought them from a shed they would have been something like £120. They are going to form the base for the playhouse that I’m converting into a shed. We are using the patio where the playhouse currently stands as the new basketball court. As it happens the slabs came from under a deck so it would seem that they are eminently suitable for their new purpose.

I collected them from somewhere in Lincoln. Before setting off I looked up the address on Google Maps and even saw the house on Streetview. V useful. When I got there I had to reverse down a very narrow drive and in the end was only able to shift half of them. They are so heavy I didn’t want to risk knackering the Jeep’s suspension. Going to have to go back and get the others another time.

It seems strange in a world where we live a “virtual” life on the internet that there are actually solid items such as these concrete slabs that intrude on our everyday existence. It’s called reality. I looked it up on Wikipedia: “the state of things as they actually exist rather than as they appear or are imagined”.

Concrete slabs apart we shouldn’t forget that reality is generally much better than the virtual world. It’s a perfect spring day out there – get out and enjoy it:)

End User travel

Creative pics with panorama function on Galaxy S4

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 21 April, 2014
No Comments on Creative pics with panorama function on Galaxy S4

Only just realised you can take some spectacular pics with the panorama function on the phone. The first is a bog std panorama of the departures board at Victoria station. Uses landscape format panned sideways. No particular surprises apart from the occasional train leaving on time.

The next photos were taken in the vicinity of Victoria but using a landscape format in a vertical panorama. Allows you to take much bigger canvases.

This is what a std panorama looks like of that scene (ish).

Other panorama images:
Peel
IoM ferry

agricultural fun stuff Weekend

Saturday Snapshot (19-April-2014)

Post author By Kory Kessel
Post date Sunday, 20 April, 2014
2 Comments on Saturday Snapshot (19-April-2014)

A few months back my brother-in-law (heretofore referred to as BiLly) treated me to lunch at a new Yannick Alléno resto in Paris called Terroir Parisien, located in the Palais Brongniart near Bourse. There we enjoyed a deeply satisfying meal, sampling from a menu that features stalwart Bistro dishes made new with the help of a pinch of little-here-little-there creative tweaking (i.e., Pot au Feu, Boudin Noir). Having indulged previously, my BiLly suggested — well, insisted — that as a starter I take the Champignons rosés de Chez Spinelli à la Fleur de Sel (a long fancy French way of saying “Crazy-fresh cremini button mushrooms produced by the renowned grower Spinelli, served with flaked sea salt”), and having no reason whatsoever to doubt the temerity of his urging I did just that. Uh..oh yes..YES, a point — no, two points — for BiLly.

Some weeks pass, and on a recent Friday night my BiLly’s wife and mine (sisters) found occasion to put a couples dinner on the calendar (with one of my lovely nieces included). My Missus had not yet experienced Terroir Parisien, so a booking was made and a table soon occupied. Menus passed around, experiences recounted, and soon enough My Missus was ordering…yep, those mushrooms (wanting to explore the menu a step furher I didn’t go again for the dish, somewhat to my regret). Lots of “Mmmmm!” and wide-open-eyed happiness, and then the “We should do this at home.” The 5-ingredient roster was no secret — so-fresh-they-snap-between-your-teeth Cremini mushrooms, flaked sea salt, hazelnut oil, faiselle (cottage cheese, or close enough anyway), ciboulette (chive) — and the presentation was right there before us. So why not?

In this space on 6-April I waxed on (and on) about the Orbec mushrooms we strive to lay hands on at the Lisieux Saturday morning farmer’s market whenever we are passing time at the La Famille Kessel Normandy hovel, and these we knew would do nicely. The salt, the oil, the cheese..check, check, check. And the ciboulette grows wild in the garden.

So here is where my narrative will take on the air of recounted recipe, playing — I can only hope — to my technical writing strengths (save for citing amounts as my experience may not be yours, hungry read, and hinges on how many salivating maws you are looking to sate).

Kory on the clock. Knife in hand. Lunch won’t wait.

First, I washed and trimmed the Orbecs, taking care not only to rid the marvelous mushrooms of any adherring sand but also cutting enough of the stem away to ensure that the only “woody” evoked was in their flavor. Following that, I carefully cut the Orbecs in a vertical slice (think top of button down to end of stem) at 1/8th inch thickness. Next, I arranged the slices on 5 plates (5 people) in a symmetrical spiral — for anyone out there following along, feel free to express your creativity in how you arrange your mushrooms…this ain’t “My way or the highway” territory — and moved on to the faiselle.

Methinks it is within the faiselle that the trick of Champignons rosés de Orbec à la Fleur de Sel lies. Taking a small bowl in one hand and a fork in the other, I mixed flaked sea salt into the faiselle, test-tasting it until…until…well, until I liked the the taste. I set the mixture aside.

Next, I poured the hazelnut oil into a small container into which I could easily dip a teaspoon. Set that aside too.

Cleaned and minced the fresh ciboulette and set that aside.

Now my mise en place was finished and I as ready to construct the dish. In order: (1) Used a fork to artistically flick small dollops of the faiselle onto the mushroomed plates, (2) Used a teaspoon to drizzle hazelnut oil onto the faiselle-laden mushroomed plates, and (3) Used my fingers to rain pinches of the minced ciboulette onto the oil-drizzled and faiselle-laden mushroomed plates.

And that’s that. I yelled “À table!” to assemble our running band of eaters, sliced up a crusty Boule, and braced myself for the “Mmmmm!”

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fun stuff Weekend

Typical British Bank Holiday weather & lazy Sunday mornings #oliveoil #pirateflag

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Sunday, 20 April, 2014
2 Comments on Typical British Bank Holiday weather & lazy Sunday mornings #oliveoil #pirateflag

Easy on Sunday morning…

We are back to typical British Bank Holiday weather today. It’s ok. I’ve done (ish) all my outdoor jobs for the moment. The sky has darkened and the wind is getting up.

I will have to do the blokey thing and go out to man the bbq at tea time but the bbq has a lid on it and I will have a beer in hand so all possible weather counter measures will in place. The beer won’t protect me from the rain but ensuring I get just as wet on the inside as on the outside seems to negate the effects.

The house is quiet. Although it serves as a shelter to kids 3 & 4 they are past the age of rushing down excitedly to start shovelling Easter eggs down the hatch. Classic FM is on the wireless. The world is at peace.

The photo shows some condiments procured last week on the Isle of Man. Basil infused olive oil and two vinegars: tomato and blood orange. The latter is particularly fine and doesn’t need to be accompanied by oil. A nice bit of organic bread to soak it up from the plate is just the job.

The rain is now coming down in earnest. It’s very relaxing hearing it on the conservatory roof. There are roses and lillies in the conservatory. The rain doesn’t stop the birds. I can hear them singing away. Probably sat on a branch in a bit of shelter chatting to each other – about the weather. It’s not only us humans who do that sort of thing.

Scattered around me are various musical instruments. The conservatory does get a reasonable amount of use all year round and tomorrow hopefully the rain will have moved on and we can have the doors open to the garden. We have people coming to lunch. Another bbq.

Still the rain comes down. It sends a shiver of relaxation through my spine. I’ll have to get showered and dressed soon. When Mrs Davies comes back from her dose of religion I am on chauffeur duties taking her and her pal to a craft fair in Doddington Hall. Ordinarily Anne would drive but Kid2 has taken her car to Pontefract for a weekend doing whatever they do in that part of the world. Look it up on tripadvisor. It will quite possibly identify the only attraction as Pontefract Racecourse. I haven’t looked myself.

Nothing wrong with the races but they do expect you to go home at some point so Kid2 have had to find other diversions to keep herself busy. Probably involves a pub.

Over the fence in the allotments I can see a Lincolnshire flag looking sorry for itself. I must get our camping flagpole out. Keep thinking of doing it. We have a pirate flag and the national flag of Mexico purchased at the football in Cardiff during the Olympics. You know it makes sense. I can tie them both on. That way I’ll always be able to find out house amongst all the others, assuming I’ve forgotten our address and what the house looks like.

I don’t really do craft fairs meself so I will either sit in the caff watching the world go by or nip somewhere else. It’s an adventure. Big pic below is of the oils and vinegars for sale in industrial quantities at Tynwald Mills in the Isle of Man.

Other oil related posts: BP oilspill area superimposed onto map of UK

End User fun stuff Weekend

As sure as chocolate eggs is chocolate eggs

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Sunday, 20 April, 2014
No Comments on As sure as chocolate eggs is chocolate eggs

Thing is it’s Easter innit. Spring break if you’re from across the pond. And what is traditional on Easter Sunday? We go to church eat chocolate Easter eggs.

This year only kids 2, 3 and 4 are around which will make it a tad cheaper. On the flip side a cheapo egg with chocolate buttons inside doesn’t seem to do the job anymore. The order was for Lindor, Thorntons and “a nice one”.

Waitrose didn’t do Thorntons and whilst I considered chocolate buttons to be within the definition of a nice one I figured it was best to play it safe and buy them all the same one.

Now there are some rules when it comes to Easter eggs the main one being that you have to give your dad a piece. That way it’s possible to indulge without any comments regarding how fattening chocolate eggs are so no you can’t have one. Wouldn’t want a whole one anyway. I’d be constantly brushing my teeth.

The other thing to know about Easter eggs is that every adult member of the extended family has always considered it their duty to buy nephews, nieces and grand children Easter eggs. This results in each kid having a ridiculous surfeit of chocolate all of which is consumed within a one or two day window.

This makes Easter very similar to Christmas which is the other time of year people ~~go to church~~ consume lots of chocolate. They also usually take advantage of the dual public holiday by taking the rest of the week off thus getting 8 days off for “the price of four”. The main difference between Easter and Christmas is that the latter also includes compulsory consumption of vast quantities of alcohol for a month in the run up to the big day. It doesn’t therefore take a month or two for the body to recover from Easter in the way that the aftermath of Christmas is typically characterised.

This Easter the barbecue has been rolled out of its winter quarters and will be exercised today, Easter Sunday and tomorrow, the bank holiday Monday when we have guests coming for an all afternoon session of eating and drinking. At least that is my expectation. Hopefully the guests will think that way too or I’ll have a lot of wine to get through. Suppose I don’t have to open all the bottles!…

So that’s it. enjoy your chocolate eggs, your barbecue or whatever else you do to celebrate the double holiday long weekend Easter spring break. Next week is UKNOF in Reading. Look out for network engineering posts.

Tags Easter, eggs

Business fun stuff

Waitrose free paper and coffee – a partial dilemma #savetheplanet

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 19 April, 2014
3 Comments on Waitrose free paper and coffee – a partial dilemma #savetheplanet

Just got a free newspaper and a cup of coffee from Waitrose. I don’t drink coffee but Anne does so I got her a black one to maximise the chance of it staying warm until I got it home. We only live 5 mins away.

I don’t read hard copy newspapers either. I get them all on the internet, at least those without a paywall. Now this did give me a bit of a dilemma. Here I was taking a freebie totally gratuitously knowing that I probably wouldn’t read it. My thinking was that it would come in handy to light the firepit this weekend. Not great from a planet saving perspective.

This marketing tactic of Waitrose has to be working big time. Anne never used to go there but she often does now. One of her friends just pops in for a coffee without even buying anything. The cost of a few coffee beans is nothing compared with the additional revenues from their ~~more expensive~~ quality groceries and they will get their papers at a heavily discounted wholesale rate.

I’ll finish with a little snippet of a conversation held with my wife over sms:

Anne: Fiery red rice for the salad available in Waitrose

Me: Yay – you can rely on Waitrose to get the basics right

:))

Forty shillings fine

There is still no Bitcoin Exchange UK

Came across this in the Parcel Yard pub in Kings Cross Station. I liked it so took a photo.
When you look at it you can almost imagine the steam trains chuffing by, whistle blowing, engine driver leaning out of his window with blue overalls, cap and red neckerchief.

Keep away from the line. Kids! It’s bloody dangerous.

The fine for being caught is forty shillings. Takes me back. Strange to admit I was around pre-decimalisation. My pocket money was 3d which as I recall bought me a Beano and a sweet or two. It went farthing, ha’penny, penny, 3d, groat, sixpenny, shilling, two bob and two and six. As far as I can remember. Correct me if I’m wrong or have missed one out.

It’s ok to take a nostalgic trip but reality is we are massively better off where we are now. It was a nightmare trying to learn adding up in old money.
Winding the clock forward to now my Bitcoin is worth £277. I paid £292 for it a few weeks back. It’s been up and down over the weeks. V volatile but it’s an experiment. Image below shows fluctuations over the past 12 months. No Bitcoin exchange UK mind.

I’m not sure we are going to be better off with Bitcoin. They don’t take it as payment in the Parcel Yard yet and it won’t get me a Beano. Afaik. Cheers…

Tags Beano, Bitcoin, Cross, King's, Parcel, pub, shilling, Yard

Bad Stuff End User fun stuff Mobile ofcom Regs scams

An Open Letter to Olaf Swantee, CEO of EE

Post author By Peter Farmer
Post date Friday, 18 April, 2014
2 Comments on An Open Letter to Olaf Swantee, CEO of EE

Hi Olaf.

I hope you don’t mind the informal start to my letter as, after all, your company’s recent one to me regarding an increase in the price for my package from EE was as equally informal (I’ve popped a copy of it in the gallery below, though I’m sure you already know all about it).

Before I start, I will admit that you have a contractual basis from which to make the change detailed in the letter, and can mount a robust (albeit one open to challenge) argument about regulatory compliance. That isn’t quite the point, though.

First, I’d like to draw your particular attention to the line that says “RPI (Retail Price Index) is a measure of inflation, which directly affects the cost to run our service.”

Interesting. And I’d like to point out a few things to you which would suggest that you are mistaken.

RPI, as a measure of inflation, is now largely discredited. Anyone in the know, including your sector’s regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), is migrating to the use of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Have a look at Ofcom’s discussion in paragraph 3.155 onwards of the Wholesale Local Access Review.
Some debate exists on whether wages over the last 12 months have tracked CPI (which is lower than RPI, by the way); it somewhat depends on which decile you find yourself in. Considering this data from the BBC, I suspect you and your executive are OK but a substantial number of EE staff may not be. Unless, of course, you gave them all a CPI-busting wage increase of the RPI figure. Did you?
A substantial part of your business is your mobile phone customers calling landlines: 01 and 02 numbers. As a result of a European Union Recommendation some time ago, Ofcom lowered the termination rates on 1st January 2014 for these calls by around RPI (this review was started before the Office of National Statistics drove the final nail into the RPI coffin) minus 87% — a net 84% reduction in that cost to your business. Funny, but I don’t recall getting a reduction in my line rental or other charges, so I assume you’ve kept this windfall, yes? See Table 1.1 of the Final Statement in the 2013 Wholesale Narrowband Market Review for information.
The Treasury estimated that the 4G spectrum auction would raise around £3.5bn. In reality, it raised £2.34bn, so there’s a £1.1bn saving there for the mobile industry against a reasonable market expectation; thus, rationally-speaking, EE must have forward-priced its 4G services expecting to outlay a market value for spectrum, resulting in further savings on your part. Is this true?

I am sure you can see at this point why I have a problem believing you when you say that RPI (or CPI) has had a direct affect on your entire business; unless in spite of what I have cited above there is a cost that has risen so disproportionately high that it means the average cost increase is the same as the RPI? What could that cost be…perhaps Kevin Bacon’s fees?

eleanor cross End User

Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – the carving starts

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 18 April, 2014
No Comments on Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – the carving starts

The carving of the new Eleanor Cross for Lincoln starts.

Amazing that something of beauty can emerge from within a solid piece of rock – the mantra of the in awe armchair philosopher down the ages when describing a sculpture.

This series of photos shows the start of the carving process. The videos are a short interview with Alan Ward describing the task in hand and one of him doing some carving. On this occasion I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.