Category: fun stuff

Categories
End User fun stuff

Lincoln 10K – The Bad Run

Thursday Morning

The radio program I present, Lincoln A to Z, is formulated by 52 randomly selected grids from the Lincoln A to Z map. We have a basic structure, but the tone and timbre of each program is guided by the contents of the grid. Out of the 30 programs we’ve made so far, its fair to say that a couple have left my producer and I scratching our heads and wondering what went wrong. By no means are these programs terrible, they just didn’t flow or turn out how we planned.

OK, one was particularly terrible, but once the program was over we retired to the office (pub) to discuss how to improve and avoid making the same mistakes again.

During a period of training, at least one run will be atrocious. It can be the simplest thing that knocks you, a stitch, traffic lights or tripping over a dog. Its frustrating at the time, feelings of failure kick in, heightened by the fact that you are out of breath. But I know that like the occasional below par radio programs (you try making an hour and a half radio program about a bungalow heavy street in suburbia), I know that its not the end of the world and that rather than it be a failure, it is in fact these hiccups that make you better in the long run.

The internet, bless it, is full of annoyingly positive statements like this:

Continue reading “Lincoln 10K – The Bad Run”
Categories
fun stuff peering

Tomo entertains in Leeds Town Hall #peeringweek

Tomova Yoshida from JPNAP is a globe trotting musician cum IXP engineer. He entertained us all in Helsinki with impromptu Beatles renditions on the grand piano at the 23rd Euro-IX Forum social night. At the 24th Forum he stepped up a gear.

OK he accompanied the Euro-IX drunks choir on the piano. But he did a lot more than that. Leeds Town Hall, the venue for this week’s social, has one humongous organ. “It is the most magnificent organ I’ve ever seen” one attendee was heard to say. Well I have to agree with her.

The images below are of the choir in action around Tomo, sat at the piano, the view of the hall and dinner from a seat in front of the organ pipes, the view of the organ itself from the back of the hall and of me in my standard issue Yorkshire flat cap with John Souter of LINX and Melanie Kempf of DE-CIX.

Finally at the end of this post is a short  video of Tomo playing the organ so that you can appreciate the sound. Magnificent it was 🙂

choir of IXP peers

dinner at leeds town hall

leeds town hall organ

revelers at leeds town hall

Other peering week posts you might like to read include:

UK internet history – The Early Days of LONAP by Raza Rizvi
INEX’s IXP Manager – Tools to help manage an Internet Exchange by Barry O’Donovan
Regional Peering in the UK by James Blessing
Co-operation makes internet exchanges future proof by Pauline Hartsuiker
Experience of launching an IXP in North America by Ben Hedges
The evolution of an IXP network engineer by Rob Lister
Why does Scotland need an Internet Exchange? by Charlie Boisseau

Categories
End User fun stuff peering

The bald patch #peeringweek

Satellite image of a bald patch. This is an anonymous bald patch photographed by a passing spy satellite en route to a help search for flight MH370 missing in the Indian Ocean. GPS coordinates suggest the person in the photo was in the Leeds area at the time although no information is available about his identity.

Speculation abounds concerning whether the bald patch was at the 24th Euro-IX Forum at AQLs Salem datacentre though there is no hard evidence to support this. We shall probably never find out who’s bald patch this is.

bald_patchAmazing what technology can do now innit?

Photo courtesy of Edward Snowden.

Other Peering Week posts on trefor.net include:

UK internet history – The Early Days of LONAP by Raza Rizvi
INEX’s IXP Manager – Tools to help manage an Internet Exchange by Barry O’Donovan
Regional Peering in the UK by James Blessing

Categories
Engineer fun stuff peering

A load of Crapper #peeringweek #peeingweek

You can tell when it’s time for a coffee break at a conference. My attention starts to wander and to wake meself up I take to posting unusual or unexpected things.

Because it is Peeing Peering Week on trefor.net I thought it highly appropriate to put up this picture of a very fine cistern in the gents toilet. If you click on the photo you also get to see some excellent copper pipework that delivers the contents of the cistern to the urinals below.

For the avoidance of doubt there was nobody else around in the toilet at the time. That would have been a little on the dodgy side.

The second pic is simply the plaque outside the AQL datacentre. It is self explanatory. And finally there is one of me in front of a green screen. No idea why the green screen was there. I could have gone to the effort of putting up an electronic backdrop but the only one I could find was of Leeds and I could have just gone outside and taken that photo.

a crapper cistern in the gents loos at the AQL datacentre in Leeds

Salem chapel Leeds

green_screen

Other Peering Week posts on trefor.net include:

UK internet history – The Early Days of LONAP by Raza Rizvi
INEX’s IXP Manager – Tools to help manage an Internet Exchange by Barry O’Donovan
Regional Peering in the UK by James Blessing

More toilet posts:

More power to the portaloo

Categories
Business fun stuff

Editorial job vacancy at trefor.net cc @techjpr

We at trefor.net are looking for our first member of editorial staff.

trefor.net has been going since May 2008 as a personal blog with opinion pieces covering emerging technologies and platforms. The site is now widely read by people working in the internet technology related industries both in the UK and overseas.

At the beginning of 2014 trefor.net became an independent business and we already have our first developer on board. The ambitions of the company are to grow to become the premier site for comment and information on tech matters in the UK and to extend its reach in other regions.

The site, whilst covering a range of tech areas such as Cloud, Unified Communications, Mobile and Networks also has threads that are of specific interest to Engineers, Business and End Users. The type of content we are looking to provide ranges from deep diving technology subjects, largely expected to come from expert guest authors to coverage of peoples experiences in using these technologies.

We are now looking for a journo to become our first editorial member of staff. You should have a minimum of two years experience of writing for the tech sector and will ideally be based in the London travel to work area although we will also consider candidates wishing to work out of the Lincoln office. The flexibility to write on any tech subject is important as is an understanding of how web publishing works and the general principles of SEO. This is not a 9 – 5 job and although as the business grows there will be deadlines related to specific “focus weeks” this is an ongoing online business. You have something to write? jfdi.

Initial salary on offer is £20k – £25k depending on experience plus an uncapped year end bonus related to company profitability. There is also a budget to cover the acquisition of additional content where it can help to boost visitor numbers for specific keywords.

Drop us a line with your pitch and links to your published work. The right candidate can start as soon as possible. trefor.net is a business that has attitude. The bland need not apply.

Categories
End User fun stuff

Not wearing socks, wearing shorts – the bbq season is nearly upon us

bbqIt’s traditional for me to start wearing shorts as soon as the clocks go forward in the spring. The British summer is not very long and you have to cram in as many summery activities as you can in a short space of time. The clocks don’t go back until next weekend but today is such a nice sunny one that I have donned said shorts.

I have a regular routine when I put a pair of shorts on for the first time in the year and that is the “now where did I put the shorts away for winter” routine. There’s also the “hmm do I actually have any shorts left from last year” thought that goes through my head. Summer does inflict wear and tear on a pair of shorts, especially when tightening waistbands are involved. The consequence of a barbeque culture.

Fortunately over the last couple of years I’ve been able to pull in 4 notches on the belt so I’m working my way back through some older pairs of shorts.  Not quite at the lissome “take a look at my sixpack” stage yet which will be the point at which I treat myself to some new and cool gear. Don’t expect anything soon:)

If this weather continues into next week I’m also thinking of bringing the bbq out of deep hibernation. It’s a Weber 3 jet gas job. There are some purists who won’t touch gas but in my experience it’s far more reliable and the food tastes the same. Less likely to be burnt if anything. By havign a gas bbq we also have more meals cooked outside. Anne likes to know when the kids are going to be fed and the process of lighting a charcoal bbq is very hit and miss where timing is concerned.

Ciao Amigo!

Read a post with a picture of a fire pit in it here.

Categories
End User fun stuff

Ideas at the weekend #1 – wear odd socks

crossed socksAll week you’ve been sat in that office in your grey suit, stripy tie dangling from your white collar bound neck, shackled to your desk by the oppressive chains of conformity. Bowler hats may no longer be the mode but routine still binds.  The 7.25 to Waterloo is still the 7.25 to Waterloo. There are leaves on the line and signal failures at Clapham Junction remain a blight on your ever lengthening commuter day.

The weekend is here. The suit now hangs safely out of sight in the wardrobe and the pair of jeans has made it out of the drawer for its weekly outing. It is spring in the Kingdom of Elizabeth II. The cherry blossom is out and it is time to add some colour to your drab and uneventful life1.

The time has come to break free.

Continue reading “Ideas at the weekend #1 – wear odd socks”
Categories
End User fun stuff

Lincoln 10K – Habits

I once had an idea for a radio program based on Top 10 Lists. I shared this idea with a very talented and occasionally furious radio producer, who informed me that “Lists are what people produce when they run out of ideas”.

Screenshot_2014-03-14-11-32-34

So with that in mind here’s a list of my bad running habits.

Continue reading “Lincoln 10K – Habits”
Categories
End User fun stuff mobile apps

The hazards of walking to and from work #runkeeper

misted_specsTook me an hour and a half to walk to work yesterday whereas it normally takes around 30 mins.  Only kidding. Forgot to switch off Runkeeper:) The app seems to be intelligent enough to realise that I’d arrived and was just making a cup of tea, writing blog posts etc.

The other by product of walking to and from work, apart from inducing amnesia, is that it makes your glasses steam up when you get home. Last night I walked in to a warm kitchen and was blinded by the heat. See the header photo. It must be so.

I’m used to it. When I’m in the pool of a morning I usually have to ask an attendant what time it is despite there being a big clock on the wall. There is no point asking any of the other swimmers. After 8am they are all of an age and suffer from the same problem.

That’s all. See you later.

Other good reads
Working Time
Internet routing pedestrian style

Categories
End User fun stuff mobile apps

The spare plinth – where Facebook used to tread

spare plinthTrafalgar Square has a spare plinth. So has my phone, since I ditched the Facebook app.

They let different people exhibit on the spare plinth in Trafalgar Square.

I’m proposing to do the same. Of course not as many people will see whatever is exhibited in my spare spot, perhaps.

You will note that there is no email icon on the front screen. Dont bother suggesting it. Email is relegated to the second division as a means of communication. It’s on the next screen along.

I don’t regularly use all of the apps on the front screen. Mostly Chrome, Camera, Twitter, Phone, Calendar and LinkedIn.

The others are pretty much ad hoc. I only occasionally need the alarm clock. The idea for this post came to me in bed so I drafted a post, title only, using the WordPress app. Oh and I use Runkeeper every day I am in the office.

So there you go. I wonder which app I should display on my spare plinth!?

More good reads:
Facebook intrusion continues with App upgrade
51 years old and still single? Yes and no Facebook.

Categories
End User fun stuff

Lincoln 10K – Gear

Our first ever program on Siren FM was called The Reading Room, it went against the grain in trying to make a radio program about books and creative writing that was accessible – no oxbridge language here, I worked in a factory and read popular fiction. Lots of my colleagues read popular fiction too. So we made a program to appeal to them. It achieved some success that I wont embarrass you with now.

In our current program, Lincoln A to Z, we’ve acknowledged one of the few rules that Siren FM insist on – that every live program should have some ‘What’s On’ listings. We’ve gone about this a little differently too. We call it ‘City / Suburbs’, Jonny the programs esteemed producer, who lives in and loves the city, reads out the events that he fancies going to himself, and I a recent resident of the suburbs gives a largely fictional account of my slow acclimatisation to that way of life. One act of rebellion I regularly take part in is

Continue reading “Lincoln 10K – Gear”
Categories
Business fun stuff

One kiss or two kisses – mwa or mwa mwa?

treforWas at the trefor.net Exec Dinner on Tuesday night. Great time, as usual. If you’ve never been you want to think about coming.

We had one female attendee, Sally Fuller who is Director of Products at KCOM and a top industry person. Now when I meet a woman for the first time I usually shake their hand but if I’ve met them a few times and am starting to get to know them it’s usually a peck on the cheek.

The problem is sometimes a girl will expect one peck but sometimes two – one on each cheek. Being from the shires I’m not totally sure of the etiquette here. It doesn’t seem to be based on how well you know them. It might be a north south thing1.

Readers of this blog would probably like to know the answer. It’s been quite some time since some engineers have even seen a girl. I’m not counting the one that works at the kebab shop. As they work their way up the technical ladder and perhaps one day even make it to an Exec Dinner the aspiring engineer will need to larn.

Help 🙂

1 actually in some parts of the north it’s just a full on smack on the lips – ya southern woossies :))

Categories
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
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

Categories
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 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:

Continue reading “How to walk up a Steep Hill and be sixty pounds lighter by the time you get to the top”
Categories
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

Categories
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.

Categories
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

Continue reading “Lincoln 10K – Mp3 Free”
Categories
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

Continue reading “Batten down them hatches”

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

Continue reading “Schnooky hubbyband loves ickle bunny”

Categories
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
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

Continue reading “Lincoln 10K – Getting Started”
Categories
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.

Continue reading “Strategies for surviving boring flights”

Categories
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

Continue reading “Lisbon farewell or Portugese Tarts – dontcha just love em”

Categories
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?

Categories
End User food and drink fun stuff

Important announcement on a Sunday morning

george foreman grill

george_foreman_grillThis week we procured a George Foreman grill – family sized and henceforth referred to as the GFG. £20 from Lidl but I’m sure it is also available from other good supermarket and electrical retailers. This follows on from a similar acquisition by our daughter heading back to university for the new term. Hers wasn’t family sized but that is not material to this discussion.

You need to know that the GF is perfect for cooking breakfast on a Sunday morning. Due to the non uniform -sized nature of the raw materials involved (ie the ingredients) there are however some modifications to the normal cooking instructions that you will need to make.

Mushrooms and tomatoes are thicker than bacon and egg so you can’t have the lid down. The recommended cooking times provided by the GFG, with suitable disclaimers regarding food actually being properly cooked – it is an American product, are really only valid if you have the lid down and are thus cooking on both sides simultaneously (that’s at the same time yawl). It’s not as efficient this way but sometimes concessions have to be made for the sake of the art.

An element of judgement therefore has to be applied when cooking breakfast in this way with the GFG.

You should begin by preparing all the ingredients in advance and have them ready next to the GFG on the kitchen worktop. Any form of worktop is ok. It doesn’t have to be granite. Mushrooms should have their stalks remove which is a bit of a waste but necessary for this recipe. Switch on the GFG several minutes before you need to start using it. This is a guess but one imagines that one needs to wait a while for the cooking surface to reach its optimum temperature.

When the grill is hot enough place the mushrooms face down and the tomatoes with the round sides down on the left hand side leaving a suitable space for the bacon and egg that is to follow.

Continue reading “Important announcement on a Sunday morning”
Categories
End User fun stuff

All in all it’s just another brick in a wall

There’s something very artistic about a brick wall. The one was photographed in the corridor just outside the office. There isn’t much else to say about it really. I guess there is a scenario that it used to form part of some historic industrial building. The University of Lincoln is built on an old industrial site. One of the buildings, a bar and concert venue, is called the Engine Shed which gives you a bit of a hint to the past.

Sparkhouse is an interesting place to start a business. Interesting tech startups. The guys in the room next to us are into Bitcoin. In Lincoln! It’s something you really imagine happens in darkest Silicon Valley not quaint old Roman/medieval city of Lincoln. The Lincolnite office is just downstairs.

Not done much water cooler networking as yet which is what’s supposed to happen in these innovation centres.  It’ll come no doubt:)  There isn’t a water cooler anyway. You just run the cold tap for a bit. This isn’t Silicon Valley you know.

Anyway here’s the photo. The one after it is of a stone wall I pass on my walk home. Part of historic Lincoln. There are lots of them about. Nice. If anyone has any other good photos of walls then please send them in so that I can share them with the readers 🙂

brickwall

stonewallGotta go. Watching the snooker. Anne is a fan.