Using images is part and parcel of any website. It’s easy enough to reference and build into jekyll local and remote images. What I really wanted was a way to...
This post catalogues some of my art projects and hopefully reminds me to finish projects. “Real artists ship”
Implementing sticky posts isn’t native to Jekyll, but easy to do. Datapages allows the creation of pages automatically based on data in a database.
Why was it Europe that subjugated and colonised swathes of the world and not for example the Inca empire that invaded Spain? A simple question that it invites a simple...
Time for a major upgrade to my computer’s operating system.
Connecting the dynamic and server based Mastodon toots with this static Jekyll site places a few constraints on technolgies that can be used.
A few days in London the visit the RAF museum, the Natural History and the Courtaulds gallery.
If morality and ethics describe how we would like to behave and economics describes what people truly think and feel, can analysing questions about our society from an economics perspective...
XTwitter has always been a mess, but increasingly so. So time to find something else that will work for my microblogging needs.
The strapline “Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive” covers what the aim of the book. Does it manage it’s goal? But first a quiz.
As with previous incarnations of the game, winning isn’t easy. Here are some of the strategies and tactics I’ve utilised so far. With seeming success. I should clarify this is...
The sequel to XCOM offers a familiar game. Outgunned, outnumbered and with limited resources XCOM must rollback an alien invasion that has all but succeeded.
I’ve used Evernote for a while for taking and keeping notes, lists, diaries. But recent changes to their free tier meant looking for another option. And the open source and...
Following a visit to Kew gardens I learnt more about artist Marianne North with this book via Kew’s publishing arm.
A visit to Kew gardens in London was a rather drizzly affair but there was still plenty to impress.
In no particular ordering, some of the tactics I used to win a total war campaign.
Part of the Total War series, Shogun continues the familiar combination of tactical and strategic gameplay set in 16th-century feudal Japan. The shogunate has lost authority and the clans across...
.001_-_London.JPG)
Dippy the diplodocus is on display at the local Herbert art gallery and it seemed a shame not to go take a look at this popular exhibit.
Acrylic flow painting is a painting technique that manipulates runny paint to create its effects. The results can be spectacular, abstract and a bit uncontrollable.
The local U3A recently held an exhibition of members interests and crafts themed on “Autumn”
so I’d set myself the task of contributing using the acrylic flow painting technique.
.png)
As overviewer has become unmaintained it hasn’t been able to create the maps for the latest minecraft version 1.20. Which is a pity because overviewer was simple and worked. Hence...
This was suggested to me by a colleague at work and it proved to be an excellent recommendation. The titular character is one of a rare group of people called...
The aliens invade in March, the council activate the XCOM project and your first decision is where to build the XCOM base. And then start fighting with unskilled rookies equiped...
Based on the original 1994 X-COM, this modern reboot thoroughly captures everything that made the game a classic. Make your stand against an invasion where the aliens have overwhelming superiority....
Pint of Science is an annual world-wide festival where in a relaxed pub or cafe environment researchers present thier work to the general public. The 2023 round took place in...
I visited this museum in the grounds of Birmingham University at Edgbaston with a group from u3a. It’s easily reachable by train and a short walk and through its displays...
The back garden wall had been significantly leaning into my side for a long time, and figured if it’s been that way for decades it’s probably best left alone. I’m...
Twitter provides urls for accessing a timeline or to specific posts. These can be used to present twitter content within jekyll. Code for this site in held in git bitbucket...
The site is styled using the W3.css library, while the frontpage grid of ‘postcards’ is done using a jekyll plugin. The postcards system also means dynamic searches for posts can...
Jekyll provides a markdown language and plugin code to add extra capabilities to the system. There is documentation at the Jekyll site, this post is a list of the setup...
Fed up to the back teeth with Drupal as a blogging system so decided to move to a new one: Jekyll
I keep telling myself buying games is a time waster - I just spend far too much time with them if given the opportunity.
1872 and HMS Challenger sets sail on a groundbreaking three and half year voyage around the globe to sample and map the deep ocean.
Spent the morning at the Coventry Arena watching the Judo as part of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The Imperial War Museum has several satellite locations including the WWII airfield at Duxford, just outside Cambridge. For a limited time they had collected 11 airworthy Spitfires in the one...
So we have a critical vulnerability in a software library that allows hackers to get access to your machine. It’s a library that huge quantities of other software make use...
Star Trek Discovery was a delight, feeling like the adventurous optimistic overcoming our worst instincts feel of the originals. The new season 4 however is going out not on Netflix...
It’s about sand.
So the Daniel Craig era as James Bond comes to a bittersweet ending. From that first thrilling parkour chase in Casino Royale it’s been clear this incarnation of Bond is...
Overviewer is a program to create maps of your minecraft worlds. In it’s own words “The Minecraft Overviewer is a command-line tool for rendering high-resolution maps of Minecraft worlds. It...
Now why haven’t I written about Minecraft yet? Perhaps because it’s more fun to be playing it? A deceptively simple game that just generates so many ways to play and...
Coding is an exercise in managing complexity and the basic technique is ‘divide and conquer’.
A day trip to Leicester with my sister, nieces and great-nieces was a chance to explore the Rocket round Leicester art trail, which as the title might suggest, involves brightly...
As the summer of ‘21 (such as it was) drew to a close I decided on a small break of routine to visit the Cotswolds. It was also a bit...
Getting code working (aka debugging) inevitably means understanding each discrete step in your code. Placing logging statements at strategic points allows the code to self-report on its internal state. An...
Historically, testing software was something you did at the end of development to see if everything worked. It still is, but the aim is ‘acceptance testing’ - is the customer...
Tokyo Trial is a four-part miniseries that dramatises the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, available on Netflix. It was the equivalent of the more famous Nuremberg trials of...
Sequel? Reboot? Who cares! Once again D-list super-villains are recruited for a suicidal mission in return for a a reduction in jail sentence. What could possibly go wrong?
Scarlett Johansson returns as Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow super-assassin and conflicted Marvel Avenger. As might be expected for the Marvel films, ‘returns’ is subjective as the film events takes...
I’d wanted some mobile computing for a while so that I could at least write things while travelling or visting. While feasible on a phone it’s not really practical. Combined...
Coding mostly consists of editing text files. OK - knowing the magic words to put in those text files is ‘writing code’, but essentially it’s editing a lot of text...
Converting ideas into software starts with analysis of the situation and creating a specification, which is a detailed list of what the proposed software should do and achieve. Analysis and...
As a software developer my drives are full of half (or less!) finished bits of code, demos and experiments. Except in a professional capacity it seems rare to complete a...
Finally got around to a must-visit for a computing techi, I visited Bletchley Park, the home of the legendary British effort to break Nazi ciphers during WWII. That effort was...
Coventry is the city of culture for 2021, and as can be seen that culture is “building site”. Swathes of the main precinct shopping area are being remodelled. And it’s...
The recent interactions with healthcare professionals has raised the inevitable questions on diet, exercise, smoking, alcohol. While I consider my diet fairly good, it’s easy to deceive yourself so I...
In hopeful anticipation of resuming travelling post Covid, bought this nifty travel adapter. It adapter to differing international plug configurations and provides ample USB charging in a compact device. Should...
The Epson ET-2750 is a nice printer/scanner/copier combo, with ecotanks of ink so I don’t need to faff with ink cartridges (which was the main reason I bought it) The...
So after some major heart surgery with a real chance of dying (and not) the question is does it change anything? Part of me would love to report a desire...
The problem with software like Drupal is that you are running a computer program on a webserver out on the internet. Where the baddies stalk. Any software is at risk...
So after another round of security vulnerabilities in Drupal (the system that does this site) and the need to upgrade, I’d taken the website down rather than get hacked. And...
There is no dignity in hospital. You become a piece of meat, rolled, wiped, needled and measured. More women have seen my junk in those few weeks than my entire...
Dreams and awareness while recovering from anaesthetic can be a bit strange. Or at least for me they were. I think some part of me understood the fact I had...
On the second of January 2021 I was admitted to hospital with what turned out to be heart failure. The wall between the lower chambers had a 2cm tear it....
The UK is unappetising in November so headed off on a winter warmup to Spain. With a mid-afternoon flight from Birmingham there was the comparative luxury of a reasonable start...
I’d long wanted to visit this land so rich in history and culture, and so organised a trip to Athens. It was also exceedingly hot. A flight direct to Athens...
Picking up where the first film ended, the Parr family of superheroes struggle again to adapt to a world that seemingly doesn’t want them. So when wealthy backers offer to...
As Spring 2018 arrived I felt need to take off somewhere for a break, so took a few days with a tent and bike to cycle part of the Norfolk...
Another cycle puncture and subsequent new inner tube was the final push to investigating a change to solid tyres. Are they actually any good? The big concern is that being...
This exhibition at the National Gallery in London brings together over 75 paintings by Monet to explore his development by focusing on his paintings of buildings and monuments.
The original Blade Runner is a sci-fi classic creating a highly distinctive visual and audio landscape. How do you create a follow on without trashing the original? The new story...
Having cycled from Venice to Florence and handed the bike back to eurobike it was time to explore under my own steam.
Time for an adventure. Two weeks in Italy with the first half on a self-guided cycling tour from Venice to Florence then a week ‘on foot’ visiting Florence, Pisa and...
After years of speculation, a Wonder Woman finally hits the big screen. But with her compatriot heroes of DC comic recently offering rather underwhelming performances, can she beat the odds...
Coventry annually hosts motofest filling the city centre with all things transport as befits a motor city. Even if your not a petrolhead its well worth a mooch around.
Based on the manga and anime expectations for this big budget hollywood outing were understandably high. Did it succeed? Well … yes and no. The originals are highly regarded, so...
As Autumn approaches the shooting moves indoors. The final outdoor shoot is a handicapped competition, and shockingly I managed to come in third! Considering I’ve only re-taken up the sport...
We all know the plot and this remake is a good fun film, but it can’t quite shake the original. So the internet was awash with possibly misogynist “this will...
Time for a mobile phone upgrade. My trusty old HTC Pulse (purchased 2010?) was still working but had long since fallen behind on abilities and Android software. I’m not a...
Spent a nice if long tiring day at the Husbands Bosworth festival helping at a Have-a-Go archery session. ‘Festival’ would be a tad of an overstatement compared to say Glastonbury,...
A while back I’d attended an archery course, enjoyed it, but didn’t really have chance to really take it up properly. So a course at the local Welland Valley Archers...
Unbelievably, it’s been three years since I last added anything to this site. The last entry being Dark matter and the AstroTour back in April 2013. The Drupal system that...
1864. The American west. After an attack on her wagon train Sister Thomas Josephine is thrown into adventure and infamy that tests her faith, determination and character to the limits....
This was the last sci-fi novel by Iain Banks before his death in June 2013 and perhaps unwittingly explores the “end of things”. But of course on a grand scale....
Since I still seemed to have way too much holiday to use up, I took a few days break and did a cycle cross the peak district. The idea was...
An early manned mission to Mars goes horribly wrong leaving astronaut Mark Watney alone and stranded on Mars, presumed dead. What follows is one of the most gripping survival-against-all-odds stories...
“Dark matter” - it may sound like a good name for a band (along with “gamma-ray burst”) [1] but in fact they are some of the puzzles in astronomy that...
Stallman is in computing circles a near legendary figure, and certainly one of the more influential persons in recent computing history. So the chance to listen to him speak at...
While writing some code to display my study reading list was fun, a better job is done by using some ready-built tools. Jabef (my bibliography manager) can export it’s database...
When your 16-year old niece asks if you can escort her to a music concert you might expect something along the lines of an X-factor boy-band. Not with my niece,...
Self-proclaimed “America’s finest news source”, but take everything with a pinch of salt on this satire site! Proof that Americans can do sly intelligent humour, Iran’s news agency once believed...
Part of being a student is lots of reading: sometimes it’s useful stuff, mostly background noise. The papers are manged by a bibliography manager (which is just a fancy database),...
Following the ECCS conference (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX). This is a way of creating a document with the instructions for precise layout and formats placed in the document with ‘commands’ such as \section{“something”}...
Recently I got offered an interesting little programming job. “The Complete New Yorker” is 8 DVDs worth of magazine stretching back to the 1920’s that needed to be transferred to...
As more details emerge of the fiasco over the recent awarding of a rail franchise, it’s very difficult not to roll your eyes at government incompetence. But beyond the arguments...
I guess it’s a sign of the times when you talk about ‘googling’ rather than ‘searching’, but… I’m very organised in how I keep my own documents on my PC...
Recently I attended the European Conference on Complex Systems (ECCS’12) in Brussels. While of course the conference took the majority of the day, there was chance to go explore a...
Doing the shopping at the local Asda and attempted to topup my mobile. Handed over my t-mobile card for them to swipe only for the till to crash. Stop completely,...
This was actually started last summer (‘11) in the early days of joining the art class. Thinking I just needed to get back into using a brush and paint and...
Boring and dull. That’s Law isn’t it? Well not in this series which explores how English law developed over the centuries. Barrister Harry Potter (yes really) describes historical events such...
As part of the “being a research student” thing, I attended a workshop at Birmingham University aimed at part-timers. Since the workshop was specifically aimed at part-timers I’d hoped it...
It’s not often I blog about another site, but this view from the subatomic to the entire Universe is really something else. Visit the website, make the image full screen...
ah, university research departments … ever keen to build links to the outside world that doesn’t understand their research. However an open evening with the local (to Milton Keynes) British...
Microsoft’s next generation of operating system, Windows 8, sports a whole new interface. Will this be the end of Microsoft as the default OS on PC’s? Ars Technica has a...
I’ve never been a big online player except perhaps for World of Warcraft. So leaving that meant no simple excuse for an online chat with my brother. Attempting to multiplay...
Some recent coding (a rewrite of the “netMetric” toolset”) required an XML file to be transformed by an XSLT stylesheet and the results that transformed further by another stylesheet. This...
This had been in my reading pile for a while, so I tackled it over Christmas between the turkey and mince pies. Using established and available data the authors show...
Recently checked out the “I woz ere” exhibition of George Shaw at the Herbert gallery, Coventry. Once a local lad, Shaw was a 2011 Turner Prize nominee. No pretentious nonsense...
Clearly timed to coincide with the Leonardo exhibition at the National Gallery, this informative BBC documentary on iPlayer traces Leonardo da Vinci’s career as artist and engineer. The dramatised scenes...
Finding something to focus on for the research is proving hard work. There’s lots of things I could investigate just because they’re interesting or new for me but for the...
As I’m wont to do when looking up academic papers, I stumbled over this paper: “Failure is a four-letter word: a parody in empirical research”. They follow the common methodology...
Down to the Open University Milton Keynes campus this week to show my face for real rather than virtually. I’d chosen this week as it coincided with a seminar by...
It’s often commented at the art group that I do a lot of detail in my paintings, which is probably true. So for this oil painting I wanted to do...
Following the local exhibition of Piranesi prints I thought I’d see if I could tackle the style in oils. This attempt is based on Plate XI Central Hanging Lantern (second...
An interesting statistic from Ofcom via the BBC is that on average users download 17Gb a month. Well for a long time I’ve had a niffty tool called vnstat running...
.jpg)
To open a business account requires a valid passport and mine had expired. It’s renewal was one of those back of the mind things I didn’t get round to earlier....
Dr. Alice Roberts presents Origins of Us showing how the 6 million year journey of human evolution is written in our bones, guts and brains. What I liked is the...
So after the research induction days, today was the first clear ‘lets get going’ day, so I was settled and ready to focus on some serious reading. Instead the day...
Next step after the business start-up course is to offer a business plan and a chat with an advisor from Business Link at the local Chamber of Commerce. This service...
I really wish (as a Physics graduate) people wouldn’t offer to induct me, horrible images come to mind. I’m sure the Open University had no such electromagnetic desires as part...
This programme, available on BBC iplayer, looks at how fossils have been viewed and explained by earlier generations. It’s such an obvious question really, the ancient Greeks also dug up...
With the impending research I decided to upgrade one of my older machine to have some decent storage capacity. Older means a P750 Pentium III circa 2000(?) with a standard...
Our local PC World was never very great, a big shed of expensive technical stuff. But at least they had ‘stuff’ used by techies and were sometimes useful when you...
Spent a few days this week at the local chamber of commerce sponsored business start-up courses. The plans to sort out starting a ‘proper’ IT consultancy business seems to have...
The BBC has a story concerning a report on IT projects claiming that most projects run over budget with one in six going over by a staggering 200%. Sadly to...
Would you like to drive a supercar you’ll never own, yet alone have the chance to put your foot down with? Yes please! And a generous gift meant I got...
Almost any web-based application today will do this: it will collect information from a database, merge that information into prepared page layouts and then send the result to the user’s...
This is an oil on A4 canvas and is loosely based on a photo taken during a visit to the Lake district. Trying to capture the boats without having to...
In days of old, software was developed and then tested. This generates some serious problems since projects are often late leaving testing to be rushed or skipped to ensure the...
In this layer the shadows and mid-tones are done with a very thinned out burnt umber. I made a thinner with 1 part linseed oil and 5 parts turps substitute...
This layer is a neutral wash over the canvas. It like carpet underlay creating a basic background tone and colour. If you don’t want to faff around waiting for things...
Since I’m interested in the painting, not drawing still life I’ll trace onto the canvas from a photo. There are a few ways to do this including buying transfer paper....
This series of pages is about a painting using the Flemish technique. I was introduced to this technique by our art groups ‘old master’ and it involves creating the painting...
I must be slightly mad, but I’m going to be chasing a PhD through the Open University as a follow-on to my Masters. I’d offered a research proposal and then...
Well the title says it all really. Cycling along when the back wheel locked revealing a broken back axle. Among the things to carry as a cyclist, electrical tape rates...
For some reason this past week the phone scammers of the world have targeted me. The first is a call to my mobile asking to accept a reverse charge call...
Just finished watching the ITV drama Scott & Bailey which you can download via something like filestube.com. This 6 part drama initially registers as Cagney and Lacey in Manchester and...
Among the machines I run at home is a Microsoft Windows XP machine and when my Linux Ubuntu machines need to gain network access I’ve used the Samba (smb) tools....
Inevitable nowadays, that someone spends their time at a concert filming it rather than being there. So much for ‘mindfulness’. The video isnt that great. I was in the “legions...
It’s now official. The dissertation has come back with a healthy pass meaning that 5 years of work ends successfully with an MSc in Software Development. Actually it isn’t quite...
Rather last minute but got a ticket to see KT Tunstall solo at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford. Only one word to describe it and that’s AWSOME!!
What is it about The Apprentice that makes for compulsive viewing? Well for me anyway. The fact it is listed under iPlayers’ ‘entertainment’ and not ‘business’ category gives a hint....
Recently Apple announced iCloud to predictable media interest.
Despite no full-time job I’m feeling really pressed for time. I hope that’s good, but it will be nice to get some things done and off the list. The bigger...
You know life is racing by when you’re invited to the wedding of the lad you used to babysit. Robert and Rosie’s wedding at St.Mary’s church Marylebone was a lovely...
Now we have some ideas for our game we need to start designing. And diagrams are the tools for that: cheap, quick and flexible. While there are very formal ways...
I’d missed this film adaptation of Shakespeare’s final play at it’s release so I was glad to catch it at the Warwick Arts Centre. It’s one thing to read the...
Onkalo in Finland is a repository being built 5km underground designed to store high-level nuclear waste for 100,000 years. This channel 4 documentary provides a thoughtful look at the construction...
So after our initial great idea we need to try and specify exactly what it is we want to do. To do that involves asking people what they want this...
Today I did a bit of volunteering for warwickshire wildlife trust whose HQ is nearby. Well it makes good use of time. The tasks are varied and today’s was a...
Lovely weather, lovely woods, lovely company and a seasonal bonus - bluebells in the woods. Considering these were taken by my mobile phone, not too bad as photos. I still...
Someone normally has a bright idea or something needs improving. And then want a program to do it. But before hitting the keyboard there are some important precursors and it’s...
If you’ve ever wondered how exactly a computer program is built, then this is the series for you. This series of posts will go through the process of idea to...
With the dissertation submitted it’s time to reflect on the process and nearly 18 months of work. The biggest lesson is how a research project differs from study. The preceding...
I’m beginning to get suspicious that the building activity at the end of my garden isn’t going to plan. I had asked for a nice view, something like a beach...
So it’s “Technical Tuesday” and time to do something I’d been putting off for a while: fix my [no-glossary]network’s[/no-glossary] DNS and DHCP. DNS is a system of swapping between the...
The dissertation is now completed and submitted after some painful deadline stress. I’ll write later about the overall lessons learnt, right now it just feels good to get it completed...
Beautiful Equations is an hour long programme looking at the use of equations in science and whether they can contain beauty. Abstract artist and self-professed know-no-maths Matt Collings talks to...
The nearby Warwick arts centre recently hosted an exhibition of prints of Piranesi’s prisons and in my usual style I’d left it till the last few days to pay a...
Watching anime (in particular Bleach) introduced me to J-pop aka Japanese pop music. Enjoying the tracks for the anime, I tracked down the bands which turned out to be pretty...
Just handed in the fourth assignment in the quest for a MSc. It felt like a real slog at this point with some serious motivation loss. Motivation’s not a big...
Recently took a short trip with my Mom to the top end of Scotland to see a bit of scenery. She’s always wanted to see that part of the world,...
So the assignment comes back with a suggestion to rework the title. Of course never being one to take the easy route I created a ‘wordle’ of the text. Save...
Back when I were a lad playing D&D, vampires were smart, nasty and evil creatures of the night. You knew where you stood with them. Preferably in daylight with a...
whrrr… click! the death gurgle of a hard drive expiring. My main PC 150Gb Western Digital failed taking with it just about everything. All my code, Open University dissertation work,...
Well TMA03 is submitted as part of the work towards the MSc. 64 pages of text that will change the world. Or not. It will do OK but perhaps not...
I’ve had two recent laughs caused by my MSc study. Y’see you become, if not expert, at least conversant with a very specific field. And sometimes, just sometimes something very...
The work towards the MSc dissertation continues. Recently finished several key bits of work, writing software to create network graphs and then calculate a measurement of that graph. This is...
Bettany Hughes tackles ancient history in a very engaging and viewable style. So far I’ve seen the Minoans and the Moors in Spain, both of which look at the history...
Clever and surreal comic on science and techi stuff.
So the second assignment towards the MSc is back at 64% which was not too unexpected but a little disappointing. There were some issues with the export from Open Office...
With the recent UK election and the (quite right) fuss about some not being able to vote due to insufficient ballot papers or time, the cry goes up to move...
My old bicycle panniers, cheap and cheerful, had run their course. They had managed some fantastic trips and been dragged through rivers, but it was time to get a new...
The Open Uni doesn’t just expect a dissertation from you to obtain your MSc, it gives homework too. These TMAs (tutor marked assignments) are designed to allow the dissertation to...
I generally like Tim Burtons films, full of imagination and spectacle and this is no exception. Alice (Wasikowska - a spitting image of a young Paltrow) is now 19 and...
As part of the never-ending tidying up I’ve recently sorted through a cupboard of old software boxes. You know they are old when they have nice boxes, printed manuals and...
I’ve tried a few 3D modellers over the years, generally with minimal success. They frequently suffer from being way too bloated with every option under the sun available, of being...
arXiv.com is a pre-press site of science papers, a “best of” blog provides a finger on the pulse of latest research phrased in nice simple language. OK, simple enough to...
Their own strap says it best :- “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world”. The idea is experts in their fields give a short (10 minutes) talk about,...
Insight and comment on the world of gaming, particularly MMOs. Wrote the rather excellent “A Theory of Fun “ book which is very worth a read.
I think I’ve played the excellent Rome Total War to exhaustion. Many times. Nothing beats a hard day in front of the computer like leading your legions to a crushing...
Although I had previously said I wouldn’t mess about trying to map the relationships between papers, well… it’s hard for techi fingers to resist. Created this little java program to...
Lovely short series examining the historical role of diplomats in representing British interests. Since it’s presented by a former British Ambassador to the US, Sir Christopher Meyer, it takes a...
Lately there seems to have been quite a bit of ‘buzz’ around Googles policy over the rights to data. So we have newspapers getting upset that the likes of Google...
Well after trying to get moving on a search with mixed results, some reflection and a restart we seem to be getting there. Definitely I’m finding a ‘block’ and ‘pipeline’...
Feel like I’ve spent quite a lot of time this past week trying a literature search, but not to much avail. It’s not difficult finding lots of papers nor to...
Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain takes a look at post war Britain. Marrs’ skill is to present not just the facts in a coherent and entertaining way, but to...
In investigating academic stuff, I’d previously wondered why repositories of academic papers didn’t do more with their searching capacities and specifically in visualising the connections between papers. Well a bit...
Well I’ve succumbed having been a mobile phone refusenik (aside from pointless mandatory works ones). Although I like technology I generally want stuff to be useful and mobiles aren’t really...
Well it’s been lots of bits recently. Sorted out the SCONUL library access and familiarised myself with the Cov Uni library. Think I’ve done enough for now on statistics, apart...
Notes on a video lecture “Working with Systems” author: Seth Bullock, University of Southampton what is a system? - individual components linked by relationships to make a whole. different levels...
How the Navy Forged the Modern World is a really interesting account of the development of the navy and its economic and political interactions with the nation presented by Dan...
Back in the Stone Age there was a game from Microprose called UFO: Enemy Unknown. And quite brilliant it was too. UFO:AI is a from scratch open source ‘re-imagining’ of...
An exhibition of Vincent Van Gogh work is going on display in London and aside from thinking it would make a nice day trip, it got me thinking about the...
So its official. A letter arrives confirming I’ve completed the diploma (the taught courses bit). Apparently the thing now has to be formally conferred after which I can put PGDSoftDev(Open)...
If I’m going to be dealing with large amounts of academic papers then a reference manager will be useful. Checked (as usual) Wikipedia for a good list of possibilities. Needs...
Sometimes Horizon is pants, usually brilliant. This episode explores the history of food and science discoveries leading to the current obesity epidemic. A bit slow in parts its a solid...
Picked up a copy of the graphic novel Watchmen from my local forbidden planet during the Christmas shopping. Why is it always so much easier to buy presents for yourself?...
The materials for the dissertation M801 arrived today. Always exciting to open a box on a new course. Read the various paperwork bits, and skim read the intro and part...
Aggh! Winter. There is lots to like about winter, but the short days and weak light isn’t one of them. Yes I know thats a Northern hemisphere viewpoint… but in...
If you grew up with the original Star Wars and then hung your head in disbelief at the later prequels then take a look at this parody explaining exactly why,...
A bit long and rambling, but absolutely fascinating. Waldemar Januszczak gives a radical take on the Sistine chapel in this channel 4 film. Januszczak is possibly one of my favourite...
Palo is an open source, free multidimensional DB (MOLAP). Databases come in a variety of types, most familiar are transactional relational databases like MySQL. But other types exist that don’t...
Watched the first episode of this series on Titian. Really watchable, enthusiastic tour of some old master paintings explaining what they did and why they were so good.
Just finished watching this excellent series. Struck by the similarities between software and financial markets. Both being complex you can never be ‘bug-free’ because the real world has infinite capacity...
As I’ve previously noted the impending MSc dissertation starts in February 2010, but it’s worth getting ahead now. Last thing I want is to hit the start and have more...
Recently I’ve completed placing some photos from an old cycling holiday Cycling the ring of Kerry, ‘04 into Google Maps. Although the interface provided is simple and effective, it’s not...
MakeHuman is an interesting bit of software “for the modeling of 3-Dimensional humanoid characters”. In the computer world, characters can be represented as a ‘mesh’ of triangles and this software...
My scanner hasn’t been used for years, mainly ‘cos its old and parallel port based. Yes, that old. So a new CanoScan LiDE 100 scanner purchased and hooked up to...
With the revision on the M883 Software Requirements for business systems (http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page) and it’s rather good. It creates mindmaps, which I tend to use naturally to scribble stuff anyways. So...
My printer doesn’t get used a lot. Generally I only print stuff that I need to sit down, read and annotate ~ which at the moment means academic papers. Problem...
The final portion of the progress to a Masters is the dissertation. I’m looking forward to it, I think the investigating and discovery side of it is right up my...
Managed to get a private World of Warcraft server running on my own machines lately, which is fun. The official Blizzard Warcraft game involves a client on your own PC...
Ages ago I’d picked up a cheap webcam at a computer fair on a whim, and eventually got around to seeing if it would install onto my ubuntu linux desktop....
The final taught module. This ones about, as the title suggests, collecting requirements. In my experience its something that is really tricky. Users (or more correctly stakeholders) are great at...
The Gauls seem to be moving across the north to gain rebel Segestica. Lets hope they lose some serious forces there. Not that I could take much advantage with my...
Fri 27th March - Sun 29th March, Reading University Although the OU courses are delivered remotely, there is the opportunity to pay some more (!) and attend a residential school...
This is a much harder than the M876 Relational database systems (/node/39) exam on Friday. 16-jun-09 The course result is back with a good enough performance in the exam to...
This course is covering the basic ideas of building modern internet applications. The concepts, at least in the first part of the course, are very lightweight - the idea of...
This has been probably the most interesting course so far. It covers a lot of ground from psychology to organisations to ISO standards to managing risk and much more. Basically...
I was looking forward to it even though it deals with less hard core technical concepts and more touchy-feely psychological ideas. It made for an interesting change but one which...
Having missed taking a course starting in the spring I’ve taken two courses together. This should be a fairly straight-forward course being based around concepts I’m well practiced with. Lets...
This aims of the course are pretty much covered by its title. Lots of Universal Modelling Language (UML) diagrams to allow problems to be systematically analysed, drawn and software designed....
I started with this 15 point module because it looked easy (its got a lot of programming, ideas I know about and its in Java) which I thought might be...
Well this is my favourite band of the moment, OK perhaps for the last year or so. Symphonic metal group Nightwish or least the lineup before Tarja left. A reasonable...
Now the Senate have cancelled the requested blockade of Syracuse and instead want Caralis in Sardinia taken from the Carthaginians. Make your mind up. Good job I was already deploying...
Humans have a need to explain things. We like to know why and how and what. For instance, many ancient cultures wondered what lightning and is what is thunder? They...
Perhaps I should pay more attention to those ‘end of life’ notices that linux distributions put out. One of my home servers (Ergo) has been happily running Ubuntu 7.04 (codename...
Now the Senate want me to send ships to help blockade Syracuse down in Sicily! I see the Scipii faction are attacking there so why should I send a ship...
In my more mainstream music tastes is this outrageously talented woman. I’ve a lot of respect for those who are songwriter-musicians as opposed to those who are just lip-sync performers....
The Senate have asked us to capture Segesta, a small rebel town up the coast. Should be easy but I don’t want to waste any men at this stage. A...
Now where was I? stop giggling missus… hold on i’ve got it! yes! the Prologue! Two towns in northern Italy, Ariminum and Arretium have been in our families control for...
Armchair generals arise! Build your cities, recruit and equip your armies and then set forth to conquer the known world. Which at this point is Europe and the Mediterranean. Rome...
Going a bit retro at the moment, and dug up a few 80s gems and as a result can’t get this one out my head. Funny how things can sound...
Well it seems the developers have heard my cry for a better view from my back window. Seems they are trying to create a 1:10 scale model of the Great...
I swear Drupal is doing my head in. Once you’ve twigged something its obvious. Its the twigging thats the trouble! Site content is tagged ie given a taxonomy. The intention...
Think I’ve got my head around the idea of Views and then how to use them in Panels 2 to create the current front page layout (main recent posts and...
The view from the rear of my house has never been spectacular. In fact its a large factory wall, and a semi-deserted factory at that. There are some advantages such...
World of Warcraft is often shortened to WoW, and with good cause. Take your character through adventures in a mystical fantasy world populated by creatures, monsters and other players. But...
Part of the No1 Ladies Detective Agency series, the full cupboard finds Mma Ramotswe trying to find a way to get her fiance Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni to actually sort a...
Written by King’s widow in 1969 a year after his death, the account is both authoritative and insightful. What struck me was not the well known history, but the family...
Mysterious events, aliens in the deepest most inaccessible parts of the ocean, ships go missing while ocean currents misbehave threatening the very existence of mankind. We are being replaced. If...
Journalist Norah Vincent disguises herself as a man and as ‘Ned’ checks out the other side of the fence. And that’s about it really. It’s quite impressive that she manages...
Having felt for far too long ‘ooh, I must do some exercise’ but not being enticed by the gym I finally took up cycling again in June 02.
I’m not sure how I stumbled to this book, a ‘you might also like’ click I think. It’s about a man and his allotment. But not the gardening side particularly,...
I’d missed this film at the cinema, you know how fast they flow through, so I was rather pleased to pick this up cheaply. Young Victor Van Dort (Depp) is...
Writing software is really tricky. Most projects (80%?) fail, so its clear that understanding of the process is slim and certainly not as well developed and formalised as say civil...
The subtitle is “for game design” and it takes the definition of ‘game’ widely. The basic idea is that learning is naturally done by games: games to rehearse, games that...
An early (1990) complaint about Java was its speed. A complaint totally unfounded with current releases as proved by Jake 2, an implementation of the Quake2 game engine in Java....
Plasticine doesn’t get much better than this. Wallace and Gromits new company “anti-pesto” is doing a great trade keeping the pests away from the villagers prize vegetables. That is until...
Walter H. Thompson was Churchill’s bodyguard through WWII and before. This account, drawn from Thompson’s recently discovered memoirs provides a facinating account both of the events in WWII but also...
In the mists of gaming time there was a game, “Star Raiders” and you bought the Atari 800XL to play it. Move on and you buy a Nintendo Gamecube to...
OK I’ll admit it, I like classy romantic comedies. Jane Austin’s Pride & Prejudice meets Bollywood in this bubbly take by the director of Bend it like Beckham. Austin’s main...
A anime classic with some stunning animation. Set in Neo-Tokyo after world war III, a strange power sets to awaken which competing groups want to control. Into this are drawn...
Ursula LeGuin is one of my favorite sci-fi authors, and as you might tell from the cover a winner of more awards then everyone else put together. And therefore rarely...
Having previously read the author’s “The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies Of The Apocalypse” (how can you resist a title like that?) and enjoying it I picked up this title. Its fair...
Sam Vimes is ‘volunteered’ as the ambassador for Ankh-Morpork at the coronation of the new Dwarf Low King (well, how can you have a Dwarf High King?) But his policeman’s...
I think I first read this years ago as a graphic novel and that was my introduction to the Diskworld. So I bought this to fill in the library. As...
Be warned, its a brick of a book. This chronicle of Mao’s life is detailed and makes for a fascinating read. How did someone come to such absolute power? How...
Part of the diskworld series, a seriously loopy assassin tries to kill the Hogfather little realizing (or not caring) about the consequences. Death takes on the role of present deliverer...
The development of the tank through WWI. It could be a very dry topic, but the author makes it come alive by focusing on the at times heartbreaking ineptitude of...
This is now quite an old game (1998?) so the graphics are a bit less than perhaps they could be. But it still works because because the game is such...
I’ve always fancied a go at archery: it just looks so cool. So in the spirit of ‘stop wishing, got on with it’ I booked onto a 5 week beginners...
Jesminder Bhamra (Nagra), known to all as ‘Jess’ is 18, preparing for University and is mad on football. Problem is her parents are Sikhs who now want her to behave...
A local DNS allows me to give proper names to machines on my network. Its the bit that converts www.bbc.co.uk into 212.58.224.56 The numbers are the IP address and the...
OK, panic ‘cos they’ve made a film of the fantastic hitchhikers series by Douglas Adams and …it’s well…sort of okay but nothing special. Arthur Dent (Freeman) is the stereotypical Englishman...
Silvia Broome (Kidman) is an interpreter at the UN. She inadvertently overhears a plot to assassinate the leader of her African home country during an impending address to the UN....
Summary of the trip with suggestions on what to carry and what to do different. Essential kit The Sustrans map. Not as a route finder but as visual aid to...
Monday Parkhead Station -> Tynemouth 64km 6hrs Parkhead had kindly arranged a tyre, so fitted that before breakfast and used the original spoke punctured tube. I think the spare tube...
Sunday Garrigill -> Parkhead Station house 39km ~11hrs After breakfast fixed up the bike with Richard’s kind help as best possible, but having walked the bike on the flat tube...
Saturday Greystoke -> Garrigill 50.5km 9hrs Chance to try the porridge for breakfast, perfect with tons of sugar and then off to Penrith and a massive climb out of the...
Friday Cockermouth -> Greystoke 49km 8hrs Ah, but waking up in a fresh morning field, washing and collecting water from the river was just fantastic. Got the stove going for...
Thursday Workington -> Cockermouth 23.9km 2h:30m Caught the 15:15 from Coventry to Rugby for the 15:42 to Carlisle. The ideal plan had been to catch a very early train to...
In June 2005 my friend SueA and I cycled the (infamous?) coast to coast. Approximately 225km (~140 miles) from the Irish sea at Workington, across the Pennines and down to...
So now having passed the Linux Professional Institute level one exam in May 2005 I’m considered competent to really mess up a linux server. For the uninitiated Linux is an...
Enter Marinors wet. I’d wanted to read this play since I’d understood it to be the template for the classic sci-fi film Forbidden Planet. And you know what, it is....
Deciding that unless I set a date the procrastination will continue, I booked the session for the Linux Professional Institute 102 exam rather tentatively for late May 2005. I’ve been...
Based on the series of books I’d not read or heard of I wasn’t too sure what to expect from this film. What you get is a wonderfully dark tale...
So after the film, I’ve read the first book. With the resurgence of children’s literature its difficult to know what to expect, but this book is definitely for children. Although...
You must be an important author when you only have to use a single name. Of course there were less people around at the time, so surnames hadn’t been invented....
James T. Kirk (Shatner) is now an Admiral stuck behind a desk and the Enterprise is a training ship. But one last routine training cruise turns into a real mission...
In the brutality of war, how do you remain human? This award winning film shows war in all its awfulness, not just by the blood but by how death comes...
Its got swords, monsters, heros, villains and Gods. An absolute classic mostly because of the fantastic special stop-motion effects of Ray Harryhausen. The giant bronze Talos straddling the headland is...
New York is experiencing ghosts, spooks and other strange occurances like never before. Step forward three just sacked parapsychology researchers who, armed with unlicensed nuclear accelerators, form the most unique...
Not the best of the Brosnan Bonds but still good, fast paced and fun and since it was in the bargin bin at Asda… Captured by the North Koreans, Bond...
A flying saucer lands in Washington, and the visiting alien Klaatu (Rennie) is promptly shot. Vainly he tries to deliver a message to governments that Earths violence must not be...
Washed up and past his prime, Steve Zissou (Murray) leads his team of misfits on one last mission to find the mysterious, and possibly non-existant Jaguar shark that ate his...
In November 1997, I travelled to Florida, USA to begin to gain a private pilots licence (PPL) Arriving I arrived in Fort Lauderdale around 4pm Friday and collected the hire...
Is hosting the Olympics worth it? How much will it cost? It’s the oldest trick in the book. Promise a project at a certain price, get it started and then...
Scorsese’s biopic of billionaire Howard Hughes (DiCaprio) is an epic in almost every sense - it’s a long film (3 hours) but the effect is to give you a real...
In the future a war rages between humans and the machines controlled by Skynet: a sentient military computer. Skynet is losing to the human resistance lead by John Conner, so...
A young struggling William Shakespeare (Fiennes) is suffering writers block struggling with his next play “Romeo and Ethel the pirate’s daughter” when he meets the unobtainable Lady Viola De Lesseps...
If your wanting a feel good happy ending movie, don’t watch this. At the end nobody in the cinema moved, everybody needing a ‘moment’. Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank) is a female...
Judea, 30AD, around teatime and Brian is mistaken for the messiah. Which he does his best to discourage … but the Jews are very religious and insist he is. It...
‘No prisoners’ detective Frank Bullitt gets seriously hacked off when an important trial witness is shot while under his protection. Add to this being hassled by an ambitious politician (Vaughn),...
Dr. Richard Kimble (Ford) is unjustly convicted of killing his wife, and after the prison bus helpfully crashes and a dramatic pileup with a train, Kimble escapes and must use...
Oh for heavens sake do you need a plot outline? You’d need to be in a galaxy far far away for you not to know this one. This DVD set...
A powerful film well worthy of its acclaim. It follows three women in three time periods through just one day as each has to face up to the challenge of...
1879 in South Africa and 1500 British troops are killed by the Zulus. Knowing this, 139 infantrymen stand to fight at Rorke’s Drift against an approaching 4000 Zulu. This really...
Schoolboy action adventure a plenty as Maj. Smith (Burton) and Lt. Schaffer (Eastwood) lead a commando team to infiltrate an SS headquarters in the Bavarian Alps and rescue a captured...
A gang of terrorists sieze control of a US Navy battleship to steal the missiles, and in the best security tradition, only one man can stop them. Ex US Navy...
Director Terry Gilliam delivers an intelligent sci-fi film, intricate in plot that provides possibly Willis’ best performance (at least of the ones I’ve seen). Is James Cole (Willis) really a...
Terrible film. Appalling thin acting, no plot, cheesey dialogue. But for all that it works into a pop classic, with thumping soundtrack and fantastic red hot aerial dogfighting action. I...
Bad media-mogul guy Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) tries to start a war between China and Britain so that he can cash in on the media rights. As the two countries...
Wow. What a book. What a film of the book. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is powerful and deep, so creating a screenplay that does it...
Bob Parr (Nelson) is trying to settle down as an insurance claims specialist following his former life as the superhero Mr. Incredible, after superheros were retired by the government. With...
A classic WWII story based on the real life mass escape from Stalag Luft III. The ensemble cast includes Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, David McCallum and Gordon Jackson...
Kidnap Churchill? Impossible. Or perhaps not… Colonel Steiner (Caine) leads German paratroopers in disguise on the astonishing plan which almost, almost succeeds. Considering this was (I think) a made for...
An alien device is discovered in Egypt that turns out to be a stargate or teleport to another world. Nerdy egyptologist Dr. Daniel Jackson (Spader) and grieving Col. O’Neil (Russsell)...
This is one of those films that makes it into folklore or common vocabulary. Monroe doesn’t seem to act in this comedy, the sensual dizzy all over the place blonde...
A totally mad sort of story about King Arthur’s knights in a quest for the Holy Grail. Every line a classic, and surprisingly effective filming considering in was done on...
From the opening music and burning fuse you realise this film has a huge reputation to live up to, the original TV series was classic with well defined elements. Can...
Like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , this is a wuxia movie with lots of implausible martial arts fighting alongside the warrior philosophy. Which it almost pulls off in great style...
Having seen 1&2 in the cinema the box set for1,2&3 was great value. I don’t know what it is about the slapstick humour but it has me in stiches. Kevin...
Another wuxia movie, and stunning it is too, the desert landscapes and use of colour are breathtaking. This film concentrates a lot on the ‘xia’ element as an assassin (Li)...
Brosnan takes on the role of James Bond trying to track down the baddies who’ve stolen a powerful space weapon - the goldeneye. And a cracking job he does too...
OK. So its not a film. Just one of the best sitcoms ever, years later it still stands fresh and incredibly funny. The writing is just superb, it’s as if...
The fact its a Coen brothers film tells you this isn’t going to be ordinary. Jerry (William H. Macy) needs money and hires two thugs to fake a kidnap of...
Found a bundle with Die Hard 1,2 & 3. Bruce Willis crawls around in his vest fighting bad guys. Repeat for three films. The first film is the best of...
Missed this much talked about movie at the cinema, so glad to get it cheap on DVD. Its part of the genre of ‘wuxia’ films and this is the one...
Once upon a time there were three very different women… now they work for me. My name is Kevin, sorry Charlie. With lots of martial arts and hi-tech skills our...
George Peppard, without the aid of the ‘A-team’ rescues Audrey Hepburn’s pussy cat from an allyway and they live happily ever after. As sloppy love stories go, this is brilliant....
I had considered flying over to Ireland and hiring a bike and panniers once there, but surprisingly the costs didn’t work out terribly cheap and you’ve still got to get...
the return Fri 17 sept Total ring distance=241.2km (150.75 miles) The return was horrid. Even the ‘dry’ clothes were damp. Then the return ferry ran late, missing the direct(ish) train...
Day seven Thurs 16 Sept Kenmare, Gap of Dunloe, Killarney 44.0km 4h 30min The last cycling day closing the ring back to Killarney was the hardest, it started with torrential...
Day six
Wed 15 Sept
Sneem, Blackwater, Kenmare
39.0km 4h 30min
Heading East and a nice gentle day.
Day five Tues 14 Sept Waterville, Caherdaniel, Sneem 39.0km 4h 30min After a steep climb it’s mostly downhill with a tailing wind. The downside is the route is on the...
Day four Mon 13 Sept Portmagee,Waterville 31.4km 5h 40min A massive climb out of Portmagee which took ages was a bit disheartening, but after that good progress with a bright...
Day three
Sun 12 Sept
Cahersiveen, Valencia, Portmagee
16.0km 4h 30min
Next to no distance covered as the headwind and rain make progress slow and exhausting.
Day two Sat 11 Sept Killorglin, Glenbeigh, Cahersiveen 43.1km 6h 30min Heading for Caherciveen and the headwind is making this leg a real drag. Sudden heavy showers alternating with bright...
Day one
Fri 10 Sept
Killarney to Killorglin
28.7km 2h 30m
A nice easy day to get in the flow of things.
The options were to travel light and hire the bike in Ireland or take my own. Opted to take my own bike so trains and ferry it is. Arrived in...
Having got back into regular cycling, I’d thought about tackling this trip for a while, but as the year passed it became a case of just book a ticket to...
I’ve always thought that the computing industry needs to be more professional, I mean you wouldn’t get someone without a lot of letters after thier name to build a bridge,...
As 2003 drew to a close I decided I needed a decent holiday. Normally I’d plan and organise myself but sometimes you just want to be looked after, so this...
Took a few days off in May 2003 to go to Hay-on-Wye, a famous ‘book’ town (though living in a city I’d say more ‘hamlet’) Perhaps inevitably, my home city...
You have the right to protest.. …but it wont make a bit of difference. In March 2003 I decided it wasn’t enough to just moan about the Iraq war, and...
These were taken at the northampton balloon festival 98 with the old SLR camera before I went digital so they are scans of photographs.