Year: 2013
April 5, 2013

Technika SPB112 Bluetooth Speaker

As I mentioned last month, my GPS broke, and although I have received a replacement, I haven’t cracked the shrink on it yet. Although it was an immensely expensive item, it never quite lived up to the promise; in fact, in some respects it was inferior to the old GPS that I had reluctantly retired.

While I decided whether to re-sell my in-shrink replacement, and shop more carefully for a new GPS, I have been using Google Navigation on my phone to get me around. It actually isn’t that bad, but the volume on the phone is not made for this kind of use, and can barely be heard above the engine.

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>Technika SPB112 Bluetooth Speaker</span>
March 27, 2013

I has new chair

My office chair was coming to the end of its life. The gas lift was beginning to fail, although that could be replaced/repaired, but it was also getting a bit grubby with daily use. Then a wheel fell off!

It hasn’t done badly – I’ve had it for about 3 years, and considering it has had me sitting on it almost every day, I think it deserves a good retirement. In fact, I was so pleased with it, that I went back to the same company who sold it to me – Chellgrove Office Furniture, in Peterborough.

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>I has new chair</span>
March 25, 2013

Boris Johnson – the knives are out

In the news today is the “bicycle crash” interview between Boris Johnson and the BBC’s Eddie Mair. Mair’s interview concluded: “Aren’t you in fact – making up quotes, lying to your party leader, wanting to be part of someone being physically assaulted – you’re a nasty piece of work, aren’t you”.

At the risk of sounding an apologist for Boris Johnson, let’s look at those issues briefly.

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>Boris Johnson – the knives are out</span>
March 23, 2013

The Man From Earth

Just caught this 2007 film – ”The Man From Earth”. A low budget movie that – from the description – I didn’t expect to want to sit through, but the script – by the late Jerome Bixby – was actually quite enthralling. No action at all, really, it was all in the dialogue; it would actually work very well on the stage. Some of the acting was a bit hammy, but the actor in the leading role pulled it off nicely, so all else could be forgiven.

As a professor bids goodbye to his colleagues, he admits that he is actually a centuries-old caveman.

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>The Man From Earth</span>
March 22, 2013

Red Kites stealing croissants

March 20, 2013

The electronic muse

Sometimes it is nice to have a semi-random source of phrases to draw from when writing lyrics. I have been known to use magnetic poetry, and even wrote a song – Lodestone – to celebrate this method.

But today I found something new – using the voice note option of Google Keep. It actually isn’t too bad at transcribing, if I make sure I enunciate properly. But speaking in my normal tone, the most mundane sentences can be transformed into something that seems like out of Finnegan’s Wake. While most of it is nonsense, sometimes you see a phrase that is interesting, and that you can build something on.

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>The electronic muse</span>
March 20, 2013

Deer Crossing

March 19, 2013

Brighton Ahoy!

An old friend of mine from Brighton, who now lives in Ireland, is visiting her dad next week.

As it happens, I have next week booked as holiday (for various reasons), so I am stealing a couple of days from my plans, and popping down for an overnight trip for a good steak, a drink and a chinwag.

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>Brighton Ahoy!</span>
March 16, 2013

What a trip!

Just had a fairly fraught trip from Peterborough to Glasgow and back, where – in addition to bad weather – my TomTom (Go Live 1005 World Edition) refused to see any satellites whatsoever.

I tried various things, numerous times, including a reboot and a complete factory reset, but it stayed perpetually searching. while my phone and tablet both were picking up satellites galore. In the end, the phone got me through the trip, using Google Navigation. This meant my (work) phone took a small hit on mobile data, but as it was a work trip anyway, that’s not an issue.

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>What a trip!</span>
March 5, 2013

Content stealers and link spammers

It shouldn’t be necessary, but I have added a copyright notice to my crossposts.

This isn’t through any inflated ego, or delusions of grandeur. It is simply that I have discovered sites that are taking my content, putting it on their own website, to make it look real, and then attempting (and failing) to spam the comments on my original website with links back to “my” article on their site. Which, of course, carries advertising.

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>Content stealers and link spammers</span>
March 3, 2013

A new food blog

For some time this blog (and the livejournal crosspost of it) has been a real mixture of stuff, which has nothing in common, except that it all interests me. Science fiction, music, boardgames, food, plus the trivia of the day, and my life.

As a result, I sometimes look at the blog, and think “who could really be interested in all of this, except me?”

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>A new food blog</span>
March 1, 2013

A little find!

Before I foolishly got distracted with my new guitar-toy, I had plans for today.

Following on from a previous post, I spent an evening earlier this week, googling for likely alternate food retailers. It was a surprisingly long list, and I intended to check a few of them out today.

Read the Post <span class='p-name'>A little find!</span>