March 31, 2007
links for 2007-03-31
-
Great directions on how to get from Chicago to London. Pay special attention to number 20...
March 30, 2007
March 27, 2007
A New Bathroom Suite For Under Fifty Quid
We had a successful trip to Milton Tip yesterday, dropping off a collection of broken video recorders and an assortment of other junk from round the house.
That isn't worth blogging about, but I thought I'd mention what we brought back.
We're soon to redecorate the bathroom and will be replacing the bath, basin, etc. Even the most basic bathroom suites will set you back a couple of hundred pounds, so we were pleased to pick up a sink (including some nice taps), pedestal and toilet cistern for just £20.
If you add a bath and toilet pan to that (we didn't have space in the car for the bath, and they didn't have the exact style of toilet we're looking for there - we'll try again in a few weeks) I reckon you could have the whole set for not much over 30 quid. A bargain, and much better for our green credentials.
If anyone wants a caramel-coloured suite, there'll be one there in a month or so...
March 23, 2007
links for 2007-03-23
-
jRussell Davies proposes "A Conference of Interestingness", aiming to capture some of the feel of TED but in London. Sounds cool, and hopefully I'll make it along
-
Stuart (of feelinglistless fame) has launched a new blog to keep track of other blogs in Liverpool.
-
Planting guides for how to grow a family's-worth of veg in a 3m by 3m plot, from the BBC Grow Your Own Veg series.
March 16, 2007
Red Nose Day, And The Book Is On Sale
Shaggy Blog Stories by Mike Atkinson (Book) in Humor can now be bought from Lulu.com (who are also donating their profits from it to Comic Relief).
Full details of the contributors and how it all came together over at Mike's blog.
Buy your copy today!
March 13, 2007
Cambridge Folk Festival Tickets
Last year, I only heard that the Folk Festival tickets were on sale after most of them had sold out.
Although we'll be in Italy when our neighbourhood is besieged by folkies (26th-29th July), I thought I'd share this bit of information which was posted to cam.misc today:
"There will be twice as many phone lines as last year. Personal sales will continue, but will be open to residents a day earlier than for outsider purchasers (Saturday May 5th and Sunday May 6th respectively)."
So it sounds like the organisers are trying to improve on last-year's ticket-buying problems, and the 5th and 6th of May are the important dates for anyone who wants to go.
It's All For A Good Cause
As Red Nose Day looms there have been a few calls on my hard-earned cash; but as it's all for a good cause, who am I to refuse?
Firstly, my friend Jo (along with some of her colleagues) will be trekking 100km across the South Downs to raise money for Oxfam - and you can sponsor her here.
Secondly, now that the annual Which Decade Is Top For Pops project is out of the way, Mike has launched an ambitious venture in aid of Comic Relief.
Next Friday (March 16) is Comic Relief's Red Nose Day day in the UK. What I’m proposing is to assemble and publish – in the space of just seven days - a paperback anthology of blog writing, that can be sold to raise funds for the charity.
The book will be called Shaggy Blog Stories: a collection of amusing tales from the UK blogosphere."
I don't have any hilarious posts tucked away in the McFilter archives, so haven't submitted anything. What I will be doing though is buying a copy of the book when it goes on sale on Friday.
Head over to Troubled-Diva for full details on the mission.
March 09, 2007
Media I Consume
Hello.
Things have been a bit quiet round here lately, largely because I've been busy working: adding printing to tedium, and consulting for Motorola on a mobile phone UI project.
Those projects aren't at quite such a manic level now, but I've been struggling to find anything useful to write here. Lots of ideas for posts, but an inability to get the words flowing.
In an attempt to kickstart things, I'm stealing a meme from Euan. Without further ado, this is what my media consuption looks like:
Web: I've never really done much "random web surfing", but I do spend an awful lot of my time using a web browser. There are a few hundred RSS feeds in my newsreader which let me keep up-to-date with a huge number of blogs. Through them I find around half-a-dozen jumping off points into the web each day. That's more than enough!
Music: Music is almost omnipresent in my life: on the radio in the shower; Internet radio or iTunes streaming from my mp3 collection when I'm at a computer; and more mp3s in my car stereo. My music collection (all purchased, mostly on CD and then ripped to mp3) runs to around 11,000 tracks, and includes all sorts of stuff. last.fm is probably the best place to head to get an idea of what I listen to.
TV: I watch very little TV. These days a lot of what I watch has been downloaded via BitTorrent, but only as a form of poor-man's Tivo/Sky+. I do have a soft spot for documentaries or factual programmes - particularly music-, architecture- or environment-related. The main thing I watch live is football, if Liverpool are involved. So that's Match of the Day, or the Champions League games when they're not on Sky.
Communication: I'm not best at this, as anyone who converses with me via email will no doubt know. I've got all the right tools - phone, mobile phone, email, IM, Skype... but have a tendency to get engrossed in other things and not respond as quickly as I should. I think there are always a few "email so-and-so" tasks on my todo list - it's a constant battle to get to where replying to email is one of those less-than-five-minutes-so-just-do-it tasks...
Movies: Although I enjoy going to the cinema, I rarely get hung-up on what I want to watch. I often have a few things I'd like to see if I go, but won't worry if I don't make it to see them. And I much prefer seeing them at the cinema, rather than at home. Watching DVDs or films on TV somehow feels too much like I could be doing something more productive.
Magazines: I don't find the time to read any these days. I still keep a subscription to evo but have at present two issues lying unopened in my in-tray. Apart from maybe Inc. magazine (their renewal system made it easier for my subscription to lapse), I can quite happily live without reading any other magazines.
Books: I don't get as much time to read books as I'd like. At least now Amazon let me keep most of my unread pile virtual. I made a conscious decision to read more a few months back, and since then have been making better progress (largely at the expense of magazines). I now often read for a while before bed, which works well to help me wind-down after an evening of work.
Newspapers: Reading the paper is an occasional weekend indulgence. I do enjoy working my way through the Weekend FT; or the Guardian or Observer. The only other time I'm likely to buy a paper is if I've got a long train or plane journey ahead.
Radio: Now that I've got my entire CD collection always with me, I don't listen to the radio in the car much. Radio One is always on when I'm having a shower, although Chris Moyles really annoys me during the week. If I'm at my computer it's a toss-up between listening to mp3s or streaming radio - usually BBC 6Music or Norman Jay's show on BBC London.
links for 2007-03-09
-
It's great to hear that the "Another Place" statues are to stay on Crosby beach. Should mean I actually make it up to see them!
-
How to use Nokia LCD units as the display for other hardware
March 06, 2007
links for 2007-03-06
-
Interesting idea for ambient visualisation of your meeting data, but what's more interesting is that it's an in-browser demo of what the hardware UI would be like. Gain support for the UI without all that nasty hardware hacking
-
Service to let you programatically send/receive SMSes. Seems pretty simple to talk to, and not too expensive. Might be useful as a test-bed if nothing else.