Paul Marshall's Weblog

AudioBlog

2007-03-10T19:44:00.000Z

It's been a while since I've blogged and the truth is it's difficult to find the time, so I've set up an AudioBlog.
Some would call it a podcast, and whilst technically the same, I think a podcast implies a produced piece of audio; mine isn't produced at all, it's just my random thoughts on stuff, much the same this Weblog. With my iRiver IFP890 (purchased of ebay especially for the task) I can record stuff in the car and just upload it when I get in. In fact, this small post has already taken longer than it takes to stick my AudioBlog up.
So, if you want to listen, you can subscribe at http://feeds.feedburner.com/pwdmarshall - stick it in your PodCatcher (iTunes, Juice, etc) and enjoy (or not, as the case may be). If you're not familiar with subscribing to podcasts, leave a comment and I'll let you know.

Superhero

2007-01-02T10:57:00.000Z

Your results:
You are Iron Man

Iron Man		80%
The Flash		75%
Spider-Man		75%
Superman		70%
Catwoman		55%
Robin		53%
Green Lantern		45%
Hulk		45%
Wonder Woman		43%
Batman		40%
Supergirl		38%

Inventor. Businessman. Genius.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

My TV

2006-12-19T10:08:00.000Z

I've been using mightyv since it was first mentioned on BBC Backstage and I love it, it's the only place I go to find out what's on ... forget Teletext and newspapers ... the easiest way to find out what's on. (I've even converted my wife to use it)

I've only just started adding programs to my schedule, but I can see it's powerful, especially with the recommendation engine.

So I thought ... if I've added things to my schedule, I wondered if there's a webcal feed that I can add to my 30boxes calendar .... and sure enough, there's an ical button on the my Schedule page ... but it doesn't seem to work in 30Boxes.

Of course, this could be a problem with 30Boxes, but I don't think so ... when I checkout http://icalshare.com the feeds all seem to begin "webcal://ical..." and end in ".ics" but the one on mightyv doesn't.

Anyone got any ideas?

Searching for a strategy

2006-12-06T07:11:00.000Z

Check out this from John Udell. It's a very interesting post about searching and how we all go about finding what we're looking for.

A friend of mine always used to say I had a knack for getting to the right article. I'm not sure about that, it's certainly easier when you're familiar with the subject matter, or if it's searching within a site, knowing how they arrange and title their documents.

After a while of using it, I used to find the right article on Veritas technical support quite easily. However, I've been using PTC technical support site for years and it's still hit and miss, sometimes enter a specific error message and you get no results, other times you'll get 500+ results and even more occasionally you'll get what you're looking for. I think part of the problem here is the inconsistency in their documents, what chance have you got if there are typos and inaccuracies in the data you're searching. I suppose that's why I find searching the web much easier, on average typos will be insignificant when there is more that one document containing the information you're looking for. When you're limited to a specific site, where there may be only 1 document with relevant information, your success depends on their data integrity.

40% off at Thresher

2006-11-28T12:31:00.001Z

Anyone interested?

See Hugh MacLeod's weblog for some background, thanks Hugh.

Or just go here.

Be quick, it expires 10th December.

Free offsite backups

2006-11-27T12:38:00.000Z

For a few months now I've been using Mozy to backup my computer. It just sits in the background and backs up whatever you've specified to the Mozy servers; either anytime or when you're computer isn't busy; all traffic is encrypted, so you're data is safe.

I really like it and so far it works well, though I've only restored a couple of files. You get 2GB for free and 30GB for $5/month. I'm using the free version at the moment, and I'm backing up all data apart from my music.

My music collection is too big and not really critical, though it would be nice to backup off-site, a DVD every month or so is enough. What is really re-assuring is that I haven't got to remember to backup my important data (accounts/invoices etc), it just does it. Really simple and it just works.

At the moment they're only supporting Windows, but a Mac version will be out soon.

Why not take a look? If you do, please use the links here, as they'll give both of us an additional 256MB of free space ... check it out.

30b ... business model?

2006-11-25T22:23:00.000Z

As I've said before, I love 30boxes. My problem until now has been where to keep my diary. I'm a consultant, who spends time at different companies using their computers, plus time using my computer. 30boxes transcends all these barriers.

Recently my wife has started using 30boxes, at the moment she's using my login (which is fine by me), but maybe we should get her an account and share items between us, I'm not sure of the benefit. Anyone like to comment?

The benefit to me has more that doubled with my wife using it. No longer do I get home on a Friday and ask my wife what we're doing over the weekend. The interesting thing is, my wife is putting all the family and friends birthdays into it (which works really well, automatically repeats every year). For years, at this time of year she has purchased a new calendar and transferred all the birthdays into the new one .... not any more ;->

I only have one worry ... how are 30boxes making money? I know they're a small company, with individuals who've made a lot of money in previous businesses, but are they financing all this with their own money? Surely this can't go on forever. Will ads start appearing? Will they sell the app to companies? Will they wait until I've got a lot of data invested in 30boxes and then start charging me? I don't know the folks at 30boxes, but I get the impression Narendra is a good guy with a good brain, so I certainly don't think it's the last option. Sell to companies? I doubt it when they are so many calendars that come bundled with email. Ads? Maybe, but the GUI is very clean and un-cluttered at the moment, so it would be difficult to see how they'd achieve this without affecting the simplicity.

So Narendra? If you're reading this, would you care to respond?

Do you del.icio.us ?

2006-11-03T12:58:00.000Z

If you're using del.icio.us please add me to your network ... I'll probably do the same for you.

I don't think I've written about del.icio.us yet.

I love it.

I've been using it for some months now and it's changed the way I think about bookmarks.

I used to have problems with bookmarks on different computers, I'd bookmark at work, then want to use it at home and vice versa.

Another problem I used to have is categorising bookmarks. I had folders, but often bookmarks fit into several different categories, so where should they go? In all of them? Maybe, but that's time consuming.

del.icio.us allow's you do keep all your bookmarks online and you organise them by tagging them. A tag is just a word to help you find it again, and your del.icio.us bookmarks can have multiple tags, as many as you like.

To use a bookmark, you just visit http://del.icio.us/YOURNAMEHERE and look for a tag. Alternatively, you can search your own bookmarks ..... and also everyone's del.icio.us bookmarks.

There are extensions/pluggins available for browsers, so when on a page you can just hit 'Post to del.icio.us'

I can't recommend it enough. If you look through my del.icio.us bookmarks with the tag del.icio.us (visit http://del.icio.us/pwdmarshall/del.icio.us) then you'll see all sorts of tips and tricks for using del.icio.us

New look

2006-10-06T11:00:00.000Z

I've updated the look of the blog. It now includes some of my del.icio.us tags.
If you're reading this through an RSS reader you might want to take a look.

The Royal Harbour Hotel, Ramsgate

2006-10-05T11:10:00.000Z

I've been in Ramsgate for a few days. "Nevermind" you may say, but I found the town quite nice after hearing bad things about it.

I stayed in an excellent hotel, The Royal Harbour Hotel. It's part of a terrace overlooking the harbour and I would guess the building is Edwardian. The rooms are very simple, but clean and the bathroom was excellent. The ground floor (main lobby/lounge/restaurant/snug) all had a really nice feel to them, polished oak floorboards, an 'honesty bar', open fire, nice artwork and a record player and collection of vinyl that guests can play.

So many hotels are owned by chains and after you've walked in you could be anywhere, it was really nice to stay somewhere where the owners clearly take pride in hotel and want to provide a superb environment. It wasn't really like staying in a hotel, it was like staying at a friends house, where you're very welcome.

Oh and there's free Wi-Fi
;->

To link or not to link ...

2006-09-27T13:38:00.000Z

A very interesting post from Steve Gillmor.

I can't quite decide whether to link to it or not. I know Steve wouldn't want me to, but don't want to re-write his post here.

He would say the better gesture is not to link and for my readers to be forced to search for him and find the post I'm talking about.

I'm not convinced any of you will do that.

So here's the link.

But not hidden behind some other words.

Just a link.

http://gesturelab.com/?p=26

Sick of annoying phone calls?

2006-09-17T09:19:00.000Z

I can't do anything to help if you've just got annoying friends, but if you're in the UK and getting too many marketing calls, visit......

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/

I've just signed up, hopefully it will reduce the number of times the phone rings, we answer and there's nobody there.

The BBC had an interesting article, which lead me to the above site.

The power of the Hoff

2006-09-16T11:30:00.000Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5342890.stm

VRM - The user in charge!!

2006-09-15T06:56:00.000Z

The Gillmor Gang podcast just gets better and better. (well, when they're not playing vendor sports).

I highly recommend checking out the VRM Gang, a very interesting discussion revolving around 'The user in charge' - control your own online metadata instead of vendors (companies) each having their own inaccurate version of your metadata.

It will be good to see what Steve has planned. I'm also very encouraged that Doc Searls seems to be involved.

BetaBlogger

2006-09-10T18:46:00.000Z

Long time no blog.... has anyone noticed?
I doubt it.

Ooh, I'm using the new Blogger Beta, though I'm not sure what the difference is yet.

So what's happened since I last blogged?
- I still haven't got enough time - hence no blogging!!
- The kids continue to grow, and their birthdays are less than a month away
- We sold our summer house on eBay
- We ordered a (kids) playhouse to replace it
- My father-in-law helped me fit the pond cover we bought in January, so the kids are safe now.
- My father-in-law has given up his 'day job' to do something on his own - something he's always wanted to do.
- I sold my Mercedes A Class and bought a Volvo S60
- Gmail continues to rock
- 30boxes rocks almost as much
- I went on a stag weekend to Lithuania
- LFC have made an average start to the season
- England were disappointing in the World Cup
- England appointed McClaren as new manager
- Stevie G missed out on the England captaincy, but his new role under McClaren lets him influence the game

That'll do for now..... is anyone reading this? Please leave comments....even one word would be great.
Oh yes, who is Richie that left the comment on the last post? Is that you Brains?

Stevie G for England captain

2006-05-17T13:52:00.000Z

Liverpool fans have long known how good Steven Gerrard is, not just in scoring goals, but in the way he motivates the team and drives the tempo of the game. He has always played well, but particularly in the last 3 seasons, since he was made Liverpool captain. Before he was captain I think he was afraid of shouting at other players, or being the motivator, or demanding the ball, as he wasn't captain - doing these things would have upstaged the captain of the time. Since being captain he knows it's his responsibility and thrives on it, he will drive the team forward.

He doesn't tend to shout at other players like some captains, he just works very hard both with and without the ball. And if he senses it's required, he'll demand the ball and make things happen. The team respond to this by working just as hard and when Gerrard gets the ball they know something will happen and make themselves available. After the FA Cup final, I think most of country can now see what Liverpool fans have been seeing for a while now.

Therefore I think we should make Steven Gerrard the England captain. But not after the World Cup, NOW. I don't think highly of David Beckham, he's great with a dead-ball, but there are better players overall and I do not think he should ever have been made England captain, just the wrong character.

Let's give Stevie G the armband, I'm sure he'll bring back the World Cup.

FA Cup Finale

2006-05-15T10:40:00.000Z

Liverpool always seem to do it the hard way when we get to the finals. I went to the 2001 UEFA Cup Final, when we beat Alaves 5-4 (after extra time) which was very similar to this game ... giant vs minnow and a topsy turvy game. Great for the neutral, but hard work for the fans, especially for those on the losing side.

It's been a few years since the FA Cup has produced such a game, often the teams are afraid of committing themselves. If Liverpool has scored first the game would have probably been much tighter.

The result was tough on West Ham, who played really well, even though all their goals were mistakes by Liverpool or just plain lucky (I wouldn't have complained if we'd scored in similar fashion).

I've watched the replay of the West Ham chance (at the end of extra time) several times and every time I think West Ham will score, even though I know they don't. Amazing how Pepe Reina was at fault for 2 of the West Ham goals, but made some excellent saves later in the game and saved 3 of the penalties. What would the football pundits say .... "He went from zero to hero during the final"

Clapton

2006-05-13T18:58:00.000Z

I saw Eric Clapton play in Sheffield on Friday, a superb gig. He started with some of his more recent music, what I call his Phil Collins sound .... he became friends with Phil Collins in the 80's and he's produced several of Eric's albums. Unfortunately, in my opinion, these records have a Phil Collins sound, a drum beat that has a slight echo on it and other things I can't quite put my finger on, basically it sounds like Adult Orientated Rock, not quite bilge, but heading that way. Between these albums he's done some fantastic traditional blues ... From The Cradle, Sessions For Robert J, Riding With The King and Unplugged.

So when the first 3 songs were Collinseque my Dad and I were worried. But we needn't have been. He went on to play some of his best tracks over the last 40 years, some Derek and the Dominoes tracks that I love and never thought I would get to hear him play live. My Dad is a fan his albums Money and Cigarettes and 461 Ocean Boulevard and there were even some from these - unusual, because these albums do not contain any of his most famous songs.

His band were excellent and the 2 lead guitarists could probably have put a show on all by themselves, both superb blues players. Robert Cray was excellent as the support act, my Dad was almost as happy to see him as Eric. The evening reminded me why I learnt to play guitar, I don't think I've picked one up in 2 years, but I'll be bringing mine down from the loft.

More 30boxes

2006-04-20T14:48:00.000Z

Well, I said they reacted quickly, but I didn't expect it to be that quick. 30boxes have added right click menus, only days after I suggested it.

I've subscribed, via webcal, to my 30b calendar in my gcal calender, but at the moment I still find myself wanting to use 30b.

(It's OK, I don't really believe they waited for me to blog about it ;->)

Gmail

2006-04-19T14:38:00.000Z

My last post reminded me of something else I've been meaning to blog about for a while - Gmail. For a few weeks know I've been using Gmail to bring all my email into one place, I've placed forwards where I can on other accounts, then Gmail lets me reply with one of these accounts as the reply-to address. I'm still only experimenting with it, but so far it seems to work well. It's nice that it automatically updates regularly (no need to refresh the page) and keeps me login until I close the browser (even though I haven't saved my password on my PC at work), but the best thing is the speed. It's been a while since I used Outlook Express with webmail, but I think Gmail is quicker and it's comparable to Outlook or Lotus Notes with a corporate server.

I think this will essentially spell the end for my Hotmail (or Windows Live Mail) account. My HoTMaiL account was my first email account and has remained the only constant since ... through various ISP's, academic institutions and employers. I thought there was hope with Windows Live Mail (I'm on the beta), which is quite a nice interface and has some nice features. But I am forced to use Internet Explorer.... sorry, say that again .... surely MS wouldn't be so daft ... oh, I can use Windows Live Mail with Firefox, but 99% of the features don't work (it's actually worse to use than HoTMaiL). I've entered some feedback to suggest MS open their minds to other browsers, asking if this was just a temporary state while they get the beta moving, guess what? No response. It seems MS still think the world uses IE.

So, despite my HoTMaiL address being my oldest internet identity, an address that 100's of websites and friends and family are using, I'm thinking of migrating away from it. There, I said it. If only HoTMaiL allowed mail forwarding, then I could forward to my Gmail account.

30b vs Gcal

2006-04-18T14:20:00.000Z

I've been using 30boxes for a few weeks now and I like it. They seem to be a fairly small team and are able to react to bugs and user suggestions. Now Google Calendar comes along, promising tight integration with Gmail. I feel like I want to stick with 30boxes, they came along first but I suppose they're the underdog now, which I sort of like. They're promising email integration soon, so I guess we'll see what happens.... hey Narendra, some right click options and drag and drop would be nice as well ;->

Slam Idol - poetry podcast

2006-04-04T06:54:00.000Z

I'm a couple of Slam Idols behind, but I was most upset to hear Simon is thinking of finishing Slam Idol last night. Before Simon had mentioned this, I had been thinking how consistent Slam Idol is:

-Consistent in length, usually about 10 minutes, unless there's an interview
-Consistent in arrival, normally a new one arrives every 2-3 days (and no double-downloads that I seem to get with nearly every other podcast)
-But most importantly, consistent in quality. That is audio quality, poetry quality and most impressively the show structure quality (no waffling)

I know Simon has a day job, Slam Idol must take a large portion of his spare time to produce. If Adam Curry is looking for someone for Podshow UK then he doesn't need to look any further than Slam Idol.

I encourage everyone reading this to subscribe to Slam Idol for free. I'm not usually a poetry fan, but Slam Idol gives me just enough poetry. A bit of culture in my world of engineering, techie stuff and DIY. Stephen Fry is a listener, hell, if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me ... check out the archives for Stephen on Slam Idol.

So many podcasts are based on the IT world, it would be such a shame if we lost a podcast that is trying to be truly different. Do your bit, have a listen and subscribe, then tell someone about it. Simon has even produced some videos on how to subscribe to podcasts, if you're a little scared !!

Poor Liverpool

2006-03-09T08:37:00.000Z

Well, LFC created about 20 goal scoring opportunities in the first half, but if you can't put the ball in the back of net, you don't deserve to win. I'm sure if Mourinho was the manager he'd be saying the best team lost, but he'd be wrong.

Poor Chelsea

2006-03-08T09:09:00.000Z

It's nice to see Jose Mourinho accepting defeat gracefully again ....

£mail

2006-03-06T13:19:00.000Z

This is terrible and we must do everything we can to stop it.

I think this is similar to what Adam Curry has been talking about on his podcast.

Far reaching

2006-03-06T08:04:00.000Z

Test blog via email.

It shows how far technology is reaching when my father-in-law, who 'doesn't do email' and not a big user of computers, starts telling me about Google Earth.

Andy/Simon, it was good to speak to you on Skype yesterday, we must do it again. That was my first call with the new headset that Skype decided to send me. I hope you managed to get the interview recorded without any mention of K*** or S***** or Marshall Consultants Ltd .... oh bugger!!

Long time no blog

2006-02-17T14:35:00.000Z

I can't believe it's been 6 weeks since I last blogged, though I don't suppose anyone has noticed (other than you, ST).

What a busy time... decorating, ensuite nearly complete, family all had colds.
And at work... investigating Pro/Intralink 8, UNIX script problems, Engineering IT conference.
So much more has happened, but I can't remember it all, it's gone by in a blur.

We've been invited to Chris's wedding on April, he's a childhood friend of mine, who I've sort of lost touch with, so it will be good to hook up again.

I've posted a picture of my new car on Flickr, though I think I only made it available to friends and family as I couldn't be bothered to obscure the number plates. If you want to be included in my Flickr friends and family, just ask (you'll have to register though)

My warmest wishes go to Madge through this difficult time. You are such an inspiration.

PRS

2006-01-04T09:36:00.000Z

Update to the story I mentioned in December about the Performance Rights Society. Well it seems the local rag in Macclesfield has picked up on the story. I wonder if there's some way to back this guy's plight? It was on Radio 2 and Adam Curry has been talking alot about this on his podcast, hopefully we can get some backing for this guy.
Soon they'll want us to pay if we use AirTunes (or similar), because it could be hacked by someone else and hence be a public broadcast. You think I'm joking? These guys prove time and again they'll do anything.
I was thinking about a Nirvana song in the shower this morning, they'll be sending out the thought police soon.... that was supposed to be Science Fiction.

Hurrah for UNIX

2006-01-03T21:15:00.000Z

This post was made a couple of months ago, but I've only just stumbled across it. It talks about a MS research paper that essentially says UNIX & Linux are faster. There's a footnote that if something is written specifically for Windoze then it will perform better, but no mention of how fast the UNIX systems would run if code was optimised for it .... my guess ... even faster.

Ancestor

2005-12-23T21:30:00.000Z

Oh my goodness, the Ancestor podcast is very good. If you like audiobooks, give it a listen, I doubt you'll be disappointed. Earthcore is damn good as well, by the same author.

Videora

2005-12-19T13:49:00.000Z

Had a nasty bug on Friday, spent most of the day in bed. Clare had it Saturday, we're just praying the kids don't get it now.

Someone gave me some nice tools for converting DVD's onto your iPod video. First one is a DVD decrypter that rips your DVD's, although, looking at the website, they might have been busted, I'm sure there are others available (if not, let me know). The second is Videora which compresses the video to MPEG4 so you can put it on your iPod.

Works pretty well really, I've put some episodes of 24 on mine.

Desperation

2005-12-17T13:28:00.000Z

There was a story on BBC Radio2, although I haven't been able to find any websites reporting it. A music shop (Jones Music) in Macclesfield is being sued by The Performance Rights Society for performance rights of customers playing guitars in their shop!! They must force customers to play their own music or buy a performance licence, they have chosen to go to court instead. How desperate is that.... I was humming a Doors song this morning, I expect to get a bill from EMI in the morning.

Webb and Mitchell ... or should that be the other way around....?

2005-12-16T10:36:00.000Z

Is it a coincidence that David Mitchell and Robert Webb have both appeared on Have I Got News For You on BBC1 recently, not long after this announcement?

iPodtastic

2005-12-15T21:41:00.000Z

Well, I've finally done it ... bought an iPod.

My old Creative Lab's 10GB player finally bought it at the weekend when I dropped it. The disk still works, the battery or connections must be damaged; it works when connected to the mains, but not on the battery. I could have tried to get it fixed, but it's probably not worth it and the battery has been a continual problem for about 18 months; I think it will make a good backup drive now.
The iPod is the black 30GB video model and so far I'm very happy with it. It's such a pleasure to use, just superb build quality and design. The video capability is nice to have, but my primary use is in the car. At the moment I'm still using a casette adaptor, but I'm hoping to get something more sophisticated when I get my new car.

Which reminds me, I bought a Golf 1.8 at the weekend for £500, a family friend was selling it and it's bridging the gap until we find a new one (the Golf isn't econominal enough for me)

Curried Wiki

2005-12-05T12:55:00.000Z

It's only fair that I point to Adam Curry's response to the Wiki accusations. Essentially, he claims he didn't intend to remove all the stuff he removed and he got frustrated whilst editing and gave up. I guess it lost some of his text, something most of us have experienced when using forms in webpages; this can be very frustrating, which is why I always write in a text editor first (even what I'm typing now) in case the webpage times out or I lose connection or something. I don't really think he should have left it in the state he left it, it would have been better to go back to the previous version. I think Dave Winer raised some interesting points; this scandal proves that Wiki's, whilst useful, should be taken with a pinch of salt - use them for reference, but confirm details elsewhere.

Firefox

2005-12-05T08:41:00.000Z

In case you haven't already, don't forget to download Firefox 1.5 - the tabs are now dragable (so you don't need the extension anymore, which is nice) and there's a del.ico.us extension which melds nicely in.

Does anyone know where I can find a Firefox mug? They don't have any in the Mozilla Store and I can't find them anywhere else. A google search did turn up a broken link, which indicates they may have been available at one time.

Hiding the truth

2005-12-02T22:25:00.000Z

I'm a dedicated listener of the Daily Source Code and this really surprises me.

I have friends and family who change history like this, not just conveniently forgetting mistakes (who could blame people for that) but actually making up lies to cover things up they're not very proud of. I find this very irritating, how Dave Winer keeps his cool I'll never know.

tasty ... delicious

2005-12-02T14:38:00.000Z

I'm tired of being at work and wanting a bookmark that's on my home PC and vice versa, so I've started using del.ico.us for managing my bookmarks - that's work bookmarks, personal bookmards, any in between, they're all going in there - so far so good. From now on Firefox will only have my Bookmarks Toolbar - for very regularly visited sites, like mail, Rojo, etc...

Pull my finger

2005-12-02T11:40:00.000Z

http://www.misternicehands.com/

Hours (well, minutes) of amusement, make sure your sound is turned on, thanks to Dave Winer for the link.

Four Blokes

2005-11-30T09:08:00.000Z

Check out the Four Blokes (not to be confused with one of my favourite African bands, the Four Brothers), a friend of mine is involved, hopefully we'll be able to go and their show Bouncers. It looks interesting, I like small theatre productions, rather than large elaborate shows, I'm looking forward to going.

Press the big green button!

2005-11-28T10:54:00.000Z

Wow, so much happening at the moment I have not even thought about blogging. I don't think I'm the only one busy at the moment as most of my blogging friends have not been posting much recently either.

The work has begun on our ensuite, so our bedroom is in a bit of a mess at the moment and will probably be that way until Christmas at least (I think my Christmas holiday will be spent with Florence in one hand, mince pie in the other and paint brush in the other); so we've been choosing showers, shower units, sinks and toilets, fairly boring stuff really, but we don't want to get it wrong.

My car failed it's MOT just over a week ago, I could get the work done, but as it has done 205K miles on it and probably isn't worth it. The major thing is the ABS, which is an unknown quantity, but there's at least £400 of work on top of that, so I've decided to call it a day. So that means I'm looking for a car at the moment, I've got my sights set on an Audi A2 Tdi as their fuel economy is good and I drive ~100 miles per day. As Clare has an estate now, at weekends we travel in that as it gives more room for the kids so I only need something comfortable. At the moment I'm driving Clare's to work, which means she's bound to the house with 2 kids and I'm having enormous fun driving her 2.0L Turbo V40 - but spending a fortune on fuel!

We ran out of water!! Last week I was in the shower and it turned into a cold dribble, so I thought the shower had failed. Later we discovered we had no cold water at all hot was OK, contents of tank). We're not on mains water, we have a pump in the utility room that sucks it from the well in the garden and pumps it to a tank in the roof. We feared the worse and thought the pump had failed, so we started looking for service engineers for our make of pump - we only found 3 in the UK! After several hours of searching and testing (we had a sparky coming that day anyway) we found a switch in the utility room that must have been knocked. We felt a bit stupid, but you don't look at these things until they go wrong and at least it didn't cost a fortune as we were expecting. Moral of the story - If something stops working, before you do anything else, try pressing the big green button.
Hmm, I wonder if we should get a manual override pump, in case of a power cut.

The sparky I mentioned came to re-arrange some light switches and sockets after we divided a bedroom. He found the electrics to be in a bit of a state, he thinks the previous owner must have done the work himself as no electrician would do the things he's done. He did the bare minimum to do the job he was here for, but he'll have to come back and do a fair amount of work before he can install the shower in the ensuite.

We need to order more oil for our heating, it turns out our tank hold 500 gallons, so we can certainly order more than 1000 litres to get the discounted rate. We've also ordered some wood for the fire, I chopped up the last of our logs at the weekend. Anyone would think winter was coming!!

So these are some of the things I've been up to, I'll try and post again soon. The girls are all doing well, all of us are fighting colds, but nothing serious.

Karmabanque

2005-11-07T21:50:00.000Z

I listened Yeast Radio from 31st Oct today, a very interesting show about Karmabanque.
The concept is to use the financial markets as a means of protesting against companies. We may want companies to act like good citizens, but there only purpose is to make money, it's not really their fault. Standing outside of an oil company with placards is all well and good, but it's not going to alter behaviour. Financial activism is the only form of protesting that will truly reach the board meeting.

Another W/E bites the dust

2005-10-30T22:14:00.000Z

Saturday I put my new mitre saw to good use, shortening the new table from Ikea; then put the new chairs and stools together. I think our kitchen may be finished ... oh no, we need to get the dishwasher fixed, it doesn't seem to be cleaning properly.

Liverpool got back to winning ways and put on a decent display of football in the process, a bit of a relief after recent games.

On Sunday we made our weekly trip to B&Q (I should really buy some shares), even though we had a Screwfix delivery on Thursday! Then in to central Milton Keynes for John Lewis and the usual shops, I think when Ikea opens next year MK will have virtually every shop there is, I think I'm going to like it around here, I'm never keen on driving far at weekends.

I missed the Chris Evans show on Radio 2 on the 15th October, featuring Stephen Fry (apparently very funny), does anyone have the podcast? The BBC only leave it in their XML feed for 1 week and I hadn't subscribed back then. I'd appreciate it if anyone could furnish me with it, or let me know where I can find a copy - please leave a trackback ping or comment ;->

SJFisms

2005-10-28T20:55:00.000Z

Back in Watford today, had an interesting day, mostly doing things I wasn't planning to do, but were good to get done anyway. I got involved in trying to fix the wireless router, which had stopped working, we got there in the end, but we're not sure how. Met Simon for a beer at lunch, which was nice, we had a good chat about blogging and podcasting; have I mentioned that he interviewed Stephen Fry on his podcast? - top interview, you should have a listen.

Went to Ikea after work, 3rd time in as many weeks - the joys of moving into a new house. Picked up a table, which had to stick out of my boot all the way home (65ish miles) as the package was 2.3 metres long, and even the V40 with the seats down couldn't fit me AND the table in the car.

Enjoyed a nice curry this evening, watched Have I Got News For You, QI and Jonathan Ross - Stephen Fry featured in the latter, he's everywhere at the moment, which is no bad thing.

Test trackback

2005-10-26T21:32:00.000Z

Title says it all, I want to point to an entry on Simon's blog, and see if I can trackback.......hold on tight, it might be a bumpy ride

2005-10-26T15:11:00.000Z

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

More estrogen with that Sir?

2005-10-26T12:37:00.000Z

I've been catching up on some old blogs of colleagues, I came across this one:

My second daughter will be 3 weeks old on Friday, so the references to hormones both during and after pregnancy feel all too real.

LFC lost again last night, dumped out of the leauge cup by Crystal Palace - at least we can concentrate on the league now ";->"

Bloody Fulham

2005-10-22T22:26:00.000Z

Had a nice day today, fairly chilled for us. We all (Clare, Ella, Florence) went into Milton Keynes and got a few essentials (hmm, Microwave, Kettle, Toaster... are they really essentials? Probably not when they're replacements.) When we got back we had a new dining table delivered, hand made to order, reclaimed pine, very chucky, at the price we were a little apprehensive, but we're very pleased with it. Put up a couple of curtain rails in the new bedrooms (we divided one bedroom into two just after we moved in, about a month ago), they are pretty much there now, although we can't seem to decide on bedside tables for the spare room, we've now bought 3 different sets, only to return them - Clare is now trawling ebay trying to find something. Just remembered, we also both got new mobile phones, Clare fancied a change but mine had packed up ... and for the first time in about 7 years we both moved away from Nokia's, hope we don't regret it!!

I can't believe Liverpool lost to bloody Fulham.

Right, it's gone 10pm, time to feed Florence, then bed.

1up

2005-10-21T19:31:00.000Z

Well, here goes, after thinking about starting a blog many times, mostly when I felt I had something to write about, I've finally done it.... unfortunatley, today I don't really feel I have much to write about, but I'm sure I'll think of something..

My 2nd daughter is 2 weeks old today, we'll be celebrating this evening by trying to get some sleep....we know how to have fun!

Just met Simon Toon and Andy Taylor for a beer, it seems like they're both doing well in their new jobs, although Andy is a little bored.