The recent solar storms have, because of the charged particles hitting the atmosphere, produced some stunning auroras in places where they are normally not visible, there’s a picture in there taken in Suffolk! When you’re 59, how would you fancy running a marathon? How about 7? How about 7, in 7 days, in 7 different continents? He completed his 5th today in London. Does anyone feel sorry for these guys? Would you not think there was something a bit weird about the whole concept? They’re probably a bit embarrassed, but that’s nothing compared to what these people must be going through. Mind you, I bet at least some of them will go on “Holidays from Hell 17″ to let us all know the levels of bodily fluid involved. However, it could be worse. Paul McCartney & wife had a baby on Wednesday, the gender had changed by Thursday lunchtime, though. Finally, this is somewhat ironic, don’t you think?

EDIT: Oops, wrong Suffolk. There’s one in Kent though

The telegraph quick crossword always has the first two or more clues combine to produce a word or phrase of some kind. For example 1 across may be ‘monk’ and 2 across ‘ease’. Yesterday’s was the following:

Longbow wood (3)
Part of west India (3)
Time long ago (4)
Entrance (3,2)
1990’s US Vice-President (2,4)
Principal (4)

This is fairly tricky without the other clues to give you letters, but none of the above answers are particularly obscure, it’s just getting the right combination. If you get it post in the comments that you have and email me, don’t reveal it for others to see. Dad eventually figured it out here.

Winamp 5 Beta 2 here. I’ve been using it for [counts on fingers] 73 seconds now and have already found a few bugs that it’s fixed (if you see what I mean)

“The next update, Windows XP Service Pack 2, is due in the first half of 2004. Microsoft also plans in Service Pack 2 to turn on the Internet Connection Firewall, a basic form of protection that’s built into Windows but is currently off by default.” More here.

Woohoo, here we go again. This sounds like a great idea to me, but how many firewall companies are going to sue? Microsoft can’t just go round improving their products willy-nilly…it’s unfair.

Warning, the below is a rant. Feel free to ignore it

So IDS is out, and the Conservative party are having their fourth leadership election in eight years. Nicely done. I don’t know enough about the candidates to make any kind of judgement as to their abilities (although I bet we’ll see that Michael Howard / Jeremy Paxman clip shown a fair few times in the coming weeks) but it seems likely that after two youngish leaders they will elect someone older and “more experienced”. The problem with this is that they’ll most likely be anti-europe, anti-gay and generally projecting exactly the same image the conservatives have been for the past twenty years. A commentator on the extended 6 o’clock news this evening said “the world has moved on, but the conservatives haven’t”, and that’s arguably true, but hides what I think is a deeper problem, not just with the conservatives but with politics in general.

This is one of my things. The sniping that removed IDS from the leadership has all been for the same reason: “we think we have a better chance of winning the next general election without him as leader”. My argument would be that while a leader has to project an image, people are more bothered about what you’re actually going to do when in power. Everything is about ‘removing the labour party’ and ‘getting back into power’ and that’s not the point. Surely they should be trying to do the best they can in coming up with ways to run the country, instead of the petty, childish behaviour that puts so many of us off politics altogether. The labour party are often no better. Ministers often spend far too much time telling saying how much better their policies are than the tories, rather than explaining exactly how they’ll help in the grand scheme of things. Case in point: public transport.

Conservatives: Public transport is no better now than when you came into power. You’re crap
Labour: Well you sucked more, we’re having to clean up your mess
Conservatives: No, you’re just rubbish
Labour: No, you were.
Conservatives: Well, you smell
Labour: Well you go like this [sticks fingers in ears and skips around house of commons with tongue sticking out]

Ignoring the last two lines, the only way for anyone to have any opinion on public transport is whether you happen to be a labour supporter or a conservative supporter, there’s no evidence for either side, just vast amounts of commons time devoted to pointless insults.

The behaviour of MPs in the house of commons is below the level acceptable of children at school. Yelling out in agreement; stamping of feet; trying to drown people out; booing for goodness sake. Most people my age take no interest in politics, their opinion of politicians being only just above that of black-widow spiders. This sucks for many reasons.

Children today are the best educated and most well-informed of any generation, yet they are being put off politics because of the behaviour of politicians. Politics is interesting, anyone who’s watched a West Wing can tell you that, but all the ridiculous attachments obscure the importance. When an important issue comes along, like the Iraq war for example, it’s far easier to incite ill-informed people into action by using the dislike of politicians as a lever. I’m not trying to give any opinion on the war, but I heard friends of mine saying how much they hated George Bush, and how sorry they felt for Saddam Hussein. There was no attempt to back this up, it was just the Way Things Are. A man responsible for the deaths of over a million people is more worthy of respect than the President of the US. Whether you agree with the war or not, this is not the behaviour of intelligent people. A dislike of politicians means a lack of interest in politics. A lack of interest in politics leads to a lack of understanding of the reasons behind the way the world works. Complex issues are reduced to single sentence soundbites, on the basis of which people decide their opinion. “What do you think of a european constitution?” “The US has a constitution, and I don’t like the US, so I say no”. “What do you think of the war?” “Innocent people die in wars, and I think George Bush is thick, so I don’t agree with it”. There has to be an understanding of issues before people can give opinions on them. A melodrama-obsessed media doesn’t help. But I digress.

It’s hard not to feel sorry for IDS. He was elected leader, yet had to endure months of behind-the-scenes backstabbing. They even went after his wife to get at him, for crying out loud. He was not removed because of his policies but because he wan’t charismatic enough (incidentally, what’s the point of being elected by a countrywide vote of conservative party members when you can be removed by a MPs confidence vote?). He did nothing wrong other than be himself. Had they attacked his policies, it would have been more reasonable, but they did not. To think that the tories accuse labour of being image-obsessed.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think politicians are stupid. The vast majority I’m sure are very intelligent people, it’s just the method of doing things that I don’t agree with. Politics is a fascinating and important thing. It should be something worthy of study at school, something we all want to play a part in (if you need convincing, try reading some of Tony Blair’s speeches - whether you agree with him or not the issues raised will make you think). Going after the man rather than the policies has not only sent the conservatives even lower on the popularity scale, it has served to make politics seem even more derisory to the young.

Yeah, I know I can be called naive for wanting the squabbling to stop, but I prefer to think of it as hopeful.

I’ve got the BBC’s IDS coverage updating every minute through the excellent Avant browser. The BBC page is interesting in that journalists are posting quick snippets throughout the day, and it’s nice to see that they aren’t all as eloquent as in their full reports. When I’ve got time I often have to re-write sentences three or four times when posting to this blog, and it’s good to know that even professionals can’t always pluck interesting phrases out of the air at a moment’s notice.

Last night I went to a leaving do for a friend of mine from Classic Rock. Of the 6 of us who worked there when I joined, she was the last to leave. I was nervous before going - I’m not the best at socialising, I tend to end up saying nothing for extended periods of time when around people older than me - but had a great time in the end. The other four were such nice people that I never really felt out of place, despite being the sole male representative One of the others was the only other person I’ve ever met of a similar age who doesn’t like alcohol because of the taste, which was nice as I sometimes feel like a freak of nature! We went to Pizza Express in Stratford, which although strangely cold was very pleasant.

My friend Ben said yesterday that he’s heard good things about Crimson Skies, so I downloaded the demo. After discovering very quickly that a joystick is pretty much necessary, it was pretty good. I doubt I’ll buy it, but it made me realise my lack of adventure when it comes to computer games. I tend to only be interested in the classic first-person shooters, which is a bit silly since I’m so bad at the multiplayer aspect of them, without thinking that I could get into team-based games, flight sims etc. In this vein I’ve downloaded the Battlefield 1942, Call of Duty and IL-2 Sturmovik demos. The idea of being competent in a virtual spitfire / parachuting into battle as part of a unit is very appealing! Ben’s laughing now, he knows my that my real life team skills consist of pretending to want to be in a group then shooting them in the back the first opportunity I get - if laser quest / unreal tournament are anything to go by anyway. This is probably one of my many phases, but who knows, I might really enjoy it.

Would anybody be interested in a Christmas party this year? Given the sheer number of people, it’s tricky doing it in people’s houses, and I was thinking of hiring a hall again? Obviously the problem would be money. I can’t remember exactly how much it cost but I imagine it was &pound10ish per person. For this we’d get a hall, food and decorations…How does that sound? We can forego the fancy dress this time

I’ll only start organising things if I hear back from a fair few people in the affirmative, so please let me know what you think.

“…directory does not exist, do you want setup to create it?”

It’s your DEFAULT directory! Is it likely to be there already? Why would I not want to create it, when I’ve already said that it’s ok to install there?! If you were a baker and I were a customer, and I bought some sticky iced buns, and you said “do you want a bag for these?” and I said “yes, please”, would you then say “I don’t have a bag in my hand, should I pick one up?”? And if you did, and I said “No”, would you say “Ok you obviously don’t want any sticky iced buns” and kick me out of the bakery? No. You know why not? Because bakers don’t do that sort of thing. If I want some sticky iced buns, I go in and say “I’d like some sticky iced buns please,” and they say “certainly, sir” and give me some sticky iced buns. In fact I’m so annoyed I’m going to go buy some sticky iced buns now. Iced buns iced buns iced buns.

I’ve been studying the Open University course: How The Universe Works since early September and today sent off the final exam. It’s worth 10 points - you need 360 for a degree - so isn’t a major course, but was nevertheless the most interesting thing I’ve studied since leaving college.

It started with a refresher on chemical elements, then launched straight into a description of quarks, leptons, hadrons etc. This blew my mind for a couple of days before I managed to get my head around it all! From there it went onto describing the four fundamental forces, which finished with an analysis of the sun, in which all four forces have roles. In a scientific tour-de-force, it gave an overview of how the universe began - with knowledge as up-to-date as last spring - which took you all the way from the creation of fundamental particles to the formation of the Earth from supernovae rubble. Finally it went over some of the leading-edge work of the moment, such as investigations into dark matter and energy, the search for the Higgs Boson and the ekpyrotic theory as an alternative to the big bang.

I haven’t linked much of the above as it would all come from this site, which gives a good introduction.

The course was extremely well written, managing to tread the fine line between being patronising and supplying too much information at once. Its tone was one of wonder and I always appreciate touches of humour It helps that the writers were obviously Douglas Adams fans. The course book was very well structured, with consistently clear diagrams on good quality paper. The subject matter made me think, and while complex at times was never quite beyond my comprehension, although I think this was more to do with the clear writing than any particular skill on my part. I learnt many many interesting things which I shall do my best not to forget! It makes me wish I’d carried on studying physics

All in all, thoroughly recommended. It’s £95, and there’s no fee for signing up to the Open University. This evening I have signed up for the Exploring Mars short course. It covers many aspects of the red planet, as well as going over the Beagle 2 spacecraft, which is due to touch down on Christmas day. It’ll be cool to learn what the Beagle is capable of just in time for the big day, as then I’ll hopefully be able to understand the results once they’re available (I’m going to be soooo disappointed if it crashes on entry!).

I’m going to have to get myself a telescope, you know…

I’ve never had tongueache before. I watched An American Werewolf in London the other evening, and broke out the aforementioned lollipop for the two hour duration. I have made absoloutely no impression whatsoever, and my tongue still hurts. On the innuendo scale I am aware of my position at perhaps the Dolly Parton level…but I don’t care

The title of this entry was going to be ‘Frenulum-Ache’. The frenulum is the flap of skin between the tongue and the mouth. I quickly discovered that another body part goes by the same name, however. Before I give you more info, I should warn you that the second link should not be clicked on in public. This first one contains only a description. The first link I clicked on had pictures, so I felt it only fair to share that with you too. The concept of that kind of a frenulum-ache is not one that appeals.

btw, googling ‘flap of skin between tongue and mouth’ produces some…er…instructive results.

Really this time

At 4.05pm today Concorde touched down for the last time. A lot of people are very sad about this, and I can see why. Concorde debuted in 1969, but as of now there are no longer any supersonic aircraft operating. It’s just bizarre. Massive fuel costs, terrorism and, perhaps more importantly, the noise even at slower speeds contributed to it no longer being economical; according to BA, anyway. I find it interesting that BA refused Richard Branson’s offers to buy it…Surely if economy was the only reason selling it to someone else wouldn’t be a problem, would it? I suppose the argument is that if it really was totally uneconomical then Concorde would fizzle out, whereas a spectacular finish like today brings the era to a satisfactory close. It’s just sad that such a technological marvel has spawned no children.

I’m not normally one for seeing beauty in machinery, but even I think that it looked pretty damn good…Did you know it had no flaps?

I’ve visited SciScoop on a regular basis for well over a year now (since it used to be called Sci-Fi News, anyway) and it doesn’t seem to get anything like the traffic it deserves. I borrow the occasional link from there, as rickyjames does such a superb job of finding such damned interesting stuff. Such as this method of choosing your next book, or how to build your own segway, or bar code art. So head over there and help spread the word!

Dad has had a terrible cold this week, and I have a feeling that it’s starting to hit me. Just in time for the weekend, too! It’s no fun feeling sorry for yourself unless there’s a girlfriend around to look after you Maybe I could hire one for the weekend…Why do I have this feeling I’ve just brought vast amounts of pain down on top of me?

Speaking of the wrath of those more important than us…The actor who plays Jesus in Mel Gibson’s controversial ‘The Passion of Christ’ was hit by lightning recently. Guess what this means? This means that God doesn’t like the idea. Yes. That’s exactly what it is.

So here’s the thing: Generally lightning only occurs in storms (although it can strike from clear skies), so I’m going to surmise that there was a storm going on at the time. Jim Caviezel, probably best known for Frequency, was standing underneath an umbrella in a storm. Various factors affect the path lightning takes to the ground, but it’s generally safe to assume that higher points will be struck more often than the ground. So standing an umbrella isn’t the best thing to be doing. Secondly, what kind of screwed-up God would send lightning bolts at actors playing roles in a film? That’s to say nothing of the fact that this particular film is remaining true to the bible to the extent that the dialogue is all aramaic with no subtitles.

Ahem. Ok, no more religious tirades this weekend Except to point you here. No more now. Really.

My sister and her boyfriend went to Spain recently, and brought me back the item shown below as a present. Other than a hurried blurring of the background there is no camera trickery here, it really is that big. 33cm tall. Thank goodness they went for strawberry flavour, and not something gross like liquorice. I have informed my parents that I shall not be needing any tea for the next fortnight and have my dentist at the other end of a Big Red Phone.

Want to send an email to yourself in the future? Very cool.

Amazon’s recommendations are normally fairly accurate, but this one came out of the blue Didn’t know UT2K4 was going to be that kind of game…

Update: You think there’s a secret game mode they haven’t announced yet? Some of the taunts could be re-used…

Downloaded the Winamp5 beta yesterday, and so far I’m very impressed. Described as Winamp2 + Winamp3, this is the version the most work is being put into. There’s a new look, new windows and new options, but it still retains the essential winamp-ness we’ve all grown to know and love.

The library window is new and particularly well designed. You can view your entire collection, sorted by various categories, and create playlists and reports very easily. Endearingly, it takes account of songs and albums beginning with ‘the’ when sorting alphabetically. The ability to view your entire collection does mean, however, that any problems with the mp3 tags become very apparent, and if you have obsessive compulsive tendencies, like me, you have to go through fixing them all

Visually, the new skin looks great and is actually easy to read and use, unlike most of the alternative skins I’ve ever found online. Purists will probably dislike the presence of drop down menus at the top of each window. Previous versions have avoided this, but in all honesty it makes things easier. Right-clicking to open files / hitting the teeny button was always a bit of a pain, and the menus make it a breeze. They’re well integrated into the colour scheme, too.

Performance-wise, it plays all mp3s perfectly, and has coped with every video file I’ve thrown at it. Video scales without pause, and is nicely integrated into the main window, although a separate video window is possible. The visualizations are as…psychedelic as ever (if anyone ever finds one that actually looks good while reacting to more than really obvious drum-beats, let me know) and are integrated in the same way as the video. There seems to be an option to purchase ‘Winamp Pro’ to enable the built-in CD-Ripping and burning at maximum speed; thankfully it’s not in your face whenever you start the program, as that would be really annoying.

It being an beta, there are naturally a few bugs. I’ve already necessitated a reinstall by trying to browse for songs on a cd-drive with no cd inserted, which resulted in the program crashing on launch. The main window sometimes doesn’t appear when the program starts, and forward/rewind playback controls don’t work properly for videos as yet. However, it’s been fairly stable when I haven’t been deliberately trying to break it, which is more than could be said for my experiences with Winamp3, and shows a lot of promise. I’m going to continue using it as my main music player, unless some major bug comes along.

Winamp5 has one particular “feature” which brings back memories. Back in 2001 I was in my first couple of weeks at Classic Rock Legends in Stratford, and was asked to find out the lengths of the various tracks on a particular cd. Windows Media Player couldn’t do this without crashing at the time, so I installed Winamp, knowing for sure that it showed the track length in the playlist. So there I am, sitting in the corner of a quiet office while three other people work on invoices / copy for press releases etc., when “WINAMP: IT REALLY WHIPS THE LLAMA’S ASS” erupts at 100db. I wonder how many people the world over have been caught out by that