Monday Morning “Impediment to Productivity” – 20070521

Hi,Well this has been an educational week. This week I learnt two things.
Thing 1: Don’t upset MAC fanboys (I have come to a sad realisation that they don’t have a sense of humour. which is strange given the great ads that Apple do)
Thing 2: The infamous “obscurity filter” should be applied to me as well.
I received an email that said “I spoke in riddles” and when I looked back over the last few months I could see what was meant.
So in an effort to be a tad more accessible here is this week’s crop of silliness.

Firstup, Eurovision is getting better (or worse depending on how you feel about “trash pop”), there were a bunch OF real, live, honest to god good songs in it this year. Yeah there were a couple of real “what were they thinking” jobs too . (England, I’m looking at you…what were you thinking?). My favourite was the Finnish entry http://tinyurl.com/3xl7q3

RAMBLINGS: MFI (that’s “My Friend Ian”) was in Oban, staying at a YHA (have a look http://www.syha.org.uk/SYHA/Web/Site/Hostels/Oban.asp not bad eh) I am some what amused at his criteria for choosing accommodation these days, His partner and one year old daughter have now joined him and access to Guinness is no longer the number one criteria. Nope. Nappy changing facilities have shot straight to the number one slot. No competition. When we last chatted, he was on South Uist waiting for a a gale to subside so that the ferry could dock and take him back to Oban. South Uist is unique as it DOESN’T have a distillery to kill time at while waiting for the storm to abate. Jools and I were lucky, the last time we were in Oban and were trapped by a gale our accommodation had room service. Life can be tough sometimes.
This is what a gale looks like in Oban http://tinyurl.com/2y9sd7
This is what the next day looks like http://tinyurl.com/2595bs
These are from the http://www.travelteddies.com we wrote while on the last trip.

FLASH GAME: Given her sterling efforts recently I tried to give Jools a promotion to be in charge of “Flash Game Procurement”. That lasted about a micro second (it was a good try though). but I did get a contribution to the “Flash Game Collection:

” http://www.gamescheatcodes.co.uk/newgames/foursecondfrenzy.htm
This takes more than 4 seconds to load but when it starts, 4 seconds is a mighty short time to work out what to do and do it.
This is one for the twitch generation.
Love,
Jools ”

“People Who Do Stuff Dept”: After a bunch of attempts to get some photo’s to me (our antispam stuff can be a tad over zealous sometimes) I finally got to see some of Doreen’s award winning craft work, Doreen makes dolls (which is like saying Tolkien writes books). These are lovingly crafted by hand and the detail is awesome. I put the piccies up here
https://thatchspace.com/2007/05/20/doreens-dolls/

AUDIO: This fascinates me, having programmed a Commodore c64 to be a drum machine way back in the Eighties (it worked and I learnt a lot about computers) this robotic drum system was created by some uni students as a final year project.The system works using MIDI, allowing connection to MIDI controllers (keyboards etc) and also sequencer software (Cubase SX or Pro Tools etc). There are some videos of Monster Colon The Robotic Drummer in action at the myspace site. Weird, but fascinating.
http://www.myspace.com/monsterroboticdrummer

INSERT HEAD SHAKING HERE Dept: Would you believe anything a GPS display told you? I mean, face it the whole GPS system was built for the US military by the tender with the lowest price. This from the BBC News.” A train plowed into Paula Ceely’s automobile when she followed a portable navigation system’s directions to drive down a railroad track. The 20-year-old was driving a Renault Clio from Redditch, Worcestshire, England to Carmathenshire in Wales at night when the accident happened. She claims the railroad crossing wasn’t on the nav map and there was no signage warning of an oncoming train. Fortunately, she wasn’t in the car when it was destroyed.”
So if the Melways doesn’t show you the traffic lights you can ignore them?
Here is the link to the article.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/6646331.stm

“Attempt to Be Useful Dept” I don’t know about you but I always end up using Google to search for the right URL for Google Maps or Google Notebook (and I use the notebook everyday) Well here is a page that crams every Google hidden and non-hidden feature onto a single (and very full) page. Simply Google gives you access to every nook and cranny of the Googlesverse in one convenient spot.
http://lloydi.com/blog/simplygoogleoriginal.htm
Obviously I will have to use Google to find it.

And lastly some of the highlights from over at http://notdeadyet.com.au/
this week. Jools found a wonderful Finnish band (who weren’t on Eurovision) and I found Mice Parade who are equally as wonderful (and also weren’t in Eurovision) Have a listen.

thatch

{Currently listening to Runrig & The Clash}
{Currently reading: OReilly’s sed and awk manual }
{Quick Status Check: Keys? Check. Wallet? Check. Tram Ticket? Yep. Destination? Hell (like that’s a surprise)}
{Crop Circle Status: May: We got one.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2007/2007.html }

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