Category: General

I read [Eric Sink’s](http://software.ericsink.com/index.html) blog, cause I find what he writes to be slightly humourous and technically interesting (a good combination in my mind). I do actually use the [SourceGear Vault](http://www.sourcegear.com/vault/index.html) client, for the [Flickr.Net API Library](http://www.wackylabs.net/flickr/flickr-api/) for which we got it free (as its an open source application). I don’t consider I’ve used it ‘in anger’ enough to compare it to Visual Source Safe, although pretty much anything must be better than source safe :)

But then I see his latest post, about hiring a guy from Northern Ireland called [Martin Woodward](http://software.ericsink.com/entries/Welcome_Martin_Woodward.html). Well, turns out I know [Martin](http://www.woodwardweb.com/), cause he used to work here in Newcastle, and he left to move to Northern Ireland, where my wife is also from. He’s going to be telecommuting, all the way to Illinois in the states!

And to quote one of my collegues on hearing the news “We can’t even coordinate a project between two rooms, never mind between NI and Illinois!”, but I wish them the best luck and will keep an eye on their progress.

Had an amazing, if tiring time on Saturday.

Got up at 4:45am and headed off to Tynemouth Priory to take photos of the sunrise. Turned out the sunrise was a bit on the boring side, but lots of other things made it a very enjoyable experience.

This shot is from Blyth quayside, which appears to have been redeveloped for the recent Tall Ships Race 2005.

Generally I don’t like these ‘meme’ things, but this one looked interesting so I thought I’d give it a go. [[via](http://www.drimple.net/?p=129)]

10 years ago: 1995 – started the year unemployed in edinburgh, not the most inspiring time of my life. had met the love of my life (my wife), got my first proper job, in the IT industry, which saved my soul. drank too much, smoked too much, ate too many pasties, put on too much weight…

5 years ago: 2000 – 1999 was much more significant as it was the year I got married. 2000 was just another year – I’m sure something exciting happened but I can’t seem to remember.

1 year ago: we started out new hobby, rock climbing in the january, and got our first outdoors experience in the august (birthday present, best ever). went to nepal on holiday, fab.

Today: get up, go to work, try to take photos in lunch-hour, work some more, go home, have tea – pretty much it. I might go to an art gallery at lunch-time.

Tomorrow: Same as today? More interesting is the weekend, when I might go to Durham to take lovely photographs, and maybe an art talk at the aforementioned gallery [[Vane](http://www.vane.org.uk)].

5 snacks I enjoy: carrot cake, caramel slice, anything with chocolate in * 3

5 Bands/Singers that I know most of the lyrics to their songs: Queen, Bon Jovi, one They Might Be Giants Song – that will have to do as I’m VERY crap at lyrics (as the wife, she does like laughing at me as I get it wrong).

5 locations I’d like to run away to: lake district, yosemite, australia, new zealand, the moon (when it has a dome!)

5 bad habits I have: bite nails, flickr surfing, ignoring my wife, forgetting stuff, interupting people

5 things I like doing: flickr surfing, reading books, walking in the hills, climbing, taking photos

5 things I would never wear: white socks with black trousers, sadals with any socks, not much else (I’m a sucker for a bet).

5 TV shows I like: Dead like me, Desperate House Wives, Will and Grace, Seinfield, 24

5 Movies I Like: Casablanca, Blade Runner, The Princess Bride, Hero, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

5 Famous People I’d Like to Meet: Einstein, [Henri Cartier-Bresson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson), [Pierre de Fermat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Fermat), [Thomas Edison](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Alva_Edison) and [Ben Franklin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin)

5 Biggest Joys at the Moment: 350D camera, this web site working, spending time with caroline, not having to do the great north run, being alive

5 favorite toys: 350d camera, this web site, flickr, ruby, climbing gear

5 people to tag: if you have a blog, consider yourself tagged.

Well, incase you can’t tell, the website has had a major overhaul.

I’ve moved from Movable Type to [Wordpress](http://www.wordpress.org “WordPress”) and am feeling quite happy, as I think it all went very well. Hopefully everything should be redirecting in just about the right way, and I think I have a bit more flexibility than before.

One of the main reasons for the move was the Page feature, which you can see on the left of the menubar. These allow me to create static (don’t argue about that word, the content is fairly static) pages that I can update as and when, mostly for my Flickr.Net API and screensaver work.

The other reason, it that I was bored of the look and feel. So ner!

If you spot any problems then let me know, and I’ll try and fix them.

Other features we now have:

* Comment email subscription
* Better category support
* Some awesome plugins (including the Markdown plugin)

Well, back to the grindstone.

I came across an interesting web site [via]. The web site is called Café Scientifique, and I’ll let them explain:

>The Cafe Scientifique Network
>
>Cafe Scientifique is a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass
>of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and
>technology. Meetings have taken place in cafes, bars, restaurants and even
>theatres, but always outside a traditional academic context.
>
>The first Cafes Scientifiques were held in the UK in Leeds in 1998. Since then,
>Cafes Scientifiques have sprung up in Newcastle, Nottingham and Oxford and
>the network has now begun to expand to other cities in the UK. We hope that by 2003 there will be a thriving network of
>20 to 30 Cafes that meet regularly to hear
>scientists or writers on science talk about their work and discuss it with
>diverse audiences.
>
>Cafe Scientifique is a forum for debating science issues, not a shop window
>for science. We are committed to promoting public engagement with science
>and to making science accountable.

It seems like an excellent idea! There is one in newcastle, which meets at Café Royal, just round the corner from Grey’s Monument every month.

See there web site for more details.

I have to say, I very much like the new look for Doctor Who. “Geek Chic” its called apparently.

I’m not really that much of a Doctor Who ‘fan’ (I don’t own a single book, tape, cd, video or dvd) but I did watch them as a kid and have a great amount of nostalgic feeling for the programme. The last series really kicked some serious butt at various points and was incredible good to watch. I also liked reading these reviews from a local lad who seems to like footnotes[1]. I wonder what he thinks of the new look?

Caroline (the wife) is still not very sure about this new guy, but she’s a little biased as she thought Christopher Eccleston was a bit “Fwwarrr” (her words, not mine).

ANyway, more photos on the Doctor Who website (which doesn’t seem to work in Firefox!) or jump straight to the latest news (which does work in Firefox).

[1] I don’t know why but I think its contagious.

Image a ship sailing up the Tyne with no-one on board. A Ghost ship.

Well if you’re around on the 27th July near the end of the Tall Ships Race you may just see the ghost ship arrive…

Travelling from the Fair Isle in scotland all the way down the east coast of britain, using the latest technology to enable the ship to be navigated unmanned it should be interesting to see if a) it makes it and b) what equipment it actually has on board.

I shall try to capture some photos of it when it arrives.

[via communityartsnetwork]

On another small note I wanted to link to the Ten Feet Away website, which was mentioned in the latest Big Issue. Its an art festival (plus year round events) run by/for and displaying the art of homeless people in london. Shame there aren’t more things like this up here.

I found an absolutely brilliant google map hack the other day, called GMap Pedomoeter. I allows you to track a route using Google Maps and tells you the distance etc as you go along. Its great for measuring out running routes, so I decided to measure out the route for the Great North Run, which I shall be running in a few months time.

Great North Run Route.

Enjoy.

Update: Damn, not doing the great north run now – Caroline’s had a muscle thing go in her leg and my knee is playing up. Actually its lightened the load a bit and reduced the stress :)

Holy crap…

Listening to Radio 2 – apparently a until recently unheard of group of terrorists have claimed responsibility for the explosions, in the name of Al-Qaeda.

More than 10 are dead!

Update: German website has news on the Al-Qaeda organisation.