Get closer to Mars

Mars Exploration Rover Mission Homepage

There's an image on the "Spirit" images page that I'm currently using as my desktop wallpaper. I can't get over the fact that it's a real, honest to goodness photo of the surface of another planet, taken, not from space, but from less than a metre from the actual soil and rocks. The Rover project is an incredible achievement and the images and scientific data the Rovers are sending back are already proving surprising. It's a damn shame the UK's Beagle-2 craft didn't make it, but at least we've got wonderful things like these, wandering round on Mars.

Matron!

Our Illustrious leader...

BitTorrent

My favourite, and definitely the fastest Peer To Peer software I've come across. I've added a link to the original programmer's webpage, but there's different versions of the client software out there.

It's different in a number of ways:
You open one copy of the program for every file you want to download
You can't download without uploading
Bittorrent hogs every spare bit of bandwidth - actually, once it gets up to full speed, you can forget about collecting email or surfing the net.

It's specifically geared to transferring large amounts of data in the least possible time. I regularly download 400-500Mb files in less than four hours.

Of course, it's started being used by software and video pirates, but as I posted here filesharing in general is a grey area.

Anyway, it's a great system. If you've got Broadband, it's well worth your time.

HTM Hell: part two

Been playing again. The place now looks completely different from the template I started with. I can't really claim much original thinking for the design, as it's really a slightly, very cautiously tweaked version of the template on glish.com.

Cheers guys.

The place is getting close to how I want it to look. I'm looking round for a nice bit of art to mess about with and place in the Title Banner, maybe a watermark to enhance that vast expanse of black wallpaper.

If only I could draw.

Snow! Snow!

Well, the sun's out now, so it's going rapidly, but yesterday saw a pretty impressive load of the white stuff settle itself over the majority of the country. So of course, no-one could drive anywhere.

So far I've heard stories of people stuck for hours just a mile or two from home, cars abandoned on main roads, school closures, delayed buses, you name it.

Every time it happens, either we have too much rain, or too much snow or the wind's in the wrong direction, or someone farted half a mile from Rickmansworth, the entire transport system grinds to a halt. I can't believe it! Are we so fragile that we can't fathom how to get home sensibly in two inches of snow?

My sister works less than a mile and a half from home, but she still took two hours to drive half way. Then, and only then did she decide to get out the car and walk the fifteen minute trip home. Now that I really don't understand.

Come to think of it, I'm glad I'm on a break from work right now. Got until the 1st to get over this arctic cold front, then I'm back to the grindstone, just in time to pay the Credit Card bill.

There are so many countries where two inches wouldn't even be a light dusting, but we suffer so much!

At least the kids love it, even if we did have to virtually set fire to them to thaw them out afterwards...

Big News Week

I've been watching the conclusion of two huge news stories that have been running for the past few months, namely the Higher Education Funding bill that was put before Parliament last night, and the inquiry, led by Lord Hutton into the suicide of Dr David Kelly, senior investigator into the existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.

Lord Hutton is delivering his final report on the latter subject as I write this, at 2pm local time, the Prime Minister will be delivering a statement and leading a debate in the House of Commons regarding Hutton's findings. This debate will go on for as long as the Speaker of the House sees fit.

I want to write lengthy essays on both issues, as I believe they present a huge challenge to the government, the BBC and to University students, so that's why I haven't posted anything for a while.

I'm adding relevant websites to the "Links" section.

This is Seynabu

She's 12 years old and lives in a small village in western Senegal. She wants to be a storekeeper when she grows up and can't write yet. Her aunt will be helping her write until she learns.

Sponsor a child

I recently signed up for this sponsorship thing from Plan-UK. Seems like a decent thing to do, and if you register for a tax refund when you sign up, they can claim an extra 20% on top of what you give them. Excellent people, wonderful projects.

You get a lovely welcome pack with a letter from a worker who's recently visited your sponsored child, a map of the area where the child lives, and a photo or two of the child themselves. I'll scan in the photos I was sent and post them here eventually.

Plan-UK do some great work around the world, focussing on education and sanitation for the most at-risk children. Please have a look at their website and consider signing up for their scheme. Well worth it, especially when your child starts writing to you, and you get to write back and send gifts and maybe even visit.

I'm putting it in the links section, please at least give it a look.

Filesharing: Evil incarnate or the start of a new way of buying music?

Been having a little discussion on Usenet over the last couple of days, and I've collected a bit of info , so I thought I'd share my findings:

First off, some numbers:

There's approximately 650 Million people making up the Internet all over the world.
18 Million of them are using Broadband, which depending who you ask or believe, may or may not include ISDN, which runs five times slower than Broadband and requires two phone lines.

The most people I've seen signed in to Kazaa is 6 million. Which means only around 1% of internet users are using the most popular filesharing software.

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) are the major self-appointed guardians of online copyright, and although they both do sterling work against the pirate CD and DVD markets around the world, they have become something of a dirty word on the Internet.

The sharing of MP3 files over the Internet has been a grey area legally for some time, and the Recording industry, long known for its reluctance to embrace new technology, has taken what it sees as the moral high ground, protecting their not-really-waning profits by persecuting users of software such as Kazaa and Morpheus.

Outside of America, however - and lately, even in certain states, they have no immediate legal right to prosecute people found sharing copyrighted material online. Their only avenue at the moment is to complain about users caught sharing copyrighted material to their Internet Service Providers, in an attempt to have these users' accounts suspended.

There have been cases where they have brought cases in court, but these have been uneventful and have met with varied success. Their latest high profile case ended in faliure.

Most people will have seen or read news reports on the spreading threat of online piracy to the various entertainment industries. The future, they would have us believe, is grim. Losses to online piracy are always "predicted" or "estimated" to be in the billions of pounds.

Well as far as I can discern, the articles you'll find here and here tell a slightly different story.

The first link is to an article on the BBC website, quoting an independant report into the future income from the music industry worldwide. It predicts a quite natural 3% global drop in sales this year, with new technology and online music services adding a possible 15% to the industry's income over the next four years.

The second link is to another BBC article that quotes Hollywood Bigwig Jack Valenti, saying they know that movie downloading accounts for around 1% of all filesharing activity, that they accept that as part of the online experience and that they're not too bothered. It goes on to mention that as soon as the infrastructure is sound enough, Hollywood will be offering Movies you can watch online.

in this link, to the RIAA's recent news section shows that the focus, far from being on internet piracy, is on small operations at boot sales and church fairs. They also seem to have had a good amount of success abroad, smashing largescale pirating rings in south america and east asia.

The IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industries) is the RIAA's Eurpoean affiliate. It has recently puclished this report into global piracy. This report, tellingly omits data regarding online piracy. You would have thought, ifthe figures were high enough to warrant such vociferous protest in the press, that the RIAA's own report may have mentioned it. To me, it seems very telling that it was left out.

All the evidence I've seen, and some rudimentary matematics of my own leads me to the conclusion that online piracy, either of music or software really isn't the big threat the media is making it out to be.

Gaah

Stinking cold. Can't sleep. Boo hiss.

Ah well, got a new episode of Enterprise to watch at some point soon, so not all bad.

It's the middle of the night...

Time for another ramble:

Been thinking over a few things today, career choices, nasty letters to people who want money off me, how much I want to be somewhere else. The usual, really.

I got through puberty by writing down my thoughts and feelings. I was prolific. Page after page chock full of self-pity, outrage, crushing paranoia, plans for the future. All my teenage angst spewed out on paper and immediately thrown away.

I think it kept me sane.

I've always been an outsider, you see. I was first called "weird" when I was six. Nothing specific, just I was quiet, thoughtful and bookish. I've always read a lot, preferring to have my nose in a book than watching telly or going out or anything like that. Yes, I had my party season - a year of intense pubbing and clubbing around Birmingham's now almost nonexistent Rock scene. But I never went MAD. I didn't use drugs like "E", Acid, Coke and all that, I didn't get all that drunk (mainly because I couldn't afford it). I pretty much just settled back and just enjoyed myself, dancing for hours, hanging round with friends, wasting days doing nothing. A fine example of humanity.

But there was always an act going on. Iwas never fully "ME". I was the boyfriend - later the ex-boyfriend, or the drinking acquaintance, or the indie-music-nerd, or the dutiful son, or the flirtatious tease, or the dirty, sweaty rocker bloke.

Then I went to a music festival. I'd worked a couple of months here, couple of months there, and was due a tax refund or two, so I figured I'd take myself on holiday with this little windfall.

It just so happened that this was the year the Sex Pistols were doing the rounds - their Filthy Lucre tour - and they were headlining the Phoenix Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon. Bowie was going to be there, so were Skunk Anansie, Cypress Hill and a load of others I couldn't wait to see, so I made my purchases - Festival Ticket, Tent, Bus ticket. I was set. Worked out how much food and clothes I'd need for the four days, packed them up and waited.

Six in the morning I took a taxi to the National Express station. By Eight, we were off. My first holiday in four years and the first time I'd ever been away completely on my own. I had exactly £2.50 in my pocket.

It was incredible. I'd got my tent up in about five minutes, and spent the next half hour helping the guy next to me put his up. He shared a joint with me as thanks. My first ever taste of any kind of illegal drug. It was brilliant! I only had a few drags that entire weekend, along with some cans of shitty almost boiled beer I'd brought with me, but I didn't need it. I was plenty high enough on the atmosphere - the joy and freedom and peacefulness that pervaded that entire four days left an impression on me that I've never abandoned. I got to know myself, I made peace with myself and came home with a new attitude.

No more acts. I am happy with who I am, faults and all.

It changed my life. I know I can be happy without all this worldly stuff around me. I know I'm happiest when I'm living the simple life, with few or none of the utilities we take for granted.

I can never be comfortable in a city. No-one I know feels the same way about things, but I know I won't be content until I've shed some of this comfortable living. Take aways, digital TV, easy transportation, mass entertaiment and miles and miles and miles of concrete. It's just not me. Give me countryside, open spaces, make-do-and-mend. This is what I crave. I need it to be whole and happy and content. Give me a cave with broadband internet access and I'll show you a happy Hedgewitch!

That's who I am, and I'm happy with who I am. Sometimes I think I'm the only one in the world who is.

I need to sleep.

A thought on the War on Terror

This just occurred to me: Yes call me slow if you want...

Isn't Bush's target a self-renewing source?

Every extremist he kills becomes a Martyr for the cause. Martyrs encourage extremists. More extremists equals more terrorists equals more targets for Bush.

Only the new, Martyr-inspired terrorists won't need AlQaida's religion-based reasons in order to hate the west. Bush is handing them perfectly reasonable, specific reasons on a plate.

For this reason alone, I can see the War on Terror spiralling out of control and killing the lot of us.

Anyway, happy happy.

Ok, that's more than later enough

I'm interested in UFO's. Have been for ages, so when I saw a download link to a Sci-fi Channel programme on a well documented Close Encounter in Rendelsham, East Anglia, I was intrigued.

I downloaded the documentary and found it the most unwatchable crap ever (why is it that American documentaries have to pad out all the interesting and useful information with 45 minutes of "COMING UP!!!!" and "EXCLUSIVE!!!" and "After the SODDING NEVERENDING break!!!"?), so I surfed for a website which might have just as much info.

Well I found one, and it's not a bad one. The funny thing that happened was that while I was reading through it, I'd just got to the point I'd stopped watching the documentary at and we had a powercut. Just half a second blink, enough to switch the computer off.

The point I'd got to was a report by one of the investigating airforce officers that the UFO was coming straight for them...

At 2:30 in the morning, that is just freaky!

Sound of silence

Haven't been around much the last couple of days. Lots to do in Real Life (WTF is that??).

A funny thing happened last night though. I'll tell you about it later...

HTM Hell

Just added the Comments code. Now I'm trying to get a clue about style sheets so I can make this page look a little nicer, or at least a little more to my personal tastes.

I hate HTML

'Sea Fever'

John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again,
to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship
and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song
and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face
and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again,
for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call
that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day
with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume,
and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again
to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way
where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn
from a laughing fellow rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream
when the long trick's over.

Early Morning Ramble

I tend to do this... Thanks to my job and an annoyingly accommodating body clock, I tend not to get to sleep till the wee small hours and sometimes the old brain starts to tick over and I start reminiscing, evaluating, looking back, wondering what I'm doing here, what I've achieved, why I should be happy with who I am...

Last July we had our first family holiday. It was only a week in Yorkshire, but after the 18 months that preceded it, it may as well have been a yearlong round-the-world cruise. Up until then I'd had four days' holiday in ten years. The others had never had a holiday - not even Charlie.

It was cold and wet for most of the week. We had only three hours on the beach, the day after we arrived. When we visited the nearest big town, it rained so much it took a whole bottle of gas to dry us and our clothes off that night. Travel, food and entertainment were expensive and the distances we had to travel with a bulky pushchair were not to be believed.

It was a wonderful holiday! The caravan was spacious, dry, warm and comfortable. We made friends with the people in the next caravan and Allison spent three solid days playing with them, crying when they left to go home. We had one of the most wonderful meals we've ever eaten in an old POW camp that had been made into a Museum. For the first time in a year, we went the whole week without an argument. The kids didn't sleep too well but that was OK because it gave us an excuse to go for a moonlit walk along the clifftops, marvelling in the sights and sounds of the dark sea and beach far below.

Our daughters adored the beach, loved seeing new towns and open fields and the SEA - my god the sea! Majestic storm-whipped breakers smashing against the pier and the seafront...Gulls shrieking into the bracing wind...Sitting staring out across the North Sea sharing freshy cooked doughnuts and crab sandwiches! I felt alive, oh so thoroughly 100% awake and alive!

I've always loved roughing it, the simple life, making do with whatever's at hand. When I met Charlie I was living in a typical bachelor flat - my bed was a mattress I'd found outside in pristine condition the night I'd moved in (to this day I call it my futon), I had no cooker, just a microwave and a tiny electric oven, no fridge either. I kept things cold in a sinkful of water in the bathroom. My kitchen cupboards were full of tins, flavoured rice packets, 20p noodles and herbs and spices. My bedroom drawers were empty but the floor was full. In the summer I'd leave the balcony door open for weeks on end, I'd take the bedroom door off its hinges and hang a blanket over the doorway just to get air into the room. I never hung curtains of any description. That was me. If any home ever shouted louder of the mindset of its owner, I never knew about it.

And do you know what? Despite the squalor, the bare plaster walls covered in posters, the partially carpetted floor, the threadbare sofas, everyone who walked in commented on how comfortable and at-home they felt there. I've rarely had a better complement. That's me all over - comfortable...

Well, the holiday has left me with a constant yearning. Right now I know it would take half an hour to pack my things, find a tent and a sleeping bag, and take off. I've even planned how I could live through at least two weeks (all the time I'd need to set up in another town) with not much more than £100 on me. I think its only the fact that all my stuff is close to hand that makes living in a big city tolerable. I know that stopgap, that pressure release valve is readily accessible.

Every time I walk to the local shops, I wish I was tramping throught row after row of caravans, retracing the route to the campsite shop. Every time I see the sea my heart aches to smell the salt air. In the winter, the seagulls come inland, so I'm regularly faced with one of the most evocative seaside sounds.

But I have responsibilities. A family to raise, a partner to heal, a job to do, bills to pay and futures to map out. I have plans. I know what I want for the next few years. I know what I'm aiming at.

I'll be going to see the sea again soon. A visitor for now. Not forever. One day this Hedgewitch will have water for a neighbour. Lots of it.

Ramble over, go to bed. Dream and be glad you're you.

The return of 24

Smash hit Keifer Sutherland-led TV series.

It's been on a break over the Christmas period, but returned to American screens last night. Thanks to the magic of Broadband Internet, I'm off to watch it now.

Roll on next Tuesday and the return of Star Trek: Enterprise...

Quick Update

Charlie's been to the Doctor's today and has to go back tomorrow for a blood test. Doctors in general are hesitant to diagnose CFS as the symptoms can also indicate other illnesses.

But at least we've taken the first steps on the road to finding out what's wrong. When we've discovered that, we'll be half way to curing it, which can't be bad.

Imbolc Information

Imbolc is the next Pagan celebration, on February 1st. The link is to a nice site I found, Byzant Scriptorium, which has a wealth of information on everything Pagan.

Local Bias

I live in Birmingham, UK. So if anyone notices a certain local bias, I guess you'll just have to live with it.

The Family

There's me - 30 years old, barman, quite overweight but working on it


Then there's Charlie - 24 years old, not working now.

We think she may have M.E. (also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). For those that want to know about it, I'll make some links to relevant sites available. Alternatively, you could use the Google Search box.



And the Kids - Allison aged 4 and Bethan aged 20 months.

Allison is the arty one, happier sitting quietly with a box of crayons and a ream of paper.
Bethan is the active one, happier clambering or fighting with her sister than any form of stillness.

Happy New Blog

Plenty of things to write about I hope...

This is not much more than an experiment to see how good I am at keeping up an online diary as I'm so pants at keeping paper ones going.

So if you're interested in the ramblings of a 30-something joe average, this is the blog for you...

Don't expect too many daylight updates due to the two kids in the picture. Look for me in the wee small hours, when all the little pattering elephant feet have been packed off to bed.


Well here goes. Lets see what interesting things I can come up with...