Vacuum Cleaners

Susie and I have owned a Dyson vacuum cleaner (only one - it's been
very reliable) for about eight years and it was only yesterday that I
realised that none of the hose attachments were suitable for cleaning
the hob. Strange world.

Return of an Old Enemy

Not the Scots (they never went away) but Measles, which is once again loose in the UK after the Daily Mail's distressingly successful campaign against the MMR vaccine (see link for an example of how irresponisble journalists and ignorant readers feed off each other's paranoia and stupidity). As I may have mentioned in an earlier post (this one), Measles isn't the cuddly childhood illness that many people seem to remember; it can kill and severely disable its victims even when they receive the best available healthcare and in the 3rd World it remains a major killer with over 400,000 victims per year, worldwide.

Andrew Wakefield's original "research" into the link between the vaccine and Autism has been shown to contain so many basic and irrecoverable flaws as to be utterly useless and a number of major studies have since shown no links between MMR and Autism. Indeed, when the MMR vaccine was replaced with single shots in a large-scale study (report) in Yokohama the number of Autism cases continued to rise but, depressingly, the Daily Mail continues its crusade to expose our children to unnecessary risk of illness, disability and death. Go Mail!

Why?

Why to smelly people chose to sit next to me on the train? It's
particularly annoying at the end of a trying day and it can make very
unpleasant a journey that would otherwise be merely uncomfortable.

iPhone 2.2 - Update

First impressions are good - my Contact list works, I can again email photos and the Email client seems to be massively more stable. Safari also appears to work, which is something of a relief. The new walking directions in Maps look useful, although the Public Transport option has been disabled for all the locations I have so far inspected. 

Overall, it looks like the upgrade from 2.1 to 2.2 is probably worthwhile.

iPhone 2.2

Version 2.2 of the iPhone software is now out and I am hoping it will fix the problems I have had with 2.1. Downloading now, more comment when it is installed. The full list of changes is:

iPhone 2.2 Software Update

This update contains many bug fixes and improvements, including the following:

• Enhancements to Maps

   - Google Street View

   - public transit and walking directions

   - display address of dropped pins

   - share location via email

• Enhancements to Mail

   - resolved isolated issues with scheduled fetching 

      of email

   - improved formatting of wide HTML email

• Improved stability and performance of Safari

• Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes 

   application (over Wi-Fi and cellular network)

• Decrease in call set-up failures and call drops

• Improved sound quality of visual voicemail messages

• Pressing the Home button from any Home screen takes 

   you to the first Home screen

• Preference to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard 

   Settings

Tallinn Looks Cold

I'm in the UK at the moment but I might be in Tallinn for a couple of
nights next week and I'll be there for a week in early December. This
isn't usually too much of a problem but the temperatures have dropped
from 8-10 degrees last week to around zero this week, and I don't
really like the cold; by the time I get back in December it'll be too
cold even for the brass monkies.

Travelling Home

In the air again, travelling home from Tallinn. I have done this trip about eighteen times this year, which works out at 244 hours spent either in an airport or travelling to, from or between airports. Business travel and working abroad are not exciting or glamourous - they're hard, boring and stressfull.

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Pancakes for Dinner

In a continuation of the recent Estonian Food Odyssey, I dined last night with a colleague at Kompressor, a pancake restaurant on Rataskaevu.

Strange as it may seem, almost every item on the menu was a pancake of some sort. Our "main courses" consisted of pancakes with roast chicken (tasty, but served only with a bowl of sour cream) and pancake with ham and cheese (again, very good, but somewhat unbalanced as far as nutritional content goes) and, to be honest, I don't think I would recommend savoury pancakes as a staple dietary component.

Their dessert pancakes, on the other hand, worked much better. Their grilled banana and honey pancakes were very good, almost worth a visit in their own right.

The meal cost around £13 for two people and although I would happily go again, I think I would skip straigt to the dessert pancakes (maybe after eating a traditional meat-and-two-veg main course somewhere else).  Recommended, especially if you are a fan of the noble pancake.

Made It!

I did eventually make it to the airport but the journey includedan unfeasibly large number of country lanes, along which the taxi hurtled at near-suicidal speeds. My next task, which can hardly be less dangerous, is to find food at the airport - death draws ever closer...

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Rain

I am now stuck on the A283 (in a taxi), trapped by the rain, floods and an accident. Will I make my flight? The tension is mounting...

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Weather and Trains

Back to Tallinn this week, which means a trip to Gatwick Airport (not the worst airport in the UK, but only because Heathrow is still open). Normally I walk (or take a taxi) to the local station and then take a direct train to the South Terminal, but today the weather and Network Rail have conspired to kill most of the trains on the south coast so I have opted instead to take a taxi all the way to the airport. This costs three times as much as the train but should get me there in reasonable time and comfort.

Election Night

The day of the US Election is here and tomorrow the free world will have a new leader. Like everyone else, I expect Obama to win but still worry that the pollsters might be wrong, that the voters might be less liberal than they appear, and that the McCain/Palin team might just squeek through to steal victory from the jaws of defeat. Would that really matter? Who knows, but I would rather not find out.

Go Obama!

London on a Saturday

London is rather less busy today than it normally is during the week when I am here. It is rather strange seeing normally busy streets free of people but I suspect it will pick up this afternoon as people head into town for the evening.

I am killing time in London at the moment while Susie attends an Occupational Therapy conference of some sort. Wandering around the West End is entertaining, but it will probably get a little boring. I'm off to the Apple store on Regent street shortly to look at iPhone accesories. I might buy a new headset - exciting, eh?