Quake Live

I haven't played many computer games for the last couple of years but the advent of Quake Live earlier this week has got me a interested and I am now waiting to reach the front of the queue so I can play my first game. More comments shortly.

Twitter

I've been having a lot of fun with Twitter (posting rubbish, mainly) but occasionally their level of service via their website does leave something to be desired. This message:

403 Forbidden: The server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfill it.

is displayed far more often than it ought to be.

BBC Science

The BBC have a really good science blog (Tom Feilden's Blog) with an interesting post about dung beetles (no, really, it's worth reading - have a look here: link).

Transit Activities

It's amazing what people will do on a train. Eat, sleep, talk, argue, watch films, read, work, play games, but today is, I think, the first time I've seen someone apply a full set of makeup.

Commuter trains are supposed to be fast shuttles between the sleepy towns of rural England and the heart of the great Metropolis but when the journey time is greater than 30 minutes they become extensions of home or office without the advantages of either. Passengers make their own entertainment with the limited resources they carry on board but there are a few things the train operator could do (install wifi, sell proper coffee, make the phones work reliably etc.) to make life easier.

The annoying thing is that availability of these services, which might arguably be called "non-core" since they bear no direct relation to timetables or seat comfort, are already commonplace in some areas and on the trains of some operators. There is no obvious impediment to there delivery across the network and one can only imagine that individual companies (SWT in this case) simply do not need to attract more customers (and this is clearly the case for commuter services, where even standing room is limited).

What next? We need to lay new tracks, running high-speed services to compete with the existing lines, the airlines and the road network. The trains need to be comfortable, well-equipped and fast, with regular and reliable services. Maybe then we can all spend a few more minutes at home in the morning without missing our trains and pre-journey makeup application will again be the normal practice.

Trains and Trains

The 0650 is a rather quieter train than the 0708 (until it reaches Woking, of course), probably because it and I both start our journey at the same station, so there are always seats available and a half-empty train has a more relaxed atmosphere.

Twitter, Again

I have been using Twitter daily for about a week, picking up two followers (which seems bizarre, since nobody, particularly people I have never met, can have any real interest in my tweets) and making around around 30 posts. There is no real benefit to Twitter, as far as I can tell, except that it's actually quite fun to have a thought and then immediately to publish it. 

Evans' Law of The Rail

Trains depart on time if you are running late.

Corrollary: if the train doesn't depart on time it will be cancelled.

Chemistry and Stuff

I enjoyed Chemistry at school, but much of it was fairly boring and many of the experiments were rather pedestrian. They don't have to be dull; have a look at the videos here - some great ideas.

New Woo for your Feet

If you need to extract toxins from your body, why not do it over night using patches you simply attach to your feet when you go to bed? Sounds ideal, but it's complete rubbish. If you really want to waste your money why not just bury ten pound notes in a hole in the forest - it's quicker, easier and less embarrasing. 

Full Enclosure

I bought a drive enclosure for a 3.5" IDE drive this morning from Novatech (link) for £15.10 and I have now recycled an 80Gb drive for backup purposes. Recession may be upon us, but it took longer this morning to buy the enclosure than to set it up, such were the number of people in the store.

Help from British Gas

British Gas have a link on their website to an FAQ "How can I save money?". At the moment, this clicks through to the following message:

Sorry...The solution is currently unavailble.... please try again later...

This says something about BG, but I'm not sure what.

Multi-tasking Phones

I still think the iPhone is an exceptionally good bit of kit but one of the problems of being able to use a phone as, essentially, a portable computer, is that you start to notice the things it can't do that you would take for granted on a laptop. This, of course, is totally unreasonable on my part (I wouldn't complain that my Desktop is difficult to carry on the train, for example, or that my laptop takes lousy pictures) but I can't help wanting to work beyond the phone's design limits.

Here is today's example: I would like to be able to open Safari and start a web search then, while I wait for the download, switch back to Twitterrific to write a quick tweet, befoee returning to Safari only when the page is ready for viewing.

I am sure that this sort of thing will be possible on future versions of the iPhone so it's just a matter of time, but I don't like to wait...

The Daily Mail

It occurs to me that anyone intelligent enough to be able to read the Daily Mail should also be smart enough not to read the Daily Mail. This suggests a new academic measure - someonehas achieved a respectable level of education when they refuse to read the Mail.

Twitterrific

I think Twitterrific may be the iPhone App of choice for using Twitter, but I have a horrible feeling that interest will dwindle over time and my tweet rate will tend towards zero. Time will tell.

Twitter

I think I might finally have worked out where Twitter can sit in my web of blogs, email addresses, task lists and photo libraries; it looks like a really good place to post URLs of "interesting" things about which I can't be bothered to write a blog entry. There's nothing new or unique about this idea but it's only just occurred to me, so here we go. 

My thrilling tweet list is at: twitter.com/myryama.

Amazon MP3

I like Amazon's new MP3 download service - it's fast, easy to use (although it seems to work best with Firefox - Chrome appears to cause the downloader a few problems) and convenient, particularly if you want something quickly. 

Is it better than iTunes? Not really, but Amazon is often cheaper and their catalogue is different. Have a look at their offering by clicking on the widget in the right-hand panel.

FreeContact

I now have the application FreeContact which allows me to email contact details from my address book, thus partly plugging one of the annoying holes in the iPhone's feature list. Still better would be a built-in "Send Contact" feature, as found on all normal phones.

Gin

Gin is the thing. I know the Scots like their Whisky and the Irish have their Stout, but I think it is hard to beat a decent gin and tonic. Blue Sapphire is my normal tipple, but Brecon Special Reserve is pretty good.

Email Update

That's the home email dealt with - 81 messages, all but two of which were machine-generated. That probably says something unflattering about my social networking skills; time to hit Facebook and Twitter and drum up some business...

Email Underload

Back from a week's holiday and I have only 223 emails (about two thirds of them work-related) to deal with. That averages out to around 30 work emails a day, which isn't too bad, although now I worry slightly that I might have missed important news; holidays are not always a good idea.

More Bad Science

Ben Goldacre's tussle with LBC over their presenter's ludicrous MMR broadcast continues to escalate. I don't think there is anything to be done about this issue except to continue to batter away at the loony fringe who believe MMR is dangerous.

Jeremy and Gordon

I see Jeremy Clarkson's been upsetting people again. He said about Gordon Brown:

"...we've got this one-eyed Scottish idiot. He keeps telling us everything's fine and he's saved the world and we know he's lying, but he's smooth at telling us."

This, predictably, didn't go down very well with Labour MPs, the RNIB, or a load of other worthies who objected to Clarkson's use of "one-eyed" and "Scottish". Now, Brown is undeniably both Scottish and blind in one eye, so these are merely statements of fact (albeit unusually rude statements that breach the normal rules of etiquette); the offensive parts were "idiot" and "we know he's lying", but nobody seems to have complained about those bits. Strange.

Bad Science - Temporarily Deceased

It looks like Bad Science has cracked under the strain - lot's of people checking progress on Ben's latest legal problems, maybe?

Celestial Teapots

Finally, proof that Russell's teapot exists: link.

Broadcaster Airs Ridiculous Views

Ben Goldacre is under fire again (get the story). The rant about which he complained is on YouTube (link) but I wasn't able to get past the first five minutes - I'm afraid when Jeni Barnett, talking about Measles death rates, said "Most people aren't that 1 in 15" (possibly one of the most callous and uncaring things I have ever heard from a UK broadcaster) I stopped listening.

Update: "1 in 15" refers to the complication, rather than the death, rate. The complications can be serious: chest infections, fits, encephalitis, brain damage and death.

Ludicrous Weather

This morning we had a blizzard - lots of snow, very dangerous driving conditions, really nasty. Around lunchtime we had a few patches of blue sky, after which we had sleet. Now we have hail and it looks like the whole weather system is completely screwed.

Snow, Gone

The snow is melting quickly, so it is a good thing I threw snowballs at Susie this morning - there won't be any snow left by the time she returns from work. Back in the office tomorrow, unless we have loads more snow this evening.

Snow

We do not often get snow and when we do it tends to melt quickly. Today, with most of the South East under several inches, the trains are not running and I am working from home where, of course, we have only an inch of snow and it really doesn't look too bad. More snow is forecast, but it probably won't land here.