When you drive a small, slow car (and they don't get much smaller or slower than my 2002 Smart) you get overtaken by a lot of larger, faster cars. I'm often passed as I'm at or near the speed limit by people who, presumably, prefer to sit directly behind whatever it is I'm following and who feel happier to see me only in their rearview mirror (I can understand this, since the Smart is not the most attractive car around). There are a couple of things that amuse me about this behaviour. Firstly, it doesn't appear to be the style of driving that prompts people to overtake but the fact that I'm driving a slow car; I drove the same way in my previous car (which was a lot faster) and was rarely overtaken on minor roads or in built-up areas. Secondly, many people seem fundamentally to have misunderstood the limits either of their own driving or of their car, since they often pass me badly (how difficult can it be to time your acceleration quickly to pass a slow car?) dangerously (was it really necessary to overtake outside a school?) or pointlessly (could they not see the approaching stretch of dual carriageway?). Not really sure why this should be. Anyway, I've solved the whole problem by just getting rid of the car, which ought to be done by the weekend. I don't really need a car in London and, quite often, I can often overtake quite fast cars while I'm on foot and they sit, fuming, in the capital's narrow traffic-clogged streets. Which is nice.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
I blame the lack of broadband
New flat, no broadband. No Sky TV either, so we're watching Freeview, which isn't bad but doesn't really have the variety of Sky. We've ordered Virgin Media (but who knows whether or not we'll actually get it - they were having problems with the postcode) because the landlord doesn't want satellite dishes on the outside of the building but until then we have no internet connection to speak of. It's surprisingly grim.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
O2 like me - they sent chocolate
And here is a photo of it. I've spent a lot of money with them in the
last ten years but I'm still not sure why they sent the chocolate (not
that I'm complaining, you understand).
Monday, October 18, 2010
The first dy of the short commute; greet stuff
I posted recently about my last day commuting from Fareham to London; I'm really quite glad that I no longer have to make this journey. Today was my first trip to work from our new London flat and it's undoubtedly a much better experience (although I've got to review the bus route and work out whether the 176 or the 12 is quicker/better). Let's see how it goes over the next few weeks but first impressions are rather good.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
The Joy of not Commuting
And, at last, it's over; Monday was my last day commuting from Fareham to London, a two-hour, 90-mile odyssey that varied between mildly unpleasant and exceptionally horrible. As a reward for long service, Monday's travelling was atypically awful; I missed the first train in the morning, the subsequent train ran late and the train back in the evening was also delayed. All in all, I shall be glad to see the back of it. From next week I'll be walking and taking the bus (or cycling) which should mean I can rise later, arrive at the same time, save an absolute fortune and sell the car. Life is good.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
God and evidence - a strident proposal - Steve Zara
Really nice article by Steve Zara. He concludes:
I propose a new strident atheism. No playing the games of theists. No concessions. No talk of evidence that can change minds, when their beliefs are deliberately placed beyond logic, beyond evidence. Let's not get taken in by the fraud of religion. Let's not play their shell-game.Sounds like a plan.
Friday, October 08, 2010
iPad and Keyboard Shortcuts - are there any?
Ok, so I guess I'm the only person likely to be interested in this (which makes asking the question pretty pointless, since the chances of a useful answer are pretty small) but if you're using a wireless keyboard with your iPad are there any shortcuts? In particular, I'd like to know about:
1) Accessing the address bar in Safari (it's Ctrl-D in Windows)
2) Sending an email from Mail (Ctrl-Enter) I've tried the obvious Apple alternatives (cmd-D and cmd-Enter) but they don't do anything, which suggests that either there aren't any shortcuts or I just don't know what they are. All help gratefully received.
1) Accessing the address bar in Safari (it's Ctrl-D in Windows)
2) Sending an email from Mail (Ctrl-Enter) I've tried the obvious Apple alternatives (cmd-D and cmd-Enter) but they don't do anything, which suggests that either there aren't any shortcuts or I just don't know what they are. All help gratefully received.
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Jesus is NOT here to be satirized for the amusement of heathens
Picked this from Phayrngula's RSS feed via Reeder. Most amusing...
Read this account of an angry pastor who fired off indignant emails to a humor site protesting this sacrilegious image:
The editors respond by letting him know that they've got more, and sending him links. Mr Pastor does not seem satisfied by this.
Read the comments on this post...
Sent with Reeder
Monday, October 04, 2010
Google Maps - Walking Directions and Ferries
I love Google Maps, I really do, but if you ask for walking directions from Warsash (near Southampton) to Lerryn (near Lostwithiel, Cornwall) why does it think you want to go by ferry? Since when did a ferry count as walking? It's nice that they make the effort, and I appreciate that walking directions might still be in Beta, but come on guys, get it together!
The Death of the Oceans?
Great documentary (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00v7tmd) on the health of the oceans. Really interesting, but also seriously depressing; the basic message is that we have to act now (by limiting commercial fishing, cutting carbon dioxide emissions, reducing noise pollution etc.) if we want to avoid killing pretty much everything that lives in the sea. That's pretty grim, but there seem to be lots of things we can do to address the problems, if we can just be bothered enough to get on with it. I don't know about you, but every time I see a program like this and I think about the state of our shared environment, I start to feel rather ill and not a little worried. I don't want to be remembered as part of the generation that presided over the loss of our marine habitats, that declined to take action when we knew what was happening, that chose to put its own edification and entertainment ahead of the survival and wellbeing of so many species (including our own). The message is simple; act now, while it's still relatively easy, or have action forced upon us at some future date when it may already be too late. It's a no-brainer, really.
Sunday, October 03, 2010
Two views of the Lerryn Rive
One is a straight landscape shot of the water, the other a composite
of seven portrait images. Both of then look pretty good on the
iPhone's screen.
of seven portrait images. Both of then look pretty good on the
iPhone's screen.
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Lerryn, Cornwall
We had a wander along the riverside last night. Amazingly, the weather
cleared and the rain stopped.
cleared and the rain stopped.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Panorama from AutoStitch
The view from out holiday cottage in Lerryn. Not bad, and ridiculously quiet.
Blackberry launches iPad rival. Sort of.
Blackberry has announced its answer to Apple's iPad with a device called the Playbook.
via bbc.co.uk
Due for release "early 2011" Blackberry's tablet looks like it might do the business despite being called, somewhat bizarrely for an enterprise-centric device, "Playbook". The name makes it sound as if they are desperate to compete with the iPad in all areas, not just in business, and it will be interesting to see what they're able to offer in terms of media and apps.
No price information yet, and no 3G option (you can apparently tether it to your Blackberry phone) but I predict they'll have a modest amount of success amongst dedicated Blackberry users (of which there are loads) and people looking for a smaller alternative to the iPad.
Their real problem, however, is that by the time they launch Apple will either have just released iPad 2, or they will be about to release it. Playbook compares reasonably well to the current iPad (albeit on very slim information) but I think that against next year's model it will struggle. I would also expect lots of potential Playbook customers to hold off until iPad 2 is announced; "early 2011" is not a good time to be launching an iPad competitor unless you've got a really, really strong product, and I'm not convinced that Playbook is good enough.
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