Tuesday 26 October 2010

Micro De-Socialising


It seems I've been neglecting the blog of late . Whether this is pure laziness or something else , I'm not sure.

One of the possible reasons is that I can post opinions and links on Facebook and get the things noticed there . though the blog does give me more flexibility.

A worrying (or maybe not) development is the proliferation of personal tracking methods that Apple and Facebook between them have created . It's ironic that people were up in arms about id Cards and invasion of personal privacy under the last (and probably this) government, by use of CCTV and electronic snooping methods , yet are happy to let Facebook / Apple track and publish their every move. If the government really want to keep tabs on people give them an iPhone and a Facebook account and thats the problem solved!!

Monday 11 October 2010

Oswaldkirk 2010

Amazingly nothing has recently caught my eye , but have used Picassa to keep abreast of holiday photos such as the baleful cat to the right. See the full gallery here

Friday 17 September 2010

Can You Believe They Put A Man On The Moon?



Always regarded myself as a knowledgeable Pink Floyd fan so was surpised when my friend Mark Johnson asked me if I had a copy of "Moonhead" by them . I assumed it was a bootleg or something but was a commissioned piece for a 1969 broadcast of Omnibus on the BBC. The piece is reminiscent of stuff like "Set The Contols For The Heart Of The Sun" and "Careful With That Axe Eugene" driven by a descending Roger Waters bass riff.

It is amazing how the net allows us access to so much material we thought was lost forever , or in this case we didnt even know it existed!!

Wednesday 15 September 2010

Church of Mobile

Walked on to an industrial estate the other day and was greeted by the sight on the right. If JG Ballard were still alive this would be the new religion. The cross , totem , centre of worship replaced by the mobile phone mast , which is taller than a lot of church steeples.

Theres even places to sit so its an open air church of sorts , and how many people do you know who dont have a mobile phone? Theres far more mobile phone users than attend any regulare religious ceremony. And their mobile often dictateds their lifestyle.

Itn the early nineties on mobile phone executive was expecting to maybe hit 20% mobile phone ownership. Today the figure is approximately 130%!! The mobile is ubiquitous.

It started out with voice , with text as an , extra which progressed to data and pictures , and now there fiull blown interenet access and most handsets are fully fledged personal computers.

Telecommunications is an industry than is almost universally beneficial , seldom causing any problems , apart from maybe the siting of some of their masts, but it has musch vaster benefits than bad side effects.

Anyway just people watch and see if your can spot the person who doesnt have a mobile phone!!

Saturday 21 August 2010

Life Isn't Random


The LG Chocolate isa fine enough phone , as a phone . It looks cool , slim and black ,but it also has a music player , and here's the rub: It takes 3 minutes to load the music library !!! I only have 4 Gb of music on the phone and it takes three minutes to load. The phone purportedly takes a 32 Gb card . God knows whatthe reponse would be like with that musch storage.

Once the library is loaded , assuming it doesnt decide to close down the music player, songs are arranged in alphabetical order . Chooses an album and they're in alphabetical order, create your own playlist - it automatically sorts them . What happened to the track numbers and album running orders? Who do they think they are ? Apple?

Need less to to same I'm none too happy with this "feature" . The track number is the first MP3 tag , and this software completely ignores them . The point of playlists is to create and number of songs that play in YOUR order , not alphabetical. No doubt they'll have so eBook software that'll automatically arrange the words in the book in alphabetical order for ease of reading. Unbelievable!!!!

Tuesday 3 August 2010

Indian Jo Knows


It's amazing the way the smart phones have taken off . Apple lead the way with their iPhone but they are being run to the wire with the Google / Android based competitors. There are thousands of apps available , from the ordinary spirit level and compass , to the banal "gaydar" apps , to the useful stuff like banking and share dealing - hell you can even make phone calls on some of them. You can easily customise your phone with ringtones and wallpapers and cases , and the Indianjo site has some great free wallpapers for the iPhone. The site is here:

Sure it wont be long before one has a teleport function.

Monday 26 July 2010

Great Day - A Summertyne Gospel Addendum

Since Friday night's fantastic concert , I m quite amazed and the number of songs from the set that keep running through my head . Different ones appear each day , whethere it's "Great Day" or "Daddy Sang Bass" , I'm amazed that these songs are sticking with me.

I knew a few of the songs in other incarnations but the choir sessions have left a lasting impression, due in no small part to the excellent musical education (from the latin educo possibly which means "I Lead") given to us bt Sharon Durant , well supported by the proper choir members in the group.

The image to the left is the choir onstage having a ball with Solomon Burke

Anither great thing that happened is I've recieved emails from other choir members who enjoyed similar experiences to mine. The social contact is well worth the effort.

Will I do it again? Only time will tell , but I tend to keep doing things I enjoy , and this is something I really did enjoy.