More Good Technology

 After going on about the concept of distributed power (posited in the excellent  F Paul Wilson book “Legacies”), this morning something happened (that has happened before) when I tried to photograph the moon which looked rather close , so I took a picture with my Canon camera that has a 25x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom (I think the more megapixels your camera has then the better the digital zoom will be) although when you get to very high zooms you need a way of stabilising the camera , just holding your device won’t do it. As an example my Google Pixel 2XL phone had one of the best cameras when it came out but only has a 7x digital zoom.

Anyway back to the initial point of the post. When I downloaded the picture onto my computer I opened it up and in the top left hand corner was an aeroplane which I hadn’t seen when I took the picture. Digital photography has given everyone the chance to take brilliant pictures, and not only that , you can take lots of pictures and choose the good ones to share. Someone remarked on the high quality of my friend Chris’s pictures and he replied (roughly) “For every shot you see, there’s a thousand in the bin”.

When we used film , you never knew whether the pictures were any good, you had to send the film off to be developed and wait for it to come back and hope that there were some good. This is a great example of how some technology can improve our lot.

As I am writing this Google Docs is checking my spelling and my grammar, another example of improving technology that makes our lives easier. I do remember writing documents and then running a spell checker, and proof reading to hopefully spot any grammatical errors. Modern word processors now do that as you are typing so you can be fairly sure that your text will come out and the end at least fairly readable.

Mobile phones have now become handheld computers. As well as using them to contact people by voice , like our original wired landline phones , we can text , send pictures and video calls. And that’s just the contact bit. We can now use them to access the internet and find out almost anything we want. The internet is an amazing reference library although you have to know how to search and I tend to just use Google although on my work computer it defaults to Bing .

Technology is enabling me to write this article, and I remember when people wondered whether to buy typewriters. I used one as a teenager and while I can use one I would rather use some form of word processor.

Our music has gone from live and written through vinyl storage , magnetic tape , to computer storage and digital media meaning that music and video can be stored and streamed on the aforementioned phones and other devices.  Paper books are also published as digital copies, although this was started by Project Gutenberg which transcribed out of copyright and print books onto digital copies which are now available often for free.

Amazon Kindles and other reading devices (you can use your phone for this as well) are great for reference books and very large tomes. A paper book doesn’t need power and sometimes is preferable to an ereader. 

One old technology thing I miss is teletext. I would like a text option on my TV, but the amount of real programs on demand probably negates the need for it, but I dod like the fact that you could overlay what you were watching with what you were searching for. Then again I do have my mobile phone to search the internet  if I want to find something I need to know.

So the perfect piece of music to accompany this piece is “Good Technology” by Red Guitars. I remember having to buy “America and Me” on vinyl (my favourite record of theirs) , although I did eventually find it on a CD album , so there is more good technology.

I feel I have hardly scratched the surface with this , so no doubt I will be revisiting in the future, then again I might not , but who knows?

Book of Distributed Power and Tom Waits

 This piece of writing includes a spoiler in the first paragraph, although if you have read the book “Legacies” it is irrelevant and if you haven’t it is still worth reading.

I am currently reading what I believe is the first Repairman Jack novel and the second “Adversary Cycle” novel by F Paul Wilson. They are the same book “The Tomb” , and that got me thinking of what is the second Repairman Jack novel (not part of the “Adversary Cycle” ) “Legacies” which deals with the concept of distributed power.

Distributed power would enable us to power things over the whatever waves, the same way as we do with television , radio , mobile phones and wifi encept doing things with power. I still don’t really understand how we can transfer music or video in the form of wifi or radio signals to a device and it succeeds. As you transfer whatever space is taken up on the device , so whatever is filling up that space must come from somewhere but we cannot see it.

We know it comes from somewhere and it goes somewhere and when it’s delivered we can use it , so the concept works , but I really don’t know how.

The nearest I am aware of to distributed power are the pads that you can buy to charge enabled devices to charge without plugging in. I suppose we could get worried if the waves were full of electricity variants, getting us scared of being fried like the claims against 5G mobile phone signals.

Imagine a world where everything worked in that way , you wouldn’t need to fill up a car or charge a phone or computer. You wouldn’t have to pug anything in. As I typ this I amd listening to “Small Change” by Tom Waits , the DD player is plugged into a socket and takes power from the wiring in my house.

Imagine no wiring and no plugs , power always available and always on. That’s how we think of our utilities. We expect our water to flow, our lights to come on when we flick the switch , our phone to work when we want to make a call, but we still generally have to plug things in or fill them up to actually use them.

Taking this further, imagine a self filling kettle or meals ready on demand , how convenient would that world be. Would we use the extra time to improve ourselves or would we just watch television and drink beer and wine? 

The things we do in life do take effort and time , but I feel if I didn’t have to plug things in and charge my phone or fill up a car, my life would be a lot simpler and allow me to do more and improve myself even more.

So that’s essentially what I wanted to say in this piece and it woul dbe interesting to find out if people have any other examples of distributed power type scenarios and also reasons why we couldn’t have that at our fingertips.

Again listening to Tom Waits’ “Small Change” which seems to be straying into “American Gothic” territory on many songs. His voice and delivery is unmistakable and I am impressed with how hes persona progresses and changes over his albums sequence. I was very impressed with the “Under The Influence” documentary on Amazon Prime and am enjoying revisiting his first five albums  in the Asylum box set.

The opening song on “Small Change” is “Tom Traubert’s Blues” was covered by Rod Stewart and the opener on his debut album “Closing Time” “Ol’ 55” was covered by The Eagles so while his vocal style may not appeal to mos tastes , mainstream artists can see how good the songs of Tom Waits are.

Reading and Pain

This morning I started the second book in the Adversary series by F Paul Wilson (“The Tomb” introducing, I think , Repairman Jack) after finishing “The Keep” which I found a good read although it’s not to everyone’s taste.Second World War intertwined with Gothic horror and “The Tomb” is a continuation although the ending of “The Keep” did not really indicate that there may be a sequel. The Michael Mann was apparently a financial and artistic disaster but does have a cult following but with Ian McKellen and Gabriel Byrne in the cast I will have to revisit it. I am sure I have watched it, but like so many many times I think I thought the film was not up to the book.

This morning when I got up I had some fairly awful lower back pain , finding it difficult to stand upright , and realising that maybe sometimes those bent old people I sometimes see out may be suffering like this. I was finding it difficult to even climb the stairs but still went out for a brief walk, forcing myself upright and eventually the pain did subside. Possibly I had been sleeping awkwardly but the more I walked the less aggressive the pain became. I am not a fan of pain, and it is a sign that there is something wrong. While I don’t mind using pain killers , I won’t use them to be able to do something that is potentially damaging my actual self.

I have to say that using Google Docs to produce the initial draft of my posts for Vocal and for SevenDaysIn is working out. Docs has a running word count so I know what I am aiming for and whether I need to share anything else to hit my word target.

At this point I am about half way through the post, and there are plenty of things going through my head that are worth mentioning.

The music I have been playing while I work has included a couple of early Pink Floyd extracts from the Peter Whitehead documentary “Let's All Make Love In London” from around 1967with an almost embarrassing interview with David Hockney complaining about drinks being a pound in London , although he makes the point that in a New York you could meet a plumber or a film producer , rich and and not so rich and vice versa.. There is also a short Lee Marvin one which has him going on about mini skirts.

Then it was The Decemberists with “Long Live The King” and great twenty five minute mini album which vaguely reminded me of Little Feat who I listened to a lot last week, and have now added to my Google Pixel 2XL phone.

I followed that with David Gilmour’s “Rattle That Lock” which has wonderful cover art work although I find the music a little pedestrian, but as he is Dave Gilmour he can do what he pleases. In my opinion he has still to top his stunning debut eponymous solo album.

Currently I am playing “National Treasures” by Manic Street Preachers , over the top and pretentious but very listenable rock and they have had a lot of hits and a lot of “should be” hits, and thanks to modern music media is very easy to play and listen to. The package is very well presented and also includes a DVD, so when I got it was an absolute bargain.

As I look out of my window it;s still very grey (or should that be gray? Isn’t the English language such fun) . i am surprised that we haven’t had any rain but sure that will come when we need it, it usually does.

Sleep , Creativity and Little Feat

 I have a bit of a headache , it’s half an hour after midnight , so I’m just into Sunday morning but I feel that I need to write something. I sort of feel if I don;t write then I lose something and I can always lie in tomorrow, I don’t have to get up for work until Monday.

Writing articles for Vocal has changed the way I do my writing. I used to just write to my blog and wasn’t too bothered on how much I was writing. I mainly wanted to record stuff that I wanted to remember and may , one day , to go back to.Then I started on Vocal and realised I wanted to share my writing on my blog  (Sevendaysin.co.uk) as well as on Vocal , although the platforms require slightly different formatting.

Basically I need a basic text format which I can then paste into the platform I am posting on and then add the required enhancements in links and video additions , to give the reader a fuller experience, with sound and vision.

Publication on Vocal is fairly quick , and the categorise it so it is in the correct area for Vocal and external readers. My own blog is instantly published because I fully control it , but it is relatively self contained.

I have learned how to fully enhance the Vocal posts which I think will be very good going forward and I have already posted seven times and this will be my eighth. So much for me not posting as much this year as I have done previously. Mt first Vocal post was on the 17th of April and it;s now the 25th of April  so that is one a day.

I did try actually using my phone (a Google Pixel 2XL) to record my voice and convert to text to post but that did require a hell of a lot of editing , but is great for capturing ideas. So I am just using that fairly sparingly.

This week my music listening has involved a couple of the Rhino original album series featuring the first five albums from Little Feat and Th eIncredible String Band. These album set retail at about £12 for five albums in replica album sleeves (or did when they were released) and are wonderful to listen to in my CD player while I work.

The Little Feat box is a stunning listen and there is not skipping of songs, although the albums are quite short. I then noticed an Amazon Documentary on Lowell George which affirmed everything I thought about Little Feat, but expanded my knowledge including George’s sting with The Standells and Frank Zappa, and well as displaying and explaining his excellent slide guitar technique which he used a spark plug puller rather than a glass bottleneck for.

The music speaks for itself and sounds as fresh today as when it first came out. 

Good music never dates.

I followed this up with five Incredible String Band albums culminating in “Wee Tam” and ”The Big Huge” . Their sound is an otherworldly folk which would not have sounded out of place in “The Wicker Man”. Robin Williamson and Mike Heron are very special talents and if you surrender yourself to their music you will go on some amazing mental excursions. 

The great thing about having these album sets it that I can listen to them almost at will.

They are just a few of many that I have but they are definitely worth time and effort to track down , listen to and enjoy.

I can now include videos and album links for you to follow and discover more about these absolutely amazing bands.

Also I do find it amazing that word processing software can point out when you have made grammatical errors. We are always getting more help when we want to be creative.

It is now one o’clock so time to publish

Guinness and Penguins

This week for some reason , I came across a Guinness advert that I had either never seen before or I had forgotten about. It started off as a serious nature documentary and was excellently filmed and ended up as an unmistakable Guinness advert. I was sort of aware of it because it was listed on my Song of the Salesman site with a soundtrack of “Accentuate The Positive” by The Andrews Sisters and Bing Crosby.

My youngest daughter is obsessed with Penguins so that may be part of why I came across the video. I must admit that I am thankful for YouTube allowing us to share videos and songs with each other , and also technology has advanced so that we can watch and listen anywhere on any device should we so wish.

There are  lots of interesting and fun animal related videos available on the various video sharing platforms and Guinness have used lots in their adverts ,as well as people.

There is the “Rhythm of Life” evolution one featuring Sammy Davis Junior on the soundtrack from the earth’s beginning to the startled mudskipper ending up beached at the end. The Sammy Davis Jnr version with Shirley MacLaine is very difficult to track down to there is a link to the Christina Applegate version if you want to download it.

Then there are the surfer and wave horses , which could be considered one of the best adverts ever, sound tracked by “Phat Planet” by Leftfield , and the visuals really do stun you .

This is all just scratching the surface, with penguins , horses and mudskippers.

One of the things about writing for Vocal , and reposing on my SevendaysIn blog is I now actually have a word target of 600 words to meet for every post , so that gives the reader a decent amount to get into. When I first started blogging some of the posts were barely a sentence, but then I crept up and generally started averaging 200-300 words a post, but that won’t get me on Vocal.

Anyway back to the animals , the videos I’ve shared are worth your time watching , they are quite short but will leave you with a smile on your face and no doubt make you aware of the product. 

Guinness and generally stout is the the only beer type drink that I’ve ever really enjoyed drinking. Some ciders are OK but Guinness is smooth , creamy and , in my humble opinion , tastes good. Do the adverts make you want to buy and drink Guinness? Well they definitely raise your awareness of the drink and surely will make you interested because most of their advertising grabs your attention so well that you must surely want to investigate the actual product.

When you watch the adverts you almost want a part in them to actually be at that bar or place to enjoy that drink.

YouTube has pages and pages of Guinness adverts to trawl through but the three I have included here are just to whet your appetite both for the adverts and for the Guinness itself.  

This leads me on the CGI in video , ever since it took off you can do anything you want with film and all these adverts are examples of that  being applied to these films and adverts. We have become almost blasé about it but the amount of work involved is extremely impressive..

So if you are at your computer hit YouTube and do a search, if you want a drink I suggest a local shop and get yourself either some Guinness or another Stout and as you drink you can imagine that you are that penguin, or you are that surfer or you are evolving to end up surprised on some unspecified beach somewhere.

If you have got to this part , thank you for reading and any comments from you would be appreciated.

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If You Don't Know Where You're Going ... Any Road Will Take You There

This morning is 7 degrees and it's cold it's feels like -4 degrees band you know sorry I'm just having a very very brief walk out I feel less pressure now that I've reduced my daily target from 11000 steps to 6000 steps. I’ve now  dropped the million steps and  I feel like I can turn around and go back at any time which is good because I'm still walking still going out but it's great when you can do something to remove pressure

I have decided that my talking does not leave a generally readable post, so I may use it to capture ideas , but not to actually produce stand alone blog posts.

I wasn't intending to post today but I shared an Instagram meme and and it was Alice in Wonderland with the Druggy Caterpillar on the mushroom and she was asking which road she needed to go down and the Caterpillar said “well where are you going?”

Alice says “I don't know where”

and the Caterpillar says “Well if you don't know where you're going any road will take you there”

On double checking , what I thought was a druggy caterpillar is actually a pink Cheshire Cat glowing in a tree , absolutely the right sort of person to take advice from.

Now I'm not too sure if this is a definite “Alice in Wonderland” /  Lewis Carroll thing but the first time I heard this was in a George Harrison song which is “If you don't know where you're going any road will take you there”. 

It's one of my favourite George Harrison songs I love it so I now need to investigate whether it was Lewis Carroll whether George Harrison actually made it up or where we actually find it found it

With a little web research I have discovered it was the Cheshire Cat , not the druggy caterpillar that was credited with Lewis Carroll’s words , so that is obviously where George Harrison to his inspiration from.

Now the other thing is that Lewis Carroll stayed at , and has a room named after him in my favourite hotel , “La Rosa” in Whitby and I have stayed in the “Lewis” room which looks across the river to the Abbey , where Dracula came ashore in the Bram Stoker novel.

So in this post I have accidentally managed to connect George Harrison , Lewis Carroll , Bram Stoker by way of a Cheshire Cat and Whitby Abbey. I’m sure no one expected that , and I certainly didn't.

Back to the walking and writing though ….

I have actually finished this using Google Docs which seems to be faster than Microsoft Word and is certainly very handy. I use Google Sheets to record my steps so I amd used to the Google Office suite and it is more than efficient.

One of the things I've noticed is that when things on Vocal is that the minimum post is  600 words, and my blog posts tend to be about 300 words . When I was doing it by talking the day before yesterday I did  about 1200 words and yesterday was 800 words so talking actually sort of gives you a lot as you to do a lot more than typing.

The problem is that after you've typed you then have to really edit it so I'm not too sure whether this comes out of the readable but we shall continue on doing this and as I say this was not planned but it means that while I'm actually walking I can actually blog as well.

I don't believe in giving yourself unnecessary pressure so no that's just about it now I'm gonna finish this post here but you and the music is going to be obvious . It’s the George Harrison song. 

I hope you managed to get something from this and everything in it is well worth investigating.

Writing While Moving Again

 

Ok yesterday was first time in a long time that I've used my voice to actually write a blog post and I realise that I say the words “and you know” and lots of things like that with my normal conversation.

 

It seems that when I actually stop it then does a new paragraph so that's something else that I've actually learnt while doing this. So if I keep speaking continuously I just get one long stream of text which I then obviously take home and put it into my word processor to to punctuate it

 

So this looks like it may be potentially I could actually do my blog posts. I can be a bit more disciplined in it because now I know that when I finished speaking if I pressed return that's a paragraph and obviously it's not just one massive text like I had to do yesterday.

 

It's looking like a definite option so will be publishing this today after I've actually tidied it and I've got everything in there

 

One of my problems yesterday is that I was talking and not looking at my phone and this actually meant that couple of times I would think it was recording and it wasn’t. I would come to the end of something and then I had to think whereabouts I was, what I needed to say, how could I continue so but again it's like anything you've just gotta learn how to actually use it to your benefit

 

In the middle of this I am walking along Fenham Hall Drive and the pictures and the sunrise look quite I don't know vaguely impressive but vaguely threatening as well. Hopefully I will put in a link to this into my blog post but I am quite happy with what's actually coming out of this and think that tonight's editing will be a lot easier than yesterday's. Also going to publish it on Vocal as well which they'll hopefully put on there and hopefully somebody will read it.

 

It’s quite impressive capturing things you want you want to record, and yes it's easy to actually type but it's a lot easier to speak. I much prefer talking to people on the phone or you know on a video call then actually writing a text or an email.

 

Right I am now walking down towards St James and St Basil's and they describe their garden is an oasis of calm. I like walking down there in the morning so it's just a great start to the day it means I've got a bit of walking in and I'm ready ready to  hit the day

 

I've decided to drop my million steps every 3 months target it's just because I've been doing it for so long. I will still do at least 5000 steps a day which is basically more than 2 miles a day but so there is a slight target there, but it means I will have more time to do other things I enjoy.

 

So that's I'm going to wrap this up now. I always put a piece of music in to accompany my post but it's more about doing the writing so we will see what this looks like when I finally publish it tonight.

 

Last week I was listening to a “Best Of” Talk Talk so we sill go with “It’s My Life” from that album to accompany this. My apologies if a lot of this doesn’t make sense of sounds like someone who can’t even string a sentence together. It’s still very experimental and I am am still learning have to use this to it’s best advantage.

 

Generally when you type you are fully in control , but when you are dictating to software it is making a best guess at what you are saying so you have to edit it. So that’s another step. We shall see if I can do anything tomorrow.

 

Who Knows.