Springtime...

Just a couple of shots of the garden, now that the rain and sun have woken the plants up...
Firstly from the kitchen:




And secondly the gorgeous view from Zach's window:




Not great quality, I grant you, but that's the iPhone for you...

-- Posted From My iPhone

General ramblings - 29th of April 2009

I'm just going to spout a torrent of stuff that's on my mind. I'll avoid comics and F1 as much as possible. The other blog's for those topics...

I'm in another depression cycle. I go through them from time to time. Weather has a lot to do with it, but money more than anything else. I have always seemed to be treading water. Just keeping my nose above the water enough to keep going. The media depresses me too. The British media primarily, as it's the one I'm most exposed to, but American media adds to it. Creating stories to scare people, humiliate people, smear people, etc., usually with only the slimmest substance to back them up.

It's nothing new. An example that springs immediately to mind was the manufactured rivalry between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. No substance to it whatsoever. Ask Mick Jagger or Paul McCartney. But it sold papers and gave people something to talk about.

The latest fear of course is "Swine Flu"... Let's not explain it clearly and calmly, instead surely its better to spread panic and fear throughout the world before anyone realises what's going on.

What about companies giving bonuses to people when the company has just posted a huge loss? "We've lost money, so we're going to give some more money that we could actually be putting back into the company to improve it..."

Or, "You've just cost us £300 million, but rather than fire you, we're going to offer you £50 million to go away..."

The company I work for gives us bonuses in the form of "profit-share". If the company makes a profit, I get a share of it. No profit, no share. Simple.

The other thing that drives me nutty is talk of Religion. Newsflash. Darwinism is a form of Religion. Religion, based on its Latin root, means "system of belief". What you believe in. Atheism is a Religion. You don't have to believe in "God" to be religious. My personal Religion has one core belief, shared by most of the world's religions - "Treat other people in a manner in which you yourself would like to be treated." I will admit that I'm not perfect. I lose my temper too easily, and get annoyed by silly things, but I try to treat people well.

I believe that there are good and bad, "angels" and "demons", in all walks of life. Be they British, American, German, French, Israeli, Arab, or Martian. Black, white, pink or green with yellow spots. Male, female, young, old, Christian, Jew, Moslem or Creationist.

Oh, and Scientology is not a religion. It is a business. Full Stop. It was created by a Science Fiction author who saw a great way to make money. You pay your way to advance within the ranks of the business. Look up "Operation Clambake"... It will explain things much better than I can.

That's enough ranting for now.

Night night!

The Sisters of Mercy at the Forum, Kentish Town

The overwhelming verdict seemed to be "Terrible".
Nothing against Andrew, Doktor Avalanche and The Other Two. Once those at the very front of the audience started singing along, it was easy to tell what the songs were, and what verse they were on...
Putting it bluntly, the Sound Engineer had apparently no clue what to do with a Sound Board... I spoke to a couple who had been standing next to her during the first half of the gig, and they said she seemed to be enjoying herself! Maybe she didn't know what The Sisters are supposed to sound like?
The bass drowned everything out. Andrew Eldritch is notorious for singing with a deep, bassy boom, but we were getting maybe one word in ten!




A friend said she was at the Forum last year, and they had a similar issue... Being a Sound Engineer is an extremely technical job. Knowing how to compensate for a crowded room, when your sound checking in an empty venue is an art. One sadly lacking at the Forum in Kentish Town.

There is a way round it. They are called Roadies... You may have seen them onstage between acts at larger concerts, going "Testing, testing. One. Two!"? That was called a "sound check". It comes in useful.

I won't be going back to the Forum, but I wouldn't mind seeing The Sisters again... Ah well, at least I got a new T-shirt, long-sleeved this time!

-- Posted From My iPhone

Blogger needs an iPhone app...

With the rollout of Wordpress 1.2 for the iPhone, I really want to find an equivalent blogging app. that I can use to update my Blogger/Blogspot blog.
Must be able to store drafts locally on my iPhone (for working on the tube, or other places with no signal) and most important, it must be FREE!
Oh, alright, I'll settle for 99p, but mo more than that...
Come on Google! Nice orange 'B' for my phonetop please?

iPhone blogging apps vs the EeePC

The Wordpress app for the iPhone isn't a bad tool, really. It's still a bit buggy, but you can at least save drafts, categorise your entries, add tags and insert images... The next rollout (1.2) promises landscape typing, link-embedding, improved image handling and a few more bugs ironed out.
Blogger still hasn't got it's own version... I'm writing this using Blog-writer lite (sorry, the Wordpress app is free, so I refuse to pay for the full Blog-writer...) which means I can't save drafts, or tag, or use images...
The Eee PC is a better option, but naturally bulkier than an iPhone. You do get a better keyboard though, and as you are working online, you have full functionality. Having said that the seven inch screen does make the Wordpress layout a bit cramped...
So in summary, Wordpress has a lot of potential on the iPhone. Blogger could really do with launching something similar fast.
The EeePC is the better option, but bigger and heavier than the iPhone.
I will be drafting my Blogger blogs (i.e. This one) on the Eee PC from now on. Wordpress I can at least start drafts and store them locally on the iPhone.
Come on Blogger! Build an iPhone app! A free one!

Blogging by portable devices...

Okay. Maybe this is obvious, but I'm finding it an awful lot easier to blog on my Eee PC than my iPhone...

The keyboard is bigger for starters (obviously) but it's more than that... the iPhone apps that I've got don't even allow me to categorise my blogs, or use simple italics...

Maybe I'll use the iPhone to simply post my ramblings and edit them later on the Eee PC...

I'm sure the iPhone blogging apps will improve with time, but currently they are really far too basic...

Anyway, it's late, so I'm going to cut this short...

Experiment time tomorrow, maybe...

My first post

Bear with me. I'm new to this. I'm going to be blogging a bunch of stuff that I think of, as I think of it. I'm trying out two separate blog engines, with the ultimate aim of finding out which one I prefer... Naturally, this is going to be highly subjective, so I'm not expecting anyone to agree with everything (or even anything!) I say... I'm going to try to keep comics and Formula 1 on one blog, and my other ramblings on the second. Inevitably there will be some overlap, but I'm going to try to avoid it!
I'm also trying to maintain both blogs purely using my iPhone and my EeePC...
Who knows... Maybe one engine will suit one device better? We'll see.
Be back soon!