I'm employed as a Technology Consultant by a UK based IT services company. I work in the educational
services area on
Building Schools for the Future projects. I live in Belfast, UK.
The picture in the header was taken on the Belfast Lough coast at a place called Carnalea in
County Down.
July 22nd, 2008
When I was thinking of buying a drum kit, I searched for info on the web to show that it was a good way to get exercise. I was looking for justification to spend the cash. I couldn’t find any info to show that it was good exercise. A study showing that drummers are fit, because they drum, has been done. Hah! Retrospective vindication 
July 16th, 2008
I used my new wok earlier. It was as quick to cook something myself than it would have been to jump in the car and drive to the take-away. Plus it tasted better, was healthier and probably cheaper as well. Only took 10 minutes to clear up afterwards. First use of the wok was as follows:
Sliced chicken breast quick fried in groundnut oil (with teaspoon of mixed Chinese spices in a some water to flavour)
Diced pineapple
Sliced fresh red, green and yellow peppers
About 9 mL of pineapple juice (for sweetness)
Tablespoon of Rice Vinegar (for sourness)
Served on rice (Uncle Ben’s Egg Fried Rice from Microwave this time) with fresh quartered tomatoes and a big glass of cider. It was really nice
View wok on Amazon UK
July 13th, 2008
I’ve discovered an interesting thing with audiobooks and real books (both paper and electronic). If I try to read a book via audiobook for the first time then I find it hard to sustain my interest. On the other hand if I use an audiobook edition as a way to reread a book I’ve actually read (i.e. the words on a page) then I like it a lot. I think that’s how I will use audiobooks. As a way of rereading books I’ve physically read before.
July 11th, 2008
Was out at lunch today to get cash. Dandered into a Carphone Warehouse.
“Have you any iPhone’s left?“, I asked, “Or are you all sold out?“
“We’ve got some 8GB ones here, but they are reserved for people. If you come
back after 2 we’ll have released any that haven’t been collected yet.” said a
sales representative sporting an iPhone 3G t-shirt.
“You’ve no 16GB ones then?“
“We have about 1000 in the warehouse. We can order you one if you like.“
“Can you do upgrades for existing O2 iPhone customers?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Lets do that then!“
I pick it up from the store on Tuesday. It’s a holiday weekend in Northern
Ireland this weekend. £59 + £20 for a Griffin hard shell case. Painless.
July 9th, 2008
The new BBC TV show called Chinese Food Made Easy looks interesting. I love Chinese food. Probably be better, healthier and cheaper to cook my own. Don’t know if I have the time though. Looking forward to the new show.
Update: It was good show. Looked gorgeous on BBC HD. I’m going to do more cooking. Just ordered a Le Creuset wok
July 7th, 2008
There won’t be a TVital festival in Belfast this year. Piss!
July 6th, 2008
VirginMedia sent me a letter a while back saying that my cable internet connection would be increased to 10Mbps at some stage in over the summer. Looks like it’s been done. I don’t know when it happened but in the last day or so I’ve noticed much faster downloads. I’ve just done a speed test using Speedtest.net. Here are the results:
Yeah. 10Mpbs download and 512kbps upload.
July 5th, 2008
Worth celebrating. Universal health care, free at the point of delivery. An essential part of a civilised country I think. Worth noting, despite the impression given by certain people, that the Conservative Party have been in charge of the service for a lot of that time.
July 5th, 2008
Jesse Helms is dead. Finally acceding to the plea made in the marvellous MC Hawking ditty.
July 5th, 2008
Just ordered a copy of Journey to the Ants by Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson. It’s a book about how ants evolved and how they live in various habitats and colonies. This book seems to be a more accessible study of the subject of ants than their academic focused The Ants. The latter is £116 on Amazon UK! I’m really interested in the topic of social insects and eusocial societies. As witnessed by my posts here on Hellstrom’s Hive and Stephen Baxter’s Destiny’s Children books.
Click picture for larger view
July 3rd, 2008
I sold my Iliad. It was just to small to use for A4 PDFs and too big to use for fiction. Plus the Sony eReader is perfect for fiction and I have that. So the iLiad is off to a new home in sunny England!
July 3rd, 2008
I decided that I needed a small notebook to jot things down in when they occured to me. Things like story ideas, song snippets, general notes; anything really. So I ordered a Moleskine Pocket Plain Notebook after seeing Simon Wolf with one at WWDC. It’s perfect. Fits in the pocket, has a sleeve at the back to store a few items, has a ribbon bookmark and an integrated elastic to hold it closed. Cool. I also ordered a Moleskine Large Plain Notebook for more copious writing and note taking. I liked them so much I’ve just ordered a Moleskine San Francisco City Notebook for use on WWDC and Macworld trips. The city notebook has a map, which gives an overview of the city, along with 36 pages of zone maps, which provide large scale maps of the city centre. A 96 page tab separated personal section allows you to keep hotels, shops, addresses, places of interest and facilities organised. A further 76 blank pages let you jot down thoughts, stories and memories of trips. Excellent. Basically the city notebooks let you build up your own guidebook for cities you visit regularly.
There are editions of the city notebooks for about 20 major cities so far. See the full list at the Moleskine site.
Journey to the Ants by B Holldobler
Chasm City (Gollancz S.F.) by Alastair Reynolds
The Dragon in the Sea by Frank Herbert
Redemption Ark (Gollancz S.F.) by Alastair Reynolds