stone age

stone age, originally uploaded by M`s vision.

This for me is an image of a warm summer's day just drawing into the early evening and being in a place that has no cars or even lots of man made noise near you, even if only for a few minutes.

The last Post

Well I have made a last post of the year to this Blog, I see that I did not do 100 posts this year, but some 80 odd, so not that bad in the end.

May be next year I will get to 100.

Who knows

It will be fun finding out.

Time

So the end of the year is very nearly with us and I suppose that I should see if I can do a blog for the last few days of this year, will I do it?

_MG_4670

_MG_4670, originally uploaded by Trav28.

I like this image it does remind me of summer days long past.

Dirk Maggs Website

Updates again to the site, some how or other missed a show that Dirk produced called Growning up with the Goons broadcast on 25 th December 2008 I must admit that I think we were just a bit busy with Xmas stuff and all that. As Dirk produced the show it has gone on the site as it is something he did do.

All I have to try an do is get to hear it!

ipod touch

Well as I said earlier the touch is what I got for Xmas this year to replace a rather old creative mp3 player. So far I have found that it's all to easy to download free apps that you don't need, and the apps that you do want have yet to be written. I have also had the odd thought or two on how easy is it for Apple to redo the firmware in the machine as there as still a few parts of the software that come with the machine that just look like they have not been finished.

Other than that I have so far had lots of fun with the thing and have now only got 12G free...

Cold

Just want to record here that it's cold here the stat says that it is 19.3 c but I still feel cold why?

itouch & all that

Can you guess what I got for Xmas?, yes that's right a new mp3 player, this time it's from Apple and it's a itouch.

My old creative mp3 player has done very good service, and it still works but as I am into podcasts it does not handle them, mainly because when it was made they did not exist!

So I am now in the Apple crowd along with lots of other folk and I must say for the most part the experance has been very good.

My podcasts are all where they should be and it all sync's nice.

What I don't like is that when i transferd some of my exsisting music it never seems to have the album artwork and this is for stuff that is in the shops and had been out there for folks to buy for weeks or months why is it? The stuff is very popular eg the albums are in the top twenty.

The other thing that I like about the itouch is how light and small it is and how nice the screen is.

As I have the 32G unit you can see why I needed one that big as I have already only got 14G space left on it!

So of course it goes with out saying that in early 2009 they will release the 64G unit, not that I need that much space yet!

Blogs and all that stuff

So for the first time in a while I have some spare time, and as it's very cold outside and I don't want to freeze on the mountain bike I start to surf the net and flicker and Blogger, and I have found some Blogs that have opened my eyes to how cruel and dam right nasty people can be to each other, and just because of choices and nature can get things wrong.

I have to admit to not thinking about some of the choices folks out there have to make, and what I have read, some of the things that they have had to go through I know that I could not.

So I have linked to them and I am going to follow their Blogs, their lives are very different from mine, but they are the same as me, in wanting the same things that I think all of use want, friendship, love ect you know the list of common things that all of us want and need, and most of us get some of these things, now as I am not that outward going in real-life and also on the net, I find that I don't have the guts to just drop a line or two, to these folk just to say wow your great in going for it and what you need to do to find peace.

So if you folk do some how fall over this site, I am sorry that I have not given you a nod to say go for it, but I have my own hurdles, I know they are nothing to what you have to go through.

May be one day I will be able to climb my own personal mountain...

Knowing just how bad I have been at doing this Blog, this could and I think will be my last Blog of the year.

Dirk Maggs Website Updates

Yes, I know that it has been awhile since the last update on this Blog. But truth if it is to be told is that there has been nothing to report.

Work on my other projects has stopped. The reason sorting out stuff in real life like my job.

The only two things that have now changed and hence why this post is that I have started a very low level off-line project DMP 3 which is a technology test bed for the main DMP site and so far progress has been very good and the results from it have been far better than expected and getting results so early into the project has been a surprise.

The only other bit of news has been that Dirk Maggs has another production out which is due broadcast 29th Nov on BBC Radio 4 its called Boscobel if yet have the time have a look out for it I know I will.

AE35 Episode 13

Just a note to me from me saying that episode 13 of the ae35 podcast has been done and published, or it should be by the time you get to read this.

Dirk Maggs Producer Web site

It has been a little while since I did anything on this Blog.

And has been even longer since I did any up dates to the Dirk Maggs Productions Web site, so I am pleased to report that the site has been updated yesterday (07.11.2008) as there is a new production by Dirk that is due to air on BBC Radio 4 next Thursday at 9 pm.

The show is one hour long and I will admit here that having had the chance to hear it I spent 15 minutes stuck in the works car park just so I could hear it all the way to the end. And I have to say it's time well spent.

I have to thank Dirk for the preview tape and the show is called The Johnny Cash Hi-Jack road show and if you can give your ears a treat they will thank you for it, the scripts and the production values and the actors all have combined in such away that it is an audio movie and the tension and fear that build up in the play, work very well. Dare I say classic Maggs?

It must be good as the Radio Times has made it choice of the day on Radio 4 so what more do I need to say!

Dirk Maggs Book Part 20a

The book is as I last spoke you in the last blog.

Some new news is that the firm that I was going to use to do the private printing LULU.com have changed the costs and stuff, the only problem is that if there email is anything to go by I will not stand a chance of working out what the costs or changes are.

So I am now going to have to put on the to-do list that I don't have find another book publisher...


Bum is all that I can say to this as it's yet more work.

Podcast part 3

Some how or other I have done another podcast! this one less than 2 weeks after the last one this has got to be a record.

Updates & all that stuff part 2

Just a note to myself that I have made a large update to the main page of the Dirk Maggs website, I have even got a new name for it, The Relevant Chronology of Dirk Maggs!, yes I know it does not read nice, but at this time it's a test to see if I like it and as its my website, I can do whatever I like!

cole green way, hertford

cole green way, hertford, originally uploaded by karen cb.

This could be what summer days should be like, its strange but I was near to where this image was taken not that many weeks ago, but there was the light that you can see in this image. If I ever get the chance to go back to Hertford then this is a place I have to see with my own eyes on a blue sky day.

clapham beck forest. north yorkshire

clapham beck forest. north yorkshire, originally uploaded by karen cb.

This image has a light and colour that I have missed.

spin

spin, originally uploaded by karen cb.

This images is just great, it made me think that its a good job windmills don't move at this speed.

Nettles

So I was walking around the site at work today through part of the forest that we have when I noticed for the first time that not all nettles are the same, this was a bit of an eyeopener for me as for the last four decades I had thought that all nettles were the same.

So it goes without saying that I put the word on my list of items to Google.

Now What

So with all these updates you would think that I have found lots of free time. Well no I havn't but I am just trying to get some thing done.

Updates again

I think there must have been something in the water yesterday as I did some updates!


yeah I know ...scary or what?


The updates were to the ae35 pod cast site, in that I did a new pod cast number 8!

This pod cast was mainly about the progress or lack of on all the projects that I am doing eg the Dirk Maggs book the website and the ae35 pod cast.


If I am not very careful it could be that I might update more.

Updates & all that stuff

it's been some time since I last said anything in this blog, and also about the various projects that I have on the go at some time or other. As this blog is for me I think I need to tell myself what i have been doing or not over the last few weeks or so.

The Dirk Maggs books has not got any further along in its editing and the problem with the indexes still needs to be sorted one way or another. I just have not had several clear hours in which to work on the book. One problem is that after all this time of not looking at it, you forget things that are in it and also the things that you wanted to change last time but never got around to it.

The podcast website AE35 has also stalled, I have done 6 or so pod casts and then things happed and well, I am making excuses for why it just has not moved forward, one of the reasons has to be me being lazy I guess. The other is time again, always a good excuses I think or not.

One of the great things about the pod casts is that some how or other it has been found by the odd brave sole and downloaded! Yes I know quite what thay made of all of it I just don't know.

The Dirk Maggs website is up to date, as he has not produced any new work for a while I have no backlog of updates to do to the site, which is nice.

The DMP 2 wiki website has had a bit of a redesign so it has very little content, but lots of backroom stuff has been done to it, but just like an iceberg you the user can't see the effort that has gone on.

The DMP wiki website has been frozen while we look to see if DMP 2 is going to work, if it does then the content form DMP will transfer to DMP 2.

So that's the update as to how things are at this time, as summer is now almost over( if it ever started here in England) I could get some free time soon and get some of these projects moving.

Little Sad Tree

Little Sad Tree, originally uploaded by . Andrew Dunn ..

Just love the colours in thisimage

Chrome

So here I am using Google Chrome so far its great.The only thing is has Google tracked how fast people started to search for info on chrome

DMP 2 part 2

Just an update to myself that DMP 2 has now got a link to it and that I am starting to put the core back in, which I think will take weeks to do. is where to go.

DMP 2

Just a small note to me from me, that I have started to work on DMP 2, which as you know is a replacement for DMP 1. Yes it does all make sense, I think...


Anyway DMP 1 has a problem in that its on an old database and everytime I don an SQL dump and then try to upload that dump into the new MYSQL it fails hence the restart. Which is not all bad news as how I need to present the data in DMP 2 is going to be easyeir using the new software and the database.

Blogs and all of that stuff

I have found that for some unkown reason I blog more at some times of the year than others why this should be so I just don't know, but it's what I have found to be true for me. I don't know if it's true for other people, but you never know.

I do like the idea of a blog, but I must admit that I only do the blog for me as it's very unlikely that anyone else will ever read this stuff. What I mean by that is that there are millions of blogs outthere and when you think about it there are only so many hours in a day that some one has time to read a blog if that is the kind of thing they do.

Come to think of it why do people read blogs in the first place? there must be a reason why people do, maybe there is a phd for someone to research into this all I know is that the blogs I read tend to be by people who have an intrest that is the same as mine. So maybe that's a reason as for me I just don't know.

I do sometimes wonder if this blog will out live me, and if someone in the future will ever read it and wounder who I was and what I was like, maybe that is one of the real reasons why people do blogs as they want to leave something behind for the folks that come after them, I suppose in the past you had to be some one who was in the public eye or you where someone that did art, eg pictures or stuff like that.

I suppose that must blogs are never read by more than one person eg the author of the blog, but as is always the case there must be blogs that do get read by thousands, I do wonder how the guys or girls who write the blogs read by thousands might end up writing blogs all most as a performance as they know that they have a readership, do these guys set out to get an audance, do they want an audance?

As for me I decided that I wanted to record things for me so that I could look back on events, and that I could use someone elses experance in computers to make sure that every thing was backed up and that it would be there for me to look at in the future. I did have a blog on my own website, but I made a mistake in programming an SQL statement and wiped out the whole of my blog database, which did cause me to swear a lot and also to be less verbose in blog terms, I mean I lost years or blog items. So I signed up to blogger, but for some reason like I said at the start of all this I don't do bnlog on a regular occurance for some reason.

i have just noticed that I am now starting to repaet myself, so I am going to stop, but one thing to note with this blog is that I am not going to spell check it, the reason being is that I have been up nearly 20 hours or so, I will admit that I have had a drink (rum if you must know David) and it will be intresting to see in the harsh light of day what this looks like and also how it reads when one is not very tierd and also has not had a drink.

So David in the future i hope that i find you well and that you are happy in that you have found out waht you where thinking on 25th July 2008 at 23.06 i wish you good health and best whishes.

Dirk Maggs Book Part 20

Guess what?

Yes it's true!!

I did some work on the book today, not a lot I must admit but at least I did something, so progress of a sorts.

Changed the publish date and altered some of the body text. I have come to the conclusion that more tables to store the actores names in will also be needed.

Dirk Maggs Book Part 19

UPDATE


The update is that I have not had the time or the energy to do any more to the book at this time.

09/07/2008

09/07/2008, originally uploaded by davew1.

Real ale from bath

Shepherd's warning

Shepherd's warning, originally uploaded by Jonny2005.

Just a great picture

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge, originally uploaded by Jonny2005.

This is just a great image.

Turbine Hall

Turbine Hall, originally uploaded by Jonny2005.

This image reminds me of some old sifi film

River

River, originally uploaded by Jonny2005.

Just a great image of London very early am.

Podcast part 2

New post on podcast http://ae35.mypodcast.com/

============================================



AE35 Cast Number 6



This cast is an update show.



I talk about why so long since the lst cast.



All about the trouble with editing theme tunes.



More ideas on scripts and some of the ideas that others have had.



I also talk about podfade and why it happens and if it has any inpact on me.



Episode download link: http://www.mypodcast.com/fsaudio/ae35_20080601_0828-239367.mp3



- Dave, [8:28 AM]

Podcast

Did I tell you that I have a podcast?

No?

Well I have one, it goes back to last year, I am sorry to say that I have not been very active with it as some how or other I end up with no time and a quite place to record the thing.

I have worked out 2 years plus worth of shows if I do a 5 to 30 minute show one a fortnight. I have even got outline for some of the shows done (see I can get some things done, sometimes even books, actually I have so far written 10 books each more than 300 pages A4 size all non fiction)

I have started to wonder if i could do the podcast on my mobile then transfer it sad I know....


You want to know the name of the podcast well it's AE35 and if you do a Google you should find it, I did (ha ha) as I write this I have only done 5 shows so far, one of them lasts just 4 minutes or so ( do you know how hard it is to talk into a microphone?) with luck I will sort myself out and get some more shows done. It goes without saying that I have not told anyone but this blog about the shows, and the other thing is that I have the shows hosted for me on a site that has nothing to do with Dirk Maggs or James Follett.

Dirk Maggs Book Part 18

Did I tell you that I am now into the final edit of the draft, but I have some tables that need to be redone in a better way so that they take up less space? Well, the snag I have is that its hard work and such and such and well I have stopped doing the edit, the other reason being that I have a great read on at the moment by Alastair Reynolds called The Perfect and well I want to find out whats going to happen, really its that good, I think so.

Dirk Maggs Book Part 17

The edit on the 1st draft is going well I think. The draft without any index is 327 A4 pages long. As the edit goes it should drop down as I have some tables that need to be altered so that they go across the page and not down the page, some of the are quite long, so I am hoping that when edited as I said above that the page space being used will go down, so that will also mean the page count will also go down. When I do whatever I am going to do with the index or indexes then the page count will then go up, by how much I just don't know at this stage.

Dirk Maggs Book Part 16

Yes

I have done some work on the book at last. In fact I have started to edit the final draft an have got to page 40 so far.

Dirk Maggs Book Part 15

The news on the book project is not good. As you know I put the draft to one side, to let it mature as they say. Well the draft really is mature now and I suppose I should look at it, do the final rewrites and correct any spelling mistakes that I find, and if I am lucky add a few more new ones!

The truth of the matter is that I have not done this, other things keep getting in the way, why?

I have also still yet to work out what kind of index or indexes I want in this book. As the book is just for me I just do not know how useful more than one index would be, I have some books that have more than one index, but it does seem to be something that is rae and not the norm all, but as it's my book I can do what I want.

As I am also the publisher of the book I can also do what I want, just so long as the book does not cost me a fortune when I come to have it printed. As the book will never be for sale there is no real pressure on me to have it published by the deadline I set myself, apart from the fact that the book will be out of date!

18/05/2008

18/05/2008, originally uploaded by davew1.

Place that I have been to on my hols

18/05/2008

18/05/2008, originally uploaded by davew1.

It nice and its in my garden now

Back

Been on a holiday, which was great lots of walking and peace and quite, which is what I needed.

I notice that I have done very few blogs over the last few weeks, and I can only put that down to work life and all that sort of stuff, some of it very stressful.

I think that enough time has gone by to look at my Dirk Maggs project again and see how much rewriting needs to be done. I know that the index or indexes still need to be done, but you cannot work on the index until the main text is done and is complete in the form that will stay with that edition of the book.

Monument

Monument, originally uploaded by Maegluin.

This is one of those image that just jumped out at me, not to sure why but its a great image I think its got something to do with the sky and the very simple subject matter, all in all it just works and thats all that maters

Ill

Been ill all the projects are on hold.

Petts wood walk E3

Petts wood walk E3, originally uploaded by karen cb.

like this image not sure why

Essendy, Near Blairgowrie

Essendy, Near Blairgowrie, originally uploaded by Dadarob.

How I wish that I could paint and see as well as this.

05/04/2008

05/04/2008, originally uploaded by davew1.

Missy at home

N73 Firmware Update

I did something that I did not think you could do to a mobile phone, this shows just how behind the times I am, but I upgraded the firmware in my mobile, a Nokia N73 form version 2 something to version 3 something.

The update was free from Nokia, and the software to do the job with.

How was it? Okay but boy you read all the warnings and well, it nearly put me off doing the upgrade thing all together. But after some 15 minutes or so the task was done.

The Result?

Good, I think a lot of the changes from version 2 to 3 must be stuff under the bonnet but other tings are new or updated, to tell the truth the old software never gave me any trouble and so far the new software also seems to be okay.

The only down side of it all was that my backup of all my contacts was not good and some how did not work and that was only 20 or so minutes after I had done the backup, so what's going there I do not know. It not a big loss as the number of contacts that I keep on my phone is small, this is because I have 2 mobiles my own and the companies, and keeping the numbers and contacts separate has and is to me a good idea.

Would I do the upgrade again?

Yes, but only if there are some big advantages to the upgrade otherwise with all the prep work you have to do its just not worth the time and the effort.

Since the upgrade the Internet has not been safe I have found that there are lots of free N73 themes on the net and I am having great fun downloading them and installing them on the phone.

Website Updates

I have some how found the time to do an update to my main 2 websites. So now they are as uptodate as I can make them with the current information that I have to hand.

The main URL is http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

So I am now off to look at some of my other projects that I have not looked at in ages

AE35

AE35?

Eh?

Well its my podcast that sometimes I do. In fact, so far it runs to only 4 episodes so it has a long way to go until it has found its feet, or style. If I can be bothered I will put the URL in this blog.

As it is other things are calling so bye

Not Much

Not much to say this time as I have other projects that are at such an early stage, eg they are still in my head that there really is nothing to say.

Index oh Index

As I have said before else where in this blog the first draft of the Dirk Maggs book is now done, I was going to start doing the index or indexes when I remember something I had read which said that it is always a good idea to put your first draft away and go and do something else, so that when you look at it again there is some time and distance between you and the draft and you will look at it if a different light and frame of mind.

So I am going to take that advice, which mean I can put off having to do the Index just for a few more weeks, to say that I am relived would be an under statement. So this means I can get on with my other projects, like updating the Dirk Maggs website and stuff like that.

Dirk Maggs Book Part 14

1st draft complete page count is now 329. First go at doing an index ended up with word crashing and loosing all the work I had done on marking up the index, not as bad as it sounds as I had only marked up 4 pages. I was using the mark all feature in word when it crashed.

Not sure if I ran out of memory in the machine I was using or what.

Dirk Maggs Book Part 13

There has been some progress all the drafts of all the chapters has now been done. I have now started to create the master document witll all the chapters in.

This is the second time that I have done this as the first time word inported all the files in the wrong order!

It would appear that in A4 page size the book is 357 pages long with out how many indexes I end up with.

Appendix Index

As the 1st draft of the Dirk Maggs book is now very close to being done, I have had a strange thought that I have so far failed to find an answer to. The question or thought was this can you have an index to an appendix, or is an appendix in a book a mutated form of index?


I think its a good question, the only snag with such a great question is that finding an answer to it is well hard in fact very hard and at this time I have not yet found an answer.

At this stage the book has a chapter for each years work a chapter on other audio work and then 2 very large appendixes, now I do know because I have seen them that you can have loads of appendix in a book I think I once counted something like 10 in one book that I picked up years ago.

The thing is do I need to have an index for each section of the book? e.g one index for the work done in years another index for each appendix and an index for the other audio work?

Or do I go down the route of having an index for subjects e.g one for the radio shows and another for the actors or people in the productions?

I also have to keep in mind that I will have to do another edition of this book in a few years time as the idea is that it forms a written record of the website at the time the book was written.

At this time I do not have any answers to the above questions

Dirk Maggs Book Part 12

Did i say that all the book in draft is done except appendix 2? Well if I did not I have done now. I have yet to collect each chapter into the master document so I do not know just how did this book of the website is going to be.

I think it will have a page count lower than the second edition mainly due to the fact that the page size has been changed so that it can be printed in hardback, and so with luck it might last a bit longer, as the idea is to have a written record of what The Dirk Maggs website looks like I think hardback is the way forward.


I did have the Idea to present a copy of the book to Dirk, but thinking about it, I decided that it might weird him out seeing his life's work in a hardback book before him.

As I have said before the book is going to be a Private printing so it will not be for sale.

Saying that a few weeks ago something did go wrong with how the book is listed at LULU and you could see the book and buy it (the second edition that is) the cost? a cool 1999999.99 pounds so it was not a surprise that no one brought a copy, can't think why that is

Index part 2

Note to me, you still have to find out about single or double indexes for the Dirk Maggs book of the website.

Dirk Maggs Book Part 11

News on the Dirk Maggs book is that the 1st draft of all work in years 1988 to 2009 has been done.

The 1st draft of the 1st appendix has also been done.

The 1st draft of any other audio work has also been done.

At this rate the 1st draft of the book should be done by June 2008

Making publication due October 2008 at the rate this is all going

Linux

Well still playing with different versions or distro's of Linux and not getting any work on the Dirk Maggs book done....

VM Linux

Now playing with VM linux machines, only snag so far is that I can't get at the files on my hard discs.

USB Linux

Just found out that you can install Linux on a USB stick, never knew you could do that and its been fun learning.

Does make you wonder how come Linux on a 2Gb stick installed and working 10 minutes, windows XP hours why?

Cold to me

Just for my record the temp at 06.38 on 04.03.2008 was -0.1

Print Servers

Why can't print servers just work?

Why is it they only play up when you are short of time?

Why?

Leap day & Blogger

So it was leap day and I thought I better do my blog. But blogger had other ideas and would not let me save my blog, only the second time that has happened to me. S I have missed the chance to have a 29 Feb entry in my blog, and I did not have time to report the error so I am just a bit miffed.

The idea was to try and do a blog each day, so Feb is blown out and I know that march will be a blow out as I am of on a course which means not access to the net.

Leap Day

Happy leap day

400

So after I don't know how long this is the 400th entry in my Blog wow, I know some folks do far more some do far less but this is what I do

wast water Heaven

wast water Heaven, originally uploaded by karen cb.

I like this image of the water and the colours

What I am reading

Current books that I am reading all at the same time are,


Weaver Stephen Baxter, this is part 4 of the time tapestry series and is very and as I have said and written else where would make a great radio show, only 40 grand a series of six programmes and I would have Dirk Maggs to adapt and produce and direct them, value for money or what?

Book two then is 6th Target by James Patterson, this is part of the Woman's murder club but for some reason its not right, I am not sure what I mean by that statement but its as if it was ruched in some way, maybe the problem is that James is producing too many books going for quantity and not quality I just don't know. I will hold judgement till when I complete the book.

The last book that I am reading is the very first book in the new cop series by Peter James called Dead Simple, now I found this series and read the latest book first and have worked my way back to this the very first book in the series, and so far its great.

As I have said above in the Stephen Baxter bit this is also a series of books that I think Dirk Maggs would be great on , as he has never done hard crime novels some it would give him a chance to stretch his creative mussels and just see what he can do. I think with Dirk's great timing and choice of good actors each book would be a great 6 part series, not that the BBC does this sort of stuff any more, they seem to have gone down the route of cheap low cost productions with nothing to stretch both the listener and the production crew.

If I had the money I would pay for these shows to be produced even if they never got an airing on national radio at least they would have been produced by one of the best radio directors/producers in the last 20 years.

Earthquake UK

So wakes up to the news that the UK had an earthquake at 1am this morning, 5.3 on some scale or other, not sure what to think other than I am glad that no one was killed. Did I feel the trumors? no but folks in London and Dover did.

Cloudy Lemonade

Had some cloudy lemonade today, for some reason looked at what went into it, one of the ingredants? Orange juice 10%


why?

CVD or Dust

I found out that dust and DVD players are mortal foes. And all I wanted to do was watch Die hard 4.0

Index

Yes I know, I have now done so may blogs on this subject, but I am having trouble finding a good info source which could guide me on which way to go with how many indexes I need. I just supose I will have to keep on looking.

The good news is that I will not need it for a while.

Passwords

Why do we have so many these days, there must be a better way than this

Indexes

Just wondered if you had a book about indexes, would it have an index, would it be an index index?

Fog

I hate fog on the M25

Spell Checker

I really need a spell checker.

Open Office

As a follow up to yesterday and the troubles with converting a file on LULU so that it was in a print format Pdf, good idea no1 was to use another ep programme.

The idea was to load the file in Open office wp and the resave the file, good idea? well that did not happen all the versions I have of Open Office(version 2.0) opened the file no problem and then stopped working when i asked it to resave the file. No in Open Office's defence I have to admit i was using it as a portable app so maybe some thing with that set up is what is causing the problem.

So other news is that I have not done any more drafts work on the Dirk Maggs book it is still stalled.

On the index fron (eg who many and what type) no progress.

Perhaps progress next time I report in this blog.

Plans that go wrong

So I had this great plan, I would convert an exsisting manuscript to 8.5*11 so that it the right size to be printed in hardback.

Step one, the converting was in the end okay as it only took a few hours and it looked good at the end of it all.

Step two, now thats when things started to go off the rails in a real big way. The upload to LULU was okay and that worked. The next step converting the document into a printable PDF did not go right, in fact it failed. Now the big problem is that I don't know why the conversion failed as LULU don't say why the document failed, they just say that it failed, yeh I know so useful.

So I am at a loss what to do...

I think I shall have another look at the Dirk Maggs book the drafts that I have done so far....

I last thjought I did have was to try a differant wp programme to se if that is the problem. I normally use word 2003 nice and old and it mostly works and so should be without any major problems.

Hardback Books and all of that

Do you know that the actual writing of a book at this moment in time to me looks easier than working out correct paper sizes and what template to use when you want to have your book published as a hardback book?

Why?

I hope that with a little bit more work I will have the answers that I have been looking for. So far the answers are not there yet.

As an expirment I updated and resized the manuscripts for one of my eriler books, what I thought would only take at most an hour soon got out of control and before I knew it I had spent some 3 hours on it, but I think the time has been well spent as I now have edtion 5 of the book in a hardback format at a size of 8.5*11 which is the size I want of so I think at this moment in time.

I am going to upload it to LULU and see what I get. I think that it will be a good test as I think the Dirk Maggs book will be of the same sort of size, that is about 500 odd pages, one thing with this test book that did surprise me was that the table of content runs to 30 pages! I know what? when you see the book it's easy to understand, I don't think the Dirk book will have that size of contents page, but you never know.

Now the index or indexes are another matter, and no I have not got any furthur on what to do or how many indexes I might need.

Photos

Just looked back at some of the early posts on this blog, only to see that some of the photos that I had made comments on have gone. It just brings it home to me just how frgile ( is that the word to use?) all these electrons really are, things on the web are or only appear to be here for minutes and then lost forever.


I think it is sad, very sad that like footprints in the snow thing do not stay around for ever.

Dirk Maggs Book Part 10

Things have gone a bit slow on the draft front, mainly as I have been looking at hardback or paperback and also the problem of indexes, the index problem is one that I have yet to fully work out which way to go. If I go for more than one index then the work in doing such a thing is a lot, the rewards of having a good index can not be under estimated that much I am sure of. The only question is how many and what type of indexes do I want or does the book need?

On the hardback front I have decided that hardback is the way to go, the only problem now is what size of hardback?

At this time I do not have an answer to that question yet, if I have too small a book in page size the number of pages will go up and the other problem, which I have not yet looked at is how the content on each page will be effected. With the first problem as far as I can see as the page count goes up so does the cost of the final book.

A wild thought that I did have was, well why not have each years work as a volume in it's own right? but a quick look at this idea has already told me that if I stay in A4 size pages then some of the volumes will be very thin on the otherhand if the page size is smaller than A4 then the page count goes up, so all in all at this time I do not know what to to muli volume or one large volume.

I suppose the answer will only become clear once I have done all the drafts and put the book together in its first draft layout.

Dirk Maggs Book Part 9

Today I had the great idea that my Dirk Maggs book would look good as a hardback book, on the grounds that it might last longer, I know that it will cost more to have printed but I think the extra cost will pay for it's self in that it will be around longer.

The only thing is that I have yet to find any word templates that will allow me to size my work correctly so that it will go from A4 size to what ever size a standard harddback book is.

Ho hum I think is what I said...

Dirk Maggs Book Part 8

As you can see with the last few posts to this blog I have some how found the time to do a bit more of the Dirk Maggs book.

One thing that I have been looking at is how to produce an index in word 2003. From what I have seen so far and read the index does not always work.

The searches that I have done so far say that there are 2 ways of creating the index, one where you mark each word and the other you use something called a cordex?

See I can't even spell it let a lone know how to use it.

More reading is needed me thinks.

I think for my Dirk Maggs book that a very full index will be the way to go.

I have read that you can have more than 1 index, and I am thinking at this time that a names index and a productions index might be good ideas, the only thing is at this time I don't yet know how you do multi indexes in the same document, or even if such a thing is possable in word 2003.

Dirk Maggs Book Part 7

Some progress of sorts in that I have done one of the chapters that is not work done in a year and is not an appendix.

Yes I have done the draft chapter for all other Audio work that Dirk has done, it was a bit of a surprise just how much in the early 2000's he did, he does not appear to have done much since the late 2006's.

So when I get the chance, I will list here each chapter and just how many pages in draft form in A4 pages the chapters take up.

Yes I know that it will all change as each chapter gets edited, but I want to keep a record, just to see if it is true that each rewrite is edit edit edit and that the number of words goes down.

Dirk Maggs Book Part 6

This is how the book looks in draft form at this time, each year will be a chapter in the completed book.

These are the Drafted chapters so far;

1988
1989
1990
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009

As you can still see there is a long way to go, I am not sure if I will get it done by my deadline of xmas 2008.

Dirk Maggs Book Part 5

Update time.

The bad news

Nothing has been done since the last post.

Have been too busy being educated in the delights of safe systems of work for things that go very bang.

There is hope that I shall have some free time soon, and then hopefully there will then be some progrss.

Giving Blood

I gave my 107th pint of blood today, I am told that it will help upto 3 other people and all within the next few weeks or less. The main reason being that I have O neg blood which is always in high demand.

I just don't know how to feel about how many people, I might have helped, but I do hope that this gift I give to them is welcome.

Dirk Maggs Book Part 4

I re looked at all the drafts that I have so far done, and I don't think I have missed anything out, that I don't know of. The next few weeks in real life are going to be busy so I know that I will not have the time to work on the next draft chapter.

The plan is still for the book to be done and printed by Dec 2008, as the book is going to be a private printing, the only way that you will se a copy is if you know me or you are Dirk Maggs.

Maggs Book Part 3

Update time

The news is that there has not been any more work done on the book. This due to real life getting in the way and me not having the time to get my head around the next chapter that has to be done in draft format first.

Maybe in the next few weeks there will be time.

Maggs Book part 2

An update on what has been going on with this years book project. Last time I said that I had done the draft for all work done in 1988.

Progress has not been good as I have been away doing training with IOSH on a course that I have already done before, but as company policy is that every member of staff will do this course even if you have already done it.

So back to the book, and I can say that the draft chapter for all work done in 1989 has also been done and it runs to 15 pages of A4.

I do not yet know just how big this book is going to be, but it looks like it will be large, even without photos.

Maggs Book

As you may or may not know I have a website, that is on a well known radio director called Dirk Maggs. In fact at this time it is the only website on a radio director and has been for the last 5 years!

The website has over time just got bigger, as Dirk creates new shows or I find out about old shows that he has done.

I have decided as the website is a living thing in that it only exsits as loads of electrons that I would produce a book of the website.

This I have done edition one of the the book was done last year, and had some 300 odd pages, edition two was produced late last year with no pictures in it as there are copyright problems and also cos it did not always print correctly.

So this years project is to do edition 3 of the book.

There are no plans to make the book avaiable to the public as I think I break lots of copyright rules, but there is nothing to stop me producing it for myself and maybe give a copy to Dirk.

So progress so far has been that I have found a templete for the book and have taken a copy of all of the website pages that would and do make sense to have in the printed format.

I have managed to layout the book so that each year is a chapter, then within each chapter each production from that year is then listed.

The first draft of the year 1988 has been done and it runs to 10 A4 pages!

Sunset at the Mount

Sunset at the Mount, originally uploaded by Corica.

love the colour and the sky in this image, I do wonder how long you would have to wait to get such a sky.

Glastonbury Sunset

Glastonbury Sunset, originally uploaded by Sheryl La Bouchardiere.

Just love the way in this picture that the light is on the top of the clouds, do not know why, but it is nice

Swindon Village - Harvest Time

Swindon Village - Harvest Time, originally uploaded by Sheryl La Bouchardiere.

so England in the summer nice then rain on the way

Nelson's garden

Nelson's garden, originally uploaded by Jonny2005.

When I saw this image I thought it was a painting, now I look at it I think it would make a great jigsaw.

Stonehaven Beach

Stonehaven Beach, originally uploaded by olcol.

This image just makes me think of a 1980's Dr Who show

Summer

Summer, originally uploaded by Number Six.

This picture is just so summer to me, I love the colours

Siri Steinmo

Siri Steinmo, originally uploaded by Jonny2005.

Just love the eyes in this image, not sure why

Tree

Tree, originally uploaded by Jonny2005.

Nice shape Oak tree

December Sunset

December Sunset, originally uploaded by fenlandsnapper.

What a great image this is, pays to have a camera with you