Podcast

I was listening to the 365 day of astronomy podcast which I am well behind listening to I have some 100 podcasts yet to play.

Anyway the episode that I had playing was all about the Kelper mission and was taking about the exoplanets that it had found and that it had a list of some 1000 objects to check to see if they really are planets.

Just after this was said I get a text alert on the iPad telling me that the last new planet of the year has just been confirmed!

Spooky or what!

New Year

So the new year is already happing some where on the planet as I type this....

It's all a bit scary in just how big the world is that some folks already have their forts sore heads of 2011!

So I am lucky that we have been invited to see the new year in with some friends, which has always got to be better than being on your own.

Themes

I have been looking at changing the theme on my main website but I have hit the problem of what new theme to have.

Part of the problem is that there are so many different themes to chose from!

What colour do I want the theme to have is also another problem.

So as is so often the case I have left the site as it is for the time being, I suppose that in the new year I will look at it again.

Ipad

One thing that I have found that I don't like about the ipad is how marked and dirty the screen gets.

End of Year

So it's the end of the year and is it worth looking back at it or is it better to look forward?

I don't have an answer but forwards has always seemed a much better idea to me.

Rocket launch

I wait some 40 days to see the French rocket lift off.(I can't remember it's name!)

I did every thing I could to make sure I could see it, I had the ipad set up I was on the live fee 15 minutes before the launch was due. I sat there watching to see that all the status lights were green all the way down to 1 minute, then what happens?

yes you guessed it, the feed to the ipad dies..

You can imagine the language that I used....
So I did not see the live launch I was not very happy
Why did it fail?

There is nothing on the official site to explain that there feed to the internet died, but at least in the end I did see a recording of it it, it's not the same thing but at least i got to see the rocket fly.

Only 47 days to the next launch, 15th Feb 2011...

Xmas break

it's funny thing that you would think with all the free time over Xmas that I would be able to get on with my reading and to also do some much needed updates on my websites.

So what happens?

Yes, your ahead of me on this one!

Nothing, I mean I might get up a hour later than I DO NORMALLY, BUT STILL FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER I HAVE DONE NOTHING THAT I WANTED TO DO.

Why?

My books of which the reading pile is far too large remains un-looked at, my websites are still waiting to be edited and added to, but some how or other I find myself at nearly 4pm today and i have not touched either.

I don't understand where the time is going, it's not a nice feeling loosing time, but that is what appears to be happing to me.

Jammie Oliver Book

We have the new Jammie Oliver book, cook meals in 30 minutes, well I can tell you it can;t be done. I mean I and the wife are no slouches in the kitchen, but even we could not get any of his 30 minute meals cooked in that time.


So I reckon that what you see on the TV is not how it really happened, by that I mean his TV shows must have been edited, and edited hard.

Weather

I know which I like more between Fog and Snow

iPad

Well starting to get used to the iPad. I have now got 3racing games on the iPad

Beer

Brought 2 beers today, but which to have first?


Tanglefoot?

or

Abbott's Ale?

The choice is hard very hard just which to have

Books

Just looked at my reading pile, I have some 9 books to read. One of them I have now had for more than half a year and have only looked at the first page!

The book in question is about a 1000 pages long and is the sequel to a book that I enjoyed very much, but for some reason or other I just don't seem to pick it up when selecting a new book to read.

Funny that.....

Days

I think that I have just noticed that the days are getting just a little bit longer, its either that or a lot of wishful thinking on my part that it is so.

Weather

I am so glad to see that its going to be a bit warmer.

Ipad 2

I have an Ipad 32G have just transfered all my stuff from my touch, now I only have 7G left!

websites

I have several websites that I have now had for several years, I have fun in keeping them working and also in getting new information for them.

In fact sometimes I think I enjoy the fact gathering far more than the website updating bit.

One thing that i have noticed is that I am for reasons that I have yet to work out spending far more time away from them than on them, I don't know why that is and it's not because i don't like the websites or the subject of the websites.

Ipad

so i got an ipad for xmas, which is nice and its great and all that sort of stuff, what I was amazed to see is just how few apps there are for the ipad, I assume because its hard to pro gramme or something?

It can't be lack of interest as there are lots of them around, I mean lots have been sold, and when the ipad2 comes out I think that to will sell well.

The only problem that I have with it is this, it's a 32G unit and after I have transfered all my music pictures and apps to it I find that I am left with less than 5G and I have only had it 1 day....

YouTube - Mrs. Robinson - Simon and Garfunkel

YouTube - Mrs. Robinson - Simon and Garfunkel

I like this its a good version of this song and I reckon that the guy playing the instruments is just having a lot of fun.

To blog

Not done much blogging , not to sure why that is, there must be a reason, well whatever it is I don't know what it is.

perhaps over the xmas break I will do a few more blogs

Reading

Another book that I have read just a short while ago is called The Dam Busters and its by Paul Brickhill, its an old book publish in the early 1950's and so it was censored.

Now there are many books about the Dam Buster raid some 30 I counted and I really did not try that hard in looking.

I think its a great book and age has not really damaged it in any way that I can see, there is an uncensored version but I have not seen that myself.

In fact the order in which I have read the last three books is interesting, in that it all sort of makes sense to read the books in the order that I read them.

I first read a book about the Lancaster Bomber then this book then Guy Gibson's, with the first and second books being uncensored it made the middle book interesting as you can see what was left out and also what Paul Brickhill also did not know.

So all in all some good books that tell it how it was and just how brutal it all was and just how large the losses Bomber Command suffered.

I don't think I could have done what these aircrew went through.

I assume that the US and the German aircrews had the same sort of time/terror and losses. So in my book all were brave and deserve my respect.

Enemy Coast Ahead Uncensored: The Real Guy Gibson Soft Cover: Amazon.co.uk: Guy Gibson: Books

Enemy Coast Ahead Uncensored by Guy Gibson

Just read this book and I have to admit that it has changed how I view Guy Gibson.

Well worth the read, especially this uncensored version. I did not realise just how young he was when he died.

He was just 26!

Weather

So its cold, now at 10.00 its still only -1.9C at 8.00am it was -4.5C

Neal Stephenson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Neal Stephenson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Found that this article on Neal Stephenson was a bit of an eye opener as it explains things about him the the books that he has written.

Its nice background material but in the end I don't really care for it that much as I mainly read his books to be entertained and nothing more.

I am sure that there are people out there who for various reasons like to pull a book apart and the author to try and explain how it all works, well good for them.

Me?

I just want to be entertained for a few hours or so.

Manual:Preventing access - MediaWiki

Manual:Preventing access - MediaWiki: "$wgShowIPinHeader = false;"

This is a page I found that explains and also provides information on how to lock down you wiki, well you never quite know when you might need it....

Dirk Maggs Wiki

Dirk Maggs Wiki

I find it hard to believe but someone for some reason joined this wiki of mine and then started to edit it so that it sent you to well doge websites.

I am pleased to say that their account no longer exists and all the bad stuff they did has been remove.

I did learn a lesson from all of this, trust no one, so now all the folks who want to join the wiki and want to edit it have to be approved by me.

hard lesson learnt.

Boeing X-37 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Boeing X-37 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I thought that the x planes only went to X15, it appears that I am wrong in thinking this.

Dirk Maggs Productions Website :: Home

Dirk Maggs Productions Website :: Home

I know, I am taking about my website again, but then it's my main website so why not, it's not as if I make any money from it.

Any way I have noticed just how many pages are still missing from the site, I am afraid it's far more than I would like, I will really have to find some time to sort it out.

I think when that's done, which at the rate I am going could be years, I will do another website book in Hardback.

Dirk Maggs Productions Website :: Home

Dirk Maggs Productions Website :: Home

What's a bit sad is that this is my main website, that has grown and developed over the last five years or so, it has a lot of content, a lot of it is unique and is not found anywhere else, in fact the site it's self is also a very rare one in that how many Radio directors do you know that have a website all about their work?

Exactly and it does not stop there on just how different the website is.

The sad bit is that Dirk Maggs does not appear these days to be doing much audio work on radio, I suspect it may have something to do with how radio is commissioned these days(by the BBC), and money being tight and all that, and also the BBC does not think listeners want to hear great audio that can make the listener think and get involved with the audio production in some way or other.

So the Dirk Maggs website has not had any work done on it for a long time, and to that, that earlier in 2010 there was that very bad and unfortunate destruction of the database and the many backups, it's not surprising that the site is not fully complete as it should be, on a side note, free time has dropped big time, which has also meant that I have been very time poor when it comes to working on the site.

But I intend to keep the site going even if there is little new material to put on it as I think it will one day be a great resource for someone , when they want to know just a little bit about the work a radio director did in the 80-2000's in the UK on the BBC.

I think what I want to do is deepen the articles that I have on it, which will mean that it will take years to do, which is great for a part time project.

I will have to get in contact with Dirk Maggs just to see if there are any more radio productions in the pipe line, or if it is the end of an era, and the passing of a great bit of classic radio production.

New Above & Beyond single and video announced

New Above & Beyond single and video announced This track or an earlier version of it has been one of my favourite tracks for a while, not sure if it the singer, the music or what but it always gives me goose bumps.

Now this version is even better at giving the old goose bumps, I suppose that as time goes by another tune will come along to replace this, but at this time this is one of my favourites.

Well worth a listen.

And if you are reading this and its not 2010 I can't guarantee that the links will still work, as nothing on the internet stays still these days for very long.

BBC - Earth News - Ancient seaweed is living fossil

BBC - Earth News - Ancient seaweed is living fossil

So if something is alive but very old in type or style then its described as a living fossil, I thought that the word fossil meant it was not alive.

Reading

I have been a bit slow in putting this Blog up and on to the site, but I have completed the reading of another non fiction book.

Its by Alice Beard and as far as I can make out its also going to or has been on the BBC.

The book is called Pompeii and it gives a lot of information and corrects lots of things that I thought were true are in the main not. But its a book that tended to drag a bit for me in the odd chapter. I did want to know more about this Roman town and I did, but it would for me have been nice to see it compared with other towns of the period just so you could understand where it stands in the Roman world.

What I did get from the book is just how much we still don't know and that not all of the town has been excavated .

Planet Calypso - Music

Planet Calypso - Music
I think this is music to surf by, as its not too distracting and is easy on the ears.

Not too sure about the game as it would I suspect eat into my free time in a big way.

YouTube - Orbital - Halcyon On and On

YouTube - Orbital - Halcyon On and On

Just found this on you tube great track from so long ago.

Universe Today

Universe Today

I was very surprised on how large a failure this was on the tank

YouTube - jackcontemusic's Channel

YouTube - jackcontemusic's Channel

Largerita

Yes, it's something up until last week I had never heard of.

But it's very nice and very alcoholic.(nothing wrong with that?)

I would like to thank Nigella Lawson for pointing out and showing how to make this drink, all I need now is some hot summer sun, which in The UK could be a bit of a problem....

I have been asked by a reader how to make a Largerita. so I will put up another blog with the recipe I use and that works for me.

Mind Maping

Just got a book on Mind mapping just to see what all the talk is about it, and to see if its something I could use for my book writing and other creative things.

I did wonder though as all mind mapping seems to be in words or images, why can't I have mind mapping in sound?

Anyway the book is called The Mind Map Book and is by Tony Buzan, and so far, I am on page 21 its all going okay, I have not really learned anything new, I have been given another way at how the mind may or may not work which was interesting but as I am only right at the start of the book its really to early to say if its going to be something that is going to change how I get creative or not.

Book Read

I have finished another book by an author that I have read before, I can't decide if he is getting better at writing or not, but the fact is that I enjoyed the book and when I have found myself in Waterstones, like you do I have looked to see if there is a new book by him, so I suppose that does mean something.

The book is called "Almost a whale" an its a hard fact book on evolution and it is an update in a way to Darwin's book The Origin of Species.

Steve Jones I think does a good job in explaining what we have learnt from Darwin s time. One thing that surprised me was just how much stuff Darwin got right, even more so when you see the information that he had to work with. If nothing else it confirms to me just how good Darwin was.

Jones is an easy author to read and the examples of evolution at work are great and show to my mind at least that Darwin was right and has always been right on how evolution works and is still working.

Nothing Much

Its been some time since I have bloged, manly because I have had nothing I want to say, but the other reason could be that it now takes blogger so long to be ready for me to type something in.

Why?

I just don't know.

Any way here is a blog entry for what it is worth.

10.10.10

I have noticed that today is 10.10.10 and I did think that it would be a great idea to write a blog at 10.10 on 10.10.10 but getting the timing just right was to me just too much like hard work, so I decided that it was just easier to write about it now.

Of course the next date that this all works for is 11.11.11 and also the time of 11.11 and 12.12.12 at 12.12

Sad

Colds

I have decided that I really don't like having a cold, I am so glad that I only get them rarely

Reading yet again

I have finished the James Patterson book at last, in fact I have finished two of his books both in the same series.

I know how come I have managed to read two books so fast?

I think it's down to the fact that both books were written by Maxine Paetro 1st and then James then edits them and adds his bits to the story.

If I am wrong then the way the books with Maxine as the second author reads are totally different when the book is just written by James Patterson.

Any way the book that I have just read are 7th Heaven and 8th Confession both are credited as being written by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, both were a good read in that the stories were good and the main characters world and lives changed during the course of the books.

Reading and Stuff

Just started to read yet another James Patterson book,in fact in the reading pile I have one more to read and it turns out to be the next one in the series of the book I am reading, which just shows how far I am in my reading or that James Patterson is writing and releasing the books far to quickly for me to keep up with, not sure which is the right answer to that one.

So I have to say with this current book I have found it much easier to read and that I find after only a short while that I am on page 141 of the book!

The story is good, and James Patterson's co-author is Maxine Paetro, who has co-author several books with James.

Now I did a bit of research and have found out that normally the 1st draft of the book is written by the co-author and then the final version by James, so I think it is noticeable that the books by different co-authors do read differently, well at least to me.

Is the book any good I think so, but until I have read the whole book I will not know.

The name of the book that I am reading is 7th Heaven and is part of the women's murder club series.

Cottage Pie

Go and try cottage pie made with sweet potatoes instead of them ordinary potatoes, I think you will be very surprised just how well it works.

As they say try something different at least once a year.

Read

I have just finished a book by a well known author that for me to read has been a bit of a struggle. Now normally when I read this authors work its an easy read and the book is great fun and I have a good time and it's a good story, I could also say that I felt that I had been entertained as well, which is the whole point for me of reading a book in the first place.

For some reason, with this particular book by this author that just did not happen, strange that.

The author is James Patterson, yes that bloke who seams to release a book a month or at least it feels like it, looking at the local book shop shelf.

The book that has caused all the problems for me is called You've been warned its also written by Howard Roughan now how much of the book did James write? not an easy question to answer, but I have read somewhere that James may have come up with some of the ideas and that the other guy writes it, then James edits and adds his bits to it. I don't know if that is true or not

I just did not get on with this book, I think in the end it took me more than a year to finish it, in fact I read a lot of other books instead of completing this one.

One of the problems for me, with this book is that the main character who is a young woman, I just did not like and early in the book I just wanted to shout out at her and tell her to grow up and stop acting like a (insert favorite nasty words here) I am, that's how under my skin she got to me.

So for me this book was not fun but for you out there your experience may be very different.

Perhaps what I should do is go as see if there are any reviews and see what others thought of the book, it may be that I am completely in the wrong and that its a great book it might also be that it really is not a great book, who knows?

If I do look at some reviews of this book I shall update this blog post and put some comments on what I found.

Empire CD

Brought a CD the other day, well that's not quite right in fact, I brought the CD about a month ago its just turned up as the CD was only (published? is that the right word,) today.

The CD is by an act called Super8&Tab who I think, are from Finland or somewhere in that area of the world.

Anyway the album that I brought is called Empire, and its their first album, but not their first lot of released tracks as they have been going for a few years.

Now I took a gamble that their album would be as good as their some of their individual tracks that they have released over the years.

I have to say that I don't think I have wasted my money, as I ordered the album early I got a signed copy, which is a first for me and I was surprised to get such a thing. The album is very good with a mix of tracks that are different yet the same if that makes sense.

Book reading

I have got through another book in the last few days, and this was a book that I did enjoy very much.

Its not a fiction book, its one of those books written for I suppose the man in the street or the woman in the street that want to know something more about a partcular science subject.

In this case its about the legacy of Charles Darwin and all his works, I did not know just how much other work Charles did, apart from his evolution work and the survival of the fittest.

This man did some really amazing work that appears to go unnoticed, and what is sad is that most of it he got very right far before anyone else and all that modern science technology appears to have done is filled in the fine detail using the science of DNA that he just did not have access to.

I liked the book that was all about what Charles knew and what we now know and sometime the extra information we have is one because we have ways of looking at a creatures DNA in ways and means that have only come about in the last 5 or so years.

The book is called Darwin's Island and its by Steve Jones, who writes in a very easy to read style and presents lots of facts that had men saying out loud, well I never! and stuff like that.

I know Charles Darwin is to some just the farther of Evolution, but after reading this book its clear that he was the farther of far far more, its sad that his other work is mostly known to scientist's as I am sure that if the general interested publish knew about his other work they would realise just how clever and forward thinking Charles Darwin was.

This is a great book for lifting the veil on some of the other work that Charles did and is well worth the read.

Last Night of the Proms

So its last night of the proms, this means that winter is now on its way, still its nice to see it in HD for the very first time.

Blood

Blood

I have just given my 116th pint or unit of blood, what shocked me was that my next donation is not until Feb 2011!

Blogger

Why does blogger take so long to start?

Sunrise

Sunrise just before 6am, winter is on its way in, wish I had the money to now fly to the southern hemisphere and get to enjoy the spring and summer.

Updates

The amount of updates that I now have to do to my two main websites the Dirk Maggs and James Follett ones due I think to the new cms software that I have installed to run both sites.


The other reason could also be because both Dirk and James appear to have gone quiet on new productions that I can report on.

Perhaps in the next few months there will be something to report on although you know what is going to happen.

Alone

Alone, do you like being alone?

I do sometimes and other times it does my head in.

Just wanted to record that fact here for myself.

The wall in a book

One thing that I sometimes have a hard getting over is when you read so far into a book at some point it becomes for whatever reason very hard to read, its a bit like the wall that marathon runners talk about, why this should happen to readers of books or just to me I just don't know, but the fact remains that there are books out there that for one reason or another have this wall, so far very few of the books with this wall have I failed to finish.

That's not to say that there are books that I have failed to complete, there are few and far between, some of the books are by authors that have had big hits.

Reading

I have read another book, it is one that I have been on the look out for for a few years now and its called Grouch & Me and its by Groucho Marx.

It was worth the wait to get the chance to read it, as he writes to some extent how I would expect him to speak, he has been dead quite a few years it was great to hear him again after all this time.

Was the book worth the wait?

Yes

Ipad

I think I have Ipad envy I could have brought one but instead brought a laptop, result is that I hardly use the laptop...

James Follett

I have some how or other found time to do some more work on the James Follett website, which is good as I really like they way it looks now, even if I say so myself.

One thing that I have noticed since rebuilding the website is that some of the pages in the website have for some reason or another different fonts on their pages, I don't know why they have ended up like this but they have.

So I am slowly going through every page of the website to make sure they have the same font, I have not worked out how to get the programme that drives the website to do this for me yet.

I have looked at the Official James Follett site and compared it to mine, both sites look very different and both have a different slant on the information provided and also how that information is presented, my site still goes into far greater detail, which I think is something you would expect from a fan site, and I cover all of James's work, where the official site just does a broad brush.

I think its a good thing to have 2 different sites on the one subject and even better that one of them is independent of James.

Dirk Maggs

The Dirk Maggs website has had some work done to it and the good news is that I have evidence that Dirk is still doing stuff, not radio but is till stuff, and that's all that counts right?

According to the credits list Dirk was the script writer for the video for Final Frontier by Iron Maiden.

I have seen the video and its good but the music is not to my taste a tall, but I do understand what the song was about and how the video had to relate to it all in all a good job. I think I read that the time allowed to do video was very short 4 weeks?

Reading

Have read some more books that I have not spoken about here yet, so here goes The first is by James Patterson and is called Run for your life, now as entertainment this book mostly worked for me, but and this is a big but, for me the end of the book and the bad guy did not work for the very simple reason that the bad guy suddenly changed the way they they though and acted, through most of the book the bad guy was always intelligent and acted in a methodical manner, then you get to the last few chapters and he starts acting like a completely different person.

Why?

May be the deadline for the book came to soon or the word count had to be kept to, I don't know all I know is that the book could have been so much more.

The other book the I have read cost me nothing as its an out of copyright book that I read on my Itouch.

The book is called The Ultimate Weapon and its by John W Campbell, who if you are into your science fiction and the golden age of science fiction was the editor of Astounding Science Fiction in the 40-60's he introduced to the world authors such as Asimov and Helien.

The book was written back in the early 1930's and it shows in how its written and the science in it, but as for something to read it was great.

Waverley Abbey

Had an idea while the weather was good, eg not rato have a look at Waverley Abbey the ruins of.

I thought that it would be nice a peaceful with very few people around how wrong was I? busy or what it would apear that of folks who appear to be on holiday here from Germany decided that Waverley was the place to have a picnic, and I can't say I blame them, as it is a nice place.

The end result is 50 or more people descending on Waverley Abbey so bang goes a quite peaceful place.

Sunflowers

For the first time in years we got given some seed in the Radio Times, so we planted them, a bit late but they have grown well and it looks like soon will will have some flowers soon if it warms up a bit, as you may or may not know at this time of year August it is supposed to be warm eg 20 centigrade with blue sky and sunshine.

What have we been having?

Cloud cloud rain cloud and cool sometimes as much as 10 centigrade cooler then it should be at this time of year.

Now I know that our UK weather s at best changeable, but I would just love some warm weather so I can chill-out in the garden, also so I can hear the great sounds of summer, like lawnmowers and strimmers you know that sort of thing you always seem to get when their is a nice day a head of you and so every man and his dog decide that the lawn needs mowing of some other job that requires you to make lots of noise just so your neighbours know that you are outside.

weather

I have had to check to see if it really is Aug and not Oct that's how bad the weather has been the last week.

Reading

another book that I read and completed on the 12 August 2010 is Medusa by Clive Clussler well that's what it says on the book with the help of another author who name I am afraid to say escapes me as I write this and don't have the book near to me at this time.

I get the feeling that most if not all of the book was written by the other author and that Clive only had the job of saying yes or no to the book.

The story is good and works well, I think the bad guys are just your typical Hollywood bad guys which is a pity as much more could have been made of them, which would have make the story even better, but as it is the story works and so does the characters in it.

Was it entertaining?

Yes.

Reading

Books that I have read but did not record here in my Blog are Glasshouse by Charles Stross, this was a good read but and its only a small but I did work out very early on what was going to happen. What was great was that it did provide me with some good entertainment which is after all the main reason why I read fiction books in the first place.

I have read other peoples reviews of books and for some reason they forget that when reading fiction books you want to be taken somewhere else by the author and if he does that in such a way that structure of the book and the words he uses are simple, who cares! as long as the author gets the story in your head in stereo and full HD 3d that's all that matters as far as I am concerned.

Anyway back to Glasshouse, it has some great ideas that make for a good story that will make you think ( well it did me).

Now I did read another book but I have forgotten the name of it and who the author is, it was a fact book on the Lancaster Bomber of WW2, to make matters worse I have lent it to someone else on the understanding that he can lend it out after he has read it.

Reading

As I said in a blog post the other day I have done some reading but for one reason or another I have not recorded here what those books are.

Well the first book that I have read is by Charles Stross called The Fuller Memorandum, which is one of the Laundry series of books by Charles.

If you have yet to read one of these books you are in for a treat.

This book was good and its written in such a way that you as a reader are drawn into the story without trying. Good entertainment as far as I am considered.

BBQ

It was touch and go but we had a BBQ tonight, what with how the weather has been over the last few days we where not sure if it would even be dry!


The weather gods were good to us and it was dry and the sun was out for just a little while. The only other problem was that it was a race cooking all the food before we run out of BBQ gas, and thats with that gauge thing they have on gas bottles these days.


Other news I have read a few books that for one reason or another I have not yet recorded here on my blog, but I promise I will do soon.

One of the reasons for not doing the blog has been that for some time now it takes a very long time for it to load up no matter what computer I use to access it, why?

James Follett website

The new James Follett website has some how or other had 55 visits which is really quite good as I have not told anyone the new site and the software changes

I have finally redone the entire James Follett Website using a CMS to store and control the data, so far it all looks okay, all being well the updating of the site will be much easier, somehow or other I have set up a domain redirect, which works so that by typing the normal address for James Follett website you will be sent automatically to the new website.

Cool or what?


Any way the basic site is up there is a lot of up dating that has to happen to make sure all the text ect is the same.

Drinks I am having a Pimms No 5

Well I am drinking Pimms No5 in the evening sun, and I must say its all rather nice...


Did get asked what does Pimms taste of? the only answer I could give is that Pimms tastes of Pimms

XL LIVE IQ Routes™ Regional 12 months - Car navigation - TomTom

XL LIVE IQ Routes™ Regional 12 months - Car navigation - TomTom
Why are there so many TomTom models

Things

Its been a while since did any posts to this blog, mainly because Idon't have anything to say.

But I think twill change soon as I have been doing some readinand its been fun.

Testing

 


This is just a test to see if Blogger and Picasa work together

Laptop

Just a note to that I now have a new laptop, in fact its my first laptop. Its a Samsung R530

Reading

What I have been Reading

Well I have just read another book which is by an author called Alastair Reynolds. The book is called "Terminal World" now don't get me wrong, as a story goes, it's good, but I when I completed reading the book I was left disappointed by it, I think somehow the book was brought to an end with too many story threads not brought to a nice ending.

I am after all reading the book to be entertained and as I have said before I expect the author of the book to play fair with me the reader, and provide me wuth a story that comes to some sort of ending that allows me as the reader to have closure with the characters in the book, which I have come to know and have spent some time with, and so I do want to know what mostly happens to them next or that their story is complete ect.


Anyway back to the book, so like I said eariler in this book that does not happen, lots of the characters are left in mid air so to speak, and that's what has left a bad taste in the mouth.

Alastair's writing is good and the ideas in the book are good and so is the plot and all that stuff that makes for an intresting read and they all do work and do the job, its just that the ending is, well it sucks.

If I did not know better, I would say that the publisher has told the author to end the book in such a way that a second book could be written if needs be. There could aslo be a word or page count limit and that as written the book was too long and Alastair had to edit the book down to a certian size on page lenght or works. I dont know if its this or that the ending is how he wanted it and that I am just looking for the story to end in a particular way and this time its not what I wanted or got.

I think I shall look out for more books by him but if he keeps gining me stories that end like this one, then perhaps I shall have to look else where for my entertianment.

Reading

Another book that I read a little while ago, but have not had the time for some reason to record it here is by John O'Farrell and it's called An utterly exasperated history of modern Britain.

I think I can say that I did not enjoy this book too much, don't get me wrong I did read it cover to cover but, and this is the but some how or other the author tone, voice? got under my skin and I was left with a bad test in my mouth.

So this is one of those books that to me was a bit of a let down, I think partly because the author appears to have gone out of his way to show how clever he is with hindsight and complete knowledge of events, while the people and events that he is talking about are of course unable to see everything.

Reading

Just finished reading that Stephen Baxter book that I spoke about a little while ago. The name of the book is Stone Spring I must say here that it was a good read and it kept me entertained.

The ideas that Stephen presents in the book are such that I even did a bit of a search on the internet just to confirm what he said was real and what he had made up.

I have no idea where book to in this series is going to take use, but I do know that I do look forward to seeing where the story goes.

On a side note this book would I think make a great radio show, as there is plenty of scope for some good acting and the use of some good and well chosen sound effects.

It's sad that such a radio show will never see the light of day on say the BBC as that's not the sort of thing they are into any-more, in fact just looking the other day at the radio Times the number of plays seems to have been cut such that at the rate they are disappearing a radio play once a week will be a treat.

Stephen Baxter

I am reading the very latest book by Stephen Baxter that has been published in hardback. Called Stone Spring and it's so I am told part 1 of a trilogy, I am wondering what the other books in the series are going to be called.

Now knowing just how long the publishing pipeline is has Stephen already written part 3?

I notice that a lot of his books now days feature things going badly wrong for the main characters in the books, I wonder why this change.

I know that authors move on, but some times I wonder if the books that they are having to write are being dictated to by the publisher and not what the authors muse wants.

It would I think be interesting to find out from more than one author if this is indeed true, I think personally that the answer will be more towards the fact that the publisher has to make a profit to stay in business and so an author like Stephen Baxter will have to be more flexible and open to the idea that commercial books are the way to go if he still wants to be published, with the coming of e books there may be a way of having some stories published that way that would not have been published in paper form.

It goes without saying that paper books will never go away and that there will always be a need for books in paper form. E books are going to be there in the market place but they will not take over the whole of the book publishing business.

Anyway I got off the track just a bit I just wonder if Stephen Baxter is ever going to do any hi science fiction stories in his Xeee universe? or has he moved on to other things that now get his writing muse more interested.

BBQ

So today we are having a BBQ for Chaz, so you can guess what the weather is going to do! yep wet or so it looks.

I don't know how all the folks that are coming are going to cope sitting in the rain!

Dirk Maggs Website

Good news the following pages are now apart from photo's all now working again on the Dirk Maggs Productions Website radio productions from 1988 to 2006.

Yes I know lots of work....The website appears to have backup itself ( which is I think a very good idea) can't think why that is but hey its doing it.

So in the grand scheme of things that only leaves all the work that Dirk has done that is not radio from 1988 to 2010.. There is a lot of work, then there is the small mater of sorting out the photo's.

Photo's of actors that do mainly radio are by their very nature not easy to get at, so it goes without saying that I will beg steal and borrow to get them, Why? you may ask?

The answer is that I think its great so see who theses voices belong to, as some times the voice does not match the face, if that's a nice way of putting it ( I am sure there is a better way but I don't have a clue how to put it)

I have found that it also makes each page about tone of Dirk's radio productions far more interesting.

Itouch

I have a 2nd Gen itouch which I have to admit gets very heavy used, well just lately in fact since itunes was last updated I have found that the backup side of things is talking hours.

Why?


I do have a 32 GB touch but only about 12 GB is in use, backing up used to take only some 5 to 10 minutes. I wonder if Apple have some how broken something in the update of itunes.

I would do a Goggle search, but I have noticed lately that Goggle is returning more and more results that are very out of date, in some cases stuff from 2 years ago that clearly has nothing to do with what I have searched for, why is this?

Website Updating

Work continues on the Dirk Maggs website, the good news is that most of the reference section is now done, in the sense that all the page content is there, the only missing bits being the images, which for some reason or other I find myself leaving to the last thing to do, perhaps because it takes so long to find each images and insert it in to the page in the right place, and then to make sure the links and all that stuff work with it.

The website as a whole is I now suppose some 60 percent complete, so as the rate of progress slows I still think it will not be complete until December of 2010.

The page count now stands at 195 ! which was a bit of a surprise, I did not think the website was that large.

On another note the backup of the website all appears to be working as it should this time, so that's good news.

Dirk Maggs Website

The good news is that the rebuild of the Dirk Maggs website is going well. Years 1987-2003 have now been done (a part from images) all the main text content is in place, so I only have years 2004-2009 to do on radio productions.

Powys

Powys, originally uploaded by davew1.

For the first time in ages, I have put a picture up on Flickr

Reading

Another book that I have read, but up until now have not written about is called "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown.

I have to say that for me it did not quite work and at the end of it I felt some how that I had been short changed, I don't know how to put that into words that feeling but that's what it was.


I think and this is only my opinion on this that the book needed to have been edited harder by an editor who was after a good story that would entertain and not worry about the author's feelings too much.

I was entertained in parts of the book but overall as I have said before I felt that the author has some how or other managed to short change me in giving me a full enjoyable story.

Reading

I have just completed reading "Why does e=mc2" by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw I had a bit of a problem with parts of the book, I got the feeling that the authors lost site of who they were writing the book for.

I must admit that I liked the book and it did explain some of the terms that I have heard on the TV and seen on some websites.

Posts

I see that according to Blogger this is my 782 post. I know that's not many compared to many other folks and there blog pages, but then again I only blog when I have some thing I want to say and also want to be able to find later.

I do wonder if Twitter has killed my need to blog, in fact I wonder if the rate of blogging has fallen off some what.

I have noticed that you don't see any one making so many comments about blogging, perhaps it's no longer flavour of the month or some thing.

Anyway I just noticed all that and that my level of posts has dropped right off, I shall just carry on a post at a time as and when I have some thing to say or report on.

Dirk Maggs

As you may or may not know I had a really bad day not so long a go, when I lost my Dirk Maggs website, and some how or other the six yes that's right six backups did not work and the database that ran the whole thing also broke.(Just don't ask)

It's easy to see how I was just a little bit upset( and that's an understatement!)

So what's a man to do?


Well start again!


That's what I have done and I am pleased that so far I think this version of the site is better than the last one. The good news is that all radio shows up to 1998 are now back on apart from the images that go with each show.

At the rate that I am redoing each page I think I will be done by Xmas 2010!

sunset 6

sunset 6, originally uploaded by laratyg.

Love how much mood this image has

BBQ

Has a good BBQ only thing is the noise from the kids next door, I have clean forgot just how much noise 4 kids can make.

Reading

Another book that I think I can say I have read is "The cloud collector's handbook" by Gavin Pretor-Pinney I hope that you can see from the books title why I said that I think I can claim that I have read it, I must admit that it's a great little book for working out what sort of clouds you can see and it will also give you extra information such as what height the clouds are at, and it always to me comes as a bit of a surprise just how heigh some cloud type are.

The other thing that i like about this book is that it goes on to give information on some of the stuff that you can see in the sky that is rare but is well known about.


Such as Sun-dogs I had heard of them, I have now since reading the book realised that I have indeed seen them and not realised just what they are.

This is not a book that is entertaining, it can't be but as a useful reference book it works a treat.

Hot

Looks like today will be the hottest day of the year, and about time to so I thinks, I mean we have had a very cold winter so I think that it's only right that we now have some warm sunshine.

Well I know for once that I deserve some sunshine.

Reading

I have had some free time, well leave. I managed to do some reading this first post is about the first book that I read.

Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson.

Not too much too say other than its a great book and I can see why it has sold more than 1 million copies, based on the qi shows some of the items in the book made me think how much stuff you think you know that is wrong.

Well worth the read.

Posts

I see that I have not done very many blog posts of late, mainly as I have not had anything to talk about, so why say fluff?

Reading

I have finally finished another book, for some reason this year I am not reading as many books as I do normally and also I don't seem to have as much time to read, which is strange as I don't feel any busier than this time last year, perhaps it's old age or something, who knows.

So the book is called "A little history of the world" by E.H Gombrich, all I can say is that it is great and I see why it sold 6 million copies, its easy to read and I did learn lots

Website Updating

Years 1987 and 1988 of Dirk Maggs Radio productions are now live on the website.

But search which used to work real well does not for some reason search the whole site, strange.

Weymouth

Just a note to be Bank holiday going to Weymouth see the kites.....

Re Build Website

The rebuild of the Dirk Maggs website is on going in that I have 83 pages so far, but only 4 or so of them are done and are fully working, as I estimate that the Dirk Maggs website had some 200 pages to go until; I have the website fully back up and running.

I have taken advantage of the fact that the software used to drive the website has been updated, and so have updated the software, which I must say has made a very big difference to the rebuild.

I think if any thing it has made it quicker if such a thing is possible.

Still even with that I still think that we are taking weeks before the site is any where near what it used to be.

Website troubles

So I have the software installed, the database installed and working. I have chosen a theme for the website I have even put up a holding page.

I think there is about 198 pages of information to now reinstall, which is going to take weeks and weeks to do.

Then there is the navigation system and all the pictures to sort out.

The plane and simple truth is that the Dirk Maggs website is not going to be back up and working fully for sometime.

Bum

Website troubles

Dirk Maggs website is lost... all of it, backups as well. Not happy....

Website troubles

The bad news is that my Dirk Maggs website has gone bang and is now broken...which is not good not good a tall, I am hoping that my backups all work and that I shall have the website back up in a day or so.


If not then I will have to start all over again, which is not good.

Reading

Just completed a book that was really fun to read and I learned a lot which was nice and a surprise. The book as you can tell is a fact book and on a subject that I have not really thought about that much.

The book is called The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer and its a good read and well worth the time and effort to read it.

Reading

I have just completed reading a book that has left me not to sure about the main subject matter, and when I tell you the name of the book you will see that when I say that when they are dead we may then learn some of the truth then I think you will understand what I am going on about.

I did and did not enjoy this book I say this because the author appears to have become emotionally involved I was all ways told that with this kind of book that is the very last thing that you should do.

Any way the name of the book is Clint The life and Legend by Patrick Mcgilligan

Dirk Maggs

I have just fixed a problem where by for some reason the link to the Dirk Maggs website was not pointing to the correct start point on the website, I don't have any ideas as to what broke it or even how long it has been broken.


It all now appears to be working correctly which is good, as I noticed the number of hits had dropped right off.

I also sadly noticed that I am no longer the No 1 on google search for Dirk Maggs so bloke called Dirk Maggs! is now number one I don't know how he managed that!


So it would appear that my Dirk Maggs website has disappeared from google, I wonder just for how long.

Warm

Today was nice and warm 16c I know and I am told that there is more to come

Blue Sky

I just want to record this as it's happening.


Yes there is bright blue sky as I type this at 16.56 hrs on 4 th April, I know even I am surprised, I mean come on its Easter and some sunshine, even if its only for a few minutes is better than nothing.

Gammon

As it's Easter we had gammon done our way, result was wonderful!

Weather

As it's Easter you don't need to be told that the weather is as you would expect for a Bank Holiday, wet cold and dull


Simple question why?

ipad

I see from looking at the internet news that in the USA today the ipad version 1 was on sale for the first time. Now the interesting thing will be just how much an ipad will be in the UK when they decide to sell them here, which is rumoured to be later in April.

I suppose that as normal we here in the UK will get charged more. So I will not hold by breath for the price to be similar to the USA one.

It has made me start to think what would I do now for version or generation 2 of the ipad ? and that's were it can get a bit difficult in just what do you add to a generation 2 device?

So of the things that you can do to9 a generation 2 device are easy in that you can update the operating system to a newer one with more features.

But do you start to add new hardware to your Gen 2 device?

I have been told by many that the Gen 1 ipad is not the right one for me and that a Gen 2 will be better, I have been told that Xmas 2010 is when a Gen 2 ipad is due and that before that a new OS will be realised updating or adding stuff that just was not ready for the launch of the Gen 1 device.

So as long as my itouch keeps working, and I hope it does I can afford to wait until Xmas 2010 to see what is or is not going to turn up.

Updates and cars

Ever had an update of the firmware to your car?


No nether have I yet My car was supposed to have its software updated today while it was being serviced, it did not happen as and get this the internet was down!

So due to this I will now have to loose my car yet again for a day.

I am not happy

Wine

Just how is it that grapes from different parts of the world can taste so different when they are made into wine.

Read

I have finally finished the book that I spoke about the other day, it really is an easy read. But and there is a but, the book feels like its a draft for a longer book, it felt to me as if the author had run out of time and the manuscript was just handed in as it was. The because of who the author is the editor did not do a full edit on the book and demand changes.

Which I think is a real pity as I am sure the book could have been much better.

Before I forget the book that I have just read is called The Murder of King Tut by James Patterson and Martin Dugard.

I think that the book needed more time and also to be longer, that way part 2 of the book could have been better presented and done in such a way that this reader did not get the impression that this was a peace that had already been written and just the names changed, why I get that impression I just don't know but that's what I got. The parts that are set in the present might have been better presented as author notes or something like that, but the way that they have been present really jar's with the rest of the book.

As for how James and martin have decided there was a crime just does not ring true, when James describes a murder in his other books you get told far more about how and why, but in this book he does not do that, I found it was something that I missed.

Was I entertained?

The answer is yes, but I also came away feeling a bit cheated, like I had not been served the best meal or story that I think and know that James can deliver.

Anyway that what I thought your ideas and that may be different.

Books

I have just picked up a book by James Patterson that I thought he would never write, and I must admit that so far its been a good read, its a while since I have read one of his books and the thing that for me always takes a while to get used to is just how short the chapters are in his books. I must admit that the short chapters do not get in the way of the story it's just something that he appears to do. It certainly has not hurt his book sales from what I can make out.

Any way the name of the book that I never expected him to right is The murder of King Tut, I know it threw me as-well.

but the story is good the way that he is telling it is very different to what i expected but so far it appears to work for me, your mileage may be different.

So I shall carry on reading it just to see how he is going to pull off this subject in his style.

Am I being entertained? you bet ye.

Rose

Rose is nice

Rain

Why does it always appear to rain on Saturday, especially when there was stuff you want to do, but only if the weather is dry.

Problem

I find myself if an interesting problem, and its something that has happened many times before, but the last time this particular problem occurred is so long ago that I don't remember what I did.

The problem is this I have two new books that I want to read and I just don't know which one to start first as both books are about 500 pages long. One book is a biography the other is a SF book.

The SF book is one that I even pre-ordered, the biography is a book about a very famous male film star that I have been looking for, for some time, say years.

So which one do I read both are I am sure god books.

As a principle I don't read reviews of books that I am going to read as I don't want to be influenced by what others have said.

So it's a good problem, perhaps I shall use that most complicated of choice deciders and flip a coin!

reading

Well I have just finished another book, I know its scary this could be my second or third book that I have read this year, I wonder if I can keep up the pace.

The book is called Corsair and its by Clive Cussler with Jack Du Brul. I think that means that Jack wrote most of it and Clive had the chance to change things that he did not like, or something like that.

Anyway to me it does not matter as for this kind of book all I want is to be entertained, which I was and that's all that I wanted and that's what I got.

I suppose it would be interesting to find out just what the real work split is, but in the end its a good story with characters that after several other books in the series you know to a large extent just how they are going to react and they do react as you expect, which is nice.

I suppose as a reader its one of the reasons why series of books always do well in that you are on familiar ground with the hardware and the main reoccurring characters its how the characters react in the different situations is the play off for the reader and I suppose for the author.

So all in all yes if you want a pager turner of a book with lots of action then this is a book that will deliver.

Updates

Work on the websites has stopped for 2 reasons.

1 I had a weeks holiday, which I needed.
2 Work and getting other stuff done has a higher priority, and as doing the websites cost me money life gets in the way.

Daisy

Just a note to myself so that I don't forget saw my first daisy and dandelion today

Reading

I have just finished a book that I pre-ordered on Amazon, so I got it as a hardback book, which is some thing I don't normally do but for this author I thought I would take a chance.

I think that this may be one of those occasions were I may have had just a bit of a bad result.

On the book buying side I have no problems, the book was sent to me on time and I must admit that all the price promises that Amazon made where kept, in that there was a price change and I got to have the benefit of it. So thank you Amazon.

Now the book contents part.

I am not too sure on this one, even though I have had some time to think all about it, I still feel as if I have been let down in some way by the author.

The book is by Iain Banks and is call Transition, I will not try to explain the story as I think that, that is one of the problems, Iain has I think tried to do what a lot of other authors have done and that is to write a story from many view points and times.

I don't think to me that he gets it quite right, in that this poor reader was at times feeling left behind, even when I went back to reread the parts that did not make sense.

I don't know if its his use of language or prose, but sometimes it just did not work for me.

I was entertained that I am sure of, its just that I was expecting to have an easier time of getting entertained.

I shall now that I have read the book go and have a look at what others have said about this book, to see if it just me or if there is a perceived problem with it.

Nothing to say

Its funny how at one stage I had lots that I wanted to say then all of a sudden nothing zip, why?

I don't know why it happens like that but it does and from some reading that I have done I am not the only one that it happens to.

I was given a bit of advice a while a go about writing blogs, and the advice was that if you have nothing to say then don't try and force it as what you will write will come out as something that will not read well and it will probably not really be the real you speaking.

So I have followed my own advice over the last few weeks.

Which is good.

ipad

i have been looking at what apple have done in the past with the release of new products and it dos not look good.

What I mean is that when the ipod came out e.g gen 1 it had some shortcomings and the software had stuff missing, which in hindsight should have been there from the very start, even the Gen 2 and 3 devices had stuff missing, but by gen 4 its good.

Now I own and ipod touch, and I use it very heavily every day, I keep running out of storage on it, is a 32GB device, I keep finding that I run out of app space even when I have lots of storage space for the programmes, I have seen and used a gen 1 touch and its not very good and is underpowered and stuff that would drive me nuts.

So with all that it stands to reason that Apple will do it again with the ipad, so I am going to wait for the gen 2 ipad which I am told will be out at Xmas 2010, so not long to wait.

Updates

As I think I sad in an earlier blog, I have just started to do some work on the new James Follett website, pretty much in the same lines as the Dirk Maggs one, well why not it all seems to work okay and once everything is in the updating of the website is to tell the truth really really very easy and that's one of the main things that I want to gain from all of this updating stuff.

I must admit that the James Follett site is smaller I think, in fact I'm not to sure how they compare size wise. I suspect that over the next few weeks it's something that I will find out from first hand experience.

So then, on the James Follett side of things the database is set up and the core elements that go to make up the website are now all in place, all and I say this lightly all I now have to do is get the content transferred into the new website. This is a task that has to be done manually which is a pain but there dose not seem to be any other way of getting the job done, so manual it is.

I have so far only put the very first page up, mainly to see if it all works and all that sort of stuff that you do when trying out new stuff, it all appears to be working how I would expect it to which is good.

So I now have the long task of converting it to the new format. I don't know if I should tell James or not, as I am not sure if he is that interested in his unofficial website these days.

I will set up the domain so that when complete it points at the new website, and when I have checked that it all works I will delete the old website.

If by any chance James does realise any new material it will be very easy to update and also as an added benefit he could also with the right permissions edit the site, or at least correct it or even add missing information to it.

So lots to do.

Sky

Looks today as if we are going to have a cold but bright blue sky day, which is nice, as its been just a while since we had that sort of things.

Updates

I have started to create the new James Follett website.

229 of 365 - Watch out! It's Lady No Pupil and she's come to eat you alive!

229 of 365 - Watch out! It's Lady No Pupil and she's come to eat you alive!, originally uploaded by elsvo.

Just found this images on the old flickr pages, like you do. What I like about this images is the eyes, I have been told that the eyes are a portal into the soul, if that's true then this is I think an images that tells that in spades.

Reading

I have just finished reading a book which when it was first out in hardback caused a bit of a storm, well for a few days back in 2009.

You will see what all the fuss is about as soon as you see the books name, but just to prolong things a bit longer, I begin to wonder what all the fuss was about as 90 percent of what the author says is well to be simple and straight forward.

I enjoyed the book and there where parts of it that where presented in a way that I had not seen before.

The book I think losses a bit in that not enough examples of the current state of things is given and then saying where he thinks they are going to go. Don't get me wrong the book is okay its just that I think you need to know where you are before you can say where you could or might go.

Anyway it did entertain me and at the of the day that's all that matters for me.

So after all that the name of the book is "Love & Sex with Robots" by David Levy

Updates

The Dirk Maggs website is a bit nearer to being completed as I want it.

I am now working on the odds section, and so far it has some 16 pages, which is a bit of a surprise, I hope to have it all done soon. One thing that I have done is drop pages that are no longer needed as this new website works in a very different way to the old, so much so that features that the old did not have and so had to have pages created by hand to give the feature are now created or done automatically by the new site software, neat!

I think that a another couple of weeks will do it.

The only thing that I will I suppose have to work out in the near future is how to update the software that runs the cms, and do it in such a way that it is safe.

The other thing that I will also have to do will be to delete all the old pages on the website so only the new Dirk Maggs site remains.

Headphones

Finally got my headphones that Donna brought for me as a Valentines present!

The finally bit is that even though the delivery was supposed to be 24 hours DHL decided that not delivering them on Friday was a good reason to delver them on Monday so they had them Friday am till Monday am, not happy about that rather poor service, I expected better, and there does not appear to be a way of telling them what I think about their service.

Anyway talking about the new headphones is what this blog is supposed to be all about, and they are made by Sennheiser they are an upgrade of my existing headphones, they are noise reducing and they are model PXC300.

I must say that for me they work very well, and do exactly what the manufacture said they would do which is good, even though we got them in a sale they still cost over hundred pounds, but so far I would say they are worth the money. The sound they produce for me is good and the sound reduction technology works very well.

My ipod touch seems to like them and that's all that really matters at the end of the day. I have read else where that they are't as good as expected and that they don't cut out all the external noise, but that's where I think people have misunderstood what a noise reduction headphone is designed to do.

But me I like them and they do what I expected them to do, if I want hifi sound then I would have gone for closed ear type of headphone, and these are not that, so by their very design they can never be better than a closed ear design, but you have to ask yourself do you want to go around the streets looking like Mickey Mouse with big ears?

Updates

I am hoping that to day I can finish the layout changes on the Dirk Maggs website, and that after that has been done the site can be called done as far as this round of changes and updates to it goes.

I suspect that the next changes will be if I get new pictures of any of the voice actors that I haven't already got or if Dirk ever does another new radio production or and yes there are lots of or's in this sentence I get new information on any of the radio productions already featured.

Updates

So I have I think got most of the images in on the major pages of the Dirk Maggs website, which is good, I have decided at this time that the interlinking of pages on the website is not needed as I give every user of the website the chance to search the entire website for whatever they are looking for.

Saying that the number of users for the new Dirk Maggs website never hit more than 75-100 people a day so I suppose I am not going to upset many people by removing the links, and any way its my site and I can do whatever I want with it, and if removing stuff like interlinks makes my job easier for no real loss of usability then its a step that I am going to take.

Reading

I have just finished reading the very latest book by Robert Harris called Lustrum which as you may or may not know is book 2 in the Roman trilogy that he is writing. A the books chart the life of the real life figure of Cicero.

So far both the 1st book and this book have both been a good read, and I must admit I don't know where real life stops and the fiction begins, but checking real life with what he has written he dos not go to far from what happened all that time ago.

Part 3 will be out next year if Robert keeps to his publishing time-scale, which is good because I would love to see how he will bring it all to great conclusion.

Updates

Just do a bit more updating of the Dirk Maggs website, and even if I have to say it myself it's going well.

I think that in the next day or so I should have all the pages in all the pictures in. The only thing that will be left to do will be the interlinks within the website, which will take some time.

I also have an idea for the odd extra page here and there after that the only changes will be if new material turns up or a new production by Dirk appears.

Updates

I have made some more progress on the Dirk Maggs website, in that I think I have worked out how to get some of the tables to center up. Its a bit of a cheat in that all I do is make the table width bigger, and some how or other it center itself when being displayed, no I don't understand how it does it, but it appears to work, this means I now have to go through all 200 odd pages, as I did't keep a record of what pages were broken, oh well

Updates

Have some how found just a bit of time to do some more update to the Dirk Maggs website, I have added a few more images and also added some changes to the layout of a couple of the pages, so hopefully making them easier to read.

I still have a layout issue on some pages where for some reason or other the pictures in a frame will not center up in the page, why I just don't know.

So those pages will remain broken until I find a way of correcting what ever the fault is that breaks them.

Cold

So mister BBC weather man has just said that temperatures this week will be 5 centigrade lower than they should be.


I want spring, when is spring going happen.

Nothing

Funny how you can go from having lots to say to nothing, I suspect that I am in my nothing to say period!

Reading Now

I have just finished reading the latest Matthew Reilly book called "The Five Greatest Warriors" and I must admit that it was a great read and I felt that I had been entertained, which is what I want from most of the books that I read.

This book which I have to wait some 2 years for was worth the wait and completes the story which was started back in his earlier book called "The Six Sacred Stones" which I read back in 2006-7!, yes 2006-7 even I had to check the year that I read it.

Matthew writes books that are just all out thrillers with action and some very clever puzzles in them, they will never win awards for literature, but then I don't read that kind of book, I want to be entertained and to go with the help of the author into a movie that is better than Blue Ray and is more 3d than 3d and better sound than Dolby, and I think that Matthew is for me one of those authors who just does it for me, your mileage many vary.

So would I say to others read this book, yes if you like the kind of stories that Matthew writes.

Last Post

This is the last post for this month and all in all so of the projects that I wanted to work on have been worked on, which is good.

The websites that I have, so far only one of them which is the Dirk Maggs Productions website has been updated, work on it will take some months yet but I think there is light at the end of the tunnel as the saying goes.

Updates 7

Updates

I have managed to update the Dirk Maggs website for production year 2001 and 2003. For some reason that I have yet to work out the layout on pages that I am sure I had sorted out are now all wrong with all the headings all hard over to the left-hand side, why this is I just don't have a clue.

Any way these two years all the production pages where looking okay as of this post on my blog.

So that of course means that the next time that I go and have a look they will be broken again!

Moon

Just a note to me that the Moon looked real big on the horizon and the red "star" by it was Mars.

ipad

So the ipad is out, I don't know why but I wanted it to have more than they gave. By that I mean that as a version 1 device it has some failings that to me here in little old England are so obvious that you begin to wonder just what plant so of the folks in Apple are on.

I suppose will will never know what sort of discussions went to to decide what the machine should or should not have but the sad fact is that for what ever very good reasons, some of the stuff that they have left out are well to me just strange.

Take for instance multitasking, if I understand it right the new cpu that the ipad has, is more than capable of doing more than one task at the same time, the OS in the ipad can multi-task, in fact I think I have read somewhere that it does multi-task if you happen to be Apple and its your software running at the time.

So why does it not multi-task? there must be a reason, what it is I just don't have a clue.

The other thing that is not there is a forward facing camera, which would make the ipad just so much more usable, may be Apple don't want to sell too many devices or the cost of adding a camera broke the budget on the build cost.

Talking of build cost, I wonder just how much it does cost to make an ipad?

One thing that makes me really unhappy is that when I use my itouch ( which I do use very heavily, and have also run out of space on lots of times, its a 32G unit) is the number of website that don't work because I don't have flash on the itouch and I now see that for some reason Apple have still not got over there fears, worries about allowing it to work on the new ipad, why?

I am told by those in the know that the machine eg my touch is more than capable of running flash without any real problems.

So I have looked at other version 1 devices that Apple has done and have decided that a version 2 device is the better way to go.

So I have 12 more months to go before I will have to look at replacing my touch , I hope it lasts that long as the use it gets is stupid.

Reading

I have just finished reading the latest Peter James novel that has come out in paperback. Its called Dead Tomorrow and is the latest in the Roy Grace series, and I have to admit that it was a good read with lots going on, and I think this bit is important the characters in the novels do change and progress and the way they act to the world they are in also change.

I like the main character Roy Grace, not sure why? maybe because he is human he makes mistakes and is not flawed like so many police men in fiction you meet these days.

By that I mean you only have to look on telly what is coming out of the USA to see that all the policeman have something wrong with them, if its not that then they appear to have a budget so large that any new kit that that comes out that could be used to catch the bad guys is brought and suddenly every one knows how to use it perfectly.

What I like about Peter James is that in the story money or resources are tight and sometimes Roy Grace can't have the item or resource that he needs, but and this is a big but he finds another way to do what needs doing.

So this book is a good read, you do not need to have read the early books but you do get more from the book if you already know Roy Grace and his world.

I suppose that it will only be time that will tell when it gets to the small screen which I think would be a pity as this is a series that needs you the reader to get involved, a multicast radio series would I think be really good, but these days the money and the interest for such a thing just will not happen which is sad but that's how it is.

I suppose the only consolation to this is that Peter has written the new book in the series, I just wish he was just a bit like Terry Pratchett and published a book every 6 months, cause I need my Roy Grace fix, I want to know what is going to happen next.

Updates

The updates to the Dirk Maggs website are still going on, the only trouble is that for most users of the site you can't see any changes.

The other thing that I have also noticed is that the number of visits to the site has collapsed, where I used to have thousands I am now lucky if I have 20 or 30 a day. Which is a bit of a surprise as I am still very high up on Goggle when you do a search for Dirk Maggs.

I know that I still have the old Dirk Maggs site, but that is not getting any more hits than the new one, so I am not too sure just what is going on.

I also have the problem of working out just how to safely remove the old website without loosing the new one.

Blood

Today is the 1st time this year that I have given blood. Apart from the booking system not working how it should I have now given 114 units of blood.

To say I am proud of myself would be an understatement. As the worst thing to me about giving blood is when they pull the plasters off that hold the needle in your arm, it real really hurts and the number of hairs that get ripped out of my arm is well lots.

But its a small price to pay to help others.

Updates 6

on the Dirk Maggs productions website I have just sorted out production year 1998, so it joins the list of pages that now have some form of navigation.

Still loads to do.

Website Updating

1996 and 1995 of the Dirk Maggs productions website production years have now had there navigation sorted out and do look much better for it.

I have even managed to reinstall some of the cast pictures that have been missing since the move to the new site.

Not to sure just how many more production years there are to go, one part of me is just a little scared in that I really don't want to know just how much more work is left to be done.

but it's nice to say that we have moved forward.

Tuna

Just had to note here for me that Honey and soy hot noddles and tuna is nice but next time find out just how small the portions are, so that you don't end up hungry.

Blogs

Funny how one minute you have lots you want to say in your blog and the next either you do not have the time or you don't have anything that you think needs to be said.

Updates 4

The updating of the Dirk Maggs Productions website carry s on and on or so it seems, the good news is that all the productions from 1987 to 1993 now have there correct navigation system installed.

The bad news or which there are two is that 1 the years 1994 to 2010 need to be done, and in some of those years Dirk did do a lot of radio work, so there are lots of productions to add the navigation system to.

The second bit of bad news is that as I have gone through the productions from 1987 to 1993 I have found that quite a few are missing cast photo's which I know that I have.

It goes without saying that I will have to add the photo's that I have, but this also means that I will have to search out some of the missing ones and credit them if that information is out there.

As my head was starting to spin with all the edits I have called it a day on the edit front.

Blue sky

So today it looks like we may be very luck and have a day with some blue sky, I can't think when we last had a day with it, its been that long.

I also don't know if the sun will be very warm, it does not matter as long as we have some hours of bright daylight.

Website Updating 3

I have done some more work to the Dirk Maggs Productions website, I have now started on the very long road to put a navigation system in for every production by year. This is something that I said that I started a while ago and I am still doing it!


So far progress is slow as each production pages takes some 5 minutes or so, and I find that after a while my concentration starts to go and I start to make errors. So I have sound the best thing to do is to pick a year that I have not done and do it, and if there are not too many productions in the year then pick another year and do that. I have found that sometimes I can do more than one year at a time before I get *issed off with it all.

I think that at my current rate of doing the editing I shall finish in a few weeks.

There is plenty of stuff that still needs to be done, eg sorting out cast photos and getting them all the right size, I suspect that this task will take months and may never really be complete as I hope there will be new stuff to report on that Dirk has done.

The other final very important job that has got to be done is to work out how my host works so that I can remove all the old Dirk Maggs website and just leave the new one.

Snow

The report on the snow we had is this, its finally going, in fact it has been raining and you know what I don't care one little bit that it is wet.

The weather men are saying that we could see some blue sky tomorrow. It will be nice to see some as we have not had any for so long now. What little snow that is left is where it was piled up after being dug off the roads or the paths

Bread maker

Just some great news got a replacement bread maker

Heating

Well we have had a bit of a situation here the last few days. Yes the heating failed, and it is still cold, and I can tell you a house at 10 centigrade is not much fun to sit in.

Lucky as we have four star maintainance with the Gas board they came out the next day after we placed the call, as we made it at gone 6 pm.

The result the main circulation motor had died and the 3 port valve had failed in that the spindle had snapped.

Gas board man said will be back at 10am on Sat to fix it, and he was and it is all working.

House temp at 16.45 hrs was 18.1 centigrade and rising.

Slush

Today in honour of the thaw my word of the day is SLUSH

Dirk Maggs

I got a bit more of the Dirk Maggs website done, in that I think I have worked out a simple page navigation system for his radio work by year. Well it appears to be working the only snag is that I now have some 100 pages to edit and change, and each one has to be done by hand, which is not good.

As each page takes some 10 to 15 minutes to do it is going to take some time to do every radio production, but then there is no rush, as its my website and I can take as long as I like to get it into the format and layout that I want.

Book reading 2

This is the first book that I have finished reading this year 2010, well I think it is.

The book is called American Connections by James Burke, its an interesting read in that as a Brit I do not know how many men signed the American Declaration of Independence, and I did not know just how close it came to being not signed and not needed.

It would appear that a lot of the men who signed the document all made in some way a lot of money from it, may be that was one of the un-written reasons and why they would not compromise.

So I did learn a lot from this book, but I got the feeling that even James had trouble linking some of the men back to today.

Well worth a read if your history of how or who some of the men behind the declaration is non existent

Updates 3

The Dirk Maggs Website was updated a bit more yesterday in fact I found new information for one of Dirk's lesser known productions of the 1990's in fact it's a pilot show that he did that never got taken up.

I still have lots of layout problems and I still have not yet worked out a good and easy navigation system.

Hills

Living at the bottom of a long hill eg its height difference from top to bottom is some 100 odd feet but the distance from top to bottom is much more and that the top of the hill and to add to the fun there is a set of traffic lights as there is a major A road at the top of it.

Add snow about 9 inches

Add no salt


Add no grit


Result I can't get my car out of my road and it is doing my head in

Website Updating 2

For reasons that should be obvious eg the very bad weather, I am too tied to do any updates to the Dirk Maggs Website. Its not as if I don't want to its just that I am just having trouble staying awake.

Snowed In

So I am snowed in in that I live at the bottom of a hill that does not get salted,( which at this time does not work as its too cold) So at 6.45am I started off for work and got there at 10.15am after walking non stop.

Its not something I want to do again, as walking in deep snow is not nice, and I am very tied tonight.

All being well I have a lift (I still have to walk about a mile to the pick up point)

Snow 2

It has been snowing all day and the end result is we have nearly 10 inches of snow, so you can guess who did not go to work today and why.

Tomorrow dos not look any better with the very hard frost and snow due.

Snow

Why do we have to have more snow?

I mean we had some last year do we really need some in 2010?

CM5 Tables

Why cant I get tables to work in CM5?

Its doing my head in

Editing Website

The editing of the Dirk Maggs website carry on and on, as there are over 200 pages to sort it is going to take some time. One problem that I have still not sorted is the layout of tables with all the actors names and what they did in the radio production in question.

The end shot of all this is that some table layouts are okay but others are broken.

Image uploading works and I have now found how to resize..

So some of the pages on the website are starting to look okay.


One thing I can't help but do is add new bits and pieces as I go so the site has already changes a lot since it was installed into the CMS back in October 2009

Reading stuff

The book that I have started to read is called "Love & Sex Robots" by David Levy so far all I have read is the introduction, which was okay but to be was trying to say don't take all this too seriously and this is not something that should be thought of as dirty and a fetish subject.

But with the title of the book it will be seen as just that, from what I have read of the book its been written too early in that most robots and stuff are no where near the point that people will take this stuff as a serious problem and that it should be something that needs to be talked about.

But as I have not read the book I shall have to say here that I will keep an open mind and I will just have to see where David Levy takes us and if he can prove his introduction.

2010

So my very first post of the year, I wonder how many other people will be starting out doing a blog this year, and just how long they will keep it up for.

I see that last year I did my most blogs ever, this year the idea is to just blog as and when I have something to talk about or that I want to record for later use.

I think one change that I want to do sometime this year is to change the layout of the blog, as it's been then same for sometime.

I don't have anything else to talk about at this time so I will spot.