Croeso

Zepped

Damn - Jimmy's broken a finger, concert delayed by 2 weeks!!

(mind you I've broken fingers in the past and it's taken longer than 2 weeks to heal)

maybe it's that Alastair Crowley curse all over again........

Everest Rocks

I'm just loving listening/watching to my old friend Mike Peters as they daily blog and Vodcast their way up to Everest Base Camp

http://www.lovehopestrength.com/everest/

Free week's holiday anyone??

A friend of mine is a making a Dutch TV series about people who have hardly been abroad and go for the first time.

They had a British family lined up who have dropped out last minute

They were a very normal family  except they had not gone abroad before and this was going to be there first.

They are now desperately looking for another UK family to fill the gap

You get a free holiday to Italy for a week (Oct 29th till 3rd Nov), (near Ancona), you get filmed a little (not big brother) and interviewed at the end on what you have thought.

It must be your first trip aboard. Kids welcome - it is free (Flights hotel) - and you must be British

Anyone interested email me and I'll pass it on

1:2222

I'm in shock

Led Zeppelin will play a one off reunion concert in London in November, they ran a lottery for the tickets, 20,000,000 applied for 18,000 tickets.

I've just got an email and I got 2.

I saw them at Knebworth and their last concert in Berlin (not that we knew at the time it would be their last)

To me they were the best music band ever so I cannot wait and probably will be so excited I won't sleep tonight.

I just hope they are as good as they used to be, but knowing the 3 surviving members they will not do it with anything less than 100% quality.

Support the Burmese

If like me your worried, Join Amnesty and sign up here:

This Facebook group has 66,000 members - it should have more.

Facebook | Support the Monks' protest in Burma

Thanks Euan for blogging this

Windows Mobile 6

What gets me is with all the thousands of employees and squillions in the bank why is it the actual changes from windows Mobile 5 to 6 seem to have so few atual improvements it would have taken a couple of geeks a week each to code it. Thank crikey for Opera mobile et al

Hmm I wonder what are the chances of me getting a ticket?

                                             

Hmm I have to wait till October 1st to find out

Just the wierdest web service

I've just bumped into MyCyberTwin.com

A website I can host a cyber twin you can IM with and you get automated responses which is very close to a real converstaion. It's the twin giving all the answers not me

Chat with me (or not with me really) at

www.mycybertwin.com/croeso

Why on earth 35000 people wnat to do that is beyond me, you can hook it up to Second Life avatar but again why?

Apparently is so you can chat with me when I'm not on line.Gee

Either I'm getting old or It's pretty bizarre

I've dag into i a bit and you answer 79 questions to train your avatar to be like you:

Here is the sytems summary of me:

You would like a meaningful relationship, a partner who can share life's joys with you and join you on the journey. You would rather not muck around with casual, shallow relationships.

You are intellectually open, and like experimenting with new ideas and situations. You are a strong thinker, and are not afraid to put effort into understanding things. You relish good conversation, and anything that expands your horizons. You probably love travel, reading, good conversation, quality experiences.

As a self directed person, you prefer to take your guidance from reason and understanding rather than slavish devotion to an external source of authority, like stuffy traditional values.

The system then found some 9400 people compatible with me- so maybe it's a dating agency?

You can also train it to answer questions how you want.

Still seems a bit wierd - maybe a good idea for a help desk but then again.....

UPDATE:

Oh I see it now it basiaclly an expert system programmed to allow peole to intersact with you when your not online (i.e in Seconmd Life) when people have converations with your Cyber Twin you get a transcript and youi can train the asnwers to each question to perfect it.

Now odf course with the history and success of Expert Systems over the years this will like that history go nowhere as Humans are far too complex to model , but let's see.

With England out for the count it's time for Wales to take Centre Stage

With a bye to the semi finals in the offering (i.e they play England) Wales and Australia need no greater motivation for a win today in the Rugby World Cup.

Come on boys make us proud the whole nation (and all us ExPats) are all behind you.

Soar Y Mynydd

The subject of the painting of the chapel is Soar y Mynydd

"Soar-y-mynydd Welsh Calvinistic Methodist chapel, is perhaps the most remote chapel in the whole of Wales. It stands near the banks of the river Camddwr on the road from Tregaron to Llyn Brianne. The chapel was built in the 1820s by Ebenezer Richards - minister at Tregaron and father of Henry Richard (1812-88) - and his trustees. The two-storey chapel is built to a traditional design with a long side-wall; the pulpit is located between the two doorways. The building was also used as the local school until the 1940s."

Here is a photograph of the chapel http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/blowup1/23095

The artist is Ogwyn Davies whose studio is near Soar Y Mynydd

Paintings

Whilst reading the legacy Kyffin Williams left for Wales and Welsh institutions today on the BBC Wales web site I started mooching about the net looking for other artists whom we have some paintings from primarilly to see how their contemporary work had developed, and I find someone selling a print of a painting I own the original of - What a strange feeling to see it there:

The image is way washed out here as the colours in the original are perfect for Wales, and as it is a collage made up from bits of welsh newspapers, the welsh bible and welsh music sheets, all that texture is lost in the print (as far as I can tell) - But it is a very funny feeling as I thought we were the only ones enjoying this beautiful view of Cymru.. but funny in a nice way I guess.

I've just been reminded of my favourite poem

FERN HILL

Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs

About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,

The night above the dingle starry,

Time let me hail and climb

Golden in the heydays of his eyes,

And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns

And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves

Trail with daisies and barley

Down the rivers of the windfall light.

And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns

About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,

In the sun that is young once only,

Time let me play and be

Golden in the mercy of his means,

And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves

Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,

And the sabbath rang slowly

In the pebbles of the holy streams.

All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay

Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air

And playing, lovely and watery

And fire green as grass.

And nightly under the simple stars

As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,

All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars

Flying with the ricks, and the horses

Flashing into the dark.

And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white

With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all

Shining, it was Adam and maiden,

The sky gathered again

And the sun grew round that very day.

So it must have been after the birth of the simple light

In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm

Out of the whinnying green stable

On to the fields of praise.

And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house

Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long,

In the sun born over and over,

I ran my heedless ways,

My wishes raced through the house high hay

And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows

In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs

Before the children green and golden

Follow him out of grace.

Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me

Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,

In the moon that is always rising,

Nor that riding to sleep

I should hear him fly with the high fields

And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.

Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,

Time held me green and dying

Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

It's such a perfect Eulogy, one many people choose, and one I may consider for myself whilst the worms are eating me.

Since we are on Zoos

There was an incident in Rotterdam zoo recently where a Gorilla Bokito escaped (over the moat!) and went on the rampage and severely beat up a woman.

She is now suing the zoo.

What emerged from the story was the following: this lady visited Bokito 3 times a week and often teased the gorilla to evoke a bond by staring at him in the eyes ( a no no for Gorillas, remember Diane Fossey shots and David Attenborough shots in Life on Earth) and bearing her teeth (there was even a video shown of her doing this on the news Bokito got very aroused snarling and beating his chest and bearing his much larger teeth) It also emerged that the zoo had removed 2 baby gorillas which Bokitofathered and sent them to another zoo quite recently.

Now he escaped went into the crowd found his pray (ignoring all the others near him) the said 3 times a week visitor, and beat her close to death.

No I feel I'd like to contribute to Bokito's legal fund so he could sue the Zoo and this awful woman, whilst I do not wish harm on anyone, I feel we cannot blame Bokitofor his actions now knowing what we know above. Funny she has the right to sue but I doubt Bokito will be allowed that .

I feel more work for Born Free is looming http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/zoocheck/take-action/

A day out at the Zoo

Femke went on a day trip to Artis the Amsterdam Zoo this week.

Now this tested my fatherhood much further than it has ever been tested before. I was a very active member and worker in a charity called Zoo Check (part of http://www.bornfree.org.uk/)

I find Zoos in general intolerable, they house animals in terrible condition purely for show, very few are about housing rare species (6% is typical for a good zoo) and even fewer of the animals in a zoo are involved in re-introduction programs.

My thoughts in this area were first aroused by my school teacher when I was 8 or 9 Mr Brookes, (speedy he used to call me as I was quick with mental arithmetic) and he told us of when he was a merchant seaman and saw dolphins doing wonderful group displays in front of and along side his ship. He then explained taking these animals and and placing the in tiny (relatively) pool is just cruel.

Later my workplace planned a party at the local zoo to celebrate an anniversary, I helped with others to change the venue, and I then became active with volunteer work for Zoo Watch.

Now the Artis zoo is not particularly good it is old and therefore has small environments for the animals. It scores low on Zoo Checks ranking system for an original EU zoo, and strangely enough we had a Amsterdam team event recently including a surprise visit to Artis , I gracefully (hopefully) declined to go in and returned to the office joining my colleagues later in our team day out.

Now with Femke going I needed to think hard, I do not want to ram my belief systems into my children, I want them to think for themselves , so I decided to let her go and then when she's old enough to rationalise this a bit more (say in 5 years time when she's 12) I'll discuss my beliefs with her. Then we shall see what she thinks.

In Dawkin's mode she is a daughter of an Anti Zoo campaigner, she should  never be (at 7) an anti  Zoo campaigner child.

I can feel the faithful getting excited already

The religion that is mac users will be gathering again for a self full filling communion

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Apple to Show Off Leopard's Claws at WWDC

Apple to Show Off Leopard's Claws at WWDC
Scott Gilbertson Email 06.06.07 | 2:00 AM
The next version of OS X -- codename Leopard -- will have lots of new goodies, including Time Machine, an easy-to-use backup utility.

Although Apple's new Leopard operating system won't be released until October, Steve Jobs is scheduled to give a sneak peek at Apple's annual Worldwide Developer's Conference on Monday June 11.

Technorati Tags: Mac, leopard

Shift happens

glumbert.com - Shift Happens

Nice Video till it gets to the future gazing bit, when will the IT techies learn that processing power does not mean intelligence, we've been chasing that willo the wisp for decades with zero in roads

Thanks for Ming for linking to this

Bieng told off

The Mrs thinks I'm illiterate just because I did not know Jaiku came from haiku the Japanese poetry form,  to counter this I said you did not know what micro blogging was as well, so we've both learned something tonight. This argument does not seem to hold water though....

Reboot9 Day 2 learnings, thoughts etc

Stowe Boyd: Intelligence and emotions are important in our modern conciousness - But look at the Jugglers paradox - to juggle you don't think about what your are doing, trying to explain how to do it, you just train your brain to know how to do it sub consciously. an interesting keynote from my namesake.

Web design and Quantum Mechanics- Dan Dixon ex Headshift now West England University (Digital Dust) . Hmm A Physics/Philosophy/Web designing Kiwi
Planck - Feynman - Simple model work leading to the GUT Grand Unified Theory linking quanta with relativity, Dan wat's to link this to web design John Searle - Pragmatics not semantics - His book is how to do things with words an Oxford based Philosopher, and is  hard critic of Hadr AI - that encourages me to read his book even more.
Social constructed knowledge - the work of Luckmann Berger and Foucallt is interesting here Social Constructivism cam from these 3, maps to my double edged context thoughts and work at LSE.
Now Susskins work on String Theory gives us an  other approach on how we may look at information structures.
Nice talk I just find it hard to see how the average web developer can think like this. I've long believed the world of Philosophy and Anthropology can guide us the most in our endeavours the problem is they are rather exclusive worlds

Check out CSS Zen Garden for an open source a catalogue of CSS designs,

I actually saw a 100$ laptop , not bad, good screen crappy keyboard, wifi, audio camera and USB - wonderful project.

Euan Mcintosh from edu.blogs.com a super talk on what they are doing in Scottish education . Very very inspiring. They are Utilising Flickr, blogs, wikis, IM, video etc etc etc to really help the kids with their learning. He did say one odd thing though, Finland has (apparently) the highest rate of literacy and numeracy in the world, and they still do it by chalk and blackboard, , hmm I thought maybe instead of intimating on how old fashioned they were maybe we should be saying that is why they have such high achievements….. just a thought

Dave Winer - daddy of rss opml and podcasting gave an interesting q&a. I did not realise he was so famous.

Oleg Koefoed - what is intuition? Intuition is triggered by an event, but intuition is not solely personal. He is an eventual philosopher @ Gravitations Centre for Action Philosophy.

He was pondering if we could build a model or understand intuition better, then social software could help us utilize it or trigger it. Hmm very theoretical but quite appealing.

Cool software demos:

www.Afeeda.com A fancy feed aggregator. Allows you to sign up to others whole sets of feeds.

Jeremy's Tiddlywiki still the coolest thing I've seen in an age www.tiddlywiki.com

www.fairtilizer.com Cool music site

www.thinkfold.com Outlining seems to be slim downed mind mapping, but this service allows sharing and wiki style editing.

John Buckman www.Bookmooch.com a great way to give your books away for free and then receive ones you want in return

Read - down and out in the magic kingdom.

The culting of brands - good book

www.bookcrossing.com

The psychology of persuasion - another great book.

Check out the Jaikus Reboot back channel.....

Now I'm exhausted sitting in the plane, slowly letting everything simmer, searching for which to pick first to try. I shared a taxi with a nice lady Anne, from a Danish Bank, we half thought about a joint presentation next year about how old fashioned corps do all this. Hmm why not we do have some great tales to tell......

Action: Creative Commons Croeso .

 

All the sessions were video and will appear on the website soon I hear as will all the slides

Reboot9 website

Reboot in the press

Hmm ReBoot on the BBC website - nice to see

BBC NEWS | Technology | Rebooting the Web 2.0 age

Rebooting the Web 2.0 age By Jem Stone Executive producer portfolio, BBC Future Media and Technology Reboot Reboot has been running for nine years The future of the web is being debated at Reboot 9.0, a leading European grassroots technology and design conference in Copenhagen.

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Reboot9 Day one thoughts links contacts

A Philosopher opened the show by looking at what was it is to be human,  one phrase he used to describe it I liked a lot:  If we are human we Dare Care Share

Robert Patterson:Robin Dunbar line,  8 or 50 friend peaks,so there seems to be a natural limit to the number of contacts we can work with effectively and wait for it it fits magically into the Fenobacchi series - doesn't everything.  He referred to Doug Wilms trajectory & development work which may be worth following up

John Husband: Wirearchy to Leonard Coen - everybody knows - then to how do you design a network - you just start it! After all a Network is nothing more than a dynamic n way flow of info and authority. John and I have swapped blog comments a few times and this was the first time I've met him, a very nice guy I see why the Seer Semple likes him so much.

Super efficient data centres - wow seems us control engineers have missed a whole market, they are finally putting feedback control loops into the coolers, unbelievable this was not done 20 years ago. Such a waste of energy - but good these Irish boys are building that in from day one

Now next was my favourite talk of the day a German artist took virtual world representations and placed them in the real world, i.e 
a www.Shotcode.com is an interesting thought on painting code into cities, so by photographing the shotcode with your camera phone and hey presto - you know where you are, very green and very neat. First person shooter glasses - nice - was a way of putting a shooter game view on the real world by putting the gaming gun view into your glasses so you see it all the time.
World of Warcraft characters have a name label above there head, he has done work doing that for real funny and very very nice.
An other on bits getting lost in second life, i.e. the rendering of parts of the avatar, so he replicated that by mimicking it in a clothes range -neat.
Speech bubble works nice too real people with one walking around at parties. Maps into my thoughts on anonymity i.e you are anonymous on the internet in the real world your are much less so.
Analogue screens, Random Screen - 5x5 screen. With candles and beer cans  mimicking a pixelled world in a real world place.

If any of this makes no sense see http://www.datenform.de - Aram Bartholl German artist.

Lunch:

Ross Mayfield - Socialtext CEO:leave the complexity in the people and keep the software simple. Occupational spam is the use of cc/bcc - nice. Web 2.0 is sharing control to create value.
Cornucopia of commons checkout this blogpost. How can we utilise the gift economy with our info flows- how do we give info gifts and add value each time it's passed as a gift ?? Social capital is credit without the transaction costs - 50% of business costs in the US is the transactional cost.

http://www.dopplr.com Try it out from Matt Biddulf a good Welshman., let people know where you are travlleing to and people will meet up, I much prefer Social Software tools that let people what you plan to do and then we have a conversation or meet up, better than telling people what you have just done. Nice work Matt, simple and effective

http://www.unlekker.net show the work of a Norwegian Artist who does graphics code, very very nice work Windows Mystify 20 years after. This was shown during dinner.

Met lots of nice people many who asked what on earth are Shell doing here? We have people working for us too who need to communicate I said with a nice friendly smile on my face - Oh i see was generally the reply

Now sleep and more tomorrow including some work using Quantunm theory, now that will be right up my street

Welshisms

I was listening to BBC Radio five yesterday in th car and Nicky Wire from the Manic Street Preachers (the Manics) was being interviewed by a radio Interviewer with a Welsh mum, they were laughing at the way Welsh people sometimes say things:

A bute which I remember was "whose coat is this jacket", "and I looked in the fridge, and there it was, gone!"

I'd forgotten about these and many other beauties, yet another nostalgia trip

100 up

Well it all started years and years ago and old boss of mine and I were traveling a lot and we started a little list, of who had traveled to the most countries with one proviso, you had to drink a locally brewed beer.

Now many years later ~20 I have got to 100 and he is retired with 97 I think, we had to bend the rules a little for the Muslim countries (there a local mineral water) but finally my Hundredth was so close to home it was unbelievable and one of the worlds great brewers too.

Now Denmark seems nice, clean, friendly, small, lots of bikes, great design I could get to like it. Now it got me thinking why was it so late n my travelogue - oh yes no mountains and not a major Oil and Gas player. So where next, I've been on 99 for 3 years now  so 101 could be a long time coming!

Web 2.0 & all that

Well web 2.0 really seeems to work, I blogged I was in Copenhagen, an old friend who recently moved here saw it within minutes, phoned Anke for my mobile number and here we are in a wine bar chatting about old times. She has not changed a bit.

Hmm have I , I'll ask and check

Friends in Job environs

I've just got here to Copenhagen to attend ReBoot9 ,a meeting I've tried a few times to get to, but my scheduled could not be wrestled free.

What was nice was a very good friend of mine flew the plane I came on and she invited me to sit in the jump set between her and her 1st Officer, a very pleasant ride I must admit to get to my hundredth country, now I just need to drink a Carlsberg to make it count.

What was very interesting was watching my friend and her co-pilot run the procedures, by the book of course it taken literally for very good reasons in the aviation business. It just seems a world away from my world of big company procedures which are merely guidelines in most cases. She is not like that at all in her private life quite a contrast but not a change of personality which was nice

Any way a nice flight fully manual landing very smooth and a goodbye hug, what more could a Welshman want in life.

Aldo flying solo

A good friend of mine is about the leave academia and start out on his own.

http://growingpains.blogs.com/home/2007/04/the_making_of_c.html#comment-67999934

Good luck Aldo.

If anyone is wanting a thoughtful , insightful and thoroughly good person to help investigate and analyse Communities - Aldo de Moor is your man.

http://growingpains.blogs.com/home/

reboot 9.0

I've just booked to attend reboot 9.0 in Copenhagen, I've been trying to attend this for a few years now but it always clashed with something else. Happy I finally got to attend.

Looking forward to it greatly there are a few people going I know, Euan, Elmine, Ton, hopefully I'll have a few more friends afterwards.

I booked a rather interesting looking hotel

What's really nice is I've visited 99 countries in the world  but never Denmark

create your own visited country map or check our Venice travel guide

There is an eleventh BlogWalk

If you can be in Amsterdam in mid-May, have a look at BlogWalk Eleven for May 18th 2007 in Amsterdam.  It's hosted by Lilia and Ton.     Focus: Digital Bohemians     Digital Bohemians are (relatively) young people, fully adapted to the digital lifestyle. They see a city as their home, and are connected in European and global networks. They flock to conferences as their meeting places. If we look at this (somewhat exaggerated) portrait of the avant garde of internet users, what can we say about things like:     The tools they use     How they learn and develop themselves     How they support a highly mobile life style     The organisational models and business models that fit these networked individuals

I attended BlogWalk 1.0 in Enschede so it will be fun to be back again

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happy as a Welsh rugby fan on the last day of the six nations

I know an academic who always told me she was very well connected to Microsoft and the tech companies, now she emailed me Tuesday saying she was doing a study with Microsoft sponsored also by Acer on how people who live in another country and use web 2.0 tools not in the countries language, i.e a Welshman, working and writing in English living in the Netherlands.

The study was about blogging social bookmarking tagging, IM ing etc and as a reward for doing the 12 month project you get a free PC (you can keep) running Vista, a 250G external USB hard drive and Norton Save & Restore, all they do is install some software which monitors all my Internet habits and uploads that to them every day.

So I rang her and said your going to give me a new PC etc for just doing what I already do - Yes she said, fine I'm in,  I said.
So 1 day later the PC arrived (can you believe that- shipped from Acer Switzerland) and now I'm playing on it with Vista etc.
Now a Mac mate of mine said ah it's only eye candy, but so are Macs I said, but so far it seems cool fast and without any problems.

I'll be realy interested to see my year end results (we will get a personalised anaylysis, and a copy of the overall anaylysis of all 1000 people on the study (anonymised)

Now this seems a free lunch to me but let's see.

One fast train

Saw this on the Dutch news last night, gee that train was flying - very impressive - gee 574 km/hr


BBC NEWS | Europe | French set new rail speed record

French set new rail speed record
TGV train
The modified TGV was powered by two engines

A French high-speed train (TGV) has smashed the world record for a train on conventional rails by a big margin, reaching 574.8km/h (356mph).

Technorati Tags: TGV, world record,

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Hmm good old Fleming - must have seen me in my R&D days

Ming the Mechanic: To simplify things

You need only two tools: WD-40 and duct tape.

If it doesn't move and it should, use WD-40.

If it moves and shouldn't, use the duct tape.

Technorati Tags: ming, life style advice, wd40, duct tape

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MBTI type

I´m off with the flu at the moment and just picked up my last MBTI rating and the associated book I was given to further explain it.
I´m a ESTP and i must say it is quite accurate in most aspects, especially about me thinking by talking out loud, does drive my wife mad, but hey that´s me and love is unconditional as far as I see it.
I suppose an ESTP being married to a philosopher is always going to be fun!

all my phones ring at once

Just the coolest idea

Bloglines | My Feeds (779) (6)

The Web 2.0 Address Book May Have Arrived

By Tim O'Reilly

By Tim O'Reilly

grandcentral.pngDavid Pogue recently sent out the following email message to all his contacts:

"David Pogue has a new, universal phone number: [number omitted] This number rings all my phones at once: home phone, work phone, cellphone, hotel room, wherever I happen to be. The old, individual numbers still work, but you'll greatly improve your odds of reaching me if you use this new number. I know it's a hassle to update your records, but this is a "lifetime" number that shouldn't change again.

In a private note to me, he wrote: "I'm using, of course, GrandCentral, which was the topic of my column today. It's pretty awesome--I'd think you might be a prime candidate, too!"

In that New York Times column, he gives more details:

[GrandCentral's] motto, "One number for life," pretty much says it all. At GrandCentral.com, you choose a new, single, unified phone number (more on this in a moment). You hand it out to everyone you know, instructing them to delete all your old numbers from their Rolodexes.

From now on, whenever somebody dials your new uninumber, all of your phones ring simultaneously, like something out of "The Lawnmower Man."

No longer will anyone have to track you down by dialing each of your numbers in turn. No longer does it matter if you're home, at work or on the road. Your new GrandCentral phone number will find you.

David runs through some of the other features as well:

* "You can listen to a message someone is leaving, just as you can on a home answering machine."
* "You can actually record a different voice mail greeting for each person in your address book."
* "You can pick up on a different phone in midconversation, unbeknownst to the person on the other end."
* "GrandCentral maintains a database of telemarketer numbers that is constantly updated by reports from its own subscribers. Your phones don't even ring when a telemarketer in that database tries to reach you."
* "You can install a "call me" button on your Web site -- a great, free way to field calls ... without actually posting your phone number."

Now, many hackers have worked this kind of behavior out for themselves, perhaps using their asterisk server. (Feel free to post your favorite hacks in the comments!) But this is a mainstream consumer service, and as David wrote in his Times column, "GrandCentral has rewritten the rules in the game of telephone."

I haven't played with GrandCentral much yet, but it appears to be a textbook Web 2.0 application, building a network-effects business that gets better the more people use it. It's "software above the level of a single device." Like iTunes, it provides an integrated application that involves a handheld device, a PC control station (albeit in this case a flash application in a web browser rather than a standalone app), and a server back-end.

Perhaps most importantly, if this service takes off, it's almost a perfect "Data is the Intel Inside" play, far greater than any email address-book based attempt like Plaxo. It will be the first service outside the phone companies themselves that could build that next generation Web 2.0 address book I've been writing about. (See also.)

You can see how cleverly they've architected the service to gather additional information from public sources, and then get their customers to enhance them, in the following feature (as well as in their telemarketer blocking, above):

Every GrandCentral caller is announced by name when you answer the phone. ("Call from Ethel Murgatroid.")

How does it know the name? Sometimes Caller ID supplies it. GrandCentral also knows every name in your online address book, which can import your contacts from Yahoo, Gmail or your e-mail program.

Callers not in these categories are asked to state their names the first time they call. On subsequent calls, GrandCentral recognizes them.

In short, I expect GrandCentral to become one of the premier Web 2.0 and social networking platforms overnight, and it's squarely aimed at the heart of the communications device used by more people than any PC application will ever touch.

(Note: I was on the board of the company formerly known as Grand Central, which is connected to this one via its name and its primary investor, Halsey Minor, but I have no connection to the current company.)

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Weaknesses

If Anke and I have a weakness it is for paintings, another has entered the collection today by Jentsje Popsma a stunning portrait of the sea dijk above Harlingen very early in the morning.

We bought it to stand opposite a painting by Jenny Jones of a North Walian Quarry I have had for some 15 years now. Both share a synergy in the use of the greens one dark and foreboding even threatening and the other light and diffuse, yet we hope they comlpiment each other  - we´ll see.

It´s great that people like Geke Westenberg at the Galerie de Vis support wonderful artists like  Jentsje Popsma

Says it all really

Bragging Rights maintained for a whole year

All the other results fade into insignificance, as we beat the majority holding neighbour

Just reliving the past

Rocking away on top of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon)

That's it the flight is booked I'm going home how could any North Walian miss this one!!!!

Mind you when I was there with my Venture Scouts at the same time of year for our annual Snowdon Bivvy , it was always raining - ah happy memories

thealarm.com

 

MIKE PETERS - SNOWDON ROCKS - THE HIGHEST GIG IN ENGLAND & WALES NORTH WALES JUNE 22nd & JUNE 23RD On Saturday June 23rd 2007,Mike Peters, two times cancer survivor and internationally acclaimed singer of Welsh rock and roll band The Alarm will leada procession of doctors, nurses, fans and supporters on a sponsored walk to the summit of Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa (the highest point in England & Wales), to perform a very special acoustic set at the summit. Over the weekend of June 22nd and June 23rd 2007, Mike Peters will host 'SNOWDON ROCKS' a series of events throughout North Wales featuring two further Mike Peters acoustic concerts. The first will take place on Friday June 22nd at Rhyl Town Hall with proceeds going directly to the North Wales Cancer Treatment Centre at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, Bodelwyddan where Mike Peters was first diagnosed with Non Hodgkins Lymphoma back in 1995/96. Asecond concert will be held after the Snowdon trek on Saturday evening June 23rd at the Galeri in Caernarfon with fundsbeing channelled locally into the Alaw Unit at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor. Mike (who was diagnosed and successfully treated for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL) in 2005/06), is currently being treated at the Alaw Unit with a view to finding a cure under the watchful eye of Dr. David Edwards who has been Mike's haemotologist throughout both of his cancer battles. Dr. Edwards will also be accompanying Mike to the summit of Snowdon. The weekend is being promoted through the LOVE HOPE STRENGTH Foundation, a charity formed by Mike Peters to raise awareness and funding for cancer research both locally and globally with a series of world wide events that will be held throughout 2007. Any local business wishing to participate in sponsorship or any individualwishing to accompany Mike on the sponsored walk to the summit of Snowdon should contact Peters Jones on 01745 571571 or visit www.lovehopestrength.com for further details. Tickets are available now from the following outlets: Rhyl Town Hall 22nd June 2007 12.50 advance plus booking fee Please call Rhyl Pavilion Box Office: Tel 0870 330 0000 [Subject to Booking Fee] Rhyl Tourist Information Tel: 01745 355068 Email: [email protected] Galeri Caernarfon 23rd June 200712.50 advance plus booking fee Please call Galeri Box Office Tel: 01286 685222or visitwww.galericaernarfon.com CaernarfonTourist Information Centre Tel: 01286 672 232 Email: [email protected] Why 'Snowdon Rocks'? "Because you can see both hospitals where I have been cared for from the summit and climbing Snowdon is symbolic of the virtual mountain that cancer sufferers and their carers have to climb with each and every diagnosis." says Mike Peters adding, "Every single person alive in North Wales today will have course to visit one of these two cancer centres during the course of their lifetime, either as a patient or a carer, or simply visiting a friend or family member. Cancer affects all of us." Why Now? "Now is payback time"continues Mike, "Ibelieve the time is right for such a huge undertaking because science is on the verge of massive breakthroughs in the treatment of all cancers, specifically in the field of Leukaemia with pioneering work taking place in the fields of Stem Cell and Gene therapy. As I can testify, people who had previously been given days / months / years to live are now being treated and cured every day, giving hope for future generations." Why Love Hope Strength? "Because once in 1995 and more recently in 2005,I was diagnosed with and survived chemotherapy treatment for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia [CLL]"states Mike, "I owe my life to medical science and the skill and dedication of doctors and nurses at two Welsh hospitals - Ysbyty Glan Clwyd and Ysbyty Gwynedd.Through the creation of the Love Hope Strength Foundation, I will be working throughout 2007 and beyond to raise funds for cancer research. LOVE HOPE STRENGTH FOUNDATION is registered as a charity in England & Wales.CHARITY NUMBER : 1117505 www.lovehopestrength.com

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Dawkins again

After many years of promising to read it, I'm finally snuggled down on the train home with Richard Dawkin's Selfish Gene. It is hard to write about science for the general public without dumbing it down, but Richard is a master of that, and even though I'm only at the preface I'm enjoying his style again immensely. His championing of Charles Darwin prompted me to dream up my top five scientists:
Niels Bohr,
Albert Einstein,
Isaac Newton,
Charles Darwin,
hmm and who on the contemporary lot? Maybe Townes, Basov, and Prokhorov (Maser fame), Hooft & Veltman (elctro weak interactions),Simon Donaldson the mathematician??

Fuss n bother

Came home to a grumpy wife, the kids have lice, the whole house need cleaning, all clothes washing those than can not be washed need storing in plastic bags for a week, and horrible stuff in our hair, and even horribler fine combs!

The poor thing was knackered dealing with all that on her own, and I was late getting home due to a work appointment in Rijswijk.

We seem to have it all sorted now just need to shampoo out the lice killer and a further combing tomorrow.

Tried to comfort the kids with the fact that they only go for clean heads but they were fed up with all the fuss too.

Ho hum some things in life never change,  I remember nitty Nora the bug explorer in my school days

Just the stangest day

Firstly I had a meeting with a colleague who was drenched in aftershave (Funny I thought very unusual these days)

Then over lunch the olive bread stank of olive oil, the flowers at the table gave a glorious smell , then on the way home a lady on the train reeked of pot puri and the dog in the next section (behind the glass door) strongly smelled of wet dog odour.

It has passed now but my hyper sensitive olfactory function for a day did bemuse me somewhat.

I must Google it and see if this happens occasionally, or if in fact as Anke predicted my hidden psychic skills are being ''remembered'' - as was predicted by someone whose judgement I trusted absolutely (and still do Nain)