Lost Boy » Rum Truffle

Bath Local Heroes

admin — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 02:26:30 +0000

So I read about the Tentacle Man, the Red Man, the Grey Lady and the Purple Man, and tried to find a picture of the much missed Bath Blue Man, but couldn’t find one. Anyone care to share?
His gimmick was to paint himself blue and stand immobile in an alcove next to the Roman Baths waiting for tourists to fling coins in his general direction. I actually preferred to see him idling in-between bouts of standing, still when he’d be enjoying a crafty roll-up. Many pretenders have tried to take his place (and his space come to think of it), but without success.
I did find this Local Heroes in Bath list though, which made me chuckle, especially entries like “Rolf Harris visits a bit”. I’m slightly dubious about the assertion that Michael Jackson lives in Bath though. I may have to trot into town at the weekend to see if I can see Cheggers on the High Street, Lionel Blair in Boots, or maybe Seal in Sainsburys.
I’m doing slightly better than the author who wrote:
“Lived there for 21 years. I’ve never clapped eyes on a celeb. If you’re a tourist p,raps you’re more likely to look”
…as I did once see Anthony Stuart Head on the train. He had a brace of teenager girls travelling with him who I could only assume were “Slayers in Training”.
Come to think of it, if you’re a Bath resident you’re perhaps more likely to spend your time tripping over tourists and forging a path through a sea of backpacks than looking for tourists.
1000 points to the first person to spot Rolf Harris on a bus tour, 500 points for any other celebrity, excluding Peter Gabriel who apparently “has been known to drive through town in his sports car” instead.

The Fifth Sentence

admin — Wed, 28 Apr 2004 18:06:17 +0000

Passing on a meme I caught from Norman Walsh. The fifth sentence on page 23 of The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson is:

But while Lord Finkle-McGraw was not the sort to express feelings promiscuously, he gave the impression of being nearly satisfied with the way the conversation was going.

This isn’t the book I’m reading, that’s Foucault’s Pendulum, this was just on my desk in work as I’ve recently lent it to a colleague.

Hailstones and the Barry Tornado

admin — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 00:30:46 +0000

We had a cracking storm this afternoon the sky went dark, thunder, lightning, the full monty. It didn’t last that long, but shortly afterwards I heard some bangs and thuds from outside as it started to hail. Hard.

What you can see here fell in the space of a couple of minutes — the time it took
me to pick up the camera and go to the back door. I didn’t dare venture outside as the hailstones were the size of pennies; literally:

I think I’d have had a very sore head if I’d have gone outside. The noise from the old plastic roofing we’ve got on our out-house was deafening, I thought it was going to come down around my ears.
The storm didn’t last long though, and there were no further incidents throughout the rest of the afternoon. I was just catching up with the news (I’ve had my head in my laptop writing all day) when I learned there was a tornado spotted on the Bristol channel this afternoon. Seems it was seen around 1.30pm. The date on my pictures was 1.53pm, so I’m guessing the dark skies, thunder and lightning must have roughly coincided with the tornado with the hail following shortly thereafter.

The Hardiman

admin — Wed, 03 Dec 2003 02:36:12 +0000

Flipping through New Scientist again this week I came across a short piece describing the WL-16 robotic walking chair, which is apparently all the rage in robotics at the moment. You can read more about it here, but the WL-16 isn’t a particularly exciting robot in my book: the first version suffers from the “Dalek Problem” for pity’s sake!
I was more interested in the last paragraph of the piece:

The first robotic creation designed to carry a person was Hardiman, a super-strong weightlifting robotic exoskeleton developed in the US by General Electric in 1968. It was so powerful it was never turned on with a person in it, for fear of what it might do if it went wrong.

Tantalising wouldn’t you say?

I instantly had an image of a powerful robotic suit gathering dust in an old warehouse somewhere, waiting for a super-hero (or villain?) to discover it. Or maybe I’ve just overdosed on super-hero films this year. Still it was worth a bit of Googling to find out some more.
As you might expect the reality is much less romantic, but I uncovered some fun articles along the way. How Stuff Works gives the Hardiman a mention in their “How Exoskeletons Will Work” article, while “Dances With Robots” from Science News Online covers exoskeletons as well as personal flying machines.
Like most of the pages I came across these articles prominently display concept sketches from DARPA that show their “vision” of what their research projects will produce.
This gem of a page puts things into context though.
Seems like the New Scientist author was enjoying a smidgen of artistic licence too. Most mentions of the Hardiman point out the impracticality of it’s extreme weight and power consumption. And apparently General Electric only ever got one arm working.
So, still no super-powers for me then. I’m keeping a close eye on the kids though, just in case.
Mind you Science may still yet provide some consolations.

6 Degrees of Mr Benn

admin — Wed, 17 Sep 2003 20:54:19 +0000

As if by magic…Mr Benn now has a FOAF file and he’s already in foafnaut.
For example you can discover him by starting from me and clicking through to danbri who, in true Bob Hoskins style, is acting as a bridge between the real and ‘toon worlds.
Mr Benn is always on the look out for new friends, so feel free to add him to your FOAF files.

Bob the Angry Flower

admin — Fri, 22 Aug 2003 17:32:08 +0000

Via 2lmc spool: Bob the Angry Flower. Which has been giving me a chuckle or two over lunch today.
It was Bob’s quick guide to the apostrophe that initially caught by attention. I get all irrational when I see Dodd’s (for the record, it should be Dodds’s). And don’t even get me started on “Dobbs”.

Radio Monkey

admin — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 18:59:41 +0000

Facts:

I’ve just bought the new Radiohead album, “Hail to the Thief”
I’ve also just bought Bonobo’s new album, “Dial M for Monkey”
A Bonobo is also a type of monkey
It’s Friday
It’s Friday, and there are still no pictures of be-hatted animals on the Daily Chump

Therefore, here’s a picture of a novelty radio in the shape of a monkey with a hat on its head:

Can you see what I did there?
Did I mention I’m on holiday for next week. Going to St. Ives to gorge on pasties.

Structured Procrastination

admin — Thu, 12 Jun 2003 14:10:06 +0000

Just saw this article on “Structured Procrastination” courtesy of Edd on the Daily Chump.
Fits my working style also. This week I’ve refactored the FOAF-a-Matic to allow me to internationalise it very easily, have been hacking on Mark 2 to get ready for another beta, and have been exploring how jpegrdf works with a view to building a tool around it. All while I should actually be concentrating on planning and testing the release of an application.

People Nearby

admin — Fri, 06 Jun 2003 20:56:40 +0000

I added the magic META markup to get myself into GeoURL today and now that they’ve harvested my co-ordinates I’ve been amusing myself by cruising through the list of sites geographically near mine. It makes for interesting reading.
Surprisingly there aren’t any sites at all in Bath. But there are certainly plenty in and around Bristol, of which more than a few seem to be from web designers or web developers. In fact the closest person to me (at least currently) is Simon Willison whose CSS tutorials I bookmarked in my “Stuff To Read” folder earlier this week.
I found cruising through these sites, occasionally tripping over common points of reference (commonly read blogs, thoughts on FOAF and semweb hackery, song lyrics, etc) a fascinating but also very curious experience, highlighting how the web can both draw people together whilst simultaneously pushing them apart; how we have issues and interests in common, but share them within a limited medium; how we can have heated debates and fascinating discussions through and with online personas, without realising that we’re interacting with a person we pass on the street every day.
No new insights. It just got me thinking. Or maybe I’m just in a funny mood because Ethan got me out of bed at 5.50am this morning.
Anyway two of the most interesting things I came across were courtesy of Jon Hadley who linked to these scale drawings of sky scrapers (nice pics) and St. Vincent’s Rock a “story of myths and legends in modern Bristol” (nicely drawn comic).
The latter was part of Bristol’s now failed bid to be Capital of Culture. Shame.

Adventures in Home Gadgetry

admin — Thu, 29 May 2003 20:03:56 +0000

In which a quest to purchase a breadmaker unlocks the secret of the latest digital advances in home technology…

In my lunch-hour I dutifully trot off into town to buy my wife a bread maker for her birthday. I wouldn’t dream of buying her a kitchen appliance normally but in her own way, bless her, she’s as much of a gadget lover as I am.
So I wander into Argos to pick up the one she’s carefully chosen and, after dutifully jotting down the catalog number on the requisite slip, take it to the cashier so they can fetch it from the stock room for me.
However I’m then told that they can’t guarantee that they’ll give me the exact same brand or model of breadmaker. In fact the only thing they will guarantee is to take precisely the same amount for it. It’ll be pot luck which one I get. Err…hello?
Reeling in confusion I return to work, intending to order one from the web. Surely this will be an easier option? You’d think.
Firstly the Argos website can’t be viewed with Netscape 6 or other browsers with the same rendering engine. I chuckle to myself at their cluelessness and idly consider shopping elsewhere just to show them whose boss. I also ignore their suggestion to ring them up and order items from the catalogue. “You’re not catching me out that way” I think.
One browser change later I find the breadmaker. However at this point I’m struck with doubt: said baking device looks the same, boasts jam making facilities, and is the exactly the expected price. BUT it doesn’t advertise the overnight timer which is the absolutely essential feature required to fulfill Debbie’s dream of tasty fresh bread. Cue Samuel L. Jackson impression — “HmmMmmm that is a tasty loaf, mind if I take a swig of your orange juice to wash it down?”.
But this is the all-powerful web. Maybe I can track down the CoolTouch Breadmaker on the Morphy Richards website, confirm the timer function, and return to order it from Argos just in time for it to arrive for her birthday.
At this point I’m greeted by a flash based website (cue sigh) and an exciting animation that teases that “You are about to see a new addition to the Morphy Richard range…” My heart starts beating rapidly, and my finger trembles against the mouse button. Could this be the next generation of kitchen gadgetry? What wonders to behold? Perhaps a breadmaker that creates bagels, muffins, or even croissants?! Oh no, it’s something much better.
A digital iron.
A digital iron that allows me to control the temperature of my iron with the touch of a button.
The merest touch of a button!
A digital iron with a 400cc water tank with no drip system. Variable steam facility with (my italics) steam shot facility and digital status display with audible(!) temperature warning. All lovingly rendered in three dimensions. See? Click the button and you can watch this beauty spin round and round all afternoon.
But wait, there’s more.
You can view the Digital Iron Presentation which will tantalise you with the additional details such as “less moving parts” (bye, bye, clockwork iron!); “easy to use and reach controls” (enhanced user experience!); “whole screen illumination” (iron in the dark!); “temperature settings default to max” (burn it all!); auto on/off function (surprise your friends!) and much more.
Racked with indecision I hesitate at this point. Do I pursue my purchase of the CoolTouch Breadmaker or do I surprise my darling wife with the latest in digital ironing technology?
But then I realise that I’m a New Man and do all my own ironing. In fact I wouldn’t let her near my trousers for fear that creases would turn up in all sorts of obscure places. So the iron would be for me and not her. Which leads me to the further revelation that this 400cc steamy monster isn’t up to spec. What I want is an iron that will allow me to iron my shirt at precisely 25.75 degrees, not some measly 3 heat settings. And I want downloadable tones and tunes for those audible warnings. And where’s the developer kit, dammit! That’s what I call digital technology. And I’m not upgrading from my analogue ironing misery until its available.
Are you listening Mr Morphy Richards? I think not!