I seem to have done 33 on the list. Some of the items haven’t been relevant e.g. Build a network file server – I have a file server with RAID array already and so didn’t need to create my own. For others, my definition my vary from that listed – by the list I haven’t installed a content management system, but I would class Wordpress as a CMS.

KK let me know about his new album, The Magic Lantern and asked if I was interested in listening to a copy. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t heard of him before, so I started checking out the website link on his email, 21stCenturyGenius. He has worked with many artists including Bjork, Kylie, Britney Spears and of course the Mediaeval Baebes.

I googled ‘The Magic Lantern & KK‘ and found some samples on the Amazon website. After listening to the short samples, I liked what I had heard and went back to investigating KK’s site more. While reading the FAQs, I followed the link to KK’s blog, Thoughts from KK.. and got sucked into reading the posts there. I also checked out KKthemusic, which has details of his previous albums. Anyway, I emailed back and a couple of days ago the album arrived. I didn’t really get chance to listen to more than a couple of tracks as during the last couple of days I have been busy in the school installing software of the new computers that were installed over the summer and come the evenings I have been shattered.

Anyway, back to the album. The tracks of the album relate to the story written by KK on the inside of the insert. The story is of a girl, Aoide, who doesn’t speak words, only pure song. Esther Dee from the Baebes is the vocals for Aoide. The first thing that surprised me was how electronic a sound the album had; nothing wrong with that, I just wasn’t expecting it.

• Aoide. An almost bell like accompaniment is provided to Esther’s single vocal notes.
• Carousel. This is a lively track, very upbeat. As it progresses the music grows.
• Pioneers. I’ll be honest, I don’t like this track. For me the sound is too synthesized and penetrating. A couple of minutes in it slides into another tune for 30 seconds and then returns to the original.
• Cirque Du Lac. This is a mutilayered layered track, with a fast beat. As it moves into the violin accompaniment towards the end, it quietens and slows down.
• The Magic Lantern. This is more an accompanied vocal track with Esther’s vocals returning lightly supported. It is a much slower track than the previous few.
• Mermaid. This starts off fairly quiet until a minute in when the drum beat takes a more prominent part. The vocals return after a couple of minutes as the piece swells. Three quarters of the way through, the whole dymantics of the piece changes, the beat slows right down and it fades away to nothing.
• Rhapsody. The violin starts this piece and I really like this. It has a slow flowing rhythm that grows in volume throughout.
• Desert Isle. This has a fast beat and guitar and has a Spanish feel to it. It sounds like a trumpet as well, but I’m not sure.
• Into the Jungle. I don’t know what to say about this piece. It was too busy for me. Too many competing tunes and rhythms.
• Lazarus. This piece starts off slowly and quietly, before building. The vocals come in after a couple of minutes and the volume of the piece increases as it heads towards the finale. Just over halfway through, the original vocal theme is briefly reprieved. At the end it slowly fades away.

Would I have gone out and bought this album off my own back? Probably not. Did I enjoy the album? Yes, overall, yes I have. There is one track that just doesn’t work for me, but overall the album works. The more I listen to it, the less electronic it sounds. I guess you just have to persist with it and not take it at first impressions. I’ll have to investigate KK’s previous albums at some time.

I wish him best of luck with the album and appreciate the opportunity to listen and provide my feedback.

The album is released on 9th September 2009 and is available for pre-order from KKthemusic.

My Manfrotto monopod with the 234RC head doesn’t have a handle, not that you need a handle to pan with a monopod. It is also longer as it is in 3 sections not 4. This meant that I had a substantially larger item to carry, with no way of attaching it to me. I started in my usual way, by turning to Google. It didn’t seem too common an occurrence; I found a few suggestions of tying the monopod to the frame, but nothing from anyone who had done it. Then I came across this monopod quiver on a motorbike, that got me thinking.

I had also been looking at the pump holder on Jo’s bike. The pump clipped in and was held in place with a velcro strap. If I could find the right diameter….no, that wasn’t possible, bike pumps are small and lightweight, not built like a section of drainpipe. So thinking about the monopod quver than I had found, I started experimenting to find a support for the bottom of the monopod. I cut a section of plastic waste pipe, yes, white is a lovely inconspicuous colour and attached it to the frame with cable ties. I had to play around with the positioning, to get it as low on the frame as possible without the pipe fouling the pedal. There wasn’t a lot of room to play with as the monopod also added to the space taken in this area due to the leg clamps. As a temporary solution at the top end I used a piece of rubber and a strap to prove the concept. It worked! Due to the minimal surface contact between the pipe and the bike frame, the pipe was liable to twist around the frame if knocked, so you had to be a bit careful. I found this while out testing it and added some rubber between the pipe and the frame to reduce the slip.

My temporary solution for securing the top of the monopod was a fairly long strap that went around the frame and monopd several times to provide security, the downside of this was it took an age to get attach and detach. I needed a method that was going to be quick and secure, so I started looking around for something that met my needs. I started looking at long velcro straps, thinking they would work, but then I found the solution at Fenix-Store.com. They have a product called Bikeblocks, which are a rubber block with a long velcro strap passing through it. You can open the velcro right up to wrap it around the bike frame and then the remainder of the strap holds an item to the block. They even delivered free to the UK (from Atlanta); I had to wait about a week, which I would have considered good even if I’d been paying the postage. They are really designed to attach small lights to bike frames, handlebars, helmets etc and aren’t designed for going around two large items (frame and monopod), so the overlap of the opposing velcro is smaller than I would have liked, but is still enough to hold the monopod securely. If I was really worried, I could always stitch a piece of the loop velcro in place to extend the overlap.

I used this configuration for a few trips to confirm that it was really viable and then set about producing a more permanent solution (before I got too used to the white pipe). I bought some black waste pipe so that it blended in with my bike and cut myself a couple of pieces about 30mm long. This was shorter than the prototype, but as I was only using this to locate the end of the monopod it didn’t need to be too long. I taped the two pieces to a bit of cardboard with a gap of about 10 mm between them. I then taped cardboard sides to the edges of the two pipes. Then the fun begins! Start with a new pack of Araldite Precision, this is the slow setting Araldite. Mix a reasonable quantity of Araldite, and when it is mixed, scoop it into your ‘mould’. Repeat the mix and fill until the mould is full to the level of the pipe sections. It will take a lot longer than you think and use most of the pack of Araldite. Put the mould aside on a level surface to cure.

I left it a couple of days to be certain that it was thoroughly cured, before peeling the cardboard away. The Araldite had sunk a bit in the middle which I hadn’t expected, so maybe make it a bit taller than you want first. I wasn’t sure how strong the pipe to Araldite bond was going to be, and at first it looked as if both pipes were firmly attached. I had some sandpaper on a piece of wood and used this to smooth the bottom and side surfaces (and remove the last traces of the cardboard). Then I started hacksawing off one of the pipes; one was going to be used as the support, the other was a template for the bike frame profile. As I was finishing sawing through the pipe, it separated from the Araldite, timing is everything. This is where I picked up today, after a break of a couple of months, I was really getting used to the white pipe! The pipe that was used as a template for the bike frame wasn’t quite the same diameter and so I had to do a bit of sanding to get the fit right. I ended up holding a sheet of sandpaper tight around the frame (rough side out ) and used this to sand the Araldite to the correct profile.

It was then time to attach the pipe and spacer to the frame with a cable tie, getting the position right again proved to be second time lucky. As the spacer is in contact with the frame for a greater area it no longer moves around the frame, which was a problem with the prototype. Due to the change of pipe position with the spacer from the prototype, the monopod is now carried the opposite way round; the leg clamps are towards the frame rather than facing out. I have added a second cable tie for security since the photo was taken. I may in the future remove it from the bike and spray it matt black, but at the moment it is doing the job nicely. Looking at the pictures, I think I should have wiped the sanding dust off the bike before I took the last couple of photos. So there you have it, my solution for carrying a monopod on my bike.

Anyway, I started briefly glancing at it that evening and before I knew where I was, I was into the book. Dewey was adopted by the library staff after he was dropped in the book return one cold January night. It is a great book, with many funny antics and also a bit of an emotional roller coaster. The town was suffering during the downturn of the 1980’s and the arrival of Dewey proved to be a turning point for the library and the town. The writing is easy and very descriptive; you are just there in the story.

A book that I would most definately recommend. It took me a week, because I was busy and couldn’t get back to it, but I could easily have sat and read it all day.

What, you’re still reading. I am surprised!

OK, here is some background. HP Web JetAdmin is software that monitors network attached printers and provides alerts when certain conditions are met. For example, if the toner is low or there is a paper jam, it can alert you, allowing you to be proactive with support. It means that you can purchase toners when alerted rather than holding a large stock or being caught on the hop when all the colour printers are out and no-one has mentioned it until 5 minutes before a critical print job.

Anyway, we had been using this software for some years at work without any problems. You would just get the alert email with a summary of the issue and a link allowing you to open the admin interface in a web browser. Recently, we had some major network changes which resulted in the IP addresses being changed for all our network devices (including computers and printers). After the changes, and rediscovering the new printers (some of their details changed as well), the Web JetAdmin software continued to work as before. Unfortunately, this also included the link to open the admin interface. It was still using the old IP address which was no longer valid.

After ‘googling’ for the solution without luck, I tried several approaches, some of which got me into a bit of a mess with the database. In the end I got the software re-installed, only to find it was still hooked into the old database and the old information.

To cut to the chase, the solution is really simple. In the c:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP Web Jetadmin 10\WJABackupRestore folder run the backup script to produce a backup set. I had to modify the location of ’set OSQL’ in the script due to a non-standard installation.

Once you have the backup, open the file ‘HP.Imaging.Wjp.Core.WebServer.config.xml‘ in the Settings\WjaService\config folder and modify the IP address to the new address.

e.g.
<property name=”HostIPv4Address”>
<type>HP.Imaging.Wjp.Sdk.Core.Framework.ConfigurationItemString</type>
<value>192.168.50.125</value>
</property>

Run the restore script and allow it to overwrite the existing database. I also had to modify the location of ’set OSQL’ in this script due to my non-standard installation.

Your emails will now contain the correct link to launch the admin interface.

Hopefully this will save someone a lot of time.

Then you have the classic Babylon 5 from the 1990’s. This ran for 5 seasons and spawned several films. I still love watching episodes of this when I get the chance. One of the things I liked about it was the long story arcs, sometimes across all seasons. Although they were individual episodes, they all fitted into the overall story. The characters were believable and watch able. I’ll mention the less than successful spin-off series Crusade. This failed due to studio interference and was cancelled before it even aired. Only 13 episodes were made.

Thanks Wikipedia, otherwise I would have struggled to remember some of these:

Slightly earlier than this was Alien Nation. It only ran for one season before being cancelled by Fox who were having financial difficulties. It was about a LA cop working with a ‘Newcomer’ alien, and covered aspects of racisim from a different perspective. It was ok, but not one that I have to watch again.

Andromeda was a series based on material by Gene Roddenberry. It ran for 5 series. The first two series were good and then it seemed to take of in random directions. By the end I had stopped watching. Enough said.

Another Gene Roddenberry inspired series was Earth:Final Conflict. It also ran for 5 series. It is about a race of aliens called the Taelons who take refuge on Earth in return for sharing their advanced technology. Again the first two seasons were good and offered something different, then it all changed and just kept changing direction and getting more and more complex. By about season four I don’t think anyone knew where it was going; I didn’t make it to the end of the season. It also had a high turnover of main characters.

Another series that stands out as exceptional was Battlestar Galactica. It ran for 4 seasons, finishing only a couple of months ago in the UK. It was gritty and at times violent, but I enjoyed it. I think it was more about the journey than the destination and as such I’m not sure I’d watch it again. The series finale was excellent providing some twists that I hadn’t seen coming.

From the mid 90’s we had Earth 2. It only ran for one series of 22 episodes. Strange how your memory plays tricks, I thought it had run for two seasons, maybe it was shown in two runs. I remember enjoying it at the time and thinking it was just established and ready to move forward when it stopped.

Farscape ran for 4 seasons, despite been under contract for 5. It was cancelled after production had finished on the fourth season leaving it on a cliff-hanger. Brian Hanson secured the rights, which lead to the 4 hour mini-series Farscape:The Peacekeeper Wars.

Mutant X. This ran for 3 series and was due to do a fourth when the production company was dismantled. Again I remember watching and enjoying this, but not enough to get it on DVD.

Odyssey 5 was a series that only ran for one season. A group of astronauts on a routine spaceflight witness the Earth explode. Before they die, their conciousness is sent back 5 years by an alien being to discover what discover and prevent what caused it. I had forgotton about this one. It was really good and worth another watch.

Quantum Leap. The story of Dr Sam Beckett, trapped in time after a failed experiment. He changed places with different people each episode fixing whatever went wrong the first time round before ‘leaping’ to the next person. Still watchable even after seeing an episode many times.

Space:Above and Beyond only ran for one series of 22 episodes in the mid 90’s. It was the story of a groups of space marines who are just finishing their training when an unknown alien species attacks and destroys Earth’s first extra-solar colony. I wouldn’t mind seeing this again.

I’ll skip all the varients of Star Trek and Stargate, all were great and I have watched them many times.

VR.5 It also only ran for one series. I remember the VR5 stood for Virtual Reality 5, but I can’t really remember many details.

Anyway, there’s a quick run down of what has been and gone. Some sadly missed and some not so

We bought a copy of the new DVD (Live at Gloucester Cathedral) that has just been released when we got there; I figured it would be quieter early on. It was a lot busier last night than when we were first here, but we still had good seats, the first 2 on the second row. While we were waiting for them to come on, we were looking at the selection of instruments on stage. On the microphone stands were their recorders. We tried to work out what was there. The closest to us, on the left end of the stage had a descant and what looked like a treble, further round there were what looked like other trebles and finally at the right side, where Katharine usually is, there was a descant, treble and what looked small enough to be a garkleine. As we have seen her play that before, it was a certainty that Katharine would be stood there. In front of the closest microphone was a drum and a violin. At the back of the stage from left to right there was a drum kit with a pair of large drums one on top of the other in front. Then there were a couple of stringed instruments, I’ll admit I don’t know what they were, maybe a mandola? Next to this I could see a bass recorder and something else a bit shorter, maybe a tenor recorder, it was difficult to see, and finally a guitar on the right.

The baebes came on dressed in long white flowing dresses, even Katharine. The last time we same her at the Joust, in 2006, she was pregnant, but this time it was a case of only days to go. I’m not sure she looked too comfortable in the fairly tight dress. There are currently six baebes; from left to right we had Emily Ovenden, Bev Lee Harling, Claire Rabbitt, Esther Dee, Melpomeni Kermanidou and Katharine Blake. This is a change from my last post with the line-up. In September 2007, Sofia Escobar left the baebes to join the West End production of the Phantom of the Opera and Esther Dee joined. In December 2007, Maxine Fone left to pursue other career opportunities. Anyway back to the concert. I can’t honestly remember which songs were sung in which order; I went to enjoy myself not provide a concert writeup. There was a good selection of earlier material, all beautifully sung. When Claire introduced Undrentide she talked about them all dressed in white pretending to be virgins, that brought a laugh from the audience, even more so when Katharine, remember nearly 9 months pregnant, said ‘Rabbitt, why are they laughing at me’.

Katharine was on the right side of the stage and whenever she was playing recorder she faced our way, more or less looking straight at us. It was great to watch the recorder playing as well as listen to the singing. I think their recorder playing is partly what inspired me to start again. After the break, they came back on in red flowing dresses and part of the way through, while the excellent instrumental section was provided, they changed into very dark green. The last dress looked most comfortable for Katharine.

As I mentioned there was a selection of earlier material including Salva Nos, Foweles in the Frith, Kinderly, How Death Comes, The Snake, The Rose, The Sour Grove, Musa Venit Carmine and Return of the Birds. From the new album we had Desert Rose, The Blacksmiths, I Sing of a Maiden, The Undivided, My Lady Sleeps, Yonder Lee, Sunrise and Myrie Songen. I might have missed one or two others. Yonder Lee makes a great alternative to Dringo Bell, it’s that same sort of lively beat. We had audience participation in Sunrise, joining in with ‘Sunrise’ in time to Claire Rabbitt’s cues. I was really glad that when they came back on for the encore they sang my current favourite, The Undivided. I don’t know what it is about it, I just love it.

I must at this point compliment the musicians who provided the accompaniment to the baebes. Ben Woollacott on drums, Frank Moon on the fretted instruments (still don’t know what – Cittern, and Oud from the album credits), Rebecca Dutton on recorders, mediaeval fiddle and psaltery and Kavus Torabi on guitar. They were excellent. I’ll admit that I didn’t watch them much, too busy watching and listening to the baebes, but I did watch Rebecca accompanying on recorder a few times.

After the encore, we left our seats quickly to get back out to the reception area. I bought a copy of Celtic Legend’s album Lyonesse and just as I was finishing paying for it the baebes came out to sign cds and as they put it ‘anything else within reason’. I was quick off the mark and was second or third in the queue, so I got the cover of the DVD signed (I already had a signed album) and I got Emily to sign the copy of Lyonesse. I did ask when we would see another song book and Katharine answered me. She is working on a songbook of her a cappella works and it will include some of the baebes material. She estimated it would be about 3 months time – she’ll be a bit busy before then. That’s understandable! It’s a shame that there isn’t a book of the recorder parts for the songs, they would be great to learn. I guess I’ll have to listen harder to the tracks and try to work them out. About 5 minutes later when we finally left, the queue for signing was about 15-20 minutes long I guess. I’m glad I got there when I did.

We put the Lyonesse CD on for the drive home and enjoyed what we heard of it. A brilliant night out. We’ll have to keep an eye out for anything that they will be at during the daytime, so that we can take the kids. They really enjoy the music and have missed seeing them at the Joust.

For the first time I had contacted my MP Andrew Selous, via www.theyworkforyou.com, at the end of April and asked if he could support the vote in Parliament calling for a fair deal for Gurkhas and had an email back that evening to say that he would be voting in support of the Gurkhas. Following the government’s defeat in the Commons over the issue, it was only a matter of time before they had to bow to public opinion.

From the website: ‘The script is adapted from elements of the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The story follows the Heir of Isildur; the “greatest huntsman and traveller in Middle Earth” as he sets out to find the creature Gollum. The creature must be found to discover the truth about the Ring, and to protect the future Ringbearer.’

It was made for about £3000, which is a long way from the $270 million budget that Peter Jackson had for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Considering this, it is brilliant. It doesn’t feel like it was made for next to nothing. It fits well into J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth that Peter Jackson brought to life and at times you forget that you are watching something else. The funding was raised by donations from fans.

The music was composed specially for the film and has the same feeling as Howard Shore’s original scores, which just adds to the total package.

If you enjoyed Lord of the Rings pop over to The Hunt For Gollum movie website (http://www.thehuntforgollum.com) and have a watch.

There is another Lord of the Rings fan film currently being made, Born of Hope. This hour long original drama is set in the time before the War of the Ring and tells the story of the Dúnedain, the Rangers of the North, before the return of the King. Inspired by only a couple of paragraphs written by Tolkien in the appendices of the Lord of the Rings it follows Arathorn and Gilraen, the parents of Aragorn, from their first meeting through a turbulent time in their people’s history.

This is currently scheduled for Autumn online release, so I shall be looking forward to that. This is on a slightly larger budget of £25,000 which although small as films go, is still being raised. The trailer uploaded at the beginning of May looks good.

Anyway, this year, there was a carnival procession again. Last year the procession had to be cancelled as there were too few entrants. It was going to be leaving the council offices at 12:00 noon on the route through the town to the Bennett Memorial Recreation Ground. We walked up to the end of the road with some of our neighbours just before 12 and other than a policewoman, were the only ones there. As the rain was coming towards us, I took my camera to the other side of the road so it was coming from behind me. The road filled up quite a lot before the procession came by.

The parade was led by Harpenden Pipe Band, who led the 2007 Dunstable Carnival procession. They had dressed for the British weather! I got several photos of them, a couple of which I have put on in a gallery of Dunstable Carnival 2009 photos. I have tried to include photos of all of the entrants in the procession in my gallery, although, I seemed to have missed the mayor!

The one that made me smile the most was the clown at the end, she seemed in a world of her own walking in the rain, and then she realised she was quite a way back from the others and had to catch up. All in all it was all over in about 20-25 minutes, but worth watching.

It’s just a shame after the effort people put into the procession that the weather couldn’t have been better. I was very pleased with the clarity of the images I got considering the poor light. Not all the photos were good photos, more a record of being there.