Tony Locke

Metropolis

2009-07-12T21:19:00.004+01:00

This has been on my 'list of films to see' for ages, and by heaven it was worth seeing!

This film is prescient about so much:

The Human-Machine burning at the stake, revealing a metalic body is pure Terminator.
Fredersen demonstrates Skype.
The first use of the Human-Machine is as an 'erotic dancer', setting the pattern we've seen ever since of porn and hi-tech advancing together, intertwined, into the future.

This is a silent film, with text giving a narrative. I like this, films should revert to written descriptions of what's going on. It would help me to understand what was going on.

The film is divided up into sections like an opera. We start off with a prelude, then there's an intermezzo. I like that too. After the prelude I paused the DVD and fetched chocolate / coffee bean dragées to eat during the intermezzo. I recommend you do too.

The main idea of the film is that 'the heart must be the mediator between the head and the hands' in the body politic. I take this to mean that capitalism creates wealth most quickly, but it's not distributed fairly. A compromise is to have capitalism, but tax income to fund a citizen's allowance so that everyone can benefit from the wealth that capitalism creates. If it does mean this, then I heartily agree!

Bristol Museum vs Banksy

2009-07-12T20:04:00.001+01:00

Queuing to get in. It takes about an hour.

Sign at the entrance.

My nephews are really into Thomas The Tank Engine, so this caught my eye.

I hope you can make out the writing, dear reader.

You make your own mind up.

A touch self-agrandizing.

An animated salami sausage. This is part of a series of pieces where an animated piece of food is shown as if it's the animal it comes from. Eg. battered cod swimming in a fish bowl.

Now, someone who knows about art could tell me the painting that this uses.

This isn't a Banksy, it's a biologically accurate model of the AIDS virus.

See the note about the images of the virus in the media.

This made everyone laugh!

I'm disappointed that Banksy uses MS-Windows.

This animated mechanical riot police officer is disturbingly lifelike when you see him in the flesh.

The way we went through the museum, we saw this at the end.

Ironically, the biggest moral question is posed by the very existence of the exhibition, rather than its content. Graffiti is illegal, and yet here we are celebrating criminality. Would I mind if someone graffitied my house? Yes! Unless it was a Banksy, in which case I'd be rich. So should we change the law to make graffiti illegal _unless_ it adds monetary value? Well no, that would be ridiculous. Can someone tell me what my attitude to graffiti should be? Thank you.

Memristor Minds

2009-07-11T10:42:00.003+01:00

New Scientist has a good article on memristors and their implications for AI.

It seems that memristor circuits make it possible to build cheaper, smaller computers that use less energy. It'll let us build a computer that simulates a human brain, cortical computing. I, for one, welcome our new memristor overlords.

FISHSUBSIDY.ORG

2009-07-03T08:13:00.004+01:00

According to the FAQ on fishsubsidy.org:

For the period 2007-13 the EU is set to spend €4.3 billion in subsidies to the fisheries sector.

This is a gross distortion of the market, and terribly damaging for society. Please stop it!

Imprimatur 016

2009-07-01T22:00:00.003+01:00

New version of Imprimatur out that adds the following feature:

* Can now set a request to follow redirects.

Incidentally, I think I like the new look SourceForge. It could still do with being trimmed back to make it faster, but an improvement nonetheless.

Jo's Birthday

2009-06-21T13:48:00.003+01:00

Here we are, outside at the Bell. We'd just been to Jamie Oliver's restaurant. (All my photos look like they're shot in soft focus???)

Security men in flap over stuck duck

2009-06-17T13:45:00.003+01:00

Thanks to Bill for pointing out an article in the Bath Chronicle on the trapped duckling incident I tweeted about.

Dad's Birthday

2009-06-15T22:37:00.003+01:00

At the tiller...

The first day of June...

Father mans the bridge...

Cia Cokokoco

2009-06-15T22:30:00.002+01:00

Liz and I stumbled upon some excellent street clowns. Sisters, one Spanish and one Argentinian.

Dark Skies Over Bath

2009-06-15T22:29:00.002+01:00

Ivy Watch

2009-06-15T21:54:00.004+01:00

Many complain that this blog is boring. The words, 'leaden', 'turgid' and 'moribund' crop up an awful lot in criticisms. Well, I plan to confound my critics with a special series called Ivy Watch!

Yes, each week you can check on the progress of my ivy plants! Let me introduce you. This is Pamela Flitton:

And here's Lord Widmerpool:

And lastly Ted Jeavons:

Where In Bath Is This?

2009-06-15T21:52:00.002+01:00

The first photo I took on my Android phone.

UFOs In My Garden

2009-06-15T21:30:00.001+01:00

These alien craft have landed in my garden.

Looks like the mother ship in the corner.

Rules For Travelling By Train

2009-06-13T17:53:00.002+01:00

I resisted making this post for some time, for it reveals the petty and authoritarian side of my nature. I travel by train a lot. Although Mussolini didn't actually make the trains run on time, these are the things he should have done:

When waiting for a train, spread out evenly along the platform. I always see everyone trying to board the train through the same door, forming a massive queue. If all the entrances to the train were used evenly, the train could actually leave on time.
Wait for people to get off before getting on.
While you're waiting for people to get off, queue parallel to the train and for heaven's sake leave a generous gap to let people get off.
When you get on the train, walk along to the middle of the carriage AND DON'T DAWDLE then find a seat. If there isn't a seat, then stand as near to the middle of the carriage as you can.
Above all, don't loiter in the vestibule.

Compost Ahoy

2009-06-13T17:40:00.002+01:00

The guy who's growing vegetables in my garden asked for a compost bin. Luckily my dad had a spare one; it looks just like the picture above. Now I can put stuff like banana skins and orange peel in the bin, and it'll get made into compost instead of using fossil fuels being transported to a landfill.

Wiltshire council will have to pay less for its waste disposal, therefore I expect a reduction in council tax forthwith.

Government: you must buy a smart meter

2009-06-06T17:35:00.002+01:00

The government plans to compel us in the UK to buy smart meters. The arguments for it are that:

It'll save the electricity companies money because meter readers wouldn't have to go out and read meters.
It'll save customers money, because more accurate measurement leads to energy savings.

I object to the compulsion aspect of this policy, I think the customer should be free to choose the type of meter they have. The supplier can publish two tariffs, one for a conventional meter, and another for a smart meter, and the customer can choose which one they think will be best for them.

Keep Libel Laws Out Of Science

2009-06-06T16:39:00.003+01:00

My friend Jonathan alerted me to the Sense About Science campaign to prevent libel law being used to stifle scientific debate. Jonathan writes:

The broadcaster and science journalist Simon Singh is being sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association as a resulting calling their remedies 'bogus'. There is a campaign to support him and you can sign a petition.

I've signed the petition because I believe freedom of speech is essential to the health of society. Some may remember an earlier post on the limits of freedom of speech where I quoted Noam Chomsky:

In brief, speech should be protected up to participation in imminent criminal action. So if you and I go into a store to rob it, and I say "shoot," that's not protected.

Also, think of the money that'll be saved in lawyers' fees if we stop these unnecessary libel trials!

Polifesto

2009-05-25T16:11:00.003+01:00

I've just released Polifesto. Everyone has read access, but you need an OpenId to make edits. I'd like to know what you think!

Polifesto is a wiki of political policies. Add new policies and edit existing ones to improve them. You can also rate the manifestos and policies.

Of course, the top rated policies will be instantly implemented by all world leaders.

Citizen Kane

2009-05-21T22:35:00.002+01:00

The poster says, 'Everybody's talking about it!' and people do still talk of it, so I thought I should see what it was all about. So Kazim and Liz came over and we watched Citizen Kane.

For me, the film is a morality tale. Its essence is revealed when Kane's second wife leaves him, and he pleads with her not to, saying how much it will hurt him. She retorts that he only only thinks of the hurt she may cause him, and doesn't think of the hurt he's causing her, and that's why she's leaving.

It's saying, 'if you're a selfish control-freak who is only concerned with outward signs of success, then you'll end up friendless and alone'.

imprimatur-015

2009-05-13T01:13:00.002+01:00

New release of Imprimatur with the following changes:

* Changed so that a regex matches if it's found anywhere within the string.

Previously you'd have to use the pattern .*hello.* to match 'hello' within a response. Now you can just use the pattern hello to do the same thing.

* In regexes, a dot character now matches line terminators as well.

Imprimatur used to remove all control characters from the response, and then do the match. I thought it was better not to do this behind-the-scenes chicanery and make '.' match line terminators as well.

4th June: EU Parliament Election

2009-05-10T20:11:00.004+01:00

I've visited the EU's election website (filled with dull and worthy headlines such as 'From One Legislative Period To The Next') seeking a list of the candidates standing in my area, and what their manifestos are. Not there. Ah, found a list of candidates at the UK office of the European Parliament. Well I'll ignore the Christian Party "Proclaiming Christ's Lordship", Fair Pay Fair Trade Party and the like and concentrate on the ones I've heard of. It's a bit unfair, but I haven't got all day. I have to choose a single party, and then the seats get allocated according to an unusual system.

Green Party

I've had a look at their list of candidates, and their core policies. The first policy is:

Resist economic globalisation and privatisation. Revive UK manufacturing for a balanced economy.

Well they can stop right there. I'm not against economic globalisation or privatisation. Also I wouldn't intervene to help one sector of the economy against another. Maybe I'm being a bit hasty, let's look further down the list:

No single currency. No further centralisation of economic or political power. No EU army.

Why rule out the single currency? For the UK to have its own currency is bonkers. I'd like to see an EU army as well, and an EU government! No way am I voting green.

Liberal Democrats

Graham Watson is the first candidate. I'm glad he's supporting the European Grid. Not a word about EU elections on the LibDems UK site. The ALDE group in the european parliament has a list of its top ten policies. Ooh, don't like talk of the 'european social model'. Like the bit about common foreign policy. Point 9 seems to point to tentative support of free trade? The entire list is vague and woolly, but nothing too appalling.

Labour

Their list of issues highlights the importance of the European Social Chapter, something I'm sceptical about. Their health text is good:

From food additives, to dangerous chemicals at work and to free emergency hospital treatment throughout the EU, acting at European level makes a real difference for your health.

I suppose that's where socialism comes into its own.

Nearly there, thanks for bearing with me this far...

Conservatives

The Tories are members of the European Democrats. They say:

The ED is expressly committed to democracy, individual liberty, the rule of law, national sovereignty, free enterprise, minimal regulation, low taxation, private ownership, respect and security for every individual and a strong transatlantic alliance.

Well that's great, just the party for me! But what about this national sovereignty? I think that's sometimes in conflict with individual liberty. I can live and work anywhere within the EU, and that's a triumph for individual liberty. But it was only possible at the cost of national sovereignty. So sorry ED, until you rid yourself of this 'national sovereignty' hangup, I'll not vote for you.

Conclusion

The Liberal Democrats have my vote at EU elections on 4th June.

June 4th 2009: Council elections

2009-05-10T19:02:00.004+01:00

On the 4th of June, I've got the Wiltshire Council elections.

My ward is Trowbridge Central, so I've got a choice between John Knight (Liberal Democrat) and Chris March (Conservative). Let's have a look and see what they say...

John Knight

Presumably he will follow A Liberal Democrat Vision for Wiltshire. The first page emphasises prudence and fiscal rectitude. Good. In the justice section there's a mention of restorative justice, which is interesting. Education, fairly standard nothing to frighten the horses. Funding decided by local democracy. Environment: okay, but would rather hear talk of free trade than fair trade. They have a 'leisure' section. I hate this use of the word leisure.

Chris March

The conservatives' don't seem to have a manifesto for the Wiltshire council elections. There is a page on Chris March, but it contains no details of what he intends to do.

Conclusion

Well, the Lib Dems have my vote for the Wiltshire council election on June 4th.

Christening

2009-05-10T17:39:00.003+01:00

This is the font where my latest nephew was christened earlier on today.

Dream: 286

2009-05-09T08:52:00.003+01:00

I dreamt I started a new job writing software. They didn't have a computer for me, but eventually they found a really old 286 and an old-fashioned printer. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do the job working on such hardware. Nobody was very nice to me.

For some reason I had to travel to another city, and I was driven there at high speed along a dual-carriageway in a go-cart by Jonathan. I remember thinking that we were going to crash and die, and kept telling Jonathan to slow down. We made it in the end.

Then I was house-sitting and a middle-aged woman came to inspect the house. I was eating something like liquorice root, and couldn't talk properly so I spat it out in the garden. It looked like dog poo, and I hoped she wouldn't notice it when she inspected the garden.

Open Streetmap

2009-05-07T23:09:00.002+01:00

My house (and street) wasn't on OpenStreetmap (OSM), so I put it on there! I've got a phone running Android so I used the My Tracks app to record a GPS trace as I walked down the middle of the road along Yeoman Way.

Then I uploaded the trace to OSM, did some editing and now it's there, really simple. I've learnt that you have to do traces longer than about 100m, otherwise the whole process doesn't seem to work very well.

People wonder why I contribute to OSM. They shake their heads in disbelief that I'd do this work without getting paid. I think the key thing is that when you contribute to non-proprietary information, society as a whole benefits, and so I do too (being a part of society).

This is in contrast to, say, working in a shop for nothing. Working in a shop without pay would benefit the shop owner, but not necessarily society as a whole, and would not necessarily benefit me.