Verbal halitosis . . .

Toy ducks

2008-06-26T12:08:00.002+01:00

Short and brief today, lots of things to write about at the moment, it's just finding the time as they are coming thick and fast.

For one, I've got a new job and start there on Tuesday July 1st and for the first time in a long time, I can't wait to start there . . . more on this soon.

Right, food for thought, why are toy ducks always yellow with red beaks?

MicroGoogleHoo!

2008-05-18T11:00:00.004+01:00

Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google seem to be cavorting around the internet playground at the moment like a set of techno bullies. One minute dreaded enemies, the next bed buddies discussing business plans.

As I read last week about the collapse of the deal that would have seen Microsoft buy Yahoo! for an excessively large amount of cash in order to pull its eye level closer to Google in the ever more profitable internet/online advertising world, I wondered how this would affect the long term outlook in this particular sector.

Yahoo! who I have previously written about with their semantic search research and adoption, seem a little lost in this "big boys" battle between Google and Microsoft. Or is that the way they want it to seem? Yahoo! had surprisingly only just recently approached Google as to the possibility of them taking care of their internet advertising, which was a strange request as this seemed their area of greatest contrition?

Anyway, back to the deal of the decade, Yahoo! to be bought by Microsoft, or not as the case currently seems. So what went on, Microsoft went in high, Yahoo! rubbed their hands, well the shareholders did, so they asked for more. After Microsoft had already lost face by going in high, I expected them to meet somewhere in the middle, but instead Microsoft just backed away. Leaving Yahoo! where they were but with a lower share price and Microsoft still having MSN as their search engine flag ship. Google must be chuckling away gleefully by themselves!

But, there has been much criticism made of Yahoo! poor business dealings in not accepting the already good offer from Microsoft and the CEO Wang (founding owner) now is under pressure from his shareholders, it seems, to go. Personally I see this as an interesting turn in events, and perhaps a hope that companies are not all driven by profit focussed share holder boards, although we'll have to wait and see how long Wang holds out. I'm tired of just seeing these global giants just celebrating a massive increase in profits, surely when all of these guys set out they had better objectives than that? Sure they wanted to make a buck, but perhaps they had more interesting goals as well? Or maybe I am just a romantic lost in a world of sales men.

Anyway, when I started writing this entry it was new news, now however it isn't so I am going to draw a close to this particular thought pattern and move on . . . laters . . .

Worlds biggest killer

2008-04-13T10:21:00.006+01:00

For this next post I am returning to something already visited in my blog, road traffic accidents.

This has been brought on by exposure to another catalogue of incidents and I can only see these increasing in our lifetimes.

I was reading one of the Sunday papers the other week and came across an article relating to a WHO (World Health Organisation) report on road traffic accidents that had identified that RTA's were the biggest killer in the world for the age group under 25. With nearly 400,000 young people killed a year it is far higher that AIDS or any other disease and that figure doesn't include those that survive with disabilities.

Later this week I read that one of Liverpool FC's academy hopefuls was involved in a car accident which sadly two of the other passengers died in and one other is still in intensive care.

Then just this morning I read of an accident near my home village that has killed 4 and seriously injured 2 others.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all involved in road traffic accidents and hope that the survivors make a full recovery.

When I had my last accident, a Police office corrected me when I used the term RTA, they no longer call them RTA's but now called them RTI (Road Traffic Incident) which I saw as a positive step. This was because most incidents were caused by something, they weren't just accidents. I don't know the details of either of the above mentioned collisions and therefore I am not inferring anything to those particular cases.

But the two I have been involved in from my knowledge were not accidents, somebody took and action that caused the collision. This action might have been tuning the radio or answering your mobile, or talking to someone in the rear of the car, it doesn't have to be overtaking or some other more dangerous action.

We all seem to think that it will never happen to us, until it does . . .

Cars are inherently dangerous, large over 1 ton objects that can travel at speeds of over 100mph. Would you answer your mobile while pointing a gun at a stranger or look over your shoulder while taking aim? That's effectively what you are doing. I still see some many people talking on their mobiles while driving, but don't worry they're good drivers and nothing will ever happen to them.

Yesterday a watched a women coming through the lights on Eccleshall Road, Sheffield in her large Mercedes 4x4 nonchalantly chatting away on her mobile while negotiating a corner onto a dual carriageway with traffic lights, but don't worry she's a good driver, we're all safe. I see drivers driving down slip roads onto the motorway while chatting on their mobiles, but don't worry it won't happen to them. For want of a better description, all of these people are idiots risking my life and the life of all those around them for the sake of a phone call, yes you madame in your Mercedes 4x4 you're an idiot, you may look smart and intelligent and hold down a cushy job, but to me that's all you are, an idiot.

One of my friends stated something the other day that rang so true that I thought I would share it with you, he said "in years to come they'll look back on this era with horror, I mean what madman would drive around in a metal box, passing other people in metal boxes at combined speeds of up to 120mph with only centimetres between them, protected only by an air bag and seatbelt?"

Pay attention while you drive, it could only be a short time you are in the car, but it could affect the rest of your life and several others that you have never met.

Defiance

2008-04-11T19:48:00.003+01:00

My 10 month old daughter had her first act of defiance today, I mean we've had tears before for when she wanted something, but this was different.

We were eating raisins together from the little packs of Sun maid raisins you can buy, when she started to take more of an interest in the cardboard box than the raisins. So I let her chew the box for a while as I saw no harm in this and then when it had become so wet that she had a chance of pulling some of the cardboard box off into her mouth, I took it off her . . .

She looked at me and then at the recently removed box and then back at me and started to to cry, not just a little cry but as close to a scream without being one . . . I gave her the box back to see if it was the removal of the box that had caused the tears, she stopped instantaneously . . . I then removed the box and she cried until she had forgotten all about the box, approximately 30 seconds later.

To celebrate this momentous occasion I installed our first stair gate today . . .

Old School . . .

2008-04-10T10:36:00.003+01:00

Whilst making a delicious Sumatran lamb curry (if I do say so myself) last night I decided to plug in my headphones and let my i-pod do the entertaining.

It's been a long time since I listened to music through headphones and I'd forgot just how good it is. It had me reminiscing in no time, playing an old playlist of mine with lots of oldish electro.

The likes of the fantastic Yulquen - Autechre, Ptolemy - Aphex, Yak - Plaid and Psychodelik - LFO graced my ears for the first time in a while and what tunes they are.

I was "big" into my electro during my Uni years and for several years after, well I still am but there isn't as much stuff of this ilk being produced any more and I have lost touch with the music scene.

Touring the country to visit nights and small festivals like the one in Wales where I hitched to with my younger brother. What a weekend, the hitch hiking was great we got there in no time. The trip back started with a memorable trip in the back of an open backed pickup lying on our backs as we travelled through the local woods, which was great therapy after the weekend we had just encountered. I did a quick search to see if I could find the "do" and found some old photos from the night "Baskerville Hall".

Anyway, I look back on Oscillate nights now with rose tinted glasses, they were fantastic and for just an hour last night while I cooked I felt like I was back there. Perhaps I'll take a trip to the Sheffield LoveBytes festival that was advertised on the Oscillate site and see if fulfils some of the potential that my past experiences still hold.

And the Reds go marching on . . .

2008-04-09T12:21:00.004+01:00

Okay, time to reveal some allegiance to my favoured football team, Liverpool.

What a game last night! Non stop action from the start to the finish.

I must admit I was a little bit taken aback by the pace with which Arsenal started the game, but even at this early stage I did wonder how long they could keep that up.

Their passing in the first 25-30 minutes was subliminal, but at the end of the day it's the goals that count and there were plenty of those to talk about.

In the first half the area of the field where we seemed to be losing the ball the most was our powerhouse midfield, our usual area of dominance. But Xabi was off form last night to begin with and it altered the midfield that was supposed to feed the already altered aggressive but odd new front line that included Torres, Kuyt, Crouch and Gerrard all playing attacking roles.

But after the ever youthful Sami scored the goal from the corner, yes Liverpool scored a goal from a corner, it was a different Liverpool that started playing.

Coming on in the second half Arsenal started to show heavy legs after their first half exertions and Liverpool started to show what they do best, which is applying continued pressure.

Torres and Gerrard, who had been almost missing previously due I think partly to the formation, started appearing all over the pitch and showing some of the world class skill that they are capable of.

Torres's goal was sublime, a truly talented individual we have there and I am looking forward to see how he can improve further, yes imagine that!

But then the unimaginable, a goal from Arsenal and a good goal at that, with the fresh legs of Theo Walcott proving unstoppable.

Moments later a penalty, which in itself could have been the talking point of this post, but all I am going to say is that in this game sometimes you get the shout and others you don't, Liverpool have had plenty of decisions not go their way and even if Arsenal had got their penalty last week we would have still qualified 5-4.

Gerrard tucks the penalty away with cool composure and we see a light at the end of a tunnel. Moments later our fresh legs goes on his own one man show by running the length of the pitch, but goes one better than Walcotts effort earlier by scoring the goal himself. Ryan Babel is an act to watch in the coming seasons, I expect great things from him.

All in all a great night of football and we are back to Stamford Bridge for the 3rd Semi-Final in 4 years. Bring on Moscow I say!

Spring is in the air . . .

2008-03-31T19:46:00.007+01:00

Whilst out walking Dylan our Springer Spaniel in Froggatt woods wearing shorts the other day, it was hard to deny Spring was well and truly in the air. I'm not saying that winter might not have one more bite left in it yet, just that Spring has taken command.

The Silver Birch that dominate the woods were slowly coming into bud and even the later budding Beech was showing signs of finally dropping all of its last season golden crop of leaves.

I wasn't shocked to see that I wasn't the only fool hardy idiot out walking in shorts, in fact I passed several and it was because the air was so undeniably warm. If this evidence wasn't substantial enough, as I came down from my walk back to Grindleford I passed my first grass cutter of the year, obviously wanting to start with the official start of British Summer Time.

I always find it a wonderful time when you start to see the seasons change, which ever they may be. But I think Spring has to top the season changes, when it come to what a new season may hold, there is something so expectant about it. Winter draws to a conclusion slowly, still leaving the odd frost well after we have all started wearing t-shirts (if not shorts!), but Spring proffers Summer up, warm nights and lazy weekends warming our cold bodies after the dank Winters we get in Britain.

The psychological affect it has on you can be astounding, some how all of the worries that have been with you over the Winter months seem to slip into your sub-conscious and you are reborn with this new feeling that everything is going to be all right after all.

It's been nice to really start noticing the smaller components of season change since we left London to live in the country again. Whilst in London you obviously still get the major factors of the air temperature and the hours of daylight, you don't however notice as many of the other factors. The abundance of life is slapping you in the face at this time of year out of the cities, birds everywhere nest making, flower bulbs pushing their way out of the now fully soaked soil. Give it a few more weeks and the Bluebells are going to adorning the wood floor like a fairy carpet here.

With a young child in our family now, it seems to be all that more important to witness these things, I grew up having all of these changes pointed out to me by my parents and they have stayed with me all my life. My wife mocks my boring tirades whilst we are out walking as I point out every detail of nature as we pass, but for me this is what I love about nature, it's detail and it's this detail I now want to share with our daughter in the hope that she too will incorporate it into her vision of the world.

I am currently reading Wildwood - A Journey Through Trees by Roger Deakin, which whilst a somewhat eccentric take on woodland life is a refreshingly detailed account. Someone who truly encapsulates the comings and goings of a woodland environment and their seasonal changes. Some times I feel that in this fast paced modern world, which we all enjoy in different ways, we don't take enough time to notice the details. So next time you are out walking, whether it be in a woodland or even down Charing Cross Road, take a pause and take in some of life's wonderful details.

Yahoo!, the people search engine?

2008-03-25T12:54:00.010Z

Its been interesting to read about Yahoo's adoption of semantic searching in their search engine, something that Google has been opting out of to date, partly because I suspect the cost of implementing the technology. but equally it must be related to the way Google has implemented its AdSense and a fear that it may lose current clients when it tries to evolve its approach to searching and indexing.

This coupled with Yahoo's rich search features that it is now starting to use, allowing web masters to incorporate other details in search results such as ratings, address details or whatever seems appropriate in a snap shot, might start to bring Yahoo's search engines back into the front line battle, a battle that recently seemed to be a one horse race.

With Google taking approximately a 59% (based on ComScore figures) share of the US search market currently and larger figure in the UK, closer to 75%, it seemed that we were already in a solo market similar to that of Microsoft's domination in the OS market.

For us the consumer, Yahoo's news can only be a good thing. With Google's acquisition of DoubleClick not so long ago it was looking like our ability to search the web freely was becoming less and less likely with customised ad's springing their way onto our screens depending a Google's judgement on our internet behavioural patterns.

Google's method or the otherwise traditional method of searching via related links to websites predominately around big subjects always favoured the big players, semantic searching on page content should allow some more specialist content pages to be found on popular subjects, that is if Yahoo can get it to work properly and for developers to adopt it sufficiently.

Google adopted some new methods themselves recently into their own search approach, with a new feature that furthers the existing search through related links, by actually searching within a search. This allows pages to be searched and then the related linked pages searched as well, some say this may actually backfire on clients that might find consumers going to their competition after their pages have been identified in the search instead. But like all SEO work, it will depend on careful content planning by web content managers and their SEO advisers.

Some diversification in the market and some competition keeps the chase alive, with global spends on SEO technology and advertising investment in the area booming at the moment as clients pull traditional "above the line" advertising spending to spend on digital, even with talk of a global recession in the air.

Freedom was something that drew some of the original users to the internet in the first place and it seems to be slowly eroding as internet pioneers become billionaire business people. Let's hope the internet doesn't go down the road that the mass press and television media has, where you struggle to find a fresh thought or perspective on any matters without the undertone of a advertising or commercial agenda.

New place, new space . . .

2008-03-14T11:13:00.004Z

Long time no blog . . .

Well it's been a while and in that while a lots happened.

We've moved, leaving behind the lovely countryside and mountain landscape of Cumbria to move to the Peak District, an area that we don't know so well.

The move has mainly been in the search for work that was sadly lacking in Cumbria.

But its not just our location that has changed, but our martial status changed just a few weeks ago after we eventually tied the knot in a wedding that should have been last year, were it not for the car accident. What a day, I would highly recommend it if you haven't tried it before . . .

The Peak, so far, has been superb. A perfect combination for us of rolling countryside and access to plenty of outdoor pursuits, but with the urban access to Sheffield and Manchester not all that far away. Access for us to all of this countryside seems all that easier, but it can only be on a psychological level, as we could walk out of door onto the fells in the Lakes, but either way it has helped me to get a lot fitter than I have been for several years.

But for others the Peak is a lot easier to access physically than the Lakes, with Sheffield on it's doorstep where we are. With this easier access you get a different variety of weekend user than we were used to seeing, equally in much larger numbers.

You start to miss the solitude the Lakes provided, where you could be on the summit of Great Gable, with no one except your own party for company to watch the mist slowly gathering around the back of Lingmell Col.

To alleviate our pining for bigger adventures we both went for an explore of the Kinder Scout area the other week, going up along the Pennine Way, Jacob's Ladder and on to the downfall where the wind on this particular day was blowing the waterfall back up the mountain with quite impress effect, and then back across the top and down Crowden Brook. A curious landscape with the gritstone forming many fantastic shapes among the black peat, like some 60's Martian film set.

But here we missed the additional push required to reach the summits that we were used to from the Lakes and while the view across to Lancashire was impressive it didn't have that somehow untethered beauty of the Lakes.

All this aside, we think we may have found our new home here and we are falling for the area quickly, with access to some of the urban facilities, that even we missed after a decade in London, on our doorstep in Sheffield. Yet, peace and quiet at night and a blanket of stars over head when it's clear. Oh, and not to forget some very friendly folk who have made us feel nothing but welcome.

Right, I promise, not so long till the next post . . .

Monday 5th November 2007 - A Weekend in Luxury.

2008-03-13T18:50:00.001Z

Just spent a very nice weekend relaxing at a friends wedding, a thoroughly pleasant experience all in, our friends company, the location and the event itself.

To get to the lovely venue of Babington House though, we had to drive across the majority of England, which while it was undoubtedly worth it, it meant we had to experience some pretty awful driving in both terms of traffic and also time spent on the road.

Unfortunately we haven't had much luck on the roads over the last 12 months, having been involved in two serious car accidents, neither of which I hasten to add, were our fault

I now find it hard to be anything other than concerned for the future of driving cars. Let me start from the beginning and move from there. I was a late starter, big into my cycling when a kid, I would cycle everywhere and I mean just about everywhere, sometimes gone for days on end and even once cycling Lands End to John O'Groats when younger and fitter than I am now. So when I turned 17 and started to learn to drive it didn't hold the same excitement as I think it may hold for other new drivers, I already had my independence.

I eventually passed my test after I turned 30, when my partner started encouraging me to drive her car. We were free to alternate in our drive of 2.3 miles to the Sainsbury's where we used to live in London.

Since we left London our driving requirement and miles have rocketed, no longer can we travel anywhere by train, well we can but it can take an eternity, cost a fortune and since we have a little one on board now it can be very hard to accommodate all her bags, babies don't half take a lot of luggage!

With my partners new job came a company car and with a newer car and the extra miles we were covering I began, shock horror, to enjoy driving. That all came to a very sudden end when last year, just approaching Christmas we were involved in a very serious traffic accident after a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction came over the brow of a hill on the wrong side of the road and hit us head on.

The accident, without going into all the details,left my partner who was driving at the time, with life threatening injuries and me with some bad cuts, bruises, broken fingers and most significantly from my perspective some mental scars.

Then just a few weeks ago, after we were both well onto our way back to normal life, well as normal as we could get after the injuries we received, I was involved in another accident, where the driver in front of me was hit by an oncoming overtaking car.

This has compounded the already developed lack of trust we both gained for other drivers and that unwritten agreement that they won't cross the line in the middle of the road unexpectedly.

This leads me to the purpose of this post; even in the relatively short time I have been driving, cars have jumped forward light years in comfort, performance, safety and now even size. It leaves so many drivers with an air of invincibility, a feeling of "it will never happen to me". I am obviously a lot more aware on the roads these days as a consequence of the accidents and I see too much bad driving going on. People seem to have almost forgotten about the use of the indicator. Acceleration in modern vehicles encourages people to over take where previously they would have never considered doing so. Mobile phones are distracting people whilst they drive, it may be against the law in this country but I see people using the mobiles whilst driving on a daily basis.

The worry is that is that as a responsible driver, you are no longer in control of your destiny on the roads. Its a concept that the irresponsible driver probably never considers. So while I don't want to ban cars or peoples enjoyment of driving cars, even if I am in favour of greener alternatives, I just hope that some people can start thinking beyond their personal desires whilst driving and consider how they may affect someone else life by their reckless actions.

Next post I promise a positive post!

Thursday 10th October 2007. Cooling Towers and Firefox Powers.

2008-03-13T18:48:00.001Z

Okay, second entry, first was some whiter about nothing in particular followed by some babble about walking on the hills, what will this instalment cover? Well if you can't guess I am making it up as we go along . . .

I watched the demolition of the Sellafield cooling towers the other week from the summit of Muncaster Fell and I have got to admit, whilst it was reasonably impressive I wasn't left with any feeling of awe and wonderment of the whole event. They came down very quickly, neatly and disappointingly and almost disturbingly quietly. Well the horizon here has now changed forever, for the better, although I do know several people who started work at Sellafield in the late 60's early 70's who shed a tear or two.

Quick quip, where do the Dutch buy their tomatoes from? If they are the ones we get in the supermarket here in the UK, I pity them . . . I enjoy cooking and whenever possible will buy local produce, particularly meat from around here as it is so damn good, but when forced into shopping in the supermarket I generally avoid any veg from Holland if I can due to its unbelievable lack of taste!

Anyway, where next, how about internet standards. When I started working with internet technologies I had already been converted to a Firefox fan, since my learning curve took a sharp upwards twist I can categorically demand an answer to why so many internet users still use IE (other that it ships with the worlds most popular OS)? It is so poor as a browser, non-complainant piece of code. I think some of my web-site imagery might not work in IE and to be honest I don't give a monkeys.

Moving on, I have a continual debate with a colleague who is a big Flash designer and fan. Since started getting into the rag-bag trade of web development I have sat in the accessible and standardised (said with a cough considering the previous para . . .) camp of xHTML/CSS and he the lovely smooth camp of Flash. We continually trade stabs at each others failings, when really we should be embracing each others qualities and getting them to work in harmony (trying not to sound too flowery!) which of course we do in reality. But a recent delve into the subject of SEO seems to bring that embrace to a more logical conclusion, but with SEO being one of my sucker punches against Flash design perhaps the days of trading stabs are over . . . Anyway before I reveal that this is about the extent of all my knowledge I am going to cheat and point my blog to someone else's with an interesting discussion on this and call this entry a wrap.

Thursday 20th September 2007. Don't forget your Torch.

2008-03-13T17:03:00.001Z

First blog entry and I am already stuck for words, what do I talk about? Well first this has been a long time coming, not just the blog, but the whole website. Over the last 18 months I have embarked upon a series of training sessions and taken on several projects relating to web development. I have found the whole experience much more rewarding and satisfying than I expected.

Its been able to meet my need for techie know how and yet fulfilled a desire to get a little bit more creative in my work. IT Management which had been my bread and butter for several years prior had slowly declined into vast amounts of paper work and audits and legal requirements. With the convergence of several leading companies it was hardly a choice any longer on strategy and decision making and it was slowly taking the road of structure and compliance to such a degree that there more business development managers in large IT teams than there were people who had worked in IT.

What else has been on recently, well today I had the delights of appearing on the local news in my volunteer role as a Mountain Rescue member in the Wasdale team. Call outs are rising exponentially and this has only been further exacerbated by Wasdale recent claim to fame as the best view in the Britain, which has been drawing the crowds (there's me thinking no one actually watched ITV).

But as member who was out on the call out the other night to assist a couple off a local fell and witnessing many other members of the public out on the fells, there are just too many people who go out ill prepared. The weather can turn foul, it may take long than expected to finish the walk you are planning. So I am going to finish my first blog entry and go and put my baby daughter to bed with a lesson on going out on the hills all over the UK: take spare clothes that are suitable, tell someone where you are going and plan delays into your walk that might mean finishing in the dark (so be prepared for this with a torch or even better a head lamp) and finally wear suitable footwear. Here endeth the sermon.

Oh and because I should, the views expressed above are my own and not those of any other party . . .