Date: 20/11/2008

Credit: RNLI/Michael Satterthwaite

Merry Christmas!

Driving at this time of year, particularly in the dark, is not always easy.

Back in about 1935, a gentleman named Percy Shaw (later OBE) invented and started manufacturing the first “Cat’s Eyes” which have saved many lives on the roads - but did you know that you can do your bit to make the Cat’s Eye even more useful by cleaning them while you are driving?

It’s easy, just drive over them from time to time! Built in to the base is a resevoir designed to hold a small amount of rainwater which washes the Eye every time it is depressed. (This only really applies to the original design pictured above)

Obviously, you should only stray to the middle of the road when it is safe to do so, but please give it a try and see the results the next time you drive along the same stretch of road - a few bumps won’t hurt you or your car!.

This mail arrived this morning and is the first personalised one of its type I have seen:

YANG LIM & ASSOCIATES
SOLICITOR AND ADVOCATES
NO. 101, JALAN PUDU RAYA,
TAMAN DESA RAYA
MALAYSIA
TEL: +60122473440
Email: barryanglim@XXXXXX.XXX
I am Yang Lim, an attorney at law. A deceased client of mine, Mr. Andrew  Curd, that shares the same last name as yours, died as the result of a heart-related condition on March 12th 2005. His heart condition was due to the death of all the members of his family in the tsunami disaster on the 26th December 2004 in Sumatra Indonesia.
I  can be reached on barryanglim@XXXXXX.XXX for more information.My late Client has a deposit of Nineteen Million Dollars (US$19 Million Dollars) left behind.
Best regards,
Yang Lim
Attorney at Law

Perhaps I’ll be rich in 2009 after all! Somehow I suspect not…..

The first on stage were the Groundhogs who, I have to admit, are an aquired taste but they paved the way into Wishbone Ash’s set really well playing a large chunk of their early 70s album “Split”. Sound quality wasn’t great but it did the job for me….

Next on were Wishbone Ash. They played a blinder… they really seemed to enjoy themselves and played plenty of tracks from the older stuff I love so much. The newcomers to the band blended in to the point that I didn’t really notice that they weren’t part of the original lineup.

Finally we were treated to Focus who played a few of their early numbers and some of their newer stuff. Personally I would have preferred them to have the second slot and for Wishbone Ash to have closed the gig as I think things perhaps peaked a little early… nonetheless Thijs van Leer (the only remaining member of the original lineup) and the replacement for Jan Akkerman (lead guitar) treated us to accurate and rocking renditions of Focus’s “greatest hits”.

Thanks for the tickets Tyler!

I was pleased to see on Digg today that CodeWeavers have decided to release their “CrossOver” application for free. The only snag is that it’s a “today only” offer so you’d better get in there quickly.

Products:
CrossOver Mac: Our flagship Windows-to-Macintosh compatibility tool. Intended for Intel Mac OS X machines, CrossOver Mac will allow Mac users to run their favorite Windows applications seamlessly on their Mac. Windows files can be opened directly within your file browser, or from email attachments. No rebooting, no switching to a virtual machine, and no Windows Operating System license required; CrossOver is a complete replacement for your Windows OS as far as your Windows software is concerned.

CrossOver Games: Based on the latest Wine Games development work, CrossOver Games allows Mac and Linux users to run their favorite Windows games in the environment of their choice. No rebooting, no switching to a virtual machine, and no Windows Operating System license required; CrossOver gives you the best performance possible if you’re not running on Windows.

CrossOver Linux: Our flagship Windows-to-Linux desktop productivity tool. Allows you to run many popular office productivity software applications on Linux, such as Microsoft Office, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Project and Visio, graphics applications like Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX, and Adobe Photoshop, and many more. Not only that, but CrossOver Linux also allows you to use many Windows Web browser plugins, such as QuickTime and Shockwave, directly on your Linux browser. Runs on many popular Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, Redhat, Novell, Suse, Xandros, Mandriva and others. No Windows Operating System license required; CrossOver is a complete replacement for your Windows OS as far as your applications are concerned.

The server is very busy, surprise surprise! but I’ve managed to get a copy and register my email address for a serial number - I’ll report back on progress with it soon….

The widget says it’ll add any blog posts to my stream, we’ll see in a minute….

I’ll give Twitter a go for a while to see if it really can add anything to my online activities meanwhile if you want to follow what I’m up to, join and install Twitter then just search for “briancurd” on the Find People page.

As usual Bill was on good form and the evening was a good one despite the acoustics in the RAH. Strangely, although we could hear everything the orchestra played very clearly, Bill’s voice was often lost. The guys on the mixing desk did their best I am sure but that building is just not very good for a single voice.

Unfortunately this is the second time I have been disappointed at a “single voice” performance there, the fist was a Tracy Chapman concert some years ago.

Well done Bill for taking on such a project, we did miss the big screens though!

We are hoping to use the information to create a database of readings which can be used now to quantify the current position and, in the future, to highlight changes. Of course the data we record will only really be useful if we can find a really easy way to present it. I recently mentioned the Geograph project which allows anyone to upload pictures of an area and then uses maps to navigate the collection, some variation on this theme would be ideal for sky quality information and not just for the Isle of Wight, the system will easily cope with the whole of the UK and possibly even the rest of the world!

Of course the ideal result would probably be a layer on the Google Earth project -  this is already in place for the Geograph photos so should be possible for this too. I have plenty to investigate as the Geograph software is Open Source and Google Earth has publicly accessible application links (API).

If you have any ideas about how this project could proceed, I’d be very pleased to hear from you - who knows, we may even reduce the Sky Quality by getting our names up in lights

Yet another blog upgrade completed!

This time I chose a slightly different method which made things a lot easier. I used the WP Plugin called Wordpress Automatic Upgrade (WPAU) which is available as a free download here.

Everything seems to be working so I think I’ll leave it be for a while!

So far, about 70% of the squares are complete with at least 1 picture with the remaining blanks in some pretty wild places and mostly well off the beaten track - of course you may be lucky enough to find your area needs a little help. Multiple pics are allowed for each square so even if your area isn’t blank, you can still add photos.

See the site FAQ for details of copyright conditions. For those with an interest in such things all the source code that powers the Geograph site is Open Source.