Wow, it might get built

apparently this amazing solar power generator may actually get built at Mildura in Oz. I would be mighty impressed if it did.

User Interface Legend Dies

Jeff Raskin, the intellectual driving force behind the Macintosh, lost his fight with Cancer on Saturday. He was a remarkable man, always trying to improve human-computer interaction; the more revolutionary the better.
His approach to computer interfaces is best exemplified by two things; his book 'The Humane Interface' where he describes his philosophy, and the CAT word processor. While the CAT was a complete flop, it at least represented an attempt at creating something better, rather than just an incremental improvment on the WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer) metaphor.
Most recently he has been working on the ZUI, or zoomable interface. I have dreamt about this interface ever since reading about it. In fact, if I had lots of money to throw away, I would build it. I saw throw away because, just like the CAT, it would be impossible for this evolutionary step to get anywhere in the indentured world of interface design. HOWEVER, maybe apple or MS might copy it...
Some links to the great man
WIKI : Jeff Raskin
WIKI : ZUI
His website
Strangely, I am more emotional about this than 'Auntie' Nan; but then, I guess I new him better (if vicariously).

Got carried away...

... with feeling sorry for myself.

So, should I go to bloodstock?

• they are playing a bunch of cool cheese metal bands

but

• I haven't got anyone to go with
• metal boys are scary
• I might not come back alive
• it will use another of my holiday days
  

Busy Busy

Been up to a bit this week, beer and snow on monday, then Tuesday I went climbing with John : worked harder at that than I thought! Wednesday I went up to Hampton Court to catch up with Keith and Anne (And Will) and last night I went to see Raging Bull.
This weekend I am going to my grandma's for what may be the last time! She might be moving into her new residence as soon as next week. Jan and Adam will be taking me to a Brum Balti, which will be my first real Balti.
Tonight I was going to go filming, but I want a rest so I am going to go home. I'll admit I am in a bit of a mood, have been all week really. But this particular one is because I was just reminded that I should buy my tickets to bloodstock, _the_ UK metal concert event.
The thing about it is, I don't have any one to go with :( and that reminded me that I am going to Egypt on my own too (Khaled got signed for a movie!!) and so maybe that's the reason I am more homesick here than in NZ, because while I have a bunch of good friends, I don't have nearly as many as I did in NZ, and they're not at the same depth yet.
I did have a look in a guitar shop the other day, thinking about doing some flamenco and rhythm lessons, but just came out in a mood because I have spent more money than I've earnt in the last 4 months (that's right, Tiest the tight arse has more outgoings than incomings! Thank goodness for Credit Cards (or not...)). I will do it though, but just not till april.

Snow and beer

I hate beer. But I like snow.
So last night evened out to a good evening :) John, Alastair and myself ended up going to the pub across the road and having a chat until 10:30 or so over a few beers (I had fewer); one of the reasons we stayed in so long was the driving snow outside! Londons hot, hot streets melted it as soon as it touched down, but the quantity was quite amazing; visibility was cut to a few meters.
BTW, love the mac. Played on the weekend, and now that I've got rid of the Dock (yay DragThing!) I feel like I'm using a Mac again, like I did last decade. For some reason it just seems to fit together better - even simple things like the terminal are nicer (though I still want a 'open terminal here' option in the finder...)

Oblivion

Well this last week has seen many folk pass into oblivion, among them are

• Arthur Miller; while I've only seen two of his plays, I believe that between him and Tom Stoppard you have the two greatest contemporary playwrights.
• Hunter S Thompson; killed himself this morning, I haven't read any of his stuff (tsk tsk) but contemporary narrative has been forever changed by his 'fictional journalism', in much the same way that I haven't read any Beat poetry but am aware of Jack Kerouac and his influence.
• Great Auntie Nan; passed away at 4 yesterday. She was the youngest of my grandmothers siblings, but has been the most poorly for the longest. A woman full of joy, love and a lack of pretention she will be remembered.
  

Haiku

He walks, head held high
He sees the world, it sees him
He cleans poo off shoe

Not quite Ozymandius, but in the same ballpark :)

I've Succumbed

To the lure of the Mac Mini. I've paid my £340 pounds, and a further £280 for a 19 inch monitor and am now very poor, but kinda happy.
For

• All my developer mentors use Mac
• I am an old Zealot
• It's not that much more expensive than a PC, and much smaller (portable even...)
• Plays DVDs
• MOX is quite mature, and with www.asktog.com's recommendations, usable
• UNIX based - so Ruby et al are working 'natively'
• There's a magazine I just bought with the three Marathon games on it
  

Against

• I don't need it - will I use it?
• Upgrade sux
• memory is going to cost me anoth £170 when it comes through because there is only one slot
• the memory on the graphics card is not updgradable, and the next version of the OS has special features that would require more than 64Mb....
• I could use the money for
• holidays
• pay back mum and dad
• pay off some of my enormous loan
• invest in another property over here with a friend of Murray's
• a guitar
  
• I will be enticed to spend money on other, related things (TV tuner for example)
• I am succumbing to the consumer mentality
  

How can I justify? I must get a ROI of £700, or about 43 hours of work

• I must commit myself to developing my topsecret website, and then getting Murray (you listening?) to launch it for me. Yes Muz, you are the business man and I am a coder.
• I will get involved in the Ruby community, including attending the RubyConf and possibly the OSCon
• I will persue extra-curricular work involving the skillz I will learn in this process.

Well, psychologists say that you are 80% more likely to do something if you write it down, and now it is out there for you all to bug me about, so I have to. Yay

(BTW Jo, the above thinking is why it took me soooo long to make my purchase - 43 hours is a lot of my time to spend on something)

Dog Day Afternoon

By Sunday, 11am or so we'd all recovered and returned to our various abodes. I organised to meet up with Murray to go and see the above mentioned film. Unfortunately my afternoon wasn't all that crash hot either - I thought we might see the Dali exhibition, but took the long way and so didn't have enough time to go in before the film. Then we headed up for the film and found out it was on at 6, not 3!!! So then we headed to the Tate Modern and had a wander through there, I think the highlight of our quick tour being the Russian propaganda posters we saw right at the end.
Had some expensive and not so fantastic food in their cafeteria before heading back to finally see the movie - missing our dinner reservation at this funky place in Notting Hill.
After the movie we went to Soho Spice, which was a bit passe again, so I think I'll have to find another indian in Soho. Capped off the evening with a bloating cup of hot chocolate.
All in all a great day, with good company. Murray and I can talk about lots of things for quite long periods of time, and because we both have very different backgrounds we have both different views, and different experiences to bring to a particular subject matter.
Anyway, good luck Muz with the interview (he's having one in Paris on Friday, which is why he is over here)

Fuck Art, Lets Dance

So anyway, after seeing the goodies (see below) I spent the rest of the Saturday with Jo and Murray.
I helped buy Jo a laptop, and I think we ended up with quite a reasonable one for a quite good price - as long as the claimed 3 year warranty holds out. We then went back to her place via Mimi Fifi's, where I got my Astro stuff, and I bought a badge with the title of this entry written on it. Has a certain deconstructionist feel to it ;)
Then Murray called up having just been ditched by his friend for a speed dating evening. Considering Murray had only just arrived from Brisbane I thought that was a bit harsh. Muz came out dancing with us and we all had a great time - he survived until we got home at 1:30 which I thought was pretty good going!

The Goodies, or, 'They're so short'

That's right. I met the Goodies. In person. And I have a signed DVD to prove it.
It was fantastic, on Friday night I was killing some time before going to see Sideways (a film I found utterly depressing, so the goodies was an excellent 'upper') and I came across a flyer announcing that the Goodies were launching their next DVD on Saturday!
So I got up early (thanks Jo! She SMSed me at 8am :) and headed off for the show at Prince Charles cinema.
There was a big crowd outside and I was worried that I might not get a ticket, but was distracted from my concerns when the three boys themselves emerged for a press call. And they're so short! They've shrunken over the years, but even so Tim and Graeme are a lot shorter than I imagined. In fact, one might now call them 'cute'.
There was a rather scathing, and amusing, Q&A before launching into the screening of 'the movies' and 'bunfight at the OJ corral' (the one with the tomato squeeze guns). Actually I think it might have been the other way around. Finally we all filed past, gave our congrats, and got our very expensive DVDs signed.
Last thing I'd like to say is, oh my god, what a lot of Aussies! Aparently they didn't really repeat the Goodies here more than once, and so people of my generation and below don't know who they are. The guy I was sittin gnext to was Aussie, half the questions came from aussies, and the group of people behind me in line for the DVDs were Aussies.
Oh oh! And anoghter 'final thing' - Graeme and Tim are heading to Aussie with a stage show, so look out for it and tell me what it's like. I don't know if it is Goodies themed, but I'm a bit miffed I won't be there to see it.

Coming up

Most of my blogs are about things that have happened, and none of them are about things that I feel. I can't really put in the feeling things because of privacy concerns and the way words (especially on the fast food internet) end up misconstrued. I will address the first issue though.
I am off to Egypt in March, around the easter holiday. My uncle Khaled is there at the moment, organising his next film, so I will be able to catch up with him (though not distract him too much from his work). I hope to head up to Aswan by train, then boat back to Luxor, then coach/train back to Cairo and maybe fit Alexandria in in my 9 days. I am quite excited, and trepidatious as well - yet again I will be essentially on my own (except when in Cairo).
Then in May, for the long weekend then, Jo and her friends and I are off somewhere, possibly Croatia (my friend Dunyas hailing port). I haven't worked any of that out, but it should be good.

Mum found this

It's a 'self assessment' report from the hippy (and that's not a bad thing) school I went to when I was a kid. We called our teachers by their first names, and progressed at our own rate and wrote things like this...

Written Expression: 'I'm Pretty good at writing stories. I get carried away
a lot. I get Borred with writing really long stories.'
Speaking: 'I did speak my mind a lot, but not as much any more. I like
talking to Big groups as long as they cooperat.'
Listening: 'I listen quite well unless I'm bored.'
Reading: 'I love reading unless I'm bored of the thing or book.'
Spelling: 'I'm beTTer at spelling then I was But not that crash hot.'
Handwriting and Presentation: 'I put no intrest in it at all I find it very
boring.'
Mathematics: 'I think I've learned a lot from Marg. I nearly understand
everything she's taught me.'
Social Studies/Health: 'I find it realy boring. We don't find out much
either.'
Science: 'It's intresting but we haven't done much in it.'
Physical Education: 'I like PhyseD. We've had a good range of things to do -
ms burnard is a good teacher. I'm quite good at Sport but don't have much
enerjy.'
Art: 'I like art. I think I've got a bit of tallent for it. Sue cooperates
really well.'
Music/Drama: 'I've got alot of tallent for Drama but I need a pre made
script to do it well and a directore.'

Well, my spelling is still pretty atrocious, but at least I don't get so bored these days! And Drama-wise I much prefer to stay away from the scripts....

Got my hair cut

After much prompting, and the eventual booking of an appointment, I have gotten my hair cut very short. Now I have to apply 'product' when I am feeling like being sexy :)
I also went and saw 'Shaun of the Dead,' an english comedy zombie flick which was more poignant, and less funny, than I thought it would be. Tonight I am off to see Creep, another english film, this time a thriller, as it is closing this week too.

Movies, theatre, what more is there to life? Rollerblading!

Friday night Jo and I went out to see future shorts, a great programme where short film directors from around the world swap their films so people in other countries can see their stuff. There was a launch beforehand at a cool club in Notting Hill that I will definitely be returning to, nice and smooth tunes and a funky atmosphere. The shorts were great, though I did break my promise to jo of getting her home early - we didn't leave the cinema until 2!
Saturday I finished off the furniture building and a bit of tidying and washing and so on. Then in the evening I rushed off to a full blown RSC production of King Lear (here, here!) which started 30 minutes before I thought it did, so it's lucky I got there early!
On Sunday I went climbing on my little lonesome as Tam was in Manchester, and decided to subscribe to the local wall, which means I will be climbing a lot because now I have to get my monies worth! I grabbed some shopping before I got an invitation to go Rollerblading.
This was the first time I have ever been rollerblading, and when people said 'oh, you'll find it easy if you can ice skate even a bit' I simply didn't believe them. It's true though, while I took a while to get into it, after 20 or so minutes I was quite capable of going in a straight line, faster than pedestrians, without falling over! In fact I didn't fall over at all (knock on wood).
We went with a girl called Kathy and Jo and her took off ahead, but that was OK because I was just working things out for myself. We are thinking of doing it regularly, which is fine by me because my fear of broken limbs has been replaced with a less rational desire to get a whole lot better and maybe get some cardio workout happening. As I said to Jo, as long as you don't fall over, it's a very low impact sport!
After that I was supposed to go to another future shorts thing called RocknRoll Cinema, but I chickened out and went to dinner where Jo and I chatted about various things such as our families - I ended up SMS mine to tell them I love them (hi guys!) because I am very slack when it comes to phoning (but pretty good at emailling).
We then went and saw the fabulous film "Closer" which topped off a great weekend with a great movie.

Lots of furniture

Finally have all my furniture set up; bunk bed thingy, bookshelf, desk and stereo. The Bookshelf is surprisingly good quality, though it had the worst instructions of the lot, and consequently I stuffed up the placement of the draws and now they take a little nudge to get the closed :(
The desk, all £20 of it, is understandably not very good.
The Stereo is great (once I extract the gunk clogging my brain and connect the speakers the right way round). I've given its 5 disk trays a spin, and listened to some truely aweful techno on the radio while finishing off some stuff (the DJ kept on yelling 'Freeze' and 'Listen' in time with the music, if he couldn't think of something better to say (which was often)).
Now all I have to do is dump the huge boxes it all came in, and vacuum the floor.

Should sleep more

I didn't mention in my blog about the weekend that the reason we had a really big party on Sunday with Jo et al is because Bron, after studying law in Copenhagen for 3 or so years, is returning to Oz. (Yes I should say Aus, but Oz seems more approriate somehow)
Anyway, She is leaving today, and so we all went out for one final drink last night. I first went to see Macbeth (check out my review) then rushed over the Thirsty, a pretty crappy night club in Soho. Because I got there late I got away with only having one drink. We all danced a bit, Bron got with 3 guys, and then we went for some great falaffal on Old Compton Street.
We thought we'd catch a bus home, and walked to the stop where we discovered that a 'good enough' bus was due in 3 minutes. 23 minutes later and 2 of said bus arrive, followed shortly by the bus we actually want, so I managed to get home at 2:15 or so.
Then I got up at 7 because Argo were threatening to deliver my new bed anytime after 7:30. I got ready, and just as I was about to leave for my 8:15 doctors appointment (yes I did pack in a lot in the last 24 hours) the Argos van turns up! They've only got half my stuff, the rest coming later, but I still had to help them get the bed itself in.
So then I ran down to the doctors (good run, felt great to stretch my legs, distance just enough to start hurting but not enough to cloud the endorphins) and got there for my 8:15 appointment. At 8:35 they finally saw me, tested my blood pressure(137/75), checked my height (186.5cm, 75.5 kgs - heavier than normal) and told me about the place - I was only going for a 'registration check up'.
So I headed back to my place and got there at 9. Figured I'd wait for the rest of the stuff, and build my bed at the same time. Just as I finished the bed the other stuff arrived (11am or so) , and I rushed off to work (which is where I am now, making up the time :(
Though I will head off for the 8pm session of Ray, which I am seeing with my flatmate Leo who is a big Ray Charles fan.
BTW, my bed is fantastic! It is a bunk with a single bed on top, and a double futon that bends up into sofa when not in use. For my teeny room it is perfect - I regularly read while sitting on my bed, now I can sit comfortably and not worry about hurtin gth e matress.

Interesting article on a drawing blind man

Here
This fits in nicely with all the metaphysical stuff I've been reading lately; Bertrand Russell and Head/Case and so on. I might have to read the book about 'demolishing the idea of the Cartesian theatre'.

BIG Weekend!

No rest for the wicked.
The weekend just past was a somewhat hectic one, in fact it took me Monday to recover, hence the late posting.
Friday night I hung around at work until 6:30, and then rushed off to the Barbican - ended up walking so I didn't have to stay at work for as long. Once I'd deciphered the rats nest that is the Barbican I managed to see their production of "The Plough and the Stars", a 1926 play about the 1915 Irish revolution. (See reviews on my other blog)
Saturday I rushed from the house to catch a film before catching up with Tam. The films all started a bit later than had I hoped, so I wandered around trying desperately to stave off my pangs for a Mac Mini (they're really nice... want one!). Anyway, I ended up seeing Meet the Fockers, which was a very different film from what I thought it would be, and encourage other people to see it so they can tell me that I intellectualize things too much :)
Caught up with Tam and Karen, luckily we were both running late, at Tate Britain. We went to see an exhibition of the sculpture Antony Carro, he does huge metal sculptures (and some smaller ones) that I didn't mind. The most intriguing were some balanced 'table sculptures', with half the sculpture hanging off the edge of the table. All the sculptures had an amazing fluidity to them, quite impressive.
To kill time :) we then went down the river to the Andy Goldsworthy installation. He does sculptures using natural things; branches, logs, rocks, mud. Pretty much the opposite of Carro! Anyway there were 5 main pieces, the ones I like most were a huge egg (5-6 meters) made out of chainsawed logs, interwoven quite intricately and a simple round room made out of interwoven branches with a tall cairn of balanced rocks in the centre (they didn' have anything to stick them together, but they had been carved a bit to aid the balancing)
After that we headed back to Tam and Karen's place (or is that Karen and Tam's?) for a yummy fish curry that Tam cooked, before heading out for 'the agricultural' for a few drinks. Jo caught up with us there and we went to the Tiki bar - an NZ night club apparently - where we danced the night away (till 2 at least) with Tam demonstrating his mastery of disco dancing, especially the 'banana salsa' (one hand on floor, one hand behind back, bend and straighten legs in time with music) and the 'ceiling jiggle'(one hand on low ceiling, bounce up and down). We all had a great night, capped off with a Subway, and then the bus home.
Woke at 10 on Sunday, pottered around before going to Argos to order a bed, desk, shelves and stereo. Feeling much poorer (though still pining after a Mac Mini... ) Jo called to ask if I wanted to go out for dinner, I said a few drinks would be good as I'd already started cooking a green curry.
So I met up with her and her best friend ever Bron and (eventually) Valerio, her Italian friend from Copenhagen. We drank 3 bottles of wine before returning to Jo's flat where we finished off 1/2 a bottle of Apricot schnapps between us, and danced in her kitchen, and sang a lot, much to her flat mates consternation (and amusement). Made it home by 1:30.
Yesterday I felt really bad - I'd drunk lots of water but hadn't helped as much as I would have liked (I must have had some kind of luggie because I was feeling ill in other ways too). I struggled to work, catching the tube. as I was waiting for 9:30 to tick over so I could get a travel card a very kind woman came and gave me hers! Thank you strange woman!
Got a little work done.
Then last night I went to see Badlands with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, which I enjoyed quite a bit.
And now it's today

Fear, Propaganda and Disaster in Contemporary America and Nazi Germany

The above is the title of a play I saw last year at Orange Tree Theatre. It is the title of the lead character's thesis - a thesis that gets him 'disappeared'.
Well, it's almost happened in real life...
http://www.rtmark.com/CAEdefense/news-WKBW.html
http://www.rtmark.com/CAEdefense/news-WKBW-2.html
Basically, when Steve Kurtz wife died (of cardiac arrest) he called up emergency to deal with her. Upon arriving the police decided that the analysis equipment he had (used for analysing the genome of foods, as part of his art persuits about GI food) was part of a bio-terrorist plot with him as the ring leader.
So they (illegally) took him into custody and confiscated his stuff, barring anyone from entering the house. After many months of wrangling he has managed to be allowed back into his house and get his wife's body back, but they still won't allow him to have his equipment back, equipment that has been demonstrated to be impossible 'to use in the production or weaponization of dangerous germs'.
Is this the liberty US soldiers are dying for in Iraq?