Cosford Air Museum

We headed off to Cosford, again. See the aeroplanes. It was that or the zoo, which is a bit of a drive, too far I said, but Bradley was certain. "Ooo, Ooo" He'd say, excitedly bobbing up and down. Didn't get many good photos of Bradley, as it was just me and the boy. Esme, went off with Amanda for the afternoon. Saw a few planes taking off, little glider or training planes. And the rest of the usual show of big planes, bombs and fast ones.

One highlight was watching Bradley zip around the tables in the cafe, pretending to be a plane, with his arms outstretched. He did maybe four laps, of six tables and I was wondering when he'd stop. Nobody seemed to notice him, nor my applause. Suddenly, he stopped, and took a deep bow, to his admirers - me. Arms tucked in and very theatrical. He's learnt it off his sister. Perfect. They grow up sooo quickly.

Sprint: Phones and Accessories

"Samsung SPH-I500 $599.99" [Via gizmodo.net "Palm OS 5, a 65,000 color screen, 32MB of RAM, a built-in digital camera, and connects to GSM for voice and GPRS for data. " I've been reading about Opera not getting enough RAM off the Nokia 3650. And the list of apps available for the P800 doesn't get my dick hard. So maybe it was lucky that I held off on buying a P800. Anyway, I'm too busy to get involved in this sector at the moment.

How to make money with your blog!

"

"Sign up for the course, and you will also receive GoldBlogger News, my exclusive newsletter. Most of the information just can't be found anywhere else. It pertains specifically to blogging. I pick through tons of hidden posts, stories and news feeds looking for the hidden gems that will will put money in your pocket."

Blogging has certainly hit the mainstream, then. I see Blogs to Riches dot com: "Want to learn how to make money with your weblog?" And chat-for-a-living.com: "You can make money blogging! If you can chat then you can blog!" That's an ebook to buy.

And from business-blog.com a link to the ClickZ promo stuff for their upcoming business blogging conference. They quote:

"B-blogs can offer organizations a platform where information, data, and opinion can be shared and traded among employees, customers, partners, and prospects in a way previously impossible: a two-way, open exchange. Companies can (and should) encourage self-publishing from all corners of the organization. Employees who want to post information should no longer have to go through the corporate site's marketing gatekeepers to post. Suddenly, the best thinkers in a company will have a digital voice they can manage and control themselves."

It's not a good article, she's not an authority on blogging, and hasn't researched well. For instance she says weblogs.com list 1,300 blogs, when it lists that an hour. And the links she supplied include Seth Godwin's book promotion blog - yeuch. Also, the Drudge Report is a blog?

The quote given above is just dreamy clue train stuff: "people of earth... A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarterÑand getting smarter faster than most companies."

The clue train was written fully four years ago. I thought then, that it would take companies forever the 'get it.' Four years isn't long enough for the tea lady to be blogging about what she hears by the water fountain. Truth will out? Not yet, says the fat CEO. Blogs cut to the chase PDQ.

Further from the ClickZ article:

"Articles within newsletters can be linked to a blog, extending life and creating a massive conversation." Sort of true. If they're interesting, and are corporate letter interesting? Not the ones I've seen. Just the usual cleaned up bollocks.

"You can offer a bidirectional forum to customers to get true, personal opinions on your products and services." You mean customers can answer back? That's pretty worring.

"Company experts can start a blog and become industry experts, helping your company edge out competition and, through this interactive forum, draw customers into another exchange of information and thoughts." Their price will go up, or they'll be pinched by another company. Do we have any experts? Do we have any thoughts?

Some companies will be able to walk the walk. Most would shit bricks at the thought.

Mobile messaging revenues carry on climbing

"Mobile messaging revenues will double by 2007 to $69bn, according to Analysys forecasts.

Network operators love SMS, because it's very, very profitable. At typical prices, one minute of voice telephony generates less than $1 per Mbyte of network resource consumed," says Mark Heath, co-author of the Analysys report. "This compares with over $1000 per Mbyte for an SMS message." "

They should do SMS cheaper. It's outrageous.

What a bunch of geeks we are [at blogTalk]

"We're all emailing David so that we can have a list of all the blogs for BlogTalk in one place, he'll blog that, then we'll all link to his blog and then blog some more, after a bit more blogging, a break....and then, most likely more blogging." More pix here.

"

Steal These Buttons

" or make your own button. Remember the Netscape buttons?

RSS feed javascript parser and displayer

"This is a service for including customized versions of RSS feeds in web pages. Enter the URL of your RSS feed..."

NewsGator: Search for Feeds

A place to get rss xml feeds. And links to other sources.

Simple Chinese (GB2312) in Manila

"I'm too exited to keep this to myself. It has to be tested further, with other browsers and on other platforms, and with people that can write Chinese, but since this could be useful to other double byte languages, here a way to create a story in Simplified Chinese (GB2312) in a Manila site."

Even more interesting. Spose that means Welsh, too, is possible ";->"

Flights 4 Less - Cheap Flights Worldwide from the UK

"£387.71 London (LHR) ==> Milan (MXP) ==> Tokyo Narita (NRT)"

It would take 24 hours to get there, and nearly 9 to get back.

I'm not a big flyer, me.

Interesting URL though...

http://www.travelselect.com/
cgi-bin
newconcept
main.cgi
state_id=200305212200105355286562311956289048164520973-7
state=flights_avail_display
from1=LON
to1=tokyo
day1=24
day2=27
month1=7
month2=7
class1=Y
time1=0001
time2=0001
fl_type=R
adults=1
num_legs=1
airlines=NONE
subagency=F4L
currency=GBP
referer=http://www.cheap-flight-deals.co.uk/cheap-flight-deals.php
country=UK&&

1imc: first moblogging conference in Japan July 2003

"Moblogging is a blanket term that covers a variety of related practices. At its simplest, moblogging (from "mobile web logging") is merely the use of a phone or other mobile device to publish content to the World Wide Web, whether that content be text, images, media files, or some combination of the above.

One step more elaborate is when this content is location-specific - that is, when it relates to the specific physical place where it was created and published. This permits any particular set of real-world coordinated to be "tagged" with relevant information, from instant restaurant reviews to ski-slope hazard warnings to contextual jokes."

Tagging mobile blogging with blogs in space. I blogged it in January last year, 2002. Japan's going to go nuts over this. How much's a flight to Japan? What am I doing in July? Hmmm.

BlogTalk Conference 26th May

Lilia Efimova's presentation (more a results of a survey) was the only thing that caught my eye. Some of the points of interest to me:

Motivation to start a weblog

Experimentation, curiosity and encouragement from other bloggers
Improving personal information/knowledge management
Community-oriented: publishing/pushing ideas, need for a feedback, interest in communication and sharing

Blogging values discovered after starting

Gaining exposure and credibility in the field
Improving knowledge and skills
Serendipity, feedback and dialogue contributing to idea evaluation and development
Networking and relation building, finding friends
Conversations and knowledge sharing
Easy/cheap/fast way to promote/push ideas

Bloggers: what others need to start a weblog

Personal drive, understanding why a weblog is needed and something to say are more important than technology

Would be bloggers: what they need to start a weblog

Time
Technology
Help
Understanding why a weblog is needed, fitting weblogging in existing practice

Camera-phone reaches a megapixel

Damn, Japan get all the fun. I guess we're two years behind them, so I'll have to wait.

T-Mobile exits as curse of MS smartphone strikes again

"In what begins to look like what Lady Bracknell would call carelessness, Microsoft mislaid another smartphone customer today. T-Mobile International, which along with AT&T was one of Microsoft's two best shots at winning volume for its phone platform, confessed today that it wouldn't be launching its version this summer after all."

I don't think MicroSoft will win the phone wars. Me thinks Symbian will rule. Watch you don't misspell Sybian.

Dating a Blogger, Reading All About It

" Mr. Bruner's experience is typical of many who have waded into the thrilling and sometimes perilous world of blogging."

Exciting times. The same was true of newsgroups (Usenet) you do need to be careful who you write about, and how you name people. If you want to be truly stupid, or have a need to talk behind other peoples' backs then you'd be discrete. These people are truly stupid or need to 'out' whatever.

Belay that order, helm.

We've run into a bit of an internet storm in deepest Telford. I lost my 2 meg broadband connection all of Sunday. It was flaky Friday, up and down Saturday and off from midnight to midnight Sunday.

So no outages Monday morning, probably not till Thursday.

Another Sunday adventure

Of course, we start in the big park. We start in one of the gardens, feeding the fish, off to the adventure playground, into the kiddies, park, thence to the little fair. Thankfully, many were unmanned.

Some pix from indoors before we set out on our Sunday adventure. I do some Scrabble with Esme. At last, I find something she'll do with me as part of my educate the kids current gig.

The Telford Steam Railway Museum Esme gets a bit scared here. Who can blame her, they are huge when you get up close, and the stink of old machine oil must be over powering her their noses. We first take the model train railway, and pretend to be trains, going woo-woo, chuff-a-chuff, the whole bit, as we whizz around the tracks.

The view of the Severn's flood plain between Cressage and Buildwas. In the Autumn, I'll get some of the floods, it's an impressive contrast.

Deep sighs for me here. I'd love to be able to pop up here for a couple of hours. But the minimum ticket is four hours, and really, it ain't worth doing for less. I just can't seem to steal 5 hours to do it. Time!	Such a gin clear day, I could see trout swimming past, soon to be scared off by me pointing them out to Esme, who threw big stones at them. Hours of fun throwing big stones into deep water. Sometimes I join in too.

The pub we always call into. The landlady came out to see Bradley, last time we spoke, Bradley had been born a few days earlier. Now he is going on three. They had a wicked time, pulling faces, playing look at that, while I pinched Bradley's crisps. Esme taught him not to turn around, no matter how inducing I was to be. Then he learnt to trick me and steal my beer.

Quick test

Ironbridge drizzly Sat pix

We took a trip down to Ironbridge. It's only a couple of miles from our house, and we go there fairly often. They've got good memories: ice creams, nice people in the shops, throwing stones off the bridge. Today, we found a brilliant place to throw stones into the water. Huge stones, and plenty of them too. So this time I took some more pix, of the place in general too. I'll add more to this news item over time. It'll be nice to see it in different seasons. Right now in late Spring, watching the insects on the water, I noticed a lot of mayflies and other duns. Boy, I wish I could make to time to do some fishing, bet those old trout in the Severn would be great sport, yummy. I'd have liked to have taken a boat trip, 45 minutes up and down the river, but Esme was definitely not keen, and Bradley sided with Esme, typically. They just wanted to keep throwing stones in. It would have kept them quiet for hours. I think we'll get to do it sometime. Esme Took the one of me, without Bradley's head. I try to get her to look at the whole frame. Oh well, at least she doesn't have her finger in the way anymore.

Bin Laden Strikes again - in Riyadh

"All sheltered behind concrete walls, electronic detectors and automatic sensors, their two or three gates guarded by armed men who opened cement road barriers only to vehicles whose drivers presented keys with the correct coded electronic signal. Drivers of unidentified cars had to step out and approach the guards who searched them and their vehicles.

The terrorists overcame this formidable security system by having several small teams strike at different points in each estate with ferocious fire and explosive power. While one group killed the guards and smashed the gates, one or more Mercedes packed with explosives and suicide terrorists drove round the other side and rammed the estates’ perimeter walls. The next team drove into the estates through the hole. Once in, vehicles loaded with cans of gasoline as well as explosives blasted high-rise buildings, killing many of their residents and leveling entire streets. Another group of terrorists rode into the damaged compounds and massacred survivors by spraying the interiors of still standing buildings with automatic fire, hand grenades and fuel bombs. Some witnesses heard the firing going on 10 minutes after the explosions. When their ammunition ran out, the killers detonated bomb belts.

...Riyadh was teeming with many hundreds of al Qaeda operatives preparing for a fresh offensive against US and Saudi targets."

Key Ocean Fish Species Ravaged, Study Finds

"Fully 90 percent of each of the world's large ocean species, including cod, halibut, tuna, swordfish and marlin, has disappeared from the world's oceans in recent decades, according to the Canadian analysis -- the first to use historical data dating to the beginning of large-scale fishing, in the 1950s." I have the feeling that the oceans are simply being emptied.

Blogging in blue chips

"This reporter (Tiernan Ray of the ecommercetimes.com) didn't do his homework when he wrote an article on weblogs in business.  He profiles companies with consumer tools (that don't even participate in the business market) and doesn't even bother to talk to a company (UserLand) that has sold weblog publishing systems to thousands of organizations (and companies such as DuPont, Daimler-Chrysler, Nokia, Motorola, Intel, and many others).  There is a way to integrate blogging tools into the enterprise, and UserLand knows how to do it.  Although, to give him credit, he was on the right track with RSS."

M83: The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy from VLT

Watching the news last night, hearing that 9 suicide bombers also died, it struck me, that these people have been brain washed from an early age, (obviously) but why are these people not being taught about the stars, to look up at night, and not wonder why a god built it all, but to wonder how it is, to question, to learn. Allah, didn't make M83. So why think there's 27 virgins awaiting your martyr's death?

moblogging.org - Mobile blogging resources

"This site is my attempt to gather together all the resources and information regarding moblogging in one place, for all 7 of you out there who are interested."

He misses Dr Davies's first moblogging on St David's Day 1 March 2001.

Still busy

Too busy to post stuff. Need to get the bulk of this project cracked by the end of the week.

Telewest goes live with 2Mb service

"£50 per month."

£25 for 0.5Mb, £35 for 1Mb. I was expecting £45 for 2meg. Anyway I think I'll get me some of that ";->" Blueyonder self care ordered here.

A Web Site Ready-Made for the Phone-In Diarist

"Unlike Blogger, which offers free and paid options, TypePad will be for paid subscribers only. The basic level of service will cost about $7 a month. Higher levels will offer features like photo-album management."

Anil says it'll be cheaper than $84 a year. Phone blogging seems to be a big thing.

Orange wants bigger data segment

"ahead of the launch of new services customer use of mobile email, photo messaging and news and information services has been slow to pick up.

Orange UK noted that 80 percent of its customers used only 10 percent of their phone's capabilities."

I guess, what Orange wants, everybody wants.

Orange bets on data boom

"UK mobile phone operator Orange is spending £10m on a push to persuade its customers to use their phones for e-mail and data.

The company will change its tariffs to include a £4-a-month charge for unlimited sending of picture messages, and put training staff in its 248 UK stores"

Sony Ericsson P800

"Incredibly feature-laden; great messaging support; standards-compliant; good battery life; powerful" I can get the phone free with 1,000 minutes and £40 for the first three months on O2 then I can swap to a lower tarrif. This sounds perfect for me. And it's Symbian 7.0, the only phone currently, it seems, that does Opera.

Stereophonics: handbags and gladrags

"So what becomes of you my love
When they have finally stripped you of
The handbags and the gladrags
That your poor old Grandad had to sweat to buy you"

I love this song. Always brings up the hairs on the back of my neck. I didn't realize that Rod Stewart did this first. The Stereophonics are from the same village in South Wales as me, about a mile or less up the road.

A Natural Remedy for the Common Cold

"A healthy immune system can enhance your resistance, but remember that sugar weakens your immune system so if someone in your house has a cold, stay away from sugar.

Dairy also increases mucous formation, so avoid dairy as much as possible. Herbs that promote sweating help the body rid the virus through the skin, so hot peppers, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and other warming herbs are helpful. Vitamin C, zinc lozenges, Echinacea and goldenseal are great, but I would certainly keep Kan Jang on hand."

I feel a bit better now the aspirins have kicked in. And I certainly had a sweat feast in bed last night. So did Bradley.

Common Cold Centre: Cardiff UK

"Any form of hot drink will provide relief from the symptoms of sore throat and cough. The hot fluid has a demulcent and soothing action and tasty drinks containing slightly bitter flavours such as lemon and citric acid are particularly beneficial. Spicy foods and hot soups are also beneficial as they promote airway secretions which have a calmative action on an inflamed throat."

I've got a cold, so's Amanda, Bradley and Esme. And we're all in a bad mood too. Bugger. They can put men on the moon, but can't cure the common cold.

blogcount

"How many blogs and bloggers? How big the blogosphere?"

Busier than Jack McBusy, winner of last year's Mr Busy Contest

Working for the UK Government. Two Frontier installations, one for the external website and one for the intranet to clean and oil, scrape off all the rust underneath and generally make better than new.

If anybody asks, I'm really busy. Better check the weather for the little spare time I've available.

Web Hosting News: DigitalWork Donates 5,000 Personal Web Sites to U.S. Military Families

"

• Share photos with family members and friends
  
• Communicate via a two-way Web journal (known as a weblog or "blog")


• Instantly publish content for the user's Home page and additional pages


• Use Web-based email with junk mail filtering and an address book


• Coordinate events with an online calendar


• View Web site visitation statistics


• Restrict access to only authorized users on a page-by-page basis

"

Good adv ploy. Normally, $17.95 month or $179.50 per year.

Apps: CSSEdit, QuicKeys X2, GraphPro... [The Macintosh News Network]

Jan Van Boghout's CSSEdit 1.0 is designed to edit CSS stylesheets, offering live inline previewing of styles and a unique grouping system as well as CSS grabbing from other sites, favorites for often-used styles and font sets, and other features. It is $15. [542KB]

Looks nice, if it catered for the work-arounds, bugs and idiosyncrasies of browsers.

Washington Targets Chirac and ElBaradai

"...extremely valuable Iraqi intelligence archives discovered at Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad and at sub-departments of Saddam's clandestine machine never before known to exist. The only data released are a few leaks to the British media calculated to help prime minister Tony Blair stand up to anti-war campaigners at home and around Europe.
I wonder. The US had over a year to plan the after effects of war, gaming the scenarios, the political situations. It would be very, very easy to slip in a few pages. I do wonder if the Scottish MP did accept money from Saddam. I'd hate that to be true.

From this treasure trove, America has distributed to its war allies some materials relevant to their national security.... The US has secretly handed over to various Middle East and Persian Gulf governments the names of ministers and public figures who were handsomely rewarded by Saddam Hussein for supporting his case... In Qatar and Jordan expect overnight resignations of senior cabinet members. "
Resignations in Jordan?

Some sources say that the ties linking the two families (Chirac/Hussain) were deep and ramified. Their exposure is likely to raise a storm.
Saddam did visit only one Western country 30 years ago, France, and met Chirac. This is the rouble when you have one President, King or Tyrant in office for too long -- nepotism.

US officials believe they have sufficient grounds for demanding Dr. ElBaradaiÕs removal... their preferred candidate for his replacement in Vienna is Prince Hassan of Jordan, brother and former crown prince of King Hussein and uncle of King Abdullah.
Some go out and others come in, what a strange soap opera.

Rice Says France, Germany Took NATO 'Hostage': It was very unsettling that Germany and France tried to prevent NATO from reinforcing the security of Turkey. There were many unsettling things in that process.
That was a bit odd. I remember the Scottish Secretary of NATO, after he sidestepped by a procedural trick, France's objection, sounding very pissed off with France. And the ensuing debate over the schisms within the European Union and NATO which would reverberate long after a probable war. Well, here we are, and it's payback time.

The United States did not divide the Europeans...It wasn't us that threatened smaller countries with reprisals nor tried to shut up the countries of Eastern Europe
France used a heavy stick, and seemed to me at the time, to stick their neck out. Mind the US used bribary and strong arm methods too, no doubt, and Blair made it plain how far he was sticking his neck out. Could it really be true, that France took the 'peace' route just because his family was friends with Saddam's family?

France helped Iraqis escape: The French government secretly supplied fleeing Iraqi officials with passports in Syria that allowed them to escape to Europe.
Boy! It gets worse. Why on earth would France do such? Knowing there would be come-back.

America's weapons evidence flawed, say spies: One former CIA official told Mr Hersh, the veteran New Yorker investigative reporter, "One of the reasons I left was my sense that they, the PentagonÕs Office of Special Plans (OSP) were using the intelligence from the CIA and other agencies only when it fits their agenda. They were so crazed and so far out and so difficult to reason with . . . as if they were on a mission from God. If it doesnÕt fit their theory, they don't want to accept it."
There's terrible confusion and counter-confusion going on here. This is black arts looking up their own arse. The whole geo-power/geo-political situation is haywire. To find the missing WMD is paramount. To forget that Iraqi nuclear plants would have valuable materials to a terrorist, just isn't possible. Somebody decided to let that one go. Or, to let the idea out that there still are bogey men, even if there aren't WMD in Iraq.

Chalabi threatens to lift lid on Saddam links: Ahmad Chalabi, the exiled financier promoted by the Pentagon as a leader of postwar Iraq, claims to have obtained 25 tonnes of intelligence documents detailing Saddam Hussein's relationship with foreign governments and Arab leaders... Chalabi has already threatened to use the papers to damage the Jordanian royal family... worried about what'll come out in his relationship with Saddam and the satellite television service al-Jazeera... working for Iraqi intelligence.
I bet France as was as Jordan are really fucked up about the forth coming 'secrets.'

Where is Raed ?

"So here are what should have been 15 entries to the blog, for whatever it is worth."

He's back! I know he's a man, but I always minds-eye him as a her. He seems to speak in a woman's voice. Lots to read and catch up on.

Opera now for Nokia smartphones

"Wednesday 30th April 2003, 11:29 GMT

Owners of the only two Series 60-based smartphones on the market - the Nokia 7650 and 3650 - now have yet another browser to surf the full Internet with.

At the Symbian Exposium in London, UK, Opera Software yesterday launched yet another version of its browser for a Symbian OS based platform. Having already introduced versions for Nokia's Series 80 and the UIQ platform, the Norway-based company announced the immediate availability of its browser for devices based on Nokia's Series 60 platform"

Now, that's more like it.

Nokia Developer Network

"Besides the Nokia 9210i Communicator, Nokia has launched three other phones supporting XHTML. Those are the Nokia 6590 and Nokia 3590 for GSM 850/1900 networks and the Nokia 3585 for CDMA2000 1X networks in the US market. The Nokia 3585 has an operator choice of XHTML browser. The Nokia 6590 and Nokia 3590 have a dual-mode browser, which natively supports both WML1.x and XHTML Mobile Profile & WAP CSS. The XHTML Mobile Profile is a strict subset of XHTML 1.1, which includes all of XHTML Basic plus some additional elements and features from full XHTML 1.1. Therefore, all XHTML Mobile Profile documents are also valid XHTML 1.1 documents."

It's not clear what browser they're talking about, suspect it is Opera. Sounds like these two 6590 and 3590 are what I'm after. [Later... Nope, they've black and white screens, this article's from April 2002. So it's not Opera, but good history/background about the XHTML.]

Opera Small-Screen Rendering: How do we do it?

"Content reformatting - Instead of presenting table content in columns and rows, tables are reformatted into a one-dimensional structure that better fits smaller screens. Opera can selectively scale down large images or remove those that are superfluous, as well as some other tricks that make the pages fit small screens. And as a result, the user has no need for a horizontal scrollbar. Zooming - Additionally, Opera can zoom pages in and out, and this is a powerful way to get the overview of a complex Web page, while also being able to magnify certain parts of the page. Visually impaired users can zoom out on a page to achieve legible font sizes for reading. By reversing the operation, Opera can show a Web page written for desktop on a small screen." Hmmm. The tables thing is a bit worrying. Zooming sounds wonderful.

"

Opera on the Sharp Zaurus SL-5000D on Linux

"render complex (X)HTML, JavaScript pages and execute Applets by means of additional plug-ins. (X)HTML, JavaScript and the possibility of running Java Applets were essential requirements as they are the primary tools used to access services, enterprise databases and legacy systems. "

Running on Linux... Getting more interesting. There's a review of the Sharp Zaurus SL-5000D. But it ain't a phone.