Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…
…is the realisation that I live in a manmade environment. The area where I live is almost the lowest point of the Netherlands – at least 6 metres below sea-level. One of these days, something is going to happen. Will I still be around to see it? I don’t know, but sometimes I think I should relocate to higher ground for my twilight years…
Addendum: I did relocate in March 2006 – to a point that is 19 metres above sea-level.
Another of life’s simple pleasures is the ability to get on my bicycle and cycle to Reeuwijk – a 15 minute journey. There you can guarantee to see a variety of wildlife. Today, for example, I saw at least ten pheasants rummaging around, and on the lakes was a variety of birds. Including this pair of Red-Crested Pochards…
Someone is threatening to eat his pet rabbit unless he receives $50,000 in donations by 30th June.
Amazingly, he (it’s bound to be a he – a woman would be much more subtle!) has already received nearly $20,000 in donations from complete suckers, er strangers, over the net.
I am torn between admiration for the bare-faced effrontery of the scheme and despair that there are people out there who are foolish enough to have sent him money – nearly $20,000 worth.
Update, April 4: I see he’s now got over $20,000. Sheesh!
One of life’s simple pleasures is sitting at the table at breakfast with a cup of coffee and watching the birds through the window…
Lisa Stone over at Surfette burbles: "I’m talking about a conference that enables women bloggers to tesseract to proactive social and intellectual networking with each other".
What on earth does that sentence even mean?
Tesseract ain’t a verb, it’s a noun (at least it was the last time I looked). And as for "to proactive" – I beg your pardon?
English – it’s going to the dogs. Sigh.
Another entry for us computer nuts… Mobile PC Magazine has an interesting article covering the history of mobile computers.
It’s clear from the article that, particularly in the early days, the meanings of the words "mobile" and "portable" were often stretched almost beyond breaking point (as were the arms of the proud owners). I well remember an advert for the Osborne computer, where the smile on the face of the man carrying it looked suspiciously like the rictus grin of someone who has just realised he has a double hernia.
Although the article mentions the IBM 5100 as the first portable computer, it seems to imply that all the successors to that were based on the PC design. I don’t think that’s right. I remember in 1981 IBM came out with the System/23 – a 45 Kg monster. While not strictly a "portable" (it was classified by IBM as "transportable" – ho, ho, nudge, nudge, know what I mean, squire?), the advertising certainly showed someone holding one. Actually, come to think of it, I believe it was an artist’s impression; perhaps Arnold wasn’t available for a photoshoot. We actually got one in for evaluation. Fortunately, the real IBM PC showed up a few months later, and it rapidly became clear that in the evolutionary stakes, the System/23 was a doomed dinosaur.
Yesterday, Martin and I threw a party for the neighbours to celebrate the fact that today marks the official beginning of Spring. We prepared an eclectic array of party food – Thai Indian, French and English. In the event, over twenty people showed up and demolished it. Nigel Slater’s trifle proved to be a big hit – it disappeared in an instant. One neghbour asked if it had alcohol in it – yes, I assured her, lots! Delia Smith’s chocolate ricotta cheesecake came a close second.
Along with the food, large quantities of wine and beer also disappeared, which probably explains the fact that Martin and I are both feeling somewhat fragile today. I tidied up the living room this morning whilst moving very, very slowly.
This weekend, we’re giving a party for the neighbours to celebrate the arrival of Spring. I’ve been trying out recipes to prepare for the onslaught.
One of the tryouts was an Edwardian Trifle from Nigel Slater, published in The Observer newspaper in May 2004. The consensus from the tasting panel (Martin and myself) is that this recipe is a definite winner. It improves with age – we finished the last of it today (Thursday), and it was made last Sunday. Gawd, was it good!
Since it needs to mature, that means I’d better do the trifle for Sunday by starting tomorrow (Friday).
So there I was, wide awake and waiting for the song thrush. And it did not disappoint – it started even earlier this morning, at 4:23 am. And then at 4:40am, Martin turns over in his sleep and starts to snore. Welcome to the new improved Dawn Chorus. Oh joy.
A post on the star-gazing messageboard over at the BBC from an astronomer who is currently working in The Netherlands. He bemoans the fact that it’s been raining since he got here, and so he hasn’t been able to see the stars in the night sky.
Even if it wasn’t raining, it wouldn’t do him much good; the Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and the resulting light pollution from the Randstad (the urban conglomeration made up of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht) pretty much obliterates any chance of a decent view. I live slap bang in the middle of all this, and I do miss clear night skies.
I had the good fortune to grow up on the Isle of Man, and light pollution there was easy to avoid. Some nights in Winter would be so clear that it was difficult for me to pick out the major constellations, there would be so many stars visible in the sky.
And how do I know? Because for the past three days a song thrush has decided that it will start its routine of singing its little heart out in the tree outisde our bedroom window. Trouble is, it starts at 4:30 am each day. So the dawn chorus is starting to tune up for the season. Soon the thrush will be followed by other birds and their counter-melodies.
I don’t really mind being woken up by birdsong – even if it is before dawn. At least it makes a change from Martin’s snoring.
Another one for us computer geeks… Channel 9 has just published a video interview with Gordon Bell that is worth watching. Gordon chats informally about his work, and his involvement with the Computer Museum in Boston.
I love the way that in its opening minutes, he casually mentions that Tony Hoare is coming to visit him next week. Ohmigod – this is Sir Charles Antony Richard Hoare – another of computing’s gods…
OK, this entry is for the computer geeks amongst us, the rest of you can talk amongst yourselves.
Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it was buying Groove Networks, the maker of a particularly fine piece of software for supporting team collaboration over peer-to-peer networks. Groove was set up, and continues to be run, by Ray Ozzie, the man who also invented Lotus Notes.
I’ve used Groove for a number of years, and like it a lot. Clearly, Microsoft do too. Yesterday’s announcement represents, for me, the dropping of the other shoe – I’ve been wondering for some time how Microsoft would support peer-to-peer collaboration in Longhorn, and this is very probably the answer.
So you read Lileks – excellent! He’s been a daily indulgence for a couple of years now. I gave Juliet the books for Christmas (though having been a teenager in the ’70’s, I can’t quite see the joke in Interior Desecrations 🙂
I stumbled across his site via a reference to the Gallery of Regrettable Food in another blog, and being a part-time foodie myself, thought I should check it out. Glad I did. As well as the guffaws induced by most of his stuff, I also very much liked the quieter, more reflective, gallery on his Grandmother’s pictures. And yes, I know what you mean about Interior Desecrations. Just be thankful you were only a teenager – I was a wage-earner actively panting after decorating my home in that stuff!
A friend forwarded some examples of the poster campaign that was running in Dublin’s buses last year. They’re funny and cheeky, but to my mind are just a trifle too knowing and full of themselves. Apparently though, they were considered risqué enough to warrant questions in the Irish Parliament…
I love the tautology in the title – it subtly hints at what you will see if you peruse the on-line catalogue. Yes, this is another collection of genuine material from the 1950s and 1960s from the man who gave us the Gallery of Regrettable Food.
There are some real classics in here. The American footballer pictured at home in his kitchen is perhaps one of fashion photography’s finest statements. It’s the perfect picture for a caption competition.
…this one’s for you! 
The Gallery of Regrettable Food. Hey, I inherited some of my mother’s cookery books, and they are just like that! I haven’t dared try any of the recipes though. I suspect some will call for powdered eggs.
Mind you, there’s nothing wrong with tradition – I was given a copy of Constance Spry’s Cookery Book many years ago (thanks, Yuki!) and that has recipes from the 1950s – some of which I still use today.
Hm. You should have been trackbacked for this. Ah well.My, my, my. What an interesting set of foodstuff. I haven’t laughed that hard in quite a while.(On an unrelated note, if I’m required to sign in with a Passport to comment, why do I still have to fill in my name and email address? I’ve given my left — er, finger up for these authentication schemes, the information might as well be used properly.)
Glad you appreciated the Gallery – I thought you would. I had tears of laughter running down my face at some of the exhibits.On the comment side – your email and blog details are optional. I suspect that having to use Passport for comments is for two reasons: 1) it probably stops Spambots (at least for the moment!) and 2) it gives MSN a means to trace you if I complain to them about your comments.
The title of this entry is also the title of an article written in 1945 by Dr. Vannevar Bush, then director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development in the US. In this article, Bush envisaged a machine called the Memex, which in many ways has presaged the rise of the combination of the World Wide Web and Personal Computers. Indeed, Internet pioneers such as Ted Nelson took Bush’s idea of "associative links" between pieces of information and developed the idea of Hypertext (the term was coined by Nelson) – a simplification of which forms the basis of the Web today.
I was reminded of all this today when I came across a video published on the Channel 9 web site. The video is an interview with two of Microsoft’s researchers, Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmel about the "MyLifebits" project. Gordon Bell is one of my IT heroes – he was the man behind DEC’s original line of mini-computers, the PDPs. Another is Jim Gray, whose groundbreaking work with databases has led him to end up working with Bell on MyLifebits in Microsoft Research.
So what is MyLifebits? In a nutshell, it is the attempt to realise Bush’s Memex – "A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility". The project has extended some of Bush’s original ideas to now include capturing information when on the move. A slide from a PowerPoint presentation on MyLifebits is included below to give some idea of the range of information that is being captured.
The video is interesting, not just for the experience of hearing Bell and Gemmell talk about their work, but also to see the project in action with some demonstrations of how a Memex-like device may not be "As we may Think", but become "How We May Think".
Those good people at Sony are researching into how to improve their robotic pets. Scientists at Sony’s Computer Science Laboratory in Paris (now that sounds a fun place to work in) have been looking at the interactions between real live dogs and Aibo, Sony’s robot dog.
My favourite is the Dog Attack Movie. Warning, don’t be drinking a beverage while watching this…
Yea I believe everything about the Aibo. They are an incredible technology. I own a ers-7m2. It’s amazing. It finds me in the room and sits by my feet. It recognizes my face, voice and comes when I call him. He can find his toys in the room too and charge himself when his battery is low!
Leave a Reply