New pics

Just a few - from the weekend and recently. Since the photocast doesn't seem to be getting to everyone I've gone back to the old way of webpages.

March 2006 - a few pics

How to get good service

Another good Guy Kawasaki blog, which touches on stuff that actually Diana taught me. I think reflects more of an American than a British viewpoint because US companies are more customer-centric. Even so, I've seen Diana put it to good effect in London, and the karmic scoreboard is a great attitude to have in general...

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/03/the_art_of_suck.html

On a positive note

I feel that I'm whingeing a lot about US culture at the moment, so here's a positive to try and balance things a tad:

Even with Tivo it's sometimes hard to find the good programming hidden away amongst the hundreds of TV channels that we get. So, I was very pleasantly surprised when I flipped channels this morning looking for some wake-up TV. I didn't have my contacts on, so really it was a foolishly impossible task as I couldn't see the channel names or numbers! After flicking through some sport and hispanic channels I caught a snatch of a favourite classical song (sorry - can't name it - I have some classical compilations on my iPod). I turned back and it turned out to be a kind of MTV for classic music, with accompanying arty music! A total breath of fresh air, and even more enjoyable once I stuck in my contacts! Unfortunately Tivo didn't seem to have listings info for that particular channel... will I ever find it again?!!!

St Patrick's Day

I'm quite bemused by the American celebrations of St. Patrick's Day. One of my colleagues congratulated me on wearing green (I just happen to be wearing a green shirt) and told me that he's Irish, even though he patently isn't. When I probed further he pointed out that his family from the 17th century was Irish. Ok...

All kinds of people have been asking me if I'm celebrating St. Patrick's Day, as if it's a national holiday (although it isn't). As far as I remember from England, St. P's is just an opportunity for people to head down the nearest pub and get smashed. Here, it seems to have taken the tone of just about every other public holiday I can think of. Is this a result of over-commercialisation or something?

I suppose that I just find it strange because I couldn't feel more distant from Ireland, yet they're making more of a deal out of it here... and in a strange PC way that seems to have lost the spirit of it. On the other hand, I guess it's more family friendly and kids can take part. Anything that means kids gain an appreciation of other countries and cultures - I'm all for.

Anyway...

I'll be making a lightning fast trip to England to wish Mum happy birthday and catch up with Viv. Diana's already there hanging out with work friends. Wish I had a job with limitless amounts of time-off to be taken...

Podcasts

Is anyone watching my podcasts? Seen the new one about snow in DC and Kati's tea party?

Now that I've had my video iPod a couple of months I can tell you (and I know you've been *dying* to find out) what my chosen (video) podcasts are. Drum roll...

Ricky Gervais - haven't subscribed to the pay version but probably will. This is one of a couple of audio-only podcasts that I listen to.

ABC World News Now - great update on news developments, and less parochial than the typical crappy TV news here (car accident on I-66, man shot in DC, etc.)

G4 shows - Attack of the Show, Cinematech and X-Play, for witty video game reviews

Gametrailers.com - this is a new one, and looking good so far, includes reviews too (surprisingly, Gamespot's podcast is terrible)

InDigital - out of work TV presenters doing a good gadget news podcast

Rocketboom - the original podcast show - interesting and sometimes cerebral content but patchy

NewsHour with Jim Lehrer - this is just audio: a good slice of political debate (and more like 10 minutes than an hour)

Sky News Seven Days - total junk, but it says that if the podcasts prove popular they'll put more news on the web!

KQED Gallery Crawl - monthly review of (mostly San Fran) art galleries, which makes for a nice arty break form the news and videogames

Cho Bo Ji - OK, this is a bit random and I doubt I'll keep listening, but this is a Buddhist monk here in the US who records his teachings. I was looking for an insight into Buddhism but a lot of it is gobbledigook...

Plus of course, I'm subscribed to my own fabulous video podcast in case I want to show peeps!

Speaking of Peeps, Easter is almost upon us. Diana's given up latte's for Lent and I gave up chocolate. It's a tough time but I'm sure we'll make it through...

Boondocks on my blog!

Watch an episode right here!!!!
So Google Video isn't so crummy after all...

'casting update

In case you're watching my photocast, I've had to change the address. I've also downloaded the bug fix to iPhoto that just came out, so there's a chance it will have better compatibility than before... can't promise though

http://web.mac.com/gordonbaty/iPhoto/photocast/index.rss

Boondocks

Let me introduce you to the best cartoon strip in America. I actually discovered it through the new TV series that's been developed from it, but I know Adam's had a feed for it on his website for a long time but the name sort of put me off. Boondocks means out in the country (as far as I understand it) so it doesn't really sum up the awesome cultural and political commentary that you get in the show. You may have to live in America to appreciate some of it, but I still recommend it.


Boondocks

You probably noticed that it's also written from a Black American point of view, which IMHO is something not heard enough around these parts. Considering how certain aspects of recent history are glossed over as 'civil rights history' and swept under the rug in the US, the more Boondocks the better.

Incidentally, the TV version is extra cool because it borrows its styling from Anime, and even has some really cool fighting scenes that are up there with what you'd see in Ghost in the Shell or Samurai Champloo (couldn't resist name-dropping those)!

First video cast!

OK, the photocasting was a bit of a disappointment, but hopefully my videocast will be more of a success! Take a look (and sign up to the feed) on this page:

Gordon's podcasts

There's a bonus test video on there too from Christmas...

Wonders of the internet

A quick musing on a wonderful thing about the internet:

I'm learning how to do some 3D stuff using Macromedia Director (it's multimedia programming software) at the moment, and yes it's a very esoteric subject. There's 2 books have been written about it, but they're old and don't address the issues I'm tackling. There's no school that could teach this stuff, it's too complex to get answers from a helpline, there's no training video that covers it... I can't think of any 'traditional' recourse that could help me.

So how am I getting by? I found a couple of discussion forums that are specific to 3D in this piece of software. I posted up my questions and got responses from people in Scandanavia and the other side of the US. The answers solved the problem and gave me solutions to ones I haven't even go to yet. These people are probably the most experienced and knowledgeable in this field.

When you think about it... wow.

Grinning idiot

A short note to anyone that sees me walking to work in the morning and wonders why I seem to be a giggling imbecile... You would be too if you were listening to the Ricky Gervais podcast. Recommended, if you like that sort of thing.

Half Life 2... hmm

I'm about a third or half the way through Half Life 2 and so far so good but I'm a little disappointed. When this game came out it was big big news. I think it actually came out about the same time as Halo 2 so there were a lot of fanboys arguing which was the superior game. I don't think they're really comparable, as it happens. Halo is a full-on first person shooter. Half Life isn't. Half Life is more like Metal Gear Solid where the action happens at a slower pace, with more attention to gritty, realistic environments and varied gameplay. So Half-Life 2 vs. Metal Gear Solid 3 (or 2)? Well so far the plot's been a bit thin on Half-Life 2 after an interesting start. The driving levels have been rather repetitive and dull. Although each new area is beautifully designed to feel like a real location and some effects like the water and real physics are very impressive at times, the only one that really made an impression on me was creeping along the girders under the railway bridge - otherwise it's just seems like standard game fare of old warehouses and sewers. The fun-with-physics aspect hasn't been used a great deal up to now, but I'm hoping there's more of it since it's one of the strongest points. Early in the game you had to dive underwater to break out some barrels so they would float to the surface, which you could then jump on to reach a ledge. More of that cleve stuff needed! In summary, HL2 has so far been quite fun, but just not on the same level as MGS or Halo.

Judge others by their intentions and yourself by your results.

I came across this little piece of wisdom on the excellent (mostly business oriented) blog by Guy Kawasaki:

Judge others by their intentions and yourself by your results. If you want to be at peace with the world, here's what you should do. When you judge others, look at what they intended to do. When you judge yourself, look at what you've actually accomplished. This attitude is bound to keep you humble. By contrast, if you judge others by their accomplishments (which are usually shortfalls) and yourself by your intentions (which are usually lofty), you will be an angry, despised little man.

I've noticed for a long time that people will talk themselves and their plans up as being the best thing in the world, but in reality often fail to deliver (bosses, people at kung fu, dubious friends). I hope I'll be able to follow this advice that will stop me being angry and bitter, no matter these people who talk big and do little. I'm a big fan of humility... it's just not always that easy!

New photos!

--- Update ---
I spoke too soon about the new photo feed feature, it seems like it only works Mac-to-Mac, and only if you have the newer version of Safari or iPhoto that do RSS feeds. :-(

I have an updated link to the feed, which may work for you, depending on what RSS reader you use. Hopefully they'll fix this soon... until then, try this:

http://web.mac.com/gordonbaty/iPhoto/best-of-the-last-3-months/index.rss

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OK, the first of my great new blog features - I have a Photo Feed! What is this? It's an RSS feed that will deliver my latest favourite pics to your computer!

Just click on this link:

Gordon's best pics

PS You need to be using Firefox, a Mac, or know what an RSS feed is to use.
PPS If you're using Internet Explorer, go get Firefox at Get Firefox and you won't look back

Vegas, by the way

Oh yeah, while I'm blogging about blogging, I should drop a note to say we just got back from Vegas. Diana was there for CES, which is a big consumer electronics conference that she and her colleagues were attending (it's a hard life). I came over to join Diana for the weekend. I thought it would be a short hop but it was a good 4 hours on the plane to get there. I managed to sneak into CES with Diana, which was a lot of fun - tons of new gadgets, giant TVs etc.

Neither of us are gamblers, so we focused more on the food and attractions, and there's plenty! We had a couple of disappointments with the dinner, but finished with a brunch buffet at the Bellagio and it was fantastic - including my discovery of cheese blintzes, which are sort of like cheesey crepes.

Diana predictably grabbed noodles and sushi; I had cheese & herb polenta, smoked mackerel with capers, cream of haddock, muesli with fresh berries and Diana made me eat canoli's even though I was bursting by this point. Oh the buffet came with champagne too, so we decided to have bucks fizz all the way through ('mimosa' in Americanese).

On Sunday we were killing time before our flight in the Paris hotel, when Diana noticed that the people who had just sat across from us in the bar (and quite oblivious to us) were ex-colleagues from BT! It turned out they were there for the next conference in Vegas, for online marketing...

More changes coming

I've got a copy of Apple's new iLife applications on order, so watch out for some exciting changes on my blog soon! I don't know yet if I'll use the iWeb software to create a new blog on my .Mac account or just keep going with this blog (I'm thinking the latter at the moment) but the new video blog features sound like fun!

Watch this space...

Scientists... what do they really know?!

One of my Christmas presents from Santa was Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything and after speeding through it I can tell that's the first page-turner I've ever read that's all about Science. I haven't read any other Bill Bryson books (and I'm now inclined to) but in this case he's done a great job of distilling lots of scientific theory into very clear descriptions, with some of the human story (mostly quarrelling and peculiar scientists) around their discovery.

One thing that has stood out to me from reading the book is how, unlike typical scientific writing, he doesn't present every recent theory as The Answer. In fact, you come away realising how Science is only as good as the latest thinking on the available facts... and some of the facts are very limited (eg, about the nature of the universe, or atomic physics) and hence the theories are quite likely to be replaced in the future with better ones! Although you might be given to believe that Science allows us to predict the weather, when volcanoes will erupt, meteors will hit the earth, and so on, it turns out we're really not good at those things at all (well, I'm sure you knew that about weather forecasts!). It seems to me that in the future we'll be looked back upon much like we do the Victorians - that we really thought a little more of our understanding of the world than we should!

Food court BBQ chicken

I've noticed something about food courts here... it seems like every vendor in every food court you go to has 'bourbon chicken' or 'honey barbecue chicken' or 'bobo chicken' and it's always the same - grilled chicken with a sweet glaze. Every single place does it - whether it's a Malaysian, Texas or whatever stall. And there are always 2 or 3 people hanging around giving out samples on cocktail sticks. It really does taste good, but it's bizarre to see that everyone offers it, like there's a huge vat of the stuff somewhere behind the scenes that they sell. I'll have to get some shots with my mobile phone to show what I mean... it's on every menu.

Christmas comes early

Well here it is, my first entry in the new blog. You can still visit the old one but I won't be updating it.

Enough of that, now for the interesting stuff! Since we'll be in England for Christmas we had an early gift giving event with Adam & Karen & the girls yesterday. The Clark tradition (well, probably Diana's more than anyone) is to give big snazzy gifts and I think we all came out of it with smiles bigger than our empty pockets. Adam and Karen had noticed that not only is my camcorder broken but that I had ooh-ed and ah-ed over their camcorder when I had a go with it at the kids' football - so they got us one! It's very nice - huge, bright screen and a crystal clear picture. It doesn't take 2 minutes to start up like my old one either. We'll be making good use of it in England!

Adam and Karen got from us a Roomba, which is one of those vacuum cleaner robots. It looks like a giant hockey puck and is quite entertaining to watch as it goes in a seemingly random pattern of zig-zags and wall-following. When it's finished it trundles back to its charging base and backs up while wiggling it's bum (presumably to get the best approach!). Despite not noticeably picking stuff up, it actually accumulate quite a pile of dog hairs and dust on a short trial run and we were roundly impressed. The idea that it troundles around while you're out at work and takes care of all the dust and hair is quite an appealling thought.

The girls got some great gifts from us (if I may say so myself!). Adri got the new FlyPen (I think that's the name) which does all sorts of tricks - like you draw a calculator and then you can use it. Kati got from us a talking learn-to-read activity book. Sami got a handheld Leapster, which is like a GameBoy except the games help you with spelling, maths and so on. Tori got the best gift of all, which is the new Guitar Hero game for the PlayStation. You actually get a plastic guitar in the box, with buttons to press for the frets, a flipper thing to simulate strumming the strings, and a whammy bar for playing the notes. We discovered the inner rock star in ourselves in no time and had a complete blast playing some of the 'easy' songs. There are coloured dots on-screen showing how you should play the notes as it does faves like 'I love rock and roll' and you try to keep time with it. Needless to say, Tori was wasy better than all of us, but it was hilarious watching everyone turn into an instant rock star!