Hybrid maps

Google Maps now has a hybrid style which overlays satellite images with street map data. The two systems (street maps and satellite images) match up now, too, whereas on the last version they still looked different.

Here's my area in UK.

sofake.com

click the little white squares...

Blurry Sunday

Morning cutting PAL DVDs from Mel's assignment. Afternoon finding battle-cruisers for Ian; Early evening in Ciao Baby Cucina then picking up Mel from the train station. All a bit of a blur.

Just read - Russian Disco

RUSSIAN DISCO
By Wladimir Kaminer

This book is about Russian immigrant Kaminer describing post-wall Berlin in short, interconnected understated vignettes of life. A German learns Russian from a children's radio show and calls everybody "my little friend" and gets arrested for murder when he visits Moscow for the first time; advice on how to deal with curses and hire a witch and something of the Russian disco run in a bar by the author. Kaminer has now achieved international celebrity status and travels all over Europe playing his unique brand of kitschy pop. Other Russendiskos have sprung up all over the country.



Kaminer freely admit that the Russendisko would be a flop in the highly charged fashion factories of Moscow's clubs, where young oligarchs go to show off their Armani suits, their model girlfriends and their big wads of cash. "Even the Russians here are shocked at the mixes we make, and the Germans have mostly never heard any of this music before," says Kaminer. "In the meantime, the Russian community in Berlin have their own discos. They like lots of gold and velvet. We don't conform to their tastes. Part of the attraction of the Russendisko is that it is a disco without any context."

Kaminer has four other books; this is the only one translated to English.

High Speed Harry

The Muggle Prime Minister tries to work out why everything is in turmoil. A bridge collapses and murders occur until the new Minister of Magic explains it is a war of the wizards vs the Death Eaters who are acting on the orders of Voldemort. The sister witches, Narcissa and Bellatrix visit Snape, who says he's been spying for Voldemort for years. Narcissa's son, Draco Malfoy has been chosen for a dangerous assignment by Voldemort; and Snape says he will keep an eye on Draco.

Dumbledore visits the Dursleys to take Harry to spend his holiday with the Weasleys and tells Harry that Sirius had willed all his posessions to Harry. Returning to school Harry is hailed as the “Chosen One” - partly because of what he did in the last book and also because he wants to have a go at beating the Death Eaters. Harry starts to think that Draco is a Death Eater. Harry discovers his own spell book includes cheats and starts to use them. The book is signed "Property of the Half-Blood Prince."

Dumbledore coaches Harry about Voldemort, including looking into peoples' memories where he sees Merope and Morfin, the last living descendants of Slytherin. The two of them are both violent and mad from inbreeding designed to make them “purebloods". Merope had a Muggle child named Tom Riddle, who ultimately joins Hogwarts and becomes Voldemort ( and is therefore a half-Muggle).

Ron and Hermione become attracted to one another and Harry takes a shine to Ginny Weasley (they eventually kiss after a Quidditch match).

Harry finds out that Snape and Draco are plotting. Harry sees in the past that the 16 year old Voldemort had stolen uncle Morfin's wand, killed his father and then set up Morfin to take the blame. Later, Voldemort left Hogwarts and disappeared for ten years when he learnt the black arts and formed the Death Eaters.

Harry finds out that a concealed part of one's soul - a Horcrux - can be hidden in an object. Dumbledore thinks Voldemort had six Horcruxes, of which four remain and which keep his non human soul alive.

Harry repeatedly tries to convince Dumbledore that Snape is a follower of Voldemort before they try to destroy one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes, which they think is hidden in a deserted and spell laden cave. The Horcrux seems to be in a potion on an island in a lake filled with zombies called Inferi. To destroy the Horcrux, Dumbledore drinks the potion and almost dies but survives to fight the Inferi.

But the Death Eaters have infiltrated Hogwarts and demand that Draco kill Dumbledore. Draco is terrified, but refuses. Snape appears and Dumbledore seeks his help but instead Snape kills Dumbledore with a spell. Harry sees this but is invisible in his cloak. He then chases Draco and Snape but they escape. The potion which Dumbledore drank was not the Horcrux - which had been stolen - and Harry discovers that Snape was the Half-Blood Prince.

There is a big and dramatic funeral for Dumbledore with mer-people and centaurs of the forest. Professor McGonagall takes over as headmistress but announces that Hogwarts may have to close becauseof the danger. Harry decides to track down Voldemart and to travel light...

More London bombs

What a difference a day makes. Rucksack-based acetone peroxide bombs with small detonators in Central London on three trains and a bus, two weeks after the first wave. There are reports of one person wounded, although ambulance services said they did not transport anyone from the scenes.


Tony Blair said while the near-simultaneous attacks had echoes of the ones two weeks ago that killed 52 people and the four bombers - also on three Tube trains and a bus - it was too early to say whether they bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda.


The police chief confirmed there were four scenes - at Oval, Warren Street and Shepherd's Bush Underground stations and on a bus in east London - where "attempts have been made to set off explosive devices."

London Tourists and Workers

Spent today in London, mainly around Whitehall. I wondered whether there would be a discernable decrease in the number of people, but the area around Parliament and Trafalgar Square was seething. Normal workers and many tourists, giving a lie to the thought that there would have been a major impact to London's flux of people after the recent tragic events.

And there was a typical sprinkling of protesters around Parliament - including, today, one for the Parliamentary cleaners, who are on strike for better pay. In the hot sunshine, the Capital seemed to have returned to its normal hectic, eclectic mix of action.

Final Cut Crush

So we have crunched eight hours of video down to 1 hour and 40 minutes. Now is the part where we add the angle shots and the titles, before adding chapter markers and cutting to DVD. Doing the whole process on a laptop is qiote a change from the hardware assisted Wintel boxes of a year ago. Remarkably, the whole environment is also very stable, wiothout lots of strange crashes and interminable rendering times.

At this rate, we should have a copy available to send to David on Friday, which was what Melanie had estimated. Tomorrow, I'm in London and Melanie will be counting frames.

Joy of Tech Coffee Widget

Got Tiger? Here's a simple widget to give you a cartoon choice, each day.

ICE - In Case of Emergency

In view of the recent events in London, NHS East Anglian Ambulance Service have launched a national "In Case of Emergency (ICE)" campaign in association with Vodafone's annual life savers award.

The simple idea is that you store the word "ICE" in your mobile phone address book, and against it enter the number of the person you would want to be contacted "In Case of Emergency".

In an emergency situation, relevant personnel will be able to quickly find out who your next of kin are and be able to contact them. It's as simple as that, and for more than one contact name you can use ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc. There's more info on the ICE website.

Harry Potter

It was interesting walking into our local Tescos on Friday evening, to see an empty display rack for this book, due out on Saturday.

And then to walk in again on Saturday evening to see the same empty display rack. In the gap between, the books had arrived and then departed. Almost a Harry Potter storyline.

Outdoor Studio

Spent part of today hacking through eight hours of video created by John and Melanie, on a Powerbook connected to a LaCie drive, in the garden. Try doing that with Windows!