chipped dog

Today's hot story is of a breakdown patrol man who came to the rescue of a woman motorist and who managed to get her car started using her dog. Juliette Piesley had changed the battery in her electronic key fob but was then unable to start her car.

When AA patrolman Kevin Gorman arrived at the scene in Addlestone, Surrey, he found its immobiliser chip was missing. Ms Piesley said her dog George had eaten something. Kevin suspected it was the chip and put the dog in the front seat and then started the car with the key.

Mr Gorman said: "I was glad to get the car started for the member. They will now have to take George [the dog] with them in the car until things take their natural course. It is the first time that I have had to get a dog to help me to start a car."

I noticed that the missing key/broken transponder is now the second most common cause of breakdown on British roads, according to the AA.

this is for the devoted

Okay, at Julie's request I've glued all of my pieces of Will Young phone footage together in Final Cut Pro and uploaded them so that they can be viewed as a mini-movie. Theres about 15 minutes here, including a Joseph guitar excerpt and some dancers too. Julie informs me I should have only included the singing, but I think it gives more of an impression of the whole gig. Its quite a large file - which I have compressed heavily to save download time, but don't try this without broadband. Click the photo, or here (its a Quicktime Movie).

UPDATE: I've noticed quite a few people accessing this entry. Don't forget:

Brighton 29th
Brighton 30th (Christina's)
Newcastle clips

space invasion

I've noticed a few space invaders over the last few days. There was a craze around this in Los Angeles a couple of years ago and now there seem to be a few in the UK. They are another form of whimsical art and are mainly well made panels of mosaic around 30cm by 20cm and affixed to walls. If you look carefully at the photo I took a couple of days ago you will see one by the top left of the cafe signage.

Here's a better view.

Tag: space invaders, art, urban

geek my book

A few weeks ago I needed extra disk in a hurry and nearby PC World only sold USB2 disks - I usually use firewire. I bought a modestly priced 250Gb drive but suspected it may not be fast enough for video or music streaming, but would suffice for filing.

I was right, it couldn't keep up; so I used it for archiving. Then today, I plugged it into a different mac and heard the Windows 'hardware detected' bong noise. The mac didn't deign to notice the drive and sure enough it came up in a Windows Parallels session on the mac.

Thats when I noticed the drive is formatted for Windows in its lowest common denominator (FAT32) format. So I copied everything off, reformatted it as a Mac OS X extended file with journalling and now its many times as fast. So my trial 10Gb file copy took 10 minutes instead of 5 hours.

Tag: apple, mac, disk, geek

wind tunnel

Appled up? Got a mighty mouse? Wanna have a 3D scroll with the little grey button? Try this look inside a wind tunnel.
Tag: virtual reality, qtvr, mac

bad house

Sunday brunch with a touch of opulence at Malmaison. The slinky hotel is situated on the quay with a great view of the adjacent winking swingbridge. Just behind the hotel is an area of crazily angled streets, with cafes, bars and some huge pieces of civil engineering which cut through what ever would otherwise have stood. It reminds me of some parts of Manhattan with a different accent.

The cocktails before lunch were as opulent as the bar and although we started sitting in a sumptuous corner, sinking into the deep seats, we later moved to a prime window view to look at the dawdling Sunday world outside.

Later we drifted through a soft red curtain into the brasserie for a belated brunch.
Shopping plans dissipated as we drank wine then selecting the chef's recommandation du jour before late afternoon wanderings by the renovated quayside.

Tag: malmaison, newcastle, brunch, UK

will young arena tour

Julie had arranged for me to see Will Young with her this weekend during his Arena tour. I'm not supposed to say too much about the show here and those more devoted know where to look. Anyway, I managed to capture a short extract via my phone camera and Julie asked me to post it because it is one of his less well known songs.

OK, then I was asked to add this other rare song as well.

And this.

And a small piece from "Switch it On".

Tag: Will Young, arena, music, live gig

graceful Soprano?

Tonight we are having a Soprano marathon watching the first series in succession whilst eating pizza and drinking Chianti thats beyond reproach. Everybody assumes that just because you're in waste management you must be mobbed up. There's no such thing as the Mafia, Yeah look, I'll call you back from the motel. I think I saw an old friend, thats all. Bada Bing.

Meanwhile, here's something more graceful.

Tag: Sopranos, Jeff Buckley, video, music

Thursday Thirteen (V28)

1) I've been out this evening to an Indian restaurant.
2) There were 10 of us in the restaurant, from Paris, Brussels, Cape Cod, Stockholm, Washington, Helsingborg and London.
3) We chose an excellent set menu with some hot and some not so hot selections, along with mainly Cobra beer.
4) Earlier this week I was in a different Indian restaurant with a good friend. They say Indian food is the English cuisine.
5) I also has a telephone company person try to get into home to change a phone connection. This is their second attempt. The first time they did not notify me that they were to visit. This time it was not the date I'd agreed and I have been away.
6) My car has also been to be serviced. The garage pick it up and return it so the main way I can tell it has been serviced is that it always looks much cleaner after a service.
7) I could not avoid a small smile today when someone told me they have recently bought a new Mac Book.
8) I was given a superb present of green tea from Japan today.
9) I'm listening to Jeff Buckley singing Hallelujah this evening, after seeing it in a German film about a week ago.
10) Congratulations to mar for a year of blogging!
11) is still my favorite number
12) I've just had several really long days, so tonight I am somewhat tired!
13) Time for a cup of tea -which has ust appeared !

Add a comment, trackback or a link if you are a Thursday Thirteener!


Tag: Thursday Thirteen, free link friday

OTA: don't wear headphones

Don't wear headphones to watch this one!

art, but not as we know it

So Banksy the urban artist made a copy of Paris Hilton's album, featuring a new cover and a different recording. The modification comprised a remix of Paris Hilton saying (mainly shopping) quotes to a synth backing track that sounds as if its been made on Reason.

So, was the original really popular music? and is the reconstruction a legitimate piece of art?

Undecided?

Here is the banky replacement track (chopped from 40 minutes down to a mere 16) and here is the replacement coverart which Banksy substituted.

Tag: art, banksy, Paris Hilton

plutonic relations

I sometimes post about space and the recent demise of Pluto as a planet went un-commented on here. However, I noticed that the lonelygirl vlog posted about Pluto a few days ago, so I've added a link.

The lonely girl vlog about Bree and her best friend Daniel has been a video experiment since it started in much the way of an online soap. The production values are slightly too high for a vanilla webcam (though it still says thats what they use) and the editing is quite sharp in places. There seems to be more of this type of showcase/new media, appearing and as people experiment with different business models and ways to make it to screens of whatever size.

Of course, she was rumbled, but the series continues and I'm sure Bree/Jessica will be on the way to getting some good media work.

And to add spice, theres the Greek letters θέλημα (Thelema) at the bottom of the site and a wiccan hexagram in the logo at the top. So I suspect the script would have a few more twists and turns if it allowed to unfold - well outside of the initial storyline. And now cassie is watching appears to be a spinoff - She visits a river scene which Bree mentions and something gets thrown into the river and then a THIRD Vlogger made this.


Tag: vlog, thelema, lonelygirl15, bree