give me a bell

I just read somewhere (in the analogue world of ink and paper) that mobile phones have been going for around 20 years. "This calls for a montage", I thought, "or at least a few photoshopped pictures".

I expect there's already people who don't remember phones with dials, and the idea of remembering actual phone numbers is long since gone. I don't get all misty eyed though because the cellular world offers a lot of advantages with quick text messaging, conferencing, photography and video and I actually miss the text chat facility I had on my last mobile phone, which seems impossible to emulate in the world of Windows on my current one.
Of course, when phones only had to make phone calls, they were a lot simpler, and there's a special law that says whenever its something urgent the phone will throw a tantrum and demand a reboot, which seems to take about a minute. And the last two phones I've had both have qwerty keyboards instead of numbers, so I've got used to typing in part of someone's name now when I want to call them.

So I don't really reminisce for the days of early mobile with short battery life and a burning sensation around the ear after a long call. I'm still slightly suspicious of bluetooth operating on the same frequency as microwave ovens, but I suppose someone has proved that a bluetooth headset can't cook baked beans.

And of course with all the hilarious and imaginative ring-tones around, the old style "bring-bring" bell has also made a solid come-back.
UPDATE: I checked. The first cellphone was used in 1973 by Martin Cooper/Motorola and the first ones sold were 1984. So Gordon Gecko in Wall Street(1987) was cutting edge.

Cookie Socks Shocks

Pussy-cat, pussy-cat, where have you been?
"I've been to London to look at the queen."
Pussy-cat, pussy-cat, what did you there?
"I frightened a little mouse under the chair."

Shocking news that Socks the Blue Peter cat may have been renamed (allegedly). The phone in competition to name this childrens' programme pet seems to have been overruled by someone on the programme. Apparently the most common/popular phone-in name was deemed inappropriate and substituted for the name of Bill Clinton's cat.

Hmm, I wonder what the original name was, and whether there's any connection with the substitution?

Antonia and the exploding gas cylinders

I spent longer than expected in the fens of Cambridgeshire and beyond today as a result of the exploding gas cylinders of the A14. A truck toppled over and let loose its contents of metal gas cylinders. I first noticed something untoward when the map on my sat nav went red all around Cambridge. First a few warning yellow cars and then a steady procession of little red cars marched across the map like so many ants. And then four 'no entry' signs popped up at the cardinals of Cambridge.

"Hmm", I thought, as I sat in stationary traffic, "I'd better find a local radio station". And so to Antonia on Radio Cambridgeshire drivetime, who announced that there had been an accident and then that the police had closed all of the useful roads in the most of Cambridgeshire.

Antonia Brickell's(?) slightly subversive radio style was quite entertaining whilst I whiled away my normally economical fuel consumption in the gridlock of the month. Radio Cambs lasted a good hour and a half until I finally got moving again and the station faded out of reception.

I can understand the need for exclusion zones around unidentified gas canisters; even if they were described as 'empty'. Notable was the good humour and patience of the long streams of motorists caught up in today's events.

Halo 3, Halo 4, Halo 5 and beyond

tags technorati : rashbre halo halo3 halo4 halo5 halo6 halo7 halo8 halo cheats

jazzy

Waiting Friday, on Lambeth Bridge, viewing Parliament and the Eye

Not my usual form of music, but as a quick way to test Logic Pro 8, and somewhat inspired by the jazz on Friday, I've boshed together a quick track called "Waitin' for Mel", which I've also attempted to give a live vibe to. The waiting was by Lambeth Bridge.

Its traditional swing without any special electronica (well none that shows) although the instruments and so forth are all mere triggers on my Mac.

I think the cymbals are a bit overdone, but hey, I'm only practicing with the new layout of Logic.

Waitin' for Mel (live)

Or, download .mp3 to play here.

Polar Bear

I said I'd be having a jazzy evening on Friday, and a gang of us certainly did. We met in Lambeth, just across the river from the Houses of Parliament, and headed into an ex church, which was the site of the gig by the very excellent Polar Bear. I'd been listening to their back catalogue during the week such as "Held on the Tips of Fingers" as well as a few demo tapes that were loaded to their web site.

So, with softly spoken band leader Seb Rochford (drums), Pete Wareham (Tenor and Baritone saxophone), Mark Lockheart (Tenor saxophone), Tom Herbert (Double Bass), Leafcutter John (mandolin and electronics) didn't disappoint and we had an evening of eclectic fusion jazz, featuring electronica, performed to a warm and friendly audience, washed down with beer (till it ran out), then lager and cider.

Here's an extract. Handheld phone..

tags technorati : rashbre polar bear jazz london museum ex-church seb rochford leafcutter john

Logic Studio 8

Passing the Apple shop in Regent's Street today, I noticed they had one copy of the upgrade for Logic on the shelf. What could I do? More later once its installed.

Mrs Caddy's Field

A picture I took a couple of weeks ago in Mrs Caddy's field, where the recent show took place that I attended.

My surprise to read in the London Times that ths very field is the source of the latest outbreak of the terrible foot and mouth disease.

OTA : Wordless Wednesday

Bicycle Ride




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Hyde Park

I've been asked (via Mary and Julie) to load some more from Hyde Park. We'll drop it onto Christina's site, when sufficient time.

loose ends

- ease of access to the chapel and its environs
- the big hole road works
- access to the sea and boats
- previous users of hire cars
- access to tranquilisers and sedatives
- access to hair samples to check chemicals ingestion
- knowledge of medical procedures
- unidentified people carrying children
- timing, clarity and effectiveness of room checks
- Occam's razor

water

Nya, I'm sitting here looking at a big glass bottle of water which costs €4.30 to open. I'm in a hotel by the Rhine River in Dusseldorf and I can walk ten steps to the hotel bathroom, where the water in the tap is free.

The glass of water by the side of the bottle is from that tap and it tastes wonderful. Cool, smooth and probably surprisingly pure.

If I'm outdoors like on Saturday at a concert I might buy water, but for day to day consumption, the tap still provides a great choice. I admit I use a filter at home and keep the filtered water in the fridge, but the source still comes from the tap. And if I take water with me when I go cycling, I simply fill a camelback and drop it into the rucksack.

2.17 billion litres per year from bottles in the UK, costing £1.5bn. Thats a lot of landfill.