authentic

There's been a gap in my blogging since I returned from Amsterdam. It's been a kind of technical exile because of the identity thief.

I first noticed a few days ago when I received a strange invoice related to an internet advanced server offering that I hadn't taken. It was way too sophisticated for me and had the hallmark of a 'pop-up store' on the internet. I contacted the supplier and explained that it was nothing to do with me. They didn't seem too surprised. But for me it was an extra $200 per month that I shouldn't be charged.

We agreed that one of my accounts had been compromised, which led to certain systems being "frozen" whilst it was investigated.

As it happens, the combination of my trackers and their hosting service journal meant it was pretty easy to trace the person who had been borrowing my bandwidth and money. It was easy to find the service, IP address and even the real email address.

The follow up is not my concern now, and I've got my money back.

However, it took me out of blogging for a few days.

Through Low Light and Trees with the Smoke Fairies

We were sitting in the kitchen yesterday listening to old Roy Harper tracks and chatting. "You haven't posted about any new music recently?" came the comment.

"Er nope, I've not had much time..." came my reply.

Then today a little padded bag dropped onto the mat. In it was the brand new Smoke Fairies CD and a little pack with a set of postcards.

This delicious smoky folky New Orleans influenced duo's new album conjures more of their atmospheric and sometimes dark lyrics.

They've moved beyond their two guitars in places but even their stripped down sound is quite haunting. You might want to take a listen to them playing their old single "dances with ghosts" before finding a way to obtain their new album. Click the shop to jump to their site, join their mailing list and get a free track.

rotterdam or anywhere

A few days away this week, on business.

Planes, taxis and a ship included, as well as some high speed water taxis.

We arrived in Rotterdam in a grey rain, paid the taxi and walked along a metal corridor onto what turned out to be a surprisingly large ship.

I hadn't really comprehended the scale until I got lost the first two or three times and then later when we took a speedy small boat to a nearby restaurant and had a chance to look back at the temporary home.

I wasn't the only one to think of that Beautiful South song.

Skyride London 2010

I cycled to Parliament Square around 09:30 to join the London Skyride and was surprised to see quite so many people already circulating.

Various areas of central London get road closures during the summer for all manner of reasons, but the Skyride, which only started last year, is a particularly good one for some casual sightseeing whilst pedalling.

This year's route was slightly different, with a one-way system along the Mall (last year was two-way) and Trafalgar Square removed but Parliament added. I'd originally thought this year's route may be longer, but I suspect its about the same as last time.

When I started out, there were still moderate amounts of free road and not too many stops at pedestrian crossings, which had special "stop go" traffic management. It was also relatively easy to get into St James' Park to collect one of the High Viz vests and check out the various exhibits and vendors sprinkled around the edge before heading for St Paul's Cathedral.


By the time I was at the far end (for me) of the route, by the Tower of London, there were some acute traffic management challenges, with what seemed to be an ever increasing volume of bikes pouring into the area.

The route back towards the Queen's house required good low speed steering and some effort to keep rolling forwards in places and back at Parliament Square we ground to a halt. It was all very good spirited though, with most people simply enjoying the experience and chatting amiably. There were plenty of younger riders, some notably loud ones with training wheels on their bicycles.

At the other extreme were the stunt bikes and quite a few silent carbon fibre speed machines, although most were circulating at the same leisurely pace.

Thoughts on the event? I'm guessing the organisers might be thinking about scale for next year. I suspect they have been caught out by sheer volume this time and may need a bigger circuit / set of circuits to cope with the volume. The same with St James Park, which is the refreshment and event area but was showing signs of becoming overwhelmed - at least on the ways into it.

Still good fun, and a positive contribution towards extending bike culture within London. Also checkout the pictures at London Cyclist

the wilderness downtown

An interesting experiment with media by Chris Milk and Arcade Fire using the Google Chrome API set.

It will build a personalised movie (based upon a standard song track and premise) for any viewer. It asks for a postcode of somewhere you grew up and the builds the little movie.

Worth a play, although its best to clear the desktop before you start.

Here it is

pining ping pong penguins ping pingu

So I'm sitting this afternoon, listening to the gentle delights of Sleeping Giant by Jónsi & Alex from Riceboy Sleeps, when I decide to hit the rating key on my iTunes to remind myself I like it.

Maybe a 3. No a 4.

It'll drift off into my last.fm playlist and charts and I thought it might also show up in that new ping thing from iTunes.

Nope.

Its only stuff you buy or rate through the iTunes store.

Not exactly social connectivity.

sky ride 2010

Two maps of London in two days on this blog and both bicycle related. This one is about the Mayor of London's Sky Ride which takes place on Sunday.

I did it last year and it was quite good fun, what with London's central roads closed to traffic and the whole place turned over to cyclists.

This year's route is similar to last time, but its also possible to go past the Houses of Parliament, which was still open to cars last time.

I guess its a slightly longer route, but presumably there will be more people taking part. Lets hope it's also good picnic weather, like last time.

cyclemeter GPS track experiment

A little experiment today, using one of the iPhone GPS trackers whilst I took a short spin around part of tourist London.

I was really more interested in how the Cyclemeter iPhone software drew the route rather than exactly where I travelled. The phone was thrown into my backpack amongst car keys and various other electronic miscellanea, so GPS reception was far from ideal.

My start was by The Navigator in Belgrave Square and then out towards the eastern extension of King's Road before heading towards Westminster Abbey with views of Parliament, Big Ben the Eye and then around the back of Downing Street and past the Spitfire parked on the pavement.

The Mall is currently closed to traffic giving an easy run to Buckingham Palace which I did twice because it was quite fun zipping along such a deserted street, except for the roadblock quantities of tourists taking photos. Back past a busy Victoria station and then through a few twists around Eaton Square and back to where I started.

Only a few miles, mainly flat with thousands of tourist spots. A good example of how one of the London hire bikes could do simple sight-seeing in a matter of minutes.

Okay, so the map isn't perfect, but its not bad, and sufficiently good for anyone to be able to work out the route.

And, alright, I'll admit I was using my own bike today, but I did have to pump one of the tyres before I could start.

pack light

I recently impulse purchased a small waterproof jacket to keep in my bike-bag. It was after 'The Soaking' a few days ago, but also something of a serendipitous sale purchase.

I was in Wandsworth and walked past a bike shop with a big 'Sale' sign in the window and a display of ultra expensive bikes and ultra reasonably priced waterproof jackets. Magnetically I was drawn inside to look at the rainwear. I wanted something that folded down to a paperback book size or less, which I could put into my small back-pack. Sure enough they had something.

Just six days later it has made a debut, when I was out this afternoon as the sky turned dark grey and then black and another variation of white rods appeared from the sky. Two minutes later I was snug in the jacket and carried on, with just occasional rivulets of soothing rain water bathing my head through the air vents in my cycle helmet.

I know it's good value because I was able to spin past others sheltering under trees and in hedgerows. Come to think of it, that was my situation about a week ago.

bank holiday weekend

Another early start today, although the first part of the day was spent working.

I received the latest updates to something I'm doing during mid-evening yesterday and decided to start work on the changes at around 06:30 this morning. Someone else involved is jumping onto a plane today and it would better if they have the latest version before they start their journey.

As I worked I could look outside and see the fine weather, so once I'd finished the revision, I decided to take a short bicycle ride in the still early morning sunshine.

My hastily assembled shorts and tee-shirt combo amplified the slight chilly edge with the sunlight, and even at past seven thirty there was still a relative silence in the neighbourhood.

After a few miles the reports and paperwork had blown out of my mind, at least until Sunday when I get the inputs from New York.

berries

Early evening featuring chilled summer berries with warm white chocolate sauce. And laughter.

whistle a merry tune

I don't usually pay that much attention to the stats on this blog.

Ages ago I set up those little tracker things and would check them fairly regularly but as years go by I've paid less attention. But I must admit I was tempted to create some traffic at the weekend when I saw the counter was nearing a major number increment.

I resorted to the cheap trick of posting about the television talent show that has been allegedly adjusting its singing quality via software. i decided to use the show name and the possible software in the title of the post and then add some information about the specific technology.

It worked quite well and I did get a boost to readership and even some offline emails asking for further information. It did the trick of bumping the counter so I could feel quietly smug about my little experiment.

What I noticed, though, was the relatively non-investigative coverage of the story in the media after the event. The Sunday ink papers couldn't carry the story anyway because of deadlines and by Monday the story was little more than the same comments that had been twittering during Saturday.

I'd thought (but not blogged) about the possible fraudulent considerations of tampering with musical performances and then asking people to pay good money to cast their votes towards the one they judged best.

That issue doesn't seem to have surfaced though and the popular press seem to be relaying the "it's not really a talent show its entertainment" line.

Keep sending the money.