M3-M25-M40-M42-M6T-M6-A57

A pleasant and surprisingly traffic free round trip to the North West of England.

It was one of those occasions where I achieved mastery of the jam. I usually switch my sat-nav on for long journeys, but often choose my own route sections and let it's eternal patience reselect the route.

This journey worked well in both directions with a total of about 440 miles of UK roads without jammage.

There, I've said it, which pretty much confirms that my next journey will be a difficult one.

taxi

The water taxi was the only real time I touched the surface of the town.

It was very fast in the way that an old style Mini coupe seems fast because of the closeness to the road. In this case the speed was both spatial and temporal, because I don't think we'd have got from the harbour to the restaurant in even four times as long by road.

It turns out I wasn't the only one that hadn't been here before. Other than the local folk, it was a first for almost all of us, except my travelling colleague who'd approached the place from the sea, and carrying armaments.

The grey mists didn't help to get a sense of the geography. I could see a few cranes and tall buildings in the medium distance, and was aware that the area near where I was staying had been modernised. But apart from the evening restaurant, I didn't get a sense of the location before I bundled back into a taxi and out via a distant airport.

Fuji X100 form factor - analogue digital?

I noticed this camera a few days ago.

Its a brand new digital design, but looks like an old Trip 35 or rangefinder. It has a fixed wide-ish angle lens and has the analogue style aperture and shutter controls.

I've been musing about this form factor for a while because the latest generation digital cameras have moved the most basic parts of photography to somewhat less intuitive control surfaces. Thats reasonable for a phone where the photography is a secondary component, but I'm less convinced for proper cameras.

By comparison, this high specification camera is very traditional in the way it uses the main controls (it looks like a repackaging of the considerably more expensive Leica X1), and I suspect it will be easy to use.

But the camera seems to have divided opinion between those that like the idea of simple controls and those who think this looks like a throwback to the 1970s.

I like the idea of the simpler interface and can't help wondering if someone needs to take the old Olympus OM2 or an equivalent as a new design point for a modern SLR. But I suppose that would be contrary to the modern direction towards digital mirrors and even more ways to insulate the photographer from the photographic process.

Actually, I realised I'd better put a picture of this type of SLR camera next to a modern one, to help get an idea of the difference in relative size. I've put a zoom lens on the Olympus to make it bigger.

Update: I spotted the DigitalRev tabular comparison of the X100 vs a couple of the digital Leicas and thought it's worth a link: Click the picture below for the jump.

wired again

I've been playing around with some of that personal area network software over the last few days. The kind that runs at a very local (body) level. Its really an extension of the cycle iPhone applications and I've been interested to see what is available for a few quid that boosts insight and maybe works with stuff I already own.

My old Polar Heart Rate Monitor is an example, as is the cadence detector and wireless speedometer on my hybrid bike. Add the GPS detectors from the iPhone, plus maybe a digital blood pressure reading and there's a lot of data available which can be fed through into the SportsTrackLive type of applications.

Maybe the embedded skinplex system and 6LowPAN options need to be ruled out at the moment; suitable for arctic predator monitoring but it involves physically implanting chips - I'll only do that in combination with a fish supper.

Wireless Body Area Networks(WBAN) running at 10 to 20 Mb per second are already faster than the design of early 2000 office networks. Thoughtfully, FCC Part15.209 has drafted radiated emission limits to stop us all from overheating with this stuff.

However, I suspect this technology will diffuse into the next generation of iPhones and similar. The ant + technology is -er- small and embeddable into the various monitors to then commune with items like gym equipment to track personal readouts.

Plus the emerging generation of applications like iBike Dash and iBiker , which will look so much neater with the receivers embedded like Bluetooth.

I shall be "monitoring" this body of work.

we are the space invaders

There was a definitive autumnal edge to the air this morning. Sharp, smokey and damp leaves aroma.

It was still early enough for me to be relatively alone, although I could see the tyre tracks from other cyclists that had been dodging the same puddles as me. Its a transitional time too, as I need to think about extra clothes and bicycle ironmongery related to the elements and the amount of light.

The cycle means its easier to look over hedgerows and so today's damp fields combined with sunshine created the kind of steam effects more associated with April than October.

Inevitably I paused and snapped a quick scene, which, upon reflection is that of a space bubble landing in the corner of a field. The people inside have disguised themselves as rabbits whilst they take earth samples before beaming back to the planet of Epsilon Eridani.

reflective moment

Friday I've had to lock myself away to get some work done.

It's an all day task and has caused me to cancel a trip to Amsterdam, which would have meant a 04:30 start in any case. Instead, I've been diving into my computer for most of the day, interspersed with an occasional phone call.

I've also decanted the main work I'm doing to a nearby table for an hour or two, spread it out and worked with pen and paper before returning to the computerised version.

This task will run into the weekend too, particularly as I've taken a break at 6pm and have a feeling my frazzled mind won't be able to start again this evening.

a bit of a blur

I could tell that Wednesday was going to be a hectic day. I'd cleared the morning for a special task but then various encroachments into my calendar had started to appear. A mixed transport mode day to make it all work including phone calls from car parks.

The schedule involved various overseas conference calls and in one case the main documents were emailed after I'd jumped into my car, such that I'd only got access from a Blackberry. Any hope to read the material was somewhat dashed.

However, it was all going fine up to the point where I'd arranged to meet two people in a pub before a late-ish afternoon meeting. "It's under the railway bridge, I'll be there before you and can guide you in", said my telephone colleague, adding helpfully, "I don't have the address or postcode, but you can't miss it".

I didn't.

But they did - along with a complicated explanation about where they'd needed to park their car in order to catch a train. At least I'd enjoyed a coke, whilst watching a station clock in the pub move towards the hour.

We had our meeting and then went back to the same pub - the only refreshment zone in the area. A quick chat and I had to leave, in order to get somewhere quiet for my six o'clock.

Splosh.

An uncharted part of South London. No tube or cabs and a deluge of rain. My newly acquired girly umbrella flicked into use. A few quid from the ladies' shoes department in Marks and Spencer's a couple of days ago. A petite brolly with a tiny semi circular handle which I'll describe as "compact".

I headed towards distant Westminster and almost immediately spotted one of those bike racks. No taxis, but a short spin back towards North of the River. It was worth getting wet to save the time. Park the bike near Waterloo and a cab to my next rendezvous (no I couldn't have made it by bike in the time).

Arriving just in time for my next thirty minute session before deciding to power down for a few minutes television but with an eye on the traffic.

Thursday is a WAH day.

Working from Home.

spider mug shot

Sometimes I lead such an exciting life.

After my comments in this blog a few days ago about September and Spiders, tonight was my First Encounter of Autumn 2010.

I've been working this evening and was somewhat unaware of the time. It was around 11pm. From the corner of my eye I saw a small movement on the ground. It was a spider. Not an itsy bitsy one. Oh no. It was the type that casts a very long shadow and gets main title parts in Indiana Jones movies.

It was ambling across some papers I'd tossed on the floor as part of my working process. Then I stood up and it must have spotted me.

It made a sudden comedy rush across the floor and straight towards a paper carrier bag, which it hit on the outside with a discernible thunk. I moved the paper bag away from the wall to create a little gap and sure enough, the spider ran inside the gap to "hide".

I decided to round it up.

Nearest practical implement was my empty coffee mug. A deft move and the spider was inside the mug. Sometimes spiders try to jump out of mugs but this one was a bit stunned either from the running around or just deciding that a low profile was best.

I opened a window to the darkness and tipped the spider out. The office is over the back door to the kitchen though, and I expect the spider is already queuing to get back inside at the first opportunity.

So I won't be surprised if I find another similar sized creature looking as if it owns the place in the next day or two.

cycle rides with cyclemeter and sportstracklive

Since I discovered the superb Cyclemeter application which runs on the iPhone, I've been using it when I take the bike out. It's quite handy, because I just switch it on then use the 'off' switch on the iPhone and throw it into the backpack. It keeps a GPS track of movement, speed, altitude, location and plots it into kilometre or mile timings for a route. It even has a go at calculating calories. The recent update also deducts 'stopped time' which is useful as I sometimes switch it on when I'm making a cup of tea before a bike ride or similar.

Cyclemeter has its own application for recording the rides back to the internet, and it's just necessary to sync it every so often. This provides a useful map and various timing information about the ride, and its good fun to retrace it on Google maps and to use the mapping to decide possible extensions.

I then discovered sportstracklive a few days ago, which will happily upload the iPhone file generated by Cyclemeter.

The additional information provided in sportstracklive is mainly some statistics about 'personal best' and similar, as well as a splits by kilometre/mile and an equivalent mapping function.

Sportstracklive also adds a replay function, where you can watch a course thats been cycles/run/walked etc as it replays at an animated speed. Again useful for adding sections or options to a route. The same mapping can be used with the 'personal bests' so its possible to zoom into the map where they occur and to think about whether to do those sections faster.

Those that have read my previous posts around bicycling will see that I stop to look around and take the occasional photo as well, so I don't think I'll be turning in wildly amazing times, but its still fun to have this form of telemetry by just throwing the phone into the backpack. Oh and it works for walking, running etc as well, each of which can be separately classified.

jumbled weekend

I've a jumble of things to get done this weekend.

As I was leaving my colleagues around Euston yesterday evening, we'd all discussed the various work related items stacked up for the weekend.

In my case its a sizeable report that needs my attention and will take several hours.

In an ideal world I'd have started it today, but I do need a few minutes to decompress before the next piece starts. Otherwise the weeks and weekends blur into a continuum with very little down time.

We're planning to see a movie at some point tomorrow, as well as some home decoration, so I'll be working out how to sneak the "Work" work in amongst the other items.

Mornington Crescent

Another day dotting around London, this time on the tube, with a n extended stay in one area for a very long meeting.

A few of the stops included the predictable Waterloo, Leicester Square and Euston, with a side shimmy (allowed in the rules) across to St Pancras.

Since the bike scheme has been added to London, I'm not sure if it opens a few more legal moves in the well-known panel game which tracks certain parts of the Underground System.

Anyway, my second approach via Charing Cross landed me at...

You've guessed it...

Mornington Crescent.

livestock incursion

This is about the time of year that various larger bugs start to sidle inside the house, including an assortment of spiders.

The crane fly aka Daddy Long-Legs is the first 'coin sized' bug I've spotted this year.

I usually associate September and Spiders but this year I'm either particularly unobservant, or the usual mid evening just slightly scary spider that patrols the carpets is late to arrive.