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No. No. No. You are only supposed to make calls on it!
Mood:
Music:
Modern art, architecture and music
Mood: thoughtful
Music: Spotify Radio
Having wondered for a while now where everything is going, and pondering when the demise of post-modernism will occur and be replaced with something equally radical and innovative, as post-modernism, is predecessor, modernism and all the previous all-encompassing movements before that.
We are now 10 years into the new millennium and there appears to be no strong movement that encapsulates all aspects of creativeness from art through to music. This is especially true where there appears to be multiple movements all trying to prove themselves and no overall cohesiveness. There is Starchiture, Neomodern (not to be confused with Neomodernism, which is a critique of modernism) and New Sincerity. The first is unfortunately for the privileged few who can get expansive, expensive commissions and the whilst Neomodernism proponents are critical of post-modernist thinking, the architecture of Neomodern is a retrospective look and mainly re-hash of modernist ideals and doesn't really mesh with the philosophical reaction to Post-Modernism . New Sincerity appears to be another reaction , but also harking back.
There is another movement that is trying to gain ground, Remodernism, which would interest my friend, as one of their early art shows was in Albuquerque! Though this movement does not seem to be gaining ground.
Unfortunately all of this is disparate and unconnected. There is no completeness of drive such was modernism or post-modernism. Maybe something will come out of this era or maybe it will be consigned to the bin of history.....
I think now is the time to bring forth a new era of design! Maybe i should start one....
I will name the movement Postasunderism, as the current period of art and architecture is fractured and widely dispersed. The unification of design will be borne of this splintered era! Long live Postasunderism!!!
Inflated Train Prices
Mood: cheerful
Music: Computer Whirr
Why oh why are train prices soooo expensive? I mean look at these prices! Approximately one month in advance whcih should be ample to get cheaper tickets and the return price for a weekend away would be £107.5 (oh plus the £1 booking fee for doing nothing). It is approximately 110miles from Bristol to London which makes that train journey almost a £1 a mile. 
Really high prices on Great Western Trains
Using the Fuel Calculator and a good MPG car (50 MPG) which would use about 10 litres of fuel for the journey. That is about 10p per mile.
That is 10x more expensive! It is of course less than ten times due to road tax, depreciation, tyres etc but still even if the price averages out to be the same per mile the car wins by comparing the journey itself.
Comparing the journey, the trains are overcrowded, you have to sit with people you might not like, you have to catch the trains specified so if your itinerary changes there is no flexibility, whereas with a car the journey is door to door, in your own environment and times of journey are flexible.
People are not going to move over to using trains if prices carry on like this. If I had to pay prices like this I would get a car, luckily I can still manage to get cheaper tickets though these are becoming harder to obtain, even when booking two months in advance!
Last.fm Superscrobble
Mood: geeky
Music: Joanne Shaw Taylor - Going Home
Wow! Today I reached 40,000 tracks scrobbled on Last.fm. Awesome. That's a lot of songs in 4 years, 5 months, 14 days, in fact that is 24.6 songs per day or just over 1 an hour, every hour, every day, every month, every year!
I have also updated my listening trends graphs, you can see the new 2009 one here!
Scaffolding, Hands and Skin
Mood: content
Music: Mike Oldfield - Incantations
I have never posted an entry about my skin before as it is something I don't like to talk about. But I have just come across a product that has revolutionised the way I deal with my building site visits. If you suffer from eczema, like me, and you work in the building trade or have to visit building sites as part of your job you might find that your skin gets very dry from the dirt the cold, especially in winter.
Normal gloves are not really an option as tactile sensitivity is reduced to point where when clambering ladders it is not safe. Whilst 'fingerless' gloves are a possibility dirt can still get trapped in the fabric.
It was a case of treat the damage after each visit and wait out the recovery time, every time. Until now! (I sound like an advert!)
A plumber came to fix my hot water tank and had skin allergies to some of the welding products. He recommended a pair of gloves that had a tactile rubber surface one side and were skin tight to avoid trapped on dirt in between glove and hand. I bought a pair and they are brilliant.
The gloves in question are ST Electron nylon gloves with a polyurethane coating on the palms. I found a pair at my local HSS Hire Shop (UK). 
I'll have a Q please Bob.
Mood:
Music: My Screaming
Royal Snail, Parcel Farce. You have to love them otherwise you would cry. However today I came close to screaming. Typically whenever I get something delivered I get carded (Royal Snail does this pretty well, but ShittyLink fails to even card) and I have to go collect the parcel. Sounds OK doesn't it?
The depot is about 3miles away and is not on a direct or even indirect public transport link. Well its a bit of a hassle yes. Fine. The worst is the fact that due to the uesless opening times of the depot virtually everyone collects their parcels on Saturday. This leads to long queues from when it opens to when it closes at 12:30. Average queue time 20-30mins, been there an hour before though.
Meh. All this to collect a parcel, there has to be an easier way.
Eating Out
Mood:
Music: Traffic Hum
I am not quite sure who designed South Wimbledon Homebase but its not at all pedestrian friendly. The two routes there consist of an overgrown path and the other you get wet from the local car wash. The upside is that you get to eat out at the best outdoor place in South Wimbledon.
Dining in Style.
Call 999
Mood: happy
Music: Apoptygma Berzerk - Starsign
Its 09 / 09 / 09 today. :D
Don't Knock too Loud
Mood: happy
Music: Computer whirr
I am actually quite impressed with Sony Ericsson. As posted earlier my C902 faceplate came off and was an exciting flappy piece of plastic. Awesome. Anyway it was 11 months old at the time and was within the limited warranty.
So I sent it off to the repair centre, got no receipt that they had recieved it. Sent an email saying has you got it or has Royal Mail lost it (another story for another time). They said they would look into it. A week and another email later it turns up through the door. They fixed it! For nothing! Wow! I expected more hassle than that.
Looks like they have stuck the faceplate down and it works OK again. Down button still no clicky but I can live with that as I have a phone back. Not sure what to do with it though as I now have a W995.
Even came in a nice shiny box!
Look its a repaired phone!
Shops Have it Wrong
Mood: tired
Music: Noel Richards - I Walk by Faith
I my opinion the current methods of shopping are outdated and are in need of a revamp. I think I will look at two shopping "expereinces" and comment!
First up though a shop I think that has a good shopping experience and other shops can learn from. http://www.argos.co.uk has a great system. Firstly they have a small interface to a large stock in their shops. The consumer side of the shop can be manned by 2 or 3 people. This is fine as the consumer does not need to hunt across multiple massive floors for an item, such as in a department store, they look it up in a catalogue, find what they want, pay for it and then collect it. The item comes from a warehouse where items can be packed in tighter as the layout does not have to look good as the consumer will never see it. Also this system means that the little wait time is acceptable to most people due to the fact the item is being brought to them.
The setup allows for flexibility and caters for two main types of customer, one who wants to browse and the other who knows what they want. The browser can thumb through the catalogue whilst the other can quickly get their item, especailly if already reserved on the internet in advance!
The first example I will look at is a clothing store. These are great for the browser as you can look at all the clothes and find ones you like and then get your size and buy. Oh wait, a lot of the time the size is not available as there is not enough room to carry all the sizes. So how about having a display item to browse through with a code number. YOu then go to the desk to with the code number and ask for your size, either to try or buy. They can then get the item from the stock room, which like Argos can be packed tighter due to aesthetics not being an issue. The suggested way also allows for those who know what they want to get an item quickly without trawling across the entire store. This might get complicated with sales etc, and the existing structure of selling might work better for that. The what is there is it method.
Second up is the DIY store, such as B & Q. Today I spent ages trying to find an item I wanted. A simple map plus a search tool for customers would greatly improve the search tool. Similar to a catalogue, you can search for the item and it will say, can be found in ailse 4 row 2! I know this is possible as this is how they track stock already. This will stop me wasting my time searching across the store and make shoppers happy. Happy shoppers come back and spend again. Unhappy shoppers go elsewhere.
So why don't companies offer users more assistance in the shopping experience? It makes sense and will stop staff being pestered by people struggling to find items.
The English Language
Mood: curious
Music: Dire Straits - Love Over Gold
English is wierd. I was writing some instructions for repairs to a building today and came across several words that make sense in themselves but don't make sense when looked at carefully. I need to ask some English expert like 
Lexie.
The prefix "re-" means to go back or redo, taken from Dictionary.com, so relevelled means to level again (past tense), however revert means to go back and cut vegetation again? Huh?
Same goes for "dis-", discontent means not to be happy, likewise dismantled means not to be constructed. So the opposite must be true, content means to be happy and mantlted means to be constructed. Wait. Mantlted means to be covered with or without a cloak.... So dismantled actually means to be uncovered. But if it isn't built how can it be uncovered. It isn't there?!?! I am now confused.
Why is getting a PAC code SOOOOO difficult!
Mood: Fed up
Music: Computer fan whirr
26 minutes of saying politely I would like my PAC code please to the stupid salesman. And finally he said he would send it. Still have not recieved it. GFrrrr.
Sony Ericsson C902
Mood: tired
Music: Moby - Whispering Wind
Well in one of my previous posts I commented on how great the C902 is. Yup it was until the keypad fell off. Believe it or not the C902's keypad is glued to the front of the phone. Cost saving I suppose. But not really much use once it comes off because it won't stick back and the keys and microscopic buttons below never line up again. Its only 11months old FFS. Oh well new contract soon, new phone. For now its back to the K800i, which still looks pretty new for an over 2 year old phone. That (apart from the joystick) was when SE made good phones. 
C902 Looking as it should, though a bit dusty
Oh dear that does not look good
Something New (for once)
Mood: happy
Music: Yoshito Hirano - That's a Wrap!
Well its been a while since I updated this. Life has been hectic, been studying. Though now that is over I can see the world properly again (new glasses helps though).
Been finishing off old projects that were started but abandoned due to the imending time suck that was Part3. (Part 3 is the last installment of tortuous exams that are required for one to become an Architect, which BTW I am!!!! :D )
One of the projects was to finish building my media PC. Not quite sure why I did it. But there you go. One more PC in the house is always good.
Another project is to get back into painting, which has still be started :( and get back into cooking, which I have started and am syching myself up for bigger projects.
Even better I fixed my bike and went for a cycle ride on Saturday around Richmond Park. I need to get some more exercise and this is great. Liberating to be out on the bike again.
My friend James keeps telling me to play more computer games. So in typical Adam style I play a game that James knew about, played, completed over 6 months ago. So today I was playing a Tempest 2000 clone but in high def, Typhoon 2001. It works on Linux wooooo!
If you are stuck in making a launcher for it here is how to do that. First up create a text file and call it whatever. I called mine typhoonlaunch. Open the file in your favourite text editor and stick these lines into it:
#!/bin/bash
cd ~/typhoon_2001
./typhoon
Then you can create a launcher to that file and it will launch the game. Else it will crash and break pulseaudio (which TBH is not hard).
Government has sense? No not really.....
Mood: thoughtful
Music:
"The Government backed study proposes to scrap BT's obligation to ensure every home has access to a telephone line and replace it with a requirement to provide broadband."
This current government is so inept that it does not realise that the easiest way to provide broadband to all homes is via the telephone line. I do not know why they spout propaganda like this because I am sure that home homes can get broadband already even it is 512. They should be aiming for something like "All homes to have 16MB broadband by 2015" or "All homes to have 50MB broadband by fibre-through-sewer system by 2025". Those would be admirable goals. Maybe I ask too much.....
Linux Ubuntu and the C902
Mood: tired
Music: The Knife - This is Now
Sony Ericsson being what they are make pretty good phones. I have been using their phones for a while now. I swapped to the C902 in an upgrade deal from my current provider, 3. Nice phone, does a lot except for one. Play nice with Gnu/ Linux / Ubuntu.
It plays nice in 3 out of the 4 USB modes it has, normal phone mode (modem mode), MTP mode, Pictbridge and not in the most useful one, Mass Storage mode.
I have been annoyed at this for a while and in the end I decided to submit a Kernel patch to make hte device work. SO here I am writing some code to benefit others! I feel like I am making a contribution to the community. :D My customised kernel is compiling as I type. Hope it works! More later.....
New Computer
Mood: Tired
Music: William Towns - Gearbox
I built my new computer two nights ago and set up Windows (and games) last night. I was expecting a quantum difference to my computing experience after it was built.
I experienced this difference going from a 650MHz Intel Pentium 3 to a 1800MHz AMD Duron. It was blazingly fast with bells and whistles. However going from the Duron to a Core Duo 3GHz the same jump was expected but it wasn't sluggish but it wasn't great.
Half Life 2 still takes a while to load. Steam takes forever to start up and the graphics in games are not much different to what I had on my previous machine.
I believe (and hope) that it is a perception thing and if I do a side by side test I will see the differences. It might be because my new machine is driving a 22" monitor. :D (Results of test to follow)
AutoCAD woes
Mood:
Music: Radiohead - The Bends
Today I got so annoyed with AutoCAD that I had to fix the problem rather than ignoring it. AutoCAD has global values for linetype scaling and these in my practice are set to 10. LTSCALE = 10. This is a global office wide thing so all drawings look the same. However there were two drawings that had the same setting but both looked different?!? Huh?!? So maybe I thought, try the measurement setting, this changes it from feet and inches to metric. Annoyingly AutoCAD comes by default setup to feet and inches so if AutoCAD resets itself for some reason, say after a crash it can default to feet and inches. MEASUREMENT=1 is the setting required for metric. This still did not solve my problem. Then I read an article that stated, reload the linetypes! Wicked that worked. What a faff. :(
Moving house, new job and music
Mood: happy
Music: Chicane - Stoned in Love
Hmmm where do I begin? I am currently moving to Southfields as I am currently working in Fulham at GHK Architects. Seeing that rent is inordinately high (everywhere in the UK but major cities especially) I thought I would buy and hence my location. I am currently buying a flat and will do it up as I want to! Yay! My own place at last.
So its all change here. I have a new job, and nearly have a new house! All I need now is a new MP4 player....
I have narrowed the search down to the following three players, as my requirements are fairly stringent; Cowon D2 8GB, Samsung YPP2 8GB and the Meizu M6SL 8GB. All have their pros and cons. I might write up what I have found in my internet searches here. Someone might find it useful.... Not sure which to get still?!
Les Mystérieuses Cités d'Or
Mood: tired
Music: Dire Straits - Telegraph Road
Well it appears that my long awaited DVDs of the Mysterious Cities of Gold has turned up from HMV, a little late but I am not that fussed! I have waited 15years for this so whats a few more days!
Apparently I am Mendoza. Pfft.
Which Mysterious Cities of Gold Character are you?
Take this quiz!
Keeping up with the masses
Mood: awake
Music: Scissor Sisters - Laura
Well I have now successfully acquired a job and am now in the throws of getting somewhere to live. Currently am flat sharing in Southfields with an Italian and a South African. Cultural diversity in such a small area. :P Whilst the guys are nice I am looking forward to my own place again. Plus I get internet back so I don't have to do things like this at work. Mark you starting at 9:30am is great and means I get to sleep in and then surf before work.....
Made my first London mess up yesterday. My thinking was, get on the Tube at the front of the train and thus I have less to walk when i get to my destination.... Me and everyone else must have come up with that. The front carriages were REALLY packed. meh. Sardines come to mind..... Oh well won't be doing that again in a hurry. :D
Do you find those stripes annoying?
Mood: thoughtful
Music: Dire Straits - Telegraph Road
Gnome whilst being good for most things has a couple of annoying "features" or lack thereof.
Firstly Nautilus in Gnome has a drop down on the right to select between "View as List" and "View as Icons" but it really needs to have a "View as Preview" as that would make managing multimedia, especially pictures much easier. KDE4 has a nice new file manager called Dolphin which might push me over to KDE once they have ironed out the bugs in the shiny new Desktop Environment of KDE when it gets to 4.1
On another note I installed "slab" (gnome-main-menu) today and have a different starting menu, its a bit like the XP and Vista menus, I will probably switch back at some point though.....
Anyway the other annoyance I have had in Gnome ever since I have been using it is that in any list the DE provides there were horizontal stripes, or bars that made my eyes loose track of the items. Other people find them OK or do not even notice. However today was exciting as I discovered how to remove them! And here is how.....
Guide to Removing Nautilus (Gnome) horizontal bars in list view:
Note: This is not for those faint of heart as it involves editing system settings.
1) Right, you need to find out which "Controls" your theme is using. To do this go to "Appearance Preferences", click "Customise", go to the "Controls" tab and note the name selected. Take note of this name as it will be needed for the next step. Cancel all and close the "Appearance Preferences" box.
2) Go to home directory. Go to .themes and then the name found in step 1. Go to the gtk-2.0 directory. There should be a file here called gtkrc. These are the settings for how your theme displays colours etc.
3) Make a backup before editing this file. Open this file and search for the following "GtkTreeView::odd_row_color". If it does not exist just add the rows below to the default section, look for GtkTreeView if its a complex file, if it does have them make them match.
GtkTreeView::odd_row_color = "#ffffff"
GtkTreeView::even_row_color = "#ffffff"
This will make both rows white and therefore match the default background colour. If your default background is different to white, look for "base[NORMAL] = "#FFFFFF"" and then match the colours from that.
London or Bust
Mood: happy
Music: Brazil 2001 - Penetration
After recovering from the flu which I had before Christmas, I decided to continue my plan to move from Edinburgh back to the South of England, chiefly London. I can then see my parents and friends who live in South West England. After a couple of weeks of job hunting I now have a job in London at GHK and am nervous and excited all at once. Now to find somewhere to live.....
20000 Song on Last.fm
Mood: Happy
Music: Electric Light Orchestra - Turn To Stone
Electric Light Orchestra – Roll Over Beethoven made it as my 20000 song scrobbled on Last.fm! Woooo! Next target 30000 :P
Ubuntu Gutsy
Mood: happy
Music: Bond - Kashmir
After upgrading Ubuntu to the next version 7.10 or Gutsy, in which I had to manually do so, I had several problems which whilst I attempted to fix I began to pull my hair out.
So I bit the bullet and resinstalled Ubuntu deleting the previous install.
I should have done this in the first place, and read the warning signs from the fact that the update program was crashing. I ignored that and updated manually only to get weird errors with firefox and Thunderbird not starting as their startup scripts were in the wrong place and Openoffice crashing when browsing for templates.
The install process was soooooooo easy. It makes installing windows look hard. The hardest part was setting up the partitions but for a newbie there is even a guided process! What I thought was great was the migrate documents and settings from windows wizard. That was smart. I have been saying for a while something like this should exist.
Most of settings returned as they are stored in my home directory on other drive. What was great was the fact that Ubuntu said "Do you want to enable restricted drivers?" for my nVidia card. No fiddling with the settings using the terminal all automatic. Very nice. Very slick. It even detected my Wireless card and offered to use drivers for that! I had forgotten I had that card in this machine. 
The only thing I had to do manually was edit the mpd settings and manually recreate the music database.
I reinstalled, Sonata, MPD, K3B and Thunderbird using Synaptic and that was a breeze.
Ubuntu has come a long way since I first started using it about 2 years ago.
You can even try it using the live CD now!