The Loopzilla

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2011-06-18T07:19:00.001Z

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Eight Wheels Bad!

2010-09-30T09:06:00.001Z

Eight wheeled buggy for infants are now common. They clog up our buses and pavements.

Babies are better off in a sling!

Save The Village Hall!

2010-09-06T16:00:00.003Z

Sign the Petition

Stop Hammersmith & Fulham selling community buildings!

Paralympic Games.

2010-05-20T08:35:00.002Z

What does paralympic mean?

The present formal explanation for the name "Paralympic" is that it derives from the Greek preposition παρά, pará ("beside" or "alongside") and thus refers to a competition held in parallel with the Olympic Games. The Summer Games of 1988 held in Seoul was the first time the term "Paralympic" came into official use... from Wikipedia

However, the Olympic Games are already run in parallel, since men and women compete in separate events

KostKutter

2010-02-27T20:32:00.002Z

Why is that nobody can understand...

the landline bill

the mobile phone bill

the gas bill

the electricity bill???

Answer: there are gnomes with computers, spreadsheets and models in the gas company, the electricity company, the phone company who want to maximize profits, and devise very complicated "packages"...

Go fish.

Leftovers

2010-02-24T15:41:00.012Z

Leftovers
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

After we legally scrapped the Ford at DROF (now gone underneath the Olympic Park in East London) we had to walk. So we walked to the allotment along the Limehouse Cut, and we walked to the shops.

We now shop only what we can carry home. This means we shop more often (no weekly shop for us). Since I have the time, I often shop for food just for the day. This means that we tend to waste less... and of course food waste can go on the allotment compost heap.

If food is left, leftovers are good for the next day or the day after. Many dishes get better the second time around, notably fassoulada... or veggie curry, which may have new secrets to reveal.

The recipes for the two curries - aloo gobi and chana masala - are from Andy Murray's book The Heretic's Guide to Vegan Cookery which has sold out of the first edition and is now fetching high prices!

The Spending Year.

2010-02-15T20:46:00.005Z

After Christmas (and New Year), spending in the UK might focus on the family holidays (in January). Then in February, as well as any spending for Chinese New Year, we are encouraged to spend on Valentine's Day. After a short break, comes Mothering Sunday and Easter. Things cool off for a few months, since we need to spend out on the previously booked Summer holidays. After school restarts, wait for Halloween, just in time for the run up to Christmas....

Did somebody plan the year with spending opportunities so carefully spaced out?

NHS Doublespeak

2010-01-06T15:35:00.001Z

NHS Doublespeak
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

Two leaflets from two local GP practices. Are the two related? I think we should be told!

The interface with Facebook

2009-12-30T21:15:00.003Z

Take a look at http://m.facebook.com/ and compare with http://www.facebook.com/

I started to use http://m.facebook.com/ in a moment of idleness today, and was quickly connected to a link (off a friends page) of great interest. The view from http://m.facebook.com/ is the Facebook of a year or two ago, and has all that is required to connect, and no more. I have lost contact with at least one aspect of the my friends' Facebook activity modes with the current interface (at http://www.facebook.com/).

Progress? Not really, just plain feature bloat.

Lager as a metaphor

2009-06-19T11:48:00.005Z

Lager ...is one of two main types of beer; the other being ale."

Real Ale in the UK is still a minority drink, compared to lager. The bland taste, the almost freezing temperature and the standard quality are tempting; complex tastes, room temperature and variable quality are avoided by the majority. In the past, only ales would have been available, and mild was drunk since it was low in alcohol.

Don't get me wrong. I drink lager as as well as real ale. In Spain I was surprised to find the "Alahambra" brewery, and drank the beer in Granada, a few steps from the brewery.

What bugs me is the uniformity and the standards. Our culture is now very homogeneous. We like the look, so that singer has to be an attractive young woman to succeed. Everything, from politics to shampoo has to fit the brief, whittled out of focus groups.

Your face has to fit. And if doesn't, then you are in trouble....

In Farenheit 451 the state is trying very hard to make all people the same, to reduce variance. Books are likely to make people think, and be different. Hence, all books are burnt.

A Hypertext Journal

2009-03-24T14:20:00.010Z

'A Hypertext Journal' - the WWW as Live Interface by Nina Pope & Karen J Guthrie was a prescient piece of work by two artists who travelled to the highlands of Scotland, "... equipped with laptops, modems a digital camera, video and audio equipment."

The journals of Dr Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, who travelled round Scotland in 1773, formed a kernel of an idea.

The interactions, the record of the journey and the "blogging" of everything were novel in 1996. In 2009, Dopplr, Twitter and FLICKR perform the same tasks. To take part, Internet Relay Chat sessions were arranged (in other words, a series of "tweets" were exchanged)....

As Peter Ride points out "...through their open dialogue with the artists, the audience become participants, there is no presumption that the audience is in a position to control the direction of the project."

The Web, version 2.0, already existed in 1996, well at least Somewhere....

Den Tod erlebt man nicht.

2009-02-18T18:14:00.003Z


"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark... 
                     near the Tannhauser gate.
All those moments will be lost in time....
......Like tears in rain. Time to die"

Roy Batty in Blade Runner

Did Roy Batty know the moment of his death?

A new shorthand for blip.fm

2009-02-09T21:57:00.003Z

A new shorthand has emerged at blip.fm

When a user re-blips another (say user Fred112233) then a user can add the following: de @Fred112233 where the "de" means from that user. It also means thanks!

Numbers, in Fives and a one-time pad.

2009-02-08T10:17:00.006Z

Just been listening to a few minutes of recordings from The Conet Project....

The groups of five numbers are messages to spies in the field, transmitted on short wave frequencies. The message could only be revealed using the agent's one-time pad.

And hence are now meaningless....

Russell Brand

2008-12-05T21:42:00.001Z

Russell
Originally uploaded by Russell Brand on BBC Radio 2.

A former Radio 2 presenter....

Tags for a new generation.

2008-12-01T21:16:00.002Z

Been this thinking about tags again. Hashtags are beginning, like other tag aggregation tools, to show trends. A tag language may evolve, along the lines of Dynamically defined tags for annotation at the description level

Fifteen minutes of fame

2008-10-05T18:15:00.001Z

"In the future, everyone will edit Wikipedia for 15 minutes."

Guerrilla bonsai

2008-10-01T13:09:00.002Z

Guerrilla bonsai
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

Guerrilla bonsai is a new form that I hope will develop. After finding a tree that has been chopped down almost to the base, train the tree to a new size and shape... in the wild!

The Web is Agreement

2008-09-14T09:34:00.002Z

The Web is Agreement
Originally uploaded by psd.

Open will grow, closed will shrink and die. Apply to the domain of your choice!?!?

Image Manipulation?

2008-08-12T09:44:00.001Z

Wanna improve those tired images? Just GIMP the photos! Don't PIMP them, just GIMP them!

OpenID servers all over!

2008-07-16T12:12:00.003Z

OpenID servers
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

This image is from a signup page for claimid.com. Many well known websites are offering an OpenID to their user. It may be while before this catches on...

Media, Technology and Society

2008-06-10T12:25:00.004Z

Media, Technology and Society
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

A very great book. This academic tome casts a different light on technology. We get the technology when we are ready for it. Winston uses the term supervening social necessity and shows that invention only make their mark when society (and industry) is ready for the concepts.

In art, what is the supervening social necessity for Damien Hirst and his animals in formaldehyde, or Tracy Emin's bed?

The Chinese Room

2008-05-27T12:47:00.002Z

Searle's Chinese Room argument is an attempt to show that a mind cannot be found inside a machine.

Searle asks his audience to imagine that many years from now, people have constructed a computer that behaves as if it understands Chinese. The computer takes Chinese characters as input and, following a program, produces other Chinese characters, which it presents as output. Suppose that this computer performs this task so convincingly that it easily passes the Turing test. In other words, it convinces a human Chinese speaker that the program is itself a human Chinese speaker. All the questions the human asks are responded to appropriately, such that the Chinese speaker is convinced that he or she is talking to another Chinese-speaking human. The conclusion that proponents of artificial intelligence would like to draw is that the computer understands Chinese, just as the person does.

Extract from Wikipedia

My response to this rests with the fact that this is a gedanken or "thought experiment". If you could do this "for real" then room "understands Chinese" just as much as any speaker, native or not. If this experiment were done today, then the lag would be a clue. The other issue is where is the "intellgence"? Well, it is the room, that is the person or computer programme inside actually answering the questions. The translation is a red herring!

Gonzogeography

2008-05-16T22:01:00.007Z

Psychogeography
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

I was on a 25 bus in the City of London, and seemed to me that "gonzogeography" was a term in search of some meaning, much like "psychogeography". I was then mindful of "The Meaning of Liff", where the names on signposts are given a use, to stop them loafing around doing very little.

The talk given by Merlin Coverley (the author) at Housmans Booksellers this week was interesting, and it left me wanting more. What was "psychogeography" as distinct from geography (as understood today)? I guess I had to catch up with some reading and the events of 1968 and the "Situationists International".

But there seemed to be plenty of research material on the 25 bus, a bendy bus that snakes from Oxford Circus to the wilds of Ilford, Essex.

Walking as an art form. That sounded the business. What could we learn from taking steps? Get in the back of the bendy bus, and you realise that it bends left and right, up and down. The ride is raucous. Some call it the free bus, since you have to swipe an Oystercard or a ticket before you board. Inspectors descend like a host of locusts, but you might just be able to swipe before they get to you... ooops I have just had my wallet stolen!

Distributed Research

2008-05-09T08:45:00.004Z

Can we distribute research and innovation? What does Wikipedia do, in terms of stimulating a group of people who have never met (in most cases) to work on an article as part of an online encyclopedia?

Does the semantic web (promise) bring a new set of links? Or less? What can the Internet, the web and computers do for us?

The most famous distributed research project is the Earth, a planet that was set to decide on the question. A previous project had found that the answer was 42, but that was no enough! Somehow we had to find the question that matched the answer. The program ran for millions of years, when, in Rickmansworth, the question had been divined, only to me lost when the Earth was destroyed to make way for a bypass.

We are lost in time and space and meaning. It is only the presence of mind that keeps us locked into the matrix....

The Raw and The Cooked

2008-04-25T21:12:00.003Z

I have been thinking again about the large and the small. Quantum mechanics and general relativity, statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, the Board of Directors and the workforce.

Schrödinger's cat? Yeah, an event at the quantum level linked to the life of a cat. So what? The observation of the wave function means the cat lives or dies. Life is cheap. Can we decide that the cat is dead without more than a glance inside a box anyway?

The search for a theory of everything is the search for a quantum theory of all the fundamental forces of nature. Is this possible? Has the creator censored the small print?

St. George's Day Wednesday 23rd April

2008-04-23T12:32:00.001Z

St. George's Day Wednesday 23rd April
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

Celebrate!

Bank to Monument and back again

2008-04-19T08:13:00.001Z

Bank vs. Monument
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

The closure of interchange between the lines at Bank and Monument station was not as clear this leaflet suggested. You can still go between the Monument platforms and Bank (Northern Line) via the orginal "escalator" connection. The new tunnel to the DLR level has been closed.

Another interchange that is still possible without going outside the stations to ground level is between the Northern Line and the Central Line. Some routes have become one way, but still possible if you ignore the signs.

Maybe this will change before August 2009?

Public Lighting Fault

2008-03-19T14:41:00.001Z

Public Lighting Fault
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

Public Lighting Fault
This unit is not working due to an electricity supply fault. It has been reported to the local electricity supply company for repair.

Several lights are out in Lindfield Street, and have been for many months, perhaps even a year now.

The building behind used to be a school, the Blessed John Roche. That has been empty for a few years.

Lansbury Estate, Poplar, East London.

St. Patrick's Day has been moved!

2008-03-17T07:58:00.004Z

St. Patrick's Day
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

The day was moved to 15th March and that is offical!!

Why? Surely the saint's day would be fine if it took place in Holy Week? Or was the attendant celebrations in the mind of the Bishops? Perhaps wearing a large Guinness hat is not fitting attire for Holy Week?

Language

2008-02-24T20:37:00.001Z

The human race is endowed with language; Chomsky, Pinker and the rest revel in the novelty. Humans are unique in their ability to construct language at a rate of knots!

The smokers' lounge

2008-02-24T11:04:00.001Z

The Duke of Wellington
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

The outdoor smokers' lounge at the Duke of Wellington

Shepherd's Bush Station is Closed

2008-02-24T09:42:00.003Z

Wood Lane
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

There are plenty of signs in Wood Lane to let you know that Shepherd's Bush Station (on the Central Line) is closed. I am not sure who will benefit. Most pedestrians will now be aware, and motorists will hardly care. The buses that drive past could have some passengers on the top deck who remain blissfully unaware.

Is this just some weird public relations sop from Westfield, who paid TfL to shut down the station for eight months to accelerate the project?

Tick the Boxes

2008-01-21T09:13:00.001Z

Tick the Boxes
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

Enjoy a Sunday at a J D Wethersoon's pub by first ticking the boxes... and don't forget your table number.

J D Wetherspoon have so many rules, and you must obey. Shame that they often fail to obey the law of land by serving short pints.

The Sun and Doves.

2008-01-17T23:23:00.001Z

DSCF3299
Originally uploaded by a shadow of my future self.

To be recommended!

Sun and Doves, 61-63 Coldharbour Lane, Denmark Hill SE5 9NS

Abbey (Link) ATM

2008-01-17T23:01:00.001Z

Abbey (Link) ATM
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

It goes much deeper than that. This is the ATM that used to be part of my local Abbey branch, but the Abbey moved out. This is now a "credit union" and since it is not a full Abbey Branch, the ATM does not accept deposits.

Abbey opened a big office in Canary Wharf which I use most of the time.

A few months before Abbey left the building, I opened an Abbey Business Banking account, which is run through the ATM or by post (no transactions allowed at the counter). When I opened the account, I was happy in the knowledge that this ATM was very close to my home, and hence deposits and other transactions could be made easily.

And this was long before Abbey National was taken over by Santander

Steve Walsh

2008-01-09T21:50:00.000Z

bumtbh said "This video makes me proud to be human."

And I tend to agree...

Semantics

2008-01-04T14:44:00.001Z

Originally uploaded by Robert Brook.

How rare!

Benjys and Latency

2008-01-02T12:06:00.001Z

Benjys
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

I lament the end of the Benjys franchise. Doing a little research on the web a for Wikipedia article, and the Dead Cafe Society wiki, I easily discovered that the address of this branch was 38, Beak Street, London, W1F 9RG.

The branch has been closed since February 2007 yet almost a year later, the address is listed on several websites.

Perhaps I should check back in 12 months time to see if those pages have been updated?

Image taken 31st December 2007.

Mudbath

2007-12-19T10:04:00.001Z

Mudbath
Originally uploaded by Marj Joly.

Another damp day. But since this weekend it has been dry!

Pudding Mill River, May 2007

2007-12-12T09:15:00.001Z

Pudding Mill River, May 2007
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

This view has now disappeared. The Pudding Mill River was filled in as part of the construction of the London 2012 Olympics.

Pause

2007-11-19T23:42:00.000Z

I have been listening to Led Zeppelin (Presence, "For Your Life") and the pauses in the soundscape. It appears that the gaps between the sounds of John Bohnham's fine drumwork are often much more important the actual noise of a stick on a skin.

John Cage did try to alert us to the power of the pause, but nearly five minutes of silence was probably too much, with or without a piano.

I have also been listening to Cage's prose, and marvel at his mastery of words. Cage had taken an interest in Zen and the Tao, using the "I Ching" for composition.

Nike ID, No ID

2007-11-06T09:22:00.001Z

Nike ID
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

This is an exquisite example of the false choices given to modern consumers. The colours of shoe design can chosen onlarge touch sensitive displays in the Nike shop at Oxford Circus. Or online: here

The Nike symbol is called a "swoosh". Go figure. I thought it was a classical reference.

Smoke and Mirrors

2007-10-24T21:38:00.000Z

As we move in being at home with Web 2.0, why do the cracks appear? FLCKR has the nerve to add this to all the page of all the images on the site!

.... meta name="description" content="Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos to the world, securely and privately show photos to your friends and family, or blog the photos you take with a cameraphone."

No chance that that they could take the name or descripton of the image? Too hard?

Toilets

2007-08-19T20:45:00.001Z

Toilets
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

I take it all back. My local boozer smells of toilets. Men's toilets. Bring back smoke?

A sober tale

2007-08-14T22:11:00.001Z

Corner Shop
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

This is a former pub, or a former off licence. Or could it be both? A wonderful place to marvel at times past, at the slow pace of life.

A tale of two off licences

2007-07-28T20:55:00.001Z

Open All Hours
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

A tale of two off licences. My local off licence, with the affection name "Open All Hours" has now closed. They were never much for actual staying open advertised hours. In fact, at 40 minutes before the evening closing time, they had pulled the shutters down. One Sunday afternoon, I ran into one of the staff who had decided not to show for work, saying that he couldn't be arsed.... and he was checking to see if anybody had opened up instead.

When challenged, staff report that they had to go home to eat. Fair enough. I was on my way home from work, I had not eaten, and I wished to pick up a few beers for the evening.

The other off licence was the branch of Oddbins at Canary Wharf (on the ground level of the DLR station concourse). Strange place Oddbins. I always get the feeling that I am not of the correct class to enter and buy some beer. Much like the first off licence, you get the feeling that you are doing them a big favour, so you had be good.

So, they have both gone. Call me old school, but I like service, a smile, conversation, a cheery goodbye, and stick to the advertised opening hours, and don't expect me to genuflect.

Outputs

2007-06-22T11:16:00.000Z

I don't blog a great deal: that much is obvious! But I like to invite people to groups, so I either create the groups, or invite people to existing groups.

This week, three people have told me to stop sending them invites to groups, that is on Facebook, FLICKR or both.

I guess I don't understand the online community yet.

What was once a constant is now a parameter.

2007-05-13T21:01:00.001Z

Variable Speed Limit - STARTS
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

Can you believe this?

Where is your locale

2007-04-30T21:55:00.000Z

My friend Andrew Black asked a question which has been on my mind for years, on the back burner.

He asked me about locality: how do you localize services such as

http://www.twitter.com/

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/

etc etc?

My answer is multicast groups, but multicast has problems of its own:-)

FLICKR does this quite well, with tags and groups, methinks... but that is with a lot of work.

By locale, I don't mean just geographic locality. Social networks have notions of who is in your neighbourhood, who likes what you like.... don't they?

And best wishes for Beltane.

Gordo

Warning! Armed Robbery

2007-04-30T19:29:00.001Z

Warning! Armed Robbery
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

Warning! Armed Robbery

Gang Operating Here

Five Black Teenagers

16 - 19 - Average Height

One wears a white base-ball cap

They carry knives and knuckle dusters. They are stealing phones, bicycles and money

Warning! Armed Robbery

Gang Operating Here

Golden Surfer

2007-04-30T18:50:00.001Z

Golden Surfer
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

The Golden Surfer surfaces....

Spaghetti with courgettes

2007-04-21T08:39:00.001Z

Spaghetti with courgettes
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

A simple recipe. Cook the courgettes first, at the same time fry garlic and onions in olive oil. Add herbs, tomato paste and a tin of tomatoes, and the courgettes. Slow down the cooking speed. Cook the spaghetti.

Pink Martini, Alice Russell and Ysabella Brave

2007-04-16T11:23:00.000Z

Pink Martini, Alice Russell and
Ysabella Brave are all very interesting. Alice Russell can be heard in the Quantic Soul Orchestra as well as a solo performer.

Change in tastes?

The Pips

2007-04-02T09:01:00.000Z

The pips on Radio 4 via DAB or the Internet streaming are more than a second late. The new time service (TIM or 123) is slightly delayed on your cell phone, but OK on your land line. This is a mark of the progress in the 21st Century.

Small speakers in mobile phones are popular with the youth of today and declining sound quality (iTunes will degrade your CDs to a lower quality when you import them).

Analogue good, digital bad?

Ending the Tyranny of the Menu

2007-03-17T21:25:00.000Z

FLICKR has menus. AJAX has given us more menus, that take longer to unfold. Can we please stop this madness?

The Robert Elms Chat Room - whither community?

2007-03-09T21:51:00.000Z

The Robert Elms Chatroom is long gone, but the community continues. Wigan, Fordo and other still contribute to the daily Robery Elms programme on BBC Radio London, as if the chat room had not been removed. At a time when interactivity is still sought at every turn by Auntie, why not bring back the quality?

The Prescott Lock

2007-02-23T08:13:00.000Z

British Waterways have started work on the lock on the Prescott Channel. A joint project with several other agencies, includin the Olympic Delivery Agency.

Check out the website

New domain...

2007-02-20T12:03:00.001Z

The LoopZilla Blogz Here.... and lives here

New domain...

2007-02-20T12:03:00.000Z

The LoopZilla Blogz Here.... and lives here

On the river bed

2007-02-05T09:13:00.001Z

On the river bed
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

The men who collect the lugworms (bait) will only be there for a few more months. The new lock and flood control structures mean that the area where they sift the silt will be a canal (probably by the begnning of 2008).

They may be able to work the river bed behind the House Mill, but this depends on several other factors.

All the narrow boats are to be moved as well. British Waterways are responsible for the moorings, and we assume that theses boats will be relocated.

Crocus and chard

2007-02-05T09:06:00.001Z

Crocus and chard
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

We are moving to a new plot on the allotments. Louise and I were given a new plot at a committee meeting on Friday, and on Sunday we took the shed down and moved it along with most of the contents to our new plot, Number 3. We have left Number 28 behind, which Louise has had since 1993. Half of the plot 28 was "laid to lawn" as the estate agents say, and it was only during the past 12 months that we has started to turn the lawn into vegetable plots. The lawn was built for tai chi, but over the years it was used very little for tai chi. The main purpose was to reduce the work needed to keep up a whole plot. The new plot is slightly bigger and we hope to be in full production very soon!

Down!

2007-02-04T09:38:00.000Z

Both FLICKR and twitter.com are down!

Help!!

The Tag Clouds

2007-02-01T13:18:00.000Z

I see that tags are news in 2007.

I wrote a short paper on tags in 1992 when I was at UCL CS.

G. C. Joly, "Dynamically Defined Tags for Annotation at the Description Level", Research note RN/92/78 UCL, Department of Computer Science, University College, London, November 1992.

The paper describes a search engine for use in the creation of object oriented software, in languages similar to C++ or C#, but the ideas could be extended. Tags are common now, with FLICKR using tags for grouping and sorting images and http://del.icio.us/ for social bookmarking.

The Renewability Exhibition

2007-01-29T11:48:00.001Z

Action Men
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

Spent all day yesterday at the Renewability Exhibit. Tim did a fine impersonation of Action Man. The exhibit continues until Sunday February 11th 2007.

The Renewability Exhibition Art Pavilion at Mile End Park, Ashcroft Rd off Grove Road, near Mile End Tube. Buses that pass the door 277, D6,339 with 323 25, D7 nearby) from 24th January to 11th February 2007. The Art Pavillion is a similar to
the ecology pavillion in Mile End Park, both being set back from the road towards the canal. The Art Pavillion is just South of the railway lines.

Free entry

Map

Renewability Haiku Hike

Vin de table

2007-01-21T20:05:00.001Z

Vin de table
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

Sainsbury's sell 150 cl of red wine in a plastic bottle.

The price in £4.99, which is 5 quid in real money.... this has changed my life.

Storms sweep all of the UK

2007-01-21T14:17:00.000Z

Stormy weather hit all of the UK on Thursday 18th January, 2007. A weather warning was issued on the day before for all parts of the UK. There were fatalities, a school in Hertfordshire had the roof blown off and transport was chaotic.

More at NowPublic.com

News on Twitter

2007-01-20T10:42:00.000Z

Twitter is way too slow.... I said it would not scale.

Time stamp

2007-01-14T14:36:00.000Z

Just changed to UTC...

Work Space

2007-01-14T12:08:00.001Z

Work Space
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

The spring cleaning continues today. Since we are having Spring weather in January, Spring cleaning makes obvious sense! And what will we do in the months of March, April and May?

BBC News on twitter

2007-01-12T08:30:00.001Z

BBC News on twitter
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

BBC News on twitter.

Bartlett Park

2007-01-08T09:37:00.001Z

Bartlett Park
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

Cut and altered with the GIMP. My local park....

Carnage

2007-01-07T11:13:00.001Z

Carnage
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

There is a penalty if you do not validate your Carnet ticket.

But you cannot use your Carnet ticket on the DLR (Docklands Light Railway).

This is Bank Station, one of the interchanges between the Tube system and the DLR system.

G5

2007-01-07T11:01:00.001Z

G5
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

My other Mac is a MacBook (Intel).

Work Space

2007-01-07T10:34:00.001Z

Work Space
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

Specially tidy for the start of 2007!

The Networking Club and the Pembury Tavern

2007-01-05T21:59:00.001Z

The Networking Club
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

The Networking Club grew from one meeting a year up to 2004, to about one meeting every two months or so. The Pembury Tavern is the spiritual home of the Networking Club. It is a non smoking pub with excellent beer, food and all the bar and board games you can handle.

The Pembury Tavern opened on 6th January 2006, so we wish them a happy birthday! The opening party was on February 18th 2006, and in 2007 this coincides with Chinese New Year.

Auspicous!

Fried food

2007-01-05T09:56:00.001Z

Fried food
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

It is that time again....

DLR Fodder

2007-01-02T10:41:00.005Z

DLR Fodder
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

Phase 2

DLR Fodder

2007-01-02T10:41:00.003Z

DLR Fodder
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

Phase 1

Pyster

2007-01-02T10:41:00.001Z

Pyster
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

Touch the Reader!!

Touch the Reader!!

Touch the Reader!!

Bank Station

2007-01-02T10:40:00.001Z

Bank Station
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

There is another one behind!!

Pyster card usage

2007-01-02T10:38:00.001Z

Pyster card usage
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

The Automatic Traveller

2007-01-02T10:29:00.000Z

The Docklands Light Railway in East London is a modern marvel. Trains stop at the same place, to an inch, on the platforms. Hence, passengers have learnt where to stand to gain access to the trains. Hence, when the doors open, passengers trying to get off are met with a plug of people, blocking the exit. Then, as you try to get on, some of the wedge of people don't move. Why? Well they are waiting for a later train, to a different destination. But they want to maintain their position in the "queue".

Fritz Laing's Metropolis (1927) has been realised in 2007. Man and machine, man becomes machine, and we all line up!

DLR is driven by machines. Computers on the train and computers in the central control. The doors are shut by "Train Captains", who have little regard for late running passengers. At Bank station, where trains start their journey, there are often heated words when the doors at shut in people's faces. The staff say "we have to maintain the timetable". Odd that. I have often seen DLR staff hold doors open when it suits them...

DLR is part of Transport for London. As such, it can accept Oystercards as a means of payment for travel. "Oystercard Pre pay" (also know as "pay as you go") and Travelcards can both exist an an Oystercard's ARPHID to be read by men and machines. But the DLR is an open platform system, so you have to remember to "touch in and touch out". Great. Just don't forget!

And aren't all tickets "pre pay"?

But if you go to a DLR start a journey, travel to a destination, and come back within two hours you may find yourself with a penalty fare, since the "touch out" at the destination is a registered as a "touch in", and hence you outward journey is not complete. Hence incomplete. Hence a fine, or a "full cash fare" deduction from your card.

Tom Thumb's Arch in Bow

2006-12-11T23:17:00.001Z

GWL
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

Sausages and mash

2006-12-11T22:57:00.001Z

Sausages and mash
Originally uploaded by LoopZilla.

With leeks and peas, and a little white sauce.

This be the Verse

2006-12-11T22:51:00.000Z

A blog
A head space formed
In bytes