Ireland keep the pint

I read this article today that I had no idea about until now - which is one of the straight off benefits in my change of tact...

I can't imagine not ordering by the pint. Especially when the body that enforces tries to tell me I can only drink so many "Units" of alcohol! How lazy to define a unit of measurement and just call it a "Unit"...

Change of tact

I've been using Google Reader for a good few years now, and find it very useful but also often find it overbearing. I see a blog or RSS feed that talks about an interesting topic, and I subscribe. I've changed my tact on this, instead of subscribing to the feed, I'll subscribe to the topic. So, I define a term, and subscribe to be told about anything containing this term.

This can be done on a lot of sites:

• Google News
• Google Blog Search
• Wordpress Search
• Twitter

I'm sure there are others - and I'll probably end up oversubscribing in that fashion, which will prompt another change of tact.

Of course, there are feeds that I'll keep direct - friend's blogs, blogs that are targetedly about specific subjects, etc...

Ticket Text?

Last night I went to see Frankie Boyle live in Hammersmith which., by the way, was an awful example of someone who delivers good lines moving to a full comedy show but instead of developing an act of in-depth material just delivers some kind of "best-of" lines that most people have heard before. A sorry, sorry state of affairs.

Anyway, so I booked the tickets using Ticket-Text. They sent me the ticket by email and by text, as promised. The website says:

SAVE.. no postage and packaging fees.
This is true. There are no postage and packaging fees. There were booking fees, but that's to be expected.

EASY.. no waiting no queuing no hassle
Now, ignoring the lack of punctuation in this line, we'll take this one item at a time.

• No waiting: There certainly wasn't any waiting for the tickets. They arrived practically straight away, but since there was only one scanning machine at the venue, I had to wait for it to use. It then printed out a token for me to take to the door. If I had a normal ticket, I could go straight to the door.
  
• No queuing: Not only was there only one machine, but the scanning function was briken on it. So each person had to enter the 10+ digit number for each individual ticket. making a very boring queuing and number reciting process
• No hassle: given the above, this definitely proved not to be the case.

Working around London: Finding WiFi

I consider myself a fairly flexible worker, but when I moved house recently I found myself with a lot of reasons for home working (waiting for furniture/applicance deliveries) but no capability (internet not yet installed).

I wandered the streets of Turnpike Lane and Wood Green looking for the type of leisurely café that I would easily find in Islington and the like, but to no avail. To make it worse - because I need to work from VPN, and it's mandated by my work laptop - I can't use any wifi that forces you into a walled garden at the beginning, whether it's to make you pay for credit, or to say "Welcome to <insert provider here> Wireless", it just messes things up for me.

In the end, I sat on the corner of a street thanking the lords for people who don't WPA their connection. I also went all the way to Crouch End, where the wireless is just as rare. I did find a pub (typical) called "The Queen", which was a gift. Free wifi, good food and coffee.

Anyway, what brings me back to this is the fact that Time Out have an article on central London locations that have free WiFi.

Working around London: Finding WiFi

I consider myself a fairly flecible worker, but when I moved house recently I found myself with a lot of reasons for home working (waiting for furniture/applicance deliveries) but no capability (internet not yet installed).

I wandered the streets of Turnpike Lane and Wood Green looking for the type of leisurely café that I would easily find in Islington and the like, but to no avail. To make it worse - because I need to work from VPN, and it's mandated by my work laptop - I can't use any wifi that forces you into a walled garden at the beginning, whether it's to make you pay for credit, or to say "Welcome to <insert provider here> Wireless", it just messes things up for me.

In the end, I sat on the corner of a street thanking the lords for people who don't WPA their connection. I also went all the way to Crouch End, where the wireless is just as rare. I did find a pub (typical) called "The Queen", which was a gift. Free wifi, good food and coffee.

Anyway, what brings me back to this is the fact that Time Out have an article on central London locations that have free WiFi.

Fitfest: Cycling in the cold

Bloody hell it was cold this morning. I'll have to see if I can pick up anything to keep my head warm...though my headphones help: I've recently ressurected my bluetooth headphones for my phone. They're great for hearing your phone ring when you're on your bike, and for listening to some radio - or, if you're me, the Adam & Joe podcast. I always think it needs at least 3 listens to get everything that's happening.

I also started using the Nokia Sports Tracker for my cycle journeys. It measures everything by GPS, so while maybe not entirely accurate, it's close enough. My stats for today's journey were:

Duration:43:52hrs
Distance: 12.44km
Avg Speed: 17km/h
Max Speed: 42km/h

I doubt if I get up 42km/h, but maybe I do for very short periods of time. I need to look at exporting the data to get a further analysis.

I also swam this morning, but not much since I had a 9am meeting. So I get about 10 lengths in before I had to leave.

The Key to Technology

In every house I've lived in, and I've moved around London a lot no far - not to mention my time in Dublin, there has always been a knack to using one or other of the house keys. It's always "lift it a bit" or "pull th door [towards/away from] you", "wiggle it" etc. and my new place is no different.

It's really the same in every part of life, from the simplest of solution to the most complex (attempting to make life simple) of technology, the user still needs time to get to know the quirks and personality of the technology.

You can claim a lot of devices are intuitive to use, but there are always unexpected "features" that make you think "huh, why did they make it like that". I'm finding this out more and more.

His Ancestral Home

I was very happy, for once, to be woken up early to the news that Barack Obama had won the presidential election, and spent the morning - including my cycle to work - listening to the radio and not getting bored, for once, of hearing the same news over again.

One report on Radio 4 came from Barack's paternal ancestral home of Kenya where the town has erupted in joy, going so far as declaring the day  national holiday.

Now for his maternal links. Everyone knows that we all descend from the Irish, maybe born there (like me), or having ancestors "in the Moneygall area of County Offaly more than 150 years ago", like Barack.

The speculation goes on to see Oprah Winfrey as either the London or Dublin US ambassador...

Overall, though, a very good day.

Grow your greens!

Having just moved into my first ever london gaff wit ha back garden, I'm itching to dig it up - especially since it has a square of public land at the back of it that no-one can access but me. Luckily, I've been given the go-ahead by the mayor!

back pain

So I woke up this morning with grand plans of going swimming today, until I stretched and heard something creak. Back pain quickly ensued and I'm now just getting over it. Not only that, but my driving instructor cancelled on me! So I'm left with a pointless morning of no online access home working. Into work I go!

btw, MS Groove is a fantastic tool for allowing you access to those shared drive files (or even SharePoint) while isolated from a connection or on the move.

So, after venturing into Crouch End and meeting friends randomly on the street, found The Queens, who are friendly and love to give free internet!

Twittering @LastMinute_com

I've only recently started twittering, mostly because I couldn't find an application that I can comfortably use. I now use twitterfox, because it's sits right inside my browser, which is about the only thing that I can install on my work PC.

I have found that it works across many folds:

1. it helps me keep in touch with savvy friends who also twitter. Conversations are quick, open and easy
2. I can follow small pieces of news eg. Number 10, R4's Today program
3. Organisations trawl twitter for people discussing their product eg, Nokia E71. (I was quite impressed when I first twittered about it and they started following me)

The third point is the most important one I think. Unlike facebook status, twitter is searchable, and those searches can be subscribed to.

Anyway, my story is this:

For some reason, every time I visit a lastminute.com page - no matter what page it is - I get a 404 error. So I decided to twitter it quite casually. My friend replied saying that, if they're clever, they'll be listening. They were indeed clever...but not that clever.

Seeming to disregard my problem, they said "you can contact us on the lastminute.com website". Which I can't. Even if I get a "contact us" link, I go straight to a 404 error. So, good support, but no help really...

Overall, though, loving twitter.

Lazy days?

So the reboot of by training hasn't gone too well, mostly due to moving house - so I've redeveloped my time to start next week. I'm still cycling in and out of work - but I'm inspired by "slow cycling". I find that taking my time, waiting patiently etc costs me no more than 5 minutes! And a hell of a lot less stress!

My other initiative is more to do with my working patterns. My IT kit for work is pretty impressive. I have my own small laptop that can connect from anywhere with VPN (anywhere with a wireless network that is) to get my email, instant messenger and shared resources. My phone system can be logged into from my mobile, and I can sync anything and work offline for those times I can't get a connection!

Overall, this means, I can carry my office around with me, and my office can be any flat space where I can open my laptop and connect.

I working to increase my flexibility to physically being in the office when I need to be, IE arriving in time for my first meeting and leaving after my last. After that, I can work at home, in a cafe, anywhere that I need to - as long as whatever I need to do gets done.

To do this, I need my managers agreement, which I have for the next 2 weeks, and I need to keep them updated and assured that I'm actually working. So it involves more accountability I think - which isn't a bad thing.

This just in: Loud Music Damages Hearing!

"A new EU study has found that listening to personal music players at a
high volume, over a long period, can permanently damage hearing."

I read this on british news yesterday, but today it's Ireland's turn to try to drill it home. It has to be the most obvious research there has been so far to date. It may be that the actual report shows something more detailed, in the rate of degradation of hearing, but we're not given that information...or even a link to the report.

The one-stop longer shortcut

I cycle most days, but can't guarantee to do it everyday. So I have to endure the overland from Dalston to Highbury and then the tube. Until now I've taken the Victoria to Warren St and then change to the Northern to Charing cross. Today I discovered something great:

If I stay on one more stop until Oxford Circus, I can simply cross the platform to the Bakerloo line, rather than trudging up and down escalators at Warren St.

This benefit is very short lived though, since I'm moving house in less than a month...

1st Swim & a reshuffle later

I posted earlier this morning about my 1st swim. I have to say, it was good. I've got a new routine to follow and, while I didn't get to finish it completely, it pushes me enough to feel slightly nauseaus afterwards. I need to pay more attention to what I get to eat in the morning though. The nausea lasted all the way to work this morning...

I also saw this morning that instead of the friendly Defra sign outside my building, there hung a makeshift sign for the newly created Department of Climate Change and Energy (or whatever order it's written). Yet to find out where we'll be moving yet - it's bound to be back to the Ergon/Nobel/Millbank complex, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It'd certainly make my job easier...

...and I'm back

About to leave the house for my first swim of the autumn. And first swim in about 2 months. Not going to be fun...

Web 2.0 hits home

Just the other morning, cycling to work, I was remembering the day when I found out what the name of my street was in its original Irish. I remember I was in primary school at the time and my teacher was going through all our addresses and translating them into Irish for us.

I grew up, after a few years in the suburbs of Mullingar (An Muileann gCearr), at the end of a mile long cul-de-sac called Keoltown. And today I saw that a new website has been launched in which you can search for any Irish town and it will return the original Irish name - in my home town's case: Baile Mhic Eoil.

Just like I remember it.

I could never be a secret agent

If I was ever recruited to work for the MIs, they'd soon realise it was the worst idea ever. I can't keep a secret. It's not my fault, it's just I give everything away...in my sleep. So, they'd have to recruit my girlfriend too.

A Bad Start

I have to hit the road for work very soon (as is usual), but as a quick update: things aren't going well.

Yesterday was meant to be my reintroduction to exercising but, due to a dodgy meal with visiting friends the night before, I spent most of the day walking back and forth from the bathroom...

Today, due to having to change back to my old rubbish phone after losing my phone on the cycle to Craggstock, I woke up at 7.30 completely unaided as my phone had turned itself off (Motorola fail to alarm of not turned on...and my old phone randomly turns itself off.

Overall, not a great start to the week. And I always think that if Morning is the most important part of the day to get right, Monday is the most important part of the week...

Duke Spirit: Free Tickets

Head on over to the Duke Spirit myspace for a chance to win free tickets to one of their upcoming concerts!

http://www.myspace.com/thedukespirit