F.lux - Automatic VDU brightness tool

Wow, it's all about links today, but I just have to share this one! ;) Check out this neat bit of (totally free) software - F.lux - it's basically a little toolbar app that automatically, and gently (if you check the "Slow 60m" check box during configuration) adjusts the brightness of your VDU depending on the time of day - it's location aware, so it knows when the sun is about to rise/set and will tweak the temperature accordingly, there is also a handy button to quickly disable it for an hour if you want to be doing something temperature critical (like photoshopping some pictures), it's supposed to be of great benefit when it comes to doing things like trying to go to sleep after extended periods staring at a monitor with the brightness turned all the way up (and let's be honest, when was the last time you actually manually adjusted the brightness on your VDU to account for environmental factors? It's only ever for battery life)...gotta be good for the environment too... ;)

vintagecomputing.com

Oh this is just brilliant...God Bless the internet for managing to surprise and delight me (almost) every single day...

If you are into this sort of thing, check out Vintage Computing... ;)

Finks Links #123

Friday again, time for Fink's Links number 123! Got some gooduns this week -

Lets start with what to do when "Free, please take" outside the house doesn't work...

The Earth at Night...(click the image as usual if it looks too small)...

Watch a bubble freeze...

Vancouver rising from the fog...

...(and following the theme) New York by night...(might need to click the hyperlink at the bottom if you can't see it)...

Urm...not quite sure what to think about this, but I can't *not* share - Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time... :0

Darth Vader, if he were *really* nasty...

Art from death row inmates final meals...

You would have to be insane...

BOOM! Headshot! Just love the little pause while she thinks..."I wonder if I can sue?"...

Because the Internet, that's why...

...and finally a rather (too) clever baby (no-one show Thomas)...!!!!

Enjoy the weekend! :)

Watching the UFC from the start (Part 1)...

I suppose I'd better start by explaining what the UFC is, well, was...and the best way to do that is to start with "Vale Tudo" (Portuguese which roughly translates as "Anything goes")...Set your wayback machines for the 1920's and destination to Brazil where a popular circus side-show attraction was to go and watch experts of various fighting forms compete in "no holds barred" combat, if you want to know more just click that link)...in Brazil it's been going on (in various shapes and sizes) ever since...It's ultimate evolution (the UFC) was born from the power of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, specifically the Gracie families style, who had developed a discipline which was, to put it mildly, rather good...so confident were they in their abilities that they regularly took all comers in Vele Tudo competition, eventually producing videos featuring martial arts masters (from various schools and disciplines) competing to determine which martial art was the best (this was in 1992)...

In 1993 money was found (via US Cable pay-per-view) inspired by the electrifying footage coming out of Brazil to stage some sort of US version, the Gracies were involved from the ground up (they had a school in California) and the UFC was born, a single tournament-style competition (later to be referred to as UFC #1) was commissioned and fighters who thought they were bad-asses and that their chosen martial art was unstoppable were recruited (on this occasion representing Boxing, Karate, Greco-Roman Wrestling, Kickboxing, Savate, Japanese Shootfighting, Sumo and Gracie Jiu-Jitsu) the idea being (as I already mentioned) to see if, say, a Sumo guy could just steamroller a Boxer, if Kickboxing was a superior style to Karate - a very interesting idea - and, as it turned out, quite a lot of people were very keen to know the answer (which was, at this stage anyway, a very firm -I don't care who you are, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu wins-) enough to guarantee that another show would follow (as it made plenty of money for the organisers) and as word spread, it just kept on gaining momentum...

These early tournaments were very violent affairs (even more so than you may imagine), there was no time limit, no rounds and there were no weight classes, Giant Sumo wrestlers could end up fighting tiny Karate black belts (frequently loosing), there were very few rules (basically no biting, no eye gouging) repeatedly hitting someone in the genitals was fine, as was axe-kicking a downed opponents head, blood could be covering both fighters but as long as no-one was knocked out or tapped themselves out the referee would just keep things going...it was also chaotic, as you can imagine, people were frequently injured (making way for "alternate" fighters, even in the final) and the most successful fighters would find themselves, exhausted and hurt, returning to the cage over and over again until the last man standing collapsed clutching his belt (and then everyone was carried off to hospital)...

The first 3 or 4 UFCs saw everyone go through an extremely sharp learning curve, hundreds of years of discipline and evolution were stripped away as unexpected weaknesses were suddenly and starkly revealed - shave your hair (or people will pull it), don't wear a Gi despite what your sensei told you (it gives virtually no tactical advantage and soaks up your sweat making you less slippery and therefore easier to submit), in fact whole fighting styles were shown to be completely ineffectual (American Ninjitsu=flashy nonsense which winds up getting you knocked out, Sumo=lumbering slowly into a broken nose) and some surprise winners (Greco-Roman Wrestling is almost as effective as Jiu-Jitsu) plus conditioning is king, it doesn't matter how high you can get your leg nor how quickly if you run out of steam after 5 minutes, once Japanese Shootfighting (a hybrid of Muay Thai and wrestling) managed to find a chink in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu's armour (in the shape of Ken Shamrock) everyone suddenly started to realise that in order to win at a game where any Martial Art was allowed - not only did you need extraordinary cardio-vascular fitness, you needed to be a "Well Rounded Fighter" - i.e. a master of more than one style - possessing good ground, good submissions and good stand up...

To be continued...

Facebook isn't secure - again?

...this time it's private pictures from the looks of things...(forewarned is forearmed and all that)...

Here is exactly how to hack into private facebook pictures using only your web browser...

Well done (again) Facebook, especially as CEO Mark Zuckerberg's own account got hacked overnight...it's all going so well! :(

Hope you don't have anything "sensitive" on your facebook profile (but then you knew that already, right)...? :S

I'll check it out properly later...

Update - it's not as bad as it first appeared, it only works if you have access to pictures from an album you *are* allowed to see from a mutual friend, and also it doesn't work on all of those pictures, just ones with "n" (which appear to be generally older albums), and it doesn't work on profile pictures either - it's still not very clever though...!

Surrey Street Light Improvements

We had this letter posted through the front door the other day (a little bit out of the blue) letting us know that all of Surrey's streetlights are being replaced with environmentally friendly "smart lamps"...interestingly, not only is our little part of Surrey the first part of the county to get them (the rest being rolled out gradually over the next five years), but it turns out that Surrey is the first part of Great Britain to do this...(the words "Guinea" and "Pig" can't help but plop uncomfortably into the worry-centre of my mind)...meh...

There are (admittedly) a lot of positives - All the lights will be (individually) linked to a central giant "dimmer switch" in Guildford, so rather than each light just switching itself off and on in good time for dusk (based on a mechanical timer), when sunset approaches (which obviously varies day-to-day throughout the year) Guildford control center can just issue the on/off command to the relevant area, then, at the sort of time when everyone is usually in bed (2300hrs) they dim the lights to a soothing level (saving lots of energy) until the first early risers might need to be setting off to work (about 0530hrs)...or, and I speculate here, if Police/Fire Brigade/Ambulance service suddenly need to flood an area with light (e.g. to catch an escaping criminal, or deal with an accident) this can be achieved just as easily. So all good (in theory) thus far, but lets take a look at the (predicted) socio/environmental impact-

• The new lights are spotlights, pointing directly at the floor - so much less ambient light pollution should occur
• Lights can be kept bright in areas of need (underpasses/trouble hotspots) and dimmed elsewhere
• Lower electricity bills mean a collective saving of around £12 million in tax (over the next 25 years)
• We also stop 60,000 tons of carbon flooding the atmosphere (same period), which is actually quite a mind-bogglingly large amount when you stop to think about it

Nothing to complain about there then, but there are actually just a couple of things that do worry me - The lights are *white* and are (and I quote) "much brighter" than the existing (yellow/orange) sodium lights we have all grown up with. We'll have to see how this one pans out, but actually I quite like it being dark at night (for no particular reason other than that it is supposed to be dark at night)...I guess I'm just not sure I want the whole of Surrey to resemble the inside of a football stadium...secondly (and lastly) especially as all this is *extremely* new (and Murphy's law states that there is *always* at least one bug) I'm sure there will be "issues" to iron out...how long until the system at Guildford mucks up and plunges the whole of Redhill into complete blackness at 7pm, or we are awoken at 3am by blazing lights shining through the curtains (making us think we are being abducted by aliens à la Close Encounters)...

I'll keep you posted with developments as they occur, but it looks like we'll be all converted (to the most modern street lighting system in the UK) within the next two weeks...oo-er! ;)

Thomas got "stuck"...

One of Thomas' newest (and most useful) words is "Stuck!"...it started off being specifically applied to situations where he was genuinely trapped, i.e. having wedged himself in between chairs while under the table, or has slipped off the side of the bed and got tangled up in cushions (and is asking for rescue), he uses it (and has done so regularly) in replacement for the urgent wail of frustration that had preceded it (to which we would naturally answer - "Aw, are you stuck sunshine?" - which is obviously where he picked it up)...

More recently (and without any prompting from us) it's evolved from simply a cry for rescue from accidental entrapment into a polite signal that rather than being happily sat in his high chair consuming food, he has suddenly found himself in a "Stuck!" state (meaning I've had enough now and want to be back on the floor with all my toys)...Flyingpops has been desperately trying to teach him to say "Finished" (when he has), but obviously to very little (current) effect...and, to be fair, "Stuck!" does effectively get the message across... ;)

On Sunday last, we noticed a (brand new) third usage of the word, although quite if it was a comedic use or an outright fibbing one, I cannot be entirely sure...when we went to leave, after a very enjoyable visit to see his little cousin Rose (and parents/their new house), he took advantage of us both loading things into the car to run off down the pavement (as we both kept one eye on him) getting about three doors away before hiding (poorly) near a green wheelie bin and peering back toward the car...both Flyingpops and I issued "Come on Thomas, time to get into the car" type instructions and encouragement, only for him to think for a moment, take two more steps away, beam widely and yell "Stuck!" before toddling even further away!

Cue Daddy running down the road and scooping up the cheeky little blighter yelling "Oh you are sooo *not* stuck!" (to much giggling... ;)

Network Rail - On time percentages

I guess it's time to have another moan about commuting by railway, not that there is any chance of replacing it with an alternative (for me), frankly there is no way on earth I could get hold of another mode of transport (I'm talking buying/insuring/taxing/maintaining/parking and fuelling) that would get me (even if as erractically) in and out of Canary Wharf (from deepest darkest Surrey) for two grand a year...just to put you in the picture - simply to park around here (not even in the Wharf, but a short hop away) costs between £1300-1900 a year (and may involve paying for the DLR on top)...so I understand the price I pay for my travel is (grrr through gritted teeth) "reasonable" in comparison to the alternatives...

However, what I do find deeply insulting, is the way network rail (year after year) churn out their figures stating the number of trains that have run on time and it bears *absolutely* no relation to any of my commuter experiences. This years proudly announced figure for December trains was that (on average) 81% ran on time (a number that made me laugh out loud, spitting tea all over my keyboard when I read it - considering the number of days that both Earlswood and Oxted stations were completely *closed*), but if we start to burrow down, it's actually very easy to see how they have reached this conclusion - "on time" is defined as "anything under five minutes late" (which, apart from -one day- in the last two months is *every train I take* - that would make their "on time" total for me to less than 0.01% if it were actually accurate - actually catching my connecting services *relies* upon them being delayed too - day after day, night after night), it also, and most insultingly (considering no-one could care any less about them)
takes into account *every single train*, yep, all those trundling stopping services that pootle along early in the morning, all day long and late into the evening - *completely empty*...well, I say completely empty - the laughing college kids on their way home after morning lectures, the old dears on their way for a bit of shopping in Sutton, the chattering tourists - not a great deal of these people are going to care (hugely) if their train is even ten minutes late to their destination (assuming they notice in the first place), but obviously these trains rarely are late, as not many people have to pack onto them nor struggle to get off them again...

The figure which should be reported is the only one anyone actually cares about - What percentage of peak time commuter services arrived on time? We don't want the "there, there - patted on the head" number that's been gently massaged into feeling better about itself - "oh, don't worry too much about the important trains (which are always delayed) that everyone relies upon, let's just make it "all better now" by adding in all the empty ones, there look - that's much better"...!

It's a great example of "Lies, damned lies and statistics"... ಠ_ಠ

Finks Links #122

Lets kick things off with a *quite* scary infographic on the Mariana Trench...(might need to click the image to unsquash it)...

Robot plus cat=win...

Paper Half-Life 2 (Familiarity with Half-Life 2 essential)...

Instant Karma...

If it were my home...(compare where you live now with the rest of the globe from a personal statistical perspective)...

Openbook (search everything on facebook, via the API)...scary!

An Antarctic Expedition in time lapse...

Ready to feel old...?

Octopus tool use...

Scientists fight bugs with poo...(yuk)...

A French mansion, sealed for 100 years deliberately as a time capsule...

...and finally "the quote marks made me nervous"... ;)

Have a great weekend and see you next week!

London 2012 - Olympic Stadium light testing

...(links later, if I get a chance)...for now (and unfortunately I only had my Android camera with me) check out, far off in the distance, the Olympic stadium site, for the first time they are testing out all the flood lights, which are amazingly bright (even here, viewed from the 20th floor of One Canada Square)! I know it doesn't look like it in the thumbnail, but if you click the picture and zoom right in you can see quite clearly...if they are still playing with them next week I'll bring in the big camera and take a proper picture... ;)

Canary Wharf under construction

...woah, bit spooky...! This was One Canada Square (where I work) under construction in 1990, as seen from the (already finished) DLR platform at Heron Quays (which is now located inside a huge building which was obviously built around it! I guess one day someone's going to look at my pictures of the Crossrail station being built and feel similarly!

Wonderful evening...

Well, despite what I said yesterday we actually did manage to celebrate (thank you to my folks for Thomas-sitting)! We ended up (it was Flyingpops' choice, of course), heading over to Dorking to (what she kept referring to as the "Watermill" for which she had a voucher, apparently), which had me thinking (pretty much the whole way) why on earth are we heading all the way to Dorking just to go there? I mean, as a place to eat it's *okay*...but there were plenty of places on the doorstep equally good...most odd...anyway, my confusion was rapidly dissolved when instead of stopping at the Watermill we pulled into the Arkle Manor car park (a rather special fine-dining experience which emerged, unexpectedly, from the ashes of (probably the worst) Harvester in England, when it closed down - death by dirty salad cart and sticky carpet)...

Flyingpops had a wonderful goats cheese tart to start, I had creamy french onion soup (with a jumbo garlic crouton topped with runny cheese floating on the top) and for mains Flyingpops had wild mushroom risotto (and then tried to convince me that the one I make her is better, but it tasted about the same to me) and I had probably one of the best rib-eye steaks I have ever eaten...absolutely melting, it didn't need the steak knife it was served with...*drool*...

Fantastic... ;)

Happy Birthday Flyingpops!!

Lots of love from Thomas and Fink! ;)

Proper celebrations to be conducted on Saturday, as today is a very busy working day for everyone (annoyingly), but many happy returns of the day!! x x x

Quick Update...

I've been off the grid for a while, so I suppose I should offer up some sort of explanation as to why - my knee had been pretty bad over Christmas (like back-on-crutches bad)...a couple of times (as I occasionally find it really difficult to lock out my leg) in the slippery conditions I've taken little tumbles, the latest one was last week, tired at the end of a long day/long journey I was trying to get down off the steps from the bus (just yards from the house) and it just gave way, meaning a slightly inelegant dismount, a slightly cut hand and a rather bruised ego...however, this was not all, by the time it came to try and get home the next evening it was *really* swollen and I had lost about 15% of my available movement (and I - annoyingly - didn't have a stick or anything), that journey home was rather exciting (as you can imagine) and by the time I had finally completed it I was exhausted and the swelling was worse than ever... :(

Anyway, one (rather poor) night's sleep later I found myself in East Surrey Hospital, sat in the walk in center (who, to be fair, did see me rather quickly) and was then put in a *huge* queue for (gulp) "Emergency Treatment", which (in actuality) consisted of sitting on a chair waiting (for hours) while a succession of more important cases proceeded to overtake me by means of priority (two builders with cut hands, loads of old dears who had fallen over (and come off worse than I had), young kids who were wailing loudly, etc. etc.)...when I was finally seen, it was to announce that it might actually be more urgent than it appeared, it may have been an infection causing the swelling so I was quizzed endlessly (revealing that I had been (without realising) seriously overdosing on painkillers all over Christmas - and then drinking too - whoops) I was slightly over normal temperature and had elevated blood pressure...although in the end I was given some big new pain killers (and some *sternly delivered* instructions for using them) and ordered to spend two days (minimum) *off* my feet completely (to return immediately if anything happened other than the swelling going away)...

So, it's been a difficult few days, hope you'll forgive me being on the quiet side...! ;)

Thomas says a sentence!

Another little milestone hit on the weekend...Thomas managed to say a bona fide sentence (drum roll) -

"Bilk Mumum peeeeeze" (while jumping up and down hanging onto the stairgate by the kitchen)...which roughly translates as "May I urgently have a drink of milk please Mummy"...

Although just a selection of his (numerous) standard words strung quickly together, it does certainly count and from the looks of things he's rather ahead of the curve in this respect!

We've also had just a hint of what awaits in the (*shudder*) "Terrible Twos" - at times he's now clearly saying "No" and shaking his head when he isn't very keen on an idea and definitely exploring his powers of self determination (sometimes switching plans of attack between Mummy and Daddy to see if the rules change), although (on the bright side) we do seem (between us) to have almost completely stopped him throwing leftover food he doesn't want on the floor. Now, when he has finished eating he will (largely) hold his plate up by way of asking for it to be carefully removed, even helping to pick up any errant bits and load them onto the plate before removal...next mission - get him to put up with having his face/nose wiped without toddler meltdown... ;)

In the Night Garden...

I'm sure a million people have had these sorts of thoughts a million times before (as "In the Night Garden" first aired back in early 2007, and only now am I discovering it) but I feel they are worth voicing in this forum as it's cemented itself as such an important part of our lives (currently)...

For those of you unfamiliar with the series (for lack of 1-4 year old dependents during it's run) the format runs thusly -

Start of every episode - A field of sparkling stars appears (prompting Thomas to point and say "stars") accompanied by (quite beautiful) tinkly music (he zooms over to the TV to get a better look) followed by a shot of a random child tucked up snug in a fluffy duvet having a tiny circle traced around it's palm by random adult (presumably a parent/guardian - prompting Thomas to rapidly seek out nearest adult with outheld palm and wide-eyes requiring the same favour), meanwhile Sir Derek Jacobi explains that the child is safe and warm in bed while a small blue bear-like creature called "Iggle Piggle" (presumably a simile for the child's mind) drifts off in a tiny boat ("no bigger than your hand") through a black ocean to the "Night Garden"...so, and I'm guessing here, this is then Iggle Piggle's dream, which is a "just closing your eyes and imagining" sort of experience for the child (as they are in actuality sat with Mummy/Daddy/whoever on the sofa watching the TV - in Thomas' case already bathed and in bed clothes and clutching a cup of warm milk - although that sometimes comes earlier or later depending on how thirsty he is)...

Second section - Iggle Piggle's dream - he takes part in some sort of crazy adventure featuring most of the other characters in the show (if he knows them Thomas will point and say his version of their name - Upsey Daisy, for example, is "Daaaaysie")...during this stage there is often a thoughtful message (although not always, sometimes they just all jump around, but usually something) useful for 1-4 year olds imparted in a clever way (e.g. look - "Makka Pakka is cleaning the Tombliboos faces, how kind" - or - "Look at the Tombliboos putting on their seat belts, aren't they clever" - or - "Silly Pontipines trying to eat jelly while zooming around on the Ninky Nonk - what a mess") obviously everything turns out fine in the end...

Third Section - Bedtime begins - one of the Night Garden characters (it varies) goes to bed first and has a bedtime story (which is a hand-drawn summary of what happened in section two, emphasising the important plot points and behaviour/moral lessons)...

End of every episode - Everyone in the night garden dances around a bit and sings/honks/makes farting noises and then gradually heads off to bed (a familiar calming process involving lots of yawning and praise - viewing before last Thomas managed to pre-empt the Pontipines going to sleep by making the relevant tick-tock noise just before they popped up on screen - much to Mummy and Daddies surprise and delight), then once we have checked *everyone* in the garden is happily fast asleep, suddenly - "Wait a minute...someones not in bed"! It turns out that Iggle Piggle hasn't managed to find anywhere to sleep, eventually collapsing (with a squeak) on the grass, quite exhausted, but, Sir Derek explains - all is not lost - "Don't worry, Igglepiggle, it's time to go".

Last Shot - Cut back to Iggle Piggle, who is still in his little boat on the dark ocean, his dream finished, he floats off happy into the distance (and Thomas, usually yawning and eyes closing too, heads happily off upstairs to start his journey into his own little Night Garden)...

It's become a really important part of his little routine (not that he can't break it if we want to be out and about, but) you can tell when Mummy and Daddy have done everything to Thomas' satisfaction, and when they haven't...late lunch and Night Garden before his bath just didn't work quite as well yesterday evening! Take one episode of Night Garden right before bed, and any stropping just washes away into calm fascination, relaxation and finally sleep...

Night night, everyone... ;)

Finks Links #121

Friday! Lets kick things off with Decembers best Autocorrect funnies (lots more on the site as a whole)...iphone 4 chat being *most* unhelpful in incredibly amusing ways...

The occasionally hilarious (and shocking) Lamebook (the things people post on Facebook) *face+palm*...

A dog stole my sledge...

Another dog (move your mouse)...

Amazing eclipse picture (that's the ISS, not a TIE fighter btw)...

How TV is made nowerdays (extraordinary "before and after" visual effects reel from HBO)...

An interesting use for a rubber band...

Discover which film a panel of NASA experts judged to be the most "scientifically absurd"...

TRON skatecycle (pics and video)...

Take a tour around Vietnam's mammoth cavern...

...and finally an unusual hand washing station and a nice spelling fail...

See you next week!

Annual Season Ticket Win!

Hehe...feeling quite pleased with myself at the moment, in a spur of the moment decision at the tail end of December I decided to ask the office to get me an annual season ticket (to try and beat the impending price rise), last year I largely bought weekly tickets, so (tapping on my desk calculator) taking into account the few weeks of holidays when I didn't need to buy one I spent something in the region of £2784 getting to work (ouch), the average amount a season ticket was going to increase (this month) is 5.8%, so I was looking at having to pay out (roughly) £2951 next year (which was starting to seem a little silly, just in order to get into the office), anyway, when I went to pick up my shiny new gold card (expecting a modest saving) and I checked the price (it's going to come out of my salary over the next 10 months)...it was only £2072...a saving of roughly £879! Better than that - for the first ten months of the year we'll actually be better off by twenty pence (if you can believe that), cherry on the top - the last two months of the year we'll be better off by £202! ;)

So a very Merry Christmas for 2011! ;)

So sweet...

...but so annoying, on my birthday (Dec 23rd) the *only* way we could get Thomas to stop stomping around the room stropping (when I started to play my new Xbox game) was to get the high chair, pop it next to me and give him the spare Xbox controller, then he was good as gold...just wanted to join in with what Daddy was doing... ;)

Whitebushes Snow

A Happy and prosperous New Year to everyone! Just realised I forgot to post any pictures from home from the snow from the start of December, this little lot all settled in the space of about 3 hours (it ended up roughly a foot and a half deep in the back garden)!

Thomas had great fun on our borrowed sledge, keeping snug and warm in his snow suit -

- despite the odd mishap... ;)

Brrr...still, it's all melted now, and to be honest I'm not missing it much...thoughts can now turn to warmer times and warmer climes, southern Spain is looking tempting (and unless I am very much mistaken our last holiday abroad was back in 2008, so it's long overdue) - according to my boss, who was there over Christmas, it's 19 degrees at the moment, leave it a month or two (Thomas travels free until he is two years old, so we can't leave it too long) and it's mid twenties, which suits me just fine! ;)