Blog

Does Remote Storage Work

Is it possible to have the things I use regularly available on remote servers and never need to care about them myself?

Like many people I signed up for all the free web-based email accounts (RocketMail – now Yahoo, Lycos, Excite, Hotmail etc.) but I never really used them. Over time I let most of the lapse and only really use Yahoo and – now – Gmail but I do not use any of them as my main mail account. I didn’t use them primarily because I didn’t want to pay to be connected to the web to read my mail (my POP accounts were better) and I wanted to maintain addresses at my own domain and – at the time – none of those interfaces allowed you to be seen as another mail address. Yahoo, of course, also provides photo storage, address books and calendars.

My web hosting company allows me to use my space as a virtual hard-drive (if I work out how to configure it) and – as I have noted – Flickr is becoming my personal choice for photographs (even though I could try and manage it myself on my own servers) while I use Bloglines for feed aggregation. So, the question is, can I now run my life using storage space away from my own computer?

Here are some of my considerations:

  • Outside of work (which I am not proposing to move) I have precious few documents so I don’t need masses of file space for them (I suspect my Yahoo account would happily cope).
  • Photos: I can’t get away from the lack of storage (even at Flickr) for them but I suspect it will cope with all the photographs I care about (the rest would only be archived to CD anyway).
  • Music: This is the difficult one as I upload music to my Treo’s mp3 player so I am not carrying it all around with me all the time (in a iPod style). Perhaps it is time to re-address that issue.
  • Mail: I have archives of mail in Mozilla Mail format. What I think I need is Mozilla’s roaming profiles but I have idea how they work.
  • Bookmarks: Ditto (but in the mean time Yahoo Companion bar and Yahoo Bookmarks should work).

Do you have any tips for me? Will it work? If it works I only need a reasonable internet connection to have my whole life on tap. What I really need is a proper method for synchronisation – but I’ve ranted about that before.

Celebrity T-Shirt Auction

If you’re a Dermot fan and use ebay, look out for The Big Issue Foundation’s celebrity auction on ebay from 29th November 2004 – 3rd December 2004.

You know how it is: there’s never enough time in the world. This year I haven’t had chance to put any effort into the Man of the Moment project but it was fun for a while and – maybe – I’ll find something to do for Christmas! Anyway, posted today on the Dermot O’Leary comments was a message I feel deserves a little more exposure:

If you’re a Dermot fan and use ebay, look out for The Big Issue Foundation’s celebrity auction on ebay from 29th November 2004 – 3rd December 2004. You can bid for a special ‘What’s Your Big Issue?’ T-shirt signed by Dermot, highlighting something important to him – over fishing! To take part go to http://members.ebay.co.uk/aboutme/bifceleb

All proceeds go to The Big Issue Foundation, the charity that offers support services to Big Issue vendors.

Other celebrities taking part include Ringo Starr, Helen Mirren, Emma Thompson, Tony Blair and Stephen Fry. Apparently, the cast of ‘EastEnders’ counts too.

Regent Street, London

What has this to do with Christmas?

regent street lights, lonfonChristmas is coming and I am a bit of a sucker for it but I have to say that the lights on Regents Street, London, do nothing for me. Perhaps I just haven’t seen them in the right conditions – a cold, damp, grey London afternoon is not conducive to enjoying the exterior lighting. It’s Disney tie-in with The Incredibles that alarms me. Sure, I see that Disney get the promotion and somebody gets some money for the lights but – really – what has it to do with Christmas? Or maybe it’s just that I missed Busted switch them on.

Kill Bill (Volume 2)

Rent Volumes 1 and 2 and unplug the ‘phone. You won’t regret it.

Continuing her quest for revenge, Uma Thurman is back as the unnamed bride in Kill Bill (Volume II). If you’d read my take on the first one then you would realise that I was destined to see this as quickly as Love Film would send it to me. The bride has several members of Bill’s gang of assassins (Deadly Viper Assassination Squad) to remove and she hits the ground running. This time, however, we learn a little more of the background to the trail of blood and we get to meet Bill himself. There is, perhaps, more emotion to this film (particularly in Uma Thurman’s part) than the first and the violence is, perhaps, less stylised and more realistic. I am truly amazed how much I have enjoyed both the Kill Bill movies and I will have to reassess my opinions of Tarantino’s work.

Rent Volumes 1 and 2 and unplug the ‘phone. You won’t regret it.

Another Grid Lock

Traffic From Hell would make a great name for a TV show. Have they already done that?

PY and I had some errands to run which partly entailed us driving to Heathrow airport. Then we went onto High Wycombe to do some shopping. And yet again we were stuck in traffic for hours. I think it may be time to consider alternative forms of transport. It seems no matter which way we go, south or north, we’re going to get stuck. Now I don’t enjoy being stuck in traffic but PY hates it and lets his frustration show. Maybe I should let him select the music from now on!

Evening In The City

If you’re in London you should have a least one drink in The Counting House.

I don’t often go out in The City of London (that’s the financial heart of London). I am a much bigger fan of hanging out in the the West End – which is mainly where I have worked and socialised for all the years I have been here. I’ve just got back from a drinks with some colleagues in The Counting House – which is on Cornhill and a few seconds walk from Bank station. It’s a fabulous place full of character and ornate splendour (the domed roof is wonderful). Then we went for a curry and a decent Indian restaurant which was, unlike the ones on the West end, quiet at the end of an evening. The only downside on the evening: it was just a little harder to get home. I must do this more often.

Grid Lock

Traffic hell on the way home from a nice weekend on the south coast.

So I spent the weekend in Brighton: it was a fantastic idea for a last-minute getaway and I am really quite pleased that I went. The weather was cold and crisp but very sunny, and PY and I had a fantastic time roaming the shops, walking the pier, drinking coffee and doing all sorts of good things.

We left earlier this afternoon for the hour-long car ride home only to end up stuck in four hours of non-moving traffic at the end of the M23 (where it joins the M25). Sitting in a car, going nowhere, staring at the rear brake lights of the vehicle in front (and watching people dart from lane to lane to try to move 100 metres forward) was a very depressing way to end what had been, until then, a relaxing weekend. It’s such a shame our transport system means I am now more stressed than when I left the office on Friday night (it also means we’ve just eaten a stack of takeaway junk food, but that’s another story).

Maybe I should start looking forward to the week ahead

Aliens Eat London Commuters

It stunned me that I could walk onto a platform on the Northern Line at Charing Cross station and find it deserted.

rush hour
rush hour

I posted this picture over on Flickr tonight, as it stunned me that I could walk onto a platform on the Northern Line at Charing Cross station and find it deserted. All the best movies had alien invaders clearing the streets while our lonesome hero wandered the empty streets and echoing buildings. It was very strange indeed, and a great relief when somebody else made it to the platform and stood waiting the few minutes for the next train.

I’ve spent the day in central London training some customers on our software products and so have been on my feet all day, talking. I find it quite hard to be engaging for six hours or so, and it can be very disconcerting when I see the participants’ interest wane. I imagine it’s a great relief for everyone when we make it to the end of the day. I was glad to head off for a meal with friends – which is why I was taking the train!

More Producing

I suspect I may be a lone voice in expressing a little (and just a little) disappointment.

Following up on my previous review of The Producers, I’ve had a little more time to think about it and earlier I posted this to Gay Boy Musicals Fans UK at Yahoo!

Having read the positive reader comments on the BBC’s story about The Producers I suspect I may be a lone voice in expressing a little (and just a little) disappointment. I hadn’t read many reviews but I did know about the reception it had received in the US and the praise heaped on Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.

I haven’t seen the film which, judging by the number of people sitting around me who had, means I was possibly one of only a small number of people in the audience who hadn’t. I wonder if that made a difference?

I saw it a week or so ago and it was good but not as good as all the raving would imply. While Nathan Lane’s talent, comic timing and performance cannot be faulted I did find weaknesses in the show. I thought some of the musical numbers in the middle were slow and the Ulla character was not engaging at all – in fact she was positively irritating. James Dreyfuss was camp (which, I guess, is the intention) but in that 1970s OTT cringeworthy way. Humour is, of course, personal and subjective, but I found it only amusing and not
laugh-out-loud funny as many of the reviews suggest.

Still, I would take issue with the review of Lee Evans’ performance which says ‘he just about holds his own’. I would argue that he did far more than that. He too was excellent, believable & humorous and while I’ve never been a big fan of his stage antics he worked well in the role. In fact, for me, he worked so well I can’t imagine Broderick in the role.

I will, however, recommend the show because it stands out from much of the rest of the West End right now – it is good. It has some wonderful comedy and delightful musical moments. But the sum of those individual moments does not, in my opinion, add up to a great whole. I even bought the soundtrack in the hope that familiarity with the songs will make me warm to more of them.

Maybe it’s just me.

The Point Of Art?

Paintings and installations don’t come high up on my list of things to do

Can it really be a whole year – yesterday – since I lay on the floor at The Tate Modern on the South Bank and looked up at that bizarre, yet compelling, installation that was Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project? The very fact that I loved it, and wrote about it, made me realise that, generally, art doesn’t feature a great deal in my life. I mean paintings and installations don’t come high up on my list of things to do. I have spent time in most of the major London galleries since I have been here but nothing ever ‘clicks’ with me and, to be honest, apart from an Annie Leibovitz exhibition a few years ago I can’t recall much that I have seen. I wonder why paintings, sculpture etc. don’t resonate with me? I went to the Dali museum/gallery on the South Bank months ago as I thought the surrealism might be more appealing – but it was only marginally more so. In 2001 I went to see Martin Creed’s Turner Prize winning lights (going on and off in a room) and just didn’t get it (at all). It’s very strange really as I would like to appreciate art more and I would love to be able to take good photographs. It’s not that I don’t see that it’s good (or bad) art but more that most of the art I have seen simply washes over me. It doesn’t grab me. Maybe I should just keep looking! As for other things that I did last year, I really won’t mind being on a plane back to Helsinki but my boss went instead.

Night Off

So, I am not at the gym and I won’t beat myself up about it.

Tonight I am not going out socialising. Ever since Gym Buddy Day a free evening would have meant a trip to the gym but, this evening, I am sat ripping music so that my computer’s jukebox contains a few more of the CDs that I am running out of space to house. It’s a rare, spare, evening but I couldn’t face the thought of the gym tonight. It would have been the third consecutive day I would have gone and I have, so far, been fairly religious about my ‘ever other day’ rule. I tend to find evenings at home with leisure as my only goal are the worst in terms of eating; which is why I am sat ripping music. I have given myself a purpose for tonight. Usually on evenings such as this I would go to the gym but restrict myself with a few lengths of the pool – I have always felt that swimming doesn’t contravene the ‘ever other day’ rule as I find it the hardest of exercises because I don’t do it properly. Therefore, it doesn’t count as exercise. Sure, I stay above water and motor up and down but I have no technique and I always feel that when I am out of breath in the pool it’s because I haven’t been breathing correctly. Anyway, there are two pool-based classes back-to-back on Tuesdays which means those of us who just want to swim are restricted to a small portion of the water and that makes it too hard. So, I am sat here listening to The Hidden Cameras and enjoying every minute of it.

A Box That Does It All

The MBEN’s job is to sort it out, handle it, deliver it, and to do so automatically. You don’t have to get a bunch of different little boxes to store and sort through things. It has an audio/video tuner, an amp, a hard drive, everything necessary for you to do the things you want to do.

Mobile phones and PDAs – something I try to talk about occasionally and not very well. It’s at times like this that I bow to somebody with superior writing and thought processing capabilities. Therefore, gentle reader my I present Lance Arthur: The MBEN Cometh. If you read these words of wisdom you’ll understand what I was trying to say.