Verizon Wireless service

Yes Glenn, that cellular wireless service that you are trying is CDMA2000. (Probably only 1X though). Stephen Den Beste will no doubt be happy.

I can't imagine there is any way it will interfere with WiFi. WiFi operates on 2.4 GHz or (not often just yet, but probably an awful lot in future) 5MHz. Verizon's wireless service is on 800MHz or 1.9Ghz. The frequencies are completely different.

Update: If I had really wanted to cover all my options, I could have bought my laptop with 802.11a/b/g, a GPRS modem (ie a cellular modem running over GSM networks), Bluetooth, and IrDA infrared. The version I bought has 802.11b/g and IrDA only. That's enough for me now. (Bluetooth likely does reduce the performance of WiFi if used at the same time, as it uses the same 2.4GHz frequency band).

Comments on my MP3 player, and some rambling about my computer

Warning: self indulgence to follow.

Dell gave me a "free gift" with my new computer. I had a choice of an all in one printer/scanner/copier, a second battery, a digital camera, or an MP3 player. I already have a printer and a scanner so I didn't get this (although given that my laser printer needs a new drum (which I knew, but was trying to pretend was not so) and my scanner's driver causes a BSOD on the new computer (which I did not know) I may have made the wrong choice in this instance. I already have a digital camera (somewhat better than the one they were offering) so I was never going to go for that. A second battery is likely useful (although the battery seems to last for about five hours of use, which is much better than my last laptop, and in any event it isn't that hard to find a coffee shop with lots of power outlets - Starbucks are particularly good in this department), but the final option was a new electronic toy I didn't already have, so I got myself a new electronic toy. The MP3 player in question has only 64Mbytes of (flash) memory, so it isn't like I got an iPod, but none the less it is quite useful. It is about the size of a cigarette lighter, weighs practically nothing, and is far, far better than a cassette or CD based Walkman of just a few years ago, and makes portable music easy.

I have ripped my entire CD collection to MP3 (using a bit rate of 160kbps) and stored it on my hard disc and I am playing music on my laptop using iTunes, which is fun. When I copy these MP3s to the MP3 player, I only get about an album and a half of music, unfortunately. It is a shame that the MP3 player does not have a memory card slot or simply more memory, but that is the price of getting about the cheapest possible MP3 player. (The player in question retails in shops for about £60 and a little less over the internet). The other option of course is to transfer the music to the MP3 player using a lower bitrate. The trouble with that is that I want the high bitrate for computer based use, and the lower bitrate for portable use, which probably means I need to keep two copies of all my music on the hard disc. I wonder how I get iTunes to duplicate the entire music library at a lower bitrate. I really don't want to go through the process of putting all my CDs in the CD-ROM drive again.

Still, not the end of the world. This sort of thing is why I got the 60Gbyte hard disc, which I am thinking was a very good decision. Certainly it gives me more flexibility than the giant 5Gbyte disc on the old laptop. (Of course, by standards of not very long ago, 5Gbyte was giant, but it now seems quite puny). On the other hand, it might have been better to have taken the "free" printer/scanner and just bought an MP3 player with slightly more features. Except that I wouldn't have done that. Getting an MP3 player was in indulgence I wouldn't have gone through if I had had to fork out actual money. However, if I now go and buy a new printer or scanner out of necessity, I will have spent a similar amount of money. The idiotic thing about laser printers is that I can now buy a new printer for the cost of a new drum for the old one. And I can buy a new inkjet printer for less than half that. So I am not sure quite what I will do.

But for all that, the MP3 player is fun. It doesn't eat batteries quite as fast as the digital camera does, but getting some rechargeables for it was also clearly imperative. It uses a single AAA battery, so I needed different batteries from the AA ones used by the camera. But sizes fit into my existing charger, however, so I just needed the batteries. The cheapest NiMH AAAs were £7 for a pack of four. I only needed one or maybe two, but that is not an option. And of course I could buy a pack of 12 for £10, which seemed a good deal, although I did not need that many. So I now have 12 AAA rechargeable batteries. But somehow, I feel I am going to need a lot of rechargeable AAA batteries in future, so this may be good preparation for the years ahead.

And I need to get myself a high income again, so that I can stop going neurotic over things like this.

Except of course even when I do have a high income, I still get neurotic about things like this. It is just my nature.

Alcohol

I am drinking another bottle of Argentinian Malbec from the Mendoza region. For a bottle of wine that only cost me £4 or something, it is outstandingly good.

Respect

It is the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight. I am the umpteenth person in the blogosphere to mark this, but I shall mark it anyway because it is worth marking. If you want to read somethng about it, go and read Friedrich Blowhard's fine piece on the subject.

Awaited movie of the year

I saw The Return of the King. More of the same, basically, but all coming together nicely in story terms towards the end. As in the book, there is a lot of tidying up after Sauron is defeated. Some reviews have criticised Peter Jackson for including all this (although to tell the truth one large episode is missing), but I think it is necessary. Firstly, it means that 20 minutes or so are devoted to the characters at the end, and this gives the film a little more depth after all the actions scens. Secondly, in the context of all three movies, it nicely bookends the story. The story starts in the comfortable world of the Shire, and also ends there, with the brutal wider world and decisions of life or death and fights for the world in between. If you throw away the ending, you might as well have done without the beginning as well.

And Eowyn rocks.

First, kill all the lawyers

The instruction book for my computer contains the following paragraph

California Residents

WARNING: Handling the cord on this product, or cords associated with accessories sold with this product, will expose you to lead, a chemical known to the State of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm. Wash your hands after handling the cord.

Does this mean that cords only have lead residue in the state of California? (Is it the weather?) Does it mean that they do, but that the State of California doesn't care about non-Californians? Does it mean that lead isn't harmful to the rest of us? Does it mean that the State of California cares, but Dell doesn't? Callous bastards.

Actually what it means is that the State of California feels the need to mandate that computer manufacturers put stupid disclaimers in computer manuals, probably without their being any reputable scientific evidence, and computer manufacturers just go along with it. (Are those various combinations of bold and italics mandated by law?) It's probably Erin Brockovich's fault.

Redirection

I have another piece (with extensive photos) on my trip to Antwerp over at Samizdata.

Look, no wires

Okay, Glenn and Virginia have been doing it for years, but I am sitting in a cafe working on my laptop, which has no physical connections to anything, and I am happily working away with a full (and fast) internet connection. This is really, really cool. Unfortunately, my regular ISP will not let me connect to its SMTP server from another ISP (or at least it will not without proper authentication) so I cannot send e-mail right now. Hmmm. I'll look into it.

Update: Okay, that's fixed.

This is a public service announcement

Scott Wickstein informs me that his personal blog has moved again. The new address is http://wickstein.blogspot.com. Update your links. The blog now seems to be called "The Weekend Warrior". Personally, I quite liked the name "The Eye of the Beholder", but that could just be me.

Nobody's Perfect

Just when I was thinking how much more stable the new Dell laptop with Windows XP is compared to the old IBM Thinkpad running Windows ME, I attempted to install the driver for my scanner. (This is a Packard Bell Diamond 2400 if anyone is interested). And with no warning I got a full scale Blue Screen of Death. Horrible. I thought I wasn't going to have to face these any more. It's repeatable, too, as I tried again and I again got a BSOD. The CD at least in theory has an XP version of the driver, too, so I don't know what is going on. Is it some kind of hardware conflict?

In any event, I shall attempt to find a newer version of the driver.

Belgium last weekend

Exactly a week ago (was it really that long) I strolled into the famous bar 't Brugs Beertje in Bruges. There were Australians in there.


I joined them, and over the course of the evening asked that they take some photos of me.


You call that a beer glass?


That is a beer glass.


Actually, that is also a beer glass


Would you guess that this place sells beer, judging by the decorations on the wall?


When you have drunk too much of that Belgian beer (7% alcohol or more) it is sometimes possible to do embarassing things.

Some photos of Antwerp tomorrow.

The slow pace of Hollywood and lawyers

Over at Samizdata, Andy Duncan says the following about the prospect of a film of The Hobbit

let's just hope Mr Jackson gets the film rights for 'The Hobbit', to give us something to watch next Christmas.

Sadly, "next Christmas" is much too optimistic. Peter Jackson is making his King Kong remake for Universal next (which is scheduled for 12 December 2005 - remember that a two year gestation period is typical for a big Hollywood film), and he has also said things about making a smaller New Zealand based project at the same time or soon after. He has also mentioned that there have not been enough good zombie films made recently, and has expressed an interest in making one. This may or may not be the same project as his "smaller, New Zealand based project".

The rights for "The Hobbit" are apparently presently split between New Line and MGM (Miramax likely have some rights too, although I think these would be purely financial - they have some right to profit but no right to stop the movie being made). These parties will have to do some kind of a deal before the film can be made. Although this isn't an insurmountable obstacle (films are made by combinations of more than one studio all the time) it does mean that the lawyers of the various parties will have to get together to come up with a completely different deal from the one that applied for the Lord of the Rings before the film can be made. And while it is in the interests of everybody to make such a deal for a film that is a certain moneymaker, this will take time. Plus there is the simple fact that everyone is very tired. Despite the usual two year gestation period for big Hollywood movies, they have made three in three years. Yes, there has been a certain amount of effort saved because the films were shot back to back and were all one long story, but only a certain amount. A lot of things have had to be done separately for each movie. And remember, these have been very big movies.

In short, it would amaze me if this film is in cinemas less than five years from now. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

Nostalgia

I have been ripping my entire CD collection to MP3 using iTunes. (Well, there have been three or four CDs that are so embarassing to own that I have left them out. No I am not saying what). Interestingly, I have been playing the already ripped songs in random order as I do so. And this is a weird nostalgic experience through my musical tastes since about 1988, when I first bought a CD player. Actually, I am surprised how much I still like most of the stuff I bought, given that I am in no sense a music fan.

Update: Actually I don't have quite my whole CD collection, although I thought I did. I can think of half a dozen discs that are missing, and there are undoubtedly more. No problem: I must have simply left them in Australia. I will have to sort this out next time I am there.

Not much more from me today

I have been quoting some silly song lyrics at Transport Blog, however.

First computer impressions

Scott Wickstein observed to me yesterday over instant messaging that moving computers is like moving house. It is, but with the exception that you have both houses available to you for an overlap period. So moving files is something I can do slowly. As there is no CD burner on the old computer, the memory card and card reader that I purchased to go with my digital camera is suddenly extremely useful to me. However, more than transfering files, it is about configuration, which means finding the CDs that came with my hardware and installing appropriate drivers. I am also simultaneously upgrading from Windows ME to Windows XP. Whatever my feelings towards Microsoft, this is a vastly superior operating system. If I hadn't had to put up with all the earlier crappy versions, I might even feel better towards Mr Gates. Of course, when I am installing hardware, in a lot of cases this means that the driver I have is too old to be sure of working correctly with XP, and I have to download a new version over the internet, demonstrating that I didn't need the CD after all. It's interesting though the way that many new hardware devices will now essentially pretend to be an external storage device of some kind and latch on to the built in standard driver sortware, and don't need you to install driver software at all. We really have just about reached Plug and Play.

Plus there are little bits of software I like to be downloaded over the internet, and semi-essential things from non-Microsoft parties (Quicktime, the Google toolbar) that need to be installed. And I have just downloaded iTunes, which will be useful for keeping track of music for my cute little MP3 player that was my "free gift" that came with the computer. (The choices for me "free gift" were printer, digital camera, a second battery or an MP3 player. As I had the first two already, it came to a choice between a useful accessory or a new toy. The new toy won.

Now, having commented a few months back that my next computer needed to have lots of USB ports, I have once again got one with only two. This was because the Dell system I got was so good for the money in other ways that I went for it anyway, although other brands did in some cases have many more USB ports. As I followed the advice of my readers on that occasion and bought a USB hub, this doesn't matter so much. At least I hope it doesn't. I do have IEEE1394 (Firewire) port as well, which may come in useful if I ever buy a camcorder. Although given that my USB ports are the new high speed kind, it also may not be needed.

Anyway, having fun. I just now need to find a free WiFi hotspot in a nice cafe somewhere nearby.

Life could be worse

Freshly baked pizza - check

Kick-arse new laptop computer - check

Unpasteurised brie - check

20 year old Speyside scotch whisky - check

Interesting policy level job offer from the Australian federal government - check (I think)

Australian cricket team about to start test match against India - check

Update: India won the test match and lead the series 1-0. Damn.

New computer has arrived

More blogging soon.

Somebody had to

Virginia Postrel has posted her results for one of those instant quizes, this one answering the question "Which state is perfect for you?". She gives "No surprises there" for her answer being California. I took the quiz, and two of my answers were that I like states that are crowded and states that have mountains. Despite that, I kept getting the answer of "Iowa". So I am not going to post my results and I am going to suggest that version 2.0 is perhaps needed.

Good things

Dell tell me that my new laptop has been made to order, and it is in the "preparation for delivery" stage. Hopefully that means I will have it in a couple of days. Given the state of non-working of my existing laptop, this will be a huge relief. I have bought a machine with inbuilt wireless, so I will have to go around hunting in London for wireless hotspots, I suppose. I paid an extra £10 for 802.11b/g wireless rather than just plain 802.11b. I could have paid a bit more for 802.11a/b/g. I suppose I will find out in a couple of years time whether 802.11a takeup occurs in a big way and whether I should have made the additional investment. Of course, if it becomes an enormous deal, I will still be able to add an additional 802.11a card, so it is not like I have restricted myself very much.

And of course my last laptop lasted me for two years. Even if it was still properly functional, it was getting to the point where its featureset was not up to my requirements. We will see how long this one lasts.

Update: It has now shipped from Dell's European manufacturing facility, which is probably in Ireland. I wonder how long it will now take. For people who are wondering, my financial resources turned out to be greater than I expected, so I am getting a Pentium M 1.4GHz system with a 60 GByte hard drive, a 1920x1200 15.4" screen, a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive, 512 Mbytes of RAM, onboard 802.11b/g, and a few other things.

The Belgians demonstrate that they are just as petty as the Canadians

Belgium is not a biligual country. It is a country in which different languages are spoken in different parts of the country. Generalising of course, Flemish people can usually speak French, but are very reluctant to do so. Walloons usually cannot speak Dutch, but even if they can, they generally won't. Signs are not bilingual. As you cross from one section of Belgium into another, the signs change from one language to the other. As most towns have different French and Dutch names, this can be highly confusing if you are just trying to go somewhere. The exception to all this occurs in Brussels, which is the capital, and is a French speaking city entirely surrounded by Flanders (ie by Dutch speaking country). Signs in Brussels are almost always bilingual.

Yesterday, I encountered a slightly absurd manifestation of this. I was on a train from Antwerp in Flanders to Brussels. It was a nice new train, and like new trains in many countries it had LED displays inside the carriages giving information about where the train was going to and which stations it stopped at. In Antwerp and as we travelled through Flanders, the information on the Display was entirely in Dutch. However, as we crossed over the city limits of the city of Brussels, it suddenly changed, and it was giving information in both Dutch and French. Presumably, if the train had continued on into Wallonia, everything would have changed into French only. Given that the display system could clearly operate in both languages and that most people on the train were travelling from one side of a linguistic boundary to the other, some of us would have thought it was sensible for the system to display information in both languages for the whole time.

But that would have implied that Belgium was a bilingual country. And we couldn't have that.

Redirection

I have a little piece of travel writing over at Samizdata.

Citibank kind of save the day

When I travel, my practice is to simply withdraw funds from ATMs, which will be linked up via a global system to my bank. In the vast majority of the world, this works perfectly every time. However, there are some countries where this does not always work, as ATMs are either scarce or not linked into the global network. As I recently, Japan is one case, although not nearly as bad as it used to be. And, inexplicably, Belgium is another. There are very few ATMs, and most do not take foreign cards. And while it is easy to laugh at the "Citibank 24 hour banking centre" just across the road from Central station in Brussels that is closed between midnight and 6am, it does at least take foreign cards. I got some money from this machine between changing trains in Brussels but as happens this morning I ran out. I couldn't find a machine anywhere in Antwerp that would give me money. This was not ultimately a big deal. I had some pounds in my wallet which I could change to euros at a physical money changer.

However, the advent of the euro has dealt a blog to the money changing business in Europe, and those money changers that do still exist spend most of their time processing wire transfers of funds to Senegal and things like that rather than actually chaning money. So, just wanting to change £10 into euros, I found myself standing behind a man who had a tremendously complicated set of transactions. After some time, he and the man behind the counter proceeded from a civil conversation to a heated argument in French. (It contained the words "deux" and "gratis" frequently, so I think he believed he should be charged a single fee for two transactions). In any event, I wanted to make the simplest transaction in the world, so I moved to serious eye rolling mode. (This type of thing annoys me about post offices, too. People are receiving welfare payments, paying bills, changing money, getting drivers licence and passport applications processed, and all manner of time consuming things, which drives me mad when I am in the queue behind them and I merely want to buy some stamps).

I'm in Belgium

Right now I am in Bruges. It is quite cold. I spent yesterday evening drinking a wide assortment of extraordinary beers with a number of other Australians, a Brazilian, and a fanatical Flemish Liverpool supporter (who even had a giant Liverpool FC flag that he apparently carries with him at all times) in 't Brugs Beertje, described by my guidebook as "the best bar in Belgium" and which has over 500 different beers to choose from. Bruges is full of English speaking people, or, more particularly, English and other London based people who are over here for the weekend. The options of cheap flights and train tickets seem to be being widely used. I am off the Antwerp. More then.

Christmas treats

About a year ago, a female friend of mine mentioned in some context that she had never eaten oysters. I promised her that I would buy her some oysters some time. In Australia, you can buy a dozen fresh oysters inexpensively from any supermarket, but in Britain it is somewhat harder. There are one or two posh oyster bars in various places, and there are no doubt fancy fish shops that sell them, but they are not a common foodstuff. Having mentioned this a couple of times in the last year, I finally decided that I would take her to the Oyster and Champagne bar in Selfridges (the old posh Victorian London department store which is not Harrods) as a Christmas treat. So, we went there at lunchtime yesterday.

I was thinking that we would get a dozen oysters to share and a glass of champagne each, but despite my friend's curiousity she thought that oysters looked kind of gooey, and that we should have just a few and something else as well. (If she had eaten one oyster and not liked it, I would have eaten the other eleven with no difficulty, but that perhaps wouldn't have ended up being consistent with the fact that I was treating her). So we ended up having a seafood platter for two, with some lobster, smoked Scottish wild salmon, crab, prawns etc. It is kind of weird to be eating this sort of thing in London, because here it is kind of exotic. (In Sydney I recall on one or two occasions getting a taxi with several colleagues from the office to the Sydney fish market, eating prawns and oysters and tuna and you know what for a Friday afternoon lunch, and then getting a taxi back to the office and (at least theoretically) getting some more work done. And it didn't even cost much).

And of course we had a slightly stroppy Frenchman serving us. This was a necessary part of the experience, somehow.

Redirection

I have a report on the first day of Australia v India over at ubersportingpundit.

Update: Also a report on England v Sri Lanka day 3.

Redirection

I have a politically incorrect Tokyo travelogue over at Samizdata.

Update: I also have a cricket roundup, including a brief preview of Australia v India, over at ubersportingpundit.

Redirection

I have a world cricket report and a piece on tonight's riot game between Portsmouth and Southampton over at ubersportingpundit.

Fragmented thoughts on Mark Steyn's review of Mystic River

Note: Spoilers to follow.

I've just been reading Mark Steyn's review (scroll down) of Clint Eastwood's Mystic River. I agree with him that it is a good movie, and I agree that Kevin Bacon's performance is the better of the three leads, and that Tim Robins' performance is a little too one note to be really good (although I think Sean Penn is actually great - I like this performance a little more than Steyn does). Laura Linney is superb, putting in a small performance of great subtlety that you don't really understand until the end. Steyn makes one other comment at the end.

The other interesting aspect, particularly after last week’s Kill Bill, is how timeless it is: despite all the detail in each shot – the coldness of a waterfront bar, the odd vulnerability of a corner store on an empty street – there’s no attempt to pin it down in time apart from some opening sports banter about the ’75 Red Sox season. Eastwood doesn’t use pop music to place his characters, preferring to compose his own somewhat lugubrious score. The result is something primal, elemental, tribal, as if the sleek modernity across the river is utterly irrelevant. If a Greek tragedy could be transposed to Boston, it would look a lot like this. I’m not saying Clint Eastwood’s Sophocles, but he does a passable impression.

Yes, but there is one curious detail. (Spoilers really coming now). The plot hangs on one enormous (and improbable) coincidence, which is that two characters die violently not only on the same day but at more or less the same time, and Tim Robbins' character appears to be guilty of a crime that he didn't actually commit. This all hangs on some blood being found in his car, and identified as being of the same blood group as Sean Penn's characters murdered daughter. Today, of course, this wouldn't be an issue. DNA testing would immediately identify the blood as coming from a different person, and the rest of the plot wouldn't work. So I suppose we have to say the film is set in the past somewhere, although when is not precisely specified, and the film's timeless "it might be the present or a few years ago" quality seems somewhat weakened. To me it felt like a screenplay that had sat on the shelf a few years between being written and being shot. (There are lots of screenplays like that). Although, given that it is an adaptation, I suppose it depends on what the original novel did. The time between the novel being written and the film shot is longer I guess, so one possibility is that the novel had a timeless quality in it but by the time the film was shot, the choice was either making it a period piece, blurring the dates still more, or changing the plot.

I suppose I should check.

Social events

There is something slightly worrying about leaving a party at 7am, and still not quite qualifying as a member of the "final hard core". Perry's chilli was as always excellent. I have quite a few photos, some of which I will post later if my ongoing technical issues allow it.

Update: Perry has now published his photos of the event over at Samizdata. If you scroll down, I have added several of my photos in the comments section.

Obligatory post

Interesting piece in BusinessWeek on the rise of India, the basic point being that America can use their demographic advantage, relatively high skill levels, and use of the English language. It's good to see that that this is finally being noticed, as it is one of the biggest stories in the world.

Bruce Sterling's good stuff

Bruce Sterling is often referred to as the other father of cyberpunk besides William Gibson. I don't think that this is in some ways really really accurate, as his work often has strayed far from what is usually described by that word, but maybe it once was. (That said, it is relatively easy to forget that he was perhaps more important as an editor than a writer at the time, particularly if you came in to cyberpunk late). Cyberpunk caught a brief glimpse in the early 1980s as to just how strange the future would be, and while the other cyberpunk writers mostly seemed to keep in touch with that future as it grew less strange, Sterling seems to have let go of that future and instead kept in touch with that sense of strangeness. Although his cyberpunk contemporaries are still in several cases writing good stuff, it feels conventional, as the world has come to resemble the cyberpunk vision of 1982, while Sterling's stuff does not. Sterling seems to have an unending desire to travel the world chasing things that are technology based as well as trendy and hip in a certain way, which is perhaps what keeps his work fresh. In any event, he is one of those writers who I find enormously refreshing to read, simply due to being so smart that I know whatever he has to say on anything is going to be mentally stimulating. (Virginia Postrel is someone else evokes the same reaction in me). Even though there are some things that he writes about with which I substantially disagree (most notably he is far more pessimistic about the consequences of global warming than I am) he always has interesting things to say. And in a world containing so much bullshit, that is a great relief.

Sterling has been writing features for Wired Magazine since it began (and he has always been on the masthead, so maybe they have been paying him a salary all along), but the current editorial regime seems to have rather sensibly ramped up his involvement. He is now writing a monthly column for the magazine, and they are also paying him to blog. He already had a blog somewhere else, but it seems to have moved for financial reasons and hopefully the volume will now increase. This is not to say that Sterling's volume has ever been low, precisely. As well as columns, non-fiction features, short stories, and about a book a year, he also is self-appointed "Pope-Emperor" of the Viridian design movement, which is nominally a movement to solve the world's environmental problems based on the belief that people will solve the world's environmental problems if you provide technological solutions that are really neat and have great design and fashion sense. (The name comes from the fact that "viridian" is a shade of green that is not found in nature, the point being that the viridian movement consists of pro-technology greens). Sterling operates a mailing list of "Viridian notes", which are sent out every now and then (perhaps once a week or two on average). These manage to stay on topic about half the time. the rest of the time, they are simply about whatever is on Sterling's mind. If you go back to what I said about finding just about anything Sterling writes to be interesting and refreshing because he is so smart, you will realise that I find this fine, or indeed actually good. (Sterling also has a tendency to invite readers of the Viridian notes to parties in his home in Austin, Texas from time to time. I really must contive to be in Texas at the right time one of these days).

In any event, I tend to think that if I ever become famous, this blog is going to look something like Sterling's, which is full of thoughts as to what is on his mind, links to things that he has written and that have been published, tantalising references to things that have not yet been published (His new book The Zenith Angle is out in April (although I don't yet know what it is about, other than that someone myseteriously invents a super weapon that attacks US spy satellites, although that sounds like something out of 1950s sf, apart from the satellites), links to interviews he has given, and more. (When I am famous, my blog might have an FAQ list like this, too. (Scroll down a bit) He even addresses the great religious issue as to whether you should use "target=new" to make your links open a new window, a point on which I disagree with the mighty Samizdata editors, but I digress). Like this interview for instance.

At one point Sterling is asked his favourite of his own novels, and his answers are that his readers seem to most likeSchismatrix and Holy Fire, but that he likes a lot of his short fiction. I will agree with him. I love his short fiction. And unlike many science fiction writers who for financial reasons stop publishing short fiction after getting novels published, he continues to write it.

The two novels listed are both good novels - Schismatrix is sort of (in both plot and mood) Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination retold in the computer age, and Holy Fire is set in a world in which demographic trends, medical tehnology, and a certain type of puritanism have been taken to logical extremes - but they are not actually my favourites of Sterling's work. These would be Islands in the Net and Zeitgeist. You could call both of these post September 11 novels in a way. Islands in the Net was published in 1988, but is set in a future world of failed states, multinational corporations, NGOs, organisations that are sort of blurred as to where they are on the continuum between corporations and NGOs, missing nuclear weapons, multinational police/spy organisations with arbitrary powers, and organisations preaching weird mixtures of idealism and terrorism. But despite all that, it's an optimistic future. Sounds weirdly familiar, although I am not always optimistic about the one we are living in.

Zeitgeist, on the other hand, is a (present day) roam around the marginal and somewhat decaying states of South Eastern Europe mixed in with a lot of shady Russian and Turkish crime figures, omniscient (and not) security organisations and a lot of girl band pop music. (Sterling has noticed that in real life, dubious military warlords and manafactured girl band pop singers who belong to some Turko-pop or Serbo-pop movement that would seem very tired in London but is somehow very exciting still in Belgrade or Nicosia seem to go go together somehow). And this is all mixed in with a lot of French deconstructionism. Sterlings readers were divided between those who found the book puzzling and those who found it hysterically funny. The book was written pre-September 11, but there is somehow something very post September 11 about it. (Think of the photos a week or two back of Jessica Lynch and Britney Spears together). Whereas William Gibson wrote a (excellent) post September 11 book post September 11, and Neal Stephenson in Cryptonomicon wrote what was perhaps the quintessential novel about the tech boom of the late 1990s, Sterling wrote his post September 11 novel pre- September 11, and maybe pre 1990.

Which makes me wonder what he will write next.

Light blogging, perhaps

I am visiting a friend in Cambridge, which is beautiful at this time of year. I may or may not be doing any more blogging today, depending on whether my laptop is actually working when I get home. As for the new one, I think I am going for a Dell system with a Pentium 4 2.4 GHz. There is also an option with a Celeron at 2.4GHz for about £60 less, but I am working under the assumption that the Pentium 4 is worth the extra money. Anyone have an opinion on that? (Thanks for the advice on the previous question, by the way).

My regards

May my American readers (and indeed anyone else who wants to celebrate the occasion) have a good Thanksgiving.

Posting search requests of the day is just too easy.

And this ended up here just why?

Yes, she is. Married, though.

I believe that lots of people do, although I kind of like the Indian subcontinent myself.

I'll remember to take my own food next time I am in Newfoundland. It's not a particularly pressing issue though.

If that's what turns you on, I suppose.

And I tend to think he was sacked. A poor decision from the selectors if you ask me.

Technical Question

Does anyone have a good idea how an AMD Athlon XP2600+ compares to a Pentium 4 at 2.4GHz in terms of performance, or where I can find some unbiased benchmarks?

Michael Jennings quote of the day

Q. What do you think is the main disadvantage of the contemporary computers, besides being slow?

A. They're full of products from Microsoft.

-- Bruce Sterling, in a Brazilian interview, getting to the core of how Bill Gates has been charging monopoly rents and generally hindering the progress of the computer revolution since 1976.

Update: My blanket anti-Microsoft sentiments have been challenged by a reader. And yes, I was being glib, to some extent. (My opinion of Microsoft is none the less not high). This is one of the occasions where I need to explain myself, the explanation is long, and I really do not have time for this right now. However, I shall do so by the end of the year.

Something worth reading

This article in Prospect on "Market dominant minorities" (ie ethnic minorities that dominate the economies of countries to which they are not indigenous - for instance Chinese in the Philippines or Indians in Kenya) and the problems they face when democracy is increased by Yale law professor Amy Chua is good. Go read.

Link via Patrick Belton, whose comments are also worth reading.

Redirection

I have a (long) piece on the finish of the rugby World Cup over at ubersportingpundit.

Update: I also have a much shorter piece on England's continuing celebrations of their victory.

Search request of the day

No. I went to the real Cambridge.

Enjoyment

After hanging around in the departure lounge at Heathrow for a couple of hours a few weeks back, I ultimately succumbed to one of the posh duty free stores in the departure lounge. In particular, I succumbed to the airport store of Berry Bros & Rudd, the poshest wine merchants in London. (By appointment to Her Majesty the Queen etc etc). This type of posh English shop (that also appeals to a certain type of American) is something I am entirely comfortable with after my years at Cambridge, but that is another story. Suffice to say that it contained some rather good drinks.

I managed to avoid paying £7500 for some stupendous aged magnum of Petrus, but I couldn't resist a (slightly cheaper) bottle of 1984 (bottled 2002) cask strength Dufftown (Speyside) single malt Scotch whisky. This cost more money than I really should have spent, but I will console myself with the fact that I saw a bottle of the same whisky for sale in a department store in Tokyo for three times as much.

Since I returned to London, the bottle has just been sitting in my cupboard, but I have just poured myself a wee dram. This is truly a stunningly good bottle of Scotch.

Another 40th anniversary

Today is the 40th anniversary of the broadcast of the first episode of Dr Who. It is a fine thing that it is coming back. It is a terrible thing that it was ever cancelled in the first place. I am in favour of abolishing the BBC. Besides the fact that the licence fee is obscene, one reason for this is that the BBC is full of the sort of self-important wankers who sneer at genre fiction, even great genre fiction.

Language shifts

David Sucher asks the question "What is genre fiction", and finds further down in his non-permalinked comments that the dictionary definition does not really fit the way in which the word is used nowadays. My thoughts are that in terms of current usage I would define "genre fiction" as fiction designed at a specific audience demographically, and not a widely diverse general audience. Certainly that is the way Hollywood uses the term. Hollywood uses the word for horror, teen comedies, "urban" films (which is code for films aimed at black audiences), certain types of thriller, certain types of animated film (ie those aimed specifically at children rather than those aimed at general audiences - so that "Finding Nemo" is not genre fiction but "The Powerfpuff Girls" is), certain types of fantasy film (By this definition "Underword" is a genre film, whereas "The Lord of the Rings" isn't) and similar.

Interestingly, what Hollywood thinks of as science fiction is (post Star Wars in 1977 at least) not "genre" but mainstream, as it is aimed at general audiences. Whereas written science fiction is very much a genre market, as only certain types of people read it.

In terms of books, I think you might say that "genre fiction" is anything that is filed in a separate section in a bookshop from the standard "fiction" section. In terms of film, it is anything with a budget under about $25 million. (If Hollywood spends more than that it needs to find a general audience in order to make its money back, so "genre films" are generally not made for more than that).

Some would say that as you quote it above, "genre" is a polite word for "ghetto". Certainly it is a term that self-important literary critics (and a certain type of self-important) reader use to snear at types of writing they don't like.

It's interesting to compare the usage of this word with "dialect", actually. Linguists will define a dialect as any specific varient of a language, so that standard American English is a dialect, and so is Glaswegian Scots, and that high German is a dialect, as is Swiss German. (None of these "dialects" can be defined all that specifically, either, as dialects tend to have further sub-varients and blend into one another and lines between them are hard to impossible to draw). However, the word "dialect" as used is often more applied to marginal and non-standard versions of the language than to standard versions.

Living in England, it is of course imperative to talk about the weather

Well, it rained in Sydney for the World Cup final, it is raining and the sky is grey here in London, and two cricket matches in Sri Lanka have been abandoned without play due to rain. Are these separate weather patterns, or is it one big patch of cloud and rain covering Europe, Asia, and Australia? (Yes, I do know the answer, and even that this speculation is silly, and in any event it is easy to check by looking at a satellite photograph or too. However, the weather is getting me down a little).

International comparisons

I watched the World Cup final in a pub in Balham, London. I had three pints of beer. These cost £1.59 each, and together they cost the equivalent of A$12. I watched the semi-final in a faux Irish pub in Shibuya. During this I had two pints of beer, each of which cost about as much as all three put together did here in London. (They were ¥800 each).

This isn't a fair comparison between Tokyo and London, of course. I know London well, and that includes knowledge of where to get a cheap beer. And although I was in a perfectly nice part of London, it was not central and not all that upmarket, whereas I watched the match in Tokyo in a neighbourhood that was both these things. If I had watched the game in a theme pub in an expensive part of London, my pints of beer would have cost about £2.80 ($A7.00) or so each, still less than Tokyo, but not by so huge a margin

My laptop is working. Yay. But I am still in the market for a new one



This looks like a sunrise or a sunset, but it isn't. It is actually mid afternoon, and the 747 is actually inside the arctic circle, so it is dark below us, but it is possible to see the light of day to the south if you are 36000 feet above the ground. In fact, the view out the plane window looked like that for three or four hours.

Observations

I have a lot on my plate at the moment, and as a consequence I am blogging short pieces about fairly lighthearted stuff. This is not so much due to time constraints as due to the fact that I don't feel like putting intense mental effort into it.

More good things

I had never flown Japan Airlines before, and I have to say I was rather impressed. On the (day) flight back from Tokyo to London, they had a "self serve corner", where passengers could just walk up and help themselves to chocolate bars, other snacks, and non-alcoholic drinks without having to ask a flight attendant.

All that said, one thing that regular fliers learn is that one should never be shy about asking cabin attendents for things. If you want another drink, just ask and they will give you one. Still, the self serve option is nice, and I have never seen it in economy class before. It was interesting to see just how fast the stuff went, too. People genuinely do seem bashful about pressing the "call flight attendant" button.

I have seen it in business class, but there it is almost redundant, as business class cabin attendants are pretty much constantly bringing you stuff without your having to ask for it. (Amongst other things, this means that getting drunk in business class requires no conscious effort).

I have never flown first class, so I can't comment on that. Presumably that will have to wait until my Hollywood career really gets going.

Apologies

A technical problem (to do with my laptop - not the camera) is preventing me from posting pictures right now. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

More Japanese details

On Monday morning I went to Shinjuku station and purchased a ticket for the bus to Narita airport. There was about ten minutes to wait before the bus left, and I put my suitcase into the care of a staff member of the bus company (who gave me a luggage receipt) and I went off to a vending machine to buy a drink. When I came back, the man in charge of my suitcase was holding a wooden mallet and he grabbed my attention, pointing to the bottom of my suitcase. My suitcase is rather old and has been handled roughly at times, and one of the little legs on the case designed to allow it to stand on its side had come partially off. This had been noticed, and my permission was being asked for him to attempt to fix it. He promptly did so, hitting the little rivet that held the leg back into its appropriate position.

Little things like this happen all the time when you are in Japan. The Japanese care about details.

Redirection

I have a piece on the rugby World Cup final over at Samizdata.

Feedback

It's always nice to actually talk to readers, and see what people get out of this blog. Comments are a help, but they only give you one side of it. Often you get a lot of comments when people disagree with something that you wrote, or in which people want to add something. Pieces on stuff that people don't know anything about will usually not get many comments, which does not mean that the post was not appreciated or liked. At the recent blogger gathering in Sydney, two people gave me nice pieces of feedback. One person commented that he liked my stuff on architecture and urban design. Another commented that he had enjoyed my writing about my visit to the Basque country earlier this year (much of which was about architecture and urban design, although he didn't say if that was the particular bit he liked). It was nice to get this feedback, as that aspect of my blogging does not usually get as many comments as some other aspects do, and because these are some of the subjects I enjoy writing about the most. So thanks.

Back in London

After a door to door journey of about 19 hours, I arrived back in London yesterday evening. Of course, my memory card was waiting for me in a package beside the door. My camera now tells me that it has space in memory for 347 pictures, which would have been useful when I was in Tokyo. Memory capacity was less of an issue in Australia, as I was able to connect to a PC and save to disk every evening. As it was, I took a fair few analogue pictures in Tokyo using the SLR, so readers may have to wait a few days for some of those. I have a few digital pictures as well, so some of those soon. The 347 pictures is for 1.2 Mpixel mode. Alternately I can have 208 pictures at 2.0 Mpixels, 138 at 3.0 Mpixels, or 69 at 4.0 Mpixels. That should be plenty, I think.

Departures

The busiest airport in Asia (by far) is Tokyo Haneda airport. This carries around the same number of passengers per year as London Heathrow, but few people who have not lived in Japan have ever heard of it. The reason for this is that it is a purely domestic airport (the one exception being that flights to Taiwan used to depart from it, although I am not sure if this is still the case). Haneda is right next to Tokyo bay, and to get to it you go on a monorail that goes along the edge of Tokyo Bay through a landscape of smelters and other industrial artifacts. And when you get there, you find that it is indeed a major airport.

If, however, you wish to fly to anywhere outside Japan, you depart from Narita airport, which in terms of passenger movements is about half the size of Haneda, which is similar to London Gatwick. (For many years attempts to expand the airport were held up by rice farmers who refused to sell the land on which the extensions were to be built. Farmers are an incredibly powerful political lobby group in Japan, probably even more so than in France). And it is an immensely long way out of the city, being about 100km north. This means that getting to and from the airport is time consuming and expensive, which is extremely annoying.

But this morning it wasn't so bad. I caught the bus from Shinjuku station to Narita, and we went along the edge of Tokyo Bay, and then across the Rainbow Bridge, and across a few other bridge and causeway connected islands from the south of central Tokyo to the north. The weather was beautiful and the bay sparkled and the city was beautiful. (Beautiful is not a word you would always connect with this city). Then we went north through the industrial landscape of Chiba - somewhat lighter industry than nearer Haneda, but not especially light in absolute terms. I suppose I could have stopped off in Chiba to get some Zeiss Ikon eyes installed, but time was short. So on to the airport, where I am now.

Tokyo is of course a maritime city and a great port, but people who visit do not always fully appreciate this. The city is an immense mass of concrete, to put it bluntly, and the major attractions do not have anything to do with the water. However, a walk along the waterfront is a fine thing to do, as everywhere. Like everywhere else, Tokyo has had waterfront redevelopment since the retreat of container shipping. (Something I promised to write about previously but have not yet gotten around to). And, perhaps amazingly, one finds a little evidence of the past on sections of the waterfront. There is even a few remnants of World War 2 if you look carefully - gun emplacements and that kind of thing.

But I have a plane to board. To London.

Unpleasantness

And yes, the atrocity in Istanbul fills me with rage. I don't think the barbarians who do things like this can be argued or reasoned with. You just have to fight.

A great afternoon

The same sorts of people who go to Camden markets in London on a Sunday afternoon go to Harajuku on a Sunday afternoon in Tokyo. The two places contain the same sorts of shops full of iconic popular culture, and the same mixture of (very) independent stores, multinationals, cool definers, and cool hunters, feeding on and spitting out something close to ground zero in street culture. This is recognised by lots of people, and one consequence of this is that you see many Japanese in Camden Town in London. Possibly the British do not recognise this in the same way - there are plenty of westerners in Harajuku on a Sunday, but they do not seem to be British dominated in the same way Asians in Camden are Japanese dominated. Or maybe they do, and Harajuku is full of Londoners but my senses are not intense.

I find this cultural ground zero quality of certain places fascinating. I am not of it myself - I am about the least cool person in existence - but as an observer I am drawn to it. I don't quite know why.

More on this, and photos, when I return to London.

Redirection

I have a piece on watching the Australian Rugby team's magnificent victory over New Zealand from Tokyo over at ubersportingpundit.

Me.....Want.....

I spent the morning in Akihabara, the section of Tokyo devoted to selling the latest products of the Japanese consumer electronics industry, many of them not available and never to be seen in the rest of the world. I am in the market for a new laptop (and my travails so far in attempting to get one would fill a small and very funny book), and I utterly fell in love with a gorgeous little widescreen model that was in my price range and had all the features I wanted. All the features, that is, except the England version of Microsoft Windows. You see, this was a Japan only model. Grrrrr.

As a place, though, Tokyo blows the mind. There is nowhere else remotely like it.

Why I love to come to Japan

I am presently in an internet cafe in a Virgin Megastore in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. Shinjuku isn't my favourite part of Tokyo (although there is nothing wrong with it - it's an entertainment and retail district, but not as much fun - and not quite as surreal - as the younger districts of Shibuya and Harajuku).

William Gibson talks about Tokyo as the place where the future happens first. People have asked him whether this is still so after the Japanese economy's disasters of the last decade, and he says that yes, it is, and yes, it is in the small details. (He outlines the position in this three year old article from the Observer, amongst other places).

But, an example. I drink a lot of Diet Coke - probably a couple of cans a day. And I stress cans. Drinks in cans stay properly cold and keep their fizz. Drinks in plastic bottles do not. (Drinks in glass bottles are fine, but these are nowadays fairly uncommon). If I buy a drink from a shop or petrol station or vending machine for immediate consumption, I want it in a can. Plastic bottles are not good enough. However, in recent years more and more shops have started selling drinks in plastic bottles instead of cans. I don't know why they do this. Perhaps they think that bottles look nicer in the refrigerator, or perhaps they are cheaper, or something. Whatever the situation, I think it is one of those situations where the people in charge do not understand the situation because they are not big fizzy drinks consumers themselves. I have certainly had peculiar conversations once or twice when I have asked for a can of Coke, have been told that there are only plastic bottles, and have then asked for something else, or nothing. It is not been understood that a plastic bottle is not to me an equivalent product. It is widely understood by consumers, however. I have certainly heard other Coke drinkers complain. (Oddly, this same state of affairs has not occurred with beer. It is widely appreciated by people both buying and selling beer that beer is ruined by bein consumed from a plastic bottle, and they are not generally sold).

Interestingly enough, I yesterday morning for some reason had a conversation about why I didn't like drinking Coke from plastic bottles, and she agreed with me. I then got on a plane, flew to Tokyo, got off the plane, and bought a Coke from a vending machine. To my initial annoyance, I discovered that it was in a bottle.

Then I picked it up from the bottom of the machine. The bottle was made of aluminium. But it is definitely a bottle, with a screw top, a neck, and a wider base below. (Photo will be provided when I have returned to London). When in Australia and England, the industry that serves me drinks seems unaware that there is a problem in this small detail of life, in Japan the problem has been recognised. And the problem has been solved. This is cool. I suppose I should prepare to see these things in the rest of the world soon.

On the other hand, in some other ways Japan is frustrating. One of the most annoying things is that their ATMs still do not generally take foreign cards. (No, I don't know why), I know from past experience (and also from the airport yesterday) that those operated by Citibank do work with foreign cards, although the one at the airport took Mastercard but not Visa. (This type of thing happens from time to time when you travel, which is why I carry a Mastercard as well as Visa and Amex). I am sure that there will be one in Shinjuku somewhere. (If not, I remember the location of one near Roppongi from my last visit). I think I will Google for the location. If I had been sensible, I would have simply got more money at the airport.

Actually, I think the Onion was rather slow to get to this, but their response is as funny as usual

Unlike this (not actually real) guy, I told my Mum about this blog from the first. In actual fact, I think it has given her a slightly more accurate picture of who I really am. In a way, I think she might almost have been relieved if she found a diary of my sexual exploits or similar. As it is, it has just confirmed her (I suspect already extant) suspicions that I am really fascinated by urban design and cheese.

Update: Blogger now has an official policy on what to do if your Mum finds out about your blog.

A great tragedy

My fortnight in Australia is just about over. Tomorrow I fly to Tokyo. I am arriving back in London Monday evening.

Today, I went to the Tyrrell's winery in the Hunter Valley north of Sydney. This winery makes wonderful pinot noir, and I tasted a recent vintage of their best pinot, which was indeed wonderful. As it happened, I had a bottle of the 1984 of the same wine that I had purchased when I was a stokbroker. The man at the winery said it was still probably nice. Therefore, when I got home I got out the bottle, and I looked carefully and noticed it was just a little sticky around the top. I immediately opened the bottle, and sadly the cork had failed completely. The wine was completely ruined. Therefore, I poured a 20 year old bottle of a wonderful wine down the sink. This was a horrible thing to have to do.



Still though, the earlier parts of the day were pretty good. Visiting vineyards is a fine thing to do.



And of course there is the tasting itself.



The latter two pictures were taken at Pepper Tree Wines in the Hunter Valley, another company whose wines I thoroughly recommend. Their cellar door operation is excellent and friendly, too. (They also were kind enough to pull a couple of "not for regular tasting" wines out from under the counter when they realised I knew my wine, too. This actually happens quite often when I go tasting wines at the cellar door, but it is always nice when it does).

Cultural Differences

In Australia we have a television station called SBS, which stands for "Special Broadcasting Service". This station has a charter of being a "multicultural broadcaster", meaning that its programming is supposed to appeal to ethnic minorities. (SBS is owned by the government, and is funded by a mixture of taxpayers money and advertising). Sometimes this is quirky - we get subtitled Argentinian soap operas, giving us an insight into an enormous pop cultural world that people in the English speaking world generally do not see. Sometimes it is things that British people might find ït curious that the "multicultural" word applies to. SBS shows enormous numbers of soccer matches. People of English ancestry in Australia tend not to play soccer, but people who belong from ethnic minorities often do. Certain things about its programing are simply good - SBS has far more international news than any other Australian television channel. And SBS also shows a better selection of foreign language movies than any other television station I have ever seen.

But these too can be quirky. For instance, I just turned on the television. SBS was the first channel that came on. As it happened, I got a Japanese movie starring Takeshi Kitano. He said something in Japanese. The subtitle (rather intriguingly) translated this as "That was my best blowfish". I didn't get the context. Was the blowfish a pet? Were they eating fugu? What exactly makes a particular blowfish the best?

I suppose I should watch the whole movie some time.

Remote controls

Brian Micklethwait comments on the number of remote controls he now has. Most of his commentary is entirely unnecessary, as the photograph of all the remote controls gets the message across instantly because we are all entirely familiar with the situation. Brian also makes an interesting comment that this is an indication of a particular time in history, and that a better solution will likely be found within a few years, and also makes some comments discussing how the number of remote controls alters the relationships between members of familes.

The issue is bigger of course and I could talk about it for hours (This is perhaps a symptom in the break down of a certain type of centralised authority that applies in much wider contexts) but I have no time. However, in my fortnight in Australia one of my jobs has been to rewire, reprogram, set up, plug in, and do goodness knows what to a whole range of electronic devices belonging to various members of my family. (Plus of course I was asked to advise on purchases). I have been asked to do this because I am good at that kind of stuff. Some would say it is because I think in the way that remote controls do (or at least in the way that the people who design remote controls do) rather than the way other people do. I fear that there may be some truth in this. Does this create a new position of authority for me? Not especially. Does it mean that lots of people buy me lunch? Yes.

Entirely gratuitous photograph of me in Sydney so that I can say I posted something today

Important redirection

I have some photos from yesterday's Sydney blogger get together over at Samizdata.

A strange thought

I have made an appointment to see a dentist on Tuesday. I have only just realised that I will be seeing the dentist at 11am on November 11. I really hope that he does not stop in the middle of the dental work for a minute's silence.

Redirection

I have a piece on the Australian test batsmen's good form in the Pura Cup prior to the series against India, particularly talking about Steve Waugh, over at ubersportingpundit.

Redirection

I have a piece on why Canberra's more liberal liquor licensing laws are better than the less liberal laws in New South Wales over at Samizdata.

Redirection

I have a piece mainly on the peculiarities of the points systems used in international cricket tournaments (and why these mean Australia have qualiified for the final of their present series) over at ubersportingpundit.

More photos

I spent the day today with my parents and my sister in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. (My sister lives in a nice house in a beautiful location up in the mountains). The mountains are extremely rugged and quite stunningly beautiful. Sydney was founded in 1788, but it was unable to expand west across the mountains into the great plains on the other side of the mountains because the mountains were found to be impassable, or so it appeared. The story Australians are taught at school is that three fine chaps named Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson bravely set out and in 1813 found a route across the mountains, and the settlement of Australia could continue.

This was pretty much true. Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson did indeed find a route across the mountains. However, these days we are uncertain that they were the first Europeans to do so. (Of course, indigenous Australians had likely been crossing the mountains for thousands of years). In fact it appears that there were two earlier explorers who (separately) manged to cross. However, one was an escaped convict and the other was French, so it is perhaps fairer to say that Blaxland, Wentworth, and Lawson were the first politically acceptable people to find a route through the mountains.

Soon after the three explorers found the route, Governor Lachlan Macquarie declared that a road should be built across the mountains. Australia was a penal settlement at the time, and a team of convict labourers were set about the task. A very effective incentive scheme was set up to get the road built fast. The convicts were told that they would be freed if the road was built within six months. It was built in this time and they were freed. Of course, it was a very rough road at the time. However, the highway that now crosses the mountains (which follows a single ridge across the mountains) follows almost exactly the same route. (There is another major road that follows a different ridge a little to the north).

In any event, the town of Katoomba is the largest town in the mountains, and in it is a place called Echo Point, which is famous for its beautiful views of the mountains in general and in particular of a rock formation called the three sisters. Here I am at this point earlier today.



Sadly, the way I have not tucked in my shirt properly and the way I am leaning back make the photo perhaps unflattering to me. At least, that's my story and I am sticking to it.

My mother photographed nicely, however.



Charles Darwin once visited, and his words about the view have been engraved on a rock.



Nearby, we have a gloriously kitsch relic from the earlier days of this tourist resort. It is a shelter, with bench style chairs inside for people to sit inside, made in the shape of a large rock. (You can see a person sitting in side if you look carefully).



After seeing the view, my family and I adjourned to a nice outdoor cafe in the nearby town of Leura. (Leura is smaller than Katoomba, but adjacent and full of nice houses and shops. Leura is sort of the Beverly Hills of Katoomba).



After this, we went to visit the first Krispy Kreme outside North America, which is at Penrith at the base of the mountains.





My goodness those doughnuts are sweet. My mother has been alternately cursing and eating them since we bought them. My father has just been eating them.

More beer



It's not a wheat beer, so it doesn't taste right for the glass. However, it does kind of look right.

Yes, we finally have a venue

A get together is being held in Sydney this Saturday evening to commemorate the fact, and to allow a whole lot of people who know each other electronically to actually meet one another. A wide assortment of Australian (and other) bloggers will be present. Any additional bloggers and/or readers who will be in the area and would like to come are more than welcome.

When: Saturday November 8 at 6:30 pm until probably quite late.

Where: The Three Wise Monkeys Hotel at 555 George St, Sydney.

Who: Everybody is welcome.

Any questions: Please contact me here

Fame

I think I must nominate this as "Most intriguing blog on which I have been blogrolled"

Update: I left a comment stating that I was intrigued (but not displeased) to be blogrolled from an all Japanese blog. Nobody posted a response, but I now seem to have been removed from the blogroll. Curious.

More good things about Australia

Spirited Away is out on DVD here. It only cost me the equivalent of about £8, too. As I write, my mother is watching it, and seems to be enjoying it immensely.

Update: The eight year old girl from next door also appears to be enjoying it immensely. Miyazaki is a wonderful filmmaker.

A thought

I have only been taking beer seriously for 18 months or so. Part of it has been that I have had a medical problem that means my stomach doesn't cope well with anything acidic, and beer is gentler on it than is wine. Part of it is that I have had to watch how much money I spend, and drinking beer - even good beer - is cheap compared to drinking good wine or whisky, which can be horribly expensive. Even the best beer only costs two or three pounds a bottle.

However, the nice thing is that I have discovered that the world of beer is rich and interesting.

Prior to leaving Australia, I drank beer from time to time, but didn't think about it much. I generally just drank middle of the road lagers, and more interesting beer less regularly. Although I had drunk Coopers occasionally, and it was clearly good beer, I had never thought about it much. It's much cloudier than Australian mass produced beers, and has a rather maltier taste than the lagers, although it isn't a wheat beer. It isn't ale, either, and although the bottled versions are bottle conditioned, they are much bubblier than English bottle conditioned beers.

However, over the last year I have been drinking lots of beer abroad, and I have been wondering just how the Coopers actually compares. Guides to the world's beers often list it, and say that it is very good, but my previous experience of it were prior to all the interesting beers I have consumed in the last while. However, I have still been known to bring the beer up if someone chose to knock Australian beer. "You should try this one. It's very good" is always a useful argument.

But, yesterday, I had the chance. I went to a pub in the Sydney neighbourhood of Newtown, and there was a replay of Australia beating India at cricket on the TV screen, and Coopers sparkling ale on tap. What more could I want. My memories and the beer books were correct. The beer was indeed very good. You should try it.

Redirection

I have a report on the Australian cricket team's one day victory over India, and also a cricket news roundup over at ubersportingpundit.

Only 44% ?



(Via Stephen Karlson).

Frustrations

As I may have mentioned, I recently concluded that I really needed a memory card for my digital camera, as the internal 16Mb memory is pifflingly inadequate in any situation when I want to go away from my computer for more than a day or so. However, upon getting frustrated by the absurd prices charged by British high street, I ordered a card and a card reader from an internet retailer in Jersey, which quoted me an excellent price. However, there turned out to be a catch. Which was that I was leaving for Australia. And oddly, I wanted to have the memory card to take with me to Australia.

I ordered the memory card on a Friday, and I was leaving on a Wednesday. That should have been plenty of time. I was heartened to receive an e-mail the next day (Saturday) telling me that my order had been dispached, and I therefore eagerly looked forward to being able to store 64 four megapixel pictures in the camera instead of merely 8. The e-mail also contained a brief statement that the order might be sent in more than one package due to the way their warehouse system worked. This is normal. A lot of internet retailers say that, and it was nothing to worry about.

Thus, when a package fell through the mail slot on my door on Tuesday morning. I was happy. Yay. Memory card. But of course, when I opened it up, I found it only contained the card reader. (Well, that and a complimentary pen with the URL of the retailer written on the side). Damn. They had dispached two packages. (They didn't tell me this by e-mail. Amazon for instance always do. That is one point for Amazon). And I was going to Australia the next day. Still, there was some hope. And perhaps I would get another free pen in the second package.

And hey, I had the card reader. I was able to plug it into my USB hub, and install the driver software. When I did this, a little green LED came on on the card reader. (Of course, a blue LED would have been much cooler but it would also have cost a few pence more for the manufacturer). I turned it on and off a few times. The card reader looked so cute, just sitting there beside the laptop.



But of course, there are certain problems with having a card reader and no actual cards to read. Of course, the memory card didn't come the next day either, and I departed for Australia without it. I have brought my laptop with me to Australia, so I should be able to simply download my pictures to my hard disk whenever the camera gets full. But still, it's frustrating. And of course, the memory card is probably now sitting beneath the mail slot at home in London.

Or maybe not. For all this probably actually isn't the fault of the internet retailer. Part of it may be that mail takes a day or so longer to come from Jersey than from the British mainland. Most of it, however, is that Britain is having a postal strike. (John Major wanted to privatise the Royal Mail a decade or so ago. It's a shame he didn't succeed. At that point the Royal Mail was still quite a good organisation, but it has gone badly downhill since then, due partly to the government demanding excessive dividends in the good times and due to a lack of investment). In some ways, Britain is a frustrating country.

Miscellanea

There is a certain type of really dumb movie this is if anything somehow improved by being watched on an aeroplane dubbed into Japanese.

One of the other films on the plane was Terminator 3, which was subtitled rather than dubbed. Presumably certain qualities of Governor Schwarzenegger's stilted English with an Austrian accent dialogue are not really translateable.

Annoyingly, I can only ftp to the webspace given to me by my English ISP if I am actually connected via that ISP, which means I cannot upload pictures right now. I shall very soon get some alternative webspace sorted out, hopefully.

Redirection

I have a piece on the security procedures required to use the internet cafe at Tokyo Narita airport over at White Rose.

I am now in Australia

My laptop is not in a very good way. For the first year or so of its existence, I lugged it around with me all over the place, and it got a little bit of wear and tear as a consequence of this. In fact, it eventually received a lot of wear and tear, so for the last nine months or so I have been using it simply as a desktop PC. It is now too fragile for carrying around. However, on this trip to Australia I really needed to bring it with me. Therefore I packed it very carefully amongst some of my soft clothes. I also packed a toolkit and a soldering iron just in case there was trouble. I then came to the conclusion that the fact that I am unwilling to travel with my laptop unless I have a soldering iron with me is really an indication that I need a new laptop.

The laptop is working okay, however. It didn't suffer any damage when in transit.

Being in the right place at the right time

As it happened, I was flying in a northern great circle over northern Siberia from London to Tokyo yesterday evening. This is an interesting place to be if the earth is about to be hit by the third greatest solar storm on record, because that means aurora. As it happened, most of the passengers were asleep, but I was playing an electronic game on the video screen in front of me. A stewardess came up to me, pointed out the window, and said something completely incomprehensible. I looked at her in a puzzled fashion and then she went away for a moment (presumably to ask someone else how to pronounce the word) and came back again. She then pronounced it again, and I still couldn't quite get it (Are you asking me to look at the Aral Sea? At night?). Then of course I was smart enough to actually look out the window. Oh, aurora. (The word is not an easy one to pronounce if you are Japanese, I suspect, given all the r sounds in it). I thanked her profusely, and then watched it for a while. Okay, I have never seen a major aurora before, so I have nothing to really compare it with. I doubt it was an extremely spectacular aurora as these things go, and I wouldn't describe it as quite the most spectacular thing I have ever seen, but it was certainly quite interesting. There were sort of vertical yellowy streaks covering much of the sky to the north, and there was a sort of misty yellowy reddish structure closer to the horizon. These were not espeically bright colours, but the whole thing was quite striking. It was visible in a substantial portion of the sky.

Mission not accomplished

Sadly, I was not able to find the toy in question in any of the stores I looked in. (Two of these were chain stores that were claimed to stock it, too). The British high street is a fine, fine, thing.

I'm on a mission

The five year old son of a friend of mine wants a Thunderbird 1 Electronic Playset for his birthday. These are all sold out in Australia. I received a plaintive e-mail from his father this morning, asking would I please try to buy one in England and bring it to Australia with me. My flight leaves Heathrow at 6.45pm, and I still have a little packing to do. Will I achieve this task and make a spoiled five year old happy? Tune in later to find out.

Meanwhile, back in Australia

Sasha Castel is being attacked by birds. And just think, I am going there tomorrow. (At least, I am leaving here tomorrow. I am not arriving until Friday).

On the other hand, wait until Sasha meets a plover.

Redirection

I have a piece at ubersportingpundit entitled "More thoughts on the rugby World Cup format, and will the Japanese ever play cricket?"

Update: I also have a more normal cricket update, mainly on the ultimately drawn match between Pakistan and South Africa.

An interesting afternoon

Yesterday afternoon I went on a tour of St Pancras Chambers, formerly the Grand Midland Hotel, which is essentially part of the structure of St Pancras Station, and one of the great Victorian buildings of London. I have written about St Pancras Station before, but it is an extraordinarily grand station, and the hotel was an extraordinarily grand hotel. It has been closed as a hotel since before the second World War, and for any regular use at all for 25 years or so, but you see the remnants or grandeur.



Walking through that section of London, you see this great Victorian structure, and you wonder at its magnificence, and about how rundown it is and why it is so rundown. You walk into St Pancras Station itself, and you wonder something similar. The single arch of the trainshed is the most magnificent in London (on indeed just about anywhere) but there are only a small number of platforms being used, the station looks like it could use a coat of paint, and there are a small number of trains coming and going. It is not like King's Cross station next door, which is architecturally less distinguished but absolutely bustling with people coming and going at all times. (Kings Cross has a second, even less architecturally distinguished trainshed that was built in 1875 and is usually used for suburban and short distance services to Cambridge or similar). The question "Why is this?" is one that I had asked many times, and that was one reason I went on the tour yesterday. (Talking to some of the other people on the tour this was a not uncommon reaction. Quite a few of the people on the tour were people who had walked down Euston Road and just wondered).




The magnificence of St Pancras compared to King's Cross was something that was noticed by the producers of the Harry Potter films. The mythical Hogwarts Express departs from platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross, which is supposedly located between platforms 9 and 10. Sadly, platforms 9 and 10 are in the unimpressive looking suburban section of the station. However, the second Harry Potter film uses St Pancras both for internal and External shots, presumably because a location scout went to Kings Cross, wandered around, and obseved that St Pancras was much more impressive to look at. (It seems that J.K Rowling herself did not to a location scouting exercise before writing the book. A friend once told me that she heard that Rowling was actually thinking of Euston when she wrote the book, but I haven't verified this).

And, yesterday I was able to find out. The Midland Railway had was a major operation in the Midlands, but it came to London rather late, opening its main line in 1868. By that time the Great Northern had served King's Cross since 1851 and the London & Birmingham (later absorbed into the London & Northwestern) had served Euston since 1838. Apparently the Midland wanted to really make a splash when they entered London, and one way they did this was by building a hugely impressive station and a hugely impressive building. But although St Pancras station was very grand, it was never as important or as busy as the Great Northern or the London & Northwestern. (Still, it was more busy than it is today until services from Bedford that had previously terminated at St Pancras were diverted underground to south London on the "Thameslink" line in 1988). And the hotel was a stunning building, but even when it opened it was in some ways not very modern, having no central heating (coal fires being preferred) and the rooms not having their own toilet facilities (chamberpots being used instead). If the building had been built ten years later, both of these features would have been different, and the hotel may have survived a lot longer, but as it happened it closed as a hotel in 1935. It had various other uses subsequently but it was closed to all full time use for safety reasons around 25 years ago. In some ways these "other uses" did not have the greated effects on the building, as (for instance) some of the beautiful stencil work on the ceilings and walls were covered with standard issue BR paint. Worse, it seems that there may be some quite beautiful artwork under some of the paint as well, but nobody is really sure. And why would you cover a marble column with white paint?



Oddly, enough, however, when you go inside the building, sections of it are quite familiar, as it has been used as a setting for many film, television, and fashion shoots over the years. Most notably it was used as the setting for the Spice Girls' music video for "Wannabe", in which the hotel is doubling for, well, a grand hotel. I haven't seen that video for a few years. After yesterday, I want to look at it again, now that I have seen the location firsthand. This is at least partly because that video was done entirely as a single shot, and given the physical layout of the hotel I think that may have been awkward.

In any event, the building is quite run down but interesting. The grand staircase is indeed grand, the arches of the windows and the art on the ceiling is almost religious in quality (Sir George Gilbert Scott, the architect who designed the building, was also a church architect, and you can tell).





Unfortunately, about 25 years ago, British Rail auctioned off all the furniture, despite the building's heritage listing also covering the furniture. They just did this. Therefore, the main dining room (and the coffee lounge downstairs) of the hotel are now just bare rooms.



Apparently, Oscar Wilde was once eating dinner in this room, when word arrived that the Marquess of Queensbury's men were downstairs, and were threatening to come in and trash the place if Wilde didn't leave. According to the guide, Wilde was a gentleman so he left and the place wasn't trashed.

Also, the Australian and India cricket teams stayed in the hotel in 1930. Apparently the Indian team caused all sorts of problems for the staff by practising in the corridors. I do not know if the Australian team also practised in the corridors, but somehow I hope so. Walking along the corridors, there is something appealing about the idea that Sir Donald Bradman himself may have once waved a bat just there.

The Grand Midland Hotel was one of the first buildings in London with elevators. Of course, being posh and British they weren't prepared to actually call them elevators. Some other name had to be invented.



So what now? What is happening to this grand old building?

The second stage of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link into London is presently being built through a tunnel into central London. Services are going to terminate at St Pancras, and the station (and the area around it) is being massively redeveloped. When it is all complete, there will be 13 platforms at St Pancras, and it will be receiving the trains from the Midlands it receives now, trains from Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and no doubt elsewhere in continental Europe, plus fast domestic services from various places in Kent. St Pancras will be perhaps the most important railway station in London, for the first time in its history. Apparently the roof of the train shed is going to be painted the same dark blue it was in 1868, and it is going to be even more busy than Kings Cross next door.

This has led to an opportunity to restore the old Grand Midland Hotel to something of its former glory as well. The Mariott hotel group won the contract to take it over. A modern medium budget hotel is to be built on a brownfield site behind the British library and next to St Pancras chambers, and this is to be connected to the foyer of the old building. This is presumably the major money making part of the venture. The old building itself is to be restored into a mixture of apartments and a luxury hotel. At least, that is the story. Looking at the old building, such a restoration is likely to be very expensive and time consuming. There are apparently extensive discussions going on between English Heritage and the hotel groups as to just what they will be allowed to do. (For instance, if it is to be converted back into a hotel it is going to need modern plumbing). It remains slightly up in the air as to what is going to happen.

However, inevitably, something will happen. A depressed and rather nasty area of London is going to turn into a modern, developed, and not run down at all part of the city, through this and other developments nearby. Already there is a lot of construction going on - both of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, an upgrade of the Kings Cross underground station, and other work. The British Library (foreground below) is one nice public building in the area already.



There are various other planned transport upgrades that go through the Kings Cross area. The Thameslink 2000 upgrade has an important hub just under St Pancras. The Chelsea/Hackney railway (also known as Crossrail line 2) also is planned to go through Kings Cross. If all this happens, Kings Cross becomes the most important transport hub in London. And it may take a couple of decades, but inevitably it will eventually all happen. At which point St Pancras station and St Pancras Chambers will become an interesting Victorian gothic structure in the middle of what will be one of London's key centres of modernism. Which should be as a minimum quite interesting.

Redirection

I have a piece on Britain's woefully uncompetitive high street over at Samizdata.

Redirection

Cricket update (mainly on Australia's one day loss to India) over at ubersportingpundit.