emchi.co.uk

Having spotted a news item today, I was somewhat shocked to find out that I’m fluent in a language I didn’t know.  Nerdic.

Nerdic, apparently, is the language of Nerds (yeah, you’d never have guessed that would you now).  It means the person is fluent in all things technological.  Like Wi-Max (yes I know what that is), Dongle (they say it’s a new word but Dongles have been around for years) and 3G.  Well stone me, everything on the list I read I knew about.  Eeeks.  Now speculation on whether or not I can include “Fluent in Nerdic” on my CV.  What say you readers?

More about this item can be found in the following locations:
http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/14022/15046/nerdic-geek-speak-fastest-growing-language.phtml
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/parlezvous+nerdic/2030047

Now isn’t that telling? The BBC news website uses Movable Type as it’s blog engine… Now if only they’d do something about the load time so I could post a comment… if I can’t get it to post, and anybody is interest, the blog entry can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/03/talking_to_sir_tim.html.  The comment I was about to post is basically “Tor of Cism” is an anagram of “Microsoft”…

Reading between the lines, Tim Berners Lee uses a Mac Laptop, he sees Microsoft as part of the problem, not the solution and that we’re heading for an impase on the internet in less it becomes a lot more open.  Well that’s just my take on what the blog post said.

I wish the post had been a bit longer, and I’m bound to miss the TV segment. 

Somebody please remind me to post something about Google spidering information, for some reason I’m getting tons of hits (quality over quantity here), following this post (over 70 in an hour is un-heard of on this blog) and the one about Huf Haus… You lot (yes the ones that read down beyond the first paragraph), are probably thinking I’m another boring blogger… you’d probably be right there.

UPDATE If you would like to see the map in full, please go to this link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/17_03_08_webmap.pdf When printed out, one of the commenters on the BBC blog is absolutely right, the Tor of Cism is right in the middle of Mordor, exactly where it belongs I would imagine.

Firstly can I just say, if the RIAA and other nazi money grabbers want people to stop downloading things illegally, they should make more things available through legal channels to download.  I downloaded Emotional Technology by BT a couple of weeks ago, and have listened to it non-stop for the last two weeks, it has everything I need to keep me focused at work.  So I thought, what else has this guy done? ’cause I knew I had a couple of his tracks on some old Gatecrasher and Cream CD’s.

So off to Amazon I go, just to see if there’s anything on there that I had missed, and I found a whole cache of CD’s.  Only they weren’t cheap.  I know that iTunes, my download engine of choice, had very few BT albums available for download, practically none in fact. So what is a girl to do? If I want music, I want it pretty immediately, not have to wait almost a week for Amazon or Play to cough up my CD’s.  Play’s now doing a download service but theirs had less of a selection than iTunes did. 

So I ended up getting one of the albums through another site, I question it’s legallity, although I have paid for the music, and downloaded it through proper channels, I suspect it’s probably dubious.  So far it hasn’t let me down on the ability to download music I haven’t been able to find through iTunes. 

I like some odd music, I’ll openly admit that a large chunk of what I like cannot be found through mainstream channels, I use Audio Jelly occasionally to find what I’m looking for, but my tastes are normally a bit too mainstream for it.  Can you see the irony? To eclectic for iTunes, too main stream for Audio Jelly.  I’m sure that if I were able to buy music from iTunes in the US I’d have no problems whatsoever in getting what I want most of the time.  However just like most things I’m unable to purchase and download stuff from US sites.

You would think with the Internet being a global phenominon that the TV stations and music distributors would do more to open up their boarders.  What do they want 17 pieces of identification before you can pay and download something that you would otherwise be forced to download illegally?  I read the other day that BBC is opening up it’s iPlayer to a global audience, well I think I did, I hope I wasn’t dreaming it, so why can’t the US stations do the same?  There’s a demand, so why can’t these people supply, rather than jumping up and down about people downloading illegally.

I would happily pay a season pass fee to download what I want, at the end of the day, it either doesn’t get shown, or I get moaned at for watching what I want occasionally.  So to download it and watch it from the privacy of my Mac would be fine for me. 

Anyway, I had orginially intended for this post to be about the BT album I downloaded over the weekend, it’s brilliant, not quite as good as Emotional Technology, but still as mellow and uplifting as it.  It’s called ECSM in case any of you are interested.  I have to say I love the first track, it reminds me of some of the Spy Game sound track, haunting vocals with an ethnic twist to them that are chilling yet also soothing at the same time.

I love a good conspiracy theory.  Can’t help myself.  You know the normal things like was there someone on the grassy knowl? Was it really the titanic that sank? So when I picked up a book by James Rollins last year I never expected that the book would mean I wanted to end up buying books that are filled full of Nazi conspiracy theories or dare I say it, ones about Quantum Mechanics (ok so point and fact that I haven’t book the one on Quantum Evolution, as that’s what it’s really about, mainly because I procrastinated for so long it’s now out of print! curse it!!).

Anyway, I’m currently reading a book about the Bell, which is rumoured to be a device developed under the Nazi’s that has inexplicable powers (I say this because nobody knows what’s happened to it, only that it did exist).  There’s tons of conspiracy theory in there, and lots of information about the various technologies that the Nazi’s were developing.  Before I carry on, I don’t condone the Nazi’s but as I said, I love a good conspiracy theory and I love science & technology.

I can’t tell you much about the book yet, but I guess I picked it up in the hope that it might give me some ideas about writing.  I have lots of little ideas in my head but they go nowhere, so I need a theme, a pique, something that will grab my head and a whole story will come flooding out of it.  Given that I loved John Twelve Hawks books, James Rollins latest books and various other books that are pseudo-sci-fi (i.e. they’ve got a bit of science fiction in there, but not enough to make it a bona fide sci-fi book).

I have to focus, I have a goal this year and that’s to write more.  I’m not really doing well so far, mainly because the move down here has been the only thing on my mind really.  However I’m going to try really hard to start thinking about writing again.  Picking up my writers notebook and making little meme’s to myself.  I’ve already started by attacking the word of the day on dictionary.com.  So perhaps I should challenge myself on here to write something each day.  Not that I often seek responses from people, but what are your thoughts?

To those it may concern, i.e. you know who you are.  Would you kindly refrain from trawling my blog for information you’re never going to find.  You were never going to find it, even the day you went searching for specific search terms, yes I do know what you were looking for and when you were looking for it.  One thing you cannot say about me is that I don’t know my way around technology, least of all my own website. 

Yes, I have banned your direct IP address range from viewing this blog, because you do not come here with the interest of reading what I am actually saying but hoping that I will do or say something that would provide you with more ammunition than you already had.  The matter in question is done, it’s been dealt with, get over it.  Yes I know with the wonders of Google you can view cached pages, just not the full site.  I know I cannot kick ban every IP address range you may have come from so that’s why you maybe reading this.

All I would say on the matter is that your behaviour was abominable, I am utterly disappointed that you would condone such behaviour of other people and allow a situation to become so out of hand that it ended in the way that it did.  Get on with your own lives, there will be someone else you can gossip about and treat poorly sooner than you think.

I’ve been watching something on BBC4 on Biotechnology, fascinating stuff.  Anyway, they’re talking about knowing your genetic makeup.  Being able to know what your future holds for you.  They also go on to talk about living for longer. 

Now the immediate question that comes to my mind is would you want to know what you’re likely to die of?  Would you not spend a disproportionate amount of time worrying about what you’re going to die from and not getting on with the business of living life?  My personal thoughts on the subject would be that I don’t particularly want to know if I have something life changing, in less there’s some way to treat it, otherwise it’s another thing to worry about.  It’s not as if I’m living in denial, but I wouldn’t want something severe to cloud my life.  If it happens, then it happens, and I’ll deal with it if it does.

The other question that was posed regarding being able to live longer threw up all kinds of thoughts and problems, like would you have to work for longer? would you be able to work longer? why would you want to live that long? and various other stupid thoughts.  One professor posed a better question, “What would you do with that time if you had it available to you?”  Now there’s a question that should be the egg rather than the chicken (given that I always think the egg comes first).  Think about what you’re going to do with something before you provide the ability to do it.  Given society’s ability to abuse these things, perhaps that’s a question that should be answered before we go about making the anti ageing solution to end all solutions, perhaps we should question what we are to do with the time.

Do these thoughts then bring in a whole new level of sociological implications to the evolution of society? Well obviously, but the cascading thought process that comes into “what if?” starts to make your head hurt, OK so it makes my head hurt.  I must be utterly abnormal to think things like this are remotely interesting.  I have no idea why the prospect of these things interest me, more so than the latest fashion. 

I’ve just been reading on BBC news online, something about blanket wi-fi coverage across the UK being open to all. The article mentions that several analysts have suggested that it might be the next dot com failure. There are various reasons cited for this, interoperability, patchy coverage etc. I would suggest the reason why it might fail is due to the difficulty in moving from one providers zone to another. You cannot currently seem to buy a “roaming” wi-fi pass that allows you to access lots of different providers networks. Why aren’t they thinking of this? If they don’t want to fail, being able to purchase access to wi-fi and allowing the money raised to be shared by the providers who’s networks have been accessed. Should they not look to mobile phone opperators to see what they are doing?

So it wasn’t the TV it was the DVD player… hairy arse nuts…. I wouldn’t be so annoyed but I knew I should have bought the Sony Multi Region… so I’m stuck with a Sony non multi region and a non working multi region tossiba (that was intentional). Bum… and I wanted to watch House of Flying Dagers on my new widescreen tomorrow… oh well n’er mind.

Trying to work out why they’re doing the James Bond season in reverse… hmmm can’t work it out. This one has to have one of my favourite start music (A-ha Living Daylights). Timothy Dalton was a bit under rated, this film’s ok. The one after was a bit squiffy but its good.

So this weekend I will mostly be waiting for delivery of TV and new mobile phone… and working on www.itsnotarace.com - its not my site, but I’m lovingly creating it for Ross to showcase his amazing phots from the Nurburgring. I like the one that’s on there at the mo, and I may be forced to nick the font used… remember, you ain’t seen noffin roight!!

I would love to link to it, I hope I’m not going to get in trouble for it. Just in case here’s two links that they do moan
www.bmw.co.uk
www.telegraph.co.uk

“To Beat the EU ban on right-hand drive cars BMW uninvents the wheel”

“By the end of 2007 you will not be allowed to use a right-hand drive car on the roads of mainland Europe.

It’s a ruling BMW has vigorously opposed, but our lawyers were eventually routed and it was left to our engineers to fight a rearguard action.

Their riposte was one of startling elan: hands-free steering.

It uses a combination of sensors and VAT (Voice Activated Technology) and does away with the steering wheel altogether.

All the dials and controls are mounted in the centre of the dash on a pivoting section which can be angled towards either of the front seats.

While crossing the channel, simply tilt the instrument panel to the left and change seats with your passenger. Pedals are recessed into both footwells, the relevant seeat becoming active when the position of the central section is fixed.

The sensors work as an intermediary between the driver’s eyes and the road and combine with voice command to steer the car wherever you want it to go in complete safety.

Early prototypes were prone to sudden U-turns if the driver swung round to shout at the children in the back, but a satellite monitoring system developed by Dr Bitt-Fischi, our head of R&D, has eradicated this minor flaw.

An additional advantage of the system is a new feeling of liberation for the driver. Indeed, at first this is almost unsettling, so a retractable, padded bar can be elicted from the dash and grasped or leant upon until the driver is fully acclimatized to the unfamiliar freedom.

The hands-free option will be available across the BMW range by next spring, in plenty of time to beat the ban.

If you would like more details in advance, please click on www.uninventthewheel.co.uk or call our Customer Liason Chief, Herr Huhr-Huhr, on 0800 777 129.”

I’m not a dumb blonde (well not much of one), so I do know this is an April Fool, but bloody hell its funny!!

As promised, a links gallery. It will probably be reshuffeled at some point so please excuse the state at the moment.

Formula One:

ITV F1 News -V. Basic site, not much news and they aren’t on the ball.

BBC Motorsport News - Faster with the news than F1 are but still not much

Telegraph F1 News - Can’t comment as I’ve only been here a couple of times.

Shopping:

Books, Films & Toys
Think Geek Tech Gadgets & Toys - Thinking putty, witty geek t-shirts, caffine products, then this is the place to go

Amazon UK - Has to be THE place to buy books on the net

Play UK for DVD’s - Does for DVD’s what Amazon does for books, only the price you see is the price you pay - no delivery charges

Play USA for Region 1 DVD’s - Region 1 DVD’s only watch out if your purchase is over £17. You’ll get charged import duty by Customs & Excise.

Astrology:

Jonathan Cainer - One of the better Astrologers out there, Daily, Weekly & Monthly Reviews

Susan Miller - Excellent in depth monthly forecasts

Tarot.com Free Daily Horroscopes - America, Daily Horroscopes are ok, and don’t give your name to spammers.

Web Based Messaging Clients:

MSN2Go - The best MSN web based client on the net, it gets through most proxy’s without issue

ICQ To Go - Exactly what it says it is.

AIM Express - AOL on the go-go

Funny Things That are Worth a Look:

B3ta.com - Ever recieve a mail from someone with a photoshopped advert? 95% chance it came from here.

Hair Straightening:
don’t ask, was contemplating getting my hair permanently straightented, didn’t go for it, but these are a few Salon’s in London that offer the service, someone out there might find it useful

Compton Hair - From £150 for Yuko Straightening, now that’s a bargain.

JL Ion Technology - The same kind of thing really, a full list of salons can be found on this site

Chicks Stuff
As I seem to have a collection of links going on my browser here, I think I’ll upload them

Bliss London - Everything they say about it is true and more.

HQ Hair - For you lazy people that can’t be bothered to find a salon that sells your fav products.