Little Storping-in-the-Swuff

So this probably won’t be of much use to readers of the world wide web who might come across this post, unless you happen to live in Lewes, Brighton or Hove. Hence a new Lewes category.

If you do, this widget gets real time bus departures from the council transport site for any stop you nominate, much as the Tubetrack Dashboard Widget can do for National Rail stations.

And for Lewes citizens, this brings us real time information that we could never even have at the bus stops, as they don’t have indicators here… Nice one, Quentin North!

I was delighted when Michael O’Leary threatened to sue the government last week over their absurd security measures. No politician is going to criticise the new regime, because it will rebound on them so badly if there is another attack, regardless of whether mothers sucking baby milk would have prevented it. By contrast, there is political milage to be gained on all sides from an ongoing security crisis, even if it is a perceived rather than a real one.

I’m not saying O’Leary is any less objectionable than the politicians, only more honest. He’s clear that the “safety measures” are losing him money (as they would be even if they were necessary/effective). But at least he’s honest about that.

And at least Ryanair have a sense of humour, announcing: New Airport Security Measures (although the Register picked up on their belated attack of modesty).

Fantastic. I don’t know about the best Doctor Who story of all time (well, I do, in fact, and it’s not this but The Empty Child). It’s too long, with some feeble cliffhangers and those awful scenes in the cave. But Davros is such a wonderful creation, with that speech (“to hold in my hand a capsule that contained such power. To know that life and death on such a scale was my choice… to know that the tiny pressure of my thumb, enough to break the glass, would end everything”). Terrific, and every bit as good as I remembered.

But the DVD extras alone are worth the price of admission: both the documentary on Genesis and The Dalek Tapes. The former with Michael Wisher talking about Daleks as “poor darlings” with their flashing ears Such an expressive, witty chap, so far from Davros! And out of him coming the full range of Dalek voices (there’s “high”, “medium” and “low”). The Dalek Tapes cover each Dalek appearance in production order, and it’s scary how much Nicholas Briggs (current Dalek/Cyberman voice) can detect in the performance of different voice artists.

But as each Dalek story is in the order the Doctor encounters them, I can’t help wondering about the history of the Daleks own timeline, and in particular the question: How much did the Doctor change Dalek history?

And I apologise for the delay to those who were expecting this post 48 hours earlier.

I shall use this as an opportunity: to (try to) learn how to post a video in my blog:

Does it work for you?

This time it’s a baby one.

They’ve got no respect. I spared her Dad’s life last night, and here she is tonight, as cool as custard, watching Genesis of the Daleks with me and then scurrying into the bedroom to hide. Still, on the plus side, the gas man won’t have to call round – he can read the meter right here on my blog.

Worst suggestion so far for dealing with my mice: Lion’s droppings.

Still, at least I don’t have scorpions (like my mum).

Finally caught on film.

I finally faced the moment I knew had to come: the question of whether I could kill it (well, them, in all probability). I had it cornered, and I was ready to bludgeon it to death (after taking its picture, obviously) with a bottle. So could I do it? No, of course not. It’s so infernally cute after all.

And the damnable thing is, having failed to bludgeon it, I can’t now set one of those traps that snap them in half, which I should have done before I saw its twitchy whiskers and bulgy little eyes. No, I’m ashamed to say I let it go in the garden having resolved to continue with my campaign based on humane ultrasonic repeller devices, which patently don’t actually work.

It’s that time of year again – outdoor theatre in a medieval castle. This year we are doing Fielding’s Tom Jones. Hence the signs which read “TOM JONES” in large letters, then, slightly smaller (and bracketed) “the play”, to avoid any embarassment with ladies queuing with their underwear ready for the great man to strike up with “It’s Not Unusual”. Yeah, Tom Jones plays Lewes Castle… Great.

No, it’s an adaptation of the novel that we’re doing, and the director’s worried about how the good people of Lewes will react to all the sex. The landlady of my local stopped by and looked over the wall. “Very Lewes” she said, seeing the bawdy goings on, so that settled that. Several spectators with younger children were leaning over the wall enjoying one of the more energetic scenes Molly “thanks” Tom for his kindness. No kids were whisked away by shocked parents.

I’ve put the pictures I took at the dress last night over on PicasaWeb (still trying it out). Unfortunatley my batteries ran flat before I could get any decent ones. I forgot to charge them up.

Tom Jones

Aug 15, 2006 – 8 Photos

It should be a highly enjoyable show (provided the weather does what it’s supposed to… by no means guaranteed). Gates open 6.30pm, bring a picnic; the performance starts at 7.30pm and is over by 10pm. Descriptions here and here and you can even buy your tickets online for tonight, tomorrow, Friday, or Sat.

There’s a splendidly way out rumour over at MI6.co.uk suggesting that Bond 22 (now titled Four Beddings and an Assassination, presumably) will be written by Richard Curtis of Blackadder and Hugh Grant romcom fame. This follows news last week that Notting Hill director Roger Michell will not direct after all… Well, it’s still got to be better than letting Purvis and Wade get their hands on it.

Legal free music download service eMusic launched in the UK last week, offering tracks free of digital rights managements (DRM). I don’t know what will happen to allofmp3.com in September so I thought I’d take advantage of eMusic’s free 25 track trial. Although eMusic is pricier and almost certainly has a smaller catalogue, I searched for a couple of moderately popular jazz musicians as a test of the kind of music I’d want to buy.

iTunes has the edge still in terms of ease of use, but has two drawbacks: price and DRM. 79p per track for downloads still makes lots of albums more expensive than buying on CD, and although the DRM is unobtrusive, and fine if (like me) you have an iPod, music you buy you should be able to keep when you move to different hardware/software.

eMusic is still easy to use with a nicely designed website and (this is where it has an edge over other competitors) it has a download manager available for Windows and Mac which is easy to install, configure and use. And although its subscription model is expensive for the occasional buyer, with albums costings around £3 the prices will suit regular downloaders.

I don’t know whether I will subscribe after the trial, but on first showing I’m tempted. Incidentally, if you are considering joining, email me and let me recommend it to you. I’m wouldn’t actually recommend it (yet), but if you’re going to join anyway, there’s 50 free downloads in it for me, so why not? And, incidentally, if you do get some Humph, the album common to both eMusic and iTunes, Georgia Mae, which I hadn’t heard of, has a distinctly groovy New Badpenny Blues, guaranteed to annoy the traditionalists and very enjoyable.

This was not as easy as it should have been. The media check failed, (erroneously I believe, as the sha1sum checked out), and then the graphical install wouldn’t work. I managed to get X running by fiddling with /etc/xorg.conf (the trick, if you need it, is to insert the line in the monitor section Option "UseFBDev" "true" and to comment out the horizontal and vertical sync – this doesn’t actually solve the problem, but it allows system-config-display to run and you can then input the correct details). Still, the fact it works is satisfying, even if I have still to get my Airport card configured…