notes: April 2006

Inline Flickr in Delicious

Del.icio.us released two new features today; the "network" view, which moves people subscriptions out of the inbox and into a separate page; and inline thumbnails of Flickr images:

This is neat, and not just because it's terribly useful when browsing through your links. It's also neat because it shows how Yahoo! is letting the various services it has purchased talk to one another, and (forgive me) mash up their features into new, interesting things.

Labels: tech

Friday, April 28, 2006
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Uncovering the hidden history of the BBC

Here's my internet column for this week. Note that the column is intended to be read by non-techy people, hence simplified explanations and a certain amount of glossing-over of detail.

Way back in 1937, a diligent group of BBC researchers began a project to catalogue everything the corporation had created.

Already creating a vast range of programmes, the BBC was in danger of losing track of its own output. Someone needed to make a searchable record of every broadcast, including notes on who appeared in it, what they said, when it was first shown and repeated, and so on.

Once set in motion, this enormous task never stopped. Sometime in the 1970s or 1980s, the first steps were made to computerise this huge database.

Thankfully the BBC's archivists had been extremely clever at organising their data sensibly. Over the decades they had stuck to the same categories, the same date formats, and used the right names for the right people. Once it was digital, this information was a fantastic web site, waiting to be made.

In 2005, members of the BBC's new media team re-discovered the database in the BBC archives. Stunned by its detail, they watched as one of the library staff flicked through pages and pages of data on an ancient 80s-era computer.

Their task was straightforward: make the web site a reality. The BBC Programme Catalogue is the result.

Note the prominent disclaimers on the front page: this is a work in progress, and still very much a prototype. It doesn't necessarily include everything, and certainly contains mistakes. But so what? There's so much to browse, so much to discover. It's addictive.

Take, for example, the archived comments about an episode of science fiction classic "Blake's 7":

Dreadful shot of two attacking spacecraft. They look cheap & nasty ... More shots of cheap, tacky spaceships.

These archivists didn't mince their words.

The database is presented as a hyperlinked "cloud" of information. You can search for just about anything you like, including the names of programmes and people. Once inside, it's easy to jump around from one subject to another by using the tags assigned to each broadcast.

You can also navigate by date, which means you can see all the shows broadcast on the day you were born, or on any other specific date. The archive goes right back to that earliest archive entry in 1937 (poetry by WB Yeats on the wireless).

Despite dealing with very old archived data, the modern web site was built using some of the most cutting edge internet technology.

It was built using a web programming language called Ruby on Rails, and includes all the latest web gizmos. There are RSS feeds all over the place, and all the data is available as RDF, a structured language for presenting data online.

The project is just one part of a much wider BBC initiative to open itself up to licence fee payers. Soon, the BBC web site will undergo a facelift and, a bit like MySpace.com in the US, start offering users the chance to create their own content. There will also be the launch of the new BBC iPlayer, a web-based system for viewing TV shows up to a week old. This is an extension of the existing Radio Player that offers the same service for radio.

Labels: writing

Wednesday, April 26, 2006
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The urge to tinker

While sipping my mid-morning cup of tea I began to tinker with the gilest css once again. Despite spending ages last time round trying to get the sidebar to work as it should, I keep getting the nagging feeling that I don't really like sidebars. Heenyway, this morning I knocked up something different; if it looks like a bodge job, that's because it is.

In theory, the black-n-orange nav buttons should be neatly embedded at the base of the header. Works fine in Camino and Firefox, broken in Safari. If you're able to let me know what happens in Internet Explorer, I'd be grateful.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006
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Got myself a record player

Got myself a record player
Originally uploaded by gilest.

I got hold of a 20-year-old record player from Freecycle. Despite its age, it still plays fine. Happy as larry, I've set it up in my office, perched on top of the filing cabinet, and now I'm going though my ancient record collection and reminding myself how rubbish my taste used to be.

Labels: photos

Tuesday, April 25, 2006
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Notes on "The blue-eyed salaryman" by Niall Murtagh

Niall Murtagh spent most of his 20s travelling round the world and enjoying himself. He worked when he needed to, earning a little extra money to pay for further adventures. Sounds like a wonderful time. He's one of life's free spirits who deliberately shuns the norms, the things society expects you to do like get a career, get married, buy property, and so on.

This book is about what happened when, rather to his own surprise, he finally embraced all those things. But not in his native Ireland; in Japan.

If you've ever had any interest in Japanese culture and lifestyle, you'll find something interesting in this account by an outsider. But you have to keep in mind that, as a salaryman in a huge Japanese corporation, much of Murtagh's account is about life in an office. A bit of a weird office by UK standards, but an office nonetheless.

Given that he makes a pretty good job of keeping office life interesting; making the odd rituals and all-to-familiar office politics the centre of the story. His account of marrying and moving in with a Japanese woman, and later having children with her, is reduced to a sub-plot.

If there'd been too much detail, or too many chapters, this would have ended up something of a struggle to read. But Murtagh keeps it short and his writing style is relaxed and easy. You can get through this book in a couple of evenings with no problem.

Still, it's not a book for everyone, simply because not very much happens. An Irishman goes to work in Japan, spends a lot of time in an office, gets promoted a few times, and starts a family; that's it. He confidently speaks Japanese and understands much of the culture, so this is not a fish-out-of-water story; it's observation from the inside, and all the more enjoyable as a result.

Labels: books

Wednesday, April 19, 2006
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This morning's colours

This morning's colours
Originally uploaded by gilest.

My challenge, on the walk back from B's nursery this morning, was to photograph as much colour as I could find.

Labels: photos

Wednesday, April 12, 2006
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Biorhythmic

I struggle to get along with my biorhythms. My body likes to be awake and alert at times that really don't suit being a husband and a father. I'm rubbish first thing in the morning, when my son is bouncing off the walls, and at my best late in the evening, when he and my wife are fast asleep.

Maybe a graph or two might help:

                        .  .  .                             .  .  .  .
                        .  .  .  .                 .  .  .  .  .  .  .
.                       .  .  .  .  .  .        .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
.                    .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

The numbers are hours of the day; the dots indicate alertness, four dots being very alert, no dots indicating sleep time. As you can see, I have an alert spell mid-morning, then concentration plummets in the middle of the afternoon. Sometimes I'm practically nodding off on the sofa at this point, especially at weekends. Come the evening, I'm wide awake and feeling at my most creative.

Now compare this with the biorhythm of my three-year-old son:

                     .  .  .              .  .
                  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
                  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
                  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

And here's how I'd describe Kate's daily rhythm, although she might think otherwise:

                     .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
                  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  
                  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  
                  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Kate works hard in the day and gets tired very quickly in the evening, especially after a large meal. Her concentration dips fairly rapidly and she's soon heading for bed - just at a time when I'm getting the urge to write, or tinker, or do household chores. It's not uncommon for me to start washing up, or hoovering, or moving furniture around at 11pm.

Labels: writing

Monday, April 10, 2006
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Adventures in alternate realities

You've probably read one of those naff sci-fi/fantasy stories where the hero goes into a coma/ gets zapped by a raygun/ walks through a magic door, whatever, and spends an entire life in another world, being another person, before waking up back in the real world after just a few moments of "real" time have passed.

That happened to me last week.

My brother Stuart was visiting. It had been a completely normal day for me - some work, meeting up with Stuart, then down to nursery to pick up Barney. We had some playtime, then Kate came home and took B upstairs for his bathtime.

Stuart went out to his car to get a bottle of wine he'd brought. I walked to the fridge to see what ingredients we had.

I remember saying to Stuart as he walked out the door: "What have we got? Peppers, celery, courgettes - I feel something Chinese coming on."

Then it happened.

There was overwhelming feeling of deja-vu, combined with a weird sensation of time being stretched. In my mind, it felt like I'd been standing in front of the fridge for - I don't know how long. Hours. Weeks. My brain fizzed and my eyes struggled to focus. I gripped the front edge of the fridge with all my strength, and it took all the will power I had to walk over to the sink and get myself a glass of water. I drank some of it, then sat down at the table.

My brother walked back in the room - he'd only been gone a few seconds but it felt like weeks to me.

"I just had the weirdest feeling, like I was in a videogame," I said.

My brother looked at me, bemused.

"In fact, I think it's coming back," I mumbled, and the top of my head started to bubble and fizz like a pint of lager. My eyes closed and I remember losing control of my neck. My head tipped back off my shoulders and I passed out.

My brother caught me and slowly lifted me upright. He tells me that he had to use some persuasion to get me to stagger to the living room, where he forced me to sit on the armchair.

Kate came back downstairs.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"I think I just passed out," I said. I saw my brother's face, a very worried expression on it. Then I passed out again in the chair. I think I dribbled.

Half an hour later we were in the Emergency Unit at the local hospital. A nurse conducted various tests of my heart, blood pressure and blood sugar. All normal.

"Well all this says you're fit and healthy," he said.

The duty doctor was unable to shed much more light on things. He suggested I see my GP.

That's what I did this morning, and the only result so far is the need for more tests. I have to return in a week or so for some blood tests, and back to my GP after that for an examination.

In the meantime, he said, I should avoid driving.

"We can't have you passing out at the wheel and taking out a pedestrian," he said bluntly.

Well, quite.

Labels: writing

Monday, April 10, 2006
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Web site broken, please help

I've spent the best part of an evening trying to tidy up this site, make it a bit more presentable, but I can't find the solution to a layout/CSS problem and it's driving me nuts.

I've swiped the simple two-column layout from Floatutorial, which I rather like the look of. With normal text, the CSS works fine. But when I add the gubbins from Blogger, something breaks; any content I put into the left column pushes content in the right column further down the page, with a huge long gap between the top-most post title and the content to which it relates. I've spent hours trying to fix it but I'm flummoxed.

If any of you clever types have five minutes spare to examine the template file I'm using, laugh at my stupidity, and point out my error, I'll be gratefully in your debt.

Update: Web site mended now. I started again, from scratch, with a completely different template (Roger Johansson's simple two-column layout for the Blogger template and Anton Andreasson's big buttons for the more page. I find it frustrating that the promise of CSS is something so simple and so powerful, but the reality for amateurs like me can be hours of cursing and exasperated hand-waving in front of the computer. I knew the effect I wanted was possible, I just didn't understand (a) why it wasn't working and (b) what I had to change to make it work.

And Seb - thanks for your help. I owe you a pint.

Labels: tech

Sunday, April 09, 2006
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Alien houses

Alien houses
Originally uploaded by smiling_da_vinci.

Sunday, April 09, 2006
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The Surrealist Eye

The Surrealist Eye
Originally uploaded by magic fly paula.

Sunday, April 09, 2006
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Lego laptop

Lego laptop
Originally uploaded by gilest.

Labels: photos

Sunday, April 09, 2006
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The GTD Prayer

Our lifehacks, which art in contexts,
Inbox zero be thy aim.
Thy Kinkless done.
Thy Mind Sweep fun, in @work as it is in @honeydo.
Give us this day our next action.
And forgive us our open loops, as we forgive those who delete our email.
And lead us not into web surfing.
Deliver us from IM.
For thine is the Moleskine, the Project and the Due Date
For someday/maybe,
Allen.

With apologies to David Allen, Merlin Mann, Deb Barham (RIP), and everyone who enjoys being really organised.

Labels: tech

Tuesday, April 04, 2006
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