James’s posterous

James’s posterous

James Evans  //  Four blogs so far on Posterous, and several more on Blogger, including http://myryama.blogspot.com. Hang around here and you may learn the secrets of life, the universe and everything (but I wouldn't bet on it).

Nov 4 / 11:09pm

Ancient knowledge and self-study

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a leaflet advertising courses in self-study of ancient (and presumably rediscovered) knowledge. What an opportunity! Here are the course titles:
1) The Arthurian Cosmic Message; the science of the dragon,
2) The Celtic Mysteries; megalithic monuments, ley lines, and
3) Awakening the Consciousness; self knowledge.

Presented by The Centre for the Study of Self-Knowledge (whatever that means), you can attend these introductory lectured for a mere £3.00 each. Just get yourself down yo Southampton Solent University and join in (except that you can't, because the last lecture was last night - I wouldn't want loyal readers wasting their time on this drive.).

Unfortunately, there's no website listed so opportunities for further mirth and amusement are sadly limited. If you know anyone who attended, please guide them gently toward appropriate professional help.

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Nov 2 / 11:38pm

iPhone feature request - unread email

On average, I receive about 100 emails in a working day. That's not a huge number, and in Outlook I can filter with Rules then list only Unread messages to reduce this to an manageable level. I don't really want to set email rules on my phone, but with 300+ messages in my Inbox it would be nice to be able to hide the ones I've read.

And that's today's feature request; an Inbox that can hide read messages. Thanks.

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Nov 1 / 1:40am

What to do...?

I'm sitting in the lounge at David Lloyd Port Solent with a latte and a book on Project Management, trying to work out what to do today. Breakfast first, I think, but then what?

As it happens, I've got dozens of things that need doing but all of them require a reasonable amount of effort and I really only feel like sleeping or lieing on the sofa, and I can't see the wife going for either of those "activities". Actually, I know what I need to do; we want to remove the wall between the dining and living rooms, so I'll finish the description of the work so that we can get quotes from builders (there's no way I'm doing it). Anyone know a good builder?

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Nov 1 / 1:31am

Quote of the day

"For me religion is something like golf; a comfort and joy to many people across the world but a baffling irrelevance which, without appreciable effort to ignore it on my part, has made absolutely no impact on my life."
(Tim Hayward, Guardian)

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Oct 30 / 1:25pm

Drugs adviser sacked

The UK's chief drugs adviser has been sacked by Home Secretary Alan Johnson, after criticising government policies.
via news.bbc.co.uk

What's the point of hiring an expert on drugs only to fire him when he disagrees with you? That seems rather childish and pretty stupid; if the Government wanted someone to parrot back to them their own believes, why appoint an independent expert? This is another bad move from a Government determined to ignore evidence and reasoned argument in the hunt for positive tabloid headlines.

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Oct 27 / 3:03pm

Monoprice iPhone/iPod Battery Backup: Such a deal

The Monoprice Backup battery pack is the simplest of devices. When your iPhone or iPod is running low on juice, just plug this battery pack into the 30 pin connector.
via tuaw.com

Nice, neat, cheap. What more could you want?

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Oct 25 / 12:04am

Windows 7; buy a new computer, or upgrade the old one?

Microsoft have an upgrade advisor program (link) that can tell you if your existing computer meets the requirements for Windows 7 and what sort of issues you might have with drivers and so on. It gives the impression of competence, so now I find I have complicated my decision from "which new computer do I buy" to "can I manage with the existing computer, or should I buy a new one". Damn you Microsoft!

On the subject of new computers, I had a look at Apple's new iMac yesterday at their Southampton store. It is as beautiful in the flesh as it looks in the promotional shots and I am sorely tempted; the mouse and keyboard alone make it worth considering. There are just a couple of things putting me off:
  1. Price - at £950 it is rather more expensive than the alternative, which at the moment looks like a mid-range Dell at about £530.
  2. Software - I need to be able to run Windows software. Yes, I know about Bootcamp and other technical wizardry, but I like a simple life where I just turn the machine on and it does what I want.
  3. Power - the iMac has slower processors, less memory and less storage than the Dell. It might be just as snappy running Snow Leopard as the Dell running Windows 7, but who knows? 
No decisions yet, but I'll probably go for the Dell and Windows 7.

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Oct 24 / 10:31am

Tech.view: Microsoft's seventh seal | The Economist

Customers will not be disappointed. Windows 7 is all its unlamented predecessor, Windows Vista, should have been. It does not hog resources anything like as much as Vista did, making it a far sprightlier performer. It will even run on diminutive netbooks that currently have to use leaner Linux or Windows XP operating systems because of Vista’s girth and weight.
via economist.com

Windows 7 might be worth a look. Updates to follow.

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Oct 23 / 1:24pm

Catholics humiliated by Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry

The problem (from the Catholic point of view) was that the speakers arguing for the Church as a force for good were hopelessly outclassed by two hugely popular, professional performers.
via blogs.telegraph.co.uk

I was at this debate on Monday evening. It was entertaining; Hitchens and Fry made strong, well-presented arguments and essentially destroyed their opponents, roared on by a partisan audience that scented ecclesiastical blood.

The Telegraph's quote isn't accurate, however. The problem wasn't that the debaters were mismatched (although there was clearly an intellectual gulf between the two sides) but that the Catholics had no answer to the attacks of Hitchens and Fry, and presented no compelling counter arguments.

I think it was the child abuse scandals that finally swung the audience. The debate is due to be broadcast on 7th November; watch out for Ann Widdecombe's astonishing explanation for the Church's failure over child abuse.

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Oct 21 / 2:16pm

Government opens data to public

An ambitious new website that will open up government data to the public will launch in beta, or pilot, form in December.
via news.bbc.co.uk

Free information? It'll be interesting to see what we get. Bring it on!

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