Year: 2004

Can You Say Verulamium?

It is quite hard to say Verulamium – the Roman Theatre that I visited last Saturday.

sign at the roman theatre in st albansLast Saturday, PY and I went to St Albans to meet some friends. While we were there we went to the Roman theatre of Verulamium (which, I am reliably told was found in 1847).

Built in about 140AD it is the only example of its kind in Britain, being a theatre with a stage rather than an Amphitheatre. Initially, the arena would have been used for anything from religious processions and dancing, to wrestling, armed combat and wild beast shows. From about 180AD the stage came into greater use and the auditorium extended. By about 300AD, after some redevelopment work, the Theatre could seat 2000 spectators. [Source]

The sign amused me – I got to imagining lots of chariots rushing past with urgent messages from the Emperor at some distant end of the road until I was reminded it was a thoroughly modern sign aimed at us!

Web Mail

A quick scan of my webmail services surprised me.

I don’t use branded web mail systems a great deal. All my mail is handled by my hosting provider who does provide a thoroughly adequate web-based mail service for times when I am not using an email client. Still, with all the web ramblings about Google’s Gmail service I thought I would review some of my web-based mail services and see what was in them and realised that most of the accounts have long since been removed or disabled due to lack of use.

To my mind, the premier web-based service is Fastmail which is a very well thought out and usable mail service. If you’re looking for a new mail provider you should seriously consider them and there’s no advertising!

The only other service active is Yahoo Mail – simply because I have had that for ages and it used to be my way of reading normal mail accounts in a browser. Some of my mailing service lists still go here. Today I logged on and reviewed some of the settings and cleared out some of the junk and I realised it is an excellent mail service. I really like their new feature AddressGuard which allows for disposable email addresses that can be removed is they revived too much spam.

So, will I sign up for a Gmail account to compare it? You bet I will.

Please Don’t Shout On Late Trains

Jakob Nielsen reports that researchers from the University of York have performed a study to assess why it’s so annoying when other people have cellphone conversations in public.

Earlier in the week, my fifteen-minute train journey was delayed due to over-running engineering works. Any regular traveller on the South West Trains suburban lines into London Waterloo station will be used to these delays after weekends or bank holidays. I know it to be so likely that I even plan for it and force myself out of bed and to the station a little earlier if I know there have been engineering works nearby.

As always some people are caught off guard by this or, perhaps, they use it as a cover for the fact they are running late. It’s amazing how many mobile ‘phone conversations announce that the caller will be late for the office/appointment/meeting due to how late the trains are when, in fact, there is no more than a ten minute delay (which when using London’s transport infrastructure you should be accounting for anyway).

Earlier this week, however, there was a well-spoken gentleman in my carriage who insisted in calling – what appeared to be – most of his mobile ‘phone contact book to let them know just how late he was. He also said that Justin would have to take the meeting (if Justin ever reads this, the gentleman in question claimed to have confidence that you wouldn’t screw it up which I thought sounded good for you). All very well but I didn’t want to know it.

The conversation was irritaing and irritation is always enhanced when a train is later (even if you have planned for it because other’s have planned for it and civilised behaviour goes out the window). The conversation, however, was loud but each one was brief and to the point and without any pointless small-talk. The gentleman was efficient in his conversations and factual. He was, however, still irritaing.

So I started looking for items on irritation factors caused by mobile telephony only to find that Jakob Nielsen has a some research on ‘Why Mobile Phones are Annoying‘ which implies that, upon testing, conversations face-to-face at the same volume are less irritaing that the equivalent mobile conversation. The research suggests,

Designing phones that encourage users to speak softly will reduce their impact on other people. For example, more sensitive microphones and improved quality on incoming audio will make most users less inclined to shout. [source]

Let’s hope Nokia et al. are listening.

What Did I Miss?

Missing re-designs is one of the down sides of reading sites via Bloglines.

Bloglines makes reading other sites quick and easy – as long as those sites provide a full RSS feed. I use it daily. However, you do miss site redesigns. Jase has had a minor change which looks pretty good.

And just in case anybody is wondering about some of the design looking slightly strange here at Listen to Musak, well it’s because I am doing some re-design work and I’ve had to make some minor tweaks for the new design which has thrown some of this design. If I was better at CSS that that shouldn’t be a problem but I am not!

Of course I’ve also found a good number of problems as I have been going through the site which I am trying to fix as I go along so – hopefully – things will end up working better as well.

I Had Visions Of A Robotic Dog

Amazon launch A9 for searching. No Doctor in sight. Oh and a reference to real smooth shaving – which might generate some inbound links!

On Wednesday I read about the launch of Amazon’s new A9 search service so, of course, I had to go geekwise and try searching on my the word ‘musak‘ to find this site nicely up the rankings. Why did I waste a few minutes doing that?

In addition I searched on some other terms which would link to some of my sites and found a pointer to an entry I made at The Mirror Project. It seems the picture was chosen by a guest curator to be included in the Real Smooth Shave collection. In turn, that reminds me I have a new image to post there.

Bloglines Top Links

That Bloglines service gets better each week.

I have mentioned Bloglines before (here and here for example). Since I acquired a broadband connection this kind of web service is all the more useful and I have discovered many interesting personal sites because of it.

Earlier in the week I received the news that they have now introduced a daypop-like service which lists the most popular links in the sites Bloglines sees daily. Nothing too new (although I suspect there’s a ton of clever code beneath it) . What is nice is that you can reduce the listing based only on the sites you track. You can, therefore, see the most popular links by people who you actively read. This is brilliant because it should really highlight connections between the vast mix of sites I dip into over time.

Looking at today’s mix, however, doesn’t highlight any overlaps! Perhaps the collection of sites that I read are very different from each other. I don’t know if that is good or bad.

Guidance From Nannies

What’s wrong with a fat tax? A guding state or a nanny state?

Thanks to the joys of SkyPlus I caught up with a fascinating BBC programme that was originally aired a week or so ago. If … we don’t stop eating was part of a series that I wan’t following but, I have to admit, I was attracted to this show thanks to a very large billboard advertising it (but, like every one, advertising never works on me).

I hadn’t seen the others in the series so I wasn’t prepared for the mix of talking-head, documentary footage and fiction. If .. we don’t stop eating looked to 2020 in a Britain where obesity is the biggest killer in the country and is predicted to effect one in three people; there are no tested drug treatments and any help from an over-worked NHS relies on your co-operation (failure to co-operate means that treatment is revoked).

It was very, very well done, thought-provoking and, when it came to looking at what over-eating does for us, it was a little unpleasant. And very worthwhile. It discussed medical and political solutions to this growing threat to Britain’s health. I particularly liked the analysis of the fat tax:

NARRATION: By the end of 2020 the Government’s efforts are rapidly going off-course. Consumers won’t be bullied, and the food industry plays on fears of an
interfering nanny state. The idea of a fat tax is history.

And, helpfully, the BBC has a transcript online which allows me to tell you that it’s Tim Land, a Professor of Food Policy, who has one of the best lines in the programme, when in responses to the suggestion that any fax tax will be played up as being the nanny state interfering in people’s lives:

TIM LANG: PROFESSOR OF FOOD POLICY: I say what’s wrong with nannies! Most of the people who criticise the nanny state have actually got nannies! Have you ever noticed that? Anyway, delete the word `nanny’ and call it `parent’ and we’re all suddenly in favour of it! Actually, I like guidance – what’s wrong with guidance? Let’s hear it for nannies!

Are those McDonaald’s salads a sign of things to come?

It’s A Takeover

As each day passes I have more and more respect for the talents of Chris Moyles.

As each day goes by I have a new found respect for the talents of Chris Moyles on the Radio One breakfast show. I’ve noted before that he’s the first presenter in a long time to get me to switch back to Radio One but almost everyday I find myself hooked into something about the show in a way I haven’t been hooked on the radio for a long time.

I’ve worked in radio. I understand the ‘magic’ of the medium. I know not to believe everything but sometimes, with Moyles, I wonder. His spontaneity seems so genuine and so well-done it is – almost – believable. I have a new-found respect for his talents as a broadcaster and, as very show passes, I see why he’s where he is.

Last Friday I was listening as he trailed the Radio One 10-hour Takeover that happened on Monday. I was almost sucked into the belief that, on the spur of the moment he decided to try the system but my understanding of the medium knew that it was unlikely. The beauty of the web is that now you can find out how it was pre-planned and read all about the technology behind it. Hopefully, and I say this meaning no disrespect to Matt, not to many people will read it and the magic will be maintained. In a similar way I hope not too many read the next part of this post so the mystery can be maintained.

I have to say that the concept of the 10-hour takeover is nothing new and, in many places, it’s as well staged as Moyles pretending to try to break the system without any planning. Most radio stations have some “you say it, we play it” mentality at some point of the day. In fact, my parents received some calls for Beacon By Request years ago when their home ‘phone number was similar to that of Beacon’s Shrewsbury call-in line. Digital station, Core, claims to be driven by listener’s requests (and will even text you back to say that song is being played).

Depending on the size of the station and the number of listeners at any one time the whole listener jukebox is, most likely, something of a con. There are so many requests that stations can, pretty much, stick to their playlists while actually playing the requests. They can filter out the material they don’t want. On smaller stations I imagine they’re making up the requests so, again, it can conform to their playlists (which – like them or nor – are a vital part of their identity). So, all in all, I wasn’t excited by the 10-hour takeover whatsoever but when I read items like this from David at Fuddland (via plasticbag) it strikes me that The Frog Chorus can’t have been anywhere near Radio One’s playlist for many years. So, hats of to Radio One and the technology team behind it.

I wonder what impact – if any – it will have on Radio One’s programmers? From what I have seen the selections were older-hits and often, like The Frog Chorus, a little off the wall. Did the broadcast teams actually select the most ridiculous tracks suggested? And what does this do for Radio One?

Next time, however, let Chris Moyles appear to break it. That would be even better radio.

UPDATE: The full 10-hour takeover playlist is available on the Radio One site.

Google Mail Controversy

According to BBC News, Gmail, the planned free e-mail service from Google, could be facing strong legal opposition in California

I suspect everybody will link to this over the next few days but it does make me smile. At the beginning of April Google announced it’s email service. This morning, BBC News reports that a US Senator is drawing up legislation to stop it on the basis of the reports which claim it will scan emails to allow targeting text advertising to be placed (similar to the other Google ad products).

I don’t know if it’s the Senator’s actual words or a BBC journalist writing but the legislation is reported to be bring put in place because the problem “is Google’s plan to make revenue from users agreeing to their incoming e-mail being scanned for targeted advertising” [source]

The keyword for me there is “agreeing”. If you agree to the scanning (which I suspect is being hyped out of all proportion) then why not get the benefits of all the extras Google are offering? There are many other email services on the market so there is no reason to sign with Google unless you want to.

I am not sure if somebody is just jumping on the bandwagon but Google’s getting a nice lot of coverage from this offering and with an IPO looming it can’t be such a bad thing. I do suspect that over the next few days you will also see a whole stack of marketing gurus commenting on the effect any controversy is having on the Google brand. You heard it here first!

Easter Sunday

Greetings for Easter wherever you may be.

Happy Easter. I had a great day on Friday visiting some vineyards in Kent. Yesterday evening, this afternoon (and tomorrow evening) are all to be spent with good friends. On top of that I managed to start to clean up the garden and have ambitious plans to tidy up the tiny amount of loft space that we have so that we can load up even more junk!

50 First Dates

A second good movie in two days!

Not sure what has happened, but weeks have passed since we went to the cinema and now I have done two films two nights in a row.

50 First Dates had a preview last night (I think it opens today) and it was showing at the right time for us in Wimbledon so we thought that we would give it a go. I expected an Adam Sandler gag-fest and, really, it wasn’t. I am not a fan of many of the movies Adam Sandler has been in but this is heart-warming (and humorous) and was a big surprise.

Sandler’s character (Henry Roth) meets Drew Barrymore‘s Lucy in a breakfast diner and tries to pull all his best lines on her. None of them really work but he falls for her and so begins a touching story (if somewhat unbelievable) and a thoroughly entertaining evening out. You may, or may not, really be suspending your disbelief as the woman with no memory seems to fall for Roth but I think you’ll get over that.

Surprisingly Good.

Fries Are Chips and Chips Are Fries

Super-sized burgers are off the menu. We’re all going to buy two of them now, so what’s the point?

A few weeks ago, I wrote this but didn’t ever get round to finishing what I was trying to write:

I am not sure what the point of the news that McDonald’s are to scrap ‘supersizing’ is, but does seem somewhat silly when they don’t actually make the food healthier – we’ll just buy two portions now, won’t we? I am pleased to say that since my new gym routine started that I haven’t been anywhere near any type of fast food outlet. This, of course, makes me feel very virtuous when I shouldn’t. I haven’t stopped visiting the pub and there are lot of calories in bitter.

Well, all I can say is that I nipped in a branch of McDonald’s today (only for a cup of tea) as it was right outside a place where I had a meeting and I had some time to kill. I was surprised to see a stack of leaflets with a nutritional break down on all their salads – which shows that some of them are no healthier than burgers but some of them seem to be pretty good. I have no idea how they will persuade people to eat them though as, by the time you get to the counter, all you see is donuts!