Photos

Currently in the process of moving photos from [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.eyles/martin/photos/index.html] to [http://martineyles-photos.blogspot.com/].

Bit of a backlog, and some of the pages need to work better (the archives aren't done properley yet), but I hope in the long run, that this will actually give me more incentive to keep them up-to-date.

UPDATE 06/12/2005: The photos have moved again to martineyles.me.uk/photos.

Stuck...

at work. M40 jammed, and it goes all the way back to the tech. park. Oh well, try again in a bit - just sent out a scout - well actually someone said they try to leave, and give me a ring.

Strange Multimedia Corporate Sprawl - Part 2: searching & messaging

Finally, it's time to look at the strange growth of corporate sprawl, and how it is affecting how we communicate, and how we find out about the world.

Google's image is slightly less great than it was. People still like and use it's search, but things like gmail have recieved a more mixed response. Whilst many love the free-nes massive capacity, accesibilty from anywhere in the world, and spam filtering, for many there is darker side. How can this be free? Well, the advertising of course! But this is no ordinary advertising. Building on the text adverts, google now search for keywords in your emails. The question is - is this Spyware? And if so, what else is?

All this kicks of though with the death of the browser industry, which is starting with the rise of firefox. Okay, internet explorer is still the leader by a massive margin, but I'm sure that all the parties realise that this market itself is not the great control it once was. Now, more important than the browser itself, are what is comming through the browser. Now is the time of the web-service.

So how do bussinesses get beyond the traditional email, blog etc. How can they get into your computer, and how can they ensure you use them and see their ads instead of someone elses?

One answer to this has long been given from MSN, Yahoo and AOL. The instant messenger. This sits on the users computer, and in the case of MSN shows 1 banner ad in the main window. But this isn't the main thing. Links from the messenger send you to their own searches, their own email etc. And the anti is always being upped. Skype offer voice services, so everyone else must be seen to be doing this too. Now google, afraid of being left out, has launched its own instant messenger and voice service. However, there is always a way of staying with seperate tools, hiding the ads, using a different search to messanger (I use google, but also MSN messanger - competitors).

The final piece of the puzzle, the one that really links things together, and changes things dramatically, is desktop search. This is where I stop, and think, hmm..., not sure I want this. Yes the tool appears, and probably is very useful. But this is where they tread very close to malware. Your searches for PC documents can now be used to target advertising to you. Nothing is secret from the corporations. Who knows what will happen to the data...

Interestingly, this pits companies against each other in a strange way. Now Apple battles not only Microsoft on its operating system, but also Google on its desktop search, and skype on its voice messaging. Strange indeed!

I think I will leave you now with a link to epic, the future of search...

Crash

No, I haven't crashed the car - it's a film, and I saw it last night.

Really blurs the line between good and evil. Makes statements about racial hatred, guns, and judging people, only knowing part of them. It documents how people are. It starts with some very loose threads, and brings some of them together as it progresses. You will judge the characters in your own mind - just as characters judge each other, but at the end, you have to realise that in some way you were wrong - you didn't have the whole story

Makes you think about things a bit. Do we judge everyone around us like this? Are we any better than these people? If you haven't seen it, go see it. Get those thoughts provoked...

Cricket

Right, time for that cricket post...

I've not generally got into cricket in the past, but I caught some of it on saturday, and quite enjoyed it. Superhero catching, and great performance by our bowlers in the morning, saw us get Australia to follow on in the first time in about 18 years. Great stuff!

Still, after church on sunday, and some food, went into town to catch some more on the big screens. Made a bit of a fool of myself with my lack of knowledge. Anyway, the Australians were showing some great spirit and resiliance, and striving to make a come back. Our second innings was very tight - we were 7 wickets down - but in the end, we made it through to win. Maybe have a chance at the Ashes this year! Just got to make sure we don't do anything stupid at the Oval.

Stars

Ok, I was going to talk about strange things in search and messaging industry for computers, then I was going to talk about cricket, and then I was going to talk about a film... All this will follow in good time, but for now I think I'll talk about stars...

I was outside, and looking up, on this clear night, and a few things popped into my head. First I thought of the song stars from Les Misérables, which follows here...

Stars in your multitudes,
Scarce to be counted,
Filling the darkness
With order and light.
You are the sentinels,
Silent and sure,
Keeping watch in the night,
Keeping watch in the night.

You know your place in the sky,
You hold your course and your aim,
And each in your season
Returns and returns
And is always the same.

Stars from Les Misérables. Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Lyrics by Alain Boublil & Herbert Kretzmer

And then I thought of a part of the bible, where God speaks to Abraham about his descendents and stars...

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:

"Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward."

But Abram said, O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.

Then the word of the Lord came to him: This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir. He took him outside and said, Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be.

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Taken from Genesis Chapter 15, verses 1-6. Using the New International Version translation of the Bible

So, there are a lot of stars, which I see, and a lot of descendants of Abram too. Stars are great reminders of how we fit in. Yes there are many many stars. But although those stars are tiny in our skies, they are even more beautiful, intersting and complex close-up. I think that there are many descendants of Abraham (Should point out here to avoid confusion - Abram and Abraham are one and the same), but god knows us in all the interesting close-up detail, not just like the blanket of stars we see.

Strange Multimedia Corporate Sprawl - Part 1: Music

Sorry, couldn't think of a better title for this. Just a random comment on this strange thing that is happening in the digital age. And to get me in the mood for this, I shall be listening to vinyl whilst typing (although really I am mainly a CD guy, I do have some nice stuff on vinyl. This evening I am enjoying an Acid Jazz compilation called... Jazz).

Firstly, record labels are abandoning sense and offering MP3s, AACs, WMAs, maybe even OGGs. They offer these online, and yet moan if we rip our own CDs to these formats for use on our own players. Then they copy protect the CDs - except they don't - I've not found a CD that doesn't rip (note this really is for personal use - they are an alarm clock, courtesy of the scheduler in windows and auto playlists in media player - and they are music for long journeys, when I can be bothered to take my MP3 CD player).

The strangeness continiues as they then decide to make new record labels that only release in these compressed formats. This is awful for the quality. I like MP3s for portable use, alarm clocks, general convienience etc., but at the end of the day, when I want to listen to recorded music properley, I go back to CD and Vinyl, on a dedicated seperates system. It is just a better sound.

Things continue to get stranger. They release high definition formats, such as SACD and DVD-A, but then put on watermarks, that actually alter the sound. Sound benefits might be gained on these formats, but the average cheap system will probably make them sound worse than a decent CD player (although on a decent system they should indeed be better). Then they have a big format war, which means you have to get a universal player.

Departing the corparetness and recorded stuff a bit, I have another gripe about live gigs DJs etc. The Music is Too Loud. Call me old, but I should be able to hear when I leave, without having to wear earplugs. Wierd thing is, I sometimes have my music on at a volume at home which some people think is loud - I do want a decent volume. And yet this isn't really loud at all. It is a lot quieter than any live gig.

And this brings me on to what I think is my last musical strangeness gripe. Power! Why is it that your cheapo sound system is quoted in PMPO as something like 400 watts, and yet has less power than a decent amp with a quoted power of just 40 watts? And why do people in cars put their subs on at disproportionate levels to the rest of the music. There is nothing particularly wrong with lots of power and loud subs, as long as the power is actually not a fake figure, is making the music sound better, and when the sub volume is at a level which fits the rest of the music, but people seem to ignore this, and then there is something seriously wrong

anyway, that's it for music - next up: searching, messaging, computer wierdness - I will even mention corparate sprawl of this. See you then...

might be of interest to web type people

There is a new style for the a list apart website, along with (finally) some new content. Take a look at http://www.alistapart.com/.

That's it for now - Maybe something more interesting later. Actually, just had an idea - maybe tomorrow...

nackered

Well, another good Ceroc sesh, but so knackering. We appear to be over the whole shortage of women issue, and into a new shortage of men. This means we end up getting hardly any break, but still, it's all good fun.

Grand Prix Results

1. Raikonnen
2. Alonso
3. Montoya

Alonso is 24 points ahead of Raikonnen in the championship. Michael Shumacher did a strange thing of nearly retiring, fixing the car, doing a few more laps and retiring. This is to give a better slot for qualifying next race. Bit strange the way this qualifying does things like that. Williams cars both in a drama with tyres. They both retired after having punctured the same right rear tyre twice.

The Environment

Ok, I'm breaking my rules, and putting more stuff in my blog.

This time, I'm looking at the environment, as I feel I stuff to say about it - and I want to clarify some things that people may have found slightly conflicting - they weren't, but it wasn't clear.

Carbon Neutrality

I think the way we should deal with the environment issue is through carbon neutrality. That is, we should not put any more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than we take out. As I think we have gone too far, I think that it would probably also be of benefit to take a bit of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. So, to explain how this all works, I have a little table. Note that, unless otherwise stated, I assume that all wood comes from managed forests, where enough trees are planted to counteract those cut down.

Increases Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide	Carbon Neutral	Decreases Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
Deforestation / Unmanaged Forests (trees not re-planted) Burning Fossil Fuels Cement and Concrete	Burning Wood, Charcoal or Oils from farmed plants Solar, Wind and Tidal Energy Nuclear Fusion Nuclear Fission (This is however environmentally a very bad idea. It takes far to long for the nuclear waste to decay into safe products, and I do not think we are good enough at keeping it safe in the meantime.) Steel Pile Foundations Recyling Paper	Wooden Houses Putting paper in a big airtight room, and leaving it there

Cars

Note that I have not condemned cars. I think cars are wonderful devices, which allow us to where we want, when we want, with as much stuff as we need. The only problems they have are due to us running them on the wrong fuel, which can be changed.

solutions to this include bio-diesel (eg. vegetable oil powered cars), electric cars (where the electricity was generated from renewable energy) and hydrogen powered cars (where the hydrogen was extracted using renewable energy).

Therefore, I differ significantly on government policies on road taxation. I think that congestion charging, toll road charging and road tax should be abandoned, in favour of a carbon tax applied to fossil fuels. This alone is not sufficient, as the new technology needs a big push to replace the fossil fuels. Therefore we need a huge investment in, and subsidies for this technology, so that people can all afford to make the switch.

Conclusion

So there we have it. Let's all put solar and wind generator on our nice wooden houses built on top of steel pile foundations. And let's put 100,000 wind generators and hydrogen plants around the coast to generate hydrogen for our cars.

Ok, maybe one more

Isn't it annoying when people add comments to posts that are, well, just SPAM. I thought that this was not meant to happen when you set it to only accept comments from blogger people, but apparently the SPAMers have a blog profile too. :-(

First post... maybe the last.

I am guessing that there won't be much posting after this. It's just to say I posted, and that is about it. And now I can get on with commenting other blogs.

Of course, if you want to see my proper web stuff, you could visit my website. It can be found at [http://martineyles.tk/], and is a very thrilling ?!? read.

Oh, I hope you like the boring styling - Simplicity is definately the way to go here, so I stripped out most of the styling.

UPDATE 06/12/2005: Well look here, I'm still posting. Old tk site is now defunct, just points here now, so taken out the link bit, just leaving the url in the text for historical reference.