Hull are 3rd
Nothing much to add - Yippee!!!
Labels: hull city
Posted by Jane at 6:20 PMHull are 3rd
Nothing much to add - Yippee!!!
Labels: hull city
Posted by Jane at 6:20 PM
September 27, 2008Wattson
As I write this, there's a cup of tea to the right of my keyboard. I have a reasonable idea of how much energy it took to make the tea. When I turned the kettle on, the display on Wattson scrolled up from a resting rate for the house of around 98W to over 2000W. To see those numbers first-hand, and control the numbers with a flip of a switch, is a small awakening. I suspect it's common practice when anyone buys an energy measuring device to run around the house turning things on to see what the effect is; and then turn off as much as possible to find the smallest reading possible.
Back to the tea. These days, having had Wattson for a few months, I put a little more care into getting something like the right amount of water in the kettle. But I wonder: now that the novelty of Wattson has worn off, will my behaviour change for the long term? I'd like to know and keep it in check, and Wattson should help.
There's a USB slot on Wattson, and DIY Kyoto supply software, called Holmes, to read the data from the device to show you your usage. The software tries to be funky, but it actually feels like a throwback to me... but it works. OK, well, ours didn't at first, but DIYKyoto were brilliant and fixed the box for us, and we can now pull data from it.
Smashing, eh?
Well...there's a problem with all of this. The data—or "my data" as I like to think of it—is locked up in an encrypted proprietary database. I'd love to be able to tell you Wattson is a great device, but the trouble that's been gone through to make the data ("my data") hard to get at niggles me. Sure, if you work at it (about 60-90 minutes) you can decrypt the data, but that's not really playing the game. And it's probably against the license agreement, although I can't find it at the moment to check. There's talk at the DIY Kyoto web site of adding an export function before the end of the 2008 (or February 2008, depending on which message you read).
Anyway: I'll keep an eye on the graphs, and see what happens, but the data needs to be open, even if it's via an API. In fact, DIY Kyoto have hinted at online access, and that'd be a good step. Ideally, there needs to be a direct link from Wattson to the web for a little bit of competitive energy comparison fun. Maybe one day.
Related...
Posted by Richard at 11:02 AM
- Energy Monitor Comparison Chart, from electricity-monitor.com
- Government ditches plan for free home energy monitors, The Observer, 27 Apr 2008.
- Consumer test - home energy monitors, The Telegraph, 8 Feb 2008.
September 24, 2008Hull are 6th
So, further to my last screen shot of the league table, I thought it was worth a refresh today. We've now equalled Derby's total points of last season now and we've only played 6 games. What a great start to the season!
Labels: hull city
Posted by Jane at 6:46 PM
August 24, 2008Couch to 5k
I've prepared an email with these details in a couple of times now, so I thought I'd put it on here for easy reference.
I started jogging 9 or so weeks ago, and decided to follow the Couch to 5K programme from Cool Running. With the exception of the week when I was on holiday, I've ran 3 days per week and this morning completed Week 8 Day 2. I ran for 28 minutes non-stop, and covered 4.1 kilometers.
One of the main helpers in my ability to do this have been the podcasts - I don't have a watch that works at the moment, and the thought of pulling my phone out and second watching to work out when I should run and when I should walk (at least in the early weeks) held no appeal - so I've been using Robert Ullrey's C25K Podcasts.
I've been using twitter to record my progress since Week 3 for both distance and feelings - you can take a look here.
By the end of next week I should be able to run for 30 minutes without stopping, and should be approaching that 5K mark. Now I just have to find a 5K race to compete in - the only runs I can find at the moment seem to be 8K or 10K which is somewhat out of my reach at the moment.
Posted by Jane at 7:10 PM
August 18, 2008BBC Archive: Titanic
Ever since working for a marine boat modelmakers in the summer between Sixth Form College and University I've been interested in the story of the Titanic. There were many books in our office, mainly about trawlers and ferries (I was in Hull and we were based in the marina) but one was about the Titanic, and covered the full story. In more recent years I've found other books (The Titanic Disaster : As reported in the British National Press being a particular favourite), I've been to an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum and watched various documentaries.
Today, I was browsing around BBC iPlayer watching Olympic coverage, and stumbled upon the BBC Programmes minisite and via that the BBC Archive collections of radio and TV programmes, documents and photographs. On the BBC Archive page was a link to the Titanic Collection, containing radio features and interviews with people like Commander CH Lightoller (first broadcast in 1936) and Commander Joseph Boxhall (first broadcast in 1962 - Boxhall was a relative of a family friend).
The BBC Archive looks like an excellent resource to listen to, or sometimes watch, pieces of history.
Posted by Jane at 5:29 PM
August 10, 2008Hull City: Briefly 3rd
On Saturday afternoon Hull City were briefly 3rd in the Premiership. I posted a picture when we were 8th (pre-season) but here we are, one game in, and we've exceeded the pre-season position. Even after the weekend games, we're still 5th.
Labels: hull city
Posted by Jane at 5:56 PM
- Good result
What? Slipped to 5th already? Seriously, it's a great start, and may there be many other wins.
Posted by Simon on 2008-08-19 10:21:55
August 02, 2008Software on Palms vs Software on iPod Touch/iPhone
In days gone by both Richard and I had various PDAs - we both started off with PalmPilot Professionals in the late 1990s, moved on to Handspring Visors in around 2000, then Richard went the mobile phone route and I had a Handera 330 and finally a Sony Clie TH55 before also going the mobile phone route. Richard is now an iPhone user, and I have an iPod Touch and a Nokia 6110 Navigator.
In 2005 I blogged about what software was on my Sony Clie, and long before that Richard had listed what he had on his Handspring Visor. There is quite a lot of commonality between those lists:
- Email: I used Snappermail back then, now I use either the IMAP facilities on the Nokia Navigator 6610 or on the iPod Touch. Richard uses his iPhone but did at one stage used Top Gun Postman to send and receive mobile email. No additional software needed
- ToDos: I used to use WP+ to manage recurring ToDos. Now I use Remember The Milk and the web access from either my phone or my iPod Touch
- Security: in days gone by both of us used Secret!. Now I use HandySafe on my phone. With the advent of the iPhone/iPod Touch applications, I'm sure there will be an equivalent purchase coming soon
- Data storage: I used to use Pilot DB which allowed me to create basic databases and store data. I've not replaced this and haven't missed it
- Timesheet: I used to use Timesheet, Richard used to use PunchClock. I don't currently do timesheeting, so don't have an application installed on either device.
- Backup: I used to use Flyzip to back up to the external memory card. Now I rely on the syncing between my mac and the device
- Games and entertainment: I still miss RocketMania - and excellent game which worked really nicely on a handheld device. I've installed some of the new iPod Touch game apps and am enjoying Hangman, Sudoko and Sol Free. Obviously having mobile internet access takes away quite a lot of the need for offline document readers, for all but airline travel. I'm currently trialing the great instapaper as an iPod Touch app to see how it behaves
Over the years, the pre-installed software has improved a lot, I remember having a hard time trying to find a Palm OS application which could handle both IMAP and HTML emails. I recall paying quite a lot of money for Snappermail at the time. I'm sure that there will be more and more iPhone/iPod Touch applications available as time progresses, and it'll be interesting to revisit this list again sometime.
Labels: applications
Posted by Jane at 9:00 AM
July 21, 2008Walking in London
I was catching up with Ash the other day, and on the way back to the station I used the maps application on my phone to find my way. What I hadn't realized up to that point was that the map automatically updated to show me my position (this is an old phone, mind you, not the one with GPS built in). So as I navigated, I took screen shots each time the map updated and the above is the merging of the screen shots. Blue circles are where the phone thinks I am; red dots show the route I actually took.
I've used this since to find my way around bits of London I don't really know that well, and it's worked nicely for me. The downside is that you need your phone out and on, which does mean a mugging can't be far away.
Posted by Richard at 9:07 AM
June 29, 2008A Town called Panic
A week or so ago, iTunes offered an episode of "A Town called Panic" as a free download. I downloaded, watched, laughed and then bought the series (Note: it can be watched for free here). It is bizarre, and amusing and I love that horse sounds like Bernard Manning.
Labels: video
Posted by Jane at 6:01 PM
Brighton Earthship
I attended a talk several years ago about the Earthship concept, and have been meaning to join one of the regular tours to the Brighton Earthship but just never got around to it. When I spotted the tour as part of the eco Open Houses it just seemed too good an opportunity to miss.
I found it hard to justify driving to Stanmer Park to go and visit an eco property, so we got the bikes out and pedalled off to Stanmer House where the group assembled. There were probably around 80 people so we split into two groups and walked off through the Stanmer Organics plots towards the Earthship.
As John, the tour guide, was telling us all about the building process, and how the earthship works, I got to wondering if there were any you could stay in anywhere. My question was answered inside as there was a leaflet - "Eco Home Holiday Rental - the house that runs itself" - in Ger, Normandy, France. Sounds like a great way to experience "off the grid" living without committing to it for the long-term.
Posted by Jane at 5:34 PM
June 27, 2008Isle of Wight
Last weekend Richard and I headed over to the Isle of Wight for the weekend. I'd never been before, and Richard doesn't think he has been either.
We based ourselves at the Godshill Park Farm B&B, a lovely, relaxing place a short (10 minutes or so) walk from the pretty village of Godshill and its many eateries.
We spent Saturday mainly along the South Coast - concentrating on the New and Old Batteries at the Needles, as well as various bays along the way. We spent Sunday around the West Coast up to Cowes, ending up at Sandown, and then spent Monday on the East Coast up to Ryde and ending up on the ferry.
A really lovely weekend, and a feeling of England in the 1970s. We're hoping to head off over again, maybe without the car next time, as the Island line train service combined with a plentiful bus service and the myriad of public footpaths make the island very accessible.
There are plenty more photos
Labels: national trust, photos
Posted by Jane at 10:41 AM
June 16, 2008Euro 2008
For Euro 2008 I tracked the odds of any of the teams winning over time. It makes a kind of fun graph:
The y-axis shows the odds (screen scraped from a betting web site... not doing that again), converted into a probability, and multiplied by 16. Why multiplied? To give a kind of "value" to each team: if you'd purchased a team for £1 in a sweepstake, then you can plot a kind of value for it over time by multiplying the odds of winning by the size of the pot (£16). Kind of.
Posted by Richard at 11:10 AM
June 10, 2008Hull City Fixtures 2008/09
So the fixtures are out for Hull's first season in the Premiership and it starts with a home game against Fulham. As Richard pointed out, I should take a screen shot of the table now, as we're currently 8th, so here we are, recorded for posterity
Being the geek that I am, I've used the BBC fixtures link, some TextMate macro generation, a bit of Excel date manipulation and some hand crafted code to generate a Hull City Fixtures iCalendar file.
There are no guarantees I'll keep it up to date, but to the best of my knowledge it is correct todayLabels: hull city
Posted by Jane at 5:50 PM
- European spot
You must be gutted to have just missed out on a spot in the UEFA cup?
Posted by Victoria on 2008-06-17 02:35:22
June 07, 2008Wakehurst Place and Nymans Gardens
Last weekend we headed off to Wakehurst Place, a botanic garden and conservation area managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Wakehurst Place was added to my to-visit list earlier this year when it was mentioned at a Cafe Scientifique talk about The Flower Hunters. It wasn't the sunniest day, but it was warm and dry and we spent a good few hours walking around the gardens. We didn't manage to get around all of it, and in fact missed almost all of the Woodland zone - a good reason to return.
I really enjoyed the Conservation zone and walking along the raised walkway above the water. At the end of the day, and after reading a few leaflets, and finding out that we'd get our admission fee back, we decided to join the National Trust for the year - we have a weekend in the Isle of Wight and a week in Cornwall later in the year and so hope we will be able to make a lot of use of it.
This weekend we took advantage of our new National Trust membership and visited Nyman's - the closest National Trust property to our house (I think!) and had a very pleasant afternoon. Nymans has gardens, woodland and amazing views over Sussex and it seems to be a really great space - people were picnicking, playing hide and seek, sitting on the plentiful benches reading the Sunday paper - a really, really welcoming area. We had a short walk around and I'm looking forward to an opportunity to return and do some of the woodland walks and possibly even a visit to the house to take a look at the family rooms.
Labels: national trust, photos
Posted by Jane at 9:02 PM
Geek heritage needs saving
In 2006 we visited Bletchly Park, and I really recommend you head out there sometime. In fact, go soon, because we found out at the Cafe Sci talk that they have three years left of funding. Then... it's gone.
Yesterday I received a press release which contained some worrying images of building decay. But there's something you can do...
Posted by Richard at 12:36 PM
- You can sign the petition lobbying the Prime Minister to act to help preserve Bletchley Park: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BletchleyPark/.
- You can visit. We were lucky and went on a special day, so check out the list of events. The train station is more-or-less across the road from Bletchly Park, so it's easy to get to.
- If you want, you can donate.
