Author Archives: Fordiebianco

Nelson’s Tower, Forres

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It’s a bank holiday weekend, so I did a little travelling around beautiful Morayshire. I made it successfully to Forres, where Nelson’s Tower was luring me from afar. And what a nice structure it is:

Nelson\'s Tower

Apparently built to celebrate Lord Nelson’s successful battle at Cape Trafalgar (that of course killed himself), the foundations for the building were laid in 1806 and the structure was finished seven years later.  Perched on Cluny Hill and 21 meters high, it gives you gorgeous views over the Moray Firth and the Grampian Mountains.

It’s also a nice and easy cardiovascular workout.

More good American Podcasts? You gotta be kidding me…

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Now that I had my live music fix and my ears will be ringing for the next two weeks after the acoustic assault on my hair cells in my inner ear by Was (not Was) and an added bout of flu, it was time again to look for some good podcasts that keep my company in my sickbed. Already a happy listener of Steve Curwood’s ‘Living on Earth‘, I tried some of other shows that Public Radio International is serving over teh intarwebs. From what I understand (and please correct me if I’m wrong, because it’s complicated) PRI is a sort of of competitor to that other content provider for Americans with brains, NPR. I don’t particularly understand how they get their funding (my friend Panamaus one day tried to explain, but to no avail) but I think that while NPR gets some federal money, PRI mainly lives off grants and support from charitable organisations.

Anyway, I like ‘living on earth’, and so I tried out some of the other PRI stuff. Their Technology podcast, while more geared towards an younger geographically challenged American Audience, covers a good spectrum of issues and certainly is more informative than the BBC’s rather excruciating ‘Digital Planet’.

Even better is ‘the world‘, which manages to be a quirky, daily show with more unusual stories from around the world, a sort of ‘from our own correspondent’ with bells and whistles.

So, these two go onto the list. If I can believe ‘the West Wing’, democratic white house staffers are more into public radio than those dastardly republicans. So, let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Well done PRI.

Was (not Was) live at the Carling Academy, Islington.

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Hi All,

I’m literally minutes back home from the best gig of the year (so far): Was (not Was) played a largely unadvertised gig (apart from their website) in the cosy surroundings of the Carling Academy in London’s Islington. Hot on the heels of the release of their latest album, the impressive and fortunately well reviewed boo!, they played two gigs in the UK and featured on that outstanding show with Jools Holland.

Again, why there was actually no advertising for the gig is beyond me, but this way it was an intimate affair in a small club.

Initially the gods were against us. After arriving at the Academy, we had to be evacuated from the premises, as the surrounding mall apparently was suffering from a bomb-scare. Fortunately, only 45 minutes later the efficient and polite Metropolitean Poilce Force let us back (after first evacuating me again out of a friendly gay bar [I didn’t know. It was dark and friendly. I only realised after I realised the lack of real ale] called EDVI [which apparently stands for ‘Edward the 6th’] in which we sought refuge from the evacuation of the Academy).

The dastardly bombplot kept us out. Bummer.

But after letting us in and us realising the small crowd looked like a  good-natured fifties birthday with a 10:1 male to female ratio we settled in to the friendly vibe of the place, and after half an hour the band arrived, receiving an friendly roar from 250 middle aged men (and some of their wives and in one instance their daughter). The playlist, as far as I remember (which is 90% complete but not in the right order) consisted of a lot of early stuff, the best songs from the latest albums, but for some reasone ‘What up, Dog?’ was short changed. As the best girlfriend ever and myself hoped for ‘Spy in the House of Love’, ‘Anything can happen’  and ‘Anytime Lisa’, we were a bit disappointed, but with a back-catalogue that massive I realise it’s hard to pick your setlist.

Anyway, the setlist (in the order I remember it. This is not chronological):

  • I blew up the United States
  • Hello Operator
  • 11 Miles an hour
  • Semi-interesting week
  • Crazy Water
  • Walk the Dinosaur
  • Out come the Freaks
  • Where did your heart go (and I always thought this was by George Michael)
  • Your Luck won’t last
  • From the Head to the Heart
  • Papa was a Rolling Stone
  • I feel better than James Brown
  • Knocked Down, Made Small

Did it groove? Oh yes, it did. Don Was (‘I had this Bass for 20 years but that’s never happened before’) played three quarters of the gig with a missing D-String, but that little mishap did not reduce the power of this tight rhythm section. Shame the Academy’s sound system swallowed his bass almost completely, together with half of the drum set. David Was was able to provide some light entertainment and the trio of Sweetpea Atkinson, Sir Harry Bowens and their third bloke who embarrassingly I can’t remember gave us pitch perfect soul. The musicians were excellent, people were enjoying themselves (apart from those ladies who unsuccessfully tried to squeeze into their 20 year old skirts, as they were only able to sway gently) and I think the band had a ball as well. With other words: a total success.

It would have been even better with ‘Shadow and Jimmy’. But what can you do.

5 Months with the EEEPC. An interim review. By a female user

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Last Christmas, I gave her an EEEPC, but the very next day, I wanted to take it away (because I wanted it for myself). (with apologies to Wham)

In the past I have discussed the reasoning for buying an EEEPC: form factor, operating system and price were certainly the most important considerations. I knew that my significant other wouldn’t be interested in a dual core processor, an enormous hard disc or copious amounts of ram, as all a laptop should do (for her) is email, browse the web (including flash), watch movies, listen to music and synchronize her Ipod. And do it safely. A tall order? Obviously not, as the little EEEPC has been doing this quite happily ever since. So, after 5 months, I asked the best girlfriend ever for an interim review.

FB: What kind of laptop(s) did you use before? B.G.E:  An IBM thinkpad running XP and a G4 Ibook. The former because it was given to me by my employer and I let my IT department deal with any windows related problems, the latter because you gave it to me. Both did what they were supposed to do.

FB: Did you have any problems with the EEEPC’s unusual GUI? B.G.E: No. None whatsoever. It’s self-explanatory and easy.

FB: Did you have any problems with the EEEPCs applications? B.G.E: The original Skype version that was distributed with it crashed and was unusable, but after updating it, everything worked fine.

FB: Are you happy with its multi media capabilities, and what do you do with it? B.G.E: I generally use it for the BBC’s Iplayer and have watched an ripped .avi movie. Quality is astonishingly good for a machine that size, but head phones improve the experience enormously.

FB: Did you have any problems using its networking interfaces? B.G.E: No problems with both Wifi or ethernet.

FB: Do you use it for productivity purposes? B.G.E: I am looking forward to use it away from my desk more frequently in the future.

FB: Are there any limitations in your user experience due to the EEEPC’s size? B.G.E: Some people may mind its screensize and the fact that you have to scroll horizontally much more frequently than with bigger laptops. The trackpad goes on my nerves and could be better. An external mouse enhances the experience immensely.

FB: What’s the best about the EEEPC? B.G.E:  It’s cute looks, its size (it easily fits in my handbag) and people want to talk to you about it in cafes.

FB: What’s the worst? B.G.E: The mousepad.

FB: Thank you. B.G.E: Thank You.