razorshine

moved to http://www.razorshine.com

update: work blog at razorshine.com personal blog here.. but restricted to friends only :)

summer is definitely over now :( you can always tell because when you get up it is dark and when you return home from work its .. dark :( though thankfully its not that dark just yet in the evenings.. just murky :) either way i am back to trying to figure out how when my "alarm" (actually my alarm is me cuz i automatically wake up at 7:30 every morning) anyhow i am back to figuring out how to get the lights to automatically switch on at about 8 so i actually get out of bed - its so dingy that you just want to lie there till it gets light .. which seems to be about 8:30 sort of time which is just way too late :( Not managed to sort something out yet in this flat - hopefully by next year ill be in a new flat and will have a solution! of course i could just get up and open the curtains..

god was september 1st really the last time i gave an update :o went to spain for a week ;) spent several days in conin which has the most amazing beach ever seen and bought a few t shirts (ran out of clothes.. oops!) . then went on to tarifa for a day .. in the middle of a festival so EVERYTHING was closed :( was a bit of a waste of time that .. couldnt even go across to morocco as forgot passport. then went on to cadiz and spain. cadiz is really nice - wouldnt mind going back there for a little longer next time.. not sure when ill get round to it though - much prefer seeing new places and lets face it .. im hardly likely to be able to see everything in my lifetime .. u never know :)

anyhow been at work 2 weeks, things are hectic so better get back to it :)

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the hub - hooray :) you'd never know it looking at my friends list on here ;)

oh forgot to say .. added a shrek 2 clip for the game release to the front page (www.digitaloxygen.com) and sadly had to add my photo (with the other 2 guys) to the personnel page.. spent all day wandering through the building looking for decent shots - and yes thats the best we could do!!

so it seems to be the time of year for buying new computers, have now recommended 3 systems to friends in the last week - all laptops too which is unusual. none of them have them yet so how good they are, i do not know. they all sounded good.. so far have recommended:

rock pegasus cts - i love rock systems, they are one of the few that use quality components - of course it does not beat building your own but a laptop.. not quite at the stage of custom building those things yet.

Systemax TourBook 5132 - the guys wanted a laptop that could play games and have a large keyboard (sound like a desktop to anyone?) anyhow this one had as much of what he wanted to be worthwhile - wasnt too heavy either :) god knows what this one will be like!

IBM ThinkPad X40 - the ultimate in portability :) well not quite but its an ibm and its ulra portable - not extremely powerful but i dont have any worries about this laptop not being liked - i have never heard anyone complain about ibm laptops!

anyhow one day i might buy one :) have a tablet right now which is proving a good buy - very useful in meetings and annotating docs :) i even have my own digital signature :)

right anyhow back to work for me:)

oh by the way decision.. china or malaysia? xmas holiday plans...

so in a conspiratory mood here - microsoft have said they will support the next generation blue laser HD dvd format selected by the dvd forum and not the blu-ray format supported by sony, nec and toshiba and some would make out that the major reason for this is sony (who are putting blu-ray into the next playstation release). now much as id like to be conspiratory i have to say i just cant cuz at the end of the day a great announcement as it is for HD-DVD and the dvd forum, drivers will likely be released for windows for blu-ray in time for the release of longhorn and even if its not sony have already taken the first step to making the whole issue redundant by saying it will support both formats - so who cares???

in other news.. we had tonnes of people coming to the site (www.digitaloxygen.com) this week thanks to the press coverage :) looks like a good start at least :)

and in more news.. well go read your nearest news site, time to go home :)

well looks like we launched the website just in time - watching the stats, people properly started coming to the site this morning - we uploaded the live site friday night :) still needs work but its all there :) anyhow http://www.digitaloxygen.com if you want to have another look :) (its very different to the beta..)

hoorah! we got our first bit of PR - more to come we hope :)

http://www.netimperative.com/cmn/viewdoc.jsp?cat=news&docid=BEP1_News_0000067694

So its all go at Digital Oxygen, though life is much more relaxing now weirdly:) Should be more stressed considering digitaloxygen.com STILL hasnt transferred to us - Network Solutions have now taken 2 weeks to transfer it - they accept there is a problem but have not been able to fix it :( in the meantime we have registered digitaloxygen.tv so at least we have some internet presence! Everything else is going well though :) Have a preview look at the site at: www.digitaloxygen.tv/beta221 if you are interested - comment if you want ;)

yes its been while (how many of my posts strat of like that??) anyhow have lots of good reasons this time :) (or :( depending on which way you look at it all as you shall see!) so.. flat first.. had an offer so was busy sorting solicitors (hoorah!) and then the company i was working for decided they wanted to sell and move on and did so in a way that was not pleasant - wages were not paid (arghhh!) while negotiations were being completed with a buyer - annoyingly i found a really cool flat the same day as this happened and obviously without any money being paid into account and unsure on what was going to happen next (if only i knew!) i couldnt put an offer in. anyhow buyer of company fell through so looked like i was either goign to find a new job or work with 2 colleagues to buy out the company ourselves.. and yup u guessed it thats what we did.. completed it end of last week :) new company is Digital Oxygen.. domain name to appear shortly once I get it sorted.. oh and then on completion of that my buyer for my flat fell through! it seems i cannot have it all :)

anyhow yes it was also my birthday on saturday :) rose (girlfriend!) took me to lincoln for the weekend.. pictures online shortly of course. was a really cool place - actually quite crowded (which was unexpected seeing as there isnt even a direct train from london - maybve i should not expect the world to revolve around london ;)) the castle is amazing as is the cathedral.. and the people seemed quite cool as well. anyhow need to get back to the to do list.. will explain what digital oxygen does in another post i think!!

felt like a change today - so revamped the layout. much cleaner and not so harsh on the eye. bit too empty though i think - will probably find something better sooner rather than later. definitely easier on the eye though :)

right.. yes if u read back through my posts u will notice the promise of pictures and well have been very busy taking pictures lately (a few hundred odd) - only a few were of my flat and i seem to have misplaced these and the rest were of weddings and the like.. but good news.. my flat is now on the market and there are pictures there so go see if u want..
http://www.foxtons.co.uk/search?md5=8b4643d35f6db1371a52e7e1a3735b84¤cy=UKP&search_form=map&search_type=SS&inst_ref=ir_isln000096677&submit_type=search

another video down - not as mysterious as the previous one - a fiat panda viral ad this time - it is actually quite funny :)

http://www.newpanda.co.uk/movie

much better :) got through the day pretty much yesterday - watched film called shattered glass (about the journalist who worked for the new republic and conned everyone into believing his made up stories..) was an excellent film, well worth watching :) anyhow chilled day ahead all being well.. encoding a video for a microsite (http://www.beep-box.com) - as its a "viral" campaign they only want the video on the site so people only go to see the video. :)

not sure whats up today - am in a mood to rip everyones head off :) - anyhow will be trying to keep it all in check but just in case .. its probably not a good day to talk to me as of 10:15am :)

well we made the cut for the 2012 olypics :) london, ny, moscow and madrid .. though supposedly london was weak on public opinion.. this is the uk - no one is entusiastic until the press tells them to be :) there does seem to be a split though... mostly down to whether or not people want to pay for it or not.. my opinion.. would be good but i think the government should pay from our taxes and from our state lotteries.. not out of our council taxes.. they are high enough already :( anyhow my 2c :)

So here are the entries for the Aventis Prize - and I have actually already read one of them - unusual in that I normally just dive into bookshops pick up a book that catches my eye and leave (I think thats usually termed the make shopping experience). Of course I am leaving out the fact that recently very little has been catching my eye and have had to spend minutes (the horror!) inside the bookshop (usually around 10 minutes to be pricise). Anyhow here is the list and my comments..

In The Beginning Was the Worm, by Andrew Brown (Simon & Schuster)
In brief: The story of the nematode worm and the scientists who have devoted their lives to unravelling its secrets. But it will appeal to far more than just worm-lovers for its insights into the work of brilliant scientists such as Sydney Brenner, Bob Horvitz and Sir John Sulston, who shared a 2002 Nobel Prize for their work on this microscope creature, the first organism to have its entire genetic make-up sequenced.
About the author: Freelance journalist and author of two previous books, one on the Metropolitan Police and another on the feuds amongst evolutionary theorists.

In theory not really one for me I don't think but I have always been intrigued with genetics and its potential - if it tells me more about how knowing the genetic make-up is anything other than a start in understanding genetics it will be a really good read. Its always intrigued me that decoding something is like decoding a lauguage like chinese (which I am still trying to learn (Manadarin not Cantonese)). At the end of the day, I can convert chinese into a latinised script but its still just letters that I can now understand visually but lets face it thats as far as it gets. It is a good start though, I give you :) I think I will probably pick it up and flick through the next time I am in Waterstones :)

A Short History Of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson (Doubleday/Transworld)
In brief: One man's quest to understand the world around us, from the Big Bang to plate tectonics. The author explores such matters as the size of the Earth and the origins of life, in prose that never fails to be elegant and comprehensible. Fascinating characters and tales from the history of science in a book that's entertaining and brilliantly readable.
About the author: best-selling travel writer and author of books such as Notes From A Small Island and The Lost Continent.

This is the book I have read! Absolutely brilliant except for one selfish thing. Its the book I always wanted to write. I shall have to think of something else now! Anyhow, it takes a bit of everything and talks about it in a really simple conversation style kind of way (the way I write..). A must read!

Magic Universe, by Nigel Calder (Oxford University Press)
In brief: At 705 pages long, this is a giant of a book that covers a vast range of scientific fields in almost encyclopaedic fashion. Subjects are covered in alphabetic order - from alcohol to volcanic explosions - but this is no dry and dusty work of reference. There are dozens of essays, covering everything from cloning and human origins to gravitational waves and the electroweak force. A book to dip into and savour.
About the author: a distinguished science writer, broadcaster and former editor of New Scientist.

Not seen it, will have to have a flick through at some point. Sounds like something I would be interested in but at 705 pages long will need a strong will!

Mutants, by Armand Marie Leroi (Penguin: Viking USA)
In brief: A fascinating exploration of the human body, taking in the story of a French convent girl who found herself changing sex upon puberty; children born with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads and the tale of a hairy family kept at the Burmese royal court for four generations. Beautifully written, this is a mixture of the history of science and medicine and up-to-date explanations of how our genes make us what we are.
About the author: Reader in Evolutionary Developmental Biology at Imperial College London.

I am noticing a pattern here between all the books so far - genetics or the story of everything.. anyhow as before I am intrigued by genetics so again I should probably read it..

Nature Via Nurture, by Matt Ridley (Fourth Estate)
In brief: The perfect antidote to all the hype in recent years about the human genome. The author explores the battles fought over whether nature or nurture makes us what we are, and argues that human behaviour can only be explained by both. A very readable guide to some of the very latest scientific research in genetics.
About the author: science journalist and award-winning author.

More genetics!!!!! I have flicked through this book before and read about it in the New Scientist. I do agree with the major conclusions of this book that both nature and nurture makes us what we are - the intriguing part is which part causes what and this I seem to remember causes much argument in the scientific fields. Think I might wait and just read the scientific magazines to keep up on this debate!

Backroom Boys, by Francis Spufford (Faber & Faber)
In brief: A history of the achievements of arguably some of the more neglected members of British society: engineers. The book looks at some fascinating episodes from the history of technology in the last century, from Britain's early efforts in space to the engineers working on the first mobile phone.
About the author: Author of several acclaimed non-fiction titles and editor of literary anthologies.

Ahh yes.. engineers :) In theory I am one of them (I studied electronic + electrical engineering for 4 years!) - in reality my usage of this knowledge is limited - I work in online video advertising, but I am digressing. Another broad look at a field of work - though not quite as broad as the previous books. The engineer in me is coming out - this book sounds interesting! I wonder if anyone else will find this book interesting! (lets face it.. genetics is a sexy topic, as is nanotech and cloning to name a few - engineering has not been sexy for a long time!). Anyhow, I leave it to you to decide :)


Looking back through the list, it becomes quite obvious why Terry Pratchett (one of the judges voting on the best of them all) said that the quality of the books was "noticeably better" than when he was first involved in judging the competition almost a decade ago. Specifically he referred to the readability of the books - I reckon the major reason for this is the lack of major scientific depth to these books - they are all very general and cover the best and most interesting bits. I actually think this is a good thing since it gets the important facts out to the mass market and then if they are interested further can then search for more in depth books. Maybe, just maybe the scientific world is learning to communicate with everyone else!

About time too.. (my vote of course goes to Bill Bryson!)

the UK press and the US press is very different (as if you didnt know that!) - the major difference seems to be that commentary is identified in the states where as you cannot distinguish between factual articles and commentary over here - makes it very difficult to know whats fact and whats opinion..

I am based in the UK if you didn't know already ;)

interesting how a journalist's lack of research can change the meaning of a word.. booyakasha - an "asian" word meaning cool or hi and having existed for at least a decade (longer?) is now written as being invented by Ali G and being an anti-white racist remark in a foreign language.

I got a response back from the journalist saying that it is what his kids told him - now I know kids use terms like this all the time and i am sure for some kids due to the ali g influence it is an anti white racist remark, but a simple search on google (or any of the others ;) ) shows the usage in this was as being limited and that the majority are using it in a way meaning cool! anyhow maybe i am getting old..

This does lead me onto modern day journalists and how they have changed from the past - no not a pining for how the old days were great since I do not remember them - it has been the way it is now for all my life. What I mean is originally, journalists wrote about their own trade and usually had worked in the field so to speak prior to being a journalist. This meant that factual errors were less frequent and at the very least they understood what they were talking about. Of course its not really economical to have journalists from every field writing about their own field, especially in the general press! But this all means that the amount of errors massively increases and even worse press releases are often just regurgitated out to the world - with all their inherant exaggerations!

The best journalists research their stories first - unfortunately time pressures can mean this research is limited and even worse there is often little way to actually know which stories are researched properly and which is just trash - until they make those blatant mistakes anyhow :)

Right rant over.. and if any of my journo friends are reading this - make sure you keep researching ;)