Rob's Blog - June 2006

Links for 2006-06-29

• How to Photograph Fireworks Tips on how to take great photos of fireworks
• BBC NEWS | Business | Google launches payment service Dubbed Google Checkout, the system is designed to boost Google's main source of revenue - selling advertising.
• BBC NEWS | Health | NHS mobile devices 'not secure' The NHS is failing to use adequate security on portable data storage devices, according to a survey.
• BBC NEWS | Magazine | Manners on the move A survey has suggested two-thirds of us are regularly late when meeting people, with the mobile phone the main suspect.
• BBC NEWS | Technology | Readers are digging the news online A technology website that is helping transform the way people consume news online has just released a new version designed to widen its appeal.
• Welcome to the 419 Eater - John Boko "Del Trotter" gets a hand carved commodore 64 computer from 419 scammer John Boko
• Mobile Entertainment: Yahoo! inks global deal with 3 It looks like Yahoo are to help 3 users break out of the walled garden.
• Regulator awards itself powers to ban SMS scammers | OUT-LAW.COM The premium rate phone regulator is overhauling its policies so that it can take more direct action against rule breaking content providers. Mobile phone content providers who break the ICSTIS rules could be banned from operating any premium rate services
• Coca Cola vending machine manual? This purports to be the manual for a high-tech Coke machine, the kind with the scrolling LED tickers. (via boing boing)
• Google goes mobile in Europe - TechSpot News Google Mobile has come to Europe! Already available in the US, the service allows users to access Google News and Gmail via their mobile phones, and is now being launched across the UK, France, Germany and Spain.
• What's happened to the wireless running bra? | The Register Let's hope the project hasn't gone titsup
• Nokia sues Chinese 'copycats' | The Register Nokia is suing two Chinese phone manufacturers and a number of distributors for copying its designs. Nokia also issued a cease and desist request in an attempt to stop the sale and distribution of the phones immediately.

Links for 2006-06-28

• BBC NEWS | Business | Women lead rush to mobile gaming Women players are responsible for two-thirds of the sales of mobile phone games, a US survey has revealed.
• BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Last chance for China's dolphin A rescue plan is developed for the Yangtze River dolphin, probably the world's most endangered mammal.
• Coca-Cola joins forces with Apple in iTunes drive - Digital Bulletin - Digital news by Email - Brand Republic Coca-Cola is to team up with Apple for a substantial iTunes promotional initiative as part of the launch strategy for its calorie-free Coke Zero brand.
• Bud Kicks Up World Cup Brew-Haha, German Soccer Fans Treat King Of Beers Like A Pauper - CBS News Goes on to call Budweiser "an insult to all true beer lovers" and an "insult to your tongue."
• Government Minister Resigns - By SMS When Timor-Leste's Foreign and Defence Minister, Jose Ramos-Horta resigned from the government at the weekend, he chose to do so by sending an SMS to Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri. While there have been reports of people divorcing via SMS, this seems to b
• Rare giant beetle scares workers but survives | the Daily Mail A giant beetle unseen in the UK for 300 years and rare anywhere in the world has been discovered living in Llanelli.
• Lightning Photography - Photo Tips How to photograph lightning
• The Size Of Our World Putting the universe into perspective

Links for 2006-06-27

• BBC NEWS | England | North Yorkshire | More reports of 'tiger on loose' The Tadcaster Tiger is on the loose
• BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Snake displays changing colours A 'chameleon' snake with the ability to change its colours is discovered in the forests of Borneo.
• BBC NEWS | Technology | Wi-fi pioneers offer cheap router A Spanish firm is to sell cheap routers as part of a plan to turn home wi-fi networks into public hotspots
• BBC NEWS | Technology | Texting levels reach record high Mobile phone users in the UK sent a record 3.3 billion text messages in May, figures show.
• Ticketmaster unveils phone delivery for e-tickets - Digital Bulletin - Digital news by Email - Brand Republic LONDON - Ticketmaster has launched a wireless delivery service to allow customers to receive event tickets on registered mobile phones.
• WAWS FOX30 Online - Jacksonville - Man Robbed by Teen Girls, Thought He was Meeting MySpace Friend Not your usual myspace story.

Links for 2006-06-26

• BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Dodo skeleton find in Mauritius Scientists say they have discovered part of the skeleton of a dodo, the large, flightless bird which became extinct more than 300 years ago.
• thewholive.tv The WHO broadcast their gigs online

Building Coulsdon Bypass

This is the view looking towards and from Smitham station in Coulsdon as they build the new bypass.

It certainly looks like an impressive piece of construction work.

Come On England

This house in Coulsdon is doing it's bit for England by bringing the property prices down. :-)

Links for 2006-06-23

• BBC NEWS | Health | Mobile phone risk during storms UK doctors have warned of the danger of lightning strikes when using mobile phones outdoors during stormy weather.
• BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Channel 4 to air TV shows online The channel will show streamed live versions of programmes on its website at the same time as they are broadcast on TV from 27 June
• BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Gervais claims new podcast record His free weekly podcast landed a place in this year's Guinness Book of World Records with an average of 261,670 downloads per episode.

Links for 2006-06-22

• BBC NEWS | Business | Hi-tech adverts to arrive on the Tube Like a scene from science fiction movie Blade Runner set in Victorian England, giant advertisement films are to be beamed on to London Underground platform walls.
• BBC NEWS | Entertainment | ITV signs deal for net broadcasts ITV programmes will be available to watch on the internet and on mobile phones for up to a month after they have been shown on TV under a new deal.
• BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Pops out of tune with digital age "Video killed the radio star," sang The Buggles in 1980, and a generation later it seems that a digital revolution in the music world has put an end to television's longest running weekly pop show.
• BBC NEWS | Technology | Reading 'to go' for blind people A portable scanning device that reads text to visually impaired people will go on sale in the UK next month.
• BBC NEWS | Technology | Mobile TV scores in Asia Mobile devices offering TV and video on the move have been the focus of attention at Broadcast Asia, the region's biggest broadcasting trade show, in Singapore this week
• BBC NEWS | UK | The popularity of 'time' unveiled The word "time" is the most common noun in the English language, according to the latest Oxford dictionary.
• WSJ.com - Talking Tech Jakob Nielsen is a Web-design guru who has spent years advising companies about how to create attractive and easy-to-use Web sites. Lately, he has been thinking about other ways that companies reach out to customers, like blogs, RSS news feeds, newsletter
• Top 10 Hybrid Animals - Hemmy.net, A source of varied interests Hybrid animals are cross-breds between animals of similar genetics. They mostly exist in captivity and are the result of human intervention
• Kerrang Awards 2006 Vote in the 2006 Kerrang Awards
• Mobile Music to Surpass Online Music Services by 2010 - Mobiledia Wireless over-the-air (OTA) music services in the U.S. could have more than 50 million users and generate more than a billion dollars in revenue by 2010, according to research firm IDC.
• Europe to axe digital kit copyright taxes | Reg Hardware Digital music devices are set to become cheaper in Europe if the European Commission has its way. It wants to abolish levies member states' governments add to prices to compensate artists and musicians for copyright infringement.
• The Brick Testament The bible acted out in Lego
• Coke sires son of Mycokemusic.com | The Register Coca Cola is planning another music venture to replace Mycokemusic.com, the music download site it is closing at the end of July.

Double Take

This was the view from my desk and it made me do a double take.

Damien, our work experience guy, is busy reading heat magazine, but at just the right angle for the ad on the back page to merge into him.

Links for 2006-06-21

• dailywireless.org - Free Mobile Blog Software Globe Telecom, the leading telecommunications operator in the Philippines, and Nokia, today announced that Globe is the first operator in the world to offer their customers a fully integrated mobile online sharing experience with Nokia Nseries phones.
• BBC NEWS | Wales | Mid Wales | Town chaos as cash thrown in air People in Aberystwyth had an unexpected windfall when a man showered what is thought to be thousands of pounds into the air at a pedestrian crossing.
• BBC NEWS | Business | O2 to buy The Link chain for ?30m Britain's biggest electrical retailer, DSG International, is selling The Link - its chain of mobile phone stores to mobile phone operator O2.
• BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures - Rolf Harris Australian-born Rolf Harris, who has been made a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours, has been one of the UK's best-loved entertainers for more than 50 years
• BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Crunch time for Planet Pluto At its conference this August, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) will make a decision that could see Pluto lose its status as a planet.
• mycokemusic.com MyCokeMusic.com is closing

Links for 2006-06-20

• BBC NEWS | Technology | Talent-spotting in virtual worlds More on Radio 1 in SecondLife
• BBC NEWS | Technology | Gates departure to start new era If ever there was a company built to reflect the personality of one of its founders, that company is Microsoft.
• Photo in the News: Rare "Rainbow" Spotted Over Idaho Known in the weather world as a circumhorizontal arc, this rare sight was caught on film on June 3 as it hung over northern Idaho near the Washington State border
• NME.COM - News - The Who for Glastonbury 2007? The Who's guitarist Pete Townshend has hinted strongly that the band will be performing at Glastonbury 2007.
• O2 says Be mine for ?50m | The Register O2 is splashing out £50m to buy tiddly LLU outfit Be as part of an ambitious plan to offer broadband alongside its own mobile services.

BBC News - Schools To Stop Wokring

I know schools don't do much teaching these days, but it according to BBC News the education secretary is tightening guidelines designed to stop working in schools. :-)

Links for 2006-06-19

• Podsafe Music Network - Caitlyn Smith Something magical happens when she grabs a guitar and steps up to the microphone. via DailySourceCode.com
• BBC NEWS | Business | Coke ditches three flavours in US Vanilla Coke, Vanilla Diet Coke and Diet Coke With Lemon are to be replaced by Diet Black Cherry Vanilla Coke and Black Cherry Vanilla Coke in the US. I missed this at the time
• BBC NEWS | Business | Anger at EU cap on mobile charges Mobile phone firms have reacted angrily to new ideas put forward by the European Commission to cut costs for consumers making calls on trips abroad.
• BBC NEWS | Business | Nokia and Siemens in network deal Nokia and Siemens are to merge their mobile and fixed-line phone network equipment businesses to create one of the world's biggest network firms
• BBC NEWS | Education | Net students 'think copying OK' The "Google generation" of students often do not understand what plagiarism is, says an expert on the issue.
• BBC NEWS | Technology | Fans cheer World Cup video clips The official Fifa World Cup site has supplied more than 31 million streams of video highlights in the first week of the tournament.
• BBC NEWS | Wales | Man's 32,000 sex mobile messages Royce Roberts, 42,from Caernarfon, made the calls sending pornographic images at a cost to him of £25,000
• BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Floating atomic plant for Russia Russia is to build the world's first floating nuclear plant, designed to provide power for remote areas.
• USB teddy bear holds data, scares children - Engadget The headless usb teddy drive
• Petetownshend.com - Pete's Diary - 18 Jun 2006 On a balmy summer's night, the hottest ticket in town was The Who's much-awaited return to Leeds.
• YouTube - Rob Cockerham on 20/20 The ripped up credit card application

The Mentos And Diet Coke Explosion

The world plus his dog is doing "The Mentos and Diet Coke explosion", so I thought I'd give it a try as well.

This is where you drop a pack of Mentos chewy sweets into a bottle of Diet Coke and watch it erupt.

So what is happening? The Chemistry FAQ explains the mentos explosion.

Ordinarily, water resists the expansion of bubbles in the soda. Water molecules attract each other strongly, and they link together to form a tight mesh around each bubble. It takes energy to push water molecules away from each other to form a new bubble, or to expand a bubble that has already been formed. The phenomenon is called "surface tension".

Now drop a Mentos into the soda. The gelatin and gum arabic from the dissolving candy disrupts the water mesh, so it takes less work to expand bubbles. At the same time, the roughness of the candy surface provides many little nooks and crannies that allow new bubbles to form more quickly (a process called nucleation). As more of the surface dissolves, both processes accelerate, and foam rapidly begins to form.

To repeat his experiment you will need a pack of Mentos (I used fruit) and a bottle of Diet Coke (I used a 1.5 litre one).

Make a small chute so you can slide all the mentos into the coke rapidly. I just used a flyer for blinds.

Make sure your camera team is ready...

Keep your finger over the bottom of the chute so you can release all the Mentos in one go.

Then let go!

Get out the way quickly.

Watch the Diet Coke explode.

Links for 2006-06-18

• BBC NEWS | Entertainment | The Who recreate 1970 Leeds gig Rock band The Who have recreated their legendary 1970 Leeds University concert to launch a European and US tour.

Cocacola Zero

I've just tried some of the new CocaCola Zero.

It's meant to taste like real Coke, but be sugar free. Coke's version of the Pepsi Max in other words.

Personally, i found it tasted just like Diet Coke and left a rather unpleasant aftertaste.

Bring back Vanilla Coke!

My First Fathers Day

It's my first fathers day, and Jasmine has bought me a lovely card.

Links for 2006-06-16

• BBC NEWS | England | London | Commuters led off stalled train More than 800 Tube passengers were led through tunnels to safety after being trapped underground in a stalled train for more than two hours. Thank god I don't catch the Central Line
• BBC NEWS | Politics | Plan to ban muzak goes to Lords It would force ministers to draw up plans to ban music and television programmes in trains and hospitals.
• BBC NEWS | World | Europe | France rescues Normandy landmark France has launched a huge project to remove silt linking the mainland to Mont Saint-Michel - a national landmark - and make it an island again.

Links for 2006-06-15

• cbs2.com - People Took Photos Of Girl, 15, As She Lay Dying Partygoers who saw a 15-year-old girl fatally shot at a middle school graduation party used their camera phones to record images of her as she lay dying, it was reported Tuesday.
• Creative steps on iPod | Reg Hardware US trade authorities have started investigating a complaint against Apple that could have its iPod banned from sale in the United States. The International Trade Commission (ITC) voted to launch the investigation in response to a complaint by Creative Lab
• Weebls Stuff - Footy Sorry, it's the world cup so the badgers need an outing.

Links for 2006-06-14

• BBC NEWS | Business | MySpace to sell search function MySpace, the internet site that lets users build their own homepage, plans to auction off its search function to either Google, Yahoo or Microsoft.
• BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Early web-spinner found in amber The spiral orb webs, which to many people typify spiders, were catching insects in their sticky silk while the dinosaurs still walked the Earth.
• O'Reilly Radar > Where 2.0:Mikel Maron on GeoRSS Mikel restates Ray Ozzies's quote that "RSS is the Unix pipe of the Internet", and his presentation shows that GeoRSS follows up well on that promise. GeoRSS provides "a number of ways to encoding location in RSS feeds", and is an easy and standardized wa
• Coca-Cola BlaK Another different Coke to try.

Lycos Fathers Day Ad

James spotted this ad on the homepage of Lycos for Fathers Day.

Does anyone else think it looks a bit pervy or is it just us?

Links for 2006-06-13

• BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | New shark discovered in US waters A new type of hammerhead shark has been discovered in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, marine scientists say.
• BBC NEWS | UK | BBC News live stats For the first time you will be able to see which stories on our site people are reading and emailing to their friends, which video clips they are watching, and how this changes minute-by-minute through the day.
• Mobile Entertainment: Mobile DRM goes open source Melodeo is pioneering a new business model for mobile digital rights management with PachyDRM, the industry’s first open source solution.
• The Lithium Teapot It's Kat's blog

Links for 2006-06-12

• dailywireless.org - How To Make Your Own Map Mashup If you know what RSS is, GeoRSS is a logical step forward.
• BBC NEWS | Health | Time for rethink on the clitoris For two millennia it was a "little hill" - the meaning of kleitoris, its root word in Greek.
• BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Whaling nations set for majority Pro-whaling nations look set to command a majority of the votes when the International Whaling Commission (IWC) annual meeting begins on Friday. Japan has been briding various countries to join the IWC and vote in favour.
• BBC NEWS | Technology | Google targets mobile future If you use Google, the chances are that you search its index via the internet.
• BBC NEWS | UK | Rail signallers vote for strike Thousands of rail signallers will stage two one-day strikes (20th and 25th June) in a dispute over pay, their trade union has announced.
• Peugeot parking game practice your driving skills with this Flash game
• Public Proxy Servers Page 1 A nice list of proxy servers (via Tor)
• textually.org: Hands Free How to make any mobile work hands free
• Reiter's Camera Phone Report: Girl's camera phone photo of license plate helps capture would-be abductor A girl’s camera phone photo of a man who previously tried to abduct her and three girlfriends has helped capture the suspect when the same girls saw the man and took a photo of his license plate
• Python Cartographic Library: Open Source GIS for Python The Python Cartography Library, or PCL, is a package of modules for rendering GIS data from a variety of backends into maps. Its mission is to be the best possible Python interface to open source GIS software such as PROJ.4, GEOS, GDAL, OGR, and MapServer
• Forum Nokia Blogs - A list of Symbian OS error codes A part of the list Symbian OS Error Codes.

Oh My Lordi

Eurovision 2006 winners Lordi are doing a signing in HMV's Oxford Street branch at present.

The Ultimate Cheesecake

How's this for a cheesecake?

Instead of a wedding cake, Simon and Kate had tiered cheese instead.

All seems rather cheesy if you ask me. ;-)

Kerrang In Meldreth

This underpass between meldreth and melbourn near Cambridge has some impressive graffiti art, including a free advert for Kerrang!

Links for 2006-06-09

• BBC NEWS | England | London | Water pump plan to cool the Tube A groundwater cooling system is to be tested at Victoria station in an effort to combat soaring temperatures on the Tube over the summer months using the old River Tyburn
• BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Freeview 'overtakes analogue TV' Yet we still pay a digital tax as part of the TV licence but can't receive it until 2012 in Eastbourne
• BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Teen site moves to block photos A website aimed at young people says it is moving to block explicit photographs from being downloaded onto its site.
• Uꢡ - Floating Bottles A boat made of plastic bottles
• BBC - Action Network - - A12337175 - My story: How I spared a fort for restoration When movie sound engineer Robin Adcroft visited a friend working on pirate radio, he fell in love with the station’s HQ – an old World War II fort off the Kent coast
• olympics The gentlemans olympics
• Microsoft product phones home every day | The Register Oh didn't we mention that in the licence?
• Music fans warned about buying gig tickets online | The Register A consumer watchdog is warning music fans to take care when buying tickets online for music festivals and other events. Best stick to using Aloud.com
• Vitamin Features ? HTML Emails - Taming the Beast Should you use CSS or (horror of horrors) tables? And what do you do when images are ‘blocked’?
• YouTube - STAR WARS Action Figure Theater - PREQUEL Episode 01 Star Wars parody made with an army of action figures and cool effects!
• YouTube - Everything changes Brookers to leave YouTube and move to MTV(?)

Links for 2006-06-08

• Meaning - About Merkitys-Meaning Merkitys is a contextual image uploader to Flickr from S60 devices.
• local6.com - News - State Votes To Remove Bald Eagles From Threatened List Manatees are now just threatened, not endangered
• WidSets Beta widgets on your mobile

Coca~cola With Lime

I'm just trying some of the new coke with lime.

A very bizarre taste, and i'm not sure i like it.

Bring back vanilla coke!

Links for 2006-06-07

• Re-Engineering the Ark Was the Ark of the Covenant really a giant battery? Fortean Times puts the case.
• NASA - Huge Storms Converge The two biggest storms in the solar system are about to go bump in the night, in plain view of backyard telescopes. Keep an eye on Jupiter to see what's going to happen.
• The last acacia The story of the last Acacia tree in what was once a vast forest. No other trees lived within 400km of it.
• Wired News: A Sixth Sense for a Wired World What if, seconds before your laptop began stalling, you could feel the hard drive spin up under the load? Or you could tell if an electrical cord was live before you touched it? For the few people who have rare earth magnets implanted in their fingers, th

Links for 2006-06-06

• Forum Nokia Blogs Forum Nokia have started blogging now.
• Internet Radio for S60, combined release for 2nd & 3rd Editions The guys at S60 have improved their internet radio application and it also works on 2nd edition devices now.
• Battle Lines Drawn Up for Mobile Search at MobHappy Nokia announced their foray into mobile search late last week, with a pretty low key press release, for what is a strategically important initiative.
• BBC NEWS | Magazine | The Nick of time Noooooo, it's 06 06 06! A big day for all you satanists out there!
• BBC NEWS | Technology | Handsets look to eclipse cameras It found that 44% of people already use their mobile handset as their main camera.
• BBC SPORT | Football | World Cup 2006 | BBC coverage | BBC website shows World Cup games All of the BBC's 2006 World Cup matches will also be broadcast exclusively live on the BBC Sport website.
• (The Other) Top 10 Most Ridiculous Black Metal Pics of All Time- RUTHLESS REVIEWS As it's 06 06 06, here are the top 10 most ridiculous black metal pics.
• Slashdot | Google Launches Online Spreadsheet System "In a move that is sure to cause even more discussion of Google's intentions to go head-to-head with Microsoft in the Office Suite arena, they have launched a spreadsheet.
• Bethen Thorpe An actress friend from university who I really must contact again.
• Ringback Tone Patent Awarded Nearly two years after the actual introduction of ringback tones by wireless carriers, the U.S. Patent Office has granted official patent status to patent filer Karl Seelig, CEO of Perceptive Impression, for ring back signal replacement.
• Squeezebox phone announcements Caller ID on a squeezebox. Seeing this reminds me of some work I have to do on mine.
• UK podcasters push for better licensing | The Register Podcasters have met the Music Alliance in an attempt to get performance fee collectors to reconsider their rules on using licensed music in downloadable audio.
• Trendcatching Riding the web2.0 wave

Links for 2006-06-01

• BBC NEWS | Business | Mobile phone roaming fees slashed Some of Europe's biggest mobile phone operators, including the UK's Orange and Germany's T-Mobile, have agreed to slash mobile phone roaming charges.
• BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Unknown creatures found in cave New animals found in a previously sealed off cave in Israel.