https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/ Recent content on timandkathy.co.uk Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb Mon, 01 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/trike/ Mon, 08 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/trike/ Van Andel Bakfiets Classic Narrow cargo trike Bought used in 2013 Seatbelts for four children Fold-up seats for increased load carrying space Sunstar electric assist motor fitted by Electric Bike Sales, Bristol 3 levels of assist (low, medium, high) 14000 mAh battery mounted in pannier bag Further upgrades done by Really Useful Bikes near Yate Uprated hub brakes (Shimano IM-80s) Replacement hub gear (NuVinci CVT) and rear wheel Official Bakfiets. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2017/05/01/an-update/ Mon, 01 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2017/05/01/an-update/ I haven’t blogged for quite a while. Social media (Twitter, Facebook &c.) seemed like it had replaced blogging for the purposes I used it for. Also, I hadn’t been able to log in to my Wordpress installation for quite a while, and I haven’t yet been able to figure out how to fix the problem. Separately, one of the bloggers I follow on Twitter, Raymond Camden, recently ported his own blog to Hugo, a static site generator written in the Go programming language. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2013/12/14/the-pavement-cycling-issue/ Sat, 14 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2013/12/14/the-pavement-cycling-issue/ The Road “Safety” Crackdown comes in the wake of the hit-and-run death of a cyclist, Jake Gilmore, in Bath in November. He was one of a number of cyclists who died in what was a dark month for road safety in the UK. Police forces in other locations - notably London, Edinburgh and Bristol - have also mounted similar crackdowns in the last few weeks. “Crackdowns” are barely more than PR exercises. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2012/05/23/baths-bladud-bikes-a-hire-scheme-before-its-time/ Wed, 23 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2012/05/23/baths-bladud-bikes-a-hire-scheme-before-its-time/ [I started this post back in March] News reaches me via @katie_monk on Twitter that “Word on the street is that the bike scheme might be getting scrapped because the bikes are getting vandalised. Boo hiss!” It would indeed be a shame for the scheme to close… or would it? It was funded with EU Civitas money, implemented by Bicincitta (an Italian company), and launched last year with no little amusement at the (initially) badly-translated web site and frustration at (and, in one case, concern at the security of) the sign-up process, which was said to be extremely awkward, and lacking the casual-use flexibility of the much-larger “Boris Bikes” scheme in London; a scheme that, although better technically than the Bladud Bikes, still work out as the most expensive bikes in the world. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2011/06/09/i-wonder-what-the-cyclist-is/ Thu, 09 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2011/06/09/i-wonder-what-the-cyclist-is/ I wrote this poem when I was preparing my report on Andrea Leadsom’s Dangerous Cycling Ten-minute Bill for The Pod Delusion. The report featured in Episode 83. Spring is sprung, the grass is ris I wonder what the cyclist is? Fitter, happier, more productive? Or furiously, wantonly destructive? You won’t get balance from the papers Or broadcast media about their capers. They’re either being squashed by a lorry, Or scaring pedestrians without a ‘sorry’. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2010/10/13/conscientious-objection-and-the-war-on-the-motorist/ Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2010/10/13/conscientious-objection-and-the-war-on-the-motorist/ Philip “Hoverboard” Hammond?p=1328, Secretary of State for Transport, says he’s going to “end the war on the motorist”, as if such a war exists rather than being the mental (in both senses) construct of the car-sick UK press and government. Anyway, a comment on a Guardian editorial on the absurdity of this assertion made me think: “I have to admit, there is a nice driver or two about who – in rush hour – politely wait for me to cross a four lane roundabout feed with no pedestrian crossing in the pouring rain pulling my wheelie suitcase. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2010/08/10/west-addicts-facing-jump-in-drug-prices-by-end-of-month/ Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2010/08/10/west-addicts-facing-jump-in-drug-prices-by-end-of-month/ This is a parody. Oil is an addiction. Addicts in the West could be paying up to 130p a hit for drugs by the beginning of next year, an industry body has warned. The Retail Drugs Industry Independent Crack Dealers Association (RDI Crack) predicted prices could soar by 3 per cent ahead of the August Bank Holiday weekend and 8 per cent by the end of 2010. RDI Crack, which represents around two-thirds of Britain’s 9,000 drugs forecourt sites, said the average crack price nationally could rise as high as 125. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2010/05/18/the-shell-ad-the-ft-refused-to-publish/ Tue, 18 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2010/05/18/the-shell-ad-the-ft-refused-to-publish/ More here https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/ft-refuses-publish-amnesty-ad-attacking-shell/1004231 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2010/01/25/charlie-simpson-cycling-and-charity/ Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2010/01/25/charlie-simpson-cycling-and-charity/ BBC News: bq. A seven-year-old boy from London who was aiming to raise £500 for the Haiti quake relief effort through a sponsored bike ride has raised more than £72,000 (n.b. now over £100,000). – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8477345.stm The bike ride is a great effort, and the fundraising really got going after Charlie was featured on BBC Breakfast. None of what follows is intended to knock what Charlie has done, so please don’t take it in that way; it is merely a comment on our collective attitude to cycling here in the UK, with reference to kids in The Netherlands (highlighted on David Hembrow’s blog%20travel). https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2009/07/14/changes-are-afoot/ Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2009/07/14/changes-are-afoot/ Since leaving Digerati Studio in June, I’ve been picking up odd bits of freelance work but not yet really enough to provide a decent income for my family. I mentioned on Twitter on Friday that I’d had an interview and been offered a job. On Monday, I accepted the offer. So far, I haven’t mentioned what – or where – the job is. Fear not, your wait is over. I will be working for a medium-sized company called N4 Solutions, which is based near Cirencester. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2009/06/10/paris-vs-bristol/ Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2009/06/10/paris-vs-bristol/ Bristol, Britain’s first Cycling City, aims to introduce a Paris Velib-style cycle hire scheme, operated by Hourbike. My fear is that, by having a system that is too small, the scheme will fail. Some quotes from the Happy Birthday Velib video (linked below) bear this out: bq. “you have to go big enough to where it’s at least 1 bike per 200 residents. I think that’s a bare minimum for the good function of the system” https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2009/04/16/do-motor-industry-executives-dream-of-electric-cars/ Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2009/04/16/do-motor-industry-executives-dream-of-electric-cars/ Apparently, yes: they do.stm: the relentless obsession with Carbon emissions (while important) has led us into a blind alley of thinking that electric vehicles are somehow “green”. A clue: they’re not, unless the energy used to propel them comes from a renewable resource. Otherwise, all you’re doing is swapping local pollution and emissions for those far away; you know what they say about “out of sight…”. Carbon emissions are only one of the car’s many downsides. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2009/03/16/my-comment-to-radio-2-on-cycle-helmets/ Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2009/03/16/my-comment-to-radio-2-on-cycle-helmets/ As widely reported elsewhere, a judge has ruled that cyclists may be partly at fault if they are knocked off their bikes while not wearing a helmet.html. The issue was discussed on BBC Radio 2 by Matthew Bannister, standing in for Jeremy “Daily Mail FM” Vine. Just after the intro to the piece, there was an advert for the BBC’s coverage of Formula 1 car racing (something that encourages some drivers to drive like idiots), an unfortunate juxtaposition but typical for the MSM, where “dog bites man” or “car driver kills people” isn’t news. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2009/02/20/but-ive-got-my-hazard-lights-on/ Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2009/02/20/but-ive-got-my-hazard-lights-on/ There are some great blogs out there documenting the worst excesses of a car-supremacist culture (in which we in the UK live): both the behaviour of drivers and the panderings of local authorities to them, despite claims by certain extremist groups that drivers are persecuted by councils. Bristol gets a lot of attention as the UK’s first cycling city, and it undoubtedly has too many cars in certain parts of the city. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/10/13/improving-freecycle/ Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/10/13/improving-freecycle/ I’ve been a member of our local Freecycle mailing list for a few years, successfully using it to offload and acquire various items, from a double futon bed to an mp3 player. In 2006, Giles Turnbull blogged about Freecycle’s shortcomings, from a usability and webapp point of view. It boils down to “Freecycle is a great idea unsuited to living inside a mailing list once the size of the list is >100 people”. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/10/08/a-shepherd/ Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/10/08/a-shepherd/ (I found this in my inbox during a clearout…) A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Prada suit, Gucci shoes, Dior sunglasses and D+G tie, leans out the window and asks the shepherd, “If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one? https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/09/24/horizons/ Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/09/24/horizons/ It feels quite weird to be writing this, but I’m leaving IOP Publishing after nearly eight years: my longest-running job by a country mile. I’m going to Digerati Studio, a Web agency in Bath; no more train-induced commuter stress for me. I’m leaving just as the first project I worked on at IOPP – the Magazines Online Subscriptions system – is being retired, which I feel is poetic: a complete project lifecycle. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/09/19/dconstruct-2008-part-five/ Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/09/19/dconstruct-2008-part-five/ (This is turning into a marathon: parts one, two, three and four precede this one. I can’t guarantee your sanity should you choose to read that lot.) Joshua Porter: Leveraging Cognitive Bias in Social Design bq. “Rationality be damned…” We (humans) work on limited information to make a decision - the Bandwagon Effect. h4. Heuristics Heuristics are a shortcut to making a decision. They’re useful (else we would likely never make a decision, make a decision very, very slowly and/or go insane in the process) but they are subject to cognitive bias_Bias. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/09/19/september-19th/ Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/09/19/september-19th/ Off the train; voices in a garden. I look and see barbeque smoke. Up the hill, more smells of outdoor cookery; further on, it blends with the aroma of the chip shop. A beautiful reminder of the summer we never had. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/09/12/dconstruct-2008-part-four/ Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/09/12/dconstruct-2008-part-four/ (Parts one, two and three precede this…) After the workshop ended, a few of us decamped to Komedia Bar for an ale; at 7pm it was time for the emerging tradition that is the Pre-Pre-Party Burgers, next door at Gourmet Burger Kitchen. GBK had reserved half the restaurant for dConstruct attendees, so it wasn’t too difficult to get a seat. I stuck my coat on an empty chair on a table otherwise occupied by Ross, Mark and Adnan, all of whom were fine burger-eating company, despite having never met me before in their lives ;) https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/09/11/dconstruct-2008-part-three/ Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/09/11/dconstruct-2008-part-three/ (See part one for some fascinating travel and eating anecdotes, and part two for the first half of Joshua Porter’s workshop) Designing for sign-up Contrary to what I (and presumably others) thought, this isn’t about the sign-up form! It’s more to do with the need to articulate the core value of what’s being offered to the user. In pseudo-physics terms, it’s about converting potential energy into kinetic energy. Research has been done that suggests that sign-up is nine times harder than we think it is: https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/09/10/dconstruct-2008-part-two/ Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/09/10/dconstruct-2008-part-two/ (If you’re short on things to do, part one contains fascinating details of my journey and dinner) Thursday morning brought a slight respite from the high winds and torrential rain of the previous night. Breakfast in the hotel was really, really good: muesli/dried cranberries and yoghurt followed by my choice of Eggs Benedict. Oh, and the Smoothie of the Day. Looking at the map, I reckoned that Clearleft’s offices (the location of the workshops) were about half a mile away - I estimated a 10 minute walk. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/09/08/dconstruct-2008-part-one/ Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/09/08/dconstruct-2008-part-one/ Last week I made the annual pilgrimage to Brighton for dConstruct - one of the UK’s leading grass-roots Web conferences. Now in its fourth year, the theme of the conference this time was “Designing the social Web”, a topic increasingly of relevance to what we do at IOP Publishing. “Social Software” is merely software that gets better the more people use it; it’s not necessarily about creating the next Facebook or MySpace, and many (though not all) sites could benefit from social features. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/06/03/the-web-versioning-genie-needs-to-be-re-bottled/ Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/06/03/the-web-versioning-genie-needs-to-be-re-bottled/ Today I got embroiled in a debate with Pete and Brian on Twitter about the term Web 2.0 and its increasing meaninglessness. This was only a few days after jumping on an old school friend’s use of the term, citing ReadWriteWeb’s …There is only the Web_is_no_web_30_there_is_no_web_20.php. I recall Phil saying I was “all about the 2.0”. And I still am, in that I think the New Web needs to be about real community if you’re going to profess that your site is a Community Website. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/06/02/a-further-reduction-in-wisdom-teeth/ Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/06/02/a-further-reduction-in-wisdom-teeth/ [This was a slightly incoherent ramble which I haven’t had time to tidy up. I blame the anaesthetic (for the incoherence) and Life in General (for the lack of time)] My lower 8s (bottom wisdom teeth to non-dentists) have been trouble since they first started coming through in 1999 - the gum pockets got infected before the teeth had even emerged, so I had to have a trip to the emergency dentist (in Melksham, as I recall) and some antibiotics. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/06/02/twitter-endgame/ Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/06/02/twitter-endgame/ As I write this, I’m trying (and failing) to load twitter.com/home. Oh - it just timed out. According to Is Twitter Down? it’s not down, but I can’t get to it. There have been no updates on my timeline for two hours now, which is quite rare for a working day. I just wonder whether Twitter has reached a natural end. You know “it was fun while it lasted” sort of thing. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/04/03/pearl-beadle-1938-2008/ Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/04/03/pearl-beadle-1938-2008/ Pearl Beadle, my Mum, passed away peacefully yesterday morning, April 2nd 2008. She was surrounded by the love of her family during the last week. Many of the family were at her bedside when she left this life at 9.40 am. What can I say? Her passing came as no shock, given the events of the past ten days. Mum suffered a second stroke on Easter Monday, this time affecting the left side of her brain. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/03/05/uk-isps-in-new-depths-of-customer-hatred/ Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/03/05/uk-isps-in-new-depths-of-customer-hatred/ BT, Virgin and Talktalk broker deal with Phorm.com.html?_r=1&oref=slogin, who intercept internet traffic, set anonymous cookies and deliver targeted ads… There are lots of comments on this Guardian article_might_call_it_resistance_95_say_theyll_opt_out_of_isps_datasharing_deal.html, including this one from martinusher: bq. I had a quick look at this system today on a technical website and it appears that the system effectively routes all your web traffic through a proxy server which records your browsing habits (and, while its about it, obscures your browsing habits from anyone else downstream from it). https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/02/22/build-it-right/ Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/02/22/build-it-right/ I’m rather enamoured of OpenID, the really neat, decentralised way to log in to any OpenID-supporting web site with one username/password. Simultaneously, I’ve had a Vox account since I was invited to try the beta pre-launch. It was moderately interesting as a community-based approach to blogging, but as I already have this blog I never used it for that purpose. At some point (I forget when), Vox became an OpenID provider. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/02/05/upsizing-our-car/ Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/02/05/upsizing-our-car/ !http://farm1.static.flickr.com/62/196222499_82457835d9_m.jpg!:http://www.flickr.com/photos/cokeeorg/196222499/ Renault Scenic Originally uploaded by CokeeOrg Our Christmas trip to Basingstoke (hello, glamorous life!) took place before Abigail arrived; nonetheless, the sheer amount of stuff we took with us and brought back (presents, kids’ toys etc.) rather emphasised how small our little Honda Jazz.aspx?model=291 is. Its small size but generous interior space is one of the reasons we bought it in the first place and its boot is one of the largest in its class, but now we have two kids we’re starting to consider upsizing to a larger car. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/01/28/mobile-gmail/ Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/01/28/mobile-gmail/ At the company Christmas meeting/lunch/disco in 2006, I had the pleasure of sitting at the same table as one of our directors. During the meal he checked his email on his Blackberry (nicknamed “Crackberry” due to the addictive nature of anywhere, any time email) several times. I seem to remember telling him, in jest, to “put it away”. Fast forward to 2007. Three has the best-value data packages of the UK mobile operators: £2. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/01/02/abigail-emily-beadle/ Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2008/01/02/abigail-emily-beadle/ [Abigail Emily Beadle](http://www.flickr.com/photos/t1mmyb/2154524254/) Originally uploaded by [t1mmyb](http://www.flickr.com/people/t1mmyb/) Slightly late posting this (I twittered, Flickrd and emailed on the day), but Abigail Emily Beadle was born at 9.25pm on December 30th, 2007, weighing 7lbs. Mother & baby are mighty fine :) Phoebe is delighted to have a little sister, and Kathy is delighted not to have had another Caesarean section and the -attendant- +associated+ six weeks’ recovery. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/03/02/quick-roundup/ Wed, 02 Mar 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/03/02/quick-roundup/ Sorry - I haven’t posted since Friday, and that was only to tell you the blog had moved house. In short: Bill Gates, KBE.stm. Killing British Enterprise, presumably. Southampton earned a well-fought point against Arsenal, though David Prutton has been given a ten-match ban for pushing the ref. Eek! Saints also beat Brentford in the FA Cup 5th-round replay, setting up a quarter-final against Man. Utd. That’s about it, really. See you again soon! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/25/nice-address/ Fri, 25 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/25/nice-address/ The blog now lives at www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/ as I was fed up of performing redirects from the PlusNet homepages server to the CGI one. The RSS feed still lives at feeds.feedburner.com/ItCouldBeWorse https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/24/is-that-ok-for-you/ Thu, 24 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/24/is-that-ok-for-you/ Another quick rant. I’m working at home today, which means I’ve had to field two telemarketing calls already, and it’s only lunchtime. Both calls were from companies that I am already a customer of, but they both used a technique that I’d encountered in the past but only recently got wise to: the “Is That OK?” Rather than asking a question that’s unambiguous, like “would you like to take advantage of this offer? https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/24/snow-towards-roundhill/ Thu, 24 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/24/snow-towards-roundhill/ Snow towards Roundhill Originally uploaded by t1mmyb. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/23/evil-popups-are-back/ Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/23/evil-popups-are-back/ Grrr. I thought we’d seen the last of these, but I had noticed the odd popup lately, in both Firefox and Safari. It seems that those dirty advertisers have found ways to get around the popup-blockers present in most modern browsers by default (and IE with XPSP2 or a third-party add-on). Veerle Pieters has a great quote from a web advertiser on her blog: By using a popup blocker, you are essentially stealing their work. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/22/the-proverbial-six-pointer/ Tue, 22 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/22/the-proverbial-six-pointer/ Southampton play West Brom tonight. Southampton are 19th in the Premiership; West Brom are 20th, with two fewer points. If we lose, we go bottom. If we win, we’ll go above Crystal Palace, who are currently safe in 17th place, on goal-difference. To say this is the biggest match of the season is an understatement. FA Cup Quarter-final1 against Man. Utd? A trifle, in comparison. To think I gloated at my brother last year as his team - Leeds Utd. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/17/wordpress/ Thu, 17 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/17/wordpress/ Yes - I know that I only just started using Textpattern, but Wordpress 1.5’s feature list was too good to pass up. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/07/oi-bent-no/ Mon, 07 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/07/oi-bent-no/ Marcus Bent. What can I say? Comedy name, son, but your last-minute equaliser for Everton against the clearly-superior-on-the-day Saints has robbed us of two desperately-needed points. The run-in to the end of the season isn’t great: 22 February: West Brom (A) 26 February: Arsenal (H) 05 March: Tottenham (H) 19 March: Middlesbrough (A) 02 April: Chelsea (H) 09 April Blackburn (A) 16 April: Aston Villa (H) 19 April: Bolton (A) 24 April: Portsmouth (A) 30 April: Norwich (H) 07 May: Crystal Palace (A) 14 May: Man Utd (H) You can write off the away games, probably, unless our form away from fortress St. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/05/looking-for-mac-os-x-personal-finance-software/ Sat, 05 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/05/looking-for-mac-os-x-personal-finance-software/ I’m pretty, ahem, dedicated to keeping our finances up to date and accounted for, and traditionally have used MS Money on Windows for this purpose. Say what you like about Microsoft (I’m not their biggest fan, to say the least) but Money is an app that works well and is pretty simple to use. I started with Money 98 in 1998, then upgraded to Money 2000 two years later. The thing is that we now use our iMac for 99. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/26/20-week-scan-photos/ Wed, 26 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/26/20-week-scan-photos/ 20-week scan #4 Originally uploaded by t1mmyb. We had our 20-week scan last Thursday (20th January 2005). I took photos of the prints with the digital camera (we don’t have a scanner that works with our iMac), and here they are! All four scan photos are at Flickr https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/26/room-to-move/ Wed, 26 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/26/room-to-move/ I’ve finally upgraded the hard drive in the iMac. Although I had an offer to use an external USB drive, in the end I backed it up to a Windows machine, using a mixture of disk images and ditto-created zip files. I followed the easy instructions at Macworld US and I was done inside 20 minutes (I think, as I wasn’t timing myself). The backing up and restoring of data is much more time-consuming than the actual hard drive swap. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/19/syndication/ Wed, 19 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/19/syndication/ You can get my stuff in a variety of flavours: Feedburner smart feed, including Del.icio.us links Plain ol’ RSS Plain ol’ Atom https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/17/apple-expo-banner-paris/ Mon, 17 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/17/apple-expo-banner-paris/ Apple Expo Banner, Paris Originally uploaded by t1mmyb We’ve never been to San Fransisco (maybe we will one day), but we did manage to go to Apple Expo Paris back in September. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/17/flickr/ Mon, 17 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/17/flickr/ This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/17/the-quickening/ Mon, 17 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/17/the-quickening/ Kathy and I felt our unborn baby kicking last night. With a strong kick like that, I expect he/she will be either kicking footballs or doing kung-fu or something. The 20-week scan is on Thursday; it’s all becoming very, very real, very quickly! This afternoon we’re having a demonstration of all the available ‘real’ nappy options at Born, a relatively new baby equipment shop in Bath & Bristol. They’re not cheap, but everything’s organic etc. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/14/fads-or-not/ Fri, 14 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/14/fads-or-not/ I’ve got accounts at Flickr, Del.icio.us, 43 Things, Technorati, GMail and Basecamp [1]. I use Flickr and Del.icio.us regularly, and I’m really getting into 43 Things. My recent change of blog platform has hobbled me somewhat, though, because Flickr and 43 Things will both act as clients for various blogging platforms (just not Textpattern, at least without some hackery); thus, when you post to either service, the post will also show up on your blog. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/13/mac-mini/ Thu, 13 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/13/mac-mini/ Apple have released the most affordable Mac ever: the Mac Mini. Starting at £339 (G4 1.25 GHz, 40GB HD, 256MB RAM, Combo drive; no monitor, keyboard or mouse), it represents a bit of a bargain. Yes you can trick it out to the max and push the price up to over £1000, but a simple boost to the RAM (to 512MB) and hard disk (to 80GB) and a Superdrive upgrade comes to £527. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/11/more-jerry-springer/ Tue, 11 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/11/more-jerry-springer/ The blogosphere is hotting up in the wake of the Jerry Springer — The Opera "scandal" — mostly free-speech advocates equating Christian=Right Wing Nutjob and not-outraged Christians actually looking beyond the swearing and so-called blasphemy to the message that was actually in the show. Maggi Dawn goes into the issue in some length, but here’s a snippet. As usual, her blog is well worth a read. The tragedy the opera highlights is the moral vacuity of a society that in the end, does nothing much more than "Eat, excrete and watch TV", and looks to celebrities for their hope and inspiration. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/10/the-fa-cup-is-still-romantic/ Mon, 10 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/10/the-fa-cup-is-still-romantic/ The romance of the FA Cup returned this weekend, as Yeovil, Oldham and Sheffield United (amongst others) defeated higher-division opponents. Yeading couldn’t do the same against Newcastle (and, thankfully, neither could Northampton beat Southampton — phew!), but acquitted themselves reasonably well against the Geordie Millionaires. I watched the Yeading game and, while they did brilliantly to only lose 2-0, I felt that they tried to be too ambitious too often: trying to play the ball out of defence; attempting to pass through (literally) opposing players; playing backwards into danger; giving the ball away etc etc. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/08/to-my-fellow-christians/ Sat, 08 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/08/to-my-fellow-christians/ Hey, y’all. By trying to get the BBC transmission of Jerry Springer: The Opera stopped, you’ve done the following: Given the show far more publicity than it previously had, or arguably deserved. There are people who didn’t know about the show before the protests but who will now be watching, with some relish, I would have thought. Confirmed the opinion in many non-Christians’ minds that we’re just a bunch of whinging killjoys. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/06/blog-aid/ Thu, 06 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/01/06/blog-aid/ Andy Budd has started Blog Aid — a way to help the survivors of the Asian Tsunami using your blog and any affiliate schemes you may have running. I didn’t have any affiliate scheme running, so (as you may have noticed) I’ve set up Google Adsense. I’ve no idea if it will make any money, but any I do make during January will be given to disaster relief efforts. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/12/22/most-of-my-christmases-came-at-once/ Wed, 22 Dec 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/12/22/most-of-my-christmases-came-at-once/ Yesterday our solution to the iMac’s storage problem arrived: a 120GB Maxtor hard drive with 8MB cache. Yum. Now I just have to work out how to migrate the data from old to new… Today my new mobile phone arrived. It’s a Sony Ericsson T630, which I’ve got with (effectively) free line rental for the first 12 months of an 18 month contract. I only wanted it for the Bluetooth facility, so that I can sync with the iMac, but I get to take part in the camera-phone/MMS revolution as well! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/12/12/slightly-successful-djing/ Sun, 12 Dec 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/12/12/slightly-successful-djing/ Along with Jez, I DJd at St. Philip and St. James’ Christmas Party last night. ‘Twas a good laugh, especially the cheese/80s mix I finished off with. I had the incredible foresight to record most of it with my Archos, so if you have a nice fat internet pipe, feel free to download it (29.3 MB mp3 file). It’s the proverbial curate’s egg, as the foldback wasn’t great (yeah — I know: “Poor Workman Blames Tool” shocker), and the EQ and levels aren’t great, but it might provide some aural joy; you never know. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/12/10/a-change-is-as-good-as-a-rest/ Fri, 10 Dec 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/12/10/a-change-is-as-good-as-a-rest/ To anyone who reads my blog regularly, welcome back. Yes — it looks rather different to normal. I’ve just installed Textpattern as my blogging tool du jour. The Movable Type blog is still there, but redirects to this one; I’ll be removing it just as it soon as I get the images etc moved across. Why did I do this? Well, Movable Type’s licensing isn’t as great as it used to be (I would have benefited from multiple authors during our /campervan/), I fancied a new challenge, and I like the opportunity to have a blank canvas, design-wise, to make this site look like it’s been designed. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/12/10/about-tim/ Fri, 10 Dec 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/12/10/about-tim/ Born and raised in Hampshire, UK; Husband to Kathy; Christian; member (and currently treasurer) of St. Stephen’s Church (Anglican), Lansdown, Bath; Southampton FC supporter; one-time drummer with New Generation Music and Mission’s band Rhythmworks; travelled in said band to Belgium, France, Germany and Spain; holder of a BSc(Hons) in Industrial Design from Brunel University ; Shipton Bellinger County Primary School Disco Breakdance Competition winner, 1985; hobbyist DJ — available for weddings &c &c; owner of two Technics SL-1210s and a Gemini mixer; big fan of music of various types: drum and bass, house, garage, hip-hop, IDM, jazz, classical, rock; self-taught guitarist — only a strummer though; Linux user (at work), Mac user (at home); computer geek/freak and family technical support; ColdFusion/Perl developer and Web Standards zealot advocate at Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol, UK; https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/12/08/harry-redknapp-so-soon/ Wed, 08 Dec 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/12/08/harry-redknapp-so-soon/ So it turns out that the BBC are reporting that Harry Redknapp is to be unveiled (though not literally, one hopes) as Southampton’s third manager of the season. The club website says that "rumours are rife" but isn’t denying anything as far as I can tell, so the St. Mary’s Revolving Door™ looks set to be back in full effect today. I suppose it’s good timing, with the transfer window about to open in January, but this is going to help the Saints/Pompey rivalry not one jot. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/12/07/is-there-an-echo-in-here/ Tue, 07 Dec 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/12/07/is-there-an-echo-in-here/ Sorry it’s been a bit quiet around these parts lately. I’ve been spending my lunch breaks over at Digital Spy Forums and at various other times participating in the Podcasting revolution (!). While I haven’t been doing that, Kathy & I have been telling everyone who’ll listen that we’ll be having a baby next year! W00t! ‘Bump’ was all planned and everything, and occurred on our tour, but we’re not going in for Beckham-style location-based naming. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/11/26/bbc-uk-music-sees-record-album-sales/ Fri, 26 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/11/26/bbc-uk-music-sees-record-album-sales/ So it turns out that, in the UK at least, the record industry is in rude health: UK record companies are celebrating their best ever year for album sales, with a record 237 million sold in the 12 months to September. — http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4044303.stm But I thought that file sharing was killing music? That’s what the RIAA has been saying for the past few years, since Napster came on the scene in the late 1990s. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/11/19/apple-store-london-photos/ Fri, 19 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/11/19/apple-store-london-photos/ Macworld have photos of the new Apple Store, in good old Regent Street in that London, which opens tomorrow (November 20th). We’re busy tomorrow, unfortunately (visiting my parents, so a good kind of unfortunately), but I really want to go see! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/11/16/should-i-attend-my-department-christmas-lunch/ Tue, 16 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/11/16/should-i-attend-my-department-christmas-lunch/ My department Christmas Lunch will this year be at Bon Viveur, a relatively new restaurant in Bristol. For reasons of ‘equality for lunch non-attendees’ (more like ‘budgetary pressure’, I reckon), The Company will not be subsidising employees’ departmental Christmas lunches this year (last year we received £10 towards the cost). This makes the minimum £21.50 (two courses) or £26.50 (three courses) a little steep, especially considering the ongoing debt situation (when they say that debt ‘cripples’, they’re right) and the fact that, if I’m going to spend £20+ on a meal, I normally do it with people I really like to hang around with. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/11/03/kush-or-berry-bish-or-kurry-bshkrrymmmph/ Wed, 03 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/11/03/kush-or-berry-bish-or-kurry-bshkrrymmmph/ I stayed up until 1am, printing some of our holiday photos for Kathy to take into college on the last day of her course, and proof-reading her last essay. I just happened to be following the early election results progress, m’kay? I am a little tired. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/11/01/avoiding-trick-or-treaters/ Mon, 01 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/11/01/avoiding-trick-or-treaters/ In order to not have to give sweets to kids in Halloween costumes (how American; how ghastly!), Kathy & I went out to Bath’s new Odeon cinema last night. Yeah, I know — I ranted about their woefully inadequate web site back in July and their response to Matthew Somerville, who was …uh … doing them a favour. Five months on, and the site still blows, except they’ve added a "text-only film times" facility. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/10/14/albums-you-should-have-listened-to-before-you-die/ Thu, 14 Oct 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/10/14/albums-you-should-have-listened-to-before-you-die/ Jonathan told me to: Copy the list on to your blog, put in bold the ones you have listened to (completely from begining to end) and then add three more albums that you think people should have heard before they turn into their parents — remember, it isn’t necessarily your most favourite albums but the ones you think people should listen to… and when we say listen we mean from track one through to the end. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/10/13/continental-urinals/ Wed, 13 Oct 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/10/13/continental-urinals/ One of the things that I noticed during our recent tour was that urinals in European toilets are, on the whole, so much more technologically advanced than our own British ones. Mind you, I’ve never had to manually flush urinals in the UK, which happened a few times on the continent. Ours tend to be flushed, en masse, on a timed basis, whereas ones in continental Europe (even the recent EU-joiners like Slovakia) tend to operate using the automatic sensor, per-urinal-flushing method. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/10/13/new-photos-posted/ Wed, 13 Oct 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/10/13/new-photos-posted/ Tim writes: OK, so we’ve been back for 10 days or so, and the blog still hasn’t caught up with the paper diary we kept during the trip. That will change, hopefully quite soon. There has been quite a lot of catching-up to do since we got back, plus Kathy caught a flu-like bug after only two days back at work! To whet your appetite, there are some more photos in the photo gallery. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/19/osterreich-teil-un/ Sun, 19 Sep 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/19/osterreich-teil-un/ Arrived in Graz around 7pm and checked into the campsite that had a HUGE swimming pool which had closed the day before!! 14.09.04. Got up early and got the bus into Graz. Kathy’s bites were no better, very angry and red, so finding a doctor was the priority. Went to the tourist information for help and then had to visit the health insurance office in the hospital to show an E111 and get a voucher. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/19/osterreich-teil-zwei/ Sun, 19 Sep 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/19/osterreich-teil-zwei/ It had started raining during the night so we packed up the van and parked it next to the laundry room so we could do some washing. It felt wonderful to get clothes clean and pillowcases, everything smelt so fresh and lovely, especially after it had been tumble-dried. We did a grocery shop while the washing was on: yoghurts, mustard, fleisch salat for Tim, muesli, oranges and nectarines. We were glad to leave the campsite as it was a bit depressing although hard to put your finger on why. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/18/on-our-way-to-prague/ Sat, 18 Sep 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/18/on-our-way-to-prague/ A well deserved sleep saw us getting up at 10:30am and rushing to pack and leave by 11am. It was a fantastically beautiful day, clear blue sky. Shortly after leaving we got a right shock when the roof of the van flew up, Tim had forgotten to close the catches that keep it down! Well it was his job! So we stopped speedily and did them. The land was very flat and the views were beautiful. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/17/bratislava/ Fri, 17 Sep 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/17/bratislava/ We got up early and prepared for our day trip to Bratislava. We had originally planned to camp there but had read that the campsites were ‘grim’. As it is not far from Vienna we changed our plans and took the train there instead. We got to travel on a double-decker train into Vienna centre! The journey took about an hour and a quarter, including a fifteen minute stop for border control / passport checks. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/14/viva-italia/ Tue, 14 Sep 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/14/viva-italia/ Buongiorno tutte! We drove all the way to Lake Maggiore, arriving about 8pm. 300 miles in one day: quite a tiring trek, really. It was starting to get dark, so we stopped at the first campsite we found. It was right by the lake, but we couldn´t see a lot in the dusk. In the morning light we found that the site wasn´t that great, and Kathy was suffering with an allergic reaction to mozzie bites, so we left post haste. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/13/off-to-austria/ Mon, 13 Sep 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/13/off-to-austria/ Got up and packed the van in a hurry, got the 9am bus back into Venice and visited the church Santa Maria della Salute and the church Santa Maria Gloria dei Frari which was really impressive. There were lots of large paintings (it was like a gallery) and 2 huge tombs, one that of Titian (he’s a painter, if you don’t know). Checked out of the campsite at noon and headed towards more Alps! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/12/venice-here-we-come/ Sun, 12 Sep 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/12/venice-here-we-come/ After heading into Bologna for some last minute essential purchases — sun-dried tomatoes, parmigiano, porcini and fresh figs (yummy) — we set off for Venice. Arrived at the campsite at about 2:30pm (it took a bit of finding); we settled down, visited the supermarket and then chilled out in the sunshine. Had a bit of a lie-in before catching the campsite’s private bus at 12:30pm. Arrived in Venice at 1pm and wandered around the bus station for a while a bit unsure as to where we were supposed to go. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/10/france-part-quatre/ Fri, 10 Sep 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/10/france-part-quatre/ Managed to get up at 7:30am and Tim did the mountain of washing up. We stopped in Nevers for petrol, it was 23°C by 10am, a cloudless sky. It was a lovely drive to Lyon with some beautiful views. We arrived at the Camping International site, 9 km from lyon centre, at about 2pm. Chose a pitch near to the amenities — toilets, showers, games room (table tennis, table football), washing machine — and set up camp. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/10/france-part-trois/ Fri, 10 Sep 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/10/france-part-trois/ We enjoyed Paris but were glad to get away from the big city and into the country. The weather was wonderful and we were driving on lovely, long straight roads with not much traffic and frequently tree-lined: lovely! We entered the Loire valley and drove through some lovely towns and villages, took opportunities to cross over the river and the nearby canal and enjoy the views from the bridges. We stopped in Gien; it was so beautiful. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/10/photos-from-the-first-two-weeks/ Fri, 10 Sep 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/10/photos-from-the-first-two-weeks/ Hi folks! We’ve taken loads of photos! Unfortunately the internet café in Lyon had no means (as far as I could tell) of resizing those that we transferred to the PC. I miss iPhoto! Anyway, we’ve uploaded ten choice images to our photo gallery Flickr https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/10/the-hills-are-alive/ Fri, 10 Sep 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/10/the-hills-are-alive/ …with the sound of music! No we weren’t in Austria but we were travelling through the Alps. We left Lyon at 10am and struggled to escape, French signposts are pretty awful. Looking forward to the Alps we began to see them as hazy outlines against the horizon. Difficult to put into words the beauty and awesomeness of the landscape, we took lots of photos and exhausted the battery in the video camera. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/02/france-part-deux/ Thu, 02 Sep 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/02/france-part-deux/ We are now in Paris! On our first day we went to the Eiffel Tower, only to the first floor as this was all Kathy’s knees could take. The view was great and the tower was impressive to say the least. We have been enjoying french bread with nearly every meal and also some french beer with dinner! Kathy’s teddy bear from nursery has been enjoying the sights as well, look out for pictures. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/02/france-part-un/ Thu, 02 Sep 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/09/02/france-part-un/ We’ve arrived! / Nous sommes arrivees! The ferry was top notch; we had a welcome meal of fish and chips and that took up most of the journey. The campsite in Calais was a bit of a dump: lots of loud English peeps and not much privacy. The ladies’ loos were locked! Gorgeous weather though: went for a brief walk on the beach. Fairly good night’s sleep and then croissants and baguette fresh from the boulangerie for breakfast. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/30/itinerary/ Mon, 30 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/30/itinerary/ A number of people have asked us about our planned route around Europe. It’s still a little bit up in the air, but at the time of writing the plan is as follows: France: Calais — Paris — Loire Valley — Lyon Switzerland: Lake Maggiore Italy: Lake Como — Bologna — Venice Austria: Salzburg or Graz — Vienna Slovakia: Bratislava Czech Republic: Prague Germany: Dresden — Osnabrück — Bonn Belgium: Bruges https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/29/day-0/ Sun, 29 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/29/day-0/ Start: Bath End: High Wycombe Distance: 98 miles Time: 2h10m We left two cats and two parents (we’re not quite sure who’s looking after whom) at 5:50pm on Sunday and hopped in the van, steaming up Box Hill at 40mph. At one point Kathy got up to 65mph on the motorway; Tim, of course, didn’t stray above 60. We arrived in High Wycombe after an uneventful journey to a wonderful meal of pie (mmm, pie), mash and veggies. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/29/signing-off/ Sun, 29 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/29/signing-off/ I’m getting away from it all for five (count ‘em!) weeks with my lovely wife, but you can read all about it at our Campervan Blog. Ciao! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/26/transport-of-delight/ Thu, 26 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/26/transport-of-delight/ This (see pic) is what we’re driving in: a 1985 Renault Trafic T1000 Richard Holdsworth campervan conversion with 37,000 miles on the clock. Yes, it’s old, but it’s been well looked-after! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/24/6-days-to-go/ Tue, 24 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/24/6-days-to-go/ We’re counting the days and starting to panic ever so mildly at how much there is left to do: pack, tidy the house, finish writing instructions for those looking after the house and cats while we are away etc. Tim gave me a real scare this morning when he passed out, this happened in March and he hit his head quite badly. Today he got up with really ad pain in his shoulder and thought it might be a trapped nerve. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/24/by-the-way/ Tue, 24 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/24/by-the-way/ If you would rather not receive our e-mail updates regarding our tour of Europe then let us know by e-mailing tim(at)timandkathy.co.uk or kathy(at)timandkathy.co.uk. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/11/crossreforg-one-fat-site/ Wed, 11 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/11/crossreforg-one-fat-site/ I’m currently doing some work that involves CrossRef, “a collaborative reference linking service that allows the user to click on a citation and be taken directly to the target content”. All well and good, except that CrossRef play fast and loose with the standard we all know as HTML(HyperText Markup Language). Their site generates only 75 validation errors, which is by no means a lot. The worrying thing, though, is their use of made-up tags and attributes, like <csscriptdict>. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/03/finn-brothers-to-play-bristol/ Tue, 03 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/03/finn-brothers-to-play-bristol/ According to the BBC Bristol web site, Neil and Tim Finn are to play the Colston Hall in October. As a long-time fan of Crowded House (I went to see them in the slightly larger surroundings of Birmingham’s NEC in 1994), this will doubtless be a top night out. Of course, the Archos is allowing me to carry vast amounts of music around with me, including Crowded House’s four studio albums (Crowded House, Temple of Low Men, Woodface and Together Alone) all of which continue to delight and surprise me with their musicianship and intelligent lyrics. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/02/delicious/ Mon, 02 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/02/delicious/ I’ve just signed up for Del.icio.us, a "social bookmarks" service. It’s a great way to share your bookmarks between multiple computers (home and work, say) and also to share them with friends/fiends/random people on t’interweb. You can view my profile, if you want. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/02/second-hand-ripoffs/ Mon, 02 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/08/02/second-hand-ripoffs/ I’m coming increasingly to the conclusion that (a) second-hand iPods are overpriced, and (b) eBay is a living, breathing example of the power of a heady mix of capitalism and stupidity. You know, more money than sense and all that… I’ve been gathering data from eBay (manually) of the closing prices of iPods, which model they are and which generation. [Note for the uninitiated: the latest "All New!" iPods are the fourth generation. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/07/31/leffe-on-tap/ Sat, 31 Jul 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/07/31/leffe-on-tap/ Graham (Kathy’s second cousin) popped over to Bath last night. We had ace food at The Globe, then got a taxi into town. We thought we might go to the recently-opened JD Wetherspoon’s in Kingsmead, but we glanced in the window and thought that it looked a little…soulless. (Side note for trivia fans: it seems that a new record was set last Sunday on the pub’s opening in that it only took two hours for a fight/riot/disturbance to occur and the Police to be called out. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/07/29/100-percent-orthodox-quaker/ Thu, 29 Jul 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/07/29/100-percent-orthodox-quaker/ Keith (colleague) pointed me in the direction of BeliefNet, and their Belief-O-Matic questionnaire. Belief-O-Matic asks a series of questions, and then determines your compatibility with various belief systems. I am 100% Orthodox Quaker, apparently. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/07/28/things-to-make-and-do/ Wed, 28 Jul 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/07/28/things-to-make-and-do/ Install BBEdit Lite on my Mac. Install the mtgravatar" plugin on the blog. Spring-Summer-clean the Mac. Only 1.5 GB space left! Find out why people will pay over the odds for iPods on eBay. Actually, that could be trickier… https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/07/27/bristol-to-get-public-wifi/ Tue, 27 Jul 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/07/27/bristol-to-get-public-wifi/ Woo-hoo! Looks like Bristol is going to be forging ahead with public WiFi: In a ground breaking collaboration of public and private sector services, Bristol City Council and Cityspace today announce an agreement to build the UK’s largest urban digital network offering outdoor wireless broadband access to Bristol’s residents, visitors and city workers. — http://www.cityspace.com/press/level2/releases/040722-PR-Bristol.asp It’s a shame that it won’t quite reach down to where I work, but I imagine that it might be expanded in the future. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/07/22/rescued-from-the-bitbucket/ Thu, 22 Jul 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/07/22/rescued-from-the-bitbucket/ This hasn’t been the longest period of silence in the history of It Could Be Worse, but I had a valid excuse this time. While upgrading us to ADSL, Plusnet deleted my blog, photo gallery and database. They restored the sites, but the database was lost. I got most of the anger out of my system using Plusnet’s tech-support facility and discussion forum (a note if anyone from PN is reading: I’m sorry if I came across as a bit of a prat — I was very annoyed). https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/07/13/archos-jukebox-21st-century-life-support/ Tue, 13 Jul 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/07/13/archos-jukebox-21st-century-life-support/ A week last Sunday I turned 29 (less than a year to go ‘til the Big Three-Oh! Poop!). My present from my brother, sister-in-law and nephew was an Archos Jukebox Recorder 20, an MP3 player with, in reality, 18.6 GB of hard disk space. Mind you, this is still larger than the hard disks of our two current computers combined, going to prove that the rise of home computers with disk capacities approaching a quarter of a Terabyte has nothing to do with people writing longer Word documents ;) As an aside — has the RIAA(Recording Industry Ass. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/07/12/odeon-to-accessible-odeon-eat-my-shorts/ Mon, 12 Jul 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/07/12/odeon-to-accessible-odeon-eat-my-shorts/ Matthew Somerville is a giant among web geeks: here is someone who, rather than just moan about the woeful accessibility of many corporate web sites, redesigns them. One of the sites he reworked was Odious Odeon Cinemas, a web site that only works if you use — you guessed it — Internet Explorer on Windows. Odeon originally gave their blessing to the alternative version of the site but, citing “increasing complaints from users”, Odeon’s Marketing Director, Luke Vetere, sent a cease and desist e-mail to Matthew. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/06/25/urs-meier-stole-my-sanity/ Fri, 25 Jun 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/06/25/urs-meier-stole-my-sanity/ Last night, England were denied victory in the quarter-finals of Euro 2004 by a dodgy Swiss referee with a ridiculous blond goatee and highlights. In case you missed it (where were you? Timbuktoo?) England led in the 3rd minute, Portugal were all over England like a rash, they equalised in the 83rd minute, before Sol Campbell’s 89th minute winner was disallowed for an apparent foul on the goalkeeper by John Terry. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/06/16/mt-3/ Wed, 16 Jun 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/06/16/mt-3/ I’ve just upgraded to Movable Type 3.0 Developers’ Edition. The upgrade went without a hitch. Now to see if I can convert from Berkeley DB to MySQL… UPDATE I had previously run the mt-db2sql.cgi script, and got an error to do with ‘use of uninitialized variable in numeric comparison’, and ‘comment_blog_id cannot be null’ (a MySQL constraint). I hacked the script, using Data::Dumper to see just what the heck was going on, and discovered that I had an orphaned comment without a blog_id or an entry id. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/06/10/bill-bailey-live-at-the-colston-hall-bristol/ Thu, 10 Jun 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/06/10/bill-bailey-live-at-the-colston-hall-bristol/ I went with Kathy and nine other friends to see Bill Bailey at the Colston Hall in Bristol last night. Apart from hearing a number of jokes from the previous tour (audio of which I obtained here) told ever-so-slightly differently, the night was fantastic. Bill introduced a new feature: the "Scale of Shame", featuring Evil Despots From History, like: Idi Amin Adolf Hitler Robert Mugabe Linda Barker, and… Chris de Burgh As to the question of "Where’s Osama", Bill morphed his face into that of CdB — nice move… https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/06/07/why-do-i-do-this/ Mon, 07 Jun 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/06/07/why-do-i-do-this/ I haven’t posted to this blog for over a month. I’m not really sure why, to be honest. It’s not as if I made a conscious decision not to blog; I just couldn’t be bothered. I do have a bit of history for dropping things as soon as they become popular. I value my perceived individualism, so as soon as I think that something that marked me out as, if not unique, then at least unusual becomes popular, I tend to run a mile. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/04/22/23rd-post/ Thu, 22 Apr 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/04/22/23rd-post/ Keith told me to: Go into your blog’s archives. Find your 23rd post (or closest to). Find the fifth sentence (or closest to). Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. Posted on August 18, 2000: If ever there was a talent wasted by (apparent) lack of motivation… https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/04/16/page-23/ Fri, 16 Apr 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/04/16/page-23/ Drew told me to: Grab the nearest book. Open the book to page 23. Find the fifth sentence. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions. Because the information in the cell is a sort of heading for the entire sidebar, it makes some sense to convert the td to a th. — Eric Meyer On CSS [ISBN 073571245X]. Page 23, sentence 5. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/04/15/please-bear-with-us/ Thu, 15 Apr 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/04/15/please-bear-with-us/ We’re having a little problem with the blog. It can be summarised thus: PlusNet, in their infinite wisdom, installed a new CGI web server. To be fair to them, the upgrade was much needed. But lo! Why did they have to change platforms (Linux to FreeBSD)? In the process, different versions of Perl, DB_File.pm and the associated system shared object were installed. So, whatever I did, I couldn’t do db_upgrade or db_dump/db_load! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/03/16/saloncom-the-new-pentagon-papers/ Tue, 16 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/03/16/saloncom-the-new-pentagon-papers/ A long but fascinating insider account of the build up to war inside The Pentagon, and the influence of the neoconservative Office of Special Plans (OSP) over the White House policy decisions that led to the war in Iraq: Saddam Hussein had gassed his neighbors, abused his people, and was continuing in that mode, becoming an imminently dangerous threat to his neighbors and to us—except that none of his neighbors or Israel felt this was the case. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/03/11/fresh-browser-lockout/ Thu, 11 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/03/11/fresh-browser-lockout/ I don’t often discover much arbitrary lockout stupidity these days. The Web Standards message seems to be getting through to the people at the code-face: developers at large corporates or their design agencies. Occasionally a site will crop up with 2000-era broken browser-sniffing, like O2’s XDA site. I surfed on over using my browser of choice (Mozilla Firefox) and was presented with the following message: This website has been optimised for Internet Explorer 5+ and Netscape 6+. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/01/19/not-so-reliable/ Mon, 19 Jan 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/01/19/not-so-reliable/ We run around in a 1994 Vauxhall Corsa 1.5 TD GLS, previously owned by Kathy’s dad. When we got it, in 2001, it had clocked up 139,000 miles. To date, it has done about 178,000 miles. Apart from a bad year in 2001 (alternator, radiator and who knows what else went wrong) it has been the most reliable car I’ve ever owned. It always starts first time, apart from yesterday, when it started second time. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/01/16/poetic-spam/ Fri, 16 Jan 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/01/16/poetic-spam/ Spam can be very poetic, as I found out today: Hello Tim.beadle simply Windows XP Pro loose — 39.95$ out PhotoShop 7 self — 59.95$ [url deleted — I wouldn’t want their Google PageRank to increase, now, would I?] Really italian unique site click World Best after Software here your inside Best regards https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/01/09/gordon-to-go/ Fri, 09 Jan 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/01/09/gordon-to-go/ So His Gingerness is leaving Southampton at the end of the season. He will be missed, as he’s taken Saints up a notch from the annual relegation dogfight to pushing for European places. Southampton have confirmed that manager Gordon Strachan will leave the club in the summer to undergo a hip operation. — http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/southampton/3381791.stm Gordon: all the best—I’m sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Thanks for the memories, especially beating Spurs 4-0 last year and the Cup Final. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/01/01/happy-new-year/ Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2004/01/01/happy-new-year/ HNY! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/12/22/can-we-play-you-every-week/ Mon, 22 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/12/22/can-we-play-you-every-week/ Great day for The Saints yesterday: a comprehensive 3-0 win over local rivals Portsmouth, with a direct-from-a-corner goal by "The New David Beckham" (Jason Dodd), a superb individual effort by back-from-injury Marian Pahars and a diving header by James Beattie. Saints are fourth in the league again. Unless we keep winning, though, we could just as easily be in the relegation zone, like The Skates. We’re closer in points to our old rivals, 12 14 places below us, than to Chelsea, one place above us. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/12/22/praise-be/ Mon, 22 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/12/22/praise-be/ Thank goodness: this year’s Christmas Number One is a product neither of Pop Idol nor Fame Academy: Little known US singer Gary Jules has clinched the Christmas number one with his cover version of Tears For Fears’ 1982 hit Mad World. — http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3302887.stm What’s even more refreshing is that it’s a "real" song (albeit a cover), rather than a cheesy "comedy" outing (think Mr. Blobby or Kim Wilde with Smith & Jones). https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/12/09/mac-os-x-woo/ Tue, 09 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/12/09/mac-os-x-woo/ I’m in the process of installing Panther (OS X 10.3) on the iMac DV+ sat next to my desk, which is used for cross-platform testing. It used to run OS 9.1, and wasn’t actually used that much. Due to its Unix underpinnings, OS X should make it a more useful machine, as my place of work is a pretty-much exclusively Linux shop. I have chosen to install X11, so I’ll be able to open gvim (my editor of choice) from a server, and have it display on the iMac. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/12/05/christmas-shopping/ Fri, 05 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/12/05/christmas-shopping/ So I’m ill. Well, I’m on the mend, anyway. The doctor has signed me off until Monday and I do actually feel better today, for the first time in a few days (I thought I was getting over it last Sunday, but then The Cough hit). So, Kathy helpfully suggested things I might like to do this afternoon. They were (IIRC): Wrap Christmas presents Write Christmas cards Buy Christmas presents for Kathy The third option sounded like the most entertaining, so that’s what I did. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/12/05/radio-silence/ Fri, 05 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/12/05/radio-silence/ My apologies to the regular readers of this weblog: I have been ill for the past week with a viral infection, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Fujian-strain ‘Flu. I had a variety of symptoms of headache, sore throat, ears hurting when swallowing, until I settled on an annoying tickly cough, which I’ve had since Sunday. It, too, is now in decline, for which I am very grateful. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/11/21/hands-off-leeds/ Fri, 21 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/11/21/hands-off-leeds/ Oh no. Just when things have got onto a fairly even keel at Southampton, rather than the annual relegation dogfight, along come—let’s face it, struggling—Leeds, wanting to poach our manager! I know Strachan used to play for Leeds, but he’s managed Saints so well since his arrival that it would be madness for him to leave for the Premiership’s bottom club. Wouldn’t it? Maybe he feels he’s done all he can, and that he needs a new challenge. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/11/20/lift-text-transcoder/ Thu, 20 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/11/20/lift-text-transcoder/ I was recently faced with the prospect of LIFT Text Transcoder being considered for use where I work. Having seen what this new accessibility software from UsableNet can do does, and the cost, I had my reservations. Not being sure, I got in touch with Jeffrey Zeldman, who wrote about it on Tuesday, 18th November. Jeffrey copied Joe Clark in on his reply, which is a good move, as Joe is an access expert and author of Building Accessible Websites. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/11/04/my-first-album/ Tue, 04 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/11/04/my-first-album/ Scot Hacker posed the question: “What was your first album?” As Scot’s comment system seems to be fubar, I thought I’d post here instead. Due to older-sibling-influence, the first album I bought (on cassette) was Graceland by Paul Simon. Quite a mature choice for a ten-year-old, followed, due to other-older-sibling-influence, by So by Peter Gabriel a few months later. Quite a mature choice for an eleven-year-old… It all went downhill later, when I joined Britannia Music Club, and I purchased Electric Youth by Debbie Gibson. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/11/03/big-day/ Mon, 03 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/11/03/big-day/ Yesterday was a Big Day for Ella and Nina—they got to go outside without a leash for the first time, aided and abetted by the cat-flap (useless fact: it’s Katzenklappe in German) fitted by Kathy’s Dad, Clive (muchas gracias, Clive!). What I want to do next is butter their paws, to test the theory that this will encourage them to always come home. This is alleged to be an Old Wives’ Tale, but a colleague of mine, who used to be a chemist, tells me that there is sound scientific basis for this practice. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/10/27/cold-hands-warm-heart/ Mon, 27 Oct 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/10/27/cold-hands-warm-heart/ Kathy and I chopped up the tomato and runner-bean plants yesterday evening, just as it was getting dark. As it was a very clear day, it also got very cold. As it was cold, and I wasn’t wearing gloves, my hands got cold. As my hands got cold, they shrank slightly. As my wedding ring isn’t a particularly tight fit, it fell into the compost heap when I was pushing the plants down into it. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/10/20/american-ugly/ Mon, 20 Oct 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/10/20/american-ugly/ Having come across ThankYouTony.com, which is full of fawning by Americans, I thought I’d post, pretending to be "Dwight Yorke" from Mobile, Alabama: “Dear Tony, I would like to thank you for revealing the true face of New Labour during the recent conflict. Thank you for proving that politicians are lying, two-faced deceivers who do not care about the will of the people, and who would rather listen to the opinion of the president of a completely different country, who should not even be in office. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/10/17/nothing-else-matters/ Fri, 17 Oct 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/10/17/nothing-else-matters/ Our thoughts and prayers go to the family and friends of John Brook, a member of our church, who died today. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/10/16/first-hurdle-fall/ Thu, 16 Oct 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/10/16/first-hurdle-fall/ With everything to do in Bucharest, Southampton failed to do anything. Well, they tried hard, and Gordon is rightly proud of their efforts, but the list of destinations on this year’s European Tour is rather short, and will get no longer. I guess this is what’s good about supporting a team that isn’t Man Utd or Arsenal: you have to take the rough with the smooth, the bad times as well as the good. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/10/11/rules/ Sat, 11 Oct 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/10/11/rules/ After some abuse of the comments system, mostly by dirty spammers, I have decided to implement the following set of rules. Any contraventions shall be punished by deletion and IP-address banning. No commercial posts (i.e. spam). No swearing or foul or abusive language. No personal attacks. This isn’t the playground. Attack my ideas by all means, but if you can’t make your point without attacking me, then you need to learn how to better formulate a counter-point. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/10/08/pasties/ Wed, 08 Oct 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/10/08/pasties/ Kathy & I, along with Lorna and John, went to Cornwall for a long weekend. We stayed in (or rather, near) Polperro at Seaview Holiday Village. The Web site makes it look wonderful. The reality was post-war prefab "cottages" with flat roofs that birds would walk on early in the morning, waking us up. Ho-hum. It didn’t matter, really. We went fishing in the sea off of Looe, went stone-skimming at Seaton, paddled in the moonlight at Talland Bay, played cards (Chase the Ace, Rummy), Cranium and Articulate, and ate and drank well. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/10/02/evolution-spam-filtering-with-spamassassin/ Thu, 02 Oct 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/10/02/evolution-spam-filtering-with-spamassassin/ I found this in the Evolution 1.4 Users’ Manual: “If you don’t have SpamAssassin or other junk mail filtering on your mail server, there’s still hope, although it’s not quite as simple. First, download and install SpamAssassin from http://spamassassin.org You'll need to download the "spamassassin" and "perl-Mail-SpamAssassin" packages, and you can install them with Red Carpet by selecting Install Local Packages from the File menu. Further instructions are at the SpamAssassin web site. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/28/smogged/ Sun, 28 Sep 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/28/smogged/ Meh. The frustration. To go from the sublime of thrashing Spurs 3-1 to the ridiculous of losing to Middlesbrough (AKA The Smoggies) 1-0 at home is a little hard to take. As usual, it could be worse: Portsmouth, at least, lost 2-0 ;) UPDATE: The Sultan of Brunei wanted to give his three favourite sons a Christmas present, so he asked each one what he wanted. The first said he wanted a motor car, so he gave him Rolls Royce Motors. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/26/i-would-just-like-to-point-out/ Fri, 26 Sep 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/26/i-would-just-like-to-point-out/ Our wonderful Government plus Bush+cronies said we were going to war because Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction. They don’t. The Government lied, but continually refuse to admit it. So, if the General Populace had a conversation with the Government, I suggest it would go a little like this: UK+US Govt: “We’re going to war with Iraq because they have WMDs.” General populace: “Don’t be stupid. Give the inspectors time. We know this is just about oil, you conceited load of dullards. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/20/spuds-get-mashed/ Sat, 20 Sep 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/20/spuds-get-mashed/ Southampton beat Spurs 3-1 at White Hart Lane, with two goals from Beattie (that’s an average of a goal per game now) and one from Phillips. I thought we might extend our clean-sheet run (we managed over eight hours of football without leaking) but at least we won! Saints are now fourth with 12 points — only one point behind new leaders Chelsea. All the teams above us have played a game more, though. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/19/yarr/ Fri, 19 Sep 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/19/yarr/ Talk like a pirate tonight… https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/17/minidisc-update/ Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/17/minidisc-update/ I had a phone call from the Moss of Bath Service Centre to say that the MiniDisc player I got from the tip was reparable, but it would cost about £125, which is more than the cost of a new machine. The environmentalist in me wanted to say “OK then” to stop yet more landfill, but the consumer in me won out. A new machine would be money better spent. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/16/andaction/ Tue, 16 Sep 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/16/andaction/ Bristol Temple Meads railway station…9.55 am…the information board at the bottom of the stairs reads “Warning: Filming in Progress”, or somesuch, for Casualty, which is filmed in Bristol. I get to the top of the stairs, just as the director says ”Action!“. I carry on walking, confident that, in my bright red hooded top, I will be easily spotted should the take survive the cutting room floor. My sister is an avid Casualty fan, so I’ll get her to look out for me. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/12/life-insurance/ Fri, 12 Sep 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/12/life-insurance/ As of last Friday (5th September), we have the following insurance products: Car (approx 1/5th the value of the car) Home (buildings & contents — 1/250th the value of the house) Central heating Dental, and now… Pet Insurance! And never has insurance been so timely. On Tuesday (9th September), Ella managed to bring down one of our KEF Cresta 1 speakers, recently placed atop Gale S50 stands, onto (we presume, as we didn’t see it happen) her front-left leg. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/05/debut-for-internet-film/ Fri, 05 Sep 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/05/debut-for-internet-film/ The new film by Full Monty writer Simon Beaufoy will become the first to be launched officially over the internet. This is Not a Love Song, which stars Harry Potter actor David Bradley, will be streamed from 1800 BST on Friday. — http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3082856.stm.stm The film’s web site is here. But… “You will need: To be based in the UK To be running Microsoft Windows XP, 98, SE, Me or 2000 (gah! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/01/altogether-now/ Mon, 01 Sep 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/01/altogether-now/ Like me, these people are Bored of the Beckhams! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/01/oh-yes/ Mon, 01 Sep 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/09/01/oh-yes/ BBC SPORT | Football | Premiership | Beattie sinks Man Utd To be honest, I would have been happy with another 0-0 against Man Utd, as they’ve been scoring goals for fun, but to get a win against the champions was sweet indeed! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/08/23/if-you-go-down-to-the-tip-today/ Sat, 23 Aug 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/08/23/if-you-go-down-to-the-tip-today/ You’re in for a big surprise. Well, I was. Firstly there was no queue whatsoever to get in. Then, in the pile of unwanted electrical goods I found two good-quality tape decks (one Sony, one Technics, both 3-head, Dolby HX-Pro monsters), a CD player and a minidisc recorder. So the minidisc doesn’t actually work. Everything else does. I’m going to pay £20 to get it looked at, and then we’ll see. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/08/20/yet-another-reason-not-to-use-windows/ Wed, 20 Aug 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/08/20/yet-another-reason-not-to-use-windows/ I use a mixture of Mandrake Linux and Windows 2000 on the small LAN(Local Area Network) I have set up at home. I was unaffected by Blaster/Lovesan because I patch my boxes regularly and run a firewall. But this is no reason to be smug. The recent virus/worm attacks have munted the internet for all users, of whatever platform, because Windows is so insecure. As Mike Wendland (“Mac Mike”) says: https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/08/19/you-keep-going-you-stop-you-get-ill/ Tue, 19 Aug 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/08/19/you-keep-going-you-stop-you-get-ill/ Life lately has been so manic: we have been heavily involved in the design of Lorna and John’s wedding, which was on Saturday. Months of nervous energy expended, a big Grolsch-and-champagne-fuelled blowout, a late night, then…a sore throat and a dodgy tummy. Oh, and I really can’t stand people who change lanes without indicating… https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/08/14/saints-land-phillips/ Thu, 14 Aug 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/08/14/saints-land-phillips/ At last! I thought we’d miss out on KP, but his wages must have been pruned to fit within the wage structure at St. Mary’s. Hopefully the JB/KP partnership will be a fruitful one… BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | Southampton | Southampton land Phillips UPDATE Once, just once, Saints are the top story at BBC News > Sport > Football! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/08/07/calories/ Thu, 07 Aug 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/08/07/calories/ America may have its faults, but Hershey’s Peanut Butter Cups? Mmmm… https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/08/03/google-not-always-a-good-thing/ Sun, 03 Aug 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/08/03/google-not-always-a-good-thing/ The received wisdom of the Google era has been "content, not keywords". All well and good, you may think: the better and more relevant your content, the higher your search engine position. Back in 2000, I wrote a post about selecting my fantasy football team. When I imported this, along with the rest of my Blogger blog, into Movable Type, I needed to come up with a title for the post. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/08/01/impending-third-blogoversary/ Fri, 01 Aug 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/08/01/impending-third-blogoversary/ A long time ago (three years, actually) in a galaxy far, far away (or rather, at Blogger) I started a blog. The date of the first post was August 9th 2000 and I said the following: I decided to set up another blog, this time for general stuff. I have to say — this rocks… Another blog? What? Well, I had already set one up for my obsolescent Vinyl Obsession project, the posts from which have been folded into the music category here at it could be worse. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/30/christian-cd-sale/ Wed, 30 Jul 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/30/christian-cd-sale/ Rachel Cunliffe and her husband Regan have a few excess CDs to get rid of, so get yourselves to The Sale “if you like City on a Hill, Song for Worship, Michael W. Smith, Third Day, Jars of Clay or the Paul Colman Trio.” Oh, they’re in New Zealand, but are quite willing and able to ship to the UK, US, wherever. Plus the exchange rate means that they’re cheap! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/25/redesign/ Fri, 25 Jul 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/25/redesign/ In progress. All the best sites do it, so I’m going to as well. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/24/happy-birthday-dad/ Thu, 24 Jul 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/24/happy-birthday-dad/ My Dad, Peter Beadle, is 70 today! Woo! Have a good one, Dad. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/23/richer-sounds-update/ Wed, 23 Jul 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/23/richer-sounds-update/ I finally got an "automated" reply from Richer Sounds, though how it can be automated when they took nearly a day to respond, I’ll never know: Thank you for E-Mailing Richer Sounds. We will endevour (sic) to answer your email ASAP, however if this is of an urgent nature please call our Customer Services Team on: 0870 900 1000 (National Rate Call) 10am-6pm Monday-Friday, 10am-5pm on Saturdays and 12-4 Bank https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/22/a-bridge-too-far/ Tue, 22 Jul 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/22/a-bridge-too-far/ So Wayne Bridge has gone to Chelsea. I can’t say I’m surprised. Once the contract talks were underway I resigned myself to the fact that he would leave. It’s in the past now, and we have £7m plus Graham Le Saux on subsidised-by-Chelsea wages on a two-year contract. Even at 34, he’s a quality player. I can’t help feeling that, once again, Southampton have been beaten to the top headline spot — this time by the Damien Duff transfer saga. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/22/richer-sounds-poorer-website/ Tue, 22 Jul 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/22/richer-sounds-poorer-website/ I received a late birthday present over the weekend: £30 of Richer Sounds vouchers. I would dearly love to spend them, but the web site’s navigation menu doesn’t work in Mozilla-based browsers. The menu expands, but nothing happens when you click on a link. I’ve e-mailed customer services, but alas, I have had no reply as yet. I’ll keep you posted. I am trying to browse your web site, but the left-hand menu doesn’t work in my browser — Mozilla 1. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/18/a-good-week/ Fri, 18 Jul 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/18/a-good-week/ This week, I have mostly been reworking some of our existing web sites to use web standards instead of ghastly nested-table design hacks. It’s satisfying that, after two years of banging on about it, people that matter (i.e. managers, marketing people, producers) have started to smell the coffee. And the coffee smells a lot like valid (X)HTML/CSS/DOM/ECMAScript. The benefits of all this? Sites that: download more quickly are more accessible to both disabled people and those browsing the web using non-traditional devices (e. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/17/introducing-ella-and-nina/ Thu, 17 Jul 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/17/introducing-ella-and-nina/ We’d like you to meet our two newest friends: Ella and Nina. They’re 17 weeks old, quite small, and run around like the clappers! We got them from Bath Cats and Dogs Home on June 29th, and they’ve grown loads already. Ella, the tiger-striped one, is pretty chilled but Nina, the dark tabby one, has vicious claws. It probably doesn’t help that her right eye is cloudy, but we’re giving her eye drops to try and sort that out. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/04/doughnut-day/ Fri, 04 Jul 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/07/04/doughnut-day/ Today is my birthday doughnut day. I am 28 years old, or I will be by 18:10 BST. Presents received so far: a Tin Tin t-shirt, depicting the vertical-haired hero riding a horse. Balance of the Force, by Boymerang (CD). An album I’ve had on my wish-list for about 5 years. Result! Dishy Dude socks, which I am proudly wearing. Motion by The Cinematic Orchestra. Another long-term wish-list item. Kathy: you’re the best and I love you! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/06/17/dub-selector/ Tue, 17 Jun 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/06/17/dub-selector/ Try the D U B S E L E C T O R 2. It’s really rather good, wot wot. Requires Flash https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/06/17/validaq/ Tue, 17 Jun 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/06/17/validaq/ After the Argos Redesign Debacle, I decided to start a Top Ten Invalid Web Sites, otherwise known as ValiDAQ. As I’m too cheap to register the domain name, you’ll just have to put up with it living under our www address ;) Kathy wonders, perhaps rightly, why I get so worked up about this sort of thing. I think it’s a combination of Web Standards Zealotry, a modicum of expertise in the field in question and a general burning desire to put the world to rights. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/06/16/argos-does-a-microsoft/ Mon, 16 Jun 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/06/16/argos-does-a-microsoft/ After about two years of ‘Coming Soon’, Argos have finally redesigned their website so that it doesn’t lock out users of Mozilla or any other browsers that use its rendering engine, Gecko. So, is this a victory for Web Standards? Erm, no. A quick peek at the source code reveals Nested Table Hell and running the home page through the w3c’s HTML Validator reveals, at time of writing, an unprecedented 862 errors! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/06/07/kittens/ Sat, 07 Jun 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/06/07/kittens/ We had a visit from the Bath Cats and Dogs Home’s pre-home-check person on Thursday. Expecting the Spanish Inquisition (but no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition!) we tidied the whole house. In the end, the inspector only saw the lounge, and chatted to us. We’ll have to get a cat-flap, but apart from that, it looks like we’re on the way to becoming pseudo-parents! Cats: taking the place of children for 20 and 30-somethings since 1972. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/06/05/left-right-lib-auth/ Thu, 05 Jun 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/06/05/left-right-lib-auth/ Are you accustomed to describing your political views in simple left-wing/right-wing terms? Then head over to the Political Compass and take the test. Based on my answers, I turned out with the following score: Economic Left/Right: -3.00 Authoritarian/Libertarian: -3.90 This means I’m a Libertarian Left-type person. Perusing the lib-left reading list, there was none other than No Logo by Naomi Klein at the top. Admittedly it was the only book there that I’d read, but — hey! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/06/03/a-little-something-for-thersi/ Tue, 03 Jun 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/06/03/a-little-something-for-thersi/ While I don’t think I have RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) per se, I do get shoulder and neck stiffness and pain more than occasionally. I probably don’t do myself any favours by working in IT(Information Technology) and not taking a proper lunch break away from the computer. So it’s all the better for discovering Workrave, a neat little piece of software that is described on its website thus: Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/06/02/speed-limit/ Mon, 02 Jun 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/06/02/speed-limit/ As I noted last week, I recently got clearance from the Chief Financial Officer of Beadle, Inc. (Kathy) to get broadband internet access at home. Unfortunately, we’re too far from our BT exchange to get ADSL, which means that Telewest is now our only sensible broadband option (if you discount stumbling for wireless hotspots or getting satellite broadband). The cost is higher (£25 per month for 512Kb/s internet if you take a phone package as well), but there’s a nice starter digital TV package for £3. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/05/30/scream-if-you-want-to-go-faster/ Fri, 30 May 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/05/30/scream-if-you-want-to-go-faster/ I’ve just placed an order for broadband (512Kb/s ADSL) from Plusnet, our ISP. I opted for the router starter pack, which includes a single ethernet port, so I’ll have to set one of the PCs up as a bridge with 2 NICs in so that we can still network the two PCs and get online from both PCs. I’ll probably use Mandrake’s Internet Connection Sharing. Oh, I’m off work with a stomach bug. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/05/27/spring-bank-holiday/ Tue, 27 May 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/05/27/spring-bank-holiday/ We’ve just returned from Chertsey, Surrey, where we camped at a campsite that was a quarter of a mile from the M3 and simultaneously in the Heathrow flightpath. Despite these two (three, if you count camping just outside a town) apparent disadvantages, we had a great weekend. Amanda and Matt Bartlett stayed with us in our sort-of-futureproof six-man dome tent, but unfortunately ended up in the inner-tent whose hooks (they hold up the inner-tent by attaching to the inside of the fly-sheet) were a bit stretched and therefore kept pinging off in the middle of the night. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/05/21/sorted/ Wed, 21 May 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/05/21/sorted/ I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the upgrade to Mandrake 9.1 hadn’t gone as smoothly as I would have hoped. But after the rain, comes sunshine: we can now connect to the internet (albeit via a Windows box on the LAN), print, scan, listen to music and even do the accounts, in Windows while Linux is running, thanks to the magic of VNC. VNC, which is free software, displays the desktop from one machine on the display of another. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/05/09/cinematic-excursions/ Fri, 09 May 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/05/09/cinematic-excursions/ You wait ages to see a film with Anna Paquin in, and two come along at once. Actually it was a coincidence that she was in the last two films I’ve seen: 25th Hour and X2. 25th Hour is the first Spike Lee film I’ve ever seen. I was impressed, as he refuses to let his films be formulaic jelly-mould cash cows. Edward Norton, as always, gives a fantastic performance — this time as a drug dealer who has one more day of freedom before being jailed for seven years. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/05/09/linux-pain/ Fri, 09 May 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/05/09/linux-pain/ I’ve been telling everybody how great Linux is for, ooh, the past 4 years or so. Admittedly, it doesn’t crash as much as Windows, and individual software crashes rarely bring down the whole machine. But perhaps I am suffering from overfamiliarity: I want things to work, not just not crash. Before last Monday (when I installed Mandrake 9.1) we had a working machine, except that we had no sound or scanning. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/05/02/apple-goodies/ Fri, 02 May 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/05/02/apple-goodies/ So Apple have been busy little bunnies. Not content with ramping up the iBook to 800/900 MHz, they have launched a slimmer, sexier(?) iPod and launched the iTunes Music Store, which is browsable from anywhere, but only open for business in the US, so far. Many good things have been written about the service so far, so much so that Windows users seem to be either (a) jealous and sarky, or (b) salivating at the prospect of the launch of the service for Windows, due later in the year. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/21/in-brief/ Mon, 21 Apr 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/21/in-brief/ We’re off to Easter People on Wednesday. I’m doing stuff I’ve never done before, namely DJ workshops, some DJ worship and a gig. We sang in three services at church over the weekend: Maundy Thursday (communion), Good Friday (Meditation) and Easter Sunday (communion). Not much voice left now, though. Sheenagh and Dylan’s wedding on Saturday was a hoot — Simon and I DJ’d at the evening reception. Back-to-back was fun: best moment was the Fatboy Slim version of Eple Eple by Royksopp (Si) mixed into Billie Jean by Michael Jackson (me). https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/18/downtrodden-christ/ Fri, 18 Apr 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/18/downtrodden-christ/ Downtrodden Christ, to you we pray who at the third hour of the day were led away and nailed up high in naked shame beneath the sky: Show through the pain that scars your face the love of God, and man’s disgrace. Uplifted Christ, to you we pray who at the sixth hour of the day took all our guilt upon that tree in darkness, blood, and agony: Look on our pride and unbelief, https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/17/ccd-burundi-web-site/ Thu, 17 Apr 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/17/ccd-burundi-web-site/ So for a few months now my parents have been in touch with a guy called Deogratias, who works for an organisation called Christian Community Development in Burundi. He works with refugees and orphans — kids whose parents have either been killed by the AIDS pandemic or by the awful inter-ethnic violence that occurred in the mid-nineties. I’ve finally got the first phase of the web site up! Christian Community Development is a Christ-centered organisation with goals of assisting the poor and the needy of Burundi to know Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and to overcome poverty. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/16/you-know-the-war-is-over-when/ Wed, 16 Apr 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/16/you-know-the-war-is-over-when/ …The BBC have the following story in their ‘latest news’ ticker: Muffin the Mule, one of the most popular children’s TV characters of all time, is being revived by the BBC to mark its 60th anniversary. — http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2952533.stm While I deplored the wall-to-wall coverage in the early stages of the war, it feels as though Iraq as a subject has been tossed aside like last season’s jeans by a bored teenager. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/15/cup-final-tickets/ Tue, 15 Apr 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/15/cup-final-tickets/ “72,000 capacity”, I thought to myself, “that’s 36,000 tickets for each club”. Except it isn’t, as the FA keep 22,000 for distribution around the country. Only some members will be eligible for tickets and, as we’ve only been to one game, I don’t suppose we’ll get offered the chance to buy one. The club are currently in the process of working out how many games members will need to have been to in order to qualify for a ticket. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/14/i-feel-better-now/ Mon, 14 Apr 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/14/i-feel-better-now/ Sometimes I think that I write boring stuff, but The dullest blog in the world is in another league entirely. It’s popular though… https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/11/the-things-some-people-will-do-for-semi-final-tickets/ Fri, 11 Apr 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/11/the-things-some-people-will-do-for-semi-final-tickets/ I was browsing the Saints FC website, as you do, and I saw a photo of a Saints fan who went to desperate lengths to get tickets to the semi-final of the FA Cup. I thought to myself ‘he looks familiar’ and sure enough it was indeed Brian Percey, from Andover Baptist Church, the church I grew up in! Brian ate pickled onions, wore a Pompey shirt and cleaned the Pompey players’ boots with his toothbrush. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/09/bargain/ Wed, 09 Apr 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/09/bargain/ I wish, I wish, I wish. This rather nice Apple iBook is currently going for £900. I specced up something similar at the Apple Store and it came to £2700, with all the accessories and extra software. There’s even an iPod! Drool. Update: The seller has just closed the auction, cancelling all bids. I don’t know whether to be sad or happy… https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/09/sorry-for-the-silence/ Wed, 09 Apr 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/09/sorry-for-the-silence/ I should have mentioned that we’ve been away, staying on Iona, in a house called Duncraig and taking occasional part in services and activities with The Iona Community. So, Hence the week-long silence here. We will have photos soon, and more words about the week. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/08/spell-chequer/ Tue, 08 Apr 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/08/spell-chequer/ Eye halve a spelling chequer It came with my pea sea It plainly marques four my revue Miss steaks eye kin knot sea. Eye strike a key and type a word And weight four it two say Weather eye am wrong oar write It shows me strait a weigh. As soon as a mist ache is maid It nose bee fore two long And eye can put the error rite https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/07/i-have-mandrake-91/ Mon, 07 Apr 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/04/07/i-have-mandrake-91/ Thanks to Keith (who has broadband), I now have a set of Mandrake 9.1 disks. Woo! I’ll have a play tonight, maybe, and see how we get on. Edit: I should have mentioned that it will be an upgrade, at least initially, as I have Mandrake 8.2 running on the Dell at the moment, dual-booting with Win2k Pro. I must backup my data first, though. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/25/another-blogger-is-born/ Tue, 25 Mar 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/25/another-blogger-is-born/ Bill Kotsopoulos, whom I’ve never met, has started a blog. Welcome to the blogosphere, Bill! (via Rachel) https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/23/fightback-2-the-revenge/ Sun, 23 Mar 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/23/fightback-2-the-revenge/ For the second week in a row, Saints fought back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2. The Ginger Ninja said that we deserve more credit — people have been saying that we “got out of jail”. What’s happening to the second-best defence in the league? We’re leaking goals at the moment. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/22/villans/ Sat, 22 Mar 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/22/villans/ Today Southampton take on Aston Villa. Mark Lawrenson said it would be a draw but, as we have more to play for, I hope we can nick a win. I don’t trust Lawro’s predictions anyway, but I’m glad he didn’t predict a home win — that’s normally a sure-fire way to put the kiss of death on us and produce an away win! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/21/travel-with-a-difference/ Fri, 21 Mar 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/21/travel-with-a-difference/ Our friend James Burton works for Gap Sports Abroad, an organisation “who offer the opportunity to combine the universal language of sport with the chance to travel to unique and exciting locations. GSA aims to assist sports development in third-world communities by placing highly motivated and enthusiastic volunteers into coaching positions in sports academies and local clubs in poor and underdeveloped regions.” “Football, football, football! — did that grab your attention? https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/20/so-here-we-are/ Thu, 20 Mar 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/20/so-here-we-are/ War commenced overnight. What sickens me, and perhaps because I am as guilty of being sucked in as anyone else, is the swift descent into War As Entertainment, served up as a really real reality TV extravaganza. Wall-to-wall coverage, 24/7, every channel going. No sooner had the diplomatic options come to an end had the BBC News web site been plastered with a ‘Countdown To War’ banner. At least they didn’t have a ticking clock, counting down to 1am GMT, 20th March 2003. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/19/good-friday-art-meditation/ Wed, 19 Mar 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/19/good-friday-art-meditation/ The Stations of the Cross are a series of meditations based on the final journey of Jesus from his sentencing by Pilate to his burial. The original stations are in Jerusalem on the Via Dolorosa, the road along which Jesus carried his cross. The stations normally consist of 14 pictures although in Cookham we plan to use 9 stations. — http://www.goodfriday.org/ https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/19/sadness/ Wed, 19 Mar 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/19/sadness/ I’ve just learned of the death, from meningitis, of Philip Bell, the son of Arkle and Sheila Bell. Arkle used to be one of the Lecturers on Kathy’s course, and Phil used to be in my youth group when I was a young leader at Counterslip Baptist Church in Bristol. He must have been only 23 or 24. Life is so fleeting sometimes — it’s especially hard to take when it’s someone so young and when their death is no fault of their own. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/14/testing-trackbacks/ Fri, 14 Mar 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/14/testing-trackbacks/ TrackBack Development https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/13/sermonising/ Thu, 13 Mar 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/13/sermonising/ There’s an interesting discussion (well, lots of interesting discussions, actually) going on over at cre8d, particularly about sermons. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/10/a-good-day/ Mon, 10 Mar 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/10/a-good-day/ Reasons to be cheerful We put on a Fairtrade lunch at church yesterday. It all went very well. My brother, Nick, will be moving into a new job at Reuters, where he works already. My nephew, Mark, has got his first record contract, aged 16! Spring is coming! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/10/four/ Mon, 10 Mar 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/10/four/ On Friday, Kathy and I celebrated four years since we got engaged. Kathy bought me a large white dish (I like white crockery) and Monty Python and the Holy Grail on DVD. It has the Monty Python in Lego as a special feature. It rocks. I bought Kathy some flowers and a copy of Good Housekeeping, cos when I got to Waterstones to buy her a glass painting book, it was closed. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/05/fog-7-deg-celsius/ Wed, 05 Mar 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/05/fog-7-deg-celsius/ That’s what my desktop weather applet is telling me anyway. Had trouble sleeping last night — too much on my mind: the impending PCC meeting and the auditing of the church accounts; the messy state of our house; the Fairtrade lunch we’re putting on on Sunday; financial worries. The list goes on. Kathy is such a blessing to me — I’m truly grateful that she is part of my life. My faith and normally-optimistic (“It could be worse”) attitude to life let me down last night. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/04/rain-rain-go-away/ Tue, 04 Mar 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/03/04/rain-rain-go-away/ A poem which evokes rainy childhood days, days when there was much more fun to be had outside than in. I’m not so bothered about being outside now (except in summer), but since we’d driven nearly 150 miles to spend the weekend in north Devon, we thought it would be, well, nice to be able to enjoy the countryside without the car windows getting in the way. Having decided to eschew the delights of the motorway, we set out across Somerset, crossing it almost entirely from Bath in the North-East corner, beyond Minehead and into Exmoor and out the other side — almost all on the A39. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/02/27/trapped/ Thu, 27 Feb 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/02/27/trapped/ Oh, man. My shoulder and neck feel like someone’s in there with a medaeval torture rack, stretching them in directions they’re just not supposed to go. My shoulders have been shot to pieces for a while — probably since I left CompuServe, where in 1999 all staff, including contractors like me, received a weekly back, shoulders, arms and hands massage. I always thought that it was a very enlightened approach to the issue of staff health; I’ve never come across it anywhere else, which is a shame. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/02/26/pushaman/ Wed, 26 Feb 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/02/26/pushaman/ One of my colleagues informed me, while waiting for the kettle to boil, that they had a dream last night in which I was the school cool dude, svengali and drug dealer, which couldn’t be further from the truth, really. I would just like to point out that I was not cool at school. James Hanson once said that I “try too hard to be cool”, but being a ‘try-hard’ and actually being cool are two very different things. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/02/25/ten-pence/ Tue, 25 Feb 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/02/25/ten-pence/ I bought a ticket from Oldfield Park to Bristol Temple Meads for the first time today. On other occasions I’ve had a season ticket on the go, so there has been no need to buy day returns. But with impending leave booked, I didn’t feel the value in laying out for weekly tickets where 3 out of 4 days will go unused. Anyway, the cost of a day return: £4.70. Not bad, I hear you cry. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/02/18/which-os-are-you/ Tue, 18 Feb 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/02/18/which-os-are-you/ Which OS are You? https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/02/13/australia-night/ Thu, 13 Feb 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/02/13/australia-night/ Last night I had the displeasure of washing up while listening to the England v Australia friendly from Upton Park. I was disappointed that James Beattie’s England debut was overshadowed by the inept performance given by the rest of the first-half team. I genuinely hope that Sven will give him another chance, because I’m sure he can shine at international level when surrounded by committed team-mates. He clearly wasn’t last night. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/02/13/miracle/ Thu, 13 Feb 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/02/13/miracle/ Dear Dad & Mom, Thanks for praying for my son Joshua NIYONZIMA, please receive a photo of Joshua that was taken at hospital just one day before we left the hospital on February 7, 2003. Thanks for your wonderful support of prayer. Thanks, Yours in Christ, Deogratias’ Family. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/02/03/southampton-lose-again/ Mon, 03 Feb 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/02/03/southampton-lose-again/ I didn’t see the highlights, but it sounds like we met Man Utd at the top of their game, unfortunately. Now we have to pick ourselves up for the FA Cup replay at Millwall on Wednesday. We have people round for dinner, so I can’t watch the game on Sky at the pub, but I’ll be keeping my fingers, toes and who knows what else crossed… https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/24/free-netname/ Fri, 24 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/24/free-netname/ I’ve mailed Freenetname to find out my username (!). It’s been so long since I used them for dialup that I’ve completely forgotten it. I may have it in a passwords file somewhere, but there are no guarantees. I just need to change the frame source url to point to this blog, and I’m laughing. Thing is, in order to have access to the FTP site, you need to be dialled up to FNN. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/24/a-fine-online-music-store/ Fri, 24 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/24/a-fine-online-music-store/ Another fine online store: Tunes.co.uk. I’ve probably bought from them more than any other online vinyl specialist, except perhaps Juno. Tunes introduced me to the wonders of Tummy Touch Records. I also got Bongo Rock: The Story of The Incredible Bongo Band from them. ‘Nuff said. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/24/hard-leaders/ Fri, 24 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/24/hard-leaders/ One of the first and best online dance music and DJ gear stores: Hard To Find Records. I’ve bought from them before, but their web site possibly promises more than it can actually deliver, because it lists so many records that are currently out of stock. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/24/i-want-my-mp3-part-deux/ Fri, 24 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/24/i-want-my-mp3-part-deux/ My current fave mp3 site is Epitonic. It doesn’t have the wide choice that illicit sites do, but some really nice gems amongst the manure. Or something. Case in point: Antibalas, makers of rather sublime afro-tinged samba, er, stuff. I’d never heard of them until I discovered them on Epitonic, but I’m more inclined to buy their music now. Small problem — there’s diddly squat in the music purchasing budget ;( https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/24/unsign-of-the-times/ Fri, 24 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/24/unsign-of-the-times/ Another unsigned artist MP3 site: iuma.com. I haven’t checked it out yet, but will do in time. I can’t wait to get broadband at home. It will make downloading this stuff so much faster and easier. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/24/weebl-and-bob/ Fri, 24 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/24/weebl-and-bob/ Music-related: go see Weebl and Bob, cos the anims use some funky fresh tunes from the likes of Mr. Scruff and Dmitri from Paris. The music adds so much to the overall vibe of the cartoons, it’s unreal. You heard it here first. Possibly. It’s gonna be huge, no doubt, but will probably blow over as soon as five-year-olds start going around singing "I love donkey, donkey don’t lie," "when come back, bring pie! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/23/ikea-budget-x-2/ Thu, 23 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/23/ikea-budget-x-2/ It’s always the way with IKEA. You go there to buy one thing and then buy other stuff on the spur of the moment. We spent exactly twice what we’d intended to spend before we arrived, plus we got the car washed while we were shopping. There goes another £49.75. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/23/obsessed/ Thu, 23 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/23/obsessed/ There is another blog, you know. I’m resurrecting vinyl obsession. I don’t know why. I still have the old url, but with Freenetname, who charge £90 to transfer domains out. Suck. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/23/poor/ Thu, 23 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/23/poor/ I haven’t bought many records lately, but Christmas was a fruitful time: Dubplates From The Lamp 2 (Pork Recordings — on CD) and both Mr Scruff albums on vinyl. Can’t be bad. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/23/saturday-swap-shop/ Thu, 23 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/23/saturday-swap-shop/ "A new way to exchange music online": xchangemusic.com. Mind you, I’m not sure if I want to exchange music, unless someone wants to take my Russ Conway album off my hands in exchange for something, ooh, any good. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/02/felicitations/ Thu, 02 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/02/felicitations/ I nearly forgot! Happy New Year! Probably happier if you’re not back at work yet (I am) but, hey, doesn’t really matter does it? https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/02/i-want-my-mp3/ Thu, 02 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/02/i-want-my-mp3/ While we’re on the subject of piracy: Tim O’Reilly: Piracy is Progressive Taxation (and other stories). Repeat after me: "Music sharing increases artist exposure, causing an increase in music sales". https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/02/microsoft-never-invented-a-thing/ Thu, 02 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/02/microsoft-never-invented-a-thing/ Looky see — it’s the Microsoft Hall of "Innovation". The premise is that, basically, every product M$ have ever released has been bought, copied or stolen, never invented solely by themselves. And they have the audacity to call the average home user a pirate, by the erosion of fair-use rights of copyrighted material through technologies like Palladium. What kind of world is it we’re living in? https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/02/should-know-better/ Thu, 02 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2003/01/02/should-know-better/ I don’t know. Did they think they wouldn’t get caught? ;-) https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/11/07/birthday/ Thu, 07 Nov 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/11/07/birthday/ Discogs.com is two years old! It’s a fantastic site. People keep emailing me, wanting to buy my records, which is nice. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/11/06/keeping-irregular/ Wed, 06 Nov 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/11/06/keeping-irregular/ I can’t believe I always do this: post for a while, then go completely awol for about three months. In my defence, m’lud, I have just moved house… Back to the plot: we have a new house! It’s a late-sixties mid-terrace in Bath, not too attractive from the outside but I figure that we don’t generally have to look at the outside ;-) https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/11/06/woo-yay-go-to-b3tacom/ Wed, 06 Nov 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/11/06/woo-yay-go-to-b3tacom/ Woo! Yay! Go to b3ta.com (handy hint: rhymes with peter.com) and be amused. There’s also rathergood.com. Kittens! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/08/20/galles/ Tue, 20 Aug 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/08/20/galles/ Wales: land of dragons, rugby and rain. We saw none of the former two, but did have a few spots of the latter on our recent camping trip near Pembroke. We popped into Tenby (great town walls), went to a chocolate farm and a vineyard, and walked from Freshwater East to Stackpole Quay, where we had treacle tart (me) / strawberry pavlova (Kathy) and cold drinks. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/08/15/if-microsoft-made-cars/ Thu, 15 Aug 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/08/15/if-microsoft-made-cars/ At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, “If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.” In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating “If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics: https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/08/05/word-of-the-day/ Mon, 05 Aug 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/08/05/word-of-the-day/ Word of the Day: Consumerism the theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically beneficial. a movement advocating greater protection of the interests of consumers. I knew about (2), but wasn’t aware that (1) was part of the deal too. After 9/11, Dubya was telling everyone to “spend, spend, spend” for the good of the economy. The thing is, in the long-term this approach to economics is unsustainable. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/07/24/like-a-motorway/ Wed, 24 Jul 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/07/24/like-a-motorway/ Don’t you love it when you find someone saying stuff you’ve been saying, but they’re saying it in a much more joined-up way?: “The sheer ugliness and anonymity of motorways seem only to reinforce their destructive environmental impact. Yet even motorways have their poets and celebrants. But what are they doing to our soul?” — Motorway culture and its discontents https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/06/23/petersfield/ Sun, 23 Jun 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/06/23/petersfield/ I’ve just come back from visiting Kevin Hopkins, who was best man at our wedding. He lives in Petersfield but we also spent time at his parents’ place in Andover. Had a great barbeque there yesterday and Sunday roast (lamb) today, with watching the All Blacks devour Ireland 40-8 and a visit to some of Petersfield’s hotspots (Folly’s, Vertigo) in between. Vertigo is scarily like Flicks in Andover — in terms of clientele, music policy and even the club’s layout. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/06/21/disappointed/ Fri, 21 Jun 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/06/21/disappointed/ Oh well. The World Cup is over for England. Again. At least it wasn’t as painful as 1986 (Maradona cheated), 1990 (Penalty Shoot-out Hell) or 1998 (Golden Goal disallowed and Penalty Shootout Hell). At least we qualified for the finals, unlike 1994 (cheers Holland). I am disappointed, but I feel ultimately that the better team won. England just weren’t good enough over 90 minutes. Maybe if Brazil were a football ‘enemy’ in the same way that Germany, Scotland and Argentina are, we may have raised our game accordingly. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/06/20/region-hacks-for-lg-dvd-players/ Thu, 20 Jun 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/06/20/region-hacks-for-lg-dvd-players/ Useful LG DVD Player info. UPDATE: This is 2003, if you hadn’t noticed. I found the above page in 2002. Go there for info. Don’t bother posting "I need a hack" because I don’t know how to help! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/05/27/blister-spillage/ Mon, 27 May 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/05/27/blister-spillage/ Blimey guv’nor! Has it really been over two months? You call this news? Anyway. Yesterday we went to Bicester Village, one of the ever-growing number of out-of-town “designer” outlet centres. It sucks, it really does. It’s the bottom of the consumer capitalism barrel. Naomi Klein would say that it’s private space masquerading as public space. I would say that it was an interesting experience, much like the Trafford Centre in Manchester, except at least BV was outside so my eyes and throat didn’t dry out. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/03/15/king-megatrip/ Fri, 15 Mar 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/03/15/king-megatrip/ Taped radio shows aplenty: King Megatrip https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/03/13/deja-vu/ Wed, 13 Mar 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/03/13/deja-vu/ Those web site designs you just know you’ve seen somewhere before: pirated sites!! aaarrgghh…. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/02/22/css-prophet/ Fri, 22 Feb 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/02/22/css-prophet/ Big Up Zeldman. The CSS for Layout Thing is starting to really snowball. Good thing too. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/02/21/everybody-can-be-a-dj/ Thu, 21 Feb 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/02/21/everybody-can-be-a-dj/ Online DJ Scratching (requires Flash plugin) https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/02/21/i-am-ernie/ Thu, 21 Feb 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/02/21/i-am-ernie/ http://www.trill.net/trill/test.html I am ERNIE. Everyone loves to hang out with me. Which Sesame Street Character Are You? https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/02/18/cambridge-ball/ Mon, 18 Feb 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/02/18/cambridge-ball/ We went to Cambridge on Friday for the Churchill College Spring Ball. It was cool, and very Cambridge (that’s what Tim Patterson said, anyway…), but I can’t stay groovin’ til 3am like I used to. While we were in Cambridge we visited Stuart Page, a Pegger of some renown. He made us a fantastic breakfast of toast, bacon, eggs and, er, yoghurt. I digress. He had this article from SatireWire.com pinned on his fridge door. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/02/17/christian-web-hosting/ Sun, 17 Feb 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/02/17/christian-web-hosting/ Need a Christian Web design and hosting company? Try Netreach.co.uk https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/02/17/paper-mountain/ Sun, 17 Feb 2002 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2002/02/17/paper-mountain/ I’ve just cleared out my inbox (my real — paper — one, that is) and I found a leaflet about World Vision’s 24-hour Famine, which was happening yesterday and today. We would have got our church youth group involved, had we known. http://www.worldvision.org.uk/church https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2001/10/30/how-geek-are-you/ Tue, 30 Oct 2001 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2001/10/30/how-geek-are-you/ I AM 28% GEEK. (This is not a picture of me). http://www.fuali.com/Online_Tests/geek/ https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/11/21/mapping-the-net/ Tue, 21 Nov 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/11/21/mapping-the-net/ Ambitious but surprisingly successful: a geographical map of the internet — http://www.networldmap.com/ https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/11/21/oh-when-the-saints/ Tue, 21 Nov 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/11/21/oh-when-the-saints/ Southampton FC — The Official Website of The Saints https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/11/21/quiet/ Tue, 21 Nov 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/11/21/quiet/ Sorry — been a bit quiet since the end of August… Since then Kathy and I have got married, been on honeymoon, moved into the flat, tidied up the flat (time and time again!), I’ve started a new job (The Institute of Physics Publishing), Kathy’s started a new term. Busy, busy, busy! https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/29/more-css-at-ala/ Tue, 29 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/29/more-css-at-ala/ A List Apart - Fear of Style Sheets 4 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/29/the-dao-of-web-design/ Tue, 29 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/29/the-dao-of-web-design/ The DAO of Web Design A List Apart https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/25/css-browser-support-chart/ Fri, 25 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/25/css-browser-support-chart/ Cascading Style Sheets browser support chart: webreview.com — The Master List https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/25/gift-horse/ Fri, 25 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/25/gift-horse/ Free e-mail and web hosting services: Sork.com. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/25/intercrapcom/ Fri, 25 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/25/intercrapcom/ Excoriating the Indotcompetent: InterCrap.com https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/25/transitioning-to-w3c-standards/ Fri, 25 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/25/transitioning-to-w3c-standards/ Transitioning from LAYER, document.layers[], and document.all to W3C Standards https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/24/how-to-be-a-trendy-designer/ Thu, 24 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/24/how-to-be-a-trendy-designer/ How to be a trendy designer: | OurDatesNeedInflation https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/24/zope/ Thu, 24 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/24/zope/ Open Source Web Application Server Zope.org https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/22/let-the-web-be-the-web/ Tue, 22 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/22/let-the-web-be-the-web/ The people behind this site have the right idea: no more “this page best viewed with browser X” labels on web sites. The AnyBrowser Pages https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/22/rdf-2/ Tue, 22 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/22/rdf-2/ W3C Resource Description Framework (RDF) https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/18/bo-selecta/ Fri, 18 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/18/bo-selecta/ As you may have noticed, I selected 3 Chelsea, 1 Leicester, 5 Liverpool, 3 Southampton, 2 Leeds Utd, 2 Man Utd, 1 Coventry City and 1 Arsenal player. I don’t know whether selecting from relatively few teams is a good idea or not, but I’m going to see how it goes. I pretty much pick my teams at random, giving special attention to Southampton (obviously). This sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t ;) https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/18/fantasy-football/ Fri, 18 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/18/fantasy-football/ Hurrah — I’ve selected my squad for Telegraph Premier League ;-) So here it is: Ed De Goey (Chelsea) Tim Flowers (Leicester) Dominic Matteo (Liverpool) Wayne Bridge (Southampton) Marcus Babbel (Liverpool) Sammi Hyypia (Liverpool) Jonathan Woodgate (Leeds Utd) Ronny Johnsen (Man Utd) Harry Kewell (Leeds Utd) Nick Barmby (Liverpool) Robert Pires (Arsenal) Youssef Chippo (Coventry City) Mario Stanic (Chelsea) Jamie Redknapp (Liverpool) Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (Chelsea) Marian Pahars (Southampton) Teddy Sheringham (Man Utd) Uwe Rosler (Southampton) https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/18/free-antivirus-software-for-windows/ Fri, 18 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/18/free-antivirus-software-for-windows/ Free Antivirus software for Windows 9x/NT/2000: InoculateIT Personal Edition https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/18/keep-hackers-at-bay/ Fri, 18 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/18/keep-hackers-at-bay/ These guys do a free personal firewall: Zone Labs. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/18/le-tiss/ Fri, 18 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/18/le-tiss/ BTW, I had Matt le Tissier in for a while, but swapped him out for Jamie Redknapp, cos I don’t reckon Matt’s going to feature very highly this season cos of his lack of fitness. If ever there was a talent wasted by (apparent) lack of motivation… https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/18/scrabble-faq/ Fri, 18 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/18/scrabble-faq/ Fun, if you like that sort of thing: The Scrabble FAQ and other crossword game resources. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/15/405-the-movie/ Tue, 15 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/15/405-the-movie/ Not a story about obsolete Peugeot saloon cars, but an amusing take on an emergency scenario. Needs the DivX plugin. 405: the movie https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/15/glory-hunter/ Tue, 15 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/15/glory-hunter/ So why is it that I got more excited about Man U when we hardly ever won anything? We won the FA Cup (before it was Axa-sponsored) in 1983, 1985 and 1990. We won the League Cup in 1991, nearly — but for a determined Leeds Utd and a last-day defeat against Liverpool — won the title in 1992, then in 1993 it happened: we won the championship. It’s hard to imagine now, in these days of being called a “glory boy”, but by 1993 we hadn’t won the championship for 26 years. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/15/underscore/ Tue, 15 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/15/underscore/ Underscore: the Bristol chapter of the Association of Internet Professionals. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/15/webtypeorg/ Tue, 15 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/15/webtypeorg/ Type on the web: Webtype.org https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/14/as-if-by-magic/ Mon, 14 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/14/as-if-by-magic/ …the shopkeeper appeared! Mr Benn Page: As If By Magic https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/14/changing-allegiance/ Mon, 14 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/14/changing-allegiance/ Today I signed up for a new season with Telegraph Premier League, the free fantasy football league-a-like from the Daily Telegraph. When asked what team I supported, I entered Southampton. Thing is, I’ve been supporting Man Utd since I was 7 years old, but the excess, the success and the downright rudeness (of Roy Keane and Sir Alex Ferguson on Sunday after the Charity Shield) made me plump for the team I had supported until May 1983 when Kevin Keegan (my favourite player at the time) left to join Newcastle, and the Man U team of Bryan Robson, Gary Bailey et al broke Brighton hearts in a thrilling final replay. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/14/nifty-animation/ Mon, 14 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/14/nifty-animation/ Rather nifty animation: aka Pizazz. https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/09/in-the-beginning-was-the-blog/ Wed, 09 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/09/in-the-beginning-was-the-blog/ I decided to set up another blog, this time for general stuff. I have to say — this rocks… https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/09/satirical-world-and-uk-news/ Wed, 09 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2000/08/09/satirical-world-and-uk-news/ We need satire. Satire is good. Satire shows us life’s ridiculousness and stops us taking ourselves too seriously. Get your satirical World and UK news from herdofsheep.com!