Rory Bremner

I am a great fan of Rory Bremner because of the way he combines humour, impressions and political satire. You can see his blog here: http://en.wordpress.com/tag/rory-bremner/

I have just found this videoclip I have not seen before.

Evernote

I've just discovered Evernote. This looks jolly useful. I'm going to try it out - and it's free (unless you want to upgrade).

Masonry paint

I cannot recommend this Leyland Truguard Pliolite based masonry paint highly enough:

It fills in small surface cracks, keeps its colour and lasts several years in the wettest of weather conditions. It is available at Johnstone's Leyland Decorating Centres, see here:

Not only that, but I ordered some more yesterday afternoon from the Bristol (St Phillips) Decorating Centre and it was delivered free of charge this morning at 9am (Christmas Eve)!

Berghaus advert

Worth a look! http://www.berghaus.com/ourworld/LeoAndAnnikenBaseJump.aspx

Cadence & Continuo in Provence

Had a lovely week in Provence. We were based in Avignon and visited a lot of places. More details can be found on the Cadence page of my website. Within 20 minutes of posting my YouTube video of the Roman arena at Nimes, a frenchman corrected me. It was at Arles not Nimes!

Robert Peston

If you are interested in the current goings on in the financial world, BBC's Robert Peston is a key reporter and his blog can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/.

Cotswold Way

At last, I completed the Cotswold Way last Friday.

Here is the last leg:
Cotswold Way Old Sodbury to Bath at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

I have put a page on my website about the Cotswold Way, see here.

Hear Here! Beat the Clock

Test your classical music knowledge here! Warning: it is addictive!

Ospreys in South Lakeland

Are there ospreys in South Lakeland? They have been reported there in the Beacon Fell log book and also in the Westmorland Gazette. I reckon I saw one on my last visit to the Lake District around Beacon Fell.

Radio 4 For One Night Only - The Prom of Peace

Quite ironic that this was on the radio today with Russia in Georgia - and even more ironic at the time when a Russian soloist and orchestra were playing Czech music during the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia (as it was then) in 1968.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/foronenightonly/pip/aj66v/

More Czech music at the Proms tonight and next Thursday.

Can Maths be fun?

Try this fun quiz from BBC Radio 4: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7558000/7558786.stm

Don't look now!

Found on http://www.livefortheoutdoors.com/

Extreme Cellists

I've heard it all now - on BBC radio 4's 6 o'clock news tonight in fact: http://www.extreme-cello.com/ - four peaks challenge!

Vodafone 1615

I thought I would put a few of my experiences down for my future reference and maybe it will be of some help to others.

I wanted to upgrade my phone and PDA to a single unit which could browse the internet, send and receive e-mails, take photos (ideally geotagged), have an inbuilt GPS for Google Maps, TomTom, Anquet, etc, have normal PDA functionality with notes, calendar and contacts, and of course make phone calls! Not a lot to ask. Oh, a sliding keyboard would be nice as well. But I also wanted to stay with the Vodafone network as it gives me the best coverage where I live and also in the Lake District.

So off I went to the Vodafone shop in the Mall one day and put the question to them. They hadn't heard of geotagging, but they recommended the Vodafone 1615 which is the HTC TyTN II, which had TomTom installed so I guessed it had a GPS. However, they hadn't got one in to show me. So I went to PC World and found a Vodafone salesman and he agreed that the Vodafone 1615 fitted the bill. They had got one in and I signed up for one there and then.

There is a long story which I won't go into about how I switched telephone numbers so I could use my old mobile number of the new phone. Anyway, that was successful eventually and I needed to switch the SIM cards over.

That was several weeks ago now and I have been having fun ever since trying to see how to use different sofware. People might be interested in each of them and the problems I have been having and in most cases the solutions.

Windows Mobile
I found that Windows Mobile 6.1 is now available from Vodafone (see here). I am always keen to upgrade software wherever possible as the latest software is usually an improvement - better functionality and fewer bugs. You need to back up the whole of the contents of the phone's memory (not the card) or be sure you can recover the contents by synchronizing from your PC Outlook, files and programs, etc. This can be a pain but is not a bad idea from time to time as it gives you an opportunity of throwing out files or programs you don't use or need. The only problem I have had with the new version is that the GPS Photo function was turned off. I found that you can turn it back on by hacking into the registry using Mobile Registry Editor and changing a value. See here.

ActiveSync
The latest version is 4.5 and it still has problems with large amounts of data. I have had a problem with certain error codes when synchronizing. I have a large number of contacts, e-mail folders and calendar entries. I think the problem was down to the e-mail folders. (Typing in the error code got a number of threads. These were not complimentary to activesync and WM6, but seemed to point to e-mail synching.) I have disabled synchronizing e-mails as I can get e-mail directly from the phone. However, I had to reduce the folders and re-establish a new connection before it worked properly. I have since increased the number of folders with no problem.

Anquet
Pocket Anquet now works properly on my machine. I have been in e-mail correspondence with them to solve some problems. Even though this is a phone, I needed to load the PocketPC version of Anquet. I have managed to get the GPS to talk to Anquet and obtain a GPS position and tracklogs by using GpsGate (see below). The tracklogs can be uploaded to Anquet on a PC, saved as a .gpx file and uploaded to EveryTrail.

Google Maps
This is a relevation. I can see where I am using Google map and satellite views. It would be good if this had a tracklogging facility.

GPS
Anquet suggested that I needed something like Franson GpsGate so that multiple applications could use the GPS data. I have installed this. It has the additional functionality of creating an NMEA logging file on the phone (and even on a website, so that your movements can be tracked by someone else - sounds useful for trekking!). Also, an NMEA file can be read by EveryTrail.

Geotagging
This is also a relevation. With the GPS Photo option, you can add information to a picture which records where it was taken. If you upload the photos to Flickr, for example, Flickr (limit 100Mb per month) can show the pictures on a map (a Yahoo map) exactly where they were taken. You can load them directly to EveryTrail as well and show them on your tracks. Picasa can also show photos on a map (limit 1Gb), but this time it is a Google map, which is much better, but it doesn't seem to be automatic - you've got to place them by hand - and they can't be imported to EveryTrail.)

Here is my first tracklog with photos on Everytrail using the phone: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=28616. My wish is that Anquet will be able to do the same thing on an OS map using their new MARS system when it has been launched.

Microsoft Money
Microsoft do not support a Pocket PC version which can be synchronized with old versions of Money. Shame on them! So the only way I have found to do it is using Ultrasoft Money. I am trying this out on trial and it looks as though it does the same as Pocket Money.

TomTom Navigator
This program comes free with the phone. However, you can only get one free map (in my case I downloaded Bath which includes the Bristol area). Anywhere else you have to pay for.

Media
ActiveSync 4.5 assumes you want to sync Media files. This takes a very long time and requires a lot of space. Unless you want to use your phone as an mp3 player or view videos, I would disable this and only copy across files you want manually.

Blogging
Another 'nice to have' feature is to be able to blog from the phone. I have used Mail-to-Blogger, and this works, but Vodafone doesn't support blogger mobile (sending messages to go@blogger.com).

Battery
This seems to be the weakest link. With the GPS on, the battery was 50% down after 2 hours use. It takes a long time to recharge as well. I have got an extended battery which doesn't seem a big improvement. It adds to the thickness and weight of the phone. I have been told of iDOL which I might consider at some future date.

Cardiff Philharmonic

Sang in Mahler's Symphony no 2 with the Cardiff Philharmonic last night at St David's Hall, Cardiff (see here) - absolutely fabulous! There were 116 members in the orchestra and 200 singers. There are rumours of the Verdi Requiem next year - yes, please!

The Gloucestershire Society

Sang Mattins with Cadence for the Gloucestershire Society at this lovely little church in Ozleworth Park. Lunch at the Gumstool (Calcot Manor) afterwards - fantastic!

Harry Christophers and The Sixteen

Saw Harry Christophers and The Sixteen tonight at Tewkesbury Abbey. They are on their choral pilgrimage around the country singing music of 16th century Tudor England. This is highly recommended, superb singing in superb surroundings - go and see them if you get the chance.

Severn Bridges

Took Dexter to the Severn Estuary at Aust this afternoon. This is a panoramic view between the two bridges. I am uploading more pictures on his blog.

Bluebells and cowslips

Found both this afternoon at Sheepcombe and Lower Hazel.

Mahler's Resurrection Symphony

Members of the Alveston Singers and Thornbury Choral Society are joining the Cardiff Philharmonic Chorus in a performance of Mahler's Symphony No 2 ("Resurrection") on 20 June. See Cardiff Philharmonic for details of the concert. This piece is 97th in this year's Classic FM Hall of Fame. It should be near the top - a truly inspirational work. Here is the fifth movement in which the choir will be singing, divided into 4 parts on YouTube. The choir starts to sing at 1 minute into the third part.

Euro-whiff

Did you smell the 'euro-whiff'? I did last night at about midnight and I live in South Gloucestershire! See the BBC and Telegraph websites.

Free compost bin

Whilst searching for the best price for a compost bin, I found this recyclenow website. You can get a free 220 litre compost bin here if you live in South Gloucestershire. Or you can find out what special offers there are in your area here.

Sayings

In church today, Dr Anne Spargo in her last sermon with us, reminded us of the fable of the chicken and the pig:
One day the chicken said to the pig, 'Hey, I've got a brilliant idea. The two of us should go into a business partnership.'
'Great,' said the pig, 'but what sort of business?'
'Oh, I don't know ... how about the bacon and egg business?'
'Well, that seems like a good idea, let me think about that,' said the pig. 'Wait a minute, though - it's okay for you to produce eggs, but for me to produce bacon I'd have to give up my life.'
'That's right,' said the chicken, coldly.
Well worth remembering the difference between contribution and commitment.

Yesterday, on Any Questions, Archbishop Sentamu reminded the Radio4 audience of Archbishop William Temple's saying: "Coincidences seem to occur much more frequently when I pray".

Gift Aid

It was expected that when the income tax rate was to reduce by 2% to 20% on 6 April this year that the tax reclaimed on Gift Aided contributions to charities would correspondingly be reduced. This is not the case. The welcome news for all charities is that they can continue to reclaim 22%. This came out in the 2008 budget: the additional 2% is called transitional relief.

Alveston Weather

Just found this cool website. Should be of interest to anyone in Alveston with an eye on the weather! I cannot find out who runs it though?!