A Walker's Ramblings

The risks of technology

2011-12-16T20:18:00.000Z

A couple of weeks ago the US announced that they had lost contact with one of their exceptionally high-tech and modern RQ-170 Sentinel drones. Later the Iranians said that an electronic warfare unit had captured the drone.

The Iranians later showed detailed video of what appears to be an RQ-170. It seemed remarkably intact - although the underside and undercarriage could not be seen, the top seemed nowhere near as damaged as would be expected from a shoot-down or even a crash landing. However the video and pictures are far clearer than would be expected if they were trying to fake the images.

Naturally, some people have been in denial about this. One theory has it that the Iranians had a mock-up ready made, and when the US lost contact with their drone the Iranians used the mock-up to pretend they had captured it. Whilst it is likely that nations may construct mock-ups of aggressor craft - for identification training if nothing else - it would be an embarrassing strategy if the real wreckage was discovered.

Another is that a rogue Iranian agent in the US military had deliberately crashed the plane within Iran. This seems rather unrealistic.

Today it is alleged that the Iranians forced the craft to land. The control protocols for the aircraft are certainly encrypted (although embarrassingly some of the data such as the video may not be) and I doubted that they had actually taken control of it. However today's claim does make sense, at least to an armchair (in)expert such as myself.

The drones are controlled from stations that can be anywhere in the world; for instance Britain's Predator and Reaper drones are flown from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada (*). Control signals are encrypted and sent over to the drones, presumably by satellite. If the radio signal is lost then the drones are programmed to fly automatically to a friendly base for landing, using GPS for positional information (**).

The Iranians are claiming that they jammed the 'proper' control signals coming from the US. This is important; they are not claiming to have hacked and decrypted the control signals, just to have blocked them. Without the signals, the drones would have automatically flown back to a base. This is where the Iranians got clever. It is possible to block and alter ('spoof') GPS signals; this is believed to be what is going on when GPS and SatNav users are warned that their devices will not work. The Iranians are claimed to have spoofed the drone's GPS signals so that it thought it was flying back to a friendly base.

Damage possibly occurred to the drone's underside on landing as the strip in Iran had a slightly different altitude to the base the drone believed it was landing at.

This claim is more plausible than the other alternatives. No real 'hacking' in the traditional senses was needed; instead gaping holes in the security logic were exploited. As much as I dislike the Iranian regime, the engineers must be congratulated for a very clever coup. My only question is why they have shown their hand so early; it gives the west time to understand the problems and close the exploits.

Unfortunately this will have serious implications. The obvious one - that the Americans have lost some of their top-secret military technology - might not be the most important. It it alleged that, although new, the RQ-170 does not use cutting-edge technology as they expected to lose one over enemy territory eventually, either through accident or combat. Far worse is the fact that American (and indeed western) commanders will have large doubts about the chances of their drones reaching a target in battle. And that may mean more manned aircraft are needed, and more friendly lives put at risk.

I am less bothered about the Iranian's claims that they will be able to reverse-engineer the aircraft. Although they have very capable engineers - they have allegedly been keeping some F14's in the air despite US sanctions and lack of spares - it would be a major task and money better spent on more useful platforms. It would be much more likely they would learn important lessons about how the drones work and how they can be combated. The Russians or Chinese would be in a much better position to take advantage of the aircraft.

(*) There is a valid debate to be had about how much we really control these drones. We have purchased them; would the US allow us to use them in a campaign that was against US interests? I am amazed that we have not paid to have the control stations here in the UK for a truly independent system.

(**) I would be surprised if they only used GPS for positional information, but it is possible. If so it was a major lack of foresight.

Terraforming Kinder

2011-12-03T12:00:00.000Z

Kinder Scout has a reputation of being an evil, otherworldly place. Much of this reputation is deserved: navigation is difficult in the centre of the plateau, especially in poor weather, and the constant climbing up and down the groughs is wearying. Add in the bleak, black landscape and it is easy to see why some walkers avoid it like the plague.

I have written before about my love for the place, yet for various reasons I had not climbed up onto the summit for over four years. For this reason a camping trip to Edale seemed like a good opportunity to see my old friend.

Glorious sunshine bathed the summit, and as I passed Kinder Downfall I was surprised to see a black helicopter flying to and fro with what seemed like a skip hanging underneath. Shortly afterwards a white helicopter repeatedly flew low overhead, dropping white bags of what turned out to be chopped heather over the terrain.

All this activity was part of a scheme to re-vegetate Kinder. Acid rain and other problems have devastated the delicate ecosystem on the plateau, and the lack of vegetation has led to massive erosion (*). In places the peat has been worn down to the underlying bedrock and the presence of walkers and cattle has not helped.

As far as I can work out, the scheme involves tipping lime over the ground to reduce the remaining acidity, then spreading cotton-grass seed over the area. Finally chopped heather is used to act as a binder for the ground (so-called 'brash spreading'); some of the seed will sprout. A new fence has been erected to enclose a large expanse of northwestern Kinder to prevent cattle from damaging the new vegetation.

Some interesting details of the work can be found on the National Trust website.

So far the difference is amazing. The area around The Edge trig pillar has always been a black morass (see this picture); now it is green with sprouting grass. I can only hope that the effort (at what must be massive cost) is worthwhile.

The helicopter dropping off lime

Bags of heather suspended under a larger chopper

Terraforming The Edge. This was once a black morass.

A green and pleasant land?

(*) Other hills have suffered from a sillier problem: the EU gave grants to landowners to cut channels off the hills to increase the agricultural viability of the land. Unfortunately the increased flow caused massive erosion, and the EU is now giving landowners grants to block off those channels...

Boots

2011-12-02T20:14:00.000Z

The new and old boots

I have had a boot-related problem. My old and (very) trusted Scarpa Trek 2 boots have finally given up the ghost. After 2,000 miles of glorious life, of tarmac, grass, mud and sand, the leather split and the boots went to the great shoeshop in the sky. Despite the rather large split in the leather, they still kept the water out when I waded into the North Sea at Cullercoats.

I went to see the friendly lads and lasses at Open Air in Cambridge to see if I could get another couple of pairs. It was then the problem occurred: Scarpa have replaced the Trek 2 boots with a new model, the New Trek GTX.

Yes, I walk lop-sided

My first question is why it is necessary to produce a new version of a boot every few years: in the last nine years I have got through about six pairs of the original Trek boots and three of the Trek 2. Are the new Trek boots so much better than the original ones? Indeed, I find it slightly hard to keep track of the different types of the Trek boot I have worn over the last ten years - I think the order is Trek, Trek GTX, Trek 2 and now, finally, the New Trek GTX.

The split

This will not matter for many people, but for me it is important. Because I have metal pins protruding from my ankle bone then I am limited in the number or types of boots I can wear - wellington boots are right out as they flex right where the metal is, causing pain on the bad side of intense. For this reason once I get a pair of boots that work for me then I tend to stick with them, buying a few pairs in advance. The injury also means that I hyper-supinate as I walk, causing the outside edge of the soles to wear out quickly.

So I have bought a pair of the newly-styled boots from Open Air; so far, after about one hundred miles, they seem fine. Unfortunately this does not mean that will continue to be the case, as I had to get rid of a good pair of Saloman boots after about eighty miles when the fabric started flexing in the wrong place.

The size of the split

All my previous Scarpa boots have been excellent; on my coastal walk I could just slip on a brand new pair and walk without having to break them in. On that trip they would only last 900 to 1,000 miles; the toll of walking day after day without cleaning limiting their life somewhat.

So another question: many people talk about pairs of boots lasting well over ten years; I can easily get through a pair in a couple of years. Is it normal for boots to split near the toes in this manner with enough (ab-)use, or is it a problem with the Treks? If it is a common problem, is there any way to prevent it happening?

Nine more walks on the website.

2011-11-30T20:39:00.001Z

In which I:

Re-walk the Limestone Way
Spend a couple of days on the Devon coast with Sencan
Go for a wander on Kinder
Spend a couple of days on the Angles Way

No.	Location	Distance (m)	Date Walked
941	The Monsal Trail from Bakewell	18.5	17/11/2011
940	Edale to Kinder, Brown Knoll, Rushup Edge and Mam Tor	17.7	16/11/2011
939	The Limestone Way: Castleton to the Waterloo Hotel and back	19.9	15/11/2011
938	SWCP: Exmouth to Starcross	15.6	08/11/2011
937	SWCP: Sidmouth to Exmouth	15.5	07/11/2011
936	Limestone Way: Matlock to the Waterloo Hotel	18.7	02/11/2011
935	Limestone Way: Rocester to Matlock	24.6	01/11/2011
934	Angles Way: Bungay to Oulton Broad	21.7	26/10/2011
933	Angles Way: Diss to Bungay	24.7	21/10/2011

I am probably going to take it easy in December; I just want to do a single walk to finish off the Angles Way and a couple more to re-walk the southern end of the Viking Way. In the meantime the demands of family and Christmas will undoubtedly get in the way.

I have some big plans for 2012, if only to avoid the Olympics.

Money

2011-11-23T10:17:00.001Z

The rather excellent XKCD has a brilliant depiction of the American and world economy at http://xkcd.com/980/

Double-click on the image and start exploring how the dollars add up to thousands, millions, billions and then finally trillions. I only wish that I fitted on the right-hand side of the page rather than the left...

The speed limit

2011-11-18T07:32:00.000Z

The coalition government recently announced a consultation into raising the speed limit on motorways to 80MPH, and some groups used the recent tragic crash on the M5 to decry the idea. This sickened me. The fact is we do not yet know if the speed limit had anything to do with the crash, and that if smoke was to blame - as looks possible - then other issues rather than the maximum speed limit were probably causal. It is best to wait for the report before using the accident for political ends.

I am agnostic about raising the motorway speed limit - what I would like to see is evidence. The 70MPH speed limit on UK roads was introduced in December 1965 as a temporary measure (there being no speed limit on motorways before then). Since 1965 the survivability of vehicles has increased massively, something that EuroNCAP and others needs a great deal of thanking for. Additionally, the braking systems of cars are also much better, as are the tyres and other parts of the system. In 1965 many cars struggled to reach 70MPH, yet alone 80, and I have yet to see any evidence that the 70MPH limit was based on any scientific evidence. It was essentially plucked out of thin air 45 years ago.

Earlier in the week we drove up the M5 from Exeter to the M42 on our way back from a stroll along the South West Coast Path. The southern part of the motorway was very quiet and 70 MPH seemed ridiculously slow once we got out of the bad weather. This was in a Honda Jazz, which is most certainly not a speedy car.

So perhaps it is time to reconsider the speed limits in this country. However, that should be looked at in all directions: lowering as well as raising. Some of the questions that would need answering are:

How much would raising the speed limit for cars improve the economy (an often-claimed benefit)?
Likewise, how much would lowering the speed limit affect the economy?
How many deaths and injuries would an increase in the speed limit be expected to cause?
What are the comparative accident rates in countries with a higher speed limit?
How often would a 80MPH limit on motorways be applicable? There are some parts of the motorway network that are near-permanently congested and have lower speed limits as a result.
What effect would a rise or decrease have on congestion?
What would be the environmental impact of increasing the speed limit?
How can technology improve speed-related safety and economy?
Can education (e.g. the fact that the speed limit is the maximum speed and not necessarily a safe speed) improve safety?

These questions (and more) are at the nub of the matter. If increasing the speed limit on motorways caused a gain to the British economy of £100 million per annum, would that be worth ten extra deaths? Likewise, if lowering the speed limit to 60MPH saved 30 lives per annum but cost £500 million, would that be acceptable?

Safety improvements on road, rail and air are already taken as part of a cost/benefit analysis that can count lives saved as part of the formula. I would want to see such analysis in the consultation. We need facts, not guesswork. Most of all we do not need people blindly using a tragedy for their own political ends.

Finally, it is best not to forget the tragedy itself. RIP those who died, and may lessons be learned.

Meditation

2011-11-13T10:11:00.001Z

An ex-colleague of mine posted the following on his Facebook account:

From Osho:
'There are only two types of people in the world: those who try to stuff their inner emptiness, and those very rare precious beings who try to see the inner emptiness. Those who try to stuff it remain empty, frustrated. They go on collecting garbage; their whole life is futile and fruitless. Only the other kind, the very precious people who try to look into their inner emptiness without any desire to stuff it, become meditators.
'Meditation is looking into your emptiness, welcoming it, enjoying it, being one with it, with no desire to fill it –there is no need, because it is already full. It looks empty because you don't have the right way of seeing it. You see it through the mind; that is the wrong way. If you put the mind aside and look into your emptiness, it has tremendous beauty, it is divine, it is overflowing with joy. Nothing else is needed.' (Osho, The Book Of Wisdom, Osho International, 2009)

To which my reaction was:

Then there are people who split society into 'good' and 'bad' according to random attributes. Coincidentally enough they always seem to place themselves firmly within the 'good' bracket.

I hate such behaviour (although I have no doubt that I succumb to it at times). It splits the world into 'them' and 'us', 'good' and 'bad', 'right' and 'wrong', when the truth almost always lies somewhere in between. Take the snippet above; I have no problem with the writer claiming that meditation is good; where he crosses the line is in implying that people who do not meditate are somehow lesser beings.

We can all play the game:

From David:
'There are only two types of people in the world: those who spend their lives indoors, and those very rare precious beings who experience the countryside. Those who remain indoors remain empty, frustrated. They go on collecting garbage; their whole life is futile and fruitless. Only the other kind, the very precious people who go and walk in the countryside become better people.
'Walking is about filling your emptiness with grand vistas and the sensation of the sun, wind and rain on your face. The mere act of walking fills your soul. Do not see the countryside through your eyes; that is the wrong way. Put your sight to one side and pause to experience the countryside, breathe it in; it has tremendous beauty, it is divine, it is overflowing with joy. Nothing else is needed.' (David Cotton, The Book Of Bull**it, Discjirm, 2011)

Okay that is a bad example, but I think you can see what I mean.

An artefact

2011-10-30T08:36:00.000Z

I love seeing strange things, scenes or items that grab my interest and get my mind going.

One such thing occurred as a result of a stroll along the Waveney on Wednesday. There had just been a heavy shower and a rainbow appeared across the river. I took a couple of quick snaps, but when I got home I discovered an artefact on the pictures:

Immediately before

The artefact

The artefact close-up

The rainbow's colour smear does not appear on the photo taken a few seconds before, or the one immediately after. As far as I can recall the sun was somewhere behind me. I cannot recall seeing it at the time, so I am guessing it is something to do with the photographic process.

So does anyone have any ideas what may have caused it?

(an aside: this blog post led to a debate between Sencan and myself about whether 'artifact' or 'artefect' is correct in UK English. It turns out that both are applicable, although 'artefact' is preferred. We are that sad).

Tape out

2011-10-25T21:41:00.003+01:00

My wife has been at Company X for about nine months now, and is undergoing a process that is known as 'tape out'. It is a time of extreme stress.

After a computer chip has been designed, the plans are sent off to a fabrication plant for samples to be made. These are then received back and tested before going to production. Unfortunately fabrication is a time-consuming process and production slots have to be booked many months' in advance. This all adds up to a wait of many months to see if your chip works; if it does not then you have to find the fault, fix it and go through the whole hellish process once again.

This means that it is important for the plans that are sent to the fabrication plant is as near perfect as possible. I am lucky; in software we can almost always do a change and see the effects of that change within a few minutes. In my wife's job it can take months and cost a small fortune.

I once was involved with a team of people working on a digital chip. The first ten samples came back from the fabrication plant on a Monday morning; no time was wasted in placing some into test boards. The news quickly spread: they were Dead On Arrival and would not even power up. I watched during the week as the engineers got increasingly frantic until, on the Thursday afternoon, they discovered the problem. The fault was not with the design but with the manufacture (*). I have rarely seen engineers more highly stressed.

So what is 'tape out'? Imagine a chip as being a bunch of lines representing the circuits. The final plans of a chip form a spaghetti-like mess of interconnecting lines called a 'mask'. In the early days of silicon chips the scale was so large that the mask could be altered by simply adding black sticky tape - you literally got the tape out. Although modern techniques have long outgrown this method the term is still used to represent the point at which the chip is finally designed.

Tape-out is an incredible stressful period for everyone involved. Any mistakes that are left after that stage may not be found for many months, delay the project by many more and cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of pounds. Incredibly intelligent people have left the industry because they cannot cope with the stress of tape-out and the wait for the chips to return. To compensate, tape-out is also a time of slap-up dinners for the development team and any hangers-on who might come along :-)

The construction of a chip is an immensely complex process; terms such as photolithography, finite barrier quantum wells and valence bands all add up to form a nearly-impenetrable barrier to comprehension. This is true for the design of digital chips; it is triply so for designers of analogue chips such as my wife. Digital chips are digital; they belong in the domain of ones and zeroes. Analogue chips are variable and utterly indeterminate; they are designed by magicians and witches.

So this note is a rather long-winded way to say to my wife how much I am so proud of her, how much I am amazed by what she does for a job. Not only is she a witch, but she is a damned good witch.

And not many husbands could get away with saying that...

(*) The silicon part of a chip sits in a piece of material (often plastic) called packaging that connects it to the outside world. The chips had been packaged 90 degrees out of orientation, meaning that the pins did not line up. It was someone else's problem and, even better, it was easy to fix...

16 new walks on my website...

2011-10-18T08:00:00.000+01:00

Sixteen new walks are on my website, in which I:

Start the Angles Way
Complete the Viking Way
Walk the Great Glen Way
Walk the Speyside Way
Walk Hadrian's Wall Path

No.	Location	Distance (m)	Date Walked
932	Hadrian's Wall Path: Newcastle to Wallsend and on to Cullercoats	17.2	27/09/2011
931	Hadrian's Wall Path: Chollerford to Newcastle	26.9	26/09/2011
930	Hadrian's Wall Path: Greenhead to Chollerford	20.2	25/09/2011
929	Hadrian's Wall Path: Carlisle to Greenhead	22.2	24/09/2011
928	Hadrian's Wall Path: Bowness-on-Solway to Carlisle	15.5	23/09/2011
927	Speyside Way: Cromdale to Aviemore	21.2	21/09/2011
926	Speyside Way: Cromdale to Aberlour	23.0	20/09/2011
925	Speyside Way: Buckie to Aberlour	26.2	19/09/2011
924	Great Glen Way: Drumnadrochit to Inverness	20.4	17/09/2011
923	Great Glen Way: Invermoriston to Drumnadrochit	15.0	16/09/2011
922	Great Glen Way: Laggan to Invermoriston	20.1	15/09/2011
921	Great Glen Way: Fort William to Laggan	23.8	14/09/2011
920	Viking Way: Barnetby le Wold to Barton Upon HUmber, and across the bridges	19.4	31/08/2011
919	Viking Way: Market Rasen to Tealby and Barnetby le Wold	21.9	30/08/2011
918	Viking Way: Donington on Bain to Tealby and back	22.0	29/08/2011
917	Angles Way: Thetford to Diss	23.6	19/08/2011

I'm intending to take things a little easier now that the winter months are approaching, but I'd still like to get another couple of hundred miles done before Christmas. If my lovely, gorgeous wife allows me, of course...

Happy 100th birthday...

2011-10-17T08:07:00.000+01:00

... to the Middlesbrough Transporter bridge.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-15080564

I have never been over it, but passed it during my coastal walk nine yeas ago. It is a fascinating structure (as is the other example in Britain at Newport in South Wales). It's good to know that the old gal has life in her still.

Dennis Ritchie, RIP

2011-10-13T17:30:00.002+01:00

With the media obsessing over the sad news of Steve Jobs's death, the passing of a man who had much more of an effect on the computer industry has gone virtually unnoticed.

You will certainly not have heard of Dennis Ritchie. His was not a household name, and he was not eulogised in the same way as Jobs. Yet he undoubtedly altered the world. I first heard of him when learning the programming language, 'C'. The bible on the earliest incarnations of the language was known colloquially as 'K&R'. As you may have guessed, the 'R' refers to Ritchie, who co-authored the book with fellow engineer Brian Kernighan.

Ritchie created the C programming language whilst working at Bell Labs in the early 1970s and, later, co-wrote the Unix operating system with Ken Thompson. C and its successor C++ are two of the most popular programming languages in use today, and Unix is used in a massive number of devices (even Apple's computers are based upon it).

Both inventions are far from flawless. They were created in the 1970s, when the computing world was very different. The C programming language is particularly flawed, and its extreme flexibility makes it difficult to write secure software. Yet that same flexibility led to its success, whilst many other technically superior languages have come and gone.

Someone once told me: "Anyone can program in Java, but C is for real men". If that is true, then Ritchie was a God.

The Register had a good obituary of the great man.

RIP Dennis Ritchie, and thank you.

I'm in trouble.

2011-10-09T17:40:00.000+01:00

My wife didn't appreciate my comments about her baking.

Yep, I'm definitely in trouble...

Nothing says fail like cliff fail...

2011-10-07T19:41:00.000+01:00

Just watch this video, showing the failure of a cliff in North Cornwall:

Absolutely spectacular.

Tyrannosaur

2011-10-07T15:23:00.002+01:00

Paddy Considine's new film, Tyrannosaur, is out today. It stars Peter Mullan (Children of Men, Harry Potter) and Olivia Colman (Peep Show) in a gritty story of violence, friendship and love.

Rotten tomatoes has given the film a rather stellar 91%. So if you have a spare hour and a half and want to see an intelligent film, then you could do worse. It has certainly has better reviews than Johnny English Reborn.

Why, you may ask, am I mentioning a film that I have not seen? There is an ulterior motive: my cousin, Dan Baker, co-wrote the music for the film. Sadly it does not appear to be showing on many screens, so I might be making a journey into London soon...

2011-09-30T18:34:00.002+01:00

I am not an adrenaline junkie. Some people I know thrive on adrenaline, but all it does to me is add a brown lining to my boxers. This does not stop me from admiring people who do mad things. For instance, take Paul's trip to the Lakes during the recent bad weather:

http://paulswildcamping.blogspot.com/2011/09/failed-wild-camp-on-great-mell-fell.html

The video at the end is amazing. I have erected my beloved Westwind in some fairly bad weather over the years, but nothing like that.

What a ba**ard

2011-09-21T06:57:00.000+01:00

I am used to hard walking. I am used to ankle-deep mud, paths that double as streams, slippery stones, barbed-wire fences and all the things that nature and landowners combine to throw at walkers.

Yesterday, however, I discovered one of, if not the, worse stretch of path I have ever encountered. To make matter worse, it was on a National Trail. The section of the Speyside Way between Cromdale and Ballindalloch is hideous, a real ba**ard of the highest order. There is no geographical reason for this: the ascents and descents are all easily manageable and the terrain offers some good, if not stellar, views down the river. But the landowners have forced the path between two narrow fences for mile after mile, with frequent ankle-biter stiles. So many stiles, in fact, that there are often three in a few yards, and I counted five within view from one location.

Because it has been forced between the fences, the ground between is frequently boggy and churned up. To ease this problem, boulders- not slabs - have been placed in the worst stretches. Unfortunately they are uneven and slippery, causing your feet to slip off and into ankle-deep water and mud. Again I am used to such stones, but not hundreds of yards of them.

There is something seriously wrong with this stretch of trail. My guidebook states that the double fences are to protect walkers from cattle; in which case I wonder what sort of genetically-enhanced super-monster walker-eating cattle exists in the fields?

To make matters worse, one particularly boggy stretch of double fence protected... a corn field.

It is not good enough.

Drumnadrochit to Inverness

2011-09-17T20:54:00.001+01:00

Another day, another walk. This 20-mile stroll featured a red squirrel and one of the more interesting people that I have ever met on a walk...

Well,another trail finished. I had a great night’s sleep in the hostel despitepartaking of one too many pints of Fraoch last night whilst chatting to someoneabout walking – he wanted me to have a whisky chaser and in the morning I wasglad I had abstained. As it was I felt a little sluggish as I drove to the carpark in Drumnadrochit so that I could start the day’s walk. To be honest I wasnot looking forward to it – a glance at the map shows that it did not promiseto be a classic day’s walk, and I am keen to get started on the next trail.Despite this I had little choice but to do it, so after nipping into the littlepost office to buy some snacks I headed off.

Initiallythe trail followed the main road as it skirted the northern side of the glen,passing a couple of Loch Ness visitor centres on the way – a nearby house had agreen Nessie on a trailer, presumably some form of float. Sencan rang, and wechatted as I walked. Soon the trail diverted off, claiming to pass above a houseat Temple Pier, and soon the path started climbing, soon entering an area ofwoodland. It was a path of many gates; indeed, it felt like there were moregates than I had seen on the rest of the trail so far. Gate followed gatefollowed gate as the path slowly rose.

Thena red squirrel ran onto the path about five yards in front of me. It stopped,stared at me for a moment, than leapt for the nearest tree (I seem to have thateffect on people as well as wild animals). Despite all the time I have spent onthe hills I have yet to see a red squirrel in the wild, and this few secondsmeant that whatever else happened today, I would be happy. Ecstatic, I walkedon. The path made a big zigzag up the hill, the steep gradient causing me topuff and sweat despite my lack of fleece. Mushrooms and toadstools abounded inthe woods alongside the path, making the floor a carpet of browns, reds andwhites.

Itwas a relief when the path joined a track and the gradient slackened. I had notexpected any views over Loch Ness today due to the forest, but there were a fewplaces where the tree cover was such that magnificent views presentedthemselves, with mist rising up off the water far below. Again this made mefeel exceptionally happy and I walked on up the slope.

Atone point a small path led off the trail, and I followed this to investigate.It led to a viewpoint where there was a little memorial to someone calledStuart; there was no way to know who he was or who had made the memorial, butthe setting was delightful. A little further on the trail left the woodland andheaded across some exquisite moorland, with a little croft at Corrryfoyness ashort distance away to the right. I love moorland walking, and I had not expectedto find any on this trip so it was a welcome bonus – so far today was turningout to be the best of the trip.

Alltoo soon the trail passed a large fence with a sign on it stating that the nextfew miles were a water catchment area, and that we were not to breathe near it.After this a winding path led through the woodland, approaching a sign that proclaimedthe highest point on the entire trail – a good touch, although the views werenon-existent due to the surrounding trees. The track then became straighter andbetter underfoot as it passed a car park hidden in the trees and eventuallyreach a road.

Thenext stretch of path was absolutely marvellous as it passed through an area oflow, shrubby bushes and empurpled heather. The colours were mesmirising and mysprits soared, especially when I started passing signs stating ‘campsite ahead’,‘tea’ and ‘toasties’. I was intrigued a cafe was not marked on the map – indeedthere were no buildings in the immediate area. Eventually I reached a littlejunction with welcoming signs and I followed these up a muddy path.

SoonI came to a booth where a man with long grey beard welcomed me. He somewhat grufflytold me that there was no food on, and took me to a damp table set literally inthe middle of nowhere. The tea cost two pounds fifty, which was rather a lot,but I felt like a rest so I sat down on a chair as he went away. A few chickenscame along to say hello as I sat admiring the views. The man returned ten minuteslater with the strangest tea apparatus I have seen in years – a large florid teapotthat seemed to be made of pewter, a tea strainer, a pot of milk covered by adoily weighted by coloured stones, and a plate containing a solitary shortbreadbiscuit.

Ihad become rather reticent about this ‘cafe’ during the wait, and this unusualarrangement did not put my mind at ease –for one thing it was the first time inyears that I have been served proper tea (i.e. not teabags) in a cafe. Yet as Idrunk I started to feel better; everything fitted in with the extremely rusticsetting, and I felt as though I had somehow been transported back a hundredyears to some remote crofter’s cottage, and that I was being offered tea fromtheir best service.

Aftera few minutes the man came back and sit opposite me. His name was Rory, and heruns the cafe and the adjoining campsite whilst looking after the acres ofsurrounding land. We chatted about the wildlife in the area, the harsh wintershe gets up here and even the RAF planes that frequently fly over. It was asurprisingly fulfilling chat, and I left feeling deliriously happy at havingmet a man who was truly of his place – this place.

Soonafterwards the trail joined a road and slowly started to climb once more. Good viewsunfolded on either side and I was tempted to cross the moorland to the nearby summitof An Leacainn; in the end I decided not to as there was still quite a way togo. The trail was following an old drover’s track, and had been well surfacedwith grit. A jogger ran past me, her black Labrador joyously bonding by herfeet, and I took her to be a sign that I was slowly approaching civilisationonce more.

Thetrail entered woodland once again, but this was nothing like the dark lines oftrees that had straddled the trail earlier. Instead they were widely spaced,with grass and heather between them; it seemed an altogether more natural typeof coniferous woodland, and I think it is a remnant of the old Scots Pineforests that once covered this area. It was pleasant to walk through, and Imunched on a couple of apples as I strode along.

Soonit became obvious that I was following an old track, with a low stone wall onmy right and a ditch and bank on the left, the area between narrowed by scrub.This skirted the edge of Dunain Hill before dropping me unceremoniously out ata small reservoir. Several couples were walking around, again making me feellike I was nearing civilisation. This was proved true around the next cornerwhen Inverness became visible far below.

Agood stretch of path took me steeply downhill towards an old hospital complex,the main buildings bearing magnificent turrets and seeming of their place.These were disused, but activity made it seem as though they are being convertedto some other purposes. Less appealing was a modern building, only a few yearsold – a sign stated that it was the most energy efficient building in Britain,but from a distance it looked hideous, with the specially-treated windowslooking like the metal sheeting that gets put over pub windows when they areclosed. In contrast the turrets of the old hospital building looked just right.

Thetrail tried its best to find a grassy route through a small housing estate,before passing through an underpass under a road. It passed a golf course onthe right and some playing fields on the left, both of which were busy with peopletrying out various sports, then climbed up some steps to reach the banks of theCaledonian Canal.

Itfelt strange to walk along this as it was followed in the wrong direction, i.e.back towards Loch Ness and not the sea. Soon I reached a swing bridge, but justas it was starting to open. I took some photographs as it swung open withremarkable speed, then hurried across the road before the traffic startedacross. After passing a sports complex where an athletics meet seemed to begoing on, I nipped into a cafe for an ice cream, praying that I would not upsetthe rain gods by doing so.

Whatfollowed was a pleasant walk across footbridges and along Ness Island, which isstrung out in the middle of the river. I had walked this route before as partof my coastwalk for some reason (it is not exactly coastal), and it was aspleasant as I recalled. Soon after passing a long suspension bridge over theriver, the trail headed off to the right and climbed up towards the castle.

Atfirst I could not find the finishing point and walked around the outside of thecastle. Which like Nottingham Castle is far too recent and brash to really becalled a castle. Eventually I found it right at the entrance, on the other sideof an information plaque; a stupidly blind mistake that I put down to nothaving wanted to finish what had been a superb day’s stroll.

Abus was due to leave for Drumnadrochit soon, so I hurried towards the busstation, stopping only to buy a guide to the Speyside Way in the tourist informationoffice. I reached the bus stop just five minutes before the bus was due toleave and so there was just time to buy a packet of crisps before boarding, ashame as the food in the cafe looked appetising.

TheGreat Glen Way had been a varied walk; I had walked the centre section before,and would feel no real wish to do it a third time. This last day’s walk,however, had been an unexpected gem of a stroll and one that I would feel veryhappy to repeat in the future.

Invermoriston to Drumnadrochit

2011-09-16T19:57:00.000+01:00

A short fifteen mile day today, following the Great Glen Way as it heads over the hills along the southern edge of Loch Ness.

Last night’s sleep was sadly interrupted by some French guests at the hostel talking animatedly downstairs for half an hour at about two in the morning; they did not stop even when asked to by the owners, and this interruption meant that I was very tired by the time that I awoke at about five thirty. I slumbered on for another half hour, then got up and went downstairs to get dressed for the day’s walk.

The forecast was for light rain early on, and so I was keen to get up and going. A brilliant red sky greeted me as I parked up in the car park beside the visitors’ centre in Drumnadcorchit, and I spent an age getting my kit together; in the end I only had five minutes to get across the road and wait for the seven o’clock bus. It was a surprisingly pleasant journey, with Loch Ness gleaming in the sunshine below as the road wound around it’s edge. The bus dropped me unceremoniously off in Invermoriston and I was slightly surprised to find the small shop in the village open, so I nipped in before heading off along the trail.

Today’s walk promised to have the most ascent of any day on the trail, and it started as it meant to go on – a long climb along a minor road that zigzagged into the forest. There were no views to speak of, so I phoned up Sencan and her dulcet tones helped me get the miles under my belt. It was quite a climb, and it was a relief when a track took me off to the right, the ascent slightly less steep and far easier to attack. Occasional glimpses of the loch far below enlivened the stroll, and after crossing a stream a long descent started towards the main road and Allt-sigh, where there is a youth hostel.

On the way the trail passed a little stone hut built into the hillside, its roof a stone slab. I had sheltered here nine years before and I was unaccountably delighted to see it again, as if it was an old friend that I had not seen for years. I went in and hunched down on the low bench, remembering how the rain had dripped down the entrance on my previous visit. The low roof persuaded me that a troglodyte’s life is not for me, but the shelter is a wonderfully simple feature.

After descending to Allt-sigh, a long climb started northeastwards along forestry tracks. The gradient was steep enough for me to attack without stopping and I was soon getting high up into the forest. Views started to become available through the trees, and a couple of these were grand indeed, and all the better for their scarcity. It is a shame that my biggest complaint the last time I did this stretch of trail – the lack of views over the loch – seemed not to have improved over the years.

A couple of zigzags took me higher up the hillside, some with more views. The increased altitude allowed me to get Radio 5, and tears started rolling down my cheeks as I heard about the miner who has died in the Welsh mining tragedy; it is silly, but sometimes being out in the wilds causes me to be a great deal less hard-hearted than I normally am and small bits of news of no real consequence to myself effect me considerably. I wished the remaining trapped miners well and walked on, feeling slightly angry at the presenter’s almost cheery desire for news on the disaster and at my own listening to it. The Chilean mining disaster showed the best of people, but in some ways it showed up the worst of the media - just look at the massive numbers of journalists the BBC sent to cover it.

The top of the second zigzag marked the high point both of the climb and of the day, and what followed was a long descent, initially along the track and then along a footpath. I remembered from my previous walk (which had been the week before the trail officially opened) that the stretch where the track turned into path was a steep drop for cyclists, but the area was much less barren now and seemed softer, as if nature had tamed it. Nearby was a relatively flat area of land and the remains of a fire, one of the few places I saw today where wild camping was possible due to the precipitous nature of the trail and hillside.

Views vanished once again as the path headed downhill, becoming a track before climbing uphill once more along another path, crossing a stream to reach a road beside a car park at Grotaig. What followed was a long and gently climb along the road; the views towards Loch Ness were blocked by the surrounding hillsides and there was little to commend this stretch; even the small patches of surrounding heathland were spoilt by the weather, which was becoming grimmer by the minute. One positive is that there are several stretches of path paralleling the road, although this was not busy enough to be classed as dangerous.

It was a relief when I reached the point where the trail dove off to the left, leaving the road behind. This particular piece of woodland was dark and gloomy and the descent seemed to last forever on feet that had become tired; in particular, a little problem I have been having recently with my left foot had come back with a vengeance. The gradient eventually slackened out and a track was joined; this paralleled the Rive Coiltie before reaching the main road on the outskirts of Lewiston.

From there it was simply a case of following the main road back to the car park in Drumnadrochit, where I arrived just five minutes before a shower started. The forecast for tomorrow looks fairly miserable and Sunday is worse; for this reason I may give myself a day off on Sunday and go around Inverness and try and work out the best way to do the Speyside Way, the next trail on my list. The day off will also give me extra time to drive to either Buckie or Aviemore, depending on where I want to start. Public transport on the Speyside Way looks terrible; it might have been better to have chosen to backpack it.

After having had a long shower and generally mimbling about, it was still well before three. The threatened rain had not started in earnest and so I decided to visit Urquhart Castle, which I had driven past on many occasions and never gone into. There seems to be a mythology around the castle (perhaps due to Sir Walter Scott), but I was less than impressed when I got there. True, its setting on the banks of Loch Ness is spectacular, but I have been around far more interesting castles in Scotland, yet alone Britain. One thing to note is the lovely stone: the reddish sandstone seemed to glow on the few seconds that the sun deemed to peep out of the clouds. Still, it whiled away a couple of hours as I walked amongst throngs of Chinese visitors, several of whom seemed to mistake me for David Bailey.

Laggan to Invermoriston

2011-09-15T20:36:00.001+01:00

Another day, another walk along the Great Glen Way, and possibly another regretful Fraoch-fuelled posting... For those who love stats, today's walk was just a smidegen over twenty miles.

Iawoke early this morning and got changed into my walking clothes ready for thedrive to Invermoriston. This was long, and took longer than expected due to thedark and a surprising amount of fog. The latter was somewhat welcome, however,because it meant that the fairly persistent drizzle of yesterday was replacedonce the fog lifted with wall to wall sunshine. There was plenty of time for meto potter about at the car park in Invermoriston before my bus at twenty pastseven, although two busses came at once and initially I got on the wrong one.

Thebus dropped me off at the little layby near the Glen Nevis Youth Hostel justbefore eight, and I was soon striding off down the trail. Initially this didnot see much of the water as it headed high above the canal off to the left;the path underfoot was good, the gravel crunching. Soon the main road wascrossed, and the path followed a road before joining the old railway line tofort Augustus. The platforms here were remarkably large for what was a smallbranch line, and some very large trees were growing out of them; the parts ofconcrete faces devoid of vegetation seemed to be in a good state, however.

Soonthe trail dropped off the old railway line and headed below it, following thecourse of an old military road. Some works appeared to be going on the oldrailway line, and a sign later said that investigation works were being down tosee if the line could be made into a Sustrans cycle path. A little later on theold military road climbed steeply before falling once more, passing the ratherornate portal of a tunnel.

Thetrail did nit stay on the military road for long afterwards, and it crossed alarge stream using the old railway bridge, Some of the views across Loch Oichhad been superb when the surrounding vegetation had allowed them, but from nowon the views down the loch were exquisite. Two Scotsmen – the first I had metdoing the trail – had camped overnight at what must be one of the best spots inScotland, the loch stretching away behind them. It was a magic view, and Istrolled out onto the water as deep as I dared to take some photos.

Soonafterwards I got to the Aberchalader Bride that carries the A82 over the canaland the river. What interested me most, however, was the superb Oich bridge.Although this initially looks like a suspension brudge, it is actually a doublecantilever, each half of the bridge supporting its own weight so that thecables in the middle are far fewer than those nearer the towers. I diverted offthe trail to study it, took some photos and then rejoined the trail.

Initiallythis followed the eastern bank of the canal; a yacht motored past me and Iturned around to watch as the swing bridge opened for it to pass through. Thetrail changed over to the western bank at Cullochy Lock, and what followed wasa fairly uninteresting four mile walk into Fort Augustus, the only items ofinterest being the few boats that passed and the picturesque Kyltra Lock.

Iwas in need of a rest by the time I reached Fort Augustus, and I nipped intothe Lock inn to have a break. I ended up having a couple of pints of Belhavenand a wonderful meal of Haggis starter and a Beef lasagne main; I really needthe food, as my energy levels had been rather low after my McDonalds lastnight. The two pints rather went to my head, and I set off on looser legs,nipping into the tourist information centre in the town to see it chocablocwith Nessie souvenirs.

Alooping climb up and down a road took me back towards the main road, afterwhich a steep path headed uphill to meet a forestry track. This was followedfor well over six miles; there were not too many nasty gradients and the walkwas enjoyable enough, with occasional grand views over Loch Ness where thetrees had been cleared. At other times, however, it was more of a drag and itas a relief when the track started to curve inland along Glen Moriston, as itmeant that Invermoriston was just a short distance away.

Andthen came the words which no walker wants to see – ‘footpath diversion’. A signstated that due to fallen branches the direct path down to Invermoriston wasclosed and that the indirect diversion would add two miles onto the day. I wasnot too dismayed by this, but sadly the diversion was along a track that headeddown through a gloomy valley that felt like it never saw the sun. It was afairly dispiriting stroll, and it was a surprising relief when it dropped meout onto a track at the bottom.

Thisrose and fell slightly, but was a better stroll than the track through theforest had been. I soon reached the place where the direct route joined thetrack and it was clear to see why it had been closed – the path was obliteratedby fallen trees. I was thankful that for once I had obeyed the diversion signinstead of continuing on.

Aworthwhile diversion at Invermoriston is to go down to see Telford’s oldbridge, which seems to spring out of the craggy riverbed. The path down to it was abit rough, but the views down the craggy river were superb; the new bridge(built in 1833) dominates the valley, but Telford’s structure seems to bealmost part of the living rock, working in harmony with nature rather thanoverpowering it.

Mycar was only a few yards away, and I was soon driving to my nigght’s bed at theLoch Ness Backpackers in Lewiston. I had stayed here ten years ago and hadreally enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to a good night. After a shower Iwant for a walk to see where the bus stop was for the morning, then went back.The hostel was now fairly full, and the room I was in had been invaded byseverl other Great Glen walkers. They had set off on Monday from For William,and had walked from Fort Augustus today; one of the men’s feet was severelyblistered; so much so that I worry about his ability to do his final daytomorrow.

Thehostel has changed a little since I last stayed here in 2002 – it is bigger andnow serves food – and drink, thank God – as a standard each night. Yet the samefriendliness that I saw on my last trip is still here, and the staff are verywelcoming. These independent hostels are so much better than the authoritarianYHA ones...

Fort William to Laggan

2011-09-14T21:06:00.000+01:00

I am sitting in a rather comfy seat in a hostel in Fort William, looking back at a good (if rather wet) 23-mile walk along the Great Glen Way. I've just finished typing up a first draft of my notes, and thought that I would post them here for your amusement. Given that this was written after a couple of pints of seventy shilling and a whisky chaser, it might be absolute tosh...

Just over ten years ago I walked the middle two-thirds ofthe Great Glen Way as part of my rather altered plans to walk from fort Williamto Cape Wrath. That journey was slightly more adventurous than I like, and Ihave always wanted to complete the top and bottom segments of the trail. Itherefore set off from Cambridge yesterday in what turned out to be a ten-hourdrive to Fort William. The Bank House Lodge was full, so I travelled a coupleof miles out of the town to a rather good hostel in Banavie, had dinner at theLochy Inn and then went to bed, dead tired.

I awoke early in the morning but waited until after seven before heading off. Sun had been streaming through the hostel’swindow when I set off, but by the time I parked up in the long-stay car park(1.50 per hour) by the station in Fort William it had started drizzling, theonly upside being a rather lovely rainbow over Loch Eil. Because it was only alight drizzle, I headed off wit just my black fleece on as I walked to thestart of the trail, marked by a stone monument on the grass in the old fort.

The rain started to get heavier as I took photos of the startpoint and itseemed like a good idea to head off. Unfortunately the downpour increased, andI was soon hiding under a petrol station canopy as I got my coat on. I thenmade my one and only mistake of the day – I took the wrong path out of the town,following a road that I had walked along on a previous visit instead of a path –I soon rejoined the path proper at a shinty pitch.

Shortly after this the path crossed the River Nevis and soon afterwards therewas a split in the paths; the main path was guarded by warning of floods, andthe other a wet-weather alternative. Despite the rain I chose the former andwas soon heading through a delightful area of sparse woodland. I soon cameacross the floods – two footbridges that were so close to the water that theplanks sploshed down into it as I crossed. Crimson carriages soon becamevisible off to the right, above which was some smoke – I guess a steamlocomotive getting ready for a journey.

Both the path and the weather had dried out by the time the Soldier’s Brudgecame into view – this wooden structure spans the River Lochy beside a rathermore substantial railway bridge, and it took me safely across the water to aroad on the other side. There is not much to be said about the next mile or soof the walk, which took me along roads and past the start of Loch Linnhe. Twoboats were heading towards land, and the summit of Ben Nevis behind me had itshead firmly in the clouds.

This path led me onto the main objective off the trail – the Caledonian Canal.I stopped to take a few photos of the loch and then headed off. After passing theLochy, where I ate last night, I approached the two swing bridges that take therailway and the main road to Mallaig over the canal, an then reached Neptune’sStaircase. This set of locks is really quite special – they are far broaderthan most locks in this country (having been designed to take sea-going ships)and stride imperiously up the hillside. It is a magnificent sight, although itis a shame that the best views can only be obtained from the air.

Sadly the top of the incline was the start of what was a fairly ordinary sixmile stroll along the towpath of the Caledonian Canal. Some of the views overtowards the hills to the left were superb, but the ones down towards the riverfar below were sadly blocked by trees, with only silvery glints visible. Thesun had come out, however, meaning that I was soon roasting in both my fleeceand coat. I did not bother to drop down to examine either of the two aqueductson the route, but I was impressed by the superb iron swing bridge at Moy. Thisis the only non-automated bridge on the canal, and as it is in two halves the operatorhas to go across the canal in a boat to open the other side! An information boardbeside the bridge told of how a captain of a ship had been fined when he hadgone through the bridge without it being officially opened – one can onlyassume he opened it himself.

I was thankful when the canal took me out to the lock and swing bridge atGairlochy. Two men were lifting their canoes out of the water at the bottom ofthe lock,a nd I met up with one of them at the swing bridge that carries themain road over the river. They were both rowing the canal, and were planning totake four days in the process – the same time it would take me to walk it. Ihad heard rumours of a cafe here, but I knew that I was pressed for time if Iwas going to catch the 16.06 bus and so pressed on.

Initially the path followed the road, but soon it was heading up above theroad, before diverting down to cross the road and on towards the shoreline.What followed was the best bit of the trail I saw all day – a rollercoaster ofa path that granted superb views across the length of Loch Lochy. The smallpepperpot whitewashed lighthouse was visible behind, guiding boats into thelock, and ahead the clouds threatened more rain. For the moment, however, I wasin heaven as I strolled confidently along. Sadly it had to end, and it did soas the trail dumped me unceremoniously out onto a road.

This took me on towards Achnacarry, where I knew that there was a museumdedicated to the Clan Cameron that I would not have minded visiting. Sadly asign stated that this did not open for another hour, and instead I strode onalong the road, which passed through a area with a very colourful collection ofbroad-leaved trees; yellows, greens and vivid reds all being visible. The roadsoon led onto a track at Clunes, which passed a forest school before headingon.

Last time I walked this way – over ten years ago – I had done so in the companyof an American who, instead of a rucksack, was carrying a large roll-bag ineach hand. It looked terribly uncomfortable, but his insistence on asking methe Latin name of each tree we passed proved incredibly grating. I soonoverhauled a couple walking in the same direction, and we walked together forthe rest of the day. They were from Belgium and annoyingly young, but I couldforgive them that as they turned out to be absolutely A1 company. We chatted aswe walked along, admiring the occasional views across the loch when gaps in thetrees allowed them, and also the rushing water that burst down the hillsides.

They had started off from Fort William on Tuesday, and therefore had caught theworst of yesterday’s rain. A kind landlady had dried all their clothes afterthey realised that their rucksack covers were not quite as waterproof as theyshould have been. The miles just flew by in their company, which was a goodthing as the track itself was far from interesting. Gaps in the trees offered occasionaltantalising glimpses over the loch below, but these were few and far between.Instead we chatted away – perhaps I should try doing less solo walking infuture...

The rain kept on coming and going; it was never particularly hard and onlyproved annoying. Eventually civilisation intruded in the form of wooden holidayhuts, and I had t explain to the Belgians what a cattle grid is! It issurprising the way that something that can seem ever-present and obvious can beunusual for someone with even slightly different life experiences. I left thembehind at Laggan Locks and walked on, but they caught me up as I left the trailand joined the main road.

They were spending the night at the Great Glen Hostel just down the road, butmy stopping place was a bus stop, which, according to the timetable, was 150metres north of the hostel beside a postbox. This seemed a rather specificlocation and more like instructions from a spy novel than a bus stop. Howeverthere was a postbox at the right place, next to a muddy layby. There was nosign of a bus stop, however, and so I was nervous right until the bus pulled upbeside me. The journey back was enlivened by part of the ceiling falling offand hitting a passenger; fortunately she was not injured, but it looked like apainful hit. I must remember not to sit under large signs in the front of acoach...

Once back in Fort William, I walked the short stretch of path that I had missedoff yesterday, then headed off to the nearby McDonalds. I am not really a fanof their food, but sometimes I have a creeping desire for it. It had been agood, long day’s walk, and one that had been enlivened by some good company.

Ten years ago

2011-09-11T12:49:00.000+01:00

Many people are writing about the hideous events of ten years ago today.

I feel slightly voyeuristic in writing this. After all, no-one I knew died during the attacks, and I don't even know anyone who was in New York at the time. It has had no immediate effect on me, my friends or my family. How can any words of mine even begin to acknowledge the pain people must feel? I can only hope that this posting is suitably elegiac.

Yet I feel I must write down my memories before they fade further. I was at work at Pace in Cambridge ten years ago, working downstairs in my cubicle. At the time I was frequently on Mono, a text-based bulletin board, and a message came through to everyone on the system: "A plane has crashed in New York."

Soon I was flicking through the news channels to see pictures of smoke pouring out of a skyscraper. Elsewhere in the building we had a demo area (which I dubbed a 'Wow!" room) that had a series of TVs in it. Several of us went into the room to watch the devastation, and we were watching as the second plane went in.

More people joined us, our attention focussing on the TVs. We watched as the broadcasters, as dumbstruck as us, wondered if it could still be an accident, as if they could not admit that anyone could deliberately do such a hideous act. We watched as the first tower fell, a cloud of dust rising up and expanding outwards. I refused to admit it and muttered some asinine comment like :"It must still be there!" even as the dust cloud lowered to reveal just one smoking tower.

Then the second tower went; I was no longer dumbstruck and just swore loudly and verbosely. Then the news came through about the Pentagon, and Shanksville, and reports of other hijacked airliners that thankfully proved to be false. So many images from that day stick in my memory, from the impact of the second plane to the ghost-like wraiths covered in dust from the collapsed buildings. One in particular sticks in my mind: a suited man sitting on a kerb, his briefcase open and his head in his hands. The world around him was concrete grey.

The next day proved hard for me. All the staff were called out at eleven the next morning for three minutes' silence. For some reason the management asked me to announce and time the silence. I waited for the last stragglers to come through the door, said a few words and timed the silence. Not a single head was raised and I concentrated on my watch as the seconds passed, preferring that to thinking of the horrid events.

Then it was over. My voice broke as I said, "That's it. Thankyou everyone." and people started shuffling back indoors. I felt honoured to have been asked to time the silence, but it harrowed me.

To everyone who died in the attacks; we will remember you. To those who lost someone they loved: I hope that the years have helped blunt some of the pain that you feel. To the brave men who went into the buildings and who lost their lives trying to help others: God bless you.

And to the people who did the act, to those who supported them, and to the conspiracy theorists who slander the dead: we will win. Not by bullets, not by force, but by thought. We are right, you are wrong. You believe in fear and hate; we believe in love and understanding.

You are weak. We are strong.

Google do it again...

2011-09-05T09:45:00.000+01:00

As you probably know, Google have got into the habit of adding doodles onto the front page of their website to mark special anniversaries.

A full list of the doodles can be seen on their website. In particular, note the brilliant playable game of Pac-man. These doodles vary from country to country, and it is fascinating to see the doodles that are chosen for different countries.

Today they have excelled themselves. To mark what would have been Freddie Mercury's sixty-fifth birthday, they have gone for an all-out multimedia extravaganza. Go to google.co.uk and click on the 'play' icon within the golden medallion. A very suitable tribute to a brilliant singer.

Well done, Google.

Wikileaks

2011-09-03T21:30:00.000+01:00

I have written about the WikiLeaks farrago before, but recent developments have made the story much more serious, and have cast serious questions on the behaviour of the protagonists.

Last year WikiLeaks got hold of 250,000 US Diplomatic cables that had been sent between US Embassies and the State Department. Several newspapers (the Guardian in Britain and the NYT in the US amongst others) did a deal with Assange and WikiLeaks to publish the data. They also said that they would redact any data that would prove dangerous to individuals before publication. Since then we have had a trickle of information coming out from these newspapers.

Much of this information has been fairly uninteresting. However a great deal of it involves third world or dictatorial regimes, and the redaction was necessary to protect people mentioned in the cables.

However, because of a series of stupid actions, the full unredacted cables are out in the public domain. Now anybody can read the full detail of the cables. And that can only be a really bad thing.

(A note: below I am using the term 'password' when it should really be 'encryption key' or 'passphrase'. I have done this to make it more readable to the layman).

As far as I can tell from various good sources, the following occurred:

Assange and the newspapers came to a deal to publish the cables.
The papers wanted to publish the data in redacted form; Assange reportedly did not like this.
Assange encrypted the data and placed it onto an obscure ('hidden') area of a server. As it happens, this was not very hidden.
He met with the Guardian journalists. He handed them most of the password on a piece of paper and told them the rest of it verbally.
The Guardian journalists decrypted the data, redacted pieces and started publishing.
The original file was not removed from the WikiLeaks server.
Meanwhile, a split occurred in the WikiLeaks organisation. Someone took a copy of all the WikiLeaks data - including the 'hidden' file - and published it on servers belonging to their new rival organisation. People downloaded all the data, including the hidden file.
Two Guardian journalists published a book that included the 'real' password of the file. They claim that they had been assured that WikiLeaks would remove the file once they had downloaded it.
The Guardian and Assange had a falling-out after they investigated the claims of rape against him.
It takes a few months, but someone eventually realised that the password given in the book is the *real* password and managed to find and decrypt the file.

The password was, apparently, based on the following: 'ACollectionOfHistorySince_1966_ToThe_PresentDay#'. Assange also verbally instructed the journalists to add the word 'Diplomatic' before the word 'History', the idea being (wrongly) that the information on the piece of paper would be worthless without the verbally-given modifier word.

It was an atrocious password to be used in something of such importance (although not as bad as Rebekah Wade's hilariously poor password for her News International email account). True, Assange's password is long, but length does not equate to security. It is a spectacularly poor choice given Assange's paranoia about security - I would hope that his 'insurance' file has a better-conceived and executed password.

Ordinarily I would not have published the password in this posting myself, but given that it is available in a printed book and is on many other websites, I see little harm.

Even if the Guardian journalists had changed the password, the other information given in the book would give someone attempting to crack Assange's passwords an idea about how he generated them. For instance, it is clear that he thinks security is added by writing down a partial password then having a word that can be added to complete it - indeed, a word that makes sense in the context of the whole password. Such knowledge can help people work out what any particular password might be, and it was exceptionally stupid - nay, gormless - to put any such information in the public domain.

There is so much fail in this:

WikiLeaks should not have relied on 'hiding' the data on a server.
WikiLeaks should have kept the data much more secure. Once the Guardian had a copy of the data, it should have been removed from the hidden location.
WikiLeaks should have used a more secure password (there are plenty of programs to pseudo-randomly generate passwords.
The Guardian journalists should never, ever have published the real password in any public form.
The Guardian journalists should have checked that the data had been removed.
The Guardian and/or WikiLeaks should have realised that the password was publicly available and made attempts to mitigate the problem.

Strangely, the Guardian's take on this is that it is all WikiLeaks' and Assange's fault. I would agree with this, except for the mind-numbingly stupid behaviour of their journalists in publishing the actual password. Why was this necessary? Why not just say that Assange gave them a printed password and told them verbally how to alter it? Is the actual password of much interest to the reader? (of course, in the end it was as the file was still extant).

Assange seems to think of himself as a professional, but he has shown himself (and WikiLeaks) to be rank amateurs who evidently know little about security or the underlying technology. The Guardian journalists are meant to be professional, but have shown themselves to be dangerous amateurs.

WikiLeaks have now released the full unredacted form of the cables, which, it is suggested, Assange wanted to do in the first place. They can do this without being *blamed* for the data being made public, as they are blaming the Guardian for that. And the Guardian can blame WikiLeaks. Rather convenient, really...

People may well suffer or die because of this. There should be a special circle of hell reserved for people capable of such negligence.

Scale

2011-08-28T16:04:00.000+01:00

Sencan pointed the following webpage out to me this morning:
http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/

I have seen several versions of this sort of thing before, but I have never seen such an impressively interactive version. Seeing the scale of man in the middle gives a good idea of our insignificant view on the universe, both to the micro and the macro.

There is so much remaining to be learnt at both ends of the scale - the science behind subatomic particles is still hotly debated, and we are still finding new frontiers in our knowledge of the wider universe.

It is awe-inspiring. I want to be a scientist.

A strange critter.

2011-08-22T12:00:00.000+01:00

I came across the following strange critter on the road near Diss on Friday. I shepherded it out of the range of tyre tracks before taking some photographs. It was very small - for scale, the pebbles are in the road surface.

I think that it may be a Common Lizard, possibly a juvenile due to its colouring and size. I'd love it to have been the much rarer Sand Lizard, but that looks unlikely.

Sometimes I wish that I knew more about the flora and fauna that surrounds me as I walk...

The money shot

2011-08-20T12:00:00.000+01:00

My sister and her husband run a classic tractor-spares company up in Staffordshire. They were down to visit earlier this week, and on Monday I took them and their two children to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford to have a look around.

Considering the museum is about planes (admittedly with a few tanks thrown in for good measure), Duxford proved entertaining not only for the adults, but also for a boy in his early teens and his younger sister. There was enough for them to see and do as the adults went round looking at things, at least until they started to get tired.

What amused me was the way my sister and brother-in-law went off to examine almost every tractor they could see; they could even identify the models them from a distance. There is a lot to be said for being an expert, even in seemingly esoteric subjects.

Then, at the end of a long day, we saw a Spitfire having an engine test. What is more, a Fergie tractor was being used to tow the plane to and from the hanger.

My sister and her husband were in heaven. Two classics - the Ferguson tractor and the Spitfire - together. They did not know where to look.

The first vehicle I ever drove was a Fergie, and my parents have a photograph on their wall of me sitting behind the wheel, my feet barely long enough to reach the pedals. So I too was slightly awestruck.

Naturally enough, lots of photos were taken.I have seen lots of Spitfires in the air, and have even seen a large formation of them flying overhead whilst they were on their way to an airshow in Duxford. Yet for some reason this scene moved me - perhaps because it showed an unsung part of the Spitfire's wartime existence. We tend to think of them soaring gracefully through the air, the magical noise of the Merlin engine penetrating our bones. Yet those flights would never have happened without the thousands of men and women who did mundane but vital tasks on the ground.

At first the above picture might be seen as a classic wartime photo - a Spitfire and a Fergie with a yellow bonnet (apparently airfield vehicles were painted in such a way so that planes flying overhead could see when they were blocking the runway). Yet it is false - the first Fergie was produced after the war in 1946, and the Spitfire in the picture - known as the Grace Spitfire - was originally a single-seater. Still, it is a wonderfully evocative picture.

Three new walks on my website.

2011-08-19T12:00:00.001+01:00

In which I complete the Hereward Way and do my longest ever day walk.

916	Hereward Way: Brandon to Harling Road and on to Wymondham	31.5	12/08/2011
915	Hereward Way: Ely to Brandon	23.1	09/08/2011
914	Hereward Way: March to Ely	27.0	05/08/2011

Events have prevented me from getting away to Scotland as planned, so I think I may start next on the Angles Way east from Thetford (hopefully on Friday) or the East Anglian Stour Valley Path.

A little light relief.

2011-08-18T05:55:00.000+01:00

Some people are far too good at photo manipulation. Have a look at the animal crossbreed website.

My favourites are #52 the Meercats and #3 Cabbit.

A bug in Google search?

2011-08-17T22:18:00.000+01:00

I think I have just found a (small) bug in Google search. Unfortunately this explanation may get a little technical for non-programmers, but I will try to explain the problem as simply as I can.

I was looking through some logs for my website and I found that someone had entered a search term akin to 'britishwalks walk 906'. The search led to this search query.

As you can see, Google search displayed the first couple of lines of each entry; in the case of my website the first hit contained the following: '7 Jan 2011 – Walk #906:'

This is strange as the walk was actually walked on the 1st of July. This date is present in my webpage as 01/07/2011. The search engine is obviously taking the date in UK format (day/month/year, or 01/07/2011) and converting it into American format (month/day/year, or 07/01/2011), before displaying the month in three-letter textual form ('Jan' instead of 01).

The previous walk was walked on the 30th of June, and that displays correctly within Google search. This means that Google must perform some data checking; as 30 is greater than the possible number of months (12) it is invalid in the US date format and therefore they display it in the more common UK format. This fault is present on every webpage I have checked where the date component is less than 12.

I have had a quick (but hardly exhaustive) ponder and cannot think of any way my pages could be creating this problem. Likewise, I cannot think of a way of setting your locale in an HTML page to let them know the format of items like dates. I could use a locale-neutral format such as yyyy-mm-dd (e.g. 2011-08-17), but that is far less obvious to my readers, the vast majority of whom are in the UK.

Perhaps if the domain is a 'uk' one or the domain is registered in the UK Google could default to UK date format; this would be much more work for them and would still be prone to potential errors. It may be far simpler for them not to parse the displayed date to include a month name, and instead just to display it as it appears in the webpage.

This is hardly a major bug or feature, but nonetheless is interesting. Why do they parse a plain-text date within a webpage and convert it to another format? Do they do this for any other date on the page, and if so are these conversions prone to similar errors?

I have done a quick search (with Google, naturally...) and cannot see this reported anywhere else. This means that the bug may only just been created, or a transient feature.

It should also be noted that Google's results are far more helpful than Bing's, which does not even include the obvious webpage in their results.

Community versus society

2011-08-11T09:10:00.020+01:00

Whilst out walking on Tuesday, I listened to Radio 5. One thing I noticed: In what must have been ten hours of coverage, 'society' was only mentioned twice: once by a caller in the phone-in show at twenty past nine, and another, in a negative context, in the early afternoon. In contrast, 'community' seemed to be on everybody's lips.

Of course there is a significant overlap between the meaning of the two words, but the differences are important. When someone mentions 'community' without context, I wonder which community: a geographical one, a religious one, an ethnic one, a cultural one, or one based on sexual orientation? When someone says that there will be people on the streets protecting their community, is it everyone in the community or a small subset?

On a large scale 'community' is divisive: I cannot be a member of the gay, Islamic, Christian or Hindi communities. By saying you are a member of any specific community then you are by definition excluding those outside the community.

Yet we are all part of society.

Am I the only one who thinks that this focus on 'community' over 'society' with respect to the rioting is rather worrying?

Perhaps Thatcher was right, and the media now think that 'there is no such thing as society'.

This brings me onto another bugbear of mine: people who use Thatcher's infamous quote should always mention the context in which she said it. As it happens, these riots makes her words seem all the more applicable:

There is no such thing as society. There is living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate.

In other words, if we want a good society then we should help ourselves and those less fortunate than ourselves. Perhaps the rioters and looters (especially those employed as teaching assistants) should consider this.

Security

2011-08-10T20:13:00.001+01:00

It is often said in computer circles that users are the most frequent cause of system insecurity. The recent phone hacking scandal is a classic example: users not changing their default PINs.

Likewise, what has recently become famous as 'blagging' has long been known known in computer circles as 'social engineering'; in a famous case the uber-hacker Kevn Mitnick phoned up a military base pretending to be the harassed aide of a senior officer who had forgotten his password; a fellow hacker had discovered the aide's name on a piece of paper found in a dumpster. The result: Mitnick got told the password and could access the military network.

Security measures are a hassle for users, and therefore users hate security measures.

It is therefore with interest that I see that the Government's laudable aims to improve security on mobile devices has been waylaid by Sellotape.

Four more walks on my website

2011-08-04T18:29:00.000+01:00

As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a walker returneth to his walks.

Four more walks are up on my website; all are repeats of walks that I did many years ago.

No.	Location	Distance (m)	Date Walked
913	Hereward Way: Peterborough to March	20.6	01/08/2011
912	Hereward Way: Stamford to Peterborough	18.4	26/07/2011
911	Hereward Way: Oakham to Stamford	16.5	25/07/2011
910	Waterbeach to Newmarket via the Devil's Dyke	19.6	22/07/2011

My plans for the next few weeks are to complete the Viking and Hereward Ways, and to go to Scotland to do the Great Glen and Speyside trails. Of course, like most plans the reality will invariably be very different...

Acronyms

2011-08-03T21:27:00.000+01:00

I see acronyms everywhere. Give me three or four random letters and my mind will attempt to squash and cajole them into some form of sense.

Perhaps this is a result of having spent years working in the computer industry; not only do we have the well-known acronyms (RAM, ROM, PC, HTML, PNG, KB, MB, MOS) but also a massive array of lesser-known ones (CISC, RISC, HAL, 3NF, ZIF and hundreds more). The language of computers is filled with thousands of words that seem to be almost designed to confuse the outsider.

My all-time favourite was the unpronounceable PCMCIA from the nineties; officially this stood for 'Personal Computer Memory Card International Association' but it was known to us all as 'People Can't Memorise Computer Industry Acronyms'.

I went for a drive today, and on the way I mindlessly scanned the car numberplates in front of me. I saw a BOC (British Oxygen Company), an ARM (Advanced Risc Machine) and an LLD (Late-Life Depression or Low Level Document).

I cannot help it; if something does not form a word then my mind tries to convert it into one. Which in some ways is natural human behaviour - our minds are superb at pattern recognition. Which leads to another problem: acronyms can be very industry-specific and the same letters can mean very different things in different contexts - see a doctor about an STD and he will react very differently to a mathematician (STatistial Deviation) or a telecoms engineer (Subscriber Trunk Dialling). How long will it be before something bad happens because of acronym confusion?

It already happens in computing - kilobyte (KB) and kilobit (Kb) are pronounced the same and are used to represent memory sizes, but have very different values. Fortunately most people learn to use the long-form rather than the acronym when pronouncing them.

I wonder if I am alone in this rather strange habit - does anyone else try to de-acronymise(*) random letters?

(*) Or for that matter, to verbise nouns?

Presents

2011-08-02T20:08:00.001+01:00

After having spent a not inconsiderable sum on a birthday present for Sencan, I now realise that I could have saved her all the money and just bought a small box that gave her instructions by beeping at her occasionally.

She has just spent ten minutes sitting in the corner of the lounge playing with her new watch.

"It's a computer!" she screamed in delight. "It's even got an 'Enter' button'.

I'm just waiting for her to install Linux onto it. She must be one of the geekiest women in the country.

The rule of law

2011-07-17T23:16:00.000+01:00

I am getting more than a little concerned with the way much of the media is gunning for News International (NI).

The hypocrisy of Labour on this subject is something to behold. A couple of years ago several people working directly under Gordon Brown, and even in his office were caught attempting to spread lies about David Cameron when he was leader of the opposition.

Back then we got told that Gordon Brown had no idea what these - if I may be so bold - evil people were doing, and that he was shocked to hear about it. Yet apparently Coulson must have known what was going on in the News of the World, and that James and Rupert Murdoch should pay the price for allowing a culture where the phone hacking could occur. Gordon Brown did not pay the price for a culture - amongst his own directly-reporting staff - where people were willing to spread evil lies for political gain. If the standard that Ed Miliband is holding NI to were to be applied equally then the last Labour Government would all be out on their ears. And yes, that would include the then-climate and energy minister himself.

It is incredible hypocrisy.

The Guardian had a story last week claiming that the Sun had hacked into his and his son's medical records; the BBC led with this story for most of the day, and Gordon Brown himself mentioned it in interviews and within parliament. Yet the Sun came out fighting and proved that their source was a living person and that the information was not obtained by hacking. This forced the Guardian to issue a retraction (hidden away on page 37, in contrast to their original front-page story). I listened to Radio 4 and 5 for most of that day, and did not hear a single mention of the fact that the Guardian's claim had been retracted.

This is the problem: the media are taking claims as being true when they are just claims. And the people doing this are the selfsame people who stand to benefit if NI is weakened or broken up. The Guardian weakens a rival, and the BBC removes some of the threat caused by Sky. No wonder their reporting has been so sensationalist.

David Cameron undoubtedly made a mistake in hiring Coulson, especially after he became PM. Yet Ed Miliband hired Tom Baldwin into a similar position; Baldwin is also another ex-NI journalist with serious allegations against him. Cameron seems sincere when he says he believes in giving people a second chance; after all, Coulson was never even charged with anything after the original enquiries. Now Labour are saying that it shows Cameron's terrible judgement - yet Blair and Brown gave Mandelson two chances after two resignations; the same goes for Blunkett after his resignation and Prescott after his sordid affair.

One rule for Labour, another for Tories?

Labour and the BBC are making a great deal about the number of times that Cameron has met people from the media. Note, however, that Labour have not yet released information about their own such meetings, and I cannot find out if they will be releasing information about such meetings from when they were in power. We do know one thing, however: Blair had three conversations with Murdoch in the nine days before the start of the Iraq war. Of course, that was perfectly okay.

Then we have the alleged hacking of the phones of the 9/11 victims. As far as I can tell this story first appeared in the Mirror (owned by a rival of NI), and seems to come from an accusation that some victims' phone numbers were on a list belonging to a Private Investigator that was hired by NI (amongst other newspapers). Somehow having numbers on a list has become, on the BBC at least, a certainty that the phones were hacked. (On Radio 5 last week the usually-excellent Nicky Campbell told a caller that he needn't use the word 'allegedly' as we could now be fairly sure the accusations were correct). And this matters, as it has put NI's American owners under great pressure. Yet as far as I can tell there is absolutely no evidence publicly available.

Gordon Brown's intervention in the story last week was equally concerning. His speech to the Commons was something to behold (see part one and the rest) - a man refusing to accept responsibility for anything, just as he blamed everyone else after he was caught on an open microphone calling a voter 'bigot'. Apparently it was all the vile Tories' fault, you see, despite the fact he was at the heart of the Government when the hacking occurred.

We have a great tradition in this country of believing people to be innocent until proven guilty. The media's reporting - and the BBC and the Guardian need especial mention for this - are undoubtedly jeopardising any future trials. Yet I think that is what they may want - the court of public opinion would have well and truly sentenced the accused by the time of any trial, and an acquital would just be seen as an example of how biased the justice system is. After all, everyone *knows* they were guilty weren't they? The BBC and the Guardian told us so.

This is not to downgrade the seriousness of phone hacking, and especially the tampering with Milly Dowler's phone messages. Yet there can be little doubt that other newspapers were involved with the hacking, as shown in the Information Commissioner's Office 2006 report into the scandal. Page 9 shows that other newspapers performed many more questionable activities than the NI group; in particular Trinity Mirror Group and Associated Newspapers. Yet all of the anger is falling on NI for political reasons.

It is totally irrational; except, of course, from Labour's perspective it is all too rational. They are controlling the story and are doing an able job of focussing it upon their enemies rather than on the 13+ years that NI and Labour worked together. In the process they are making some of the people who may have done slightly sleazy things appear like they are the most evil villains in the world. Smear and lies abound.

The News of the World closed because of a campaign on Twitter organised by, amongst others, Mumsnet against the newspaper's advertisers. That is Mumsnet, whose chief executive is the wife of the deputy editor of the Guardian.

I also wonder how much traction this has got in the world outside the media. Do the public really care? True, *if* (and it is a big if) the phones of 9/11 victims were hacked then that is terrible. But to listen to the BBC's output, you'd think that Cameron had been wearing a brown coat as he evilly and callously dialled the numbers. It is subsuming all other news.

Of course, the story is moving so fast that by tomorrow morning I may have a great deal of egg on my face. Perhaps Cameron's fingerprints will have been found on a phone used in the hacking, or a video is released of him, Murdoch, Hitler and Mao plotting their takeover of the world. Who knows? It is getting that stupid.

There is no perspective and certainly no truth in the media's reporting. Any rumour and lie is automatically the truth if it makes Murdoch and NI look bad. The words 'arrest' and 'charge' are being used interchangeably when their meanings have very important differences.

The phone hacking has not killed anyone. The reaction to it may well. And that is my bit of irrational hysteria...

Justice... of a sorts.

2011-07-13T15:16:00.000+01:00

With all the inward media navel-gazing, positioning and lies in the media at the moment, it is hard to discover information on other stories. Not a single MP asked a question about the improved unemployment figures during PMQs, and the media are ignoring that MPs have just voted a £9 billion increase in our funding to the IMF. Everything has been subsumed beneath a relatively trivial media story.

There is one story today that deserves more column inches, however. It is a story of authorities diverting blame onto two innocent people so that they would not have to answer difficult questions.

In 1994 a Chinook helicopter carrying 29 souls from Northern Ireland crashed into high ground above the Mull of Kintyre lighthouse. The weather was foggy at the time, and a 1995 board of inquiry found the two pilots guilty of gross negligence. A simple stone memorial overlooking the sea marks the point of impact.

Fortunately the pilots' families and the ComputerWeekly newspaper were not willing to let the verdict lie. They noted that the day before the crash, test pilots at Boscombe Down refused to fly that particular class of Chinook helicopter due to problems with the FADEC engine-control software. Other problems with the helicopter were reported in ComputerWeekly's comprehensive 1999 report.

They have fought the authorities on this case for years, tenaciously working towards clearing the pilots' names.

Yet successive governments refused to accept strong evidence that refuted the board of inquiry's results. Then in 2010 new evidence was found - unbelievably a document dated nine months before the crash showed that the 'positively dangerous' faults within the engines' software could cause them to fail without pilot input.

We will never know what happened on board the helicopter that night, but for over a decade it has been obvious that we could not be sure that it was the pilots' fault. So it is with relief that I hear that Defence Secretary Liam Fox has announced that the pilots have been cleared of all wrong doing. It is, eventually, the correct verdict.

ComputerWeekly deserve to be congratulated for their work on this story. Let us hope that the current phone-hacking furore does not prevent the media from pursuing such stories in the future.

Five more walks on my website...

2011-07-11T13:31:00.000+01:00

In which I backpack the West Highland Way.

No.	Location	Distance (m)	Date Walked
909	West Highland Way: Kingshouse to Fort William	24.8	04/07/2011
908	West Highland Way: Tyndrum to Kingshouse Hotel	19.4	03/07/2011
907	West Highland Way: Inversnaid to Tyndrum	19.1	02/07/2011
906	West Highland Way: East Drumquhassle to Inversnaid	23.9	01/07/2011
905	West Highland Way: Milgavie to East Drumquhassle	11.1	30/06/2011

The West Highland Way is truly a sublime trail. True, its popularity means that it is a bit of a motorway in places, but that is part of its joy - there are plenty of facilities, and many people walk it as their first trail.

Atlantis

2011-07-08T16:44:00.000+01:00

I just watched Atlantis launched on the last-ever STS (shuttle) launch. I wish I could've been there to watch it.

The end of the STS program leaves many questions hanging in the air. Firstly there are the historical questions, which will be endlessly argued over the coming decades. They are questions like: whether the shuttle was a highly flawed system, whether it has been a waste of money or even if it should ever have been kept in use after the Challenger disaster. Then there are the future questions, such as whether the USA will ever had a manned space program again.

Today is not the day for those questions. Let me say just one thing:

God speed, Atlantis.

Two shouts

2011-07-06T17:19:00.000+01:00

On my little trip this week I met up with a few people I would like to say a public 'hello!" to.

I met James Urquhart above the Falls of Falloch. He had just started a five-month continuous trip around all the Munros, and was sitting on a stone whilst staring contemplatively at the hills that surrounded us. He is filming his efforts and you can sponsor individual hills - his website is at http://www.munrofilm.com/.

About an hour later I met Jade and Becky, two bouncy young women from Devon who are doing a JOGLE walk. They have a Facebook page and are writing an entertaining blog.

Both these feats have been done before, but that's not the point - hats off to all of them for attempting these feats.

Book review: "Double Cross" by James Patterson

2011-06-24T12:00:00.002+01:00

I picked up this novel for 33 pence in a church jumble sale. James Patterson is famous as being a writer with a voracious output, someone who has had nineteen consecutive best sellers in the New York Times list. As such I really wanted to read one of his novels, especially as his forte is crime, a genre that I love.

Double Cross features Alex Cross, a retired Washington DC detective / psychologist who has been the subject of many of Patterson's previous books. The author does a reasonable job of introducing Alex Cross to a new reader, despite the obvious history that has developed in the earlier books. However, this might perhaps be because Cross is an exceptionally one-dimensional character.

My first impressions were not good. Where most writers split the actions into scenes, and then aggregate scenes into chapters, Patterson just uses chapters. Hence the 437-page book has a remarkable 126 chapters, and feels satisfyingly weighty in the hand. Unfortunately this effect is reached by leaving lots of white space - not just at the start and end of the many chapters, but half-line gaps between each line of text.

This can, of course, be excused if the reader wants a book that he or she can dip into or out of on a train or bus - the chapters make it easy to find where they were in the book, and the large font makes it easy to scan. Unfortunately it also makes it look as though it was printed for an eight-year old to read.

The book fails in both characterisation and plotting: Alex Cross comes across poorly; perhaps Patterson felt no need to give his character any depth because his readers already knew him. If this is the case, then making all the other characters flimsy and insubstantial as well was unforgivable.

However the plotting was far worse. The main plot features a killer who kills his victims in public, an interesting idea that, for the obvious reasons needs to be handled well. It is easy to write a story where the killer performs dastardly deeds in some darkened deserted den, but much harder to write a realistic one where the murders occur in front of hundreds of bystanders. Yet it is hard to believe that the killer would escape from each of the murders described within the book.

In one scene - sorry, chapter - he kills an actor in the middle of a packed-out play. The killer jumps up through a trapdoor in the stage wielding a gun and covers the actor in a flammable gel before giving a soliloquy to the audience. Only then does he set fire to the actor and escape backstage. None of the audience, other actors or backstage workers tried in any way to stop him either committing the murder or escaping. I would think that even the presence of a gun would not stop the many people backstage from tackling the killer. The killer is shown planning the murder in detail, yet he leaves his escape to pure chance.

And this is just one of the problems. Frankly the reader does not so much require suspension of disbelief as to put their mind in neutral. Which is perhaps the primary purpose of the book: to entertain readers without them having to really think.

Reading Double Cross was a turgid, flacid and limp experience. Where good literature should stretch the reader's mind, this filled mine with anonymous gunk. It was the literary equivalent of watching the illegitimate love-child of Big Brother and Pop Idol.

I really want my 33 pence back.

Amazing...

2011-06-11T08:56:00.000+01:00

hat-tip to my mate Neil:

This is an absolutely amazing video, an utter blast from the past. See how many of the old 8-bit games you recognise.

The only downside: There was no Elite. Then again, that had vector rather than pixel graphics...

"for sure"

2011-06-07T12:00:00.003+01:00

I am a great Formula 1 fan. I try to watch - or at least listen - to all of the races. Whilst on the Coastwalk I could not get Radio 5 on my radio in time for a GP. I was going through woodland near Eilleen Donan castle, frustrated by tracks that were marked on the map but did not seem to exist on the ground. Fortunately I did have a mobile signal, and I phoned a friend to see who was doing what in the race, clasping the phone to my face as low branches assaulted me.

I am that sad.

One thing that infuriates me is the way that 'for sure' has seeped into the language of the sport. There can hardly be an interview in F1 where a driver or technician does not utter the two words. This has led to a rumour that there is a bet amongst the drivers/team principles/commentators about who can say it the most on broadcasts.

The problem is that I am hearing it everywhere. I was just listening to an interview with an American political commentator who said 'For sure, Mitt Romney is the front-runner...'. Other politicians have used to recently as well.

The phrase is essentially meaningless. If you say something, you should be sure about it. If you are not sure, you state your uncertainty.

It has got to the stage where I cringe when I hear it. For sure.

10 more walks on the website

2011-06-02T19:33:00.000+01:00

I have been a rather busy bunny over the last month or so. These walks include some more of the Viking Way, a stroll through London, a group walk with some of my family and a brilliant few days on the North Norfolk Coast Path.

No.	Location	Distance (m)	Date Walked
904	A circular walk between Cromer and Sheringham	10.3	25/05/2011
903	Wells-next-the-Sea to Sheringham	19.8	24/05/2011
902	Hunstanton to Wells-next-the-Sea	23.8	23/05/2011
901	A circular walk between Fulletby and Donington on Bain	17.4	18/05/2011
900	A linear walk from Woodhall Spa to Fulletby and return	22.0	17/05/2011
899	Lincoln to Woodhall Spa	24.4	16/05/2011
898	Limehouse to Hayes	23.9	02/05/2011
897	A circular walk between Uttoxeter and Denstone	20.9	23/04/2011
896	Ancaster to Lincoln	20.6	19/04/2011
895	Bottesford to Ancaster	20.3	18/04/2011

Some brilliant walks and stunning weather. I think I am addicted to this walking lark...

Camping food

2011-05-30T07:36:00.000+01:00

I have a serious problem with getting enough calories into me when I am on a trail. The reasons for this are as follows:

1) I lose my appetite when walking. I eat less after a walk than I do in a normal day; my appetite just disappears and I rarely feel hungry. This is noticed after single-day walks as well as during longer trips.
2) As I walk on my own, meals are not a social affair. This means that cooking can easily become a chore, especially during wet weather.
3) I generally try to walk too far each day, especially when wild camping. This means that I am tired when I reach camp, and often just want to curl up into my sleeping bag at the end of the day.

These combine to mean that I often do not cook meals whilst camping, especially in the mornings. A side effect is that I carry food and cooking gear for much further than is technically necessary.

Of course this is really bad. I lost about half a stone in weight whilst backpacking Offa's Dyke, weight which I could just about afford to lose. If I had spent another week walking then I expect I would have been in trouble.

Because of this I carry lots of home-made cakes, flapjacks and nuts and raisins, meaning that my diet becomes remarkably vegetarian when I am camping. These (albeit healthy) snacks allows me to nibble frequently, rather than have a full meal twice a day. I only eat meals when I either feel like cooking or pass pubs.

The strange thing is that I like cooking at home; I find it an enjoyable activity. Yet camp-cooking is far from enjoyable, even when I choose the food and ingredients with care.

When I was on the Coastwalk I found that the weight dropped off me for the first three months, remained static for the next six, and then increased for the last three despite an increasingly average daily mileage. At the end of the year I weighed only slightly less than when I had at the beginning. This is perhaps explained by the fact I had a professionally-trained cook travelling with me...

I am not sure that the solution is going to be for this. My rucksack is packed ready for another trip, but I have yet to put any food into it. I am making myself two promises for this trip:

1) that I will cook every night (unless I am very near a pub)
2) that instead of doing 20+ miles every day, I will limit myself to an average of 16. This will give me time to dawdle and perhaps even enjoy myself!

Alas these are promises that I will probably break.

John Demjanjuk

2011-05-15T18:18:00.000+01:00

So John Demjanjuk has been found guilty of being a guard at Sobibor camp in Poland during World War II.

I must admit that this case makes me very uneasy. If he is guilty then he should rot in the lowest layers of hell. However, the way Demjanjuk has been prosecuted - and some may say persecuted - makes me extremely nervous.

For this is not the first time that he has been prosecuted. In 1988 he was convicted in Israel of being 'Ivan the Terrible', the hideous camp guard at Treblinka whose moniker scarcely did his crimes justice. Demjanjuk spent seven years in jail, five of which were on death row, and was only set free when his lawyers proved it was a case of mistaken identity. It was a hideous miscarriage of justice, especially as the evidence of his innocence was known (but not revealed) by American authorities before he was extradited to Israel.

He nearly went to his death.

Remember that hundred if not thousands of Germans were essentially let off terrible crimes during the chaos at the end of the war. (Sadly the same can be said of Japanese and, in more than a few cases, Allied troops). Their leaders and the worst offenders were justly prosecuted, but many others were not. Then there is the question of how liable an individual soldier is. How guilty were the East German border guards in Berlin when they shot at people trying to escape to the west? Will they similarly be prosecuted in another forty years' time?

As one Nazi expert said: "(Demjanjuk is)... the littlest of the little fishes".

As I see it, there are two main options:

He was a guard at the camp, but did not worse than any of his colleagues who were not tried (and indeed, many far more senior and liable camp commanders were acquitted after the war).
He was not a camp guard, and is guilty only of living longer than his compatriots, and of being the victim of a witch-hunt.

It is exceptionally hard to get justice after so many years; witnesses die, documents get lost and memories fade. Despite this it is clear that the evidence against Demjanjuk was incredibly thin. Add his history, and the mistaken belief that he was Ivan the Terrible (a belief that led to him receiving the death penalty), and it looks all too much like a witch hunt, the German judicial system's last throw of the dice to get justice for the millions who died in the camps.

But it probably helps the Germans that, as a Ukranian, Demjanjuk is a foreigner.

Terrible, hideous things happened in those camps. This prosecution does nothing to serve the cause of justice, and only the hideousness of revenge.

It leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.

Ouch, indeed.

2011-05-09T10:26:00.002+01:00

Iain McClatchie's blog has a brilliant article on the effect of an asteroid strike on Earth. It is well worth a read, especially if you like being frightened.

And remember: this has happened before.

What's in a name?

2011-05-08T10:22:00.000+01:00

Over the years I have considered the possibility of merging two of my passions: programming and writing. What would it take, I wonder, to make a computer program to write a novel? Would it be possible to make Martin Amis and J K Rowling redundant, for a program to become an author whose works would eclipse Shakespeare?

The more I write, the more I realise that this is currently impossible. Let us take one tiny part of writing a novel: naming the characters.

Think of a character in your favourite novel. What is their name, and what, consciously or subconsciously, did the author try to tell the reader with that name? Take Dirk Pitt, the hero of the early Clive Cussler books. Dirk rhymes with dark, and is also the name of a small dagger. So, a dark character who is dangerous. Pitt also suggests danger, and the suggestion of depth matches well with the character’s frequent underwater exploits.

Or Jack Ryan, the hero of some early Tom Clancy books. It is a classic Irish name, and could belong to an Irish priest or New York policeman (indeed, the character’s father was a policeman). Jack is a common name, evoking an everyman. The message is simple: an ordinary man.

Few readers analyse novels to this extent, but the hints are there and are frequently noted subconsciously.

This is often taken to extremes in children’s books. Take the Harry Potter series; it has a Remus Lupin (a werewolf) and a Professor Sprout (a Herbology teacher). These and other similar names give the children obvious clues as to the characters’ nature. A little over-obvious for adults perhaps, but perfect for children. Harry Potter itself is an ordinary name for a child who, at the beginning of the series of books, thinks of himself as utterly ordinary. It also allowed the children reading the books to associate with him more than they would if J K Rowling had named him, say, Horatio Magei. Her naming is part of Rowling’s genius; she knows her audience.

This matching of names to characters is important: a name that mismatches a character only works if the mismatch has a point. If an author called a Muslim fundamentalist terrorist Iain Fortescue-Smythe, then it would need to be explained *how* the man became a terrorist. Failure to do so would make the character ridiculous. Of course, this would work if the ridiculousness was the point, for instance in a comedic role.

Such naming inveigles itself into our everyday lives. Take the surname ‘Smith’. Perhaps the most common English surname, it’s very anonymity has granted it an air of deviousness. From the couple signing themselves into a hotel under ‘Mr and Mrs Smith’ to the ‘Agent Smith’ in the Matrix, it has connotations of people not being who they really are, of secretiveness and lies. Pity the many real Mr and Mrs Smiths who had had to book themselves into hotels over the years.

A title of a story popped into my head as I was walking back from the polling station the other day. It was: “The egregious lies of Ethelbert Myana”. I had no idea what the lies are, or why they were so flagrant and bad. Yet the name fascinated me: Ethelbert is an old regal-sounding Anglo-Saxon name, whilst Myana (preferably with a tilde or diaeresis over the middle ‘a’) evokes to me a South American or exotic air. What family history does an Ethelbert Myana have? How did he get his extraordinary name? My mind wandered as I strolled...

Perhaps his father was a crusty scholar, happier with his nose in dusty Latin tomes than in entertaining his young son. His mother was a Brazilian beauty whose socialising and affairs scandalised the local area before she ran away with someone purporting to be a film producer. She took the teenage Ethelbert with her, granting him her exotic surname. His stepfather disliked him, and he was soon parcelled away to a remote boarding school.

At first Ethelbert hated his extraordinary name, which caused him to be bullied. Over time he started wearing his name as a badge of pride, revelling in the difference it granted him from his compatriots: the ‘ordinary’ Davids, the Olivers and the Harrys. He inherited beauty and innate charm from his mother, and a keen intelligence from his father. The adult Ethelbert became a sly, charming and intelligent man who was also utterly ruthless; he could inveigle himself socially as he wove his curtain of lies. He had no need of friendships and a burning hatred of the norms of a society that had, for no other reason than his name, marked him as being different.

So from a name I have created a character with rich traits and a limited history. I have a good idea who Ethelbert Myana is and potential plot lines fill my mind like confetti. A somewhat strange name has suggested countless stories.

An author needs to work out what a name would mean to the average reader, and use that to reinforce or subvert the reader’s preconceptions. Unfortunately this means that it would be incredibly difficult to get a computer program to invent good and believable names for characters; the nuances and meanings of names are just too varied. Indeed, I would suggest that the ability to match a name and a situation, as I have above, would be a good test of artificial intelligence.

This is sad, and yet naming of characters is one of the easier and less important aspects of writing a good novel. There is certainly room for computers to help authors word-process or keep track of plotlines and characters, yet no computer can yet devise a series of good plotlines or even construct many meaningful, connected sentences of prose (see chatterbots such as Eliza for the limitations of such attempts).

One last thing: think of what your name says about you. How has it shaped your life, and what, if anything, would you prefer to be called? How often have you judged an unseen stranger (for instance from a CV or letter) simply by their name?

Cambourne

2011-04-21T12:00:00.004+01:00

We have now been in our house in Cambourne for two months, long enough to form some impressions of the place.

Cambourne is a village situated about eight miles directly west of Cambridge, situated on the road to St Neots. Construction on the village started in 1998, and my vague connections with the place began the next year when a couple of friends bought some of the early houses - indeed, I think that they were the second and third houses (aside from show homes) built.

At that time it was very much a construction site with no facilities.

There was a certain amount of negativity about Cambourne when it was first mooted, and with good reason.The last attempt to build a village to cater for Cambridge's growing population was Bar Hill, situated by the A14 to the northwest of the city. Built for 4,000 people, construction started in 1967 and it rapidly gained a reputation of being a soulless place, made worse by the presence of a massive Tesco hyperstore. Its problems lay mainly in the lack of facilities.

Fortunately the developers of Cambourne appear to have learnt the lessons of Bar Hill. The facilities may have taken time to arrive, but they are indeed arriving. As well as the obligatory supermarket (a well-stocked Morrisons), there is a pub, coffee shop, doctors' surgery, a hotel, several schools and many other shops. Indeed, the schools are necessary as the influx of middle-aged professionals means that at times the village feels like it is filled with babies and young children.

So what is it like to live in? We have not been here long, but so far the experience feels positive. There is a palpable sense of community, with various campaigns and groups echoing through the population - one such campaign has meant that the village is going to be one of the five to benefit from BT's Infinity broadband scheme.

The Morrisons supermarket is well-stocked, and the spread of other shops is good, if not yet comprehensive. There is scarcely a straight line to be seen in the street plan, the curves of the roads keeping traffic speeds down whilst giving the illusion of space. Indeed, from a first-floor window in our town house in Great Cambourne (a newer and more cramped part of the village), I can count forty-three separate roofs, yet it still feels curiously spacious.

There are also plenty of green areas - indeed, there are lots of paths Şencan's workplace is in the business park near the main road, a fifteen minute walk away from our home. One day we took another route into work that took double the time but was totally off road, with only two roads to be crossed on the way. This traffic-free route uses just some of the bridleways and footpaths that have been constructed along with the town. I have also managed a three-mile walk using the paths around the edge of the complex that scarcely encountered any roads.

True, the village does not yet have the character of (say) nearby St Ives, or Romsey that we have recently left. That is to be expected: the character of a settlement is often granted by its history, and Cambourne is still in its infancy. Yet the varied style of houses bestows some character, excepting a couple of terribly-executed faux-Georgian buildings.

So all in all I am happy.

Six more walks on the website.

2011-04-19T20:18:00.000+01:00

I've been a busy boy...

No.	Location	Distance (m)	Date Walked
894	A circular walk between Denton and Westborough	22.7	13/04/2011
893	A circular walk from Dunwich to Southwold	16.7	08/04/2011
892	A circular walk between Thorpeness and Dunwich	19.8	07/04/2011
891	A circular walk from Aldeburgh to Tunstall via Snape	21.7	06/04/2011
890	A circular walk through Rendlesham Forest	21.7	29/03/2011
889	Ipswich to Melton	20.8	28/03/2011

... in which I do the Sandlings Walk, and restart my campaign along the Viking Way.

Visual Basic

2011-04-09T06:50:00.000+01:00

Many people hate Visual Basic. It is produced by Microsoft, a company that attracts a great deal of derision (both rightly and wrongly). Secondly, many people see it as not being 'proper' programming, and a bit of a toy.

The second point is the most valid - although the language has been tided up in the last few years with the conversion to .NET, it is still a little noddy, and does not require a great deal of skill to knock up a simple program. Yet that is also its beauty, as it is an excellent rapid prototyping tool.

I was in a slight funk last weekend - I did not want to do any writing, nor any work on the website or around the house. My mind was totally focussed on the walk that I was planning for later in the week. Unfortunately I am incapable of lazing around and doing nothing. So whilst Sean Connery tried to steal Red October, I loaded Visual Basic 2010 onto my new laptop and had a play. I had not used Visual Basic for at least a year, and it was my first experience of the latest version.

A few months ago I wrote a post about MP3 players. At the time, I did a quick and dirty calculation about how long, in terms of duration, my MP3 collection was. The rough figure I came up with was 44 days.

So I decided to fend off boredom by working out a better figure. Within two hours I had created a Visual Basic program with front-end that scanned through my Podcasts and worked out the total duration of all the files (*). The figure: over 80 days of files, and growing by at least a day a week.

Of course, this could have been done in other languages, such as C, Perl or Python. But Visual Basic gave me a program that could run on any Windows PC without having to install any other languages or support infrastructure. In two hours I managed to write a program and User Interface that solved the problem at hand. I did it from a basis of not being an expert in the language, or in having used the latest version. What is more, it was fun.

There is no right or wrong programming language: they all have uses (yes, including Modula-3). A good programmer knows several languages, and picks the right one for the job in hand. A bad programmer weds himself to one language and uses it even when it is not appropriate.

So thank you, Microsoft, for Visual Basic. It does its job, and does it well.

(*) I use the track duration as reported within the file, which can be wrong. A better way would be to parse through the files and calculate the number of samples. This would be an easy change, but would take an eternity to run. The current system will do for the moment.

Completions.

2011-04-08T20:19:00.001+01:00

So you spend five days walking 100-odd miles in order to complete a trail. You are on the last day, with glorious sunshine to see you to the end. You can almost taste the pint of beer that you will allow yourself to celebrate. What is more, said pint will be drunk a stones-throw away from the local brewery.

Everything is good.

Then you turn onto the last stretch of path to be greeted with a 'footpath closed' sign. Additionally, there are obviously people working on the narrow stretch of path. Therefore you had to divert off.

So the question is: can I still say that I completed the trail, even if I missed off the last half-mile? Will it only be complete when I go back and do that stretch? And if so, what sort of diversion constitutes not completing a trail? A half mile? A quarter mile? A step around a puddle? Are diversions allowable if they are official diversions?

The only good side (and it is a very good side) is that it will mean that I will have to visit Southwold again, if only to walk that last half-mile. And, of course, to have a pint of Adnams...

We had some visitors today

2011-04-04T11:28:00.000+01:00

I just went to hang the washing out, and we had some squatters on the pegs...

Beeflys, I think.

I really need to get the hang of the supermacro mode on my camera...

Sarah Outen

2011-04-03T13:26:00.000+01:00

A little over a year ago I wrote a blog post about Sarah Outen, who had just completed a record-breaking solo row across the Indian Ocean. We met her at the Southampton boat show, where she had just arrived with her tiny-looking boat. It was so small that I would not have dared to row it across the Channel, yet alone an Ocean. Then again, that is what sets Adventurers apart form us mere mortals.

At the time, I wrote:

During our chat I asked her what she wanted to do next. As I asked her the question her eyes flicked out into the Solent. Something tells me she may be voyaging out again sometime.

Well, I was correct. On April the first this amazing lady set off on her 'London 2 London via the world' trip. She is going to be cycling and rowing her way around the world, an endeavour that is going to take the best part of three years. Not only will this involve her cycling across Eurasia and North America, but also rowing the North Pacific and North Atlantic. I find it hard to think of a greater aim.

She is an amazing lady, and I wish her all the best. God speed, Sarah.

Sandlings Way

2011-03-30T11:53:00.001+01:00

Following a recommendation from Griffmonster, I spent Monday and Tuesday strolling along the Sandlings Way. And wow, what a hidden gem it is. The trail starts just outside Ipswich, and wastes no time in finding some glorious stretches of heathland. The sunny weather probably helped a great deal, but Monday's walk past Woodbridge was one of the best I have done for some time. Woodbridge itself, nestled on the banks of the Deben, is always worth a loiter.

Yesterday's walk through Rendlesham Forest was (slightly) less exhilarating, especially as I had to turn it into a circular walk due to a lack of public transport. Despite this it was still an enjoyable stroll.

The going is easy underfoot, often with a sandy soil, and there were no ascents or descents worth the name. I can hardly wait to do the next stretch. Unfortunately, transport is once again a problem.

I car-camped on Monday night, the idea being to give my kit a test before the season starts. It was a bitterly cold night, and the condensation within the Westwind was the worst that I can remember. Time will tell if this is a long-term problem or due to the conditions on the night.

Four more walks on the website

2011-03-26T10:54:00.000Z

In which I do some of the flattest walking possible.

No.	Location	Distance (m)	Date Walked
888	A circular walk from West Lynn to Sutton Bridge	24.3	24/03/2011
887	Littleport to Kings Lynn	26.6	21/03/2011
886	Cambridge to Littleport along the Fen Rivers Way	24.5	14/03/2011
885	Ventnor to West Cowes	18.0	15/02/2011

I am enjoying being back in East Anglia...

Katherine Talbot-Ponsonby

2011-03-25T15:19:00.000Z

I have just read with sadness that Katherine (Spud) Talbot-Ponsonby died in January last year. In 1994 Spud walked the coastline of Britain with her dog, Tess, sleeping in a beat-up motorhome. Her book about the experience, 'Two feet, four paws' is by far the best book about the walk, and was the direct inspiration for my own walk eight years later.

Her follow-up book, 'Small steps with heavy hooves' is an excellent and poignant description of her attempt to walk back to health after a cancer diagnosis. It has recently been reissued as 'Small Steps with Paws and Hooves'.

I never met Spud, but I had the honour to talk to her by phone on a couple of occasions. She was at all times charming, and answered my questions with sparkling good humour. I thoroughly recommend both of her books.

Libya

2011-03-23T17:35:00.000Z

In my mind there can be no doubt that the current intervention in Libya is not only right, but vital.

I have listened to a great deal of TV and radio over the last week, and am getting fed up with people saying, 'What about Bahrain? What about Saudi Arabia? What's special about Libya? It's all about oil, innit?'

I find such thinking amazingly flawed. Why would France, Britain and the US want to treat Libya differently from those other countries? The answer is both easy and sobering:

France remembers the Libyan-sponsored bombing of UTA flight 772 in 1989 (170 dead)
Britain and the US remembers the Libyan-sponsored Pan-Am flight 103 in 1988 (270 dead)
The US remembers the Libyan-sponsored 1986 Berlin Discotheque bombing (3 dead)
Britain remembers the Libyan-sponsored shooting of PC Yvonne Fletcher.

Libya has admitted responsibility for all of these events, and paid compensation. They are not in dispute. In addition:

Britain remembers that Libya funded and armed the IRA (an unquantifiable number of dead)
Spain remembers that Libya funded and armed ETA (an unquantifiable number of dead)
Africa remembers the Chad-Libya conflict (8,500 dead)

Gadaffi has repeatedly sponsored terrorism and wars in the past. This marks the difference between the situation in Libya and all of the other countries mentioned: the leader has killed thousands of people, and sponsored terrorism and wars both within and without his borders. There can be no doubt that, if we did not intervene, he would kill those within Libya who are against him. His troops were preparing to attack Benghazi - a city of one million people - as the air attack was launched.

Vengeance is wrong. However, last week we had two choices: we could stand back and do nothing, or help those who want a freer and hopefully fairer Libya. Doing the first and allowing Gadaffi's troops to kill and maim unaided is unthinkable.

I supported the previous government's attempts to bring Libya back in from the cold; it was the right thing to do. Normalisation of relations made it less likely for Gadaffi to attempt similar atrocities. I did not - and do not - support the release of the Lockerbie bomber. The best solution there would have been for his appeal to go ahead.

This does not address the end-game. UN Security Council Resolution 1973 specifically does not allow regime change. It does, however, allow wide action to protect civilian lives. A potential solution is for loyalist troops to leave the immediate areas around the rebel towns that they have attacked over the last few weeks - for instance Misrata, Ajdabiya and Zawiya.

This could lead to a ceasefire could lead either to a split in the country, or alternatively encourage his lackeys to overthrow a weakened Gadaffi. A split in the country could possibly be unstable - who would get the oilfields? - and lead to further conflict.

One thing is certain: the end-game is firmly in Libyan hands. Resolution 1973 does not allow for an invasion, and it is doubtful whether any of the combatants would want to get involved in another painful ground war.

As for Gadaffi: tyrants should realise that countries of honour have long memories. We in the west should realise that the people of Afghanistan and Iraq also have long memories. Hopefully doing the right thing in Libya - as we are - may undo some of the harm that has been caused over the last ten years.

The move

2011-03-22T19:38:00.000Z

After four weeks of chaos, we are now safely ensconced in our new house in Cambourne. Like our old house it has three bedrooms, although it is much larger and feels exceptionally roomy.

The move itself went fairly well, hindered (or perhaps helped?) by the fact that Şencan disappeared to her parents' house in Turkey for the week. Good planning on her part, methinks. Fortunately the moving company (Bradbeers in Romsey) did an excellent job, meaning that I only had the problem of packing up all of our belongings.

And boy, do we have a load of stuff. Numerous boxes stuffed with books (including Şencan's Iain Banks collection and my Ian Rankin), plus, of course, my hundreds of maps and walking books. Then there was all the kitchen stuff, but at least we have got rid of two coffee machines since our last move, when we discovered that we had three between us. Our many DVDs and clothes also filled numerous boxes - I will have to go through them all and throw out all the trousers that (ahem) no longer fit me.

We got a cleaning company to go through the old house. They did a good job, especially as they had to work around a few of our remaining belongings. The gardeners were less impressive, although it would have been hard for them to make a stellar job of it given the time of year and the waterlogged ground.

Şencan has started her new job, and she is now faced with a fifteen minute walk into work rather than thirty minutes along main roads. So all in all a vast improvement.

One other note: in our previous two moves we had terrible problems with Internet connectivity. Virgin were bad enough in our second-to-last house, but they seem like Jeeves when compared to the hellish experience we had with TalkTalk. Every communication we had from them was like having teeth pulled, including frequent (sometimes daily) cold calls from them.

It was therefore with a little reluctance that we ordered Internet at our new home from BT. Frankly, we were expecting a poor experience. It is therefore with pleasure that I must say that we got connected in under a week - a day earlier than they stated - and it worked first time, out of the box. What is more the wireless connectivity was simplicity itself, and the hub had several neat and self-explanatory features. Time will tell if their customer service continues in this manner, but initial indications are positive.

Well done BT.

Lords of the Blog

2011-03-17T11:20:00.000Z

I was honoured to be invited last night to a reception celebrating the third anniversary of the 'Lords of the Blog' blog. It is a single blog that is regularly contributed to by 12 Peers of all political persuasions, along with guest posts from others. No other legislature in the world benefits from such a cross-party blog.

I have been reading the blog for two and a half years, although admittedly I have only commented on a couple of occasions. Media coverage of politics is poor at best, and the House of Lords only receives mainstream coverage when something spectacular is going on, such as the recent shenanigans concerning the AV vote. This is a shame, as the work of the house is absolutely vital to our democracy. Lords of the Blog provides a valuable resource on what is happening in the Lords, from the mouths of the people who work there.

I may not agree with everything that is said on the blog, but I have little doubt that the views expressed are genuinely held. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for many blogs run by MPs. Perhaps the presence of cross-benchers in the Lords makes this blog appear much less partisan (and therefore more useful) than those written by individual MPs.

The reception was held in the River Room in the Lords. I found it hard to draw my gaze away from the spectacular views along from the Thames, despite the typically dreary London weather. I have a certain fondness for architecture, and the Houses of Parliament (and especially the Norman Westminster Hall) always make my spirits soar. It may not be to everyone's taste, but there can be no doubt that the buildings provide a suitably impressive setting for any meeting.

The intricate nature of the architecture means that my eyes are always searching out the details: an ornate cornice here, an inlaid plaster ceiling there. There was plenty of such detail visible in and from the River Room. I had a glass of wine and a couple of snacks from the buffet as I waited for the speeches to start.

The speakers made many interesting points about the way they think that their blog represents a link between the house and the public, and the way they would like to see it head in the future. Lord Soley made the point that political hustings were common before the seventies, with church halls and clubs filled to the rafters with politically active people. This phenomenon has died off over the years, killed in part by television. In many ways the Internet is starting to fill that gap, enabling conversations between speakers and the population.

In my opinion the best points of the evening were made by PoliticsHome's Paul Waugh, who talked about the way that fewer MPs are blogging now, and on the rise of twitter in political debate. This was particularly interesting as I take a diametrically opposed view, that being that twitter is worse then useless for political debate. It is superb for soundbites and terrible for real, solid information.

Some questions were taken from the floor after the speeches. Unfortunately I did not get the opportunity to ask my questions, but there was plenty of time to chat afterwards to various people as I stuffed my face with the rather delicious cake. In particular I had a fascinating chat with the immaculately-dressed David Leakey, the recently-appointed Black Rod.

All in all it the evening was informative as well as interesting. It is good to see so many Peers using the Internet to get their message across, and to use such events to reach out to their readers. It also gave me a good excuse to dust off my suit!

I would like to thank the Hansard Society, the Lord Speaker and the other honourable lords and ladies for a fascinating (and filling) evening.

Charity fraud?

2011-03-12T20:19:00.000Z

Back in November I wrote a blog post about Matthew Brown, an ex-military helicopter pilot who was walking around the coast of Britain for charity. The claim was that he had already raised £500,000 for Help for Heroes, and was aiming for a 9,500 mile walk.

It sounded like an incredible objective and the sum raised seemed rather large, especially so early on in his trip. However I know of at least one other coastal walker who has raised similar sums, and the charity is particularly popular at the moment, so it was certainly within the bounds of possibility. Tonight I found this article on the BBC website, which makes it look as though the whole thing was one gigantic fraud. Even his claim of having served as a pilot in Afghanistan and Iraq appears to have been a particularly unsophisticated lie.

Later in November he was sentenced to 32 weeks in jail for pretending to be a doctor in Scarborough in order to gain free hotel accommodation. It was not the first time that he had been jailed for such a deception. Perversely, it was he publicity for his coastal walk that proved his downfall - a member of the hotel staff saw his picture in the paper and alerted the police.

There is much to be said about this: firstly, if it is a fraud, then using the Help for Heroes name makes it doubly sickening. Secondly, it makes it all the harder for others who are attempting to do a similar thing to raise money for charity; I had some doubt cast on my own walk whilst I was doing it, and I am glad that I documented it so comprehensively (on average I took three photos a mile, which would be hard to fake). Thirdly, it casts all charity fundraising in a bad light.

But more importantly, are his actions a sign of madness or nastiness? Should I feel hatred for someone who is so out of kilter with the norms of society, or sorry for him? What has happened to make him perform such desperate acts?

I have always taken the entries on my website in good faith, despite a few doubts about another recent entrant into the list of coastal walkers. Perhaps I should try to be slightly more sceptical and try to verify first in future. Then again, that is not really the purpose of the list.

Japan

2011-03-11T11:06:00.000Z

My heart goes out to everyone effected by the events in Japan this morning. The pictures all look horrific; I can only hope and pray that the deaths and injuries are kept to a minimum.

An excellent website.

2011-03-01T12:00:00.000Z

My relationship with geology is fraught. I love maps, and few maps are as beautiful as geological maps, with their coloured bands and marks giving a faux-view of the surface and underground. Even the terms - Ordovician, Cambrian, Cenozoic - fill me with wonder. One of my uncles was a geology lecturer who appeared (often wearing the obligatory flares) in Open University programs during the 1970s and 1980s, meaning that such a fascination is possibly firmly engrained in my blood

Yet the subject conjures memories that still causes me to shiver. During my first year at university, my engineering course had five hours of geology on a Friday afternoon. We would study rock sample after rock sample, staring through eyeglasses at them to characterise and classify. One of the lecturers - an emeritus professor - was a genius, as witty and engaging as he was intelligent, and he would avail us of tales of his time in a Japanese PoW camp. The other lecturer, however, was quite the opposite. He turned those long hours into a drag, often choosing not to give us a break in the middle of the afternoon. Given that geology was just a small part of my course (I was much more interested in structural and material engineering), I came to hate the subject. It was a classic case of a bad teacher turning students off a subject.

Therefore I have found Ian West's excellent website, 'Geology of the Wessex Coast of Southern England', to be fascinating reading. The site contains a massive amount of information on the geology of the coastline between Southampton and Devon, a stretch of coast that I know well. The detail is amazing, but also surprisingly accessible. From the Burning Cliffs (oil shale that spontaneously combusts) to the history of storm surges, everything I could possibly want to know about the geology of this stretch of coast is here.

The world is full of experts on esoteric subjects, from lace-making to Roman concrete. Most of the time this information remains firmly embedded within inaccessible specialist literature. It is rare - and good - to have these experts putting their knowledge down for everyone to read.

Forget Facebook and Twitter: sites like Ian West's are exactly what the Internet was invented for.

Unbelievable...

2011-02-28T08:05:00.000Z

Some people, it seems, never learn. Take the following article about Gary Hart, ten years after he crashed a Land Rover off the M62 and onto a railway line, the direct cause of the Great Heck train crash that killed ten people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-12591249

I had some sympathy for Mr Hart at the time - as often with driving accidents, it is a case of there but for the grace of God go I. Anyone who has driven for years must have had moments when tiredness, illness or anger has nearly caused an accident. Mr Hart could probably have made that journey a hundred times without the ill-fortune of crashing off the road and onto a railway line. Fate paid a heavy price not just in that, but in the fact that two trains were heading in opposite directions towards the place he landed beside the tracks.

This sympathy rapidly dissipated during the trial, where he tried to admit that he could drive perfectly well with only a few hour' sleep. The evidence against him (including test that showed hat he must have been speeding for most of his journey) was firm, and I could not believe that he protested his innocence throughout the case. There are times when it is best to accept your guilt, however hard that may be.

Unfortunately it appears that, ten years after the accident in which ten people died - and he caused - he still has not accepted responsibility.

Take the following quote:

"No deaths occurred at the point of impact with my Land Rover.
"They all occurred 700 yards down the track which I feel other people should have been held accountable for, so in my own head I've dealt with it in that fashion."

This is unbelievable, and is like a gunman saying 'no-one died when I pulled the trigger; they died fifty yards away when the bullets hit them. I feel they should be accountable for being there, so in my own head I'm innocent.'

As I said, unbelievable.

Right, the doorbell has just rung and the movers are here. The mania is about to begin...

The Libyan rescue

2011-02-27T07:44:00.003Z

The Government has had some bad press over the last week over the so-called 'fiasco' of the Libya crisis, whereby some people thought that we were too slow in getting people out. Radio 5 was reporting that a Turkish ship had got some of their citizens out of a port city, and then went to talk to the wife of a Scotsman trapped at an oil complex in the middle of the desert,

This is where I started to smell a rat. The oilmen were in a far worse predicament than the Turkish workers; many were trapped in the middle of nowhere with no transport (the locals having stolen their vehicles), whilst the Turkish workers mentioned were concentrated in the cities. Libya is hardly a friendly country, and I can see why the government might be concerned that they would take the flying in of a plane without permission to be an unfriendly act. Comparing the two in such a forthright manner was disingenuous at best.

Then came Cameron's apology. Firstly I could not see what he was apologising for: the government were doing things, albeit in a fluid, complex situation that was hard to manage. But I must say it is a relief to have a country that does manage to apologise, unlike out previous PM for whom 'sorry', like 'cuts', was truly a hard word to say.

Now the oil workers have been rescued, allegedly by the SAS and/or the SBS. An SAS/SBS operation is hardly a quick thing to set up (just getting the teams into position is time-consuming, yet alone the information gathering and planning).It looks as though the SAS team flew in on commercial flights on Tuesday - whilst these idiots were crying out 'fiasco!', and their weapons were being dispatched in diplomatic bags. So the Government was doing something, and apparently doing it well; they just could not speak about it.

It is well known that the first aircraft to be sent had some 'technical issues' that delayed its takeoff by half a day - these failures have not been explained, but one theory doing the rounds was that it was delayed so extra personnel and equipment could be put on board. Although there is no proof, it does make some sense.

Incidentally, the Germans flew in similar missions on the same day, and the media are failing to mention that a US catamaran has been stuck in Tripoli harbour for 48 hours with technical difficulties.

The supposed failure to rescue our citizens was headline news on the BBC News website, as was Cameron's apology. This morning, as what appears to be a fairly daring rescue has occurred, and may still be ongoing, it does not even appear on their front page, and a reporter on the News Channel has cast scorn on the idea it was a 'daring' rescue.

And they are not mentioning Labour's strong links with Gaddaffi...

The media ought to be hanging their heads in shame about this. The fiasco was in their reporting, not in the operations.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...?

2011-02-26T20:10:00.001Z

Şencan's in Turkey for a week whilst I get on with the house move (yes, she planned that well). It is her first visit to her parents for three years, and hence long overdue. But it has meant that I have been left home (or more accurately, homes) alone during a fairly hectic and stressful time.

I like to think of myself as being a fairly independent individual. I cast scorn on fashion, and can easily engross myself in a book for a day, or a walk for a fortnight. I do not feel the need to go out every night with my mates, nor to be constantly on the phone to people I hardly know.

Yes, I am independent, and yet I felt lonely within a day of Şencan leaving. Part of me is missing, cast asunder to a foreign land. I have no-one to smile with, to joke, laugh, kiss and hug. She - the core of my existence - is apart.

A few minutes ago she phoned me up from a friend's house in Turkey. She is enjoying herself, but the mere sound of her voice raised my spirits and made me feel whole. The slough of despond into which I had sunk was evaporated by the mere sound of her voice.

This is surely love.

Which walk to do...?

2011-02-26T18:49:00.000Z

As the time for the move approaches, I am starting to think about which walks to do when we are finally safely ensconced in Cambridge. I know the area like he back of my hand, and have walked a great deal in the county (see map at http://www.britishwalks.org/walks/Counties/Cambridgeshire/index.php)

Yet I have done no walking in the county for nearly four years, and am keen to revisit some of my old haunts. So what do I do first?

The obvious walk would be to follow the Fen Rivers Way north from Cambridge to King's Lynn, an easy fifty-mile stroll beside the rivers Cam and Great Ouse. It is a walk that means a great deal to me, as it is one that I used to walk getting back to health. I have also not walked most of it since 1999, so I will not be overly familiar with it. On the other hand, the long miles atop the flood banking north of Littleport can get a little monotonous.

What else? Well, I love the Devil's Dyke, a massive 7.5-mile long Anglo-Saxon ditch and bank that runs across the centre of Newmarket Racecourse. I have walked it ten or so times before, but not in the last eight years, and amazingly I have no photographs of it.

Then there is the Hereward Way, a long-distance path that runs for 110 miles east from Stamford past Ely into Norfolk. I have walked all of this in the past, but not all of the walks are on my website.

Further afield, I would love to do the Peddar's Way once again (last walked in 2003), and the entire Norfolk Coast Path. The various Suffolk paths (such as the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Path) also appeal.

I have no idea which of these - or any other walk - I will do first. Cambridgeshire is not seen as being a classic place to walk, and it certainly lacks the grandeur of most other parts of Britain. Yet there are many good walks and great sights: fog rising off the flood plain of the Great Ouse, or Ely Cathedral rising like a ship out of the surrounding Fens.

Then again, I like walking along canals through cities, so perhaps I am no judge.

Tube map

2011-02-24T14:06:00.000Z

My friend Terry sent me this link to a map containing a detailed map of the London Underground, including almost every siding (warning: large size). I am sad enough to have spent an hour (when I should have been packing...) studying it, tracing some of the stations and lines that I know well.

I love maps...

Union insanity

2011-02-21T09:33:00.000Z

Some of my friends went to John Port School in Etwall, Derbyshire. At the time it was generally considered a good school, and my friends left with good exam results (unlike me, it should be said).

I like to keep up with what is happening in areas that I have lived, partly out of curiosity and partly out of misplaced nostalgia. Therefore I was flabbeghasted to read this story on the 'This is Derbyshire' website.

Teachers at the school are going on strike for five days. We are always being told by unions that strikes are the last resort, so it is interesting to see why the teachers and NASUWT union are putting the education of 2,200 children in peril during the run-up to exams.

It turns out that John Port School is considering becoming an academy. Note that they are only considering the change, and have not yet decided. If the change occurs, the supposedly-intelligent teachers think, then it *may* cause changes to their terms and conditions. Therefore they are striking because the school is *investigating* something that *might just* adversely change their conditions. (Or, of course, it may also improve their terms and conditions).

I will not even get started on NASUWT's following claim: "The intention has never been to damage children's education and I will be meeting with the head on March 2 to discuss how exams can be protected."

How can teachers striking for five days in March - a couple of months before exams - not damage the children's education? If it is true it begs the question as to what good the teachers do when in class.

I have a simple message to them: strike against specific changes to terms and conditions, not just because you fear changes. Were they so keen on striking during the previous (Labour) government's changes, including the initial introduction of academies? Of course not.

The union have bluntly admitted that they are striking because the school has not ruled out the conversion to academy status. This is insanity, and can only be seen as politically-motivated blackmail. The teachers who voted for strike should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

Spam

2011-02-20T15:25:00.009Z

Hotmail has a fairly good spam filter, which captures the majority of spam whilst only getting a few false positives (i.e. characterising 'good' emails as spam).

I like to carefully go through my spam inbox to check for non-spam messages. Today, amongst the usual viagra and other spam saying that I need to 'enhance' my manhood, there is a message called 'Tax Refund Notification'. It appears to be from an HM Revenue and Customs email address, and the image looks official. It is the fourth time I have received this message, always claiming that I am due a refund of £468.50.

Of course it is spam. There are some obvious signs: a poorly-designed link to click on that goes to a website 'balearicproperty' instead of HM Revenue along with a couple of spelling mistakes, including lack of punctuation and full stops. The character set is also Cyrillic, which would be unusual for a British Government address.

The reason I mention this is that it is one of the more believable spam emails I have seen. The image and accurate 'from' addresses are things that would initially take people in, along with the greed of receiving a refund. Worryingly, if they were to take away the spelling and other mistakes, make the target link address more believable and add a great deal of official-looking small print, they would catch far more people.

I am not stupid enough to say that I will never be taken in by spam and other scams - all it needs is for someone to push the right buttons for greed and flattery to overcome my innate paranoia. But by examining spam message in this manner I learn to be more cautious.

Strange names

2011-02-18T19:35:00.001Z

I once knew a girl called Josaline; not the normal form of the rare name Jocelyn, but a much rarer, Anglicised form, as if her parents had either been incredibly intelligent or so deliriously happy that they utterly misspelt the name.

My wife's name is Şencan, meaning merry soul. It is rare even in her native Turkey. It also, apparently, rhymes with 'little coffee cup', both of which are apt for her (*).

Do I have a thing for women with strange given names?

(*) We just found out that Google Translate translates her first name as 'Vampire'. Which, again, is most apt...

A great response...

2011-02-17T21:27:00.004Z

Airbus and Boeing have been having an ongoing spat about direct and indirect subsidies. Late last year the World Trade Organisation gave a ruling on Boeing's claims against Airbus, and found that Airbus did benefit from launch aid granted to it by European governments.

Now the WTO has ruled on Airbus's complaint against Boeing. Although not yet official, it looks as though it has found Boeing guilty of unfair pracitices with the US government, mainly through receiving R&D and other development benefits (for instance, by NASA sharing fundamental research with them).

This page on FlightGlobal shows an advert run by Boeing in light of the latest findings, and Airbus's hilarious response.Take a look at them and see the way that a responsive advertising and publicity department can win the day (*).

Well done, Airbus. You not only responded to Boeing's claims, but you managed to make them look childish as well. A brilliant example of reactive advertising.

(*) A couple of decades ago there was an article in the Daily Telegraph about some Coastguards who had driven off high cliffs in fog. Their Land Rover had been wrecked, but they escaped with cuts and bruises. The next day, the newspaper carried a full-page advert by Land Rover, with the original article in the middle. Above, in a large font, were the words: "We apologise for the cuts and bruises".

Genius.

Thirteen more walks on the website.

2011-02-13T09:21:00.000Z

There are many more walks on the website. this update has been particularly fraught as I decided to update all of the scripts that generate the 'site as I moved them to my PC. The scripts had been hacked together over more than a decade and are mostly written in a language called Perl; some of the old code was incompatible with the newer versions of Perl. As I had to do some changes to get them to work, it seemed sensible to do some more general improvements...

With hindsight, this was probably a mistake ;-)

All the pages now seem to be in order. Each page has another section added, as requested by a reader, detailing some walks near to each walk. Otherwise the page format should be unchanged.

The walks from 2010:

876	West Parley to Blandford Forum	19.5	13/12/2010
875	A circular walk from Iford to West Parley	14.9	09/12/2010
874	A circular walk between Hengistbury Head and Bournemouth	15.8	29/11/2010
873	Seaton to Sidford	12.4	27/11/2010
872	Charmouth to Seaton	11.9	06/11/2010

The walks from 2011:

884	Marnhull to Gillingham via Stourhead	21.4	03/02/2011
883	Blandford Forum to Pillwell	20.2	01/02/2011
882	Yarmouth to West Cowes	17.4	27/01/2011
881	A circular walk from Yarmouth to the Needles	18.9	24/01/2011
880	Ventnor to Freshwater Bay	19.2	20/01/2011
879	Ryde to Ventnor	19.0	19/01/2011
878	West Cowes to Ryde via Newport	17.6	04/01/2011
877	A stroll around Christchurch Harbour	13.0	02/01/2011

As you can see, I've been fairly busy...

When I'm wrong, I'm very wrong.

2011-02-11T11:36:00.000Z

Only a few weeks after I say that there will be no major new plane designs from Boeing or Airbus in the foreseeable future, Boeing announces one.

I think my crystal ball needs a wipe.

Ships

2011-02-07T21:05:00.000Z

Nearly twenty years ago I did some freelance work for a company that involved manipulating shipping data. Much of my time was spent dealing with vast amounts of information about individual ships held on the Lloyds Register.

As I was clearing out the garage ready for our move, I came across a photocopied sheet out of a Lloyds publication. For some reason I have never thrown it out, and it has survived all of my occasional clear-outs.

The sheet details some of the ship types that Lloyds Register recognise; I had photocopied it as an aide memoire so that I did not need big books open on the desk in front of me.

How many types of ships can you think of? Trawler, oil tanker, tug, ferry, container ship, icebreaker... soon you start to run out of options.

Which is why the list fascinates me: with all of these obvious ship types are many that you would never guess. Things like 'wood chip carrier', 'mining ship', 'seismographic research vessel' and even 'semi-submersible heavy lift tank'. It is a glimpse into another world.

I must admit that the idea of a ship type called 'wine tank' might make me want to become a pirate. You could have one heck of a party with a shipload of Sauvignon Blanc...

What would I do?

2011-02-06T18:38:00.000Z

The crisis in Egypt has led me to ask what I would be doing if I was Egyptian.

Firstly, I am no fan of Mubarak. His regime has - by the standards of the region - not been bad, but by our standards has been very poor. Corruption - both political and institutional - is rife. It is not a functioning democracy. If I was Egyptian I would want him to go.

However, I am also a conservative with a small 'c'. Change is necessary, but should only be undertaken if we can be fairly sure that the change is for the best (*). I abhor change for change's sake; it is nothing more than a gamble.

It is hard to know how you would behave in such a different political climate. I would like to think that I would have been on the streets (were I brave enough) for the first set of protests. However, when Mubarak agreed not to stand in the September elections I would have been happy, as long as those months were spent working out exactly *what* sort of democracy would emerge. A period of cool deliberation is vital, especially when they have such a poor starting position.

That is why today's news about the formation of a committee to study constitutional reform is to be welcomed. Let Mubarak stay in his job as a weakened figurehead whilst the future shape of the country is decided. And yes, that should include the Muslim Brotherhood, however distasteful I find some of their rhetoric. They have 20% of the seats in parliament despite the hurdles placed in their way; it is only right for them to have a say.

Of course, as a secularist I believe a secular, democratic Egypt - with Islamist leanings (in the same way the UK's laws and traditions have a Christian base) - is for the best.

At times democracy may be weak, ineffectual, annoying and even downright perverse, but it is undoubtedly the key to a just society. And Egyptian men and women deserve a just society.

(*) A classic example being Labour's alterations to the House of Lords, something I have a bee in my bonnet about. An argument could be made for getting rid of the majority of the hereditary peers, but only if the replacement system were better. However they removed the hereditary peers and did not specify a replacement, allowing all the parties to stuff the Lords with cronies. This has directly led to the recent debacles and, perversely, less democracy than there was with hereditary peers.

A diesel-steam locomotive

2011-02-05T12:00:00.000Z

I once had a fondness for railways. It was not so much the trains but the actual engineering; the bridges, tracks, and tunnels etc. However, osmosis did mean that I picked up some basic knowledge about the locomotives.

Over the years the various railway companies tried various experimental schemes for locomotives. Some of these are famous, such as Bullied's Leader class. However, there are undoubtedly many weird and wonderful experiments that I have never come across.

Whilst browsing the web somnolently, I came across a webpage on the LNER Encyclopedia. The page details the Kitson-Still locomotive built in the 1930s. It fascinates me as it shows the tentative way that many established organisations approach new technology.

At the time diesel engines and transmissions were relatively new and unreliable, especially in the sizes needed by a steam locomotive. The technology was a step too far for our mostly conservative railway companies. The Kitson-Still was designed to overcome some of these problems.

Diesel engines work by compressing diesel until it spontaneously ignites. Instead of having a seperate diesel engine, the Kitson-Still injected diesel into the opposite side of the cylinders from the steam, allowing the pressure of the steam to compress it to ignition. Hence this literal form of diesel injection would give the steam engine more power.

It was also more efficient - exhaust gasses from the diesel were taken through the boiler, preheating the water. In this manner, the locomotive got up to 40% efficiency - unheralded at the time.

Of course it was a technological dead-end. Diesel technology improved rapidly over the years, and the idea never got around many of the disadvantages of steam - whilst diesel and electric locomotives can be started at the flock of a switch, it takes many hours for a steam locomotive to get to working temperatures. But I must admit to a certain fondness towards this idea.

News

2011-02-04T12:00:00.001Z

I have moved house six times in the last eleven years:

Waterbeach
Fen Ditton
The walk
Great Shelford
Romsey
North Baddesley

Sencan has made a similar number of moves. I have counted the walk as just one move, as we slept in different places most nights. If they were counted separately then it would easily add 250 to 300 onto the total ;-)

Now for the news: as you may have guessed, we are moving once more. Sencan has a new job, so we will be upping sticks in the next few weeks and moving everything back up to Cambridgeshire. Fortunately we have not unpacked many of our boxes from the last move.

It would be nice to have a little stability...

I will leave Southampton with more than a little regret. It is a wonderful area for walking, with the New Forest, South Downs, Salisbury Plain, the Dorset Coast and the Isle of Wight all within an easy drive. I love Cambridge, but the area around it is rather devoid of interesting walks (or at least I have done most of them already).

We went up to Cambridge a couple of weeks ago, and whilst Sencan was at her interview I went for a short walk in the rain from Bottisham Lock. It was muddy, wet and miserable, but I realised how much I miss the Cam. On many a sunny Sunday afternoon my then-girlfriend and I would lay a picnic basket on a blanket by the lock. We would scoff our food as we watched all the inexperienced boaters trying to use the lock. Halcyon days.

The training walks after my last operation were along the Cam between Waterbeach and Ely, an easy walk that I could do on a Sunday morning in time to catch the train back to watch a Grand Prix. Those solitary walks gave me a love for the black horizons of the Fens.

So what are the advantages of Cambridge? Well, we will be able to resume our love of Sunday breakfast scones at the Orchard, an enjoyable experience that adds inches onto our waistlines. I will enjoy the bookshops, although I noticed with shock on my last visit that Galloway and Porter has closed - a sad loss. It will be good to be near the theatres of Cambridge (the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton only ever does musicals). I will also be an hour nearer my parents, and within a reasonable drive of the Peak District. Proximity will allow me to increase my ire about the farce of the guided bus. I will be able to go for a sloppy burger in Gardenias. I will be nearer the Viking chip shop on Milton Road, whose workers I had chatted up so they would give me extra-large portions.

What are the disadvantages? Well, the walking is far less varied than in the Romsey area, and I have to travel a long way to get any hills. I have previously lived in Cambridge for over ten years on and off, and the area offers little new to me. I will miss being within a ten-minute drive of the sea (well, Southampton Water at least). I will miss Romsey, a quintessential English market town. I will miss the people and the vibrancy of the local life. I will miss the ease of driving and parking in Southampton, which makes Cambridge feel oppressive in comparison. I will miss the local chippie, whose workers I had chatted up so they would give me extra-large portions...

As life changes, some things remain constant. My quest for the perfect fish and chips is one such thing.

Some navel gazing

2011-02-02T12:00:00.000Z

Well, the experiment is over. A few months ago I wondered if I could get a blog post out every day. I thought I would try it for a week, but since then I have written over a hundred posts, missing only one day.

So the question is whether this verbal diarrhoea has been at the cost of quality. Looking back, there are some posts that I am proud of, and others that are frankly rather ill-thought out.

Almost every post has forced me to do some basic research, even if it is just checking my facts on Wikipedia or in books. This is something I love, and I have probably sent more time with my nose in books than I have writing.

Unfortunately the daily churn has meant that the quality has not been as good as it could have been. The posts have frequently been hurried, and in many the point I was trying to make has been unclear or obscured by layers of hyperbole.

One of the biggest problems with this blog is its lack of focus. The best blogs tend to be about one topic only, written by experts in that area. My blog covers anything that I find to be of interest, and this leads to a scattergun of topics: from writing and book reviews, through walking and computing to politics. This means that it is unlikely to be of interest to anyone who wants in-depth knowledge of any particular topic. Basically, the ideal reader of the blog would be someone with the same interest as myself; and that would probably just be me.

This was put succinctly elsewhere: "If your blog does not have a niche, then it will become niche itself."

One thing has surprised me: I have plenty to say. The problem has not been finding things to write about; rather it has been finding the time to write.

Yet all of this will now come to an end. I will soon be able to spend less time at my PC, especially if my previous joyful experiences with TalkTalk, Virgin and BT are anything to go by. My life is heading off in another direction. I will still post, but they will not be daily.

I hope you have enjoyed reading these daily posts. I have certainly enjoyed writing them!

Watch this space...

Unforeseen consequences

2011-02-01T12:00:00.001Z

Designing electronics is very difficult. So difficult, in fact, that I am very glad that I chose to become a programmer rather than an electronics engineer.

The problem is always in the polishing. There is an old adage that completing the first 90% of a program takes 10% of the time, whilst completing the last 10% takes the remaining 90% of the time. To put it another way, it is far easier to get something basically working than it is to ensure that it always works well under all necessary conditions.

This is one of the reasons why there are so many buggy programs - the programmer write some code that appears to work and passes basic tests. He knows that there are some areas that may need work, but the management thinks it is good enough and wants him to work on the next task. That last 10% of the job, the polishing, often never occurs.

And it is far worse in electronics, and especially consumer electronics. And sometimes the truly weird and unexpected can come and bite you on the bottom. Take this story on the Connectify blog. Basically, some people with the new Kindle 3 E-Book readers noticed their units were rebooting at random intervals. The Kindle's come with a choice of leather covers, one of which has a light, and the other which is unlit.

Strangely, the failures were only occurring in the Kindles with unlit covers. Connectify did some research, and it turns out that on the powered cover, two gold-plated contacts touch the Kindle to power the light. In the unpowered version, these contacts are metal painted with a non-conductive paint. This paint was wearing off with repeated opening and closing of the cover, allowing a connection to be made. This was drawing power from the Kindle and causing various pseudo-random problems, including crashes and reboots.

Thus the design of a cover for a device has led to a problem with the device itself; circumstances which would have been difficult to foresee. This is one reason why automotive and military electronics are always more expensive: they go to much more bother about the construction and testing of their devices than consumer electronics companies.

Byte magazine

2011-01-31T12:00:00.000Z

So Byte Magazine is coming back. Byte, for those who do not know, was probably the pre-eminent technical computer magazine. Between 1975 and 1998 it gave in-depth technical articles that were accessible to the layman. Unlike all other magazines, it actually gave you the technical detail about the latest computer technology.

We have a large pile of IEEE publications in our living room. They are fascinating reading, but the titles detail the problem: "Graphene transitors for the masses", 'Applications of Voltage and Current Unity Gain Cells in Nodal Admittance Matrix Expansion", and who could forget the amazing "Putting memory into Circuit Elements: Memrositors, Memcapacitors and Meminductors"?

The problem is obvious: you need a massive amount of background knowledge to even start reading the articles.

Byte magazine acted as a primer between general computing knowledge and the technical nitty-gritty. It gave you a springboard that allowed you to access more detailed information; it did not dumb-down the topics and treated the reader as an adult.

My uni's library was stocked with every issue of Byte (going back, I think, as far as the first issue). Major new developments in computing were covered in this accessible format; for this reason if I wanted to know about something, for instance pipelining in processors, I would search out the issue of Byte that introduced that particular topic. It was always better than the other books in the library.

Yet it failed, and with it went a way to teach computing to the masses. I have yet to find a website that comes near the accessibility of the Byte articles; take the article on instruction pipelines on Wikipedia as an example. It would be almost impenetrable for someone who did not already have a great deal of knowledge.

Unfortunately I doubt that the new Byte will be anything like the old beast. I can but hope.

Heathrow capacity

2011-01-30T12:00:00.000Z

So the Government say that they are considering fining Heathrow if travel chaos occurs in the future due to snow or other reasons.

This is farcical.

The way I see it, the owners of Heathrow, BAA, are trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea. Heathrow is operating at 98% of capacity, meaning that there is no spare capacity. As I mentioned in a previous post, this means that there is little slack in the system and delays propagate down.

So the Government has come up with the wheeze to fine them if there are delays. Yet the main causal problem is that of capacity, and that same Government is refusing a third runway or even the building of a brand-new airport. This means that if the fine is set high enough to really have an effect, then the operators will try to avoid them. Something will have to give, and that will be capacity.

There will be less flights from Heathrow, and as it will be illegal to place this burden on just one airport or airport operator, other airports will look at what they can do to avoid the fines. Prices for passengers will consequently increase - maybe not by much, but certainly a little.

Of course, this does not mean that the Ferrovial Group, the ultimate owners of BAA and Heathrow, are investing enough in the infrastructure of their airports. But that is a different issue to the one the Government is failing to target.

The sinking of HMS Invincible

2011-01-29T12:00:00.000Z

One of the oddest conspiracy theories is that, during the Falklands War, HMS Invincible was sunk by the Argentinian air force. Proponents of this theory can be seen vehemently arguing their position in various dark places on the web, for instance here, on MilitaryForums and on Abovetopsecret. There is even a video reconstruction of the alleged sinking, accompanied with suitably patriotic music.

It is obvious patent rubbish for all number of reasons; it would have been exceptionally difficult to cover up the loss of an aircraft carrier, and the same number of carriers returned to Portsmouth as went out. Unlike the sinking of HMS Dasher in World War II, the Falklands War was fought in the glare of the media and TV cameras. The conspiracy theory becomes increasingly convoluted as the theorists reluctantly accept these points, altering the theory to the extent of having the Americans build a 'secret' Invincible class carrier.

One of the funniest of these alterations was when someone pointed out that, if the theory is correct, the wreck should still be in the waters around the Falklands. The answer was hilarious: the British have secretly raised the wreck and taken it for dismantling. All in secret, without anyone seeing the operation.

The loss of the Falklands war is still an open sore with many Argentinians. This leads some to understandably try to counteract the loss of face. Believing that they sunk the British flagship - and that the British have kept it secret to avoid embarrassment - fits the bill.

In attempting to save face, they are just making themselves seem ridiculous.

If it is true - and I have to consume a great deal of alcohol to even contemplate it - then Thatcher's government should be congratulated on a perfect example of deception and media manipulation. Of course, that shows how impossible it is....

So I'm autistic...

2011-01-28T12:00:00.004Z

We thought we'd try a slightly dubious on-line autism test (available here via Wired)
The average score of a control group was 16.4. 80% of those with autism or similar disorders scored over 32.
Sounds fine, right?

Sencan scored 27.
I scored 38.

Ouch.
I'm introverted and (sometimes) intensely focussed, but autistic... no way ;-)

The size of the US economy

2011-01-27T12:00:00.007Z

There has been much talk recently about the threat the US economy is under from the Chinese dragon. Much of this talk has been sensible and based on facts and figures, whilst much has been vitriolic and even racist in nature.

Therefore it is sometimes beneficial to retreat and look at the core assumptions. This figure in a recent Economist gave me pause for thought. It shows a map of the USA, with each state's GDP compared to that of an entire country. For instance, California's GDP lies between that of Italy and Brazil (with the usual caveats about exchange rates). Texas's GDP is only slightly less than that of Russia. It is an amazing and thought-provoking diagram.

According to the IMF (via Wikipedia...), China's GDP is 5,745,133 million dollars, compared to America's 14,624,184 and the combined EU's 16,106,896. California's GDP alone is nearly a third that of China's.

Of course, China's economy is currently growing at an exceptional rate whilst those of the EU and the US are largely static. China's success story has been amazing (as has, incidentally, Brazil's), but that does not mean that it will continue to grow at the same rate. China's structural instabilities will grow with its economy, and the Chinese leaders will need to perform deft management of the population to stop severe growing pains.

America will remain the world's pre-eminent economy for at least a decade, possibly two. It has time to look into the factors that are making segments of its economy uncompetitive and fix those problems. But they do need to look and fix; complaining about the amazing rise of the Chinese dragon will not help them.

The bonefields of Volvograd

2011-01-26T12:00:00.005Z

The story of the Volvograd bonefields horrifies me. I say story, because its mere existence is still debated to this day. The claims first emerged in a book called "Aftermath: The Remnants of War", where the author claims to have visited a field near Volograd (nee Stalingrad). There, he found a vast area containing the bones of German soldiers still lying on the ground. Walter Seledec describes the horror as quoted on the quikmaneuvers website:

"There you are, standing beside an open field, and you are confronted with things you cannot believe, things you have never seen in your life, things you would not think possible in this day and age. There in the open fields, all the way to the horizon, are the skeletons of human beings, just lying there in the open fields. I dont mean a few. There are hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands...Human remains lying in the fields. Human skeletons as far as the eye can see."

The many photographs that Seledec took have preserved the horror for all time. In those photographs, "...(to) the distant horizon...(the) surface is littered with the remains of human skeletons--arms, legs, pelvic bones, skulls, an occasional rib... large piles of bones...fragments, shell cases, and an undetonated projectile; a rusted machine gun; a battered metal container...Skulls...hundreds of them, thousands of them, Just lying around out there in the open fields...Skulls lie in helmets, decayed bones still stand in boots, on the spines hang the identity tags...No cross. No wreath. This unknown soldier never made it into a mass grave. Today, he lies on the steppe outside Volgograd exactly as he fell fifty years ago. His shirt and uniform buttons still lie between his ribs."

Evidence of these fields are sparse. Apparently the photographs have never come to light, and the Russians deny all knowledge. They do admit to having buried many bodies since the 1990's, but the number and scale of these burials is unknown.

What is definite is that vast numbers of German and Russian soldiers must have died in the area. The fact that such a bone field could have existed is horrifying enough, whether it existed or not. People are not debating its existence because it was impossible; after all,at Stalingrad the Germans lost an estimated 750,000 killed, missing or wounded, and the Russians 478,000 killed or missing.

Just pause to think about those numbers, of the hopes and dreams that the (mostly young) men would have had. Of the wives, sweethearts and children left behind. So much human potential wiped out. Stalin once famously said: "One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic". It is important for everyone to ensure that a million deaths is seen as a million individual tragedies; one million grieving mothers, one million grieving sweethearts.

The vast majority of these men would have been innocent; they had no choice but to fight for one of the murderous tyrants Stalin and Hitler were different sides of the same coin, and neither side believed in the concept of the conscientious objector.

We should never forget that war, whilst sometimes necessary, is always horrific.

Sunrise

2011-01-25T12:00:00.004Z

A couple of views from yesterday morning, taken from the Lymington to Yarmouth ferry.

The platform is the Royal Lymington Yacht Club's starting platform.

What a great way to start a day's walk.

Phone hacking

2011-01-24T12:00:00.026Z

I could write a great deal about phone hacking, but will not for fear of my blood pressure.

Let me just say that concentrating on News International is wrong, as the Guardian well knows.

But I will express astonishment at the news that Gordon Brown believes that his mobile phone was hacked whilst he was in Government.

Firstly, there should be a clarification. The reports state that the reporters were doing - and paying someone to do - was simply log into people's voicemail using the default codes. When a voicemail account gets set up, it is given a default access code. It is up to the individual user to change the access code when they receive the phone.

If you use your voicemail - or believe that anyone will leave anything interesting on it - then you should change the code. Some users even disable the code, meaning that anyone who has your phone number can access the voicemail.

We had a Chancellor and PM who could not even perform this simplest of security measures. Who also was magically unaware that people in his closest circle - including some in his office - were smearing members of the opposition.

The man really is incompetent.

Personal privacy versus public secrecy

2011-01-23T12:00:00.013Z

The Assange and Wikileaks controversy is rumbling on, as it undoubtedly will for months to come. Assange is making all sorts of allegations, as indeed allegations (both serious and ludicrous) have been made against him.

One of the greatest defences that the fans of Wikileaks give for the en-mass release of the information is that public secrecy is bad, whilst personal privacy is good. Yet that simple statement ignores the vast overlap there is between the two.

Let me make one thing clear: most of the diplomatic cables released so far have been tittle-tattle of the highest order, with little that has been truly surprising. The real surprise would have been if the surrounding Arab states were in favour of Iran's nuclear program. So Prince Edward said something indiscreet at a party - so what? Nothing of any lasting significance has been revealed.

The boundary between public and private are opaque at best. If I were to go into the street outside my house and scream my deepest secrets, it would be hard for me to claim that they were private. What happens if I was having an affair with my local MP? The affair would be a private matter to me, yet it may well be in the public interest for it to be revealed.

Another example: if I write to my constituency MP with a problem, then I have all rights to expect that correspondence to remain secret; she would have to ask my permission before making it public. Yet the same argument being used by WikiLeak's supporters could be used against correspondence between MPs and constituents: after all, there could be something juicy in there.

There are two main reasons for a government to keep secrets: because they believe that the release of the information could harm the national interest, and because they believe that the release of information could harm their interest. I fully support the former, whilst the latter is hard to justify.

Yet WikiLeaks are releasing both.

There is another significant problem: the Guardian are one of five international newspapers that have visibility of the cables early, and they seem to be releasing mostly information that embarrass the Tories and the Liberal Democrats rather than Labour. The first thing they released about Brown was his support for Gary McKinnon (a cause that is popular with many, wrongly in my opinion). Compare this with the long list of things they have released about the Tories, including the American's concerns about Cameron's and Osborne's inexperience. Yet they have been remarkably quiet about what the diplomats were saying about Brown.

This bias can easily be seen in the searchable database of the information they have released so far. There is a great deal of information about the Royals, the Conservatives and even the Lib Dems, yet much less about Labour. This is particularly surprising as Labour were in power during the vast majority of the period that the cables refer to.

Compare this with the Telegraph (a supposedly right-wing newspaper) - when they released details of the MPs expenses, they released juicy details of Labour on the first day, and the Conservatives on the second. After that the revelations were seemingly made at random.

Likewise, the puerile campaigns by hacker group Anonymous to target companies like Mastercard - who have withdrawn support for WikiLeaks - are utterly self-defeating. Many people who may have some sympathy with WikiLeaks will be disgusted by what they are doing. As Guido Fawkes said: why do Anonymous and the others concentrate on upsetting truly authoritarian governments?

'Personal privacy' and 'public secrecy' are great buzzwords. Unfortunately life is more complex than these simple phrases allow for.

Scare story of the day...

2011-01-22T12:00:00.011Z

I awoke yesterday to Scottish MP, Angus Robertson, saying that security at the Olympics would be put at risk because of the government's cancellation of the Nimrod MR4A aircraft. Apparently the nine aircraft were due to play a key role in counter-terrorism for the event. The media have made a big deal out of his comments.

This sparked a few questions in my mind. The Olympics are going to be in July and August 2012. Yet the Nimrod was only going to be reaching Initial Operating Capability (IOC) in October 2012. Which is, I think you will agree, after the Olympics. (IOC is the time when a system can be used in a minimally useful deployable form).

Therefore he is worried that a system that would not have been ready in time will not be available for use.

There is always the possibility that the planes could have been used before IOC was reached, but would the Government really have wanted planes that they knew were acknowledged as not being ready flying over and around London at any time, yet alone during such a major event? Then again, given the delays that the project had suffered already (it was originally called Nimrod 2000), and other problems, we cannot be sure of the 2012 IOC date either. Only two planes had been delivered to the RAF before the cancellation.

The Nimrod MR4A debacle has been painful for so many reasons, and not just the cost. Yet the loss of the Nimrods means that there are operational requirements that we will not be able to fill. The government will have to look into this as a matter of urgency. This will not be easy; the American's project to fill similar requirements, the Boeing P8 Poseidon, is allegedly facing significant problems.

Of course, this stupid fear story might have more to do with the fact that Angus Robertson's constituency includes RAF Kinloss, the Nimrod's base, which is due for closure.

The media should have seen through in an instant and asked Robertson some pertinent questions. Instead they just went for the quick sensationalist headlines. It could be that he is right, although I doubt it; he should say *what* roles he says the (non-operations) Nimrods were going to be used for.

Soon, we may all be able to walk through Grimsby Docks...

2011-01-21T12:00:00.003Z

... or perhaps not.

The following quote from the BBC website is appearing oh-so often and is starting to annoy me.

Walkers are set to be able to walk around the whole coast of Great Britain

Because, of course, I never walked around the coast of Great Britain, and neither did all of these people.

I am in favour of increasing access to the coast. I am not necessarily in favour of spending at least £50 million in a bureaucratic chase to create an over-engineered motorway. Part of the fun for me was to find routes around the places where there were no paths.

Of course, it will not be a complete path around the entire coast. Military ranges will necessarily have restrictions, as will docks, refineries, gardens, caravan, parks and all manner of other obstacles. These exemptions will have major effects on whether or not long diversions inland will be needed.

I did a quick analysis of the initial stretch of path planned around Weymouth Bay and blogged about it here and here. The plans were not as bad as I had feared, but the proof will be in the pudding.

How things work

2011-01-20T12:00:00.040Z

How things work (in the manner of Stephen Fry)

Part 1: The Pedometer
The pedometer is one of the most lovely inventions of our age. The old-fashioned and wasteful GPS has been utterly replaced in outdoor pursuits and other arenas of most marvellous human activity by peachy pedometers. Not only are they the pinnacle of human endeavour, but they also require virtually no battery power, running off something as simple as a watch battery for a positive eternity of years.

So how do they work? (Oh, I love sounding like that all-round good egg Robert Llewelwyn.) To push a metaphor a pinch too far, a bunch of the best boffiny scientists the world could find got together for a hush-hush chinwag in Budapest. Their mission: to develop a positional and velocity-determining unit that would not need any of those expensive, messy and dreadfully inconvenient satellites.

Take a close look at any of these pretty little bundles. You may notice a little indent looking remarkably like a hole; perhaps it is even disguised with a little screw. Well, my bundles of unperpetuated joy, that is really the disguised black-glass bifurcated lens of a laser. The laser beams down to a foot; generally the left. The signal splits into two; one part of which bounces back to the hole. The other half bounces over to the right foot and back up to the unit. Using some of the infinite marvels of what I like to call mathematics, the timing between the return of the two signals can be used to generate the distance and angle between the two pedestrianising items. These figures allows the unit to keep track of your position and the distance walked. (*)

Yet there is more: the technology developed by the virtuoso scientists have found far more wonderful uses. Blu-ray players use a derated version of the laser used in the pedometers. The swarthy lasers are used in all cars, the data being transmitted by the imponderable wonders of wireless to speed cameras. And that stupendously fabulous sat-nav in your car? The antique GPS technology is so expensive that manufacturers use the exotic pedometer technology instead. And that is why there are so many of the aforementioned speed cameras scattered around out lascivious leafy lanes and curvy cul-de-sacs - they transmit signals to the GPS units to give the units up-to-date positions.

As usual with technology, there is a price. The electrons and magic that whiz around within a pedometer are as fragile as a Peking Poodle; just a smidgen too much aggressiveness and they will break. If you hear even a decibel of rattle then it is broken and will not grant you the accurate illumination that you doubtless so richly deserve.

But, my friends, the more astute amongst you may have noted that you can only access speed and distance on your consumer-grade body-hugging units. That is because a cabal of governments have agreed to remove the position-determining from the units that you, or even I, dear reader, can spend out hard-earned coinage on. That is why a bunch of equally-Einsteinian engineers have been developing an app - Fryshbull - for the stupendous iPhone. I recommend that you download it soon; we're going IPO soon and I need the libidinous notes to fill my mattress (oh bother, I shouldn't have mentioned that, what's the delete gesture on this damned thing)...

(*) I actually used this explanation on one of my friends at university. He utterly believed it.

Another 787 delay and cigar tubes

2011-01-19T12:00:00.044Z

It has just been announced that the first deliveries of the Boeing 787 plane will occur in the third quarter of this year, an extra delay of at least seven months from the last announced date. This brings the delay in first deliveries to well over three years (see timeline), and is reducing the advantage they had over Airbus's competitor, the A350, which is now due for delivery to customers sometime after the middle of 2013.

Add to this the strong rumours that Boeing has been selling the planes at under cost price, and you can see that the company has some major problems. The missteps the company has made will be studied for many years and will undoubtedly fuel many engineering and business PhD theses.

Airbus is still smarting with the problems that it had with the A380 launch a few years ago; delivery delays are still propagating downwards, and they have only recently got the planes' production in order. Boeing's problems with the 787 are far worse and varied in cause, the latest being an electrical fire that occurred just before Christmas, necessitating a redesign of some of the electrical subsystems.

The downside of these problems is that I doubt that either Airbus or Boeing will want to start another brand-new passenger plane development once the A350/787 are in service; the development process is just too expensive. Instead, we will see existing planes evolving, in the way Boeing has kept the 747 going for over 40 years Just this week Airbus have launched the A320neo project to update their popular A320 design with new engines and other minor alterations. There were strong rumours that they would announce the development of a replacement for the A320, but that has now been kicked into the long grass.

Boeing in particular are keen to show pictures and videos of futuristic designs such as the Blended Wing Body (BWB). Unfortunately it looks as though such designs do not promise enough of an advantage over our current cigar tube-fuselages to make them worth developing for passenger use alone. These two massive companies have well and truly had their fingers burnt.

Boeing and Airbus will only launch a new plane development in the next fifteen years if a military requirement appears, or if other aerospace firms start threatening their markets. Several companies are producing competitive passenger planes; the Russians have just launched the Sukhoi Superjet 100, the Chinese are developing the COMAC C919 and Bombardier have the C-Series. All of these new planes, however, are relatively small when compared to the 787 or A350, yet alone the 747 or A380.

It took Airbus from 1967 to 1972 to build the A300, and another few decades to be in a position to build the A380. Planes have become ever more complex, especially with the modern In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) systems, and the barrier to entry in the market are ever steeper.

We will be flying in our cigar tubes for a few decades yet.

A tent without poles

2011-01-18T12:00:00.014Z

There is an interesting article on Gizmodo about a tent without poles - instead it uses inflatable air beams that support the entire structure.

Another firm, NEMO, do inflatable backpacking tents weighing as little as 0.9kg. The main advantage that I can see is that the pack size is tiny when compared to tents that use poles. Additionally, I am quite impressed with their smallest pump - it weighs only 3.8 ounces (107 grams).

The weight, pack size and price all seem competitive with more conventional tents. I can imagine it will be much less stable in high winds, though, and instead of broken poles you may suffer from punctures. To be fair, the inflatable bags they use can easily be replaced.

I wonder if this is a technology in search of a solution? Does anyone have any experience with these tents (*), and are they any good?

(*) Of course, it could be that these products are well-known amongst walkers. I do not read the magazines or go on group walks, so I could have totally missed it.

What a gas!

2011-01-17T12:00:00.042Z

Please watch this video from New York. The homeowner had a gas company drill near his property to use a gas extraction technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. He claims that a consequence of the fracking is that his drinking water can be ignited.

This video absolutely stunned me. Of course such a video is not proof, but it definitely needs independently investigating. Fracking involves pumping water and/or chemicals down into the ground under pressure to break the rock and release the gas. It is a technique that could massively increase the amount of gas available for use. As is often the case, however, we do not get anything for free. It is claimed that the fracturing can release gas and the pumped chemicals into the groundwater, from where it can be drawn into wells.

A documentary film, Gasland, is released today. Its tagline is telling: "Can you light your water on fire?" The situation is, of course, more complex than it first seems - it is alleged that tests of some of these phenomena show that the gas is biogenic (natural) rather than from reservoirs.

This is important to the UK as a firm is about to start extracting gas from the sea off Blackpool using this very same fracking technique.

This brings a simple question to mind: would the executives of the companies involved drink the water coming out of this man's tap? I guess not; I certainly would not out of choice. If the gas company is responsible (and this should be easily provable by studying the isotopes of the gas), then they should be responsible for putting it right.

But neither should this be used as a reason to stop such development. The company developing off Blackpool should be thoroughly open about the chemicals and techniques they are using (as they appeared to be on Radio 4 this morning), and also release geological data. In return environmentalists should be honest about their agendas and congratulate companies that display such openness.

Planning for failure.

2011-01-16T12:00:00.000Z

Years ago I heard a story - possibly apocryphal - about the emergent electronics industry in the sixties. A large American company wanted to get the contract for building some of the Saturn V / Apollo hardware. They worked on their proposal, costed it and got ready for the meeting with NASA.

They were surprised to find that the NASA team was mostly comprised of engineers. This team sat through the company's slick presentation without comment until the end, when they were asked if they had any questions. One of the NASA engineers asked a simple question: "How does it fail?"

The company's marketing men were shocked and did not have an answer. They had prepared for the meeting with lots of questions relating to cost, timescales and capabilities, but this first question totally stumped them.

So why did NASA want to know how it would fail? And why was it their first question? The answer is simple: they trusted the company to meet the specification requested; after all, that was their job. However, they wanted to ensure that if it failed it would not damage any of the other components made by other companies.

After that, the company always had engineers in their meetings with NASA, and always made sure they knew how failure of their devices would affect the rest of the system.

Many of the common bugs in computer programs are caused by the programmer not planning for failure.

Let us take one simple and common instruction in the C programming language. malloc() allocates an area of memory for use by the programmer. On the vast majority of occasions it will succeed, returning a pointer to the memory. However, sometimes it will fail. It is common to see code where the programmer does not check for this failure case. The reason is checking for all possible failures takes time, and programmers are more interested in the cases where it works.

For instance, the following line of code, whilst nominally correct, will have me tearing my hair out:
int *broken_ptr = malloc(20);

A better example would be the following:
int *good_ptr = malloc(20 * sizeof(*good_ptr));
if (good_ptr == NULL)
{
  // Failed to allocate memory, must recover.
}
else
{
  // We can now do something.
  ...
  // We have finished with the buffer. Free the memory.
  free (good_ptr);
  good_ptr = NULL;
}

Even a non-programmer can see that the second example takes far longer to write and requires much more thought. It is, however, much better code (although still not perfect). In particular the programmer will need to consider exactly how to recover from the failure to allocate the memory. Unfortunately, misuse of malloc() in C is a prominent cause of programming bugs.

Similar problems can be seen in many other forms of engineering. It can be seen when 'cascade failures' occur; the failure of one part of a system causes other parts to fail in a cascade. This particularly occurs in power transmission systems, and engineers strive to design against it.

The key is to give engineers the time to design and implement systems fully. It is relatively trivial to get a system working; the real work lies in making it work properly in all cases, including the unforeseen.

Sadness

2011-01-15T12:00:00.000Z

A Gizmodo article has the text of a suicide note written by a programmer called Bill Zeller. This could be voyeuristic, but in this case it is both sad and, in my opinion important, reading.

No-one knew that Bill had been abused as a child. The note details the veil of darkness that the events cast over the rest of his life, including both physical and mental travails. In particular, it shows the way it made it almost impossible for him to form long-lasting relationships.

The whole article is worth a read. He has asked for it to be reproduced in its entirety, and I will therefore not quote from it. Needless to say it is unusual to hear someone eloquently detail the way that abuse has changed their lives, leading them to take the ultimate action.

I have no doubt that there are thousands of people like Bill in this country, yet alone the world. We have to help them to find a way to deal with their past without destroying themselves. The past cannot be altered; we can only deal with the future.

What is more, abusers (and I include low-level abuse such as bullying in this) have to understand that their actions are not just of the moment; they linger amongst their victims. I have known too many people, both male and female, who have been sexually, physically or mentally abused; in one case all three. Several of these people have significant problems in later life, directly caused by the abuse.

RIP Bill Zeller.

The Assange case has just got nastier.

2011-01-14T12:00:00.042Z

I have been closely watching the Julian Assange case over the last few months. It is impossible at the current time to know what the truth is, especially as there is so much FUD being thrown about - rumours about the state of Swedish law, claims and counter-claims about whether the charges were initially dropped, etc. People appear to have made up their minds with few facts on the table, and are fervently trying to make the facts fit their pre-formed opinions.

I believe that it is everyone's responsibility to be sensible when discussing the case. That is why this blog post (*) makes my blood boil. In an article headed with the totally biased title, 'The name of Julian Assange’s other false rape accuser is ......'(I have removed the woman's name), the writer not only names the woman, but also posts pictures of her.

I am on record as being in favour of both the victim and accused having anonymity until such time as a conviction occurs; anonymity for just one party seems unjust to me. However, that does not mean that the opposite is true; that both parties should be named.

The blog post is an awful rant that runs counter to justice, using phrases such as 'stalkerish groupie' with abandon. The writer is someone who has no idea of the effect that rape claims - just or unjust - can have on all the parties involved. He has made up his mind, and is on a campaign with the fervour of a religious zealot.

I would like to ask the author of the post why he thinks people need to know the accuser's name? What good can posting pictures of her possibly do, except to place her under added stress and pain? I believe that this post places her life (and that of the other woman) in further danger. Some of the comments on the blog post are frankly sickening.

The truth about the Assange case is out there, but I doubt we will ever know the truth...

(*) I was in two minds about whether or not I should link to the post: on one hand it makes it more likely for the woman's name to be spread further; on the other, it allows people to read the post and make up their own minds. In the end I decided on the latter. Unfortunately the link will also increase the guy's google ranking...

Jared Loughner

2011-01-13T12:00:00.031Z

The media is becoming increasingly hysterical about Jared Loughner's assassination attempt on the Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. An attempt, it should be added, that was so incompetent that whilst the target thankfully survived, six other people were killed and many injured.

Prominent Democrats have made tenuous connections between Sarah Palin and the shooting, and the Republicans have pointed out that the Democrats are hardly averse to such behaviour (for instance, Obama himself saying ''If they bring a knife to a fight, then we bring a gun"). Guns are so engrained in American culture that such martial talk is inevitable on all sides.

Slugger O'Toole goes into this in more detail.

It seems to me that blame needs to be pointed in one direction only: at Jared Loughner himself. It was therefore with interest that I discovered this morning that it is more than likely that Loughner was a member of the conspiracy theory website, Above Top Secret. The rest of this post assumes that this belief is correct.

I have read ATS for some years now. It is a dark and often amusing corner of the Internet, and comprises of a series of forums. Some, like the advanced aircraft forum, have knowledgeable people contributing snippets of information not commonly available elsewhere. Others, like the 911 and 2012 forums, are worth reading just to see the way people can wrap themselves in layers of flawed analysis and false logic. It makes for reading that is both hilarious and distinctly worrying.

The website has admitted that Loughner was probably a member, and have commendably listed all the posts made under what is believed to be Loughner's alias.

It makes fascinating reading. One of the topics he created says that the space shuttle cannot fly with a crew. Another posits that the entire Mars Rover project is faked. His posts and comments show someone who seems to barely have a grip on reality, yet alone logic. For instance take these two gems:

I don't believe it's possible to send the mars rover to mars.

I don't believe it's possible to stabilize communication from mars to earth.

I think we can safely say that both of these are extraordinary claims, and require extraordinary proof. Yet he makes no attempt to prove them. He has decided something and uses them as a basis for a conspiracy theory.

The posts portray Loughner as a troubled man, and one for whom reality appears to have been a stranger. His command of English was so poor that I actually found it hard to believe that it was his main language.

The shuttle post is particularly interesting as it gives a possible direct connection between Loughner and Gifford, and one that is far stronger than Palin's targeted map. Gifford's husband is Mark Kelly, an astronaut on the shuttle program and who is due to be the commander of the last planned shuttle flight later in the year. Is it inconceivable that someone who believes the shuttle program is faked would attempt to get at the wife of an astronaut on that program, especially when she is also a local politician? It is certainly a much more direct connection than the sickening slurs against Palin.

Toning down political rhetoric is to be commended; I doubt it will happen. But the blame for this issue lies with Jared and the entire culture he lives in, not stupid comments made by politicians.

Sometimes there are no easy answers.

I wish Gifford and all of the injured a speedy recovery.

Edit: 13/01/2011, 14.30
It appears that this was not Loughner's first contact with the Giffords. In 2007 he submitted the following written question to her:

“What is government if words have no meaning?”

Apparently he was unsatisfied with her answer. Which is sad, because I am not sure what answer I would give to such a malformed question. Perhaps: "Government is actions, not words." But that is weak.

Given this, it could be that his rants against the shuttle were caused because Gifford's husband was a shuttle commander.

It is looking increasingly unlikely that a campaign poster caused this.

Rambling thoughts on wind and power generation, part 4

2011-01-12T12:00:00.113Z

There was never going to be a fourth part to this rambling, but comments on- and off-line have rather forced my hand. This section will go into what I believe environmentalists should do.

Firstly, let me say that most environmentalists I have met have had their hearts in the right place. They care deeply about the environment, and many are guided by their own personal morals. I may disagree with some of what they say, but much of it makes sense. (And let's face it: there is no one environmental movement, and there are many disagreements between environmentalists about the way forward).

Having got that unheralded unanimity out of the way, this is what I think they should do.

All interested parties (i.e. the government, environmentalists and even armchair commenters such as myself) should sit down and produce detailed figures of where they foresee our power coming from by 2021 and 2031. In doing so, they are only allowed to reduce the maximum power used by the country by 10% (history has shown that efficiency savings are swamped by new uses for power). Their figures should include costs and risks.

Again, I would recommend David MacKay's book, 'Sustainable energy without the hot air' for anyone wanting to start on this process. At the very least you will learn a great deal about the issues. Knowledge is key - I have certainly learnt a great deal as I have written these posts. Try to throw your preconceptions into the long grass as you do the work, and try out various scenarios. Of course this is exceptionally hard to do in practice.

If anyone wants to decrease the available power by more than 10% then they need to explain:

What the coping strategies will be (i.e. how to ensure that our economic and social life can continue with that reduced power).
What the effect of that change will be with respect to the world's total energy consumption.

I read with interest the Green Party's manifesto at the last election. Amongst more sensible proposals (e.g. introducing smart meters), the 'energy' section contains the following:

Prioritise the new 3 Rs: Remove, Reduce, Replace. First remove demand altogether where possible (e.g. by stopping the carbonintensive activity altogether, or by true zerocarbon technology); then reduce demand (e.g. by energy-efficiency measures); then switch to renewables for whatever energy need is left.

I would like to know what 'true zerocarbon technology' is, as it does not currently exist in any form for many industries. Just look at the problem with electric cars: the range of such cars are far too low to be usable for most people, and the charging time is prohibitive. There is currently no acceptable replacement for the petrol and diesel engine. This is called betting the future on the unknown ('oh, something will come along...'). It may, but it may not, and possibly not in the required timescale. Even if we all moved to electric cars tomorrow, we will need a way to generate the power for them. The only solution is for us to all travel less, and it will be a brave politician to demand this of his or her electorate.

Stopping carbonintensive activity is also immensely difficult. Fort instance, do they want to ban the use of cement (responsible for about 5% of man-made CO2 emissions)? If so, how does that conflict with their other manifesto commitments, for instance to build new houses? Can we build high-speed rail without cement?

Reducing demand is economically dangerous. How do you reduce demand? Agriculture is a major source of CO2 emissions, yet how do we reduce demand and still feed the world's population? Oh, and the environmentalists will not let us use genetic modification to increase yields either.

Additionally, they say:

Aim to obtain about half our energy from renewable sources by 2020 and ensure that emissions from power generation are zero by 2030.

Yet they do not give details of how we will meet these targets without risking massive social upheaval (remember, there is only nine years before 2020). Saying 'build more windfarms!' is not a solution.

It seems to me that few in the environmental movement are being honest about their plans. Frankly, their sums do not appear to add up.

The energy section of the Green Party manifesto details their obsession with carbon, and nothing about how to mitigate the effect that their policies will have on the population. Whilst depressingly vague on the form these amazing zerocarbon technologies will take, it contains an entire section detailing their reasoning against nuclear power. This includes the staggering claim that, as doubling nuclear power would only reduce carbon emissions by 8%, it is not worth doing. They also say that consumers would have to pay for nuclear reactors, yet they conveniently forget that consumers are already paying excesses for renewable power (indeed, they want to increase such payments by increasing the feed-in tariffs).

It was not an energy policy; it was a series of wishes wrapped up in an unsustainable package.

The environmentalists need to come up with full solutions, including figures, risks and costs, rather than just sniping from the sidelines. Only then can there be true debate. MacKay has made a good stab at some of this (see chapter 27 of his book, where he details five possible low-carbon plans - page 212 shows these in comparison). None of these plans are perfect. I have yet to see similar breakdowns from the Green Party, Greenpeace or any of the other campaigners. (*)

If they cannot come up with the figures then their comments should be treated as a small part of a much larger whole.

(*) It would be interesting to see a website that takes MacKay's work and allows the user to build his or her personal energy policy for the country. Each decision could come with estimated costs and risks. At the very least it would give people an indication of the awful complexity of the issues. It could also give you CO2 emission totals and the geopolitical problems (e.g. of getting oil from the Middle East, or solar power from northern Africa). There is something similar to this that can be downloaded from the http://2050-calculator-tool.decc.gov.uk/ website, although based on Excel (**). Unfortunately it does require more than a little knowledge to use. A little extra work should get it there.

(**) This is a freakilly powerful Excel spreadsheet, and shows the power of this brilliant package. As a further aside, I once worked with a project manager who had written a comprehensive project management system in Excel. It was amazing, but I could never quite get my head around it.