The Future of Mobile phones

Bruce Sterling, a science-fiction writer whose future caught up with him, and who now writes books about contemporary design and technology, believes phones will be “remote controls, house keys, Game Boys, flashlights, maps, compasses, flash drives, health monitors, microphones, recorders, laser pointers, passports, make-up kits, burglar alarms, handguns, handcuffs and slave bracelets.” In short, he believes that the phone will be “the remote-control for life”.
Oh no!

Tiny projectors inside handsets could allow walls, tabletops or screens made of flexible materials to be used as displays while on the move, suggests Jeff Wacker, a futurist at EDS, a technology-services firm. Some firms are also developing displays built into glasses, in order to do away with the screen altogether. This approach also makes it possible to overlay information on the real world, which could be useful when giving directions. Your phone might even label people at a party or conference to remind you of their names.
Could be useful

Or perhaps it will discreetly whisper their names in your ear. Today's earpieces may give way to smaller devices hidden in earrings or worn as minuscule patches on the skin near the ear. It would then be possible to listen to your phone or music-player while still hearing the ambient sounds of the environment.
Maybe?

Stuart Wolf, a physics professor at the University of Virginia and a researcher for the American military, suggests that within 20 years people will use their thoughts to communicate not only with machines, but also with each other—doing away with talking into phones entirely. Telephony could give way to telepathy.
Ooh, even ...bad thoughts?

Everything from shoes to shirts to sunglasses could well contain tiny wireless chips, people may use their phones to communicate with objects as well as talking to people. You could then use a search engine not just to find information on the internet, but to find objects in your home. “I want to search my home via Google—I want to find my green shirt,” says Mr Lindoff.
That would do nicely!

Concerns over privacy and security could derail plans to turn phones into electronic wallets or universal keychains, for example. Phones that know more about their owners could do all kinds of new things, but could also raise new concerns.
Ulp!

There will certainly need to be powerful authentication techniques to ensure that phones can only be used by their legitimate owners, says Mat Hunter of IDEO, an international design firm. Already, some phones have built-in finger scanners for just this purpose.
But if I lose it will I remember anything about my life?

Human memories will shrink, thoughts will be permanently clouded by music of our choice, other peoples malign thoughts etc, we will always be able to find our spectacles and keys, we will have photos of everything we ever do....but will we be happier?

Barcelona

Welcome to warm and sunny Barcelona...in October.











The city of prosperity and scintillating, budget breaking, deadline ignoring Gaudi architecture. And this is just the chimney pots.










And a Park in which the projected housing estate never got beyond the second house.
So we lucky folk can enjoy the fruits of their financial excess of a century or so ago.

The fountains at Montjuic were upgarded for the 1992 Olympics and drew a very large when we were there, as well as a few pickpockets.










If you would like to see more pictures visit http://flickr.com/photos/brainwave/

LONDON OPEN HOUSE

Last year we focused on the Whitehall area: this year we decided to try the City.

And like other people on your right were intrigued by...what?








No, no not this ...they where as sober as we were.


Nor were we phased by this aggressive looking bloke. It was the view from the 11th floor of the

















Lloyds building.


We didn't go up these stairs to get there but some poor s*ds have to.















In fact Magog - the aggressive one - was at the Guildhall which is the local council's (i.e. the Corporation of London) HQ and where in the past luminaries such as Archbishop Cranmer and Lady Jane Grey were sentenced to death. It is now also used for dinners with royalty etc which are a big part of City activity. It also has an art gallery, the ruins of London's small Roman amphitheatre and this lovely set of stained glass windows. Some of the eclectic group of characters depicted still live in history (Chaucer, Milton, Guttenberg, Dick Whittingdon etc) and several others ...don't.


We skipped the very long queue for the Bank of England and ended up at the Vintners Livery Company. Lovely building, friendly and informed people on hand to chat to, and an insight in to a little known area of ancient privilege. They have responsibility for swan upping (marking of young swans) on the Thames through Royal Charter, which was granted them by Charles I. This was a reward for them supporting him financially when he was skint and fighting Cromwell and for feeding his troops on the swans they looked after on the Thames. Bet you did not know that.

Oh to be a Sculptor

(Click on image for a bigger version; click again to return)
We took in a dispaly of 66 sculptures at RHS Wisley last week that were being exhibited by a Society of professional sculptors. They were made from bronze, ceramics,wood, wires, etc and followed a limited number of themes viz. nude women, a few clothed blokes, animals/insects and abstracts. All one had common theme - they were very highly priced.

I thought that quite a few would not fair well from the weather because of dust, frost, leaves etc causing them to crack, rust, look scruffy etc.


One or two were unrepeatable because of the materials used but many came in a set of 50 or so, and some were the 3rd or whatever set of 25/50/ etc. When they are priced at over £1k each you might think that succesful sculptors drive round in Rolls Royces. Mind you I do not know what the cost of the materials is and transporting a large bronze must be a challenge.


So climb aboard and enjoy like this chap and see some of the better ones.































This one below was our joint favourite.

WIRED WEYBRIDGE

These are about nine of the eighteen masts visible from the spot where this pictures was taken from.

MOODY WATERS

Walking along the canal at Send recently on a sunny weekend we happened on this colourful barge. You know the sort of thing , barges owned by grey beards with a liking for thick grey jerseys, and the 'Missus' covering her boredom in the kitchen - er, the galley - by serving up a constant supply of tea and nibbles.

It was part of a Rally, which is an event where the grey beards have a jolly good time meeting to discuss lock gates, mooring rights, boats they have owned etc. and other riveting subjects.


A weekend or so later the weather's mood darkened when we walked down the Thames Path at Walton. This brooding sky turned out to be an empty threat and a greater risk was of being bowled over by an agressive cyclist. These are the ones with a compulsory helmet who ride cross country bikes with no mudguards. They also have no idea that walkers cannot hear them approaching from behind and never think to say "excuse me" as they hurtle past.

One of these chaps squeezed silently past me on river side at about 20 mph and narrowly missed me. Had he been an inch closer he would have ended up in the river and I probably would have been testing the less used part of my vocabulary. On he sped without a sign that he had a near miss. If only ....

Them's Quair folk

We have had a week motoring around Herefordshire with Grandma exploring England's' richly eccentric countryside. The tempo of life is not too exacting as the photo of the fisherman shows. He took himself and all his goodies into the river and sat in the water to ...keep his feet cool? to pacify the fish?














Churches are one of the main features to visit and this one was very pleasing. Very unusually it has a thatched roof. It turned out to be built about 1902 to the spec of a Prof of design (not architecture) and he was obviously a follower of the Arts and Crafts movement. It included some very very elegant arches, pyramid shaped lights and and an altar piece designed by Burne Jones and made by William Morris' firm.

There were plenty of black and white houses around - half timbered if you prefer - and one of the nicest was the Old House in Hereford. It is the sole remaining part of a medieval terrace known as Butchers' Row and apparently was owned by an upcoming butcher. This was in the days when a dog might be taken to bed for warmth on cold nights and when folks like his family were unwittingly poisoning themselves with the lead of their pewter eating vessels. Modern preferences are, of course, for nicotine, alcohol and non-medicinal drugs - but these are conscious choices.

The most beautiful ruin we saw was of Tintern Abbey, a name I know well but without previously knowing where it is.
It was first built by Cistercian monks in about 1200 in a then isolated valley and was run on a self supporting basis. The Cistercians did this to cut themselves off from the dissolute monks that preceded them. Four hundred years later Henry VIII had the place smashed up as part of the Dissolution, the same as he did to Chertsey Abbey and, also Cistercian, Waverley Abbey (remember it Gordon and Diana?). Tintern is very tall and weathered light grey in parts giving it an air of faded nobility and elegance.





On the way back home we called in on the Avebury Ring which is apparently 5,000 years sold. The scale of the site and the relative precision of the layout indicates that its pre-historic makers knew a lot about geometry and were organised enough to work as a team to dig a moat, lay out huge boulders etc at much the same time (if my memory serves) as the ancient Egyptians started their monumental buildings. I guess that there were Kings, slaves and taxes to help things along.

And now for the kinky bit.


Whilst we were there we saw this group of people in a circle, performing a ritual. They are looking at a prostrate red-haired woman dressed in purple. She had previously been holding a long knife and muttering over and over again "Shall I do it? Shall I..." as she crept up to a crude straw cross shape that was lying on the ground. She then shrieked and repeatedly stabbed the shape. The woman in blue who is reaching down to her, then circled around her brandishing a sickle before she too stabbed it in to the straw shape. The spectators were silent during this mumbo jumbo and it was not clear what the straw represented. These are the sort of people who also perform rituals at Stonehenge, which was built about the same time as Avebury. They could have been druids, wicca, heathens or pagans according to Wikipedia.

The weather was very hot at the beginning of the week and then cooled rapidly before bursting into a continuous downpour after we arrived home. Perhaps there is a hidden message there from Herefordshire.

Muffin, the cat burglar

We had just got to bed last night, ready for early rising today, when we heard some loud and unfamiliar clattering noises from outside. Our first instinct was that someone was trying to break in, although it seemed naive to attempt it so soon after we had switched our lights off. However, peering out of the bedroom window there was no sign of activity and I went back to bed. Half an hour later the clattering was repeated. I forced myself out of bed again to look but there was no sign of anything unusual. Despite listening attentively we both soon drifted off to sleep and thought no more about it.

I cycled out early this morning to a meeting and on return went to drive the car out of the garage, preparatory to a day out in the heatwave. As I sat down in the car a familiar, croaky miaow told me that Muffin, a neighbour's cat was close at hand. I let him out of a back door, he jumped out and, cool cat that he is, strolled nonchalantly down the road having obviously spent the night locked in the garage.

After forensic examination we were able to work out what had happened. I had put the car in the garage at about 4.30 pm the previous day but left the garage door ajar to let out trapped heat. On going out at about 7.30 Barbara shut the door, unknowingly trapping Muffin.

There is pile of laminate flooring at the end of the garage and he used this to climb on the bonnet. They are slippery and some fell down making the clattering noise. He walked all over the bonnet, onto the car roof and pawed at the closed driver's window. He disturbed the flooring again, perhaps when he jumped down. He then jumped through the passenger window, which was open, and hairs indicate must have gone to sleep in the driver's seat. Fortunately he does not drive... yet. At some point he moved to the back seat.

Fortunately there is no evidence that he had a pee in the car, so all's well that ends well. We will be making Muffin inspections during the rest of the heatwave. This is a cat who regularly ends up sleeping on neighbours' beds having come through a cat flap!

Coastal visit

We had a very nice trip down to the coast last week. One place we visited was Bosham which is exposed to floods from the estuary it lies on. Two solutions to the problem have been to raise the bottom of the front door to an expected level above flood water, but keeping the top of the door the same height; and to have steps out of the living room window down to the road outside. The window is a bay and the bottom is lead lined to make it waterproof.

The aaah! factor was the boats as usual, and the permit breaking swan.

BLOG MOAN

My chosen style in blogging seems to take the system to its limits. I have to remember to insert the photos in the reverse order to the one in which I want them displayed, but the text has to be entered in the same sequence as shown. Also the layout in the draft differs from the preview and it is different again in the published form, sometimes with big gaps then appearing - as in my previous Blog. Very frustrating. About time Google sorted it out.

Woking Classic Car Show

This is a show provided by owners who are often much older than the cars they own. The De Dion Bouton is an exception that breaks the rule. It dates from 1903 and was in much better condition than its passengers.

Or so I thought until 20 metres after it moved off the driver had to leap out and re-start it. There was no starter motor in those days and so a man had to use a handle connected to the engine to turn it over to get it going. This was hard work. And riding in it on a wet day would not be much fun either.

One of the cars with even better finish than a modern Beemer was the following Bentley with a Flying Lady statuette on the bonnet, walnut trim on the dashboard, stainless steel mouldings and leather upholstery in a delightful shade of grey. Very nice car. The owner was well upholstered too.




The only US car I spotted was a Thunderbird which presumably inspired a certain British TV program (Thunderbirds are go!).











A car I was very pleased to see was a Morris 8. This was the same as my Dad's first car except that the latter was a saloon (i.e. it had a roof). Luverly, innit?

Busy Bee

Readers of this blog (aka the silent minority) will wish to know that the blue tit family have vacated their premises. It seemed to all happen on a single day when there was much twittering and a lot of these birds flitting in the branches of the chestnut tree. Presumably they now roost in the surrounding bushes. The latest seasonal visitors are the bees pollinating the poppies amongst other flowers, like this one:

Watch the birdy!

These photos were taken at 1/1000th second and yet the blue tit's wings are a blur in flight. It took a while to get them because of the speed of their departure from the box. Very easy to miss them given the camera's warm up lag. One has to use "motor drive" on the offchance one gets them in frame with one of the shots.

Enjoy.

Our wild life refuge

We have tenants for the nest box as you can see. Not sure what this one was carrying as it flew off. Mum and Dad Blue tits make frequent flights in and out during the day, travelling at great speed presumably because they feel vulnerable as they go into or come out of the box.

In the meantime one of the squirrels thinks it should be in a circus act. It leaps onto the "squirrel proof" bird feeder and dangles on it so that it tilts and seed on the floor of the feeder tumble into its mouth.

Woking takes a step...Forward??

We may have lost the opportunity at the eleventh hour to have County Hall relocated in Woking because of County funding cuts ... but we are going to gain a Starbucks!

One door closes and another one...

Commuting, Sydney style

No posts in March, and April is nearly over. Got to get going.

Commuting - boring subject. Drive, go by train or bus and if you are lucky walk a bit? Not necessarily.

If you live in the sunburb - I mean suburb - of Balmain and work in the centre of Sydney here is a way to go.
Yes, it helps if it is sunny and warm. Yes, this is 90% of the time in Sydney.





Of course if it rains you might have to try another form of transport, like this.
Only calls half hourly and takes half an hour to get there.




And as you read the paper while chugging across the harbour, you might spot the occasional interesting sight:











Of course, you could take the bus....

Family History

Reading Turpinus pharaohnic blog contribution I was struck by the similarities between the Baty and Bates history and the Turpin and Sam[m]s story.

I have been able to go back to the birth of John Beattie, my triple great grandfather in Cumberland in 1791 but have reached cul-de-sacs earlier in my searches through other bloodlines. This character moved to an obscure part of Northumberland, perhaps in search of a job or a wife, and stayed there until he died of "exhaustion 7 days" when he was 92 and still an agricultural labourer. His children and grandchildren appear to have lived out their lives on the land nearby, with the women taking jobs "in service" before getting married.

Curiously my 5 known great grandparents - not 6 because my paternal grandfather was illegitimate - were all born during the window of 1851 to 1861 and each had 7 children by the time of the 1901 Census. Was this down to following the fashion of large families set by Queen Victoria or due to a combination of poor contraception and lower infant mortality?

Having seen the recent programmes on BBC2 about some celebs' family histories I wonder too about the poverty these families must have endured with low income, small dwellings, outside loos, no central heating, etc.

We too had blacksmiths in my maternal grandfather and his father, and this is understandable as they must have been as necessary in their time as commercial garages became for cars.

My father's generation was one that broke out from their rural fastness getting jobs in the public services i.e health, fire and police services and moving to cities, mostly in other counties. The attraction was probably stability of employment for a generation with recent experience of the 1930s depression. To my knowledge Horace and Albert Minster took the same route and others in the Turpin and Sams lines may have done too for opportunities that do not exist in farm work.

What a far cry from the lives and prospects of our children with their creature comforts, job mobility, electronic "necessities", stressful work, etc etc.

DUNSFOLD

I thought of renaming the site to reflect its pictorial nature but Percy Flage (or is it Per-Si Flage?) already has powerful P-words in his title and might get jealous.

Anyway, here are this weekend's curiosities from a village called Dunsfold (click on the photo for the detail). First "modern "standing stones - why do they admit it? Why don't they say they were erected by some mysterious ancestors who carried out strange rituals there, and get the touristic benefit?

They made a fine sight on the horizon, even though there was no sunshine to highlight them.









The second one is of a pub sign, probably modern too, and not very inspired but suggesting that binge drinking has been with us for a while.