New Labour, new blog

Yesterday I discovered that my MP, Kerry McCarthy, the Honourable Member for Bristol East, has a blog… well almost.

Technorati defines a blog as: “A personal journal on the Web.”

How does Kerry’s effort measure up?

Personal journal – yes. I can see a raft of articles on different topics – Saddam Hussein, a hatchet job on Conservative leader David Cameron, something on Gordon Brown and so on. Let’s click on a link…

OK, done that, but wait: there’s something missing. How does one comment? Comments are the lifeblood of blogging. They enable authors to have a conversation or a debate with their visitors. As usual, the political class hasn’t quite grasped the idea correctly (no wonder we get ill-conceived, badly drafted legislation).

However, could there be more sinister reasons behind this. Remember that our Kerry is a loyal New Labour acolyte. She’s never been known to vote against the party line and as such is a Chief Whip’s dream. She seems to have wandered into politics not realising that the main impetus behind politics is ideas and the debating of ideas, which can sometimes result in dissent and conflict. But this isn’t likely to happen on Kerry’s blog. Kerry seems to take the line that debate might upset people and that would never do.

On the other hand, if she ever wants to learn how to blog properly, Kerry might do well to have a look at the tips compiled on the Blogging Skills Exchange.

Satan wears a tux

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Ichthux, the Ubuntu-based Linux distro for Christians, and the last time I looked at the ISOs on my local network, I discovered there’s yet another – Ubuntu Christian Edition. Never one to miss out, Mephistopheles has now got his own back: idle hands have been found to do his work and the result is Ubuntu Satanic Edition, bylined the “distro of the beast”.

It’s actually an add-on package for Ubuntu’s latest ‘Edgy’ release. If you’re impish enough to want to give it a go, there are full installation and configuration instructions available.

As it’s winter, being somewhere nice and warm does have a certain attraction…

While I think about it, shouldn’t the title have been the other way round? Have you ever seen a penguin with cloven hooves, horns and a tail? As the old adage goes, the devil’s in the detail.

MP talks rubbish too

It’s not just the local councillors that talk rubbish, local MP Kerry McCarthy does too! Here’s the pertinent bits of a reply to an email I sent her nearly 2 months ago:

“I appreciate your concern about the standards of service currently provided by the Council, particularly regarding rubbish and litter problems. I have received many complaints from constituents about this matter in recent months. It seems that an existing problem has been exacerbated by the introduction of a new waste collection system this summer. While I am very much in favour of more recycling, I feel the new rubbish and recycling arrangements could have been better introduced to ensure a smoother transition.

I have been in touch with the Council several times recently in connection with this matter, asking them to resolve the problem. The Council’s Waste Services and Street Scene Team inform me that they are now addressing the problem by educating certain residents about rubbish disposal, and also by taking enforcement action against those not using the waste collection services effectively.“

Well Kerry, at least we’re agreed on one thing: Bristol City Council have made a mess of introducing their new waste management scheme with built-in puzzle!

I would nevertheless give you one piece of advice: don’t believe what the Council tell you; they have been known to indulge in untruths on occasions.

Streaming in the Burg

Last Tuesday’s Bristol Dorkbot event had a change of venue, moving to St Werburgh’s Community Centre. Perhaps on this account or the impending Yuletide mayhem, attendance was disappointing.

However, those who did not show up missed two excellent reasons for coming:

• bottles of genuine Irish Guinness weighing in at 7.5% alcohol; and
• Mike Harris of Psand.net on audio and video streaming using open source technologies.

Mike’s a Bristol Wireless volunteer, like myself, but also has the distinction of being a founder of Dorkbot Barcelona. He’s involved in running two media streaming projects – Radio Vague and its companion, Vague TV.

Standing before a trolley full of audio kit – microphone, sounddesk, compressor, USB audio device – and laptop, Mike kept up a constant stream of audio (at background level in the room itself through the small PA rig). We all huddled up close so Mike didn’t have to use his namesake.

He began by telling us he started working at festivals to avoid having to pay for admission, eventually ending up doing audio streaming for Lost Vagueness at the Glastonbury Festival, hence the Radio Vague name.

We then lifted the bonnet on the audio stream to which we were listening, in this case a playlist of the laptop (running Linux, of course). This audio signal was split by a package called Ardour to produce two streams – one for firing up the network cable to the internet, the other an audio file saved to the laptop’s hard drive as a record (or archive) of the audio stream. Any kind of audio input can be streamed – DJ in club or bedroom, live band, conference and so on. Your audio is streamed via the ices program to a broadcast server running icecast which then pumps it out to the internet and your audience. Video streaming works on the same principles.

There’s more about streaming at Radio Vague and information about the ices and icecast packages is available from icecast.org.

Hopefully with the days getting longer again after the solstice later this week, I’ll be able to get the theremin built and then who knows? A duet with a musical saw has been mentioned

Play the game

Wednesday evening saw me at a card game. Normally, such words would conjure up visions of a circle of light on a table supporting piles of money and encircled chain-smoking coves with a glass at spirits at the elbow while the night was gambled away. This impression couldn’t be further from the truth.

The room was in community centre in Bart Nil (for Bristolians; Barton Hill for the outside world), within whose hallowed portals smoking is not permitted, the drinks were tea and coffee and we were only due to be there for 2 hours, with no shirts or other property lost when it all came to an end.

Sample Digital Challenge game cards

The card game in question was the ‘Digital Challenge Game’ developed by Drew Mackie and David Wilcox for the Government’s £7 mn. Digital Challenge and this was the first time it had been played. It goes roughly like this: take a table of 6-8 people. Hand them 2 sets of cards: one with projects that could be implemented under the Digital Challenge; and the other with additional ideas you may like to consider and add to these some blank notelets for the group around the table to use for their own ideas. Design a project using any mix of cards plus any of the group’s own ideas. Done that?

Good. Here comes phase 2. Divide into smaller groups – say 3-4. Now you’re introduced to a set of half a dozen or so characters of all shapes and sizes. As a group pick one character. Now comes the creative part: your group has to plot out the life of the character through involvement with the project over the next four years. No matter you did, real life will intervene on the way. At random times in the group’s storyboard, Drew Mackie turns up unexpectedly to slap down a crisis or event – crime, birth, illness – those things that make life unpredictable. Afterwards, we all read each others’ tales. The interesting point is that they’re all plausible. Two groups have taken the same character, an aspiring unemployed musician: one – despite two of Drew’s ‘googlies’ – leads to international artiste status, the other to family life but still playing music. Fairy tales do occasionally happen in real life instead of childrens’ books.

Drew and David found the evening useful too and we didn’t mind being guinea pigs. They’ll be tweaking the game for future outings in Manchester and elsewhere.

David has chronicled this event on his blog and more details of the game are on Drew and David’s Usefulgames site.

Get well soon Rich

Last Friday evening, just after taking leave of our Bristol Wireless crew at the Duke of York in St Werburghs, my mate Rich Higgs was mugged on his way home.

He was cycling along through Riverside Park in Easton when he was attacked by a gang of four who beat him around the head and needing hospital treatment – all for £5 and a mobile phone. Violence seems to be cheap commodity in some quarters and it always seems to be the least deserving that suffer it in my opinion.

Rich is slowly recovering at home and I’d like to wish him all the best for a speedy return to normal service as I’d like to buy him a pint and enjoy his company over a jar (or three). Get well soon mate

Council talks rubbish

Grey sky, constant drizzle and it’s first thing on a Monday morning in Easton: these are conditions barely conducive to getting the local citizenry out to a meeting with representatives of our beloved city council to discuss waste and recycling in Easton. I was originally going to blog it here, but since I was asked to produce a report for Bristol Indymedia, I’ve done a piece there instead.

What I can do here is give my thoughts on the meeting and its participants.

Firstly, it was a shame there were so few members of the local public there. True, some of the council/voluntary sector representatives did live in the area, genuine unattached locals were thin on the ground. This was in spite of heavy local publicity through mailing lists, personal contacts, web postings, etc.

Secondly, it was good to put a face to the name Jim Carpenter. Jim and I may not always agree, but have a healthy respect for each others’ opinions. Jim’a also the Chair of Easton Residents’ Network and deserves thanks for taking the chair and keeping order.

Third, it was good to get to know my local ward councillor, Sue O’Donnell, with whom I’ve been corresponding by email for many months. Her most pertinent comment in my direction: “I’m sick of Easton being used as a dumping ground”. Well, Sue as an elected representative, you’re in a position to do something… Do you have enough influence to counter the stranglehold of great and the good of more prosperous areas such as Clifton?

Finally, what can I say about Gary Hopkins, the councillor with executive responsibility for waste and recycling and not be unkind or get sued for libel? Very little. His officers remaining quiet while members of the public harangued him spoke volumes. I was also not impressed with his tendency to indulge in council chamber petty political point-scoring with members of the public. He should make ideal Member of Parliament material, if my spies inform me correctly.

Another pirate ashore, retired and repentant

Like many others of you out there who are dedicated Linux freaks, I still keep a Windows box running for work purposes and to keep my hand in just in case someone wants me to fix theirs. Since the days of Windows 98, the time I acquired my first 32 bit Windows machine, it always had at least some dodgy pirated software on it, but not any more for some time past.

Following my conversion to Linux, I became even more convinced of the benefits and joys of open source software and have therefore replaced pirated commercial packages with open source equivalents on my remaining Windows machine. To name just three, this has meant the following replacements:

• Open Office instead of MS Office;
• The Gimp in place of Adobe Photoshop;
• FileZilla instead of WS FTP Pro.

Of course, the more usual packages that come with a Windows system have also been replaced by their open source equivalents: for instance, Firefox for IE, Thunderbird for Outlook Express, Media Player Classic for Windows Media Player and Notepad++ for the Windows Notepad.

It feels such a relief to know that I need no longer fear the knock on the door from the software police, besides which what’s the point of using pirated packages when there are equally useful – if not better – open source tools available?

Missing the (decimal) point

One of my regular Saturday morning habits at home is to read the online edition of the Market Drayton Advertiser, the local newspaper for the town in which I grew up in Shropshire. It’s always fascinating to contrast life in the inner city where I am now with the small country town of my origin. In addition, there’s always a chance the tribe of Woods will turn up in its articles, as my cousin and first cousin have in consecutive issues.

The Advertiser can also be relied upon to have some quite bizarre bits and pieces – almost as if it’s being written by journalists who don’t check their facts and blind sub-editors checking the copy. One prime example from a few months ago was a report referring to tidal power on the River Tern. Those who know their Shropshire rivers will recognise this as a tributary of the Severn, whose tides extend upriver as far as Gloucester, some 80 miles south. I have occasionally sent the editors emails to point such inconsistencies out, but have never received an answer.

This week’s offering again has a wonderful blooper in the item on the Christmas prize livestock show, which relates the tale of local butcher Scott Shepley successfully bidding for the prize heifer, weighing all of 605 kilograms. Halfway down the racily-paced item comes the sentence:

“At a whopping £262 per kilo, the big beef cost Scott a gut-busting £1,585.10.“

Wait a minute! £262 x 605 = £158,510. Methinks someone missed a point.

Blog off and share your skills

Tuesday this past week once again found me lurking with intent at Bristol’s Watershed (an occurrence that is getting to be habit forming…). This time the excuse was to attend a blogging skills workshop organised under the aegis of Connecting Bristol.

With Watershed’s Clare in the chair, about a dozen of us were gathered in one of the meeting to see if our collective wit and wisdom could answer a number of questions, such as:

• Why blog?
• What makes a good blog?
• How do you blog?

One surprising revelation from the workshop was that most of the attendees had or contributed to more than one blog, with the average number being 3. The reader base of the bloggers varied considerably too from the small and intimate – those of us who record our private thoughts for the simple joy of writing or for sharing with family and friends – to the thousands of visitors flocking to Steve Bridger’s After Wilma, which became the unofficial information source for the reconstruction of Cancún & the Riviera Maya in Mexico following the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Wilma in October 2005.

All told, it was a lively and very useful session, so much so that it overran its time by half an hour, meaning I never did make the monthly Bristol Wireless meeting, presenting my apologies by mobile phone from the little boys room.

If you’re new to weblogs (there are thousands started every day) or even if you’re not and are just plain curious, our collective musings can be found on yet another blog, the Blogging Skills Exchange.

As a footnote, I see fellow Eastonite Jim Carpenter of ERN has also started his very own WordPress blog. Best of luck Jim!