• Thu, 12:18: Recent Reads: Children of the Sky. Vernor Vinge returns to the Tine's World and the aftermath of the Blight. Highly recommended.
• Thu, 12:21: It strikes me that Vinge and Stephenson are exploring the same thing in their latest novels: just what is a networked society really like?
• Thu, 13:36: RT @jimchines: First peek at the Lord of the Rings LEGO minifigs: http://t.co/CFY3z9MG
• Thu, 13:54: Last Year's Crop http://t.co/Vjogk1mX
• Thu, 13:54: RT @edbott: Major Symantec breach highlights risks of running old, poorly maintained software http://t.co/8spLqmU8
• Thu, 14:40: Ouch: disable PCAnywhere now, Symantec advises due to possible man in the middle attacks: http://t.co/uwoV0wMk
• Thu, 14:48: @glynmoody It's already a layer on Bing Maps.
• Thu, 14:59: Time to leave the Victoria Street Starbucks. Back to the passport office we go...
• Thu, 15:31: Parallel lines https://t.co/1CD9LT7Q
• Thu, 15:53: New passport surprisingly teal. Going Metro?

( Read more... )

• Thu, 10:05: Montezuma's Castle http://t.co/hjec7ihe
• Thu, 11:19: Queuing for a new passport...
• Thu, 11:56: Passport in for renewal. Now to kill some time in Victoria. First, I need caffeine!
• Thu, 12:01: Wukoki Waits http://t.co/9uYergeT
• Thu, 12:18: Recent Reads: Children of the Sky. Vernor Vinge returns to the Tine's World and the aftermath of the Blight. Highly recommended.
• Thu, 12:21: It strikes me that Vinge and Stephenson are exploring the same thing in their latest novels: just what is a networked society really like?
• Thu, 13:36: RT @jimchines: First peek at the Lord of the Rings LEGO minifigs: http://t.co/CFY3z9MG
• Thu, 13:54: Last Year's Crop http://t.co/Vjogk1mX
• Thu, 13:54: RT @edbott: Major Symantec breach highlights risks of running old, poorly maintained software http://t.co/8spLqmU8
• Thu, 14:40: Ouch: disable PCAnywhere now, Symantec advises due to possible man in the middle attacks: http://t.co/uwoV0wMk

( Read more... )

So last week we were in Las Vegas for CES. It's a busy, busy week for us tech journalists - as you can see from my pedometer statistics. This year we managed just over 3 more miles than last year, clocking up just under 35 miles in the six days of the show (including the two pre-event press days, and the evening Digital Experience and Showstoppers mini-shows).

Foof.

And that was before doing any writing...
 

Time to fill in the travel meme for 2011, as I've finished this year's round of travels (2012's starts bright and early on January the 2^nd...). So, the usual list of places I've stayed at least one night in the last year, with a little * for those that have had more than one night. The list is in approximate order of the first time I stayed there, so some, like Las Vegas, which had multiple trips, were visited several times throughout the year.

This year had fewer long road trips, but a lot of time in the US. Which reminds me... I really must sit down with spikeiowa and plan the road trip fanzine we've been noodling for a while...



Santa Monica, CA^*
Palm Springs, CA^*
Las Vegas, NV^*
Mojave, CA^*
Paso Robles, CA^*
Campbell, CA^*
San Jose, CA^*
Orlando, FL^*
Barstow, CA^*
San Francisco, CA^*
Passe-a-Grille, FL
Anna Maria Island, FL
Bradenton, FL
Atlanta, GA^*
Santa Barbara, CA
Laguna Beach, CA^*
Santa Clarita, CA
Dearborn, MI^*
Redmond, WA^*
Anaheim, CA^*
Bellevue, WA^*
Los Angeles, CA^*
Ojai, CA
Lake Isabella, CA
June Lake, CA
Mariposa, CA
San Francisco, CA^*
Pismo Beach, CA
St Clement, Jersey
Benidorm, Spain

Airlines flown: Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, Delta, FlyBe, Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Iberia
Aircraft flown: Boeing 747-400, Boeing 737-800, Boeing 777-300, Boeing 767-300, Embraer EMB 195, Airbus A340-600, Airbus A320-200, Airbus A321-200
Ferries taken: Washington State Ferries (Anacortes-Friday Harbor)
Road trips: Los Angeles to San Jose (via Ojai, Lake Isabella, Mount Whitney, June Lake, Yosemite, Mariposa, Fresno, Paso Robles), Orlando to Orlando (via Passe-a-Grille, Anna Maria Island, Bradenton)
Conferences attended: CES, Parallels Summit, MMS, MIX, Data 2.0, Web 2.0, BlackBerry World, Google IO, FIRe, Maker Faire, Velocity, Forward with Ford, TechEd, BUILD, AppUp Elements, MAX, BlackBerry Devcon, NokiaWorld, CA World, BlackBerry EMEA Partner Summit
Countries: USA, Spain, Jersey
Shuttle launches watched: STS-133
US States visited: California, Washington, Nevada, Florida, Georgia, Michigan
US National Parks visited: Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Mount Rainier, English Camp
Airports: LHR, LGW, LAS, SEA, SFO, LAX, MCO, ALC, MAD, JER, ATL, DTW

And now on to the next year. Where will it take us? So far it's starting with the usual January US trip for CES, Amsterdam, Florida and Jersey in February and then... Well, it'll be fun whatever, and wherever!

• Ср, 13:48: So is today the day with the most tech press birthdays? So far it's three of us. (@sylviebarak @kipkniskern)
• Ср, 16:37: Feel sorry for people who live in Denver and can't get a decent cup of tea... #benefitsofsealevellife
• Ср, 16:39: Cats who are perverts: our Bentham will never break up with shoes.
• Ср, 17:17: RT @edbott: A great rant from @marypcbuk Low points in tech journalism; we seem to be having rather too many of them http://t.co/ZY4sjGo7
• Ср, 17:38: RT @bobduffy: Just heard, early gift from Best Buy - FREE Angry Birds Season for PC at http://t.co/CCLxAOLI Limited time so get some now :-)
• Ср, 18:45: Hah. KFOG's Ten at Ten just played a CES report from 1980...
• Ср, 20:04: RT @marypcbuk: Here's a photos of the 1980 CES show floor to go with the #KFOG report @sbisson mentioned before; usual Sony stand! http: ...
• Ср, 20:07: Hmm. @marypcbuk has just introduced me to what can only be described as "Tron Pron".
• Ср, 20:07: RT @marypcbuk: looking for the last few CES events, I have discovered something disturbing; Tronpron! http://t.co/K427zi09 thought adul ...
• Ср, 20:28: Following on from #tronpron, @marypcbuk has just shown me a picture of Nancy Reagan sat on Mr T's knee. Disturbed now.

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• Пн, 16:41: Had to go out. Not my idea of fun. Too cold, too wet. Inside with tea and cats now.
• Пн, 17:49: Recent Reads: Rocket Ship Galileo. Heinlein's first juvenile pits science club engineers' atomic rocket against space Nazis. On the moon!
• Пн, 18:01: RT @BenThePCGuy: Check out the entire list of crazy awesome emoticons that are hiding on your #windowsphone : http://t.co/BbPRHEG0
• Пн, 18:06: Have to say, @shadowfax1804's "ask me about my ninja shirt" shirt is awesome.
• Пн, 18:13: Posted over the weekend: My ZDNet UK First Take look at Lync 2010 Mobile http://t.co/riI0w5iI #zdnetuk
• Пн, 19:43: Finally watched Inception at the weekend. Nice to see a big budget movie that's designed to make you think.
• Пн, 20:02: The new Xbox is much much quieter than the old one. That means it's now an acceptable media player solution for the long term.
• Пн, 21:59: Recent Reads: What's The Worst That Could Happen? Westlake's Dortmunder vs an I Ching wielding mogul who stole his ring., Capers ensue.
• Вт, 10:20: From the Floating City Winners Gig, @thomasdolby performing Spice Train.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iDGAuMblEY&feature=share
• Вт, 11:40: Oh yes: http://t.co/cB7x0lMT

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• Чт, 20:06: Moving our shared OneNote Notebooks from the house server to SkyDrive. Makes more sense to have them in the cloud...
• Чт, 21:16: ZDNet UK blog post: Microsoft fixes blog comments, speeds up blogs with open source http://t.co/Lyzi76hk #zdnetuk
• Пт, 09:24: Amazed people were expecting new BlackBerrys in March. RIM *always* launches new OSes in May with hardware in September.
• Пт, 12:59: Alpinism http://t.co/RHK3xAfZ
• Пт, 13:06: On The Big Wall: Climbers on El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park http://t.co/SBEtZjXg
• Пт, 13:16: Look world. BB10 devices were always going to launch in Q3. Analysts wishing they'd come out in March doesn't make that a delay.
• Пт, 16:04: RT @benlefoe: any chance of another RT or mention? Auction for signed copy of "Nelson" for Shelter ends on Sunday: http://t.co/wvG5Kwdo@ ...
• Пт, 16:11: Recent Rereads: Podkayne Of Mars. Late Heinlein juvenile starts to show the path of later novels. A bowdlerised ending weakens the story.
• Пт, 16:12: Recent Rereads: Space Cadet. Very early Heinlein juvenile, Space Patrol as nuclear-armed Coastguard of Boy Scouts. Duty is done, dutifully.
• Пт, 16:15: Hmm. Heinlein juvenile reread project stymied at the last book. Turns out I don't have a copy of Rocketship Galileo.

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• Чт, 10:07: RT @WebDesignerMag: #webdesignermag #HOT100 Last chance to vote for your favourite site/agency http://t.co/VjTnsNR5 Voting closes at 5pm ...
• Чт, 10:17: Recent Rereads: Tunnel In The Sky. Heinlein's dystopic juvenile is a Boy Scout reworking of Lord Of The Flies. Civilisation wins out!
• Чт, 10:18: Recent Rereads: Farmer In The Sky. Heinlein's most obvious Scouts In Space story, homesteading a terraformed Ganymede.
• Чт, 10:31: Aaargh. Trying to get off an email list for a members of a French-Canadian football club. People who typo gmail addresses really annoy me.
• Чт, 10:34: Multi-lingual complaint sent. Most disappointed with the grammar and context engines in online translation systems.
• Чт, 11:02: Since switching back to BT from C&W as DSL provider line speed has trained up around 2Mbps. Yay!
• Чт, 12:32: Debugging DNS SRV records for Lync remotely with my ISP. This is as much greek to me as it is to you.
• Чт, 12:44: Taking a look at the Facebook timeline preview. I actually quite like it, much better than the old profile page.
• Чт, 12:46: Flying North. "Metal bird dip wing of fire" http://t.co/rTiDuFBA
• Чт, 14:55: Phew. Latest pass got SRV record right. Lync is now working with our domain on Office 365. Now I can write that review...

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• Пн, 11:06: Blue skies over Putney, so wrapping up warm.
• Пн, 11:47: Still no sign of the #lumia firmware update here...
• Пн, 13:23: In the soul of the great machine - a photograph I took inside the ATLAS detector at CERN. http://t.co/ZCLbpNSN
• Пн, 13:54: Seeing lots of possibilities in JavaScript programmability for Excel online. No need to write your own math engine now...
• Пн, 17:50: Am being poked by the cat. Have tried telling her this is not Facebook.
• Пн, 17:56: RT @marypcbuk: Fitbit Ultra coming to the UK; can it gets the geeks fit? how high did I climb? #selftracking #zdnetuk #fitbit http://t.c ...
• Пн, 18:04: RT @marypcbuk: My top 20 free #windowsphone apps that take advantage of Mango; no task killers required... #wp7 #wpdev http://t.co/Jo8ST ...
• Пн, 18:04: RT @marypcbuk: Office Web apps get more programmable with Excel Web JavaScript APIs; what they actually do #ZDNetUK #owa #microsoft http ...
• Пн, 18:04: RT @marypcbuk: Are tablets just big smartphones? Understanding what's different inside the case for Android, iOS, Blackberry & Windows h ...
• Пн, 18:06: Finishing the last pass (hopefully) through a big IT consumerisation briefing piece. Feeling quite pleased with the results.

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After yesterday's foul weather, today was clear and cold. Ideal weather for a little photography, and as luck would have it UK Steam Info showed that a mainline steam excursion was going to be passing through Putney at lunch time.

So I wandered out to the footbridge down the road (actually, more hobbled and limped as I'm still recovering from dislocating my knee in a nasty fall a couple of weeks back) and waited for the Orient Express to come down the line from Clapham. It was a little late, and as I waited I got to see a Windhoff MPV running as a de-icing train at work, spraying the tracks up the line to London. It's not often we see modern plant at work on our line in the middle of the commuting day.



But then in the distance came a whistle, and the distinctive sound of a steam locomotive. In the cold, crisp air the steam rose higher than usual, filling the Putney Station cutting as the Clan Line came round the curve from Wandsworth pulling a rake of Orient Express Pullman carriages full of business folk on a lunchtime corporate jolly...



Clan Line is temporarily running as Belgian Marine, hence the change in number from my photograph of one its the summer runs through Putney.



And in a cloud of steam and smoke it was gone, racing through the station and heading on out towards Windsor.



Black and white seemed appropriate...

Putney, London
December 2011

I don't normally photograph people - they move around to much, and they just don't catch my interest as much as landscapes or wildlife. But occasionally something just catches my eye, like this girl fire-dancing in Seattle at an Intel event last October. It wasn't the usual torch or poi dance, instead she was using a pair of sculpted metal frames to hold several burning torches.

Illuminated by her flames, in the dark, she stopped moving for a moment, enough time to fire off the shutter and capture a simple portrait.



The torches were like extensions of her hands, reaching out into the night, while she was lost in her movement and the fire.



Fremont, Washington
October 2011

I've fried eggs for a long time now. I can't remember the first time I cracked one into a frying pan...

It's always been the same, a little oil, a reasonable heat, and cook the eggs as quickly as possible, splashing on oil to cook the top of the egg. It's real fast food, and well, cooking them that way has always worked. But today I tried something different, slowly heating a tiny drop of olive oil in a heavy pan before cracking in the eggs and cooking them slowly at the same low heat. There's no need to flip hot oil onto the egg, just letting it cook.

The result?

A nicely crispy base, good solid whites, and a yolk with just the right consistency to be spread on toast. Possibly the best eggs I've ever made.

I think I may well have found a new technique. I just need to repeat the process a few times to ensure that it's the same every time.

Here's to trying something new!