Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

First steps

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:49:19 GMT

First steps
Originally uploaded by sbisson.

Footprints on a black sand beach.

Kalapana, Hawaii
June 2009

Pebble Blacked

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:35:41 GMT

Pebble Blacked
Originally uploaded by sbisson.

Lava pebble on a black sand beach.

Kalapana, Hawaii
June 2009

Roasting the beans

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:25:14 GMT

Getting up the mountain to Mountain Thunder can be a little tricky. Two roads spiral around each other as they climb up the steep mountain slopes.

1000, 2000, 3000 feet. You're up in the cloud forest when you arrive, tall trees disappearing into the mists.

It's a long climb, but it's worth it. Our hire car was struggling by the time it reached the top, but the farm's staff were there with cups of fresh brewed coffee for us to taste. It was good, possibly the best coffee I have ever drunk. Mountain Thunder's an organic farm, and there are plenty of animals under foot - all manure for the carefully tended coffee beans.

You'll see plenty of coffee bushes as you drive up the volcano, and there are plenty of cherries growing on the bushes. Most were still green, so a few weeks from harvest.

Unlike many of the other Kona farms, Mountain Thunder roasts on site.

The finished product, 100% Kona coffee

Mmmmm. Coffee.

Why yes, we did bring some back with us, all the way to London...

Green Turtles, Black Sands

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:03:29 GMT

It's a toss up whether Kalapana or Punalu'u is Big Island's most famous black sand beach. Certainly Punalu'u is the most striking, with its dark sands suddenly stopping at the edge of a bright green forest. It's also one of the best places to see honu, as the green turtles haul themselves up the beach to bask in the sun, after feeding for algae in the wild surf.

There's a sign in the middle of the beach, advising you to keep well away from the turtles. That's where you'll find them. The afternoon we stopped at Punalu'u there were two on the sand, still wet from the waves, glistening against the black sand and crumbled lava flows. I kept well back, and cranked my camera up to maximum zoom. Luckily I managed to avoid getting an illiterate family in shot, who had to be hauled back from the shy beasts.

I'm particularly pleased with this shot.

Punalu'u, Hawaii
June 2009

This sounds fun...

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:05:51 GMT

In honour of the first moon landing, there's going to be an evening of Clangers music at the Royal Festival Hall.

On the 40th Anniversary of the first moonwalk Southbank Centre and the Heritage Orchestra celebrate by bringing you an evening of the music and visuals of the Clangers alongside other lunar delights.

I found a particularly apt episode on YouTube:

40 years since I stayed up all night to watch those grainy black and white images.

Wow.

Jolly Green Giants

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:29:12 GMT

The Honu is the Hawaiian Green Turtle, a gentle giant of the islands. You'll find then (now that they're protected) in rock pools and on beaches all round the Big Island, feeding on the green algae that coats the lava rocks. The old royal fish ponds at Keauhou are home to a small group of these beasts, and you can watch them gently scull through the cool water. At the hottest part of the day you can watch them haul themselves out of the water to rest and bask on the rocks.

One morning I scrambled over the rocks around the pool to get as close as possible to where they were feeding. You could see them sculling, their huge fins sliding out of the water.

Two turtles had a bit of a disagreement over who had right of way. Needless to say the biggest beast won.

One sculled around the pool, looking for the an unoccupied patch of algae.

Another came very close, and I was able to photograph its delicately patterned shell,

Beautiful beasts.

Keauhou, Hawaii
June 2009

Here we stand, in a special place

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:35:51 GMT

Keauhou, where we stayed on the Kona side of Big Island is more than a tourist destination (though the local definition of built-up means that it's two or three miles between hotels and resorts, and the tourist strip is less than half a mile long).

It's also the site of some of the island's holiest places. There were three heiau in the grounds of our hotel, currently being restored. They were massive stone platforms, built on lava flows that rolled out over the reefs. Artificial rock pools kept fish abundant, food for the local royal family who used the sacred pools in the woods.

One evening we waded into the pool, avoiding the grazing honu turtles, to watch the sun set.

I couldn't help but think of a few lines from The Waterboy's song "Don't Bang The Drum":

Here we stand
On a rocky shore
Your father stood here before you
I can see his ghost explore you
I can feel the sea implore you
Not to pass on by
Not to walk on by
Not to try...

Keauhou, Hawaii
June 2009

Mic'ed Up

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:45:01 GMT

I bought a new microphone the other day. I needed something better for recording meetings, and as I work direct-to-disk in OneNote (timestamping interview audio with my notes), I decided to look out a high-quality USB microphone.

To be honest it didn't take me long to find the device I wanted. Blue Microphones have an excellent reputation and their chrome-retro styling has a certain 30's space opera feel that I found appealing. The fact that they were getting consistent good reviews for sound quality also helped a lot. Most of their devices aren't that portable, but I found the one I wanted very quickly: the Snowflake.

Sound quality's good so far, and it'll work with my Macs and my PCs. It is a little larger than I expected, but not too large, and the base doubles as a carry case for the USB cable and as a clip to hand the mic off the back of my PC. I do like the way the microphone folds into the base for travel, and the ability to twist the head to point where I want is definitely a plus.

All in all, I'm very happy.

Now to go out and interview some people.

Superpod

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:46:18 GMT

A while back I blogged the some of the photographs I'd taken of a combined pod of thousands of dolphins feeding their way up the Big Sur coast.

As I said at the time, it was one of the most amazing things I'd ever seen - so many animals all working in concert. It was one of those things that make you realise that we humans aren't the only intelligent animal on this planet. Superpods are rare, only taking place when the right food source is in the right place. But when they happen they bring in dolphins from all around the area - tens and hundreds of miles.

I was noodling around the BBC news site today when I found a video taken in the middle of one of these superpods - just off the Welsh coast:

Fascinating stuff.

Fifteen

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:05:34 GMT

Fifteen books that will always stick with me?

That's a tricky one, seeing how much I read. However there are some books I keep coming back to, keep rereading. So, without further ado:

Hardwired - Walter Jon Williams: Written as a homage to Zelazny, this is cyberpunk as country-and-western song, with Cowboy riding panzers across a balkanised USA accompanied by Sarah and her weasel.
The Saga of Pliocene Exile - Julian May: All four books, taken as one here. May mixes Jungian archetypes with The Ring Cycle (and a dose of pure 50s SF) to deliver a remarkably fun science fantasy series that takes mitteleuropean myth and drops it into deep time.
Don't Look Down - Jennifer Crusie and Bob Meyer: a romance author (albeit snarky) and an ex-Green Beret men-with-guns-save-the-world writer collaborate on a delightfully funny romantic thriller. Contains Wonder Woman bondage scenes.
Vacuum Flowers - Michael Swanwick: a picaresque journey around a far future solar system, where changing your mind is as easy as slipping on a new shirt. Underneath it all is the question "What does it mean to be human".
Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud: McCloud's look at the semiotics of sequential art is also one of the great textbooks of design. It's better than Tufte if you're working on the web.
The New Dinosaurs - Dougal Dixon: Dixon's speculative evolutionary books take a turn into a world where dinosaurs didn't become extinct.
Managing Internet Information Systems - John Udell: This is the book that built UK Online. It's also as relevant today as it was nearly 15 years ago.
Computer Lib/Dream Machines - Ted Nelson: The book/s that pretty much made me who I am today - and shaped the trajectory of my career through the intertwingled worlds of engineering, computing and writing.
Neuromancer - William Gibson: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." Enough said, this is the seminal cyberpunk novel.
Between Planets - Robert Heinlein: A favourite juvenile, with Heinlein mixing colonial politics with the story of a violently suppressed revolution. The Venusian dragons are one of his finest creations.
The Ophiuchi Hotline - John Varley: Another solar system picaresque. Here it's Varley's Eight Worlds that is centre stage. A fine book for a 13 year old islander to read (if you want to blow his tiny little mind). Clones, invincible alien invaders and the hierarchy of life. Humanity is learning its true place in the universe, and it's a particularly lowly one...
The Terror - Dan Simmons: The most recent book on this list, but a powerful and extraordinarily well-written slice of secret history that delves into the lost years of the Franklin expedition. Simmons mixes Victorian rationality with the myths of the Esquimaux to deliver a post-modern, post-colonial take on the monster story wrapped up in a homage to Edgar Alan Poe.
The Shockwave Rider - John Brunner: The most optimistic of the futures in the Club Of Rome quartet, this mixes Toffler's Future Shock with the Whole Earth Catalog (and the Point Foundation) to give us a book that defines the modern security industry.
The Bridge - Iain Banks: This is the book that should have an "M". A never ending bridge, a Glaswegian barbarian, and the nameless life of a man on the road to disaster converge in three parallel stories. And it's got knife missiles!
Moominvalley in November - Tove Jansson: The best of the Moomin books doesn't contain the titular family, off at sea fulfilling Moominpapa's dreams. It's a sad, wistful novel that's really a tale about growing up and finding your own way in life. No wonder it's the most adult of the Moomin novels.

That's a start. You can find most of what I read on my LibraryThing.

A damn fine cup of joe

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:01:53 GMT

High above the Kona coast, in the cloud forests that rise up the slopes of Mauna Loa, the climate is just right for growing coffee. The bushes rise up above the twisting Hawaii Belt Road, disappearing into the mist that shrouds the slopes.

It was pouring with tropical rain when we visited Greenwell, one of the many coffee growers on Big Island, where you can watch coffee move from cherry to bean, and then taste the final roast. It's one of the oldest coffee farms on the island, and the bushes grow tall and strong.

The coffee cherry is ripe when it's red., but the green fresh cherries covered the bushes in a riot of embyronic caffeine.

Captain Cook, Hawaii
June 2009

Daily Twitterings

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:55:33 GMT

19:46 Far too hot. Thank goodness for evening.
19:58 Ordered myself a new USB microphone for recording into OneNote. Time to upgrade from the built-in microphones on the HP tablet.

Daily Twitterings

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:55:29 GMT

13:47 Writing up an interview with Mozilla's John Lilly. That was a fascinating conversation.
14:48 There's a rumble in the urabn jungle.
14:58 Favourite quote from Mozilla's John Lilly: “The web is too important to be left to big business. I think we’ve been successful in that.”
15:02 Ooof. Too hot to be at a PC all day. Interview written up and off to editor. Now to chill out.

Daily Twitterings

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:55:28 GMT

10:08 Huzzah! --> Oh my word - deep, deep joy bit.ly/JDzcv #thebluenile (via @ramtops)

Daily Twitterings

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:55:37 GMT

12:39 Genius Bar replaced Macbook battery for free. Excellent service - first time I've used it.
12:54 Gah. London coffee rating a "meh" after drinking fresh Kona at an organic coffee farm in the Hawaii cloud forest. I have been spoilt!

Daily Twitterings

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:57:03 GMT

08:23 Heading into the Smoke for a day of meetings. First it's RIM on pocket CRM. Forgotten how much I hate crush hour on the District Line.

Daily Twitterings

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:55:32 GMT

09:53 Start the day by upgrading the WiFi AP for the front half of the house. Mmmm. Zippy.
13:47 Haven't people noticed how much less email malware there is since Office dopped IE rendering for HTML mail? Security vs design.
13:50 Hmm. From the specs the T-Mobile G1Touch isn't the Magic. I wonder what it is under there.
13:55 Ah, @paulockenden tells me it's the HTC Hero. So much for the exclusive to Orange rumour then!
15:58 'i'iwi: www.flickr.com/photos/sbisson/3657204572/
16:06 RT @monkchips: do you guys think about Microsoft security much, other than maybe @lmrobins? #twcsummit --> Yes. Definitely part of the remit
19:47 Brain candy space opera reading: Semper Human. The final of nine books in a series mixing archaeology, the Fermi Paradox and the USMC. Fun.

Nom nom nom

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:13:37 GMT

Last night I went up on the roof terrace.

There was a spider in the railings, repairing its web after a day in the sun. All that was left of something it had eaten had was still there, just a small wing on the threads.

Nature, green in fang and ichor.

Putney, London
June 2009

Red Sky at Night

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:03:23 GMT

I like a good sunset, where the sun meets the edge of the world, and sets the clouds on fire.

One of the best places I've found for them is Seattle. There's something about how the combination of Puget Sound, the Olympics and the Cascades come together, along with the northern Pacific light.

Here's the view one night back at the start of June, from the hill above elimloth and spiritmoving's condo in Kirkland.

Kirkland, Washington
June 2009

'apapane

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:33:49 GMT

There are an awful lot of recent arrivals on the Big Island.

Not people - instead the Hawaiian islands are a text book case on the downside of animal introductions. Everywhere you go you see them, the cardinals, the mynah birds, the mongoose. And every where you go you don't see them, the nene, the mamo.

There are still some endemic species. High in the rainforest on Kilauea you'll see 'apapane flitting about, small red birds with black wings. They're honeycreepers, feeding on nectar from the trees around the craters. If you're lucky you'll get to see the rarer 'i'iwi with its scarlet beak.

Here's an 'apapane feeding on the slopes of the Kilauea Iki crater.

Kilauea, Hawaii
June 2009

Daily Twitterings

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:55:35 GMT

11:24 It's time PRs gave us 1-800/1-866 numbers for US conference calls - after all, they're free with Skype. The alternative is too expensive.
14:15 Windows 7 desktop is go. That's pretty much the last Vista holdout in the house gone.
15:59 Damn. MSE beta not for the UK: bit.ly/WhtZd
18:30 My TechRadar first look at Microsoft Security Essentials: is.gd/1ayIo
20:26 Just finished Zelazney's classic "Lord of Light". Now that's a real mind blower.
21:22 Unused headline for my MSE piece: "To Morro, today!"

Daily Twitterings

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:55:34 GMT

01:34 Probably worrying the neighbours by testing GPS software at this time of night - walking up and down the street holding out a BlackBerry.
01:55 Quite impressed with the InstaMapper tools and software - especially now I've worked out how to export tracks for geotagging purposes.
11:40 After last nights BlackBerry fest (I really shouldn't be working at 4 am!) it's time to delve into Google Elements.
12:47 Having a quick play with IBM's Seer AR app for Wimbledon. At least I live close enough to get a feel for it!
14:27 Hmm. I seem to have fallen off the Apple press release list. Who to ping to get back on it?
14:34 IT Pro blog post: bit.ly/JkQmZ
14:51 Giving up on TweetDeck for now and going back to Twhirl. Found that TweetDeck didn't do @ message notifications at all well. Ho hum.
21:20 Unfurling so many ways: www.flickr.com/photos/sbisson/3647750090/

Unfurling so many ways

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:28:43 GMT

Another picture from Lava Trees - some lushness in the rain forests to go with the fires in the barren caldera 4000 feet above.

The forests are full of plants, tree trunks covered in vines and creepers, while feral chickens and mongoose run around the few patches of open ground. The ferns reminded me of New Zealand, and as marypcb noted the whole island felt like a cross between North Island and the Canaries.

The contrasts in Big Island are amazing, with some areas of almost desert next to lush rain forest, while deep green valleys lie underneath prairie uplands and ranges full of cattle. There are almost as many climate zones on one island as there are in the whole of the rest of the USA, with the east wetter than the west, and the higher elevations cooler and damper (until you get to the tops of the great volcanoes).

Anyway, have some some Hawaiian green. But not the Puna green you might be thinking of...

Lava Trees, Hawaii
June 2009

Pele's Glow

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:25:02 GMT

Deep in the heart of the Kilauea caldera lies Halema`uma`u.

It's where Pele lives, her hair streaming high over the south of Big Island.

The current eruption began a year or so ago, with an ash and steam cloud pushed west by the trade winds. The lava began to rise, filling the bottom of the crater, and pooling to about 300 m below the surface. The resulting sulphur dioxide levels have meant that much of the caldera loop road is closed - but you're still able to get out to the Jaggar Museum, where there's a viewing area.

In the day, all you can see is the plume of smoke, rolling off the west.

At night, everything is different, as the glow of the lava in the vent colours the plume, and reflects of the walls of the crater. It's an eerie experience. Strange patterns whirl around the illuminated plume, as the orange glow shines across smooth lava of the caldera floor.

I found a rock in the viewing area and set up a long exposure.

First I took a few shots of the wider caldera, catching some of the night sky.

Then I zoomed in.

Yet more geology in action.

Kilauea, Hawaii
June 2009

Wimbledon (Augmented)

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:23:47 GMT

IBM's just released an interesting little augmented reality application for Android: Seer.

It's an interesting little application, which works much like Wikitude, using the phone's camera, GPS, G-sensor and compass to overlay information on top of a cameras-eye view of the world (in this case, the All England Tennis Club). Or perhaps our office.

I can just about get it to distinguish between courts here in Putney, but I suspect if I were on site, it would be much more useful - as it mixes geocoded information with live feeds from the scheduling and scoring systems IBM runs for the competition. There also seems to be a feed from at least one IBM Twitter account in there...

It's a nice fun application, and a good example of the type of mobile service we can deliver right now.