The Meaning of Underground Culture

"You have to know when to take a sideways step, when to take a chance, when to do what no one else seems to be doing at the time."

Jean-François Bizot, champion of French counter-culture, publisher of Le Actuel, died 8th September 2007.

Sometimes I need reassurance that it made sense not to pursue a highly-paid job in the city, not to make millions in housing during the boom years, and instead do something that no one was expecting, least of all me.

Bizot was from a very wealthy background but dropped his job as an economist, and instead did what he really wanted to do. He also said:

"First you do what's expected of you, and then you do what you want"

:-)

Where does the day go?

OK - way too long since my last post. Any readership I might have had will have long since got bored gone away permanently.

But, as busy as I am - I just can't work out where the day has gone. (BTW thanks thespian for prompting this post)

I have a theory about one aspect of what seems to be counterintuitive time perception. It is only half-baked, so to give it a little time-in-the-oven as it were, I shall try it out here:

The question is: why does it that sometimes it can seem that you have been really busy for ages, but when you look back over such a period, it seems that time has flown by?

My theory is 2-fold:
Firstly, most activities that take up our time are mundane and so never get put into our long-term-memory as significant episodes; they just "merge" with hundreds of similar memories.

Secondly, is that what few exciting and different things do occur to us can only get fixed in our long-term-memory by relating the story to someone else.

Combining these two aspects, you realise that very few things are significant enough to be recalled as important episodes in our life, and that as you get older, this becomes more and more so. The few exciting things that do happen are well defined by retelling and so they seem very widely separated in our memories.

Now, when you look back you find that it seems not much has happened in the last year, and fun exciting things hardly ever happen, yet you are constantly busy.
Time just rushes by, and you just can't work out where it has gone.

CG Halfling Bard

According to this I am a Chaotic Good Halfling Bard. How disappointing, I always thought of myself as a bit taller ;-)
Mind you my favourite ever character was a Halfling Thief.

You Are A:

Chaotic Good Halfling Bard

Alignment:
Chaotic Good characters are independent types with a strong belief in the value of goodness. They have little use for governments and other forces of order, and will generally do their own things, without heed to such groups.

Race:
Halflings are short and fat, like minuature people. (Think 'Hobbits') They enjoy the easy life, but aren't averse to the idea of an adventure from time to time. They get along with all races, and are known for their senses of humor. Halflings also tend to be light of foot, and can move quietly when necessary.

Primary Class:
Bards are the entertainers. They sing, dance, and play instruments to make other people happy, and, frequently, make money. They also tend to dabble in magic a bit.

Secondary Class:

Catchup

No post since before we went away on our family holiday, so here is a little catchup:

• Yesterday my wife and I foolishly took 5 kids to Legoland on one of the most busy days of the whole year. Highlights included seeing Yousef walking and chatting with two of his best friends from school. Lowlights included all the damn queuing and having to shout at Yousef not to walk off in the opposite direction all the time. I now need sedatives and week on a spa resort to recover.
• The holiday in the IOW was a triumph. Great weather, hot sunshine, beach a stones throw from our tent and v. happy kids.
• My PhD work is on an all time low. I have however started writing a chapter which should make it into the thesis and that at least is giving me a bit of focus.
• I have also started dabbling with my old pastime of D&D. Hopefully it won' get obsesive, just the odd evening and the odd e-mail etc. (also see dungeontales.blogspot.co.uk). The great thing is that I get to see more of my old friend Kirk, which is worth all the effort :)
  
• We have decided to record a couple of the songs we played in the band, for posterity's sake. I haven' picked up the bass since the gig, so I'll have to start rehearsing again.
• RoboGeek the comic is still going strong - new strip on Thursday : robogeek.blog.co.uk
• Looking forward to Lars' and Angela's wedding - I need a suit!
  
• Yousef back to school tomorrow, twins next week - hooray!
  
• Getting into Heroes - only up to episode 5 though ...

Holidays

Finally my holiday is here. I'm off to the Isle of Wight with the family for
a couple of weeks basking in the height of the English summer.

Wellies at the ready!

Actually the forecast looks great, but I don't want to jinx it!

MP3 8-Ball

Do you know what a psychic 8 ball is? Well, this is a modern version.
I don't know how it works, it just does. Must be like Tarot or astrology, sort of all in the interpretation.

Instructions:
Put your music player on shuffle.
Press forward for each question.
Use the song title as the answer to the question even if they don't make sense. You'll be surprised though.
NO CHEATING

My answers:
(note these were originally aimed at a rather younger audience, but it doesn't matter really. I should have rewritten the questions but couldn't be arsed.)

How am I feeling today?
All because of you - U2 (Well this has been the highlight of my day - thanks!)

Will I get far in life?
Surrender - Elvis (Good advise there)

How do my friends see me?
Die, all right - The Hives (Now that's just plain nasty!)

Where will I get married?
Ghetto Musick - Outkast (Well, I suppose as I'm already married, that makes sense)

What is my best friend's theme song?
Stop me if you hink you've heard this one before - The Smiths (Errm ... am I that boring??)

What is the story of my life?
Nonstop to Tokyo - Pizzicato Five (Ha!)

What was high school like?
Express youself [Extended Mix] - NWA (So true, and so long ago!!)

What is the best thing about me?
Beware of Darkness - George Harrison (Don't get that one ... psychiatrist ...)

What was today like?
Le Garage - Futureheads (Errm ... well I did listen to that today, but more I cannot discern)

What is in store for this weekend?
Orange Blossom Special - Johnny Cash (Well, I hope the cash bit comes true)

What song describes my parents?
You ain't seen nothing yet - Bachman Turner Overdrive (perfect)

How is my life going?
Waiting for a train - Johnny Cash (OMFG So true. I am waiting for something to happen - hence blogging for no apparent reason)

What song will they play at my funeral?
Jailbird - Primal Scream (Man! this is just wierd!)

How does the world see me?
What is he thinking - The Streets (Oh f*ck)

Do people secretly lust after me?
Navigator - The Pogues (so that's a no then?)

How can I make myself happy?
Irish Poet - The Saw Doctors (This one is cryptic - I neet to think about it ...)

What should I do with my life?
I Gotta Know - Elvis (True: most of it's over, if I don't know by now, then I never will)

Will I ever have children?
Connected - Stereo MC's (Also true. I do have kids. Twins in fact - Stereo - brilliant!)

What will you name them?
Peaches en Regailia - Frank Zappa (Well, I should've - but this does bring to mind 2 brilliant celebrity children names Peaches Bob Geldof's daughter and Moon Base Alpha, FZ's daughter!!)

Who will you marry?
Tell Mamma - Etta James (Yes, I should've consulted Mamma first!)

Do you have a gf/bf?
Paranoid - Black Sabbath (errm ...)

How will you die?
Atomic - Blondie (Brilliant!!!)

Laser Keyboard

Is this the best gadget or what? Now, if I had a) 200Euros b) A handheld PC c) nothing better to do with my money, I'm sure I'd go out right now and buy one. ;)

Go get one from getdigital.de

For one time only

Finally the evening I was waiting for and dreading in equal measure, came and went.
A very enjoyable party - thanks Joe. The night is forever preserved here.

http://metricspace.co.uk/joe_and_the_jokers/

I think anyone who actually reads this blog already has this in their inbox.
The only comment I'd make here is that it sounded a whole lot better on the night, because the video clips were done with a stills camera taking low-res avi's. Still, the Whiskey in the jar and Hey Joe clips don't sound too bad.

Festivals and stuff

This week is the biannual St. Albans Festival, and this year the usual St Michael's Street Folk Festival is part of the Fringe.

Amongst the bands will be St. Albans favourites Deaf Shepherd.


Here is an article from The Herts Advertiser describing the goings on.
I'll be there on Wednesday drinking ale and watching the Morris dancers ...

Then, this weekend we will be watching Blondie, David Gray, Seth Lakeman, The Feeling and others at the Cornbury Music Festival!!
I can't wait - I shall post pictures and stuff here soon ...

I love my job

I've just looked back at my previous post, and it is weird ... a kind of schizo episode. It doesn't sound like me at all. I actually really like my current job, my colleagues are my friends and are all very nice and rather lovely. I don't have a traditional type boss at all, just someone who doesn't interfere, gives helpful advice when needed and signs all my expense claim forms without question.
If I look back on my previous job, even that wasn't as bad as I might have indicated. I had a lot of friends there and really wasn't pressured to do what I didn't want. The only reason I left was that it was time to move on lest my feet became rooted to the place.

So, please ignore my previous rant!!

Resignation letter

For want of better conversation on Friday evening before going home, this is what I would like to have said in my resignation letter in some of my previous jobs:

---

Dear Mr Manager,

thanks for nothing. Money is no recompense.
I hope you rot in hell.

Dear So-Called Colleagues,

Despite saying I would, I'll never phone or e-mail any of you ever again.
Deal with it.

yours,
Me

---

Of course, my resignation letter from this job will be quite different ... now let's see ...

Glastonbury nostalgia

What an amazing weekend of coverage of the main headline music at the Glastonbury festival from the BBC (my favourite, the gypsy-punks Gogol Bordello). Apart from the bands, the articles where they go wandering around looking for interesting things gives you a something of a flavour of what it is like away from the main stage, but, in my opiniion not nearly enough. (I loved the robot zoo BTW!)

I have fond, if sparse, memories of the years when I used to go to Glastonbury. I had some brilliant and formative experiences there, along-side some scary ones. But, I never saw too many of the main bands - we spent most of our time at small stages, at the then very new rave tents, at the traveller's field and stage, at the circus field, in the green field and around impromptu bonfires.
I was there a few times between 89 and 96, but the one that sticks in my mind is the 1990 festival and the battle between the police and and the travellers. It is consistently quoted as the worst event in most peoples memories of the festival - but I thought it was quite normal, if a little scary when caught in the middle of it. Anyway, less said, the better - my friends and I got home in one piece (which can't be said for my car).

Anyway, going back to the telly coverage - I find it quite amazing how much you can see from the comfort of your sofa, back in the early 90's this was just not possible. I think it was channel 4 that started the telly coverage thing in the late 90's and, I think that permanently changed the flavour of the festival - now people go there solely to see bands and couldn't give a toss about the amazing things that go on at the rest of the festival, which is a shame.

One other thing is that the media obsession with the mud is just that, a media obsession. When you are there, you simply don't notice it after a while (so long as you are permanantly wrecked that is). Mind you, I think 2005 was rather different (i.e. before the new drainage was installed) - you have to remember for most of the year cows graze on those fields, and when it rains, what washes down the slopes down towards the pyramid tent isn't just mud ;)

Joe and the Jokers ... take 2

A new logo for the band ... that is uncannily like Joe ....
Thanks once again to artist extraordinaire Mr Kirk Valladares!!

It is circular and designed to fit on the front of a bass drum!

Philosophy and Monty Python

When one argues that words or sentences have meaning only in the context of other words, then you can extend that argument to include the context of the whole language - this is Semantic Holism. But taking this approach is akin to pulling the earth from under our feet, leaving us standing on nothing: anything can be true, anything can be false, in fact anything can be true or false at the same time.

Well, Monty Python understood this and made comedic hay in the sunshine of its consequences.

It is all explained beautifully here in this transcript of a lecture given to a philosophy undergrad class at Virginia Tech. Find somewhere quiet, take your time and read. There is much to learn.

Joe and the Jokers

The one-time-only band which we have got together for Joe's 50th birthday party, now has a name!

Lead Guitar: Joker Joe
Lead Vocals: Laughing Les
Guitar and Vocals: Tony "Wide-Open" Dawes
Bass guitar: As-if "Timing" Mirtha
Drums: "Cheshire" Cat

(Have to come up with a better name for my character ... suggestions welcome!)

Latest, and possibly final, song list:
Walk in the Room - The Searchers
Meet me on the Corner - Lindisfarne
I can't get no (Satisfaction) - Stones
Whiskey in the Jar - Thin Lizzy
Hey Joe - Hendrix
Back in the USSR - Beatles
Sunny Afternoon - The Kinks

Robogeek:It's Alive!

For those of you following our bijou little comic strip "RoboGeek", you might like to know ... It's Alive!!

Glorious May Bank Holiday

Well, it all seemed so nice on Friday when we arrived. BBQ on the go, beer and wine flowing, happy kids. Saturday was even nice enough for the kids to enjoy the forrest play area (see Giant Squirrel below). But, then that good old British institution known as the May Bank Holiday, played its usual tricks. The weather turned from 25degrees on Thursday to 6degrees on Sunday with persistent heavy rain and wind. Absolutely horrid. The low point was getting a phone call while we were in the pub telling us that our tent had collapsed in the wind. Not fun. On the plus side, the bedroom compartments and all our clothes and food stayed dry.

Among the highlights were the BBQ (total success, no one killed) and the poker evening (finished joint 1st - well, OK second).

Kaspar makes BBC news

Once again Kaspar the robot built by our team at Herts makes the national news.
Nice video of Kaspar and Ben, but what I like particularly about it is that the robot is wearing my son Yousef's clothes!!

Lets go kick some african animal ass

Midfielding ... it was a true story.
OK, so it is not a giant shrew lined with Kit-Kat wrappers like a glossy bitch, but it is a huge Squirrel of Troy filled with marauding children.

robot bondage

You know, like whatever turns you on. Man.

Technomonist

Technomonist.
A new word made up by me ;)

I'd like it to mean:
"One who leverages technical know-how for monetary gain."

Not to be confused with Technomancer which is derived from Technomancy (meaning magical powers from using technology), which, it appears, is a real word

EDIT:
An alternative meaning which would fit with it being a contraction of "Technology" and "Economist" would be:
"Analyst of tech-related markets."

but that is altogether too boring and predictable ...

WTF?

Web acronyms - necessary evil. I always thought that WTF? was a disbelieving exclamation (What The F**k?), but oh no, now Technorati want to reclaim it as meaning Where's The Fire? Damn them and their all invasive tech tentacles.

Midfielding

Midfielding
Noel Fielding (The Mighty Boosh) in a touch of small-furry-animals-in-trojan-adventure type hilarity. Heard it on Friday (Thanks Aris!), had me laughing most of the weekend!! (Listen out for the old Russian Lady!)

The lyrics by themselves are funny enough::

I love animals, I am always talkin’ about animals I love ‘em. But the thing is, you know whenever you see animals on telly it’s always the show off animals yeah. It is always the leopards and panthers and crocodiles Lions millin’ about going “Oh I’m very good I’m on everything!”

And, it really makes me annoyed you know, I mean what about the English animals, the British mammals yeah? Ooh, what about the muskrat or the tiny northern root vole with his little banjo and hat made out of elastic bands? Who’s representing him? No-one, that’s who!

I was furious, so I went round all the heavily wooded regions in England and I just went out with this small pamphlet recruiting like a huge slave rebellion. I was like Spartacus, I was there goin’ “Ok we’re gonna go to Africa we’re gonna kick their arses!”

And I’d got a huge sort of tiny little mammal slave rebellion they were all wearing tunics. We were there rummaging about Greece, well Kent! And I said COME ON! We’re gonna go over there we’re gonna show 'em I’m sick of the lions I’m sick of the crocodiles you must be too come on now!

So I got ‘em all in a big rusty bomber and we flew over to Africa But we needed a strategy! We couldn’t’ just go over there, you know and go COME ON! Giving them agro, we needed a strategy!

So what we did is, erm, we built a huge wooden shrew, like the wooden horse of troy but just a little bit more stoaty with tiny little stoats arms holding a spear and what we did was we lined it – to make it double dangerous we lined it all with Kit Kat wrappers oh it was fantastic, it was like a glossy bitch it was so bright! It was a metallic wonder!

Small boys would rather eat a pair of scissors than go near the glossy bitch
“Don’t make me go near it, I’ll eat another pair of scissors. I can’t look at it it’s doin’ me pupils in” Ooh it was fantastic it was very warlike.

The body was very warlike but the eyes, they were telling a different story, body warlike but the eyes, like the eyes of an old Russian lady who’d seen to much, an old Russian lady with her arm caught in a loom. And big sailors would walk past and go “Hello.” and she’d go “No, not hello, my arm it is in a loom.” And they’d go “Yes, hello.” and she’d go “No not hello, it’s gone maroon, my arm it is in a loom.” and they’d go “Yes, hello” and she’d go “No, not hello-“ And in the end she’d have to pick up the two ton loom and walk and follow them home and knock on their front windows. And they’d go “Oh you’re scaring me a little bit now”.

That’s what the eyes were like. Dangerous, but beautiful at the same time.

And what we did, was we cut two circles out of the base of the shrew, so that martin the pine marten could put his little stoaty, weasely legs through and wheel us around. It was fantastic, but we had no windows, so we were crashing into antique shops, knocking over stationary yachts, really having a nightmare. .

And eventually we found the planes and we waited till dusk, waited till it got little bit dark and we looked out of a crack in the shrew and there all out there, lions millin’ about and we thought we’re gonna get you you freak nuts! .

So what we did was, we waited till it was dark and then we went out and we went CHARGE! and we ran at them and when we got out there we couldn’t believe it! They were HUGE! Lions the size of transit vans! We couldn’t- we didn’t know what was happeni- Leopards like marquees!
“ Oh he’s like a Victorian tennis house, look at the size of him!” .

Martin the Pine Marten was in a right state!
“Flippin’ hell I’m not going out there again thy were bloody huge you didn’t tell me they were going to be that huge!”
What’s happening to your voice?
“I don’t know but I’m a bit scared!” .

So, we all ran back onto the shrew and we were like
“Oh no what are we going to do?” We had to come up with a plan B. Luckily Maurice the er, wood pigeon went
“I’ve got an idea” and er, he’d brought some Japanese tourist costumes along, so we popped them on and went out there and we took photos of them all. .

We used them cameras to fire water at them oh yeah! Some of the zebras were soaked! Cheetahs wringin’ out their gussets! .

We went over there and we kicked their arses! Best weekend I’ve ever had! .

RoboGeek

Website for the comic ... here (still only 2 entries though)

Artificial Intelligence in a robot - easy! ...

... if I could just get around to doing some research ...

(C) Kirk Valladares 2007

PS - my next task, which I shall probably put off till another day, which is itself a procrastination vehicle for my real task of getting this PhD done, is:

• Create a website for these cartoons.

Brain Entropy

My head is completely fried after having spent 2 hours describing:

• Information Theory
• Entropy of Random Variables
• Joint and Condtitional probability
• Information Distance
• Dimensionality (and calculation of)
• Grouping and Clustering
• Adaptive Binning and Entropy Maximization

and more ... to a PhD student in our lab.

I have to go lie down now.

Song list

You may or may not know, but I will be playing only my second ever live gig in my entire life this summer. My first was with a guitar and a close friend of mine in Manchester. We played to a packed bar at Hardy Farm in Chorlton. I came on with dark glasses and couldn't find my guitar (even though it was hanging around my neck). This could have had something to do with what I had drunk before taking the stage. Needless to say, we were pretty crap, but the audience seemed to enjoy it.

The second coming will be at a friend of mine's 50th birthday party do. I will be playing bass with a bunch of real professionals, and I am going to have to go some to keep up.

This is our (latest) song list:

Beatles - Back in the USSR
Kinks - Sunny Afternoon
Hendrix - Hey Joe
Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar

we did have ZZ-Top (Gimme all you lovin) Van Morrison (Moondance) and Stones (Gimme Shelter) on that list previously, but they have been dropped for now.

EDIT: We have added Thin Lizzy's version of "Whiskey in the Jar" to the list ... first rehearsal of that tomorrow!

Procrastination ... again

(C) Kirk Valladares 2007

well, says it all ...

How the body shapes the way we think

It is one of the many perks of working in such an exciting field of research as robotics that I get to meet some of my real heros. But it is a rare privilege to be working in a project with one of the true geniuses of the field Prof. Rolf Pfeifer. Today I took delivery of his new and sure to be influential new book coauthored with the brilliant young scientist Josh Bongard.

How the body shapes the way we think should help to turn our idea of intelligence on its head and make us really understand how cognitive function of low and high order came about as part of the physical body and not separate from it as Descartes might have you believe. Embodied intelligence is not new thinking to be sure (just think of Messrs. Maturana and Varella) but the clear and fresh thinking, examples and experiments in this book should help to make more people take the message on board and stop trying to design intelligent systems and robots from a disembodied computational perspective.
buy it on Amazon

Pao

It was so beautiful and in such good condition. So impressed - real retro interior too - very sixties, very chic. I was thinking, maybe a Fiat (but not enough rust), maybe some French model (but too well engineered). Looked at the front ... a Nissan ??? Is this possible? I thought back in the sixties - if it existed then at all - Nissan was called Datsun, right??

But, a quick search on Google revealed that this is one of a few models of retro cars that Nissan produced in the late 80's early 90's. The other well known one is the Figaro, which is equally stylish (and also explains why I keep seeing what I thought were very well maintained small stylish Volvos around).
Anyway, I want one.

Italy trip

Just for Kirk ...
Away from home again. This time beautiful Ferrara in Italy. Having left home at 4:30am on Sunday and not got back till 2:00am Wed morning, I think I'd rather have stayed at home.
Still, as expected the city was glorious, the food was delicious and the weather was perfect.
Can't be bad.

The pic is of what was supposed to be a beautiful spreading oak tree in full blossom in the couryard of an ancient monastry. However it seemed to have been attacked by a madman with a chainsaw before we got there.

Kill Me. Is it?

Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Thou shalt always kill.


Seems to be a kind of threshold for me, but as soon as I listen to a track 6 times in a row, I have the urge to spread the word. But, in this case it really is not necessary.
I was hooked on my first listen last week on Radio 1. Clearly, the fact it was a daily play track on the biggest station in the country means that I'm not the first person to have fallen in love with Scroob's infectious lyrics and vocal delivery. Nevertheless, if you do fancy hearing a white rapper from Essex, dressed in a suit with a full, almost ZZ-Top or Mad Mullah beard, splice keenly chosen lyrics into a background of blips and beeps out of an old-school gameboy-type soundtrack, then you could do a lot worse than clicking here.


The lyrics speak of not deifying Crass, Minor Threat, the Beatles or Led Zeppelin, the genius of Stephen Fry, the sanctity of the Four Elements, the evil of Coke, Nestle and the NME, and the hypocrisy of our evaluation of value/newsworthy-ness of human life based on whether they speak English or not. In case you think it is just political, you'd be wrong - he get's passionate about music, girls and rejection there too.

This, in a word, Kills.

St Totteringham's day

Just realised that Tuesday was in fact St. Totteringham's day. Calls for drinks this weekend.

The way the gunners have been playing recently there was always a chance that it would get dragged out till the last week of the season. But, Spurs have been worse than expected - mainly because they can't defend for toffee, so here we are with Arsenal 13 points ahead of Spurs with just 4 games to go.

wherever, whenever

gotta love Shakira, such lovely lyrics ;)

"Lucky that my breasts are small and humble
So you don't confuse them with mountains"

or in Spanish ...

"Suerte que mis pechos sean pequeños,
Y no los confundas con montañas"

SpiderNAM

Spiderman -> SpiderNAM, my initials, see what he did there! ;)
Thanks to Kirk for more of his photoshop humour!

Poland - debrief

Well, it all went pretty well, considering. Despite spending way too much money on what I shouldn't have I think I got away with it. The hotel had a casino on the 3rd floor. The beer in Warsaw was cheap, and we indulged our fantasies at a place called New Orleans.

Since then I have had fun setting up a (private) forum for chat among the participants. Some of the graphics from there and some of the photoshopped piccies I took are below ...








Thanks to Kirk for all the artistry!

Warsaw: here we come

Tomorrow I embark on a weekend of drinking and debauchery of the lowest order with 5 of my oldest friends. We are visiting Warsaw - a pack of cards and a couple of Zloty's in our pockets.
This may be the last time I write on this blog.

Crash

A snap from our last night out. We were celebrating Joe's successfull PhD defence and Rob's new post-doc position in Sweeden. Much beer consumed, Alex (taking the picture) had to assist me home. I know it looks like someone's living room, but this is one of St. Albans finest real ale pubs: The Farmer's Boy. It has it's own brewery and supplies the beer for that other Camera St. Albans favourite - The Lower Red Lion.

Answers to two questions from that night. It was Martha and the Muffins - not Martha and the Vandellas. And, it was, of course, the lovely Primitives.

Normal Weekend

Got brought up muffins & fried egg in bed. Wrote some code. Took son to swimming lessons. Made large red fire engine with all three boys. Got liberally covered with red paint. Parents brought over lunch. Lazed. Got beaten by son at Junior Monopoly. Bed-time routine. Played some guitar. Watched "Mock The Week" (nearly pissed myself laughing).
Got up. Muesli in bed. More code. Lunch. Family afternoon out: Roman museum, playground, park, ducks. Stew. Bed-time. Watched Clockwork Orange for the first time ...

... Shit, nearly normal.

I am a BANANA

Programming examples are rarely exciting or even interesting. They usually consist of various foo's and bar's being created and destroyed. That is why I like this from www.cppreference.com (link)

For example, the following code uses the find() function to determine how many times a user entered a certain word:

  map stringCounts;
string str;

while( cin >> str ) stringCounts[str]++;

map::iterator iter = stringCounts.find("spoon");
if( iter != stringCounts.end() ) {
cout << "You typed '" <<>first << "' " <<>second << " time(s)" <<>

When run with this input:

my spoon is too big.  my spoon is TOO big!  my SPOON is
TOO big!  I am a BANANA!

...the above code produces this output:

You typed 'spoon' 2 time(s)

Indeed ...
PS be careful out there!

Anything you can do I can do better ...

Windows Vista. Phaa!
I now have Beryl running on my Ubuntu 6.10 Linux machine. Yes, real transparent windows, proper movement effects, and a 3d desktop cube that is to die for. When you move the desktop cube you see live views. If you have a video running on one desktop, it is still running live on the cube. If you look through the transparent cube to the other side, you see the video reversed!!

Seeing truly is believing.

2nd Jam Session

Much excitement was generated when we were joined in our 2nd session by one Alex Klyubin. Ostensibly, just to hang out, eat pizza and give is his frank opinions. When he was handed my keyboard however, it turns out he is something of a virtuoso pianist. Que, Hey Jude on Bass, guitar and piano.

Other highlights were decent performance of Hey Rigo Rigo, a 2 bodhran jam and multiple plays of Psycho Killer.

Nice.

Roche Associates

If by any chance you were looking for a excellent quality personalised service from highly qualified Corporate Tax Consultants specialising in Land Remediation, Capital Allowances and Revenue Tax Relief (in UK), then you could do a lot worse than checking out the Roche Associates website.

Try a little Freddie

OK - I think after my 30th listen in a row, I officially love Mika ...

What? You are not familiar with his work? See here.