I’ve been thinking about getting an MP3 player for a while, and the launch of the new iPods from Apple got me looking again. I was tempted by the new Shuffle (in the shape of a clip), but I decided to look around and see what else is on the market.

So. For a bit more than a Shuffle, I got a much more capable player from Sony. Graphic equalizer, 1Gb of storage, FM radio, decent display. All good.

One needs to use the SonicStage software to load music, which is a little boring but does work. It’s designed around the idea of an album or a playlist, but it is possible to load individual tracks if desired. There are also “dynamic playlists” which can be set up with some basic rules, and then choose a selection of music to load (say 60 minutes of random tracks, or all the music marked as genre Techno which was added to the library in the last month).

The display is a single line of text, and one can navigate by album or by playlist, or search for a specific track. The UI is very good considering the small display.

Apple? Pah.

Might as well – 6Mb PDF. Enjoy…

Writing about: ESA – Observing the Earth – Understanding Our Planet – Arctic summer ice anomaly shocks scientists

Satellite images acquired from 23 to 25 August 2006 have shown for the first time dramatic openings – over a geographic extent larger than the size of the British Isles – in the Arctic’s perennial sea ice pack north of Svalbard, and extending into the Russian Arctic all the way to the North Pole.

I mostly feel extremely sad when I read this kind of thing – we’re rushing headlong into a catastrophe and we can see it coming but we still aren’t doing anything about it.

This is going to change the world, not in our grandchildrens’ lifetimes, nor our childrens’, but in ours. And no amount of oil-money induced denial is going to do a damn thing about it.

Guildford’s Guildhall clock.

Guildford is another one of these places which it is very difficult to take interesting photos of. The countryside is too close for big scenic shots, and the town is not really picturesque (although it does have a good character).

Oh well.

Writing about: Stripper storm at climate meeting

Outraged scientists stormed out of a government-sponsored climate change conference dinner in Canberra last night, after female entertainers stripped down to their underwear as part of a burlesque show.

Why aren’t the conferences that I attend like that?

More Emotional You have: 62% SCIENTIFIC INTUITION and 77% EMOTIONAL INTUITION

The graph on the right represents your place in Intuition 2-Space. As you can see, you scored well above average on emotional intuition and above average on scientific intuition.Your emotional intuition is stronger than your scientific intuition. Your Emotional Intuition score is a measure of how well you understand people, especially their unspoken needs and sympathies. A high score score usually indicates social grace and persuasiveness. A low score usually means you’re good at Quake. Your Scientific Intuition score tells you how in tune you are with the world around you; how well you understand your physical and intellectual environment. People with high scores here are apt to succeed in business and, of course, the sciences.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on Scientific You scored higher than 99% on Interpersonal

Link: The 2-Variable Intuition Test written by jason_bateman on OkCupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Writing about: Memorandum to Self

I think I’ll write another memorandum for my postgraduate times tomorrow,

Well. Not quite the day after – more like a year later. What do I want to remember from the last few years?

• Stu: You’re not on the list, you’re not coming in
• F80
• Huddersfield
• The Tower
• The Mikeopath returns
• beard-stroking Tina
• bibenzyl
• Tal and Martin visit Warwick – alone?
• Hillwalking. Minibuses
• Wales. Andrea, Monica, Sas
• Gear Explosion
• Beers of the World
• Hot chocolate
• Long Distance
• Manchester
• Plans. Scanrail. Talking by the cone.
• “A historical legacy”
• Reflections and reassessments.
• Late taxi, early flight. The Mule.
• Perspectives one and two
• Once more with feeling. Go team
• Back to Sweden.

• James. Willes Road. Arranged from a field.

  ——

• A New Start (PhOX)
• Sheffield
• Breaking up
• Longer Distance
• Waldhaus
• Baltrum. SB New Year
• GRAD (A New Hope). Self-understanding.
• Lille. Airbed. La Citadelle. Notting Hill. Eurostar.
• Mobile. “Mostly red”
• Poly Rig, Poly Meister
• The birth of a blog. WB.
• Stalktastic discussions.
• Mobile. Specialized.
• The Gimp
• Go Outdoors
• Argos tour. Lost in London, “helpful” staff on the railways. Ferry from Harwich
• Cycletour

• Digital Revolution

  ——

• D70
• FSAC
• Inventor
• Bright Red Shoes
• Brussels. Endeavor
• Wien again

• Jobs jobs jobs

  ——

• Kenilworth. SA Merchant Navy. Dinosaur cat.
• Back to Earlsdon; Shalimar, Gabriel’s
• Snowdrifts on Baltrum
• Split sites
• Deep decisions: Security, Identity, Bureaucracy, Renunciation
• Waiting for data
• Submission
• Relocation

• Examination

  And that’s about it. Last year looks a little thin, it was all rather a haze of experiments and data.

So, it’s been just over a month since my viva and today I submitted my corrected thesis.

It’s almost exactly 10 years since I first went to Warwick, on an open day. Everything’s changed, but everything’s still the same. I remember the feeling when I went back there after my first summer break back in Watford – I really liked it. Still do.

This is why it’s strange; I just kind of faded away from the place gradually. I’ve been working in Guildford now for a couple of months, I’m not quite sure where the time’s going. I hardly noticed that I wasn’t at Warwick any more.

But now it’s over. I’ll be back to graduate, and that’ll probably be it, really. I’m not sad to be moving on – I was looking forward to it, and I’m glad it’s come finally, and I’m very happy where I am now. But I will miss the place.