Book read: A Captain's Duty by Richard Philips

I saw the film adaptation of this with Tom Hanks a couple of months ago.  It was a really tense gripping film that described the hijacking of an American container ship by Somali pirates.  It did a good job of also trying to explain the two sides of the story - although it did become a bit of a recruiting vehicle for the US navy toward the end.

I've now read the book account and that is just as interesting.  It has lots of background detail of how Phillips became a captain, and I found that fascinating.  The description of the hijack is equally good, how he prepared the crew beforehand, how quick thinking he had to be to stall and disrupt the pirates.

A really good read, and an eye opener into the merchant sailor world - something we all rely on but few people realise the threats they face. 

Book read: Red Machine: The Players' Stories by Simon Hughes

A book with an interview per chapter of players from the 1960s-1980s in the Liverpool team.

If you followed football at that time, particularly the period in the 1980s where Liverpool were the team to beat then it is a really nostalgic look back at the times and allows lots of comparisons with how the game has changed.

The profile of football was so much lower then, and consequently the game was much less commercialised.  The success of Liverpool toward the late 1980s was just the beginning of that revolution. 

Although it did not seem amateurish at the time, a lot of the training, medical treatment was pretty basic.  Liverpool had a simple philosophy, where they excelled was in buying players that would fit well into a team.

A really good read, and a nice piece of football history.

Twitter Economics

The Twitter flotation got a lot of press this week.

They floated at $26 a share, with 505 million shares in circulation leading to a market cap of $13.1 bn.

There was lots of interest in the shares and they rose above $50, and now stand at $41.  That's a market cap of around $20 bn.

It's a very popular service, I can't deny that - and it has tentacles into all media outlets - as they have been suckers for feeling the need for a presence on it.  Especially individuals of media who feel the need to self promote (despite the obvious danger of an ill judged tweet ending your career).

But this service has never made a profit, has yet to work out an advertising strategy - and could easily be replaced by a newer more trendy upstart.

I was dubious about Facebook - this is just crazy...

Facebook Economics IV

It has been a long time since I've looked at these shares, and the madness of the Twitter float has made me look back - I was pretty downbeat on them.  Give Facebook their due, it looks like they are working out how to advertise to mobile/small screen users.

So how about the shares?

There are 2.43 billion shared in circulation.

$47.53 dollars per share,  $115.50 bn market capitilsation

$38 dollars at floatation, indicating $92.34 bn value.

So an overall increase of $23.16 bn, a 25% rise in value.

Steady progress I say, and compared to Twitter this almost looks like a sensible business now...

Social Media Sign Up

I've always shunned social media, I suppose not for any deep ideological reason - but just the inevitable consequences of a free service needing to ride on the back of the data you provide to earn money from advertising.  It creates a race-to-zero pressure to always be "innovating" (read taking liberties with your personal information) on the provider.

Of course if social media were "pay-for" I would not use it either, and I know it is up to the user how much information they are prepared to divulge.

But now as a consiencious objector of sorts I face a new threat.  I use the e-mail of a well known provider who also happens to offer a social media element.  But now almost every time I login it feels like there is a new "trick" to try and get me to accidentally sign up to their service.  Obviously as a user I'd like a button that says "not now, not ever" - but there is no way the provider would offer that, they lose an oppourtunity to catch me out.

I'm wondering how long I can hold out for...

Film: Elisabeth directed by Shekhar Kapur

A film from 1998 about the reign of Elisabeth the first.  It has historical backdrop of the Spanish Armada, but most of the film focuses around Elisabeth her lack of marriage and court intrigue.

It makes for a good film overall, a few liberties with history as always with Hollywood - you want to believe the speech delivered on horseback to rouse the troops was authentic, but surely not...

Film: Rush directed by Ron Howard

When I first heard of this film about the 1976 Formula 1 championship battle between Hunt and Lauda I knew I would be interested in seeing in, then when I heard it was directed by Ron Howard I knew it was essential viewing.

I was not disappointed, despite being relatively low budget this portrays life in Formula 1, the danger, the glamour, and the two very different characters of playboy Hunt and technocrat Lauda.

Despite all the horrific things concerning Lauda's near death the film still has plenty of room of humour and describing the world title that year.  Hunt is portrayed somewhat one dimensionally to contrast well with Lauda - but that can be forgiven as it is film and not documentary.

Book read: A Short History of England by Simon Jenkins

A really compact account of English history that does a good job of linking up the various ages of history and listing the main leaders and historical figures.

This is the kind of history that would be good at school to give such a general understanding and try to give some relevance and echoes of the history today.

Linux: Install ISO image from DVD (CentOS5)

This is for CentOS5, creating a bootable USB image that can install the .iso images:

Summarised from the following:

http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey


1.  Use fdisk to setup partitions (about 60M for the boot partition, "a" makes bootable):

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *        2048      124927       61440    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sdc2          124928    15638479     7756776   83  Linux

2.  Create filesystems:

mkfs.vfat -n BOOT /dev/sdc1
mkfs.ext2 -m 0 -b 4096 -L DATA /dev/sdc2

3.  Remount the USB drive, and copy iso image

mkdir /media/DATA/centos
; copy .iso images

4.  Configure syslinux boot on the FAT32 partition

syslinux -s /dev/sdc1
dd if=/usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sdc

mount the .iso image locally using -o loop
cp -rv /tmp/image/isolinux/ /media/BOOT/syslinux
cd /media/BOOT
mv syslinux/isolinux.cfg  syslinux/syslinux.cfg
rm -f syslinux/isolinux.bin

5.  Edit syslinux.cfg on the append statements add:

method=hd:sda2:/centos

Film: Valkyrie Directed by Bryan Singer

A film detail the attempted plot to murder Hitler during the second world war.  The intention was to assassinate and then neutralise Berlin by claiming a state off emergency.

The conspirators wanted to murder both Hitler and Himmler in one attempt - but things do not quite go to plan.  This is a good film, but probably does too much bending of history for the benefit of a good plot.

Tom Cruise plays his role well but his own persona comes across a bit too much at times - making the character look a little righteous and vain.  The firing squad scene at the end is probably something you can imagine was debated with the studios and Cruise's "people"  - as it is a little over played....

Film: Munich directed by Steven Speilberg

A tense film about the retribution carried out after the Munich Olympic murders in 1972.  Israel sanction a hit list of targets that a loosely connected group are given to execute.

The film portrays each hit, but also covers the moralistic issues the lead character has to face as he finds himself becoming more desensitised to hist actions.

Has some good acting, Daniel Craig is a surprise with a South African accent.

Ballmer Quits!

Well on the back of the reorganisation, Ballmer announces his retirement - causing a boost in the MSFT share price:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23815316

It's a bit of a surprise, and it's a little unfair to call him unsuccessful.  MSFT have maintained profitability on existing sectors - they've been patchy on new areas, although not for want trying on things like Windows Mobile, and the ill fated Windows 8/RT.  I must admit even I could see RT was a turkey - the need to recompile for it, it was just never going to be easy.

So it will be interesting to see who is next to give things a go.  They are a big company with a lot of power, they need to work out how to become a commercial brand to supplement the existing enterprise.  Also rather than throw their weight around, embrace some of the things like open source, interoperability to make them more appealing - rather than an empire whose products are needed out of necessity.

Film: Frost/Nixon directed by Ron Howard

A film vehicle for Michael Sheen to play David Frost, during the time of his interview with disgraced president Nixon.

It did not sound that enthralling but the film is pretty good - depicting how much money Frost had to raise and encourage backers to raise money to pay a president who was clearly looking for another pay day.

Frost is portrayed as a playboy and slightly out of his depth journalistically.  The initial days of interviewing play into Nixon's hands and it is not until the last day does Frost get enough material to ask more pointed questions - which then cause Nixon's admissions.

Something of the original interviews:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4QT-eH6zvg

Portsmouth League 2 - Tough Start

Harsh lessons for Portsmouth as they were beaten 4-1 at home to Oxford.  I really want to see Guy Whittingham do well, partly nostalgia, and partly because he is a good person.

An 18000 crowd saw this, which is a real shame - but it's early days, sounds like there is a lot to put right if League 2 is to be a promotion season!

Film: Terminator 2 Judgement Day directed by James Cameron

Hard to believe but I have never seen this film from 1991, and I really liked the original Terminator.  So I borrowed it and watched.  It was pretty good, I remember bits of it from "making of" dcoumentaries.

A lot of the film hinges on nascent CGI and looking at it now they hold up pretty well - but do look like an Amiga had been working over time to produce the ray tracing.

The film has a few twists, like Arnie being the terminator now on the protection job.  But generally it's a film of cat and mouse and huge fire power.

I did not realise it was a James Cameron film - and is in the Aliens mould for effects and all out action.

Software Patents

I'm pretty much against software patents, they have just become an increasingly gamed legal battleground for the big companies - and will hardly ever protect the lone inventor where there intentions originally lay.

Here is a good Joel on Software post describing the rejection of one such patent, and the game behind getting patent approvals:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2013/07/22.html

Microsoft Reorganisation

I do feel sorry for Microsoft - well a little bit.  For the first time in a long time they have some credible products, albeit playing catch up to other companies.  But no one cares for their platform or ecosystems they are building.  So what is a CEO to do, reorganise!

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2013/Jul13/07-11OneMicrosoft.aspx

Let's go guys!  I wonder how the minions felt at reading that e-mail.  Microsoft will not die quickly but there presence in expanding markets will decrease, so then will their revenues.  Seeing everything as an opportunity to have the Windows OS on it was a mistake.   You can call it something else, even if it is the windows kernel underneath.

Film: In the Mood for Love Directed by Kar Wai Wong

I art house film set in Singapore/Hong Kong.  Very stylistic and with great city life scene settings from the 1960s.  Best to read the plot on IMDB, I would have to watch again to pick up the the detail and fine points:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118694/

Operation Sleeper

I had to help move a double mattress yesterday.  Not between rooms, but moving it across town - 1 mile of carrying.

I did not think it was possible, just too big an item for two people to carry.  But amazingly we managed it, setting out very early 6:15 am - and doing the move in about 30 minutes.  We were very lucky with the weather, it held off.  Later on we went to the seafront and walked along there, by which time the wind had really picked up.

I think we now hold the record for mattress moving by hand...

Film: Black Swan Directed by Darren Aronofsky

A really dark film about the rarefied world of the elite ballerina.  Using the backdrop of a Swan Lake production, it shows the pressure to succeed, the self sacrifice, the competition and Darwinian nature of the ballet performer.

The dark aspects are truly dark and thought provoking - very unusual for a Hollywood film.

A good performance by Natalie Portman, who must have trained up for the role which is impressive.

Book read: The Algebraist by Iain M Banks

After having read the author was terminally ill, I decided to try and read one of his novels recommended by a work colleague.

So I read "The Algebraist", a good summary is here Banks revels in both the story telling but also the more comedic and logical conclusions of the fantasy world he constructs. The book is very long - and has a plausible plot, but also likes to draw upon absurdity of the everyday lives of the characters.

I'm not sure if I would read another, it definitely felt like a classic novel though - and deserves a place in the top 100 science fiction novels.

Film: Female Agents directed by Jean-Paul Salomé

A film based on historical events of a special operation to rescue a captured British geologist from France shortly before the D-Day landings.

The rescue happens very early in the film, and with the remainder being devoted to the assassination attempt on the SS guard who is close to working out the methods and location of the landing - essentially the discovery that temporary harbours were to be used.

A good film and account - slightly non descriptive title that makes it sound more plain a film than it turns out to be.

Book read: My Steve by Terri Irwin

I read this book while I was in Brisbane, the day before I visited Australia Zoo.  It is a very heart warming series of anecdotes about Steve Irwin - and puts his life and achievements into perspective as well as describing more about the man behind the name.

He died tragically young but the book gives you the indication that he thought his time was limited, so made the most of the time he had.

Saturn V Rocket

Interesting article about NASA going back to the designs of the F1 rocket:



http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/04/how-nasa-brought-the-monstrous-f-1-moon-rocket-back-to-life/

Australia visit - Sydney

My big holiday of all time was to visit Australia this year.   It was only a few weeks after Malaysia.

The flight out was overnight leaving Heathrow at 9:30 pm on an A380.  It was a long flight to Singapore, but being able to sleep was a benefit.  March 2013 was the last month that Qantas were doing this route, after that it would be a stop over in Dubai - so it felt like the end of a long haul era.

Landing in Singapore, with just a one hour stop over before rejoining for another 8 hours on top of the 12 already flown.  Landing in Sydney on Monday 07:30 am.  It took a while to get through immigration, and out to a taxi to the hotel at Surry Hills arriving at around 11 am.

We stayed at a boutique hotel, and the first day was taken with catching up on some sleep - only venturing out in the evening to get some food.

Tuesday:

Visited the Opera house for a tour and walked around the Circular Quay

Wednesday:

Visited Manly and walked along the beaches.

Thursday:

China town, Natural history museum

Friday:

Sea life, and Australia museum

Saturday

Shopping and walked through the Quay area

Sunday

World Extents (3)

My Australia trip ran from 9 to 27 March, and once again my world extents were drastically extended.  My new list reads:

1. North - Northampton UK
2. East -Brisbane Australia
3. South - Sydney Australia
4. West - St Austell UK

World Extents (2)

My world extents post was out of date as soon as it was written almost.  Thanks to work I got sent on an emergency trip to Malaysia, so my new list reads:

1. North - Northampton UK
2. East - Malaysia
3. South - Malaysia
4. West - St Austell UK

Malaysia Initial Impressions

I got sent to Malaysia for work in February, a very last minute thing.  It was my first visit to Asia, and I wanted to note down my thoughts a few months on.

First impressions were of the flight, which is long 12 hours from London Heathrow.  This was my first ever long haul flight so I was a little worried about how it would be.  Flying on an A380 was nice though, even in economy.  I think the secret to long haul is being able to sleep or doze through most of it.  I took a window seat which may not have been such a great idea - it worked out ok as I sat next to a nice couple.

Arriving at Kuala Lumpur the first thing that hits you is the heat, it was immediate warm air after having left a cold London.  Working my way through the airport was ok, the only confusing thing was baggage return being seperated in another terminal.  Getting to KL Sentral was easy as there was an express train dedicated to doing this trip. 

I did not make the colonial times connection until I realised how many traits there still were, driving on the left side, signposting in English.  But having said that there were as many differences, it is many cultures in one nation.  I was relieved to find my hotel very close to the central station, a very short walk.

World Extents

I'm going to Australia this year, which is a big trip. My travels have been confined to Europe only so far, I did not leave the country until I was 30!

So the extents of my travels are:

1. North - Northampton UK
2. East - Milan Italy
3. South - Milan Italy
4. West - St Austell UK

CES No Microsoft

The past few years I would watch the Steve Ballmer keynote at CES. With Microsoft pretending to be a consumer device company. Last year was the last one, they were replaced by Qualcomm - really a hardware supplier into such consumer devices, but who probably think they can make their own impact as a device manufacturer.

But Ballmer put in an appearance!, to show off Windows 8 on touch devices. It has got off to a slow start - but maybe it will pick up. Also with Apple clearly at their peak of innovation and now reduced product line - maybe Microsoft will make some inroads into this market.

Film: Shaolin directed by Benny Chan

An interesting film about feuding warlords in China, with a fair amount of martial arts and fighting scenes - but still with a reasonable story.

My favorite scene was the meditation poles the temple worshipers would stand on with one foot - an argument ensues but this then causes one of them to leave his state of mindfulness and fall off his pole.

But a light moment in a more serious film - and there are others like that.