WebMink

Indian Summer Again

2008-09-28T17:39:00.001+01:00

Morning Rose
Originally uploaded by webmink

Well, we had a delicious lunch in the garden again today, under blue skies and kissed with warm sunshine. The trees around us are still largely green, and the roses are making a late show. One of those days when I don't wish I lived anywhere else!

In the spirit of beauty favoured by Tim Bray, here's a photo of our favourite rose lit from the side by the morning sun during breakfast. I took it as a practice shot with the G9 but it's turned out beautifully. I'm still having trouble getting used to using the 3" screen instead of the viewfinder - so unnatural, especially snapping through a car or plane window.

Equinox Summer

2008-09-21T16:12:00.002+01:00

After a lousy, grey, cold, wet summer in the UK, this weekend has paradoxically been gorgeous. The sky has been blue, the sun warm and we've even been able to eat in the garden - only the second or third time in the year.

As I noted in my links, I've finally succumbed to the inevitability that I can't take the 20D with me unless I am travelling with luggage, so I've taken the opportunity of price reductions related to the announcement of the G10 to buy a Canon G9 to travel with me on shorter journeys. I love it so far.

Since the weather is near perfect today despite it being the autumnal equinox, I'm taking the chance to practice, so expect a few sample snaps!

Omnivore's 100 - Is Webmink An Omnivore?

2008-09-13T21:28:00.003+01:00

This post relates to Very Good Taste � blog � The Omnivore�s Hundred. The VGT Omnivore�s Hundred list for me (with things I have eaten in bold and things I'd not eat crossed out):

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
~~21. Heirloom tomatoes~~
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
~~26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper~~
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat�s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth �60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald�s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S�mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs� legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

LHC Day in Geneva

2008-09-10T11:01:00.004+01:00

I've been attending A2K3 in Geneva, and it just so happens it got me here on LHC Day (the day that CERN turns on the Large Hadron Collider). Since it is just down the road, I'm guessing I'll be among the first to go when it blows up and makes an earth-sized black hole, so to celebrate in a different way to XKCD, here is one of my favourite (and sadly my wife's least favourite) Tom Lehrer songs (from YouTube).

Fig Flambe

2008-09-01T00:04:00.000+01:00

Turkish figs are back at the local supermarket and I've been cooking Fig Flambe again this weekend after a long break, I've been improving the recipe somewhat; here's what I'm doing now:

Webmink's Flamb�ed Figs

Ingredients:

One fig per person (plus one extra per 4 people if they aren't huge figs)
One rounded tablespoon of butter per person
One heaped teaspoon of fragrant honey per person
One teaspoon of balsamic vinegar per person
One shot of spirits per person. I use 50/50 rum and brandy

Method:

Slice the figs into 2mm-ish slices. You can tell if they are fresh enough because you'll find they just squish to a mush if they are over-ripe.
In a large frying pan, melt the butter, stirring constantly. I keep the pan as hot as I can without it smoking.
Add the honey and stir until it melts and blends with the clarified butter
Add the balsamic vinegar.
Heat and stir until you have a hot, golden foam that is starting to thicken and darken at the pan edges.
Add the sliced figs and coat them all with the foaming syrup. Stir and coat for a minute or so.
Add the spirits in a single, fast pour to the centre of the pan so it hits the bottom of the pan and boils. If you now tilt the pan slightly, the alcohol vapour should ignite.
Serve at once with greek yogurt. We sweeten ours with a little honey and a dash of vanilla essence.

We've had this twice over the weekend and it's been very popular, and I have enjoyed the musky fragrance of honey and balsamic vinegar filling the air in the kitchen. Do let me know of improvements to the recipe.

Brooke Fraser

2008-08-31T17:35:00.004+01:00

Browsing around on iTunes a week or so ago, I spotted a music video for sale called C.S. Lewis Song. Pretty intriguing title, so I sampled and discovered Brooke Fraser for the first time. She has a stunningly pure voice and the lyrics of her music are thoughtful and for a change mostly not about relationships, so I've dug further - first to the other (excellent) iTunes video, Shadowfeet, and then further to her most recent album, Albertine, from which both those songs are taken.

Turns out that she is from New Zealand and this is her second album. The first, What To Do With Daylight, is also excellent and made her a star in her home country with Arithmetic and other tracks. She's moved to Sydney since then, spent some of her new wealth on sponsoring children in Africa and got married.

The whole album is excellent - I've scored almost every track as 4 stars. The title track is available free from her website and is strong and compelling, as is the back-story. Her voice remains compelling at both ends of her range, and all the lyrics are refreshingly deep and spiritual.

To get a taste, browse her YouTube channel where all her music videos show up. While her record label is clearly trying to make sure we don't find out too easily, it turns out she is also making great worship music as a member of Hillsong United. I am captivated by her song Hosanna for example.

She's about to tour the US at the moment, and I think she's got a strong career ahead of her. She joins Delta Goodrem and Missy Higgins in my "antipodeans to watch" category and I suggest you give a try too.

Auto-Tube

2008-08-17T18:06:00.003+01:00

Looking through my Adsense account I noticed Google has now added units of YouTube videos as an option for display. I've added a block of them to the aggregator and to the personal blog, let's see how they go.

Eat Less Meat, Save The Earth

2008-07-09T11:59:00.003+01:00

I posted a link to this TED talk last week but I keep showing it to people here so I thought I'd actually post the video. Mark Bittman gives a short, inspiring talk on the imperative of changing our eating habits as a driver for both health and climate change. At home we're changing the way we shop and eat (largely as a result of Michael Pollan's books Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food) and this sums up the rationale and method nicely.

(If you see two grey bars above, click one of them to select a video player since your browser is able to offer both). The talk is also on the TED site.

3 little strikes, one disproportionate response

2008-07-05T18:19:00.004+01:00

I just sent this to my MEPs - I suggest you consider doing the same if you live in Europe. The Open Rights Group has the details and you can write instantly.

Dear Sharon Bowles, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, Caroline Lucas, Ashley Mote, Peter Skinner, Nirj Deva and Nigel Farage,

I was very concerned indeed to read in the news that some last-minute
"Telecoms Package" amendments could bring the so-called �3 strikes�
approach in by the back door. I understand that a possible
implementation of these amendments could result in any citizen losing
their right to connect to the Internet as a result of three
unsubstantiated accusations of downloading music or video or software
without permission.

The Internet is increasingly the channel through which citizens gain
access to government, to employment, to telephony and to much more in
addition to entertainment. It is as inappropriate for any law to
withhold this connection as it would be to ban citizens from walking on
public highways. To withhold basic access in this way should be a
sanction only used in the most extreme circumstances, ones where basic
liberty of other forms would also be withheld.

As my representative in the European Parliament, I ask you to vote
against any amendment that would result in arbitrary and
disproportionate sanctions such as this "three strikes" approach.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Phipps, FBCS

Feel free to plagiarize my letter. And let me know if you get a reply.

Unexpected Radical

2008-06-17T08:15:00.001+01:00

I spent a little time at the weekend reading the newspaper coverage of the campaign started by David Davis here in the UK. Davis was until Friday one of the most senior members of the opposition Conservative party, a political grouping that continues to struggle for credibility even in the face of an increasingly unpopular Labour Party in power under the humourless gaze of Gordon Brown (all Blair's values, none of his charisma).

Hearing Davis' speech on Friday as he resigned his seat in Parliament was a breath of fresh air, the first political statement I have heard over here for ages that has had any connection with my fears for our liberty. It seems to be a genuine act of principle, a grasping after one of the few tools at his disposal to put the issue on the agenda.

What has he done? Well, he was the shadow Home Secretary, the politician appointed by the opposition Conservatives to handle home affairs. It's one of the more visible political jobs in the UK and reflects his seniority after he was beaten to the Conservative leadership by David Cameron. He has resigned both that job and his seat in the House of Commons, with the goal of forcing an election in the constituency that put him there. He wants the election to be on a single issue and to highlight that issue in Britain. He's chosen that path becuase it was the only way to get the issue raised.

What is the issue? The triggering issue was the vote over whether the police in the UK should be able to hold a terrorist suspect without charge for two weeks longer than at present - a total of 42 days. The Labour government has been steamrollering the issue through, using the same disreputable "if you're against this you love terrorists" rhetoric that's become so common. The Conservatives, sensing a play in their own turf, have effectively rolled over and let it happen.

But more widely, the issue is the fact that the erosion of civil liberties in Britain has just gone too far. Davis said: "I will argue this by-election against the slow strangulation of fundamental British freedoms by this government." Not just "this government", David, your own lot are complicit too. In that context, it was going to take something pretty extreme to have a decent public debate on the subject.

And will we have that debate? Not if the establishment and the leader-writers have their way. Davis is currently at the focus of a set of campaigns intended to undermine his position by his own party, who fear he distracts from their "direction" and are framing this a sour grapes from the leadership loser, and the government, who want to paint him as an egotist playing "a farcical stunt". But I hope they have miscalculated. As The Guardian says:

Could David Davis somehow have stumbled across something the establishment has missed, an untapped anger with what the public sees as a snooping, heavy-handed state that spies on it through speed cameras and CCTV and microchips on its rubbish bins, that tramples its freedoms and makes sloppy mistakes with its private data?

Davis is the first voice with any chance of getting heard that has shouted "enough is enough, protect me by protecting me not by making me a slave". Despite my position usually being to the left of his, Davis has my support (maybe even some of my money) since this is an issue that needs tackling, and none of our current elected leaders seem to have the stomach for it. I'm with him, and I'm not the only one.

Please Vote For My Photo

2008-06-16T09:28:00.012+01:00

You may remember last year my posting about being unable to get my photograph of Sydney Opera House onto iStockphoto. The problem was that the Opera House has an over-broad interpretation of trademark law that they are trying to use to control the market in photographs, and iStock is respecting rather than challenging it. I still can't post my photo to iStock, but there is a chance to get a bit of airtime for the issue if I can get some votes for the photo! And I need your help.

I just entered the photograph into a Sydney Opera House photo competition (thanks for the anonymous tip), and I'd love to get your (hopefully 5*) vote for it if you feel so moved. I actually have a second photo entered if you're in the mood. My entry looks like it is the very first in the competition and the prize is notoriety, just what the issue needs.

Norwegian Music

2008-04-12T01:12:00.006+01:00

Sitting in the hotel (right next to Herr Nielsen's Jazz Club) last night in Oslo I realised that the music I was listening to on my laptop was just track after track of Norwegian music. There was Beady Belle, then Thomas Dybdahl (try Damn Heart or Half Of Me, both free B-sides, and my absolute favourite single Love Story), then Ane Brun - and that's ignoring nearby Scandinavians like Teitur and Tina Dico (try this. Wonder how I'd missed the connection for so long?

Update: As Walter points out, I forgot the most obvious musician (and the one who features largest in my collection), Jan Garbarek.

Coming of Age in Wireless Britain

2008-03-26T13:14:00.004Z

Last week I decided to give mobile broadband a try while I was away from home in London for a few days. After looking at the various plans, I decided to pick the one that Hutchison's 3 subsidiary offers, and went to a Carphone Warehouse to buy it. The experience was very enlightening - clearly this is a part of UK culture I've overlooked for too long. Just in case you are as naive as me, I'll document the experience - apologies for all you hardened warriors who consider this trivial.

First came the purchase process. It's not like buying anything else I have ever purchased. After "yes please" came several huge bureaucratic forms, a demand for photo ID, an address check, a credit check and finally the wait for the transaction to complete online. It was probably the most invasive process I have undergone in the UK, including applying for a passport. All for a modem and a �15 service.

Then came the first use experience. I had carefully checked the literature and the package to make sure the Mac was supported, as well as asking the assistant to confirm. I got the modem out of the box, read the instructions and followed them. "Plug the modem in to a USB port and follow the on-screen instructions". I plugged it in (after insterting the SIM) - apparently it was a memory stick as well as a modem. Its little blue light flashed happily. Hardware Growler told me it was working. But there were no instructions and no broadband.

I rang the support number on the package. After following some menus, it told me to dial another number for support. I dialed that and followed more menus. I finally got to a place that told me support was only available in the daytime. I read more and more of the paperwork in the box and finally found some small-print telling me that use on a Mac involved drivers that were available for download from 3's web site. Except I couldn't get online because ... well, my mobile broadband wasn't working yet.

Since I was traveling, and since the three-day return period was ticking, I decided to take it back next day. I clearly wasn't the first person to go through all this. "Oh yes, all the other companies include a CD with Mac drivers, but 3 don't". I decided there was a high risk of not getting it working within the short three-day return period so I went through the "termination" process, another bureaucratic fascination, and made sure I had all the magic numbers needed to prove I had done it.

The third step was today, when the invoice turned up. An invoice not for �15 but for �18, since they added a �3 "billing fee" without telling me. I called the number printed on the invoice to check the account was indeed canceled and found it asked me to dial a different number for broadband. I then spent maybe 20 minutes on hold to another national-rate number and was finally able to confirm with a charming Indian lady that it was cancelled.

I am obviously sheltered and naive becuase I found several aspects of this experience to be customer-hostile. First, the amazingly intrusive purchase experience; second, the fact that 3 lied about the package including Mac support; third, the fact they didn't provide phone numbers for technical or billing support even though the documents I was using were only about broadband; fourth, the fact the price advertised was not the price charged. I'll not be trying this stuff again for a while.

Boxwood Incense

2008-03-10T12:41:00.002Z

Hey, lazyweb: I bought a tube of boxwood japanese-style (non-dipped) incense from Banana Republic back in 1999. It is my absolute favourite incense but it has almost run out, I only have fragments of broken sticks left. Google doesn't give me any strong hints where I might get some more - does anyone have any ideas please?

Flickr Stats

2008-01-21T16:16:00.001Z

I'm not sure how I missed it, but Flickr has implemented a statistics tracking for all photos. I noticed in the metadata smallprint for today's upload that there was a link that said "Photo stats". I clicked it and turned them on and a few minutes later had full stats on all photos going back as far as I wanted, referrers and all. Way cool.

Amazing Grace

2008-01-20T12:28:00.000Z

Another free taster has done its work and I've now got Grace Potter and the Nocturnals on rotation, specifically their album This Is Somewhere [UK]. The free track that hooked me is only free until tomorrow so you'd better pounce - Apologies, a lost-love ballad that is among the quietest tracks.

Despite the samples Amazon has chosen, the rest of the album is much more rocky, with the sort of hard edge that the sparse historic line of female rockers would be proud of. If you do buy the album, you might also want to pop over to iTunes and buy the bonus track they have over there, despite the DRM grief they want to give you.

[Also On Rotation: The Guggenheim Grotto; Kosheen; Fink; Juana Molina; Moncef Genoud]

In Praise of Freeloaders

2008-01-19T16:42:00.000Z

I think I'll be going along to listen to Bryn Haworth tonight locally, a guitarist I've not heard live since the early 80s. The friend I was talking with wanted to know what he sounded like, so I went to his web site to look for a sampler. Nothing there. Bryn is clearly only interested in people who already know what he sounds like. No free sample track. Not even any track previews.

So conversation turned to the paradox of the new web-mediated market and how some musicians don't seem to get it. I assume the thinking goes "I make my money by selling music, so why should I give any away to freeloaders". But that's so superficial. By giving me a few tracks to listen to, you're much more likely to recruit me to the ranks of admiring fans, since without them all I have to go on is your photograph (or maybe if you're a bit more avant garde some stuff I can awkwardly stream while at my desk).

Giving away samples is very effective. I follow a couple of web sites (3Hive, Lost at E Minor) that review and point to free tracks and the main way I have found new artists of late has been through those sites and the free tracks on iTMS and Amazon MP3. In the shake-down that's coming, I suspect it will be the artists who treat music lovers looking for music as "freeloaders" who will join the RIAA whining about how no-one loves them, while the enlightened part of the industry moves into the new mainstream.

The Guggenheim Grotto

2008-01-10T10:55:00.000Z

I'm not sure what drew my attention back to them, but I bought an album (for the benefit of those who have been asking that's a useful archaic term for "a collection of related MP3s grouped under a fanciful name") by The Guggenheim Grotto, an Irish acoustic/folk band with a talent for both lyrics and melodies. I'd first picked up their track Told You So off the 2006 SXSW sampler and then Philosophia showed up as a free song on iTMS US. That second track finally got to me and I decided to get the whole album, Waltzing Alone (that's Amazon MP3 and US-only, but Amazon UK has the CD).

There's a lot of Oasis sound in there, but it's generally more accessible and laid back (and, yes, I suppose, OK, I admit it, melancholic) as well as heading deep into folk sounds (try Rosanna). 'Philosophia' is still a stand-out, but several others are already sticking including the thoughtful Koan and the fascinating close harmonies of Ozymandias which is indeed derived from the Shelley poem. On continuous play and recommended - the free EP on their download page is great and they have even got ready-to-use free ringtones there.

Wax Poetic

2008-01-08T10:00:00.000Z

I ran into Wax Poetic the first time when I found they were the band that Norah Jones started with before she was famous, but this newer stuff is much more international - like a raw Les Nubians with a jazz break. Give the Last.FM embed above a try.

By the way, if you'd looked at their 2003 album Nublu Sessions on iTMS and wondered what the missing track 1 was, it's there on Amazon with no DRM. Turns out it's a fantastic pre-fame Norah Jones track called Tell Me.

[Fixed the post time on this one, it was set in the past for some reason]

You are what you eat

2008-01-03T23:57:00.000Z

I've been meaning to mention that I finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma [UK] during December and really loved it. It had been jumping into view each time I went to a bookshop and I finally gave in during October.

It was a deliciously smooth read - even with my usual ADD I found it compelling. Michael Pollen digs into the American food system and finds that the mass-market food system has been ridiculously skewed by a policy decision made under the Nixon administration. Attempting to prevent the recurrence of a catastrophic price slump in the food system, the agriculture minister of the time created a price intervention system which controlled price without controlling supply. The result was the creation of eternally cheap corn, which has driven all American food production (and more) to artificially obsess on the stuff.

Pollen goes further though. He finds that the organic production sector has caught the same obsession and is mass-producing organic food in a manner increasingly resonant of the mass-market. Just as proprietary software companies want to steal the term "open source" because of its market power, so the food industry has already gamed the term "organic" and made sure they can use the term without adopting the lifestyle. I find Whole Foods Market a great place to shop, but this book was a real eye-opener to the consumer manipulation at work there.

Overall I'd say this was my book-of-the-year for 2007 and a must-read book. It has a strong US focus and speaks of a food system that doesn't yet exist in Europe (where EU intervention controls supply as well as price and has avoided the destructive corn system that's ruining American health). But it still explores the motivations and dynamics of our food and gives an important perspective as we sail into the future. It's already changed my health, not by being prescriptive but by helping me think.

Illy Decaf

2007-12-26T22:39:00.000Z

I'm on decaf at the moment for reasons I'll write about some other time, and the only decaf that's bearable is Illy. My coffee machine grinds beans, so I have been trying hard to find a place that sells Illy decaf beans at a reasonable price. Seems I'm the only person in the UK that wants them, however, so all the UK suppliers treat them as a premium item (�7 per tin for something that ought to retail well under �5) and the only place I can buy from at anything like a reasonable price is Germany I won't be using.

The reason? Well, the german supplier took forever to ship and then sent the wrong stuff (I am selling it on eBay because I can't get a returns address) and I don't want to use them again. Anyone know of other sources I could use?

Kosheen

2007-12-23T20:24:00.000Z

I expect I am the last person in Britain to find Kosheen, but I saw a replay of the "Later..." appearance they made in 2001 and immediately had to go hunting for their music. Fortunately their latest album Damage is there on Amazon MP3 so I'm already luxuriating to stuff like Overkill (that's the embedded Last.FM video above) as well as working my way through their large channel on YouTube. It's the best of Massive Attack with a pinch of Evanescence and a healthy dose of Depeche Mode. Tasty, it's keeping the windows rattling.

Amazon at Christmas

2007-12-22T12:32:00.000Z

Well, after our biggest Amazon Christmas yet (there's been a delivery every day for the last week thanks to Amazon Prime) the time is finally up and the last package has arrived - we can't get anything else delivered before Christmas now. While the rest of the retailers in the UK are whining about how much people are spending, I have a hunch Amazon will be quietly smiling. Especially since gift vouchers remain instantly available for forgotten gifts...

All Songs Considered

2007-11-26T00:08:00.000Z

I just subscribed to a new podcast series on iTMS US. Turns out that NPR is pushing a podcast series of full, live concerts. Well worth sampling - I just listened to one of the Neko Case concets.

Collateral Damage

2007-11-10T11:48:00.001Z

Collateral Damage

While there's been speculation about how Apple will discourage customers elsewhere in Europe using the single market to overcome the differential feature availability they intend to impose on the iPhone, it was clear what one of the mechanisms will be.

The sign in Regent Street yesterday says (among other things) "Your iPhone can only be serviced in the country in which it was purchased". Now, that may seem fair enough if you are a Sony-minded consumer who never travels, but one of the big benefits of being an Apple customer is that their warranty works everywhere in the world (usually). This sign says that doesn't apply to iPhones.

In an attempt to stop customers working around their anti-customer lock-in policy they are adopting another anti-customer policy that will make global travellers find the iPhone less attractive. They are already in a pitched battle with eager enthusiasts who want to make their device more useful. How far will Apple go down the path that led Sony to ruin in their music player business?