walkersmith.net weblog

Sunday and rain

One thing you miss when living in the desert is rain. That feeling of being in bed, waking up slowly, the drizzle and monotonous sound slowly moving its way into your consciousness, knowing that this day is probably going to be different, just because its raining. Here in the desert you can almost guarantee this is not going to happen. If there is a drizzle sound then it’s either a leak or a washing machine spinning in another apartment.

In Antofagasta were we live there is a strange weather pattern, could be called the Humboldt effect, I could be well off left field here, lets just say I am not to sure what its called. Anyway most days during the winter and sometimes in the summer huge clouds mass in the sky around Antofagasta. If you were to use English weather logic to these clouds you would be getting ready to take cover in a nearby shop, breaking out the umbrella or un ravelling the pac-o-mac, you would just believe its going to rain. Its does not and hardly ever does, this can get a little disappointing at times, especially when your logic said it would so.

Fat of the land

I Watched Charlie’s Angels 2 (full throttle) yesterday with Andrea, thoroughly enjoyed it, great girl action flick. Well worth spending your hard earned money watching three sexy girls kicking ass.

In the film I noticed at least two Prodigy tracks, just looked at Amazon.com and they don’t even make it onto the soundtrack for the movie. I am sure I heard them. This got me thinking, what would action movies have done if The Prodigy had not made this album? If you notice it music from this album pops up everywhere, you heard it in Tomb Raider 2 as well. What else has it been used in? I so much enjoyed this album when it came out.

Highlights from the album and the ones heard a lot in films must be,
- Smack my bitch up
- Breathe
- Diesel power
- Firestarter
At least smack my bitch up and firestarter could be heard in the Angels film.

Twist turns and bumps in the road

I drive out of my buildings car park and can turn two ways. To the right, I could turn. Here I come across two holes in the road. Even if I first turn right, followed by a left, or turn right and continue straight on. Still I come across holes in the road. So sometimes I turn left out of my building car park. Again I hit holes in the road. I have no direction to turn were I don’t hit any holes. I’m fucked; or rather the cars shocks are, at cost.

Some things outside of driving and roads are like that. You’re fucked and have nowhere to turn. Luckily I have the strength of my wife and my family who will always help me. Giving me the strength to take these bumps, the holes in the road, to get on with driving and get to where I was going in the first place. I thank them and offer my support and friendship whenever they need it.

Ouch, what a kick

I have for the first time made contact with my unborn. I was kicked in the hand, all the way through Andrea’s tummy. Emotional.

Twenty weeks past and counting down

Andrea and I have just this minute been to have our baby scanned. All seems OK. Being the father the only thing I had to do was hold Andreas handbag and worry, Andrea, though, giggled as the Doctor tickled her with the scanning wand. We saw its legs, feet, hands, ribs, spine, head, heart (all four chambers), bladder, stomach and many other things. It is such a relief for it to pass it real first big test. No tears this time, I am now the hardened father figure.

We are in the mid-point, almost ready to start counting down.

That desert feeling

I wanted to share this photo with you, its of part of the trip from Paranal to Antofagasta. Yesterday I drove down to Antofagasta with Gaston, a work mate. I told him never would I have believed when I was a child that I would live in a different country. Just driving through the landscape can set you off it’s surreal. You have to be here to really feel it.

The desert is something to experience, I like it, but I don’t love it the way Andrea my wife does. It’s to empty of life and green for my English eye. I will never forget it.

Telephones, Human DNS

A network engineer work mate of mine and I were discussing telephones. I proposed telephones as a standalone object would disappear and if one did have a telephone like device it would not be connected to a telephone connection as we know them today, it will instead be connected to whatever becomes of the Internet, it will have an IP address (IPv6 maybe). The network engineer completely refused to believe this idea, stating telephone infrastructure, cabling and telephone is so cheap, so easy, that it will never die out. On the other hand I believe network cards and other technologies on which the Internet is built will also become cheaper.

This conversation came about due to telephone area codes and why we still need them. They are not useful in cell phone technology. Why do we still need them? Yeah I know about telephone routing, but still, why is it still like that today?

This then lead to me thinking about a browseable database of contacts all over the world. In the same way the DNS allows us to look up human readable names of computers, but for humans. If you wanted to search for me then you would have to know my name, my birth year, my location within a certain distance and any other things that would allow you to find me. I would then have public contact information listed. It may just be an email address. Not even my regular one I use all the time. It could be my mobile. However if we met in the past and I passed you a code, with this code you maybe able to find more information. My parents, if we were on speaking terms would be able to get the number of the nearest phone (we are on speaking terms, here for dramatic reasons). A lot of this would be controlled by software. Just something I was thinking about. We could know a person and have information in an Address book that when accessed would go out and find the latest contact information.

Back to swimming?

Due to other more important priorities, like looking after my mumps infected pregnant wife and of course injuring my neck I have not swam for quite a while, well it feels like it. In fact looking at the calendar it was only two weeks and a day, but it feels so long. One fear of not swimming for quite a while is that when I get back in the water I wont be up to anything again, that its all lost. At age thirty swimming fast is not easy.

My injury surprised me, as never before did I get injured from swimming. I played rugby, I got injured, I do martial arts, I got broken noses, and I expect these injuries, but not swimming! However the other weekend when I dived in my back foot (I use a track start) slipped on the wet block. This caused my force I was supplying to my dive to go skewed I then pulled some muscle in my back. Within about twenty-five metres of swimming I felt the pain, I muddled on and did a slow time. I then swam about twenty metres later in the relay; I had to there were no over replacement.

The next few days, almost a full week was agony. Swimming to tonight I could still feel the twinge, but it feels better. I got a kilometre done tonight, not too bad at altitude.

Operation Nursery

We are still continuing with our plans for the Nursery. Last week or so arrived the cradle or “cuna” as its called in Spanish. Just yesterday I added the third colour to our mural, I painted some part of the green rolling hills, which goes along with our Sun. Andrea is painting flowers at the moment. Of course soon we will have to start organising other more important stuff, like feeding bottles and baby baths etc.

Waiting for the baby to be born is such a strange time. Now we are more prepared to become parents, I myself think about this aspect quite often, mixed in with this is thinking about how my parents probably felt when they were expecting their first, my sister Julia. What was it like for them? I think my Mum and Dad were both around twenty-two. I feel resigned that I am not going to know how to be a Dad until it actually happens, the baby is born, then within hours, days I will become one, by necessity, the best way to learn.

I am off to add some brown now to those rolling hills. Maybe best Andrea does this my hand is as steady as a Kenwood food mixer.

Wake up and smell the fish

On Thursday Andrea and I cooked fish, we used our B-B-Q grill thing. It was a great meal; the fish was albacora, which is some sort of shark. The memory of this dinner is still lingering in our house, and even more so in the Kitchen. So wake up and smell the fish, not what you want when you are preparing the morning porridge.

Next time it will be cooked out on the veranda. Many josticks later, windows open all day the smell is starting to fade. Thanks for your concern.

Film: 28 days later

I just got in from seeing “28 Days Later” and well all I can say is “what a film.” It’s a great experience, if you have not seen it, go and see it, and if need be get the DVD from your nearest Blockbuster, here in Chile its only just out in the cinema, screwed up release dates or what.

First off the film is English, obviously so. If you watch it and you know England intimately then the film we affect you even more. For me it was so weird to think that such a way out film story could have been done so well in England, we are so Americanised these days.

I wish I had the imagination to think, write a film like this, its so well put together, never during the film are you sitting there thinking if you car is being stolen from the parking lot, rather you are thinking if anybody else in the audience are infected.

The film takes you from a scene of animal rights people letting loose some experimental animals which are infected. Then cut to someone waking up from a coma, and nobody else is left alive. Except of course the infected, which are full of rage. The story follows what happens to the main character through a journey across the country to where they believe there is a cure. Think again, here things change, and are not what they seem.

I heard there were two ending to this film, I knew this going into the cinema, but forgot and sadly walked out, what was the alternative ending?

Independance Day - Chileno

Today is Chile's independance day. I was out this morning taking some photos, have a look here.

Andrea informs me that Chile gained its independance from Spain in 1810, although she is telling me she is not sure. But the date does not really matter. This morning the Army and other forces where out in force, along with the cowboys. Big nations speeches were had. Tonight is a night of celebration for most Chileans, the country is more or less shut for the time being.

Seeing the light - After all this time

I write this with Micro$oft Word zoomed to 100%, not the normal 150% I used and guess what, I can see it as clear as a bell. My iBook with only 1024 by 768 is now huge. In fact if I look around the room I can see everything clearer, much clearer.

Last night I could read the text on the TV screen.

Driving, all the signs become clearer and even at normal speeds I feel like I am going fast, too much to process. Streetlights become points of light, not sparks.

In the kitchen last night I was jumping in fright at the closeness of things.

In the supermarket I could see all the posters for offers of cheap goods, I think the glasses will pay for themselves in this aspect.

I could see the detail in Andrea’s knitted jumper she was wearing last night, from across the dining room table.

Andrea’s true beauty can be seen.

I have gone for some cheapo Oakley’s at present. I did not think the glasses would make such a large difference. Not sure how long they will last, already I will have to take them back, the left lens is not fitted properly, getting it wrong is so Antofagastan.

X-33 Website - The Mars Watch

I have built a website, it’s for X-33 enthusiasts, one of Omega's Speedmaster Professionals watch range. It’s a bit of an unforgivable geek thing, if you are not into watches then it’s definitely not your thing, however I am so bite me, to coin a terrible US phrase.

The idea of the site is of a community of X-33 enthusiasts contributing and hopefully making a full and rounded website all about the watch. At present it is barren and empty, but we hope to fill it.

Mums 60th

Today is my Mums 60th birthday, good on the old girl for making it that far. www.walkersmith.net had a new front page to celebrate the occasion.

Happy Birthday and much to love to Mum.

Amnio Tests

It is surprising to find out that the country I live in does not allow Amnio tests. I should look up the proper name for the test, hold on. Right the proper name is amniocentesis from web md. It’s a test to see if your child could have some diseases, such as Down syndrome. So why does this surprise me? A simple medical procedure is against the law. Chile does not allow abortion. Hence they do not allow the test that could lead you to want one. What a terrible state of affairs.

Chile does not also allow divorce, perhaps they should ban marriage then nobody would want to divorce. Where does this type of logic lead to?

Turn the tables

If some one calls you up to try and sell a product, then shift the conversation around in this manner.
"Hi I'm calling from Blue Tiger and would love to tell you about this new product we have."
"Look, I am a little bit busy right now, give me your home phone number and I'll get right back to you."
"Hmm, well we can't do that sir"
"Why, you don't want me bothering you at home?"
-no answer-
"Cause thats what you're doing to me right now, bye bye"

I saw this last nigth on Sienfeld. Will I get a chance to use it?

Film: Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life

This film compaired to the first was diabolical. Andrea and I were all excited, she gets to see the only female hero on the big screen, and I a good dose of Angelina Jolie, what could be better. The script for one, then the direction for another, none of these things were up to scratch.

As luck would have it, later that day (Tomb 2 at matinee showing) we caught the end of the first Tomb Raider movie. Its just pointed out why we did not really like the Tomb 2, it was an empty attempt. Don’t waste your money on this one, if you have to see it wait for video, or in my humble opinion wait till its on TV. Which could be quite a while if you live in the UK and wait till its on BBC1 or ITV1.

Mumps = bummer

Andrea got the mumps. I am at home nursing her, she is a poorly sole. She is all pale and in pain. I hope she starts to get better soon.

Salivating for a G4 12-inch

This blog is coming from a brand new twelve inch G4 Powerbook and boy is it one nice computer. Already I like it better than my iBook. Its faster, the keyboard is really nice to use, and overall it just seems put together a lot better. One things right off though is the hot keyboard, yes it's getting hot, a little more than my iBook but not so bad.

I am running a top at the moment from the terminal app and the idle values are just so high. Most of the time the computer is 50% idle, and that is with me doing stuff. On the iBook the load is most of the time flat out.

As to the other goodies, the wireless and bluetooth I don't have any toys to test these out. I suppose I could make a network with my iBook, just to test the airport is working.

I wonder if the director would notice the difference between iBook and PowerBook G4, all I need is to tip-ex it out in a couple of places on the machine itself. I will have a think over night :-)

I hope we start getting a few more of these in Paranal. This model is for our director, maybe he will like it, and Apples here in Paranal start to catch on a little bit. We are currently a Microsoft site with a smattering of Linux around.

37 YEARS TODAY

Congratulations to my Mum and Dad, it’s their 37th wedding anniversary. All those years together, makes our attempt look like the drop in the ocean it is next to their achievement. Andrea and I wish them both a very very happy anniversary day, with all our love and thanks. I love you both.

Gone the way of the dodo; 192

Being an expatriate I can look in on the changes happening in the UK like a spectator, it is a spectator sport. This month big change seems to revolve around the number change of 192 to 118118. "What's this all about?" I cry from my desk in Chile. Pretty soon there will have been so many changes in the UK that when I return I too may have to take the "British Test" on entry at Gatwick airport. I wont now how to order electricity, or even find out the number of nearest pizza shop if I don't know 192's replacement.

Does anybody know the real reason for the change? Is it so more companies can give directory services? What would have been wrong with 192192?

Moving house

Well, walkersmith.net the domain has moved house, its under a new roof. We moved from Fasthosts (maybe they should rename to Slowhosts) to Allwebco, whose middle name is the web.

For sometime now I have not been one hundred percent happy with Fashosts. Their help desk had never, what could you call it, well to sum it up there help desk was never helpful. I had problems with my site not being up and running more often than I thought was appropiate. I also had problems with scripts, which they pointed back to me as bad programming. I have also noticed at this new site that cgi processing is almost ten times faster. So now I have jumped ship. Its not worth having any allegiance to these faceless companies, and there are more than enough to choose from out there. If you are not happy with your service then move.

Coldplay Vs. Travis

Coldplay Vs Travis

I found myself this week comparing the two bands, as I think I always have. They came into my sphere of influence at the same time. If I remember correctly I was on holiday back in the UK and I bought Parachutes and The Man Who. Maybe even at the same record store.

I liked them both straight away. And now with Travis now bringing out their third and Coldplays big success from their second I am still liking them. However is one better than the other? The judge is still out on this.

On the whole I would say I listen to Coldplay more, but don't really get off on the lyrics like I do with Travis, some of the songs are so well written lyrically. Coldplays music is an anytime type of music, the melody and sound is the more important, so far. For Travis I think you have to have a mood to really dig it. So who wins? I am going to wait until they both have at least five CD's under their belt before commenting, and of course seeing both of them live. When do you think they will venture this far South in Latin America?

Its not BlackBerry

On the Monday morning roundup of new articles to read from NetNewsWire I came across the following title from Wired News

ìBlackBerry Reveals Bank's Secretsî

This interested me only because Jools, my sister has one of these devices and I wondered what the BlackBerry did to reveal all those Secrets. If you go to the article and read, which I donít recommend, you will notice that in fact it was really a human error that created this security hole.

An ex-employee of the Bank sold his BlackBerry on EBay, and of course Blackberries have built in memory. Hence the buyer was able to read sensitive information. Wired here I feel made a mistake, again they blamed the technology when really it was a human who created the security problem. The Bank should not have allowed the ex-employee leave with his BlackBerry. I imagine the ex-employee could not get away with sensitive papers or reports, it should have been the same with his BlackBerry or if he had one a laptop. In my opinion an example of poor reporting.