Al Pavangkanan’s Neighborhood

One of my remote controls wasn't working properly so I decided to change the battery.  Look what was inside...

Triple A Super Lusty

Googling found that Shiny Shiny blog IDIOT TOYS was one of the only sites to feature this crazily named power source.  However, unlike them I've managed to get my hands on two real ones.  Ohh er!  If the guys at IDIOT TOYS want to alleviate their sadness - the believe that they'd almost certainly never get to hold of one - then be my guest, you can have both!

I'm popping out to Kazakhstan, see you in an hour

This, I can assure you is 100% undoctored.  I'm not saying that I really went to Kazakhstan and back in such a short time and in a strangely straight line.  I certainly can't walk, swim or climb that fast.  As for straight line... when I go to foreign places, circles are more common.

No, the above is because I'm cursed!  GPS hasn't worked properly for me for quite a while now.  Doesn't seem to matter if it's the N95 8GB's built-in GPS or either of my two Bluetooth units.  It's a pain as Sports Tracker is one of the few things I've found that can motivate me.  If it's always borked it kinda seems pointless.  Maybe I should pull my N73 out of not-so-early retirement and see what results I get from that again.

I walk.  I walk everywhere.  Can't afford to run a car so I don't have one.  With the price of oil at the moment, and the 'credit crunch', I'm sure they'll be plenty more people joining me on the pavement/sidewalk in the months to come.

Unfortunately, just by using your plates-of-meat, you become a target of those that shouldn't be allowed behind the wheel of an XBox 360, let alone a real-life motor vehicle.

I'm constantly having abuse and/or items thrown at me deliberately, from vehicles driven at speed and ramjammed with local oinks.  You can imagine the same kind that just a few years previously were busy throwing concrete slabs off of road bridges on to family cars passing below and considering it a worthy past time.

Last night I had a glass bottle thrown at me from a speeding vehicle.  Great fun!   It wasn't a biggie (it hit my leg and didn't smash) and it didn't freak me out.  No, I now know the drill.  Car drives way faster than the speed limit, incomprehensible shouting comes from open windows, item is thrown towards me, I shout some unrepeatable things back, turn around carry on walking as if nothing happened and get on the blower to 999 (the UK equivalent of 911 or 112).

Some might think it's overkill to call the emergency services over such an incident but remember - indiscriminate object throwing is a gateway crime (I'm slipping in to humour mode there, better be careful...)  But seriously, those that do this are way more likely to be involved in other dodgy shizzle (I don't need the tabloids to tell me that, I have a basic understanding of human nature and that's all one needs).  Will I be their only victim on that night?  I very much doubt it.  The next person they hit might not be so lucky, they might not be able to brush it off as one of those things that just happens and that it wasn't personal.  Hell, they might not be able to walk away.  I'm a young(ish) bloke but I really don't think they care, I could be a young woman or a senior citizen (at night and at the speeds they're going they'll probably not going to know either way).

I know there's not a great deal the police can do in these incidents.  For a start, I'm a bad witness - I'm short sighted, colour blind and what can you say about a car that whizzes by so quickly at night?  All I can tell them is what happened, where the car came from and where it was heading.  Unless they've got a patrol car nearby and there aren't any other cars on the road... well, you get the picture.  This brings me to my headline...

Do I really think they should bring back the dealth penalty to the UK?   And for idiots - where would you draw the line?  No, to be honest it wouldn't be the best of ideas!  Over the years so many people have been wrongly convicted that it doesn't bare thinking about.  However, I read somewhere what was a fairly logical argument that was, harsher penalties for harder to detect crimes.  If there was a mandatory ten year sentence for those throwing objects out of vehicles or on to vehicles (ie from overpasses) then even the slim chance of being caught would put many of these otherwise stupid people off.   Make it the death penalty and then who in their right (or not-so-right) mind would continue to have "fun" this way, even with a near-zero chance of being caught?

The other reason people should report such incidents is that it counts towards official crime statistics and gives the police and local government a truer picture of problem spots and where to target resources.  Now, taking off my rose-tinted glasses... it probably doesn't make a difference but hey, it's better than doing nothing.

Incidently, I wasn't wearing earphones.  Usually, when walking anywhere, I'm listening to music through a BT headset and, let's face it, with half my head being a mobile disco - flashing blue light everywhere - I'm an irresistible, mouth-watering target.  Having said that, I was wearing a T-shirt with Pac-Men on it...

Thanks to the complete and utter uselessness of some of the 'essential' gadgets I took away with me to Glastonbury this year, the blogging has fallen somewhat short! I shall endeavour to catch up forthwith...

Glastonbury from the ground

In the meantime - if gadgets are your thing - take a look at this post that I wrote for SMS Text News last Wednesday, (in the car, en route to the festival - in fact I believe it was somewhere between this video and this picture to be precise), outlining just a few(!) of the technological wonders that I was packing in my rucksack...

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Evening readers, Whatley here, writing this on my laptop en route to Pilton for the festival that is known as Glastonbury.

As you know from my last post, the multitude of tools available to the modern day, festival going mobile geek really is quite something... So here, for your pleasure, is a quick rundown of what I am taking with me, starting with the hardware...

Handsets:

I’ve packed my N95, my N95 8GB and my E61i. The E61i is perfect as an ‘emergency’ as the battery on that baby is HUGE and it lasts FOREVER, (well – about 5 days). So if it all goes pear-shaped I can resort to using that. The N95s I’m going to tag-team throughout the day/festival. One to carry with me and one to charge. Speaking of chargers...

Power:

When it comes to keeping the batteries fully topped up, I’ve covered all bases with this one. I’ve got a Nokia DC-8 battery charger, bought this today, £25. Steep, but I’m a sucker for the branded stuff. :-) It’s worked ok so far.

I’ve also got a Free Loader Solar Charger – this thing gets kudos just for the fact that out of all of the chargers, this was the only one that came with a Nintendo DS adaptor. Which made my girlfriend very happy indeed; Mario Kart for her while I type this passing Stonehenge, (fact).

Finally I have a ‘GoHello’ wind-up charger and, as Ben Smith so rightly said in the last podcast, "they ain’t called 'wind-ups' for nothing" ...seriously, I’ve got nothing out of this thing yet. Nothing. Boo.

On top of all that lot, I’ve got four N95 batteries. All (currently) fully charged. So we shall see how long they last!

Software:

Well, stuff like Qik, Google Maps, VOX, SpinVox, Moblog etc... I kinda covered this last time round. I want to talk about the new stuff. Since writing that original piece I’ve acquired two pieces of software; both of which have – so far – impressed me much.

First up is ‘ViewRanger’. I downloaded this in the week and first take I thought ‘What a load of rubbish’. However... THEN I downloaded the Glastonbury specific maps – aka ‘Worthy Farm’ – and WOW, was I impressed! Check out this screenshot:

You can see that they’ve pre-loaded the app with the relative ‘points of interest’ – heh – and if I hit ‘GPS’ it’ll tell me where I am. Rock on. Can’t wait to use this properly.

The other piece of software is from Orange. It’s called ‘GlastoNav’ and at first I really couldn’t get this to work..

..however, once they ironed out the gremlins etc this little app has turned out to be very handy indeed. Not only can I look at the (much richer interpretation) of the map, but also I can plan my schedule for the event... and THEN I can share that schedule with my fellow festival-goers!

That – so far – has again, really impressed me.  :-)

For actual ‘mobile’ stuff, that’s all. But, I have also been given some other cool pieces of gadgetry to use/play with. One is the Flip, which I think Ewan has spoken about a fair amount – my only problem with this is that once my hour of recording is up, I can’t upload it until I get to a USB connection. Bah! We’ll see how I get on with that one... The other piece of REALLY COOL stuff I’ve been given is the Loc8tor which, hand on heart, is the best thing yet (in theory anyway).

I attach the small part to something I might lose (i.e. the other half) and then, if I do lose her, I switch the big part on and it beeps to tell me how close I am etc... I had a play before I left the house and it rocked my socks. So... again, we’ll see how we get on.

That’s it from me, I’m nearly at Glastonbury and my laptop is about to die. Thanks to Ben Smith for editing this for me and putting the media in etc... You can keep up with my exploits at http://www.glastonblog.co.uk.

See you soon!

J.

Today is Wednesday that means Thai Truck for Lunch in Meguro! While waiting in line I saw fellow Vox member Shin.

Thai Truck Lunch

Thai Truck Lunch

Thai Truck Lunch

Well, what's left of it!  I've just been up to Yahoo!'s HQ and had I not gone I would've been blissfully unaware of this momentous event (a couple of big screens and a bunch of people) milling around near Trafalgar Sq).

Remember folks, the Canadians have been responsible for Mike Myers, Samantha Bee and Canada Dry.  The World would not be the same without America Jr. ;o)

Fortunately for me, Canadians have a great sense of humour!