Huge thanks for replies to L's post asking 'bout wineries in the Ribera de Duero region we were passing through. I penned (if that's the word to use for a PDA with a keyboard) a couple of haiku that night...

New grapes on old vines.
Where will they be? Friends will know.
HTTP PUT

HTTP GET
Life grows from such simple roots.
Grapes grow sweet with

I'm writing code to create instructions for things flying round in space. I wish this was a more positive post...

( Read on for what is basically a whinge about work. Or don't... )

We've just bought a digital SLR, which is coming with two lenses. I am vaguely aware that everyone with such lenses always buys a cheap filter which effectively just works as a lens protector.

Is this a UV filter? How much should we expect to pay? Are camera shops the places to get them?

Any other tips for novices with camera kit appreciated.

If you've never seen this BBC footage of the imitative Lyrebird before it's an ear opener. It just keeps getting better through camera sounds and to the "sound of chain saws" finale, which I find a little sad - man's impact on the environment and all that.

Thanks to the recent purchase of a 320Gb drive for under a hundred euros we now have about half a terabyte of storage available to us.

Back in '93 when my parents got me my first PC (a second hand 386) this storage would have cost half a million dollars or 3 times the cost of the parental home ( Read more... )

http://www.slate.com/id/2167567/

According to the fine people of Slate.com that Arrrrr! wot pirates is famous for is.... pure Dorset. All thanks to a chap named Robert Newton.

There's a bit of a timelag on this journal atm - we were actually there from 28th April to 1st May, but I've only just got round to hauling these notes off my PDA and tidying them.

( Granada the popular )

hearthfire's in a choir. Singing Mountain is their name and they're really rather good; you should go and listen to them if you can. However, mostly they seem to be singing in Spain at present, so you might not get lucky too soon. They do mostly Georgian (as in Georgia, rather than King George (and Georgia the country, not the person)) and Eastern European ( Read more... )

Not updated before as not much online... Also we seem to have had a very full few weeks. So: Installment, the first ( Read more... )

( We found a flat on Saturday... )