The Bloomers

My short story Reboot has been published

nobody@vox.com(James) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:04:22 +0000

My short story Reboot has been published by the webzine Short-Story.me.

Here’s how it starts:

A quantum worm uncoiled itself out of the machine being restored, suddenly collapsing into a specific state and wreaking havoc within the operating system. Alarms sounded and the graphs scrolling across Tom's screen spiked wildly. His laptop was plugged into a large black box of qubits, the liquid hydrogen coolant vented slowly in quietly dissipating clouds. Inside, beneath the desperately stylish matt black metallic exterior, beneath the ultra-cooled chamber, inside the electron traps, sat a countless number of electrons, reduced to acting as quantum bits. The qubit box was plugged into the local network, copying its state carefully in a safe, isolated, two-phase restore of the destroyed machines.

Go and read it and tell me what you think.

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Bricks And Mortar? Who Cares?

nobody@vox.com(James) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:43:15 +0000

Electric Guitar

Today I went to a music shop, Dawsons to be precise. They're a chain and sell all sorts of musical instruments. I knew exactly what I wanted and had done research for prices online. I made a spreadsheet. I took a printout of the spreadsheet into the shop with me.

Hello, I said, I'd like this guitar and this amp, and this is how much I can get it for online. Can you match it?

The guy serving me was young and very nice, he had to ask the manager. The manager, rather dismissively, said he wouldn't match the two lowest prices because those shops weren't "bricks and mortar", they were web based shops. However he would match one of the shops that was "bricks and mortar", knocking £29 off the guitar. I could get it £5 cheaper online but thought I'd let it pass.

Next: gig bag and guitar lead. The gig bag was £15 more expensive than online. I asked them to match it, the manager said no.

So all in all I could get the package £20 cheaper online. Sorry, I said. I'll get it online. The guy serving me was helpless and said sorry, then goodbye.

I left and bought it online at GAK. After all £20 is four packs of strings.

How strange that a shop would say no to me spending a few hundred quid for the sake of twenty quid. Of course I don't know their margins, perhaps they would be making a loss selling it to me for that price? It seems unlikely though. Either way, why would I buy it there and not online?

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Frank Turner. LIVE!

nobody@vox.com(James) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:38:00 +0100

I've been listening to Frank Turner's music ever since I first heard Long Live The Queen on Radio 1. Because I loved that song so much I bought Love Ire & Song which has some truly wonderful songs on it. Frank's latest album is Poetry of the Deed which was less instant than the previous album, but still great.

(I'm providing Spotify links because I use Spotify. If you haven't got it, get it, if you can't, sorry.)

If I had to describe his music ermm... kind of folky? Not quite rock? Protest songs and life affirmation? Punk Folk? I don't know.

I'm happy to say that all his songs were magnificent live. He's an awesome performer, full of passion. The crowd sang along and felt happy. And all in all the gig was really great.

There you go, in-depth gig review journalism. How can you describe a good gig? I dunno. He played all his best songs, everyone sang along and it was like one of those great gigs which you want to relive again.

Also, the drummer from Unbelievable Truth, Nigel Powell is in his band. Which is nice, because I loved their stuff too.

The support bands were Beans On Toast and Fake Problems. Beans On Toast was quite funny and had a couple of good songs, well actually one song with different words, and some rubbish songs too. Fake Problems were okay, the singer was a bit too shouty and they were very young, but possibly some funky tunes in there.

Go and see Frank Turner. He is good.

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I've been told to blog again

nobody@vox.com(James) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:23:14 +0100

So here I am blogging.

I stopped blogging here for a few reasons. Well actually excuses.

I want to talk about what I've just done and use the photos I've just taken and the photos are still on my camera and not on Flickr.
It's easier to just Tweet.
I wasn't sure anyone would miss it if I stopped.

Well 1 is a rubbish excuse, and I just need to empty my camera more.

2 is still true but apparently does not provide enough detail for my readers.

Which brings me onto 3. I actually have at least 3 readers!

Okay, I'll start blogging here again. (Although probably just for Friends and Family.)

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Happy New Year!

nobody@vox.com(James) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:28:22 +0000

I hope everyone has a fantastic and wonderful New Year.

I must do more blogging here.

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Bumper batch of cool Threadless T-Shirts

nobody@vox.com(James) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 09:32:10 +0000

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Eddie Izzard Live!

nobody@vox.com(James) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 15:10:51 +0000

Eddie Izzard, live at the Lyric theatre in London.

It's a nice theatre, in the West End. We had balcony tickets and were a bit worried that we would be too far away, but the theatre isn't massive so it was fine, we could still see his face and expressions.

He was awesomely funny. I laughed so much it hurt. I can't even begin to explain any of the funny stuff, but I'm still chuckling at stuff I remember.

Not only is he funny, he is also cool. Very cool.

If you can get to see him, GO! RUN! NOW! Or maybe buy the DVD when it comes out.

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The Mysterious Problem Of The Missing Dial Tone

nobody@vox.com(James) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:20:22 +0000

Old British telephones, originally uploaded by givepeasachance.

I have been trying to swap our old wireless DECT land line phone for a newer model. Easy I thought, just plug it in. Unfortunately that didn't work, the new phone had no dial tone, the old one did.

I gave up.

I came back and tried a few other things: changed the dialling mode, did resets, tried the master socket etc. Still no joy.

Eventually hidden in the depths of the manufacturers website I found a knowledge base and this tip:

Check that you have connected your phone using the supplied line cable and not the one from any previous phone (they are often differently wired).

So I changed the connecting cable from the one that came with the old phone, to the one that came with the new phone, and it worked. That'g logic for you, what possible reason could there be to wire up the cables differently apart from to confuse people?

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And Now For The Hard Bit

nobody@vox.com(James) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:11:34 +0000

It's interesting that throughout the US election the colour of Obama's skin has been the elephant in the room that no one was talking about. Now it seems to be the only thing that people are talking about, despite the fact that his victory implies that for most Americans it was not even a consideration.

Now after all the hype and over the top reactions, comes the hard bit, actually running the country.

In the UK we'd like to actually get to vote for our Prime Minister please.

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The Alt-Fuel Race Cars of 2025

nobody@vox.com(James) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:25:17 +0100

The Alt-Fuel Race Cars of 2025

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/10/we...

Never ones to turn down a chance to sing about vehicles, we can't help but take a little inspiration from Zager and Evans: "In the year 2025, if man is still alive, if race cars can survive, what will we find?" The Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge provides a glimpse, and it's freaking rad.

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