Meet the team
November 3, 2009 at 22:09 | In Ones and Zeros | Leave a CommentTags: arduino, Blogroll, Go Clock, home automation, home easy, homecamp, hursley, IBM, mdm, mdm-workbench, scalextric, uig, User Interface Generator, user modeling, wordle
It looks 2009 is the year for people I work with to start blogging, and they’re all on Twitter… coincidence? So if you’re looking for a good read, you might like to check them out. Starting with the newest blog…
October 2009
Ed’s World (@ejellard) Off to a flying start with some great home automation with arduino, Home Easy, MQTT and a helping of hackery.
Limboworld’s blog (@jaylimburn) Conducting a scientific experiment in to the value of blogging, so make sure you get as many people to read it as possible! Some good DIY posts to kick things off. (There would have been a few DIY posts here if I’d started this blog before fitting the kitchen!)
September 2009
The World Of Gavin (@gavinwillingham) Definite technology slant with an enjoyable hint of grumpy old man which I’m definitely hoping will continue!
April 2009
Cobweb (@techcobweb)
Some really varied arduino projects in addition to home automation and tweeting cats. While the only circuit I’ve cobbled together recently is sitting in an ice cream tub in the porch, Mike is a master at packaging projects- his scalextric race timer is a work of art!
May 2006 (so blogging way longer than the rest of us!)
Not as easy to sum up given the number of posts but a distinct focus on technology of various kinds. Probably need to run it through wordle to get a better idea!
The trouble with making lists like this is that I am bound to have missed a few! I’ll just sneakily add more if I have… which reminds me, I was going to make more of an effort with a blogroll at some point soon.
And the winner is…
August 5, 2009 at 07:29 | In Life, the Universe, and Everything | 3 CommentsTags: competition, hursley, post office, postcard, winner
The heated competition for a once in a lifetime opportunity to receive a postcard from Hursley has been won with a last minute entry of an impressive 6807 miles!
Congratulations Martin, the postcard will be on its way from this marvellous antique letter box the next time I walk past it!
Commiserations to everyone else who entered:
- The prize for first entry goes to Jo
- Pete’s promise of an entry from Antarctica which never arrived!
- Wooden spoon goes to Nick for not being any further from Hursley than Jo!
- Wearing the yellow jersey for most of the race was Kelly
- Andy, who had plenty of time to travel somewhere remote, but didn’t
- It could have been the winning entry, unfortunately Richard couldn’t hang on in New Zealand long enough
- And of course Martin with his dramatic last minute entry
Thank you to everyone who took part; you made the competition far more successful than I was expecting!
(The judges decision is final!)
Wii for sale
May 3, 2009 at 11:10 | In Grumpy Old Man | Leave a CommentTags: avatar, drm, for sale, games, hursley, Mii, Nintendo, region codes, Wii
After doing a fine job collecting dust, I’ve decided to sell my Wii. Despite being a lot of fun, computer games still don’t keep my attention. The only chance they have is with multi-player games (I still remember the days of Micro Machines on the playstation and Golden Eye on the N64!), but that’s more the people than the games.
The other thing that puts me off computer games is the entertainment industry’s weird obsession with draconian restrictions on their hardware and software. Despite technology’s potential for connecting the globe, I can’t buy games for my Wii in this country because it was a gift from the US. Entirely artificially, that makes it different region.
Before selling I wanted to reset everything but formatting reveals more restrictions:
“If you remove your Wii Shop Channel account, all of your currently registered Wii Points and downloaded software, data, and services will be deleted and software stored on an SD Card will become unusable.”
“If you plan to transfer ownership of this Wii console to someone else, you cannot transfer the Wii Points you have purchased or the software, data, or services you have downloaded, so you will need to remove your Wii Shop Channel account on this screen.”
So that’s nice, everything I did buy is gone for good, whether I’ve saved it to an SD card or not. I might have got another Wii in the future, or I might want to give the games away with the Wii, but tough luck. And then there are our Miis. I’ve saved them on to a controller which I’ll be keeping, but they too are linked to the console they were created on; I can move them, but won’t be able to edit them any more. Thanks Nintendo, you guys really know how to make a customer feel special.
Still, don’t let all that put you off buying a second hand Wii- I doubt the competition is any better!! So what’s a good price for an as new boxed up US Wii? £120? I’ll be putting it on the Hursley for sale forum shortly.
Social radar
November 16, 2008 at 14:32 | In Ones and Zeros | 5 CommentsTags: facebook, hursley, Martin Packer, Robert Llewellyn, sms, Stephen Fry, Steve Godwin, twitter, web20
Some technologies change the way you do things. Before mobile phones you had to plan where and when to meet people in advance. Before PVRs it was easier to watch TV when the show you wanted to see was on, unless you found a tape which you were at least vaguely sure didn’t have anything on you wanted to watch again, not to mention the ten minutes needed to set the VCR to record… on the wrong channel yet again! Radio, antibiotics, electricity, cars, planes, the internet, the wheel; the list goes on.
Earlier this year Twitter gave me a glimpse of something with the potential to rival even the microwave oven. Twitter is almost pointless in its simplicity: just answer the question, “What are you doing?” In most cases you’ll probably be wondering, “Who cares?” If you need convincing, there’s a very good guide to Twitter on YouTube. The real revelation for me was the power of Twitter on the move. You can still send updates using SMS, but at its peek you could also receive them, either from direct messages, people you were following or (and this was the life changing one) any updates that contained words you wanted to track. I got in the habit of tracking places I was about to visit, giving me local knowledge of things to check out/avoid, traffic/travel problems, other people in the area- what ever people were saying.
Last week could have provided another great example: I tracked ‘Hursley’ which is where I work, so on Thursday I would have got an SMS telling me that the site was closed because of a burst water main. Sadly Twitter has been on a steady decline ever since I started using it, so it was only by chance I checked Twitter before leaving for work. Without tracking, without SMS notifications and without IM, twitter has gone from personal radar to little more than Facebook status updates.
I haven’t given up using it just yet though. In fact I’ve just been cutting down the number of people I follow so I can keep up more easily; 80 is about enough for me. I don’t have any set rules about who I follow like some people, otherwise Martin would have gone just for the amazing number of ‘#’s he gets through! A good way to stay in the list is to make me laugh, and it’ll be hard to beat, “Convinced people are practising yogic flying in the meeting room near me“! After much agonizing I even unfollowed Stephen Fry despite him being nice enough to follow me back- still a huge fan but somehow felt a bit too stalkerish. Having said that, Robert Llewellyn is too interesting to unfollow just yet.
Justin Casey moving on
August 31, 2008 at 12:34 | In VU | 2 CommentsTags: hursley, IBM, mdm, OpenSim, secondlife
As Justin mentioned on his blog, and also reported elsewhere, he’s moving on to join the Fashion Research Institute and Friday was his last day in the Hursley Information Management team at IBM. Unfortunately, while there are many advantages to working from home, there are downsides, one of which was missing Justin’s leaving drinks at the Dolphin. I’m also going to be missing the Open-Source, Interoperable Virtual Worlds panel at the Virtual Worlds expo. Still, with the power of blogging I hope I won’t be missing out completely.
Good luck to Justin with what sounds like a tremendous opportunity.
IBM Hursley Golden Anniversary
August 5, 2008 at 22:47 | In Life, the Universe, and Everything | 3 CommentsTags: 50, about, anniversary, CICS, hursley, IBM, information management, NASA, office, Spitfire, work
I’ve been reminded why I’ve worked in the same place as long as I have a few times recently. The July edition of Computer Business Review (CBR) includes a supplement on ‘50 years of Innovation at IBM Hursley’ covers the work aspect pretty well. Good to see an advert for Information Management on the inside cover even if we don’t appear in the main article- we are one of the newest teams in Hursley.
John McLean, our lab director, says, “It’s all about the people….” which is absolutely right. The people who work at Hursley are astounding, from new students to ‘heritage’ IBMers, and I get to work with them all the time.
As a bonus, the place itself makes for a pretty nice working environment. We celebrated with an open day recently, which was a great chance to bore entertain Jo and my mum with a tour of work- I don’t suppose many offices get their own air show.
It’s interesting that NASA are also celebrating 50 years. I wonder which has had the biggest impact on peoples lives over the last 50 years. I expect more people have heard of NASA but CICS alone makes it a close race.
Local Heritage
July 21, 2008 at 23:18 | In Life, the Universe, and Everything | 2 CommentsTags: castle, diamond geezer, English Heritage, heritage, hursley, Merdon
After reading about Diamond Geezer’s endangered bollards, I wondered whether there were any threatened sites near me. Turns out the field I live in is pretty dull but there is one on the list right next to where I work!
Despite working in Hursley for over 10 years I’ve never been to Merdon Castle, mostly because it isn’t open to the public. Still, might have to investigate one lunch time.
In recognition of 10 years [and 2 months] service
November 21, 2007 at 23:20 | In Life, the Universe, and Everything | 2 CommentsTags: hursley, IBM, pen, recognition
A couple of months ago I celebrated 10 years of working at IBM and today I received a nice pen to mark the occasion. It seems that 1997 was a good year for IBM and quite a few people I know have been celebrating their first decade this year (tin anniversary?) including Roo, who has a very nice photo of the pen on his weblog.
It doesn’t seem possible that I’ve been at Hursley for so long but it’s not a bad place to spend a few years. Having said that, the place is nothing compared to the people; over half my friends on Facebook are IBMers! (Even some of my ‘normal’ friends have started working at IBM in the time I’ve been there!)
Should be posting some very nicely written Christmas cards this year.
-
Recent Comments
Ken_B on Current Cost gas meter mo… Ken_B on Home Easy -duino 
B&Q ambient orb … on Impulse buy Andy Piper on Insurance fail jt on Do you have a low power home… 
Blogroll- Untitled
- Latest from blogroll
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
Competition time!
July 10, 2009 at 07:40 | In Life, the Universe, and Everything | 12 CommentsTags: comments, competition, hursley, post office, postcard
No idea whether this is going to work but I have a postcard of Hursley which I bought on some strange impulse recently. I don’t even send postcards when I’m on holiday usually, and I have no idea who would want one of Hursley…
…so, here’s the plan: this amazing swag (ok it’s just a postcard but it’s very rare!) is up for grabs. To win, just leave a comment below, and the comment from the furthest away wins. Simple; no need to buy anything, or annoy people with daft hashtags on Twitter!
I’ll even post it from the Hursley post office.