LostCarPark's Journal

Dublin Science Fiction Christmas Party

2009-12-05T13:01:30Z

For all fans of Dublin based Science Fiction, there will be a Christmas party taking place in The White Horse Inn (now officially McGraths) on Burgh Quay, Dublin 2 (close to Tara Street DART station).

Please bring a nice present (max value €5) and a naff one (some piece of horrible sci-fi tat, the naffer the better) to exchange with a random stranger.

We'll have some food and maybe a party game or two to get us into the Xmas spirit. Feel free to bring along some extra treats.

There's a Facebook event at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=204439708784

Hope to see you there.

GUFF

2009-11-17T00:23:32Z

I think most people who read my journal have at least heard of fan funds.

For those that haven't the idea stems from the 1950s, when air travel was beyond the means of most fans, especially where travelling to another continent was concerned. So fans banded together to elect a delegate to represent them at a far away convention. This has been formalised into a number of fan funds such as TAFF (trans-atlantic fan fund) and GUFF (going under/get up-and-over fan fund, depending on which way it's going).

I have decided to run in the current GUFF race, and hope to attend next year's Worldcon, Aussiecon 4 in Melbourne if I win. My rival, Douglas Spencer, is one of the nicest people in fandom, so if I don't win, I couldn't think of a person I'd be happier to lose to.

But I would also really like to win. I've hosted Damien and Juliette on the Irish leg of their 2005 GUFF trip, and Sue Ann and Trevor when they stopped off during their 2009 trip, and I would love to meet up with more Australian fans. I would be very keen to help out in any way I can with the Australian worldcon. I would also love to stop off in New Zealand, especially as they are having their Natcon the week before Worldcon.

I hope some of you will vote for me. You do have to be active in science fiction fandom, but I know lots of you are. You can find out about voting here.

Or if you don't vote for me, vote for Doug (or if you can't decide, you can vote "no preference"). But if you're eligable to vote, please do so.

Novacon day one

2009-11-14T10:01:04Z

Very early start to Friday because my sister, who was giving me a lift to the airport, had some crazy idea that I ought to be early for my flight.

Got to Nottingham without a hitch, and the bus was foolish enough to leave me outside Games Workshop and Forbidden Planet, where I spent a plesent half hour browsing. Ended up in HMV, emerging £116 of Dr Who DVDs later. For some reason they don't discount them anything like as much (if at all) in their Irish stores. My credit card successfully crashed one of their tills, leaving a message "enter something code" on the screen that wouldn't go away no matter what they did. I left them (after paying at another till) with the manager and two other staff huddled over it wondering what was wrong with it. I expect it's only a matter of time before someone devises a computer virus that can be transmitted through chip-and-pin cards.

Ended up at the con hotel around lunchtime, where Steve was definitely not panicking over last minute details. Helped with bagging programme books and moving stuff around, but there didn't seem to be an awful lot that needed doing.

Around tea-time I popped up to my friend Mike who lives a few minutes away and kindly offered me a bed for the night. We munched pizza while poring over his LEGO collection. He builds large and impressive cranes.

Shortly after, I arrive back for the opening ceremony, which was followed by Room 101 where the guest of honour tried to put her five least favourate things in the room and remove them from society. She failed with social networking sites, but managed to get rid of several other things, which I'm sure were annoying, but can't remember what they are because they no longer exist in this universe (outside the room).

Ended up back in the bar, although I did take a short break to visit the book launch. Later on Mike joined us and we had a couple of pints (he's not a SF fan). My intention was not to stay out too late as I'd had an early start, and I didn't stay out too late, though I think I was nodding off towards the end.

A good start to the convention. I'm looking forward to day two.

Google Wave

2009-11-11T00:16:13Z

I've been playing with Wave for a couple of weeks now, and I think it's a pretty good idea, but it's going to be a while before it's ready for serious use.

First, while the software is pretty good, there are clearly some gaps around the edges, a few features that say "not implemented yet", and a few nice-to-haves. Obviously it's a preview version, so this is to be expected, and I'm sure it will keep getting better and better.

Second, browsers need to develop. Wave can get quite sluggish at times, especially on big Waves (we've got one with 142 messages plus maps, photos and collaborative drawings (using a plug-in called Canvas). It can be a bit of a drag to navigate. Google Chrome has a pretty fast JavaScript engine, which definitely helps - it's noticably faster than Firefox. However, Wave is a protocol as well as a webapp, so I expect it won't be long before we see desktop Wave apps, just like we have desktop email apps, and these will remove Wave from the browser, and make things a bit easier.

Third, Wave has a lot of potential for corporate use, potentially taking business from Microsoft Office Communicator. However, a lot of companies won't want their content on Google's servers. Fortunately, since Wave is a protocol, they'll be able to set up their own Wave server. I'm not sure when the server software to do this will be released.

Finally, as long as the number of users is restricted, it's going to be of limited use. I presume that this is just to facilitate the preview, and as it develops, it's going to be more generally accessible. For now, we seem to be left feeling, this would be great if only Dave was here...

So I think it has huge potential, but it's probably going to take a couple of years to reach it. For now, it's a lot of fun to play with, but playing is all that's really feasible.

Having said that, if you want to come join us and play with it, I have some spare invite codes. Reply here or drop me an email if you'd like one.

Lego Workshop

2009-10-11T09:01:02Z

I'm off to run a Lego workshop at Octocon. Hopefully somebody will actually turn up!

More about it, and about the con in general, later.

Ernie and Bert

2009-10-07T19:43:10Z

Ernie and Bert
Originally uploaded by LostCarPark.

I built a Lego sculpture of my two favourite Sesame Street characters for STEAM last weekend, and I'm quite pleased how they worked out.

More about the weekend soon.

Bye Bye Pet Shop

2009-09-01T00:54:38Z

I spent the day helping my sister move out of the pet shop she's been running for the last couple of years. She had a quite successful first year there, but then a couple factors conspired against her in the last year. The first has been almost continual road works in the town where she was based, so lay a gas pipe line through the town. This has had a significant impact on her passing trade. The second was, unsurprisingly, the economic downturn. She's been negotiating with her landlord to reduce the rent, but he's only offered a 10% reduction, which was not enough to keep the shop viable.

However, it's not the end. While her sales through the brick-and-mortar shop have been steadily declining, sales through her website (which I set up for her) have been gradually rising. It's not yet at a level that would sustain the losses the shop was making, but it has certainly been a significant proportion of her business for the last while. So we hope we can continue to build up the online business despite not having a brick-and-mortar store.

So (and apologies for the blatant plug) come visit us at http://www.brendaspets.ie.

Dreamwidth

2009-08-31T07:19:44Z

Can anyone tell me what Dreamwidth is actually for? Is it just a clone of LJ that isn't owned by Russians?

Anyway, if anyone's looking for a Dreamwidth invite code, I have several available.

Seeing Chrome through the Windows...

2009-07-09T22:25:59Z

Unless you're ignoring all IT related news (very wise) you'll have heard Google's announcement of their new Chrome OS (I'd post a link, but you might as well just Google for it). Initially aimed at Netbooks, Google hope to later take a slice of the Desktop OS pie later.

So what's in it for Google? After all they're not charging for Chrome OS (or for that matter, Chrome Browser)? Sure, they get money when we look at websites that almost certainly contain Google ads, but they get that anyway when we use a different OS and browser (except for those of us who have installed ad-blocking software).

However, when we look at the web through Google's browser and/or OS, we can potentially be giving Google so much more information about our browsing and general computing activities, and that information becomes incredibly powerful when it comes to delivering us tailored advertising. I'm sure Google won't collect or use that kind of information without asking our permission (with their famous "Please read this, it's not the usual yada-yada"), but I'm sure they'll be working on ever more ingenius carrots to tempt us to give them our consent. There are some wonderful things coming out of Google labs, so perhaps the juciest will be reserved for those complient users who tick the yes box (hmmm, perhaps our government could learn a thing or to about holding referenda from them).

If it takes off, is there a danger that we'll just replace Microsoft dominance with Google dominance?

But that's probably just me being paranoid. I'm actually looking forward to trying it out. It's Linux based, which is surely good. I expect Google will start giving higher priority to getting out Linux versions of it's applications for a start.

The future is good. The future is Chrome. The only price is your soul.

Samual Beckett Bridge (again)

2009-06-24T08:30:58Z

Samual Beckett Bridge (again)
Originally uploaded by LostCarPark.

Someone left a gate open, providing an unobstructed view of the new bridge. I think it looks fantastic, especially on such a nice day.

Pleasent discovery

2009-06-20T18:18:09Z

Got back from the dentist (got the main root work done, so while not exactly fun, at least the worst is over), to find a dead cat lying on my drive. At first it was a bit of a mystery as to how it got there, but it was exactly where my car had been parked all week, so I suspect it was sick and crawled under the car to die, and I drove off earlier without noticing it. I don't really have anywhere suitable to bury it in my garden, so I wrapped it in a couple of black plastic sacks and put it in my bin. I decided to spare you photographic evidence (I don't think it would go down too well on LOLCats).

Libertad

2009-06-18T12:58:59Z

Libertad
Originally uploaded by LostCarPark.

Argentinian frigate Libertad, visiting Dublin this week.

Samual Beckett Bridge

2009-06-18T12:54:06Z

Samual Beckett Bridge
Originally uploaded by LostCarPark.

The new bridge over the Liffey in it's closed position for the first time. It will be a few months before anyone gets to cross it though.

Liffey Ferry

2009-06-18T12:47:01Z

Liffey Ferry
Originally uploaded by LostCarPark.

The Liffey Flyer Ferry that carries passengers between the two halves of the Docklands area on either side of the river.

Spirit of Docklands

2009-06-18T12:40:28Z

Spirit of Docklands
Originally uploaded by LostCarPark.

Cruise boat that runs tours along the Liffey in Dublin.

Dreamwidth

2009-06-17T22:28:42Z

If anyone wants a Dreamwidth invite code, I have two available. Leave a comment or email me.

Oh and while I'm at it, if anyone is on Dreamwidth already, leave your ID in a comment and I'll friend you.

Anyone in Newcastle?

2009-05-24T15:02:16Z

I've been taking part in a project for Lego called "My Way". The project entails building Lego models of famous UK landmarks, then taking them to a school for the schoolchildren to dismantle and to build something else out of the pieces. For my bit of it I built a 1m tall model of the Angel of the North. A few people have already seen the photos, but I can't show them publicly until Lego have got their publicity out of the project.

I'll be in Newcastle visiting a school on the 1st June (Monday week), but my flight home isn't till Tuesday morning. Anyone in Newcastle want to meet up for a beer or two on Monday eventing?

Second, I don't mind paying £43 for a Travelodge, but if anyone in the area has a sofa I could borrow, I feel it's money that could be better spent on beer. Don't you?

Samuel Beckett Bridge Arrived

2009-05-13T16:26:50Z

Samuel Beckett Bridge Arrived
Originally uploaded by LostCarPark.

There's a great big bridge parked just outside my office. Unfortunately we don't have any windows facing out that way, so I had pop outside to have a look. It's going to be moored there for a few weeks until it's ready to be popped on its pivot in the middle of the river.

Dead Seal

2009-05-10T16:37:30Z

Dead Seal
Originally uploaded by LostCarPark.

Came across this poor dead seal washed up on the beach. Probably got caught in a fishing net.

Anyone in Sheffield?

2009-04-09T15:59:15Z

Is anyone from Sheffield area going to Eastercon and not left yet? If so, could you text me on +353868595554 please? Pretty please? I'll buy you a pint!

Anyone need a bed for Eastercon LX?

2009-02-23T00:23:10Z

Okay, I probably should have sorted this about ten months ago, but you know me...

Is anyone looking for a room-share for Eastercon? I'm booked into a twin room at the Midland hotel, staying Friday to Monday.

Movie Night

2008-12-29T13:23:06Z

Apologies to anyone who hasn't been invited by other means. I'm having a "movie & pizza night" in my house on Friday 2nd January. Anyone who knows me and can make it to Drogheda is welcome (lifts from Drogheda train/bus station are easily facilitated). There's plenty of room to stay over if you need to.

I should have plenty of food, but additional snacks are always welcome. Also, feel free to bring a favourite DVD or two and we can debate what to watch.

Please reply or email or text me (contact details should be on my profile page) so I have an idea of how many to expect.

Happy Christmas!

2008-12-25T16:07:06Z

Happy Christmas everyone.

I hope you all made it onto the "nice" list!

James

Facebook Pet Peeves #1

2008-12-10T20:34:51Z

One thing that bugs me is getting invites to Facebook applications that duplicate existing "default" Facebook applications or widely used ones. I don't need three different apps for keeping track of people's birthdays, or five different walls or a dozen different types of "poke". And I only need one application to keep track of my library, and while Visual Bookshelf isn't from Facebook, it does seem to be the most widely used.

I think Facebook ought to have a more effective policing system for new applications, and part of that policing should include a refusal to allow new applications if they duplicate the functionality of an existing one.

Of course, a second requirement should be to show how they will guarantee that user data will be safeguarded, but that's a topic for an entirely different pet peeve.

Lego Mem by Comic Artists

2008-11-25T01:06:02Z

My collection of Lego Minifig Sketches went through a major growth spurt at the weekend. I'm uploading them over the next few days.

I'm particularly fond of Michael Lark's Daredevil:

But there are some even better ones still to come.

Enjoy!