Lots of photo upload sites appearing all exploiting the gap left by blogger not accepting piccies direct. I guess the lucky winner is hoping to be bought out by google.

Ones I am evaluating are flickr which has excellent tagging facilities but is poor on uploading piccies and the new one tonight is zoto which has fantastic uploading programme but seems poor on indexing only allowing categories but not tags.

An alternative for simple photo blogging is phlog which handles the posting and blogging much better than either of above.

Yesterday was my 57th birthday and what a jolly day I had! Em made Suzanne and I breakfast in bed followed by my pressies from Suzanne - books on:
The Pennine Way (Kenneth Oldham 1970)
The Peddar Way
A Coast to Coast Walk (Wainwright 1973)
Wainwright's tour in the Lake District - Whitsuntide 1931 with period map
Plus map of Finland circa 1940

and a complete set of cotton bed linen so that I can rest my wary head afto doing all that walking.

Em bought me a pair of slippers and gorgeous cup and saucer from Hydra - for my retirement. (which started on July 1) .

Then it was off to Ceriks for a real shave and head massage. Popped into office to give them all fresh fruit salad for my birthday (They are all on diets so cream cakes are OFF the menu).

Suzanne then took Em and I off to Galleria for a light lunch (why oh why couldnt they be arsed to pop over road and buy as a bottle of Pimms! Instead of saying that had none). Afterwards went to Open Air to try on new boots for all that walking were I made the discovery that I’m closer to size 11.5 rather than the 10 I have at the moment – no wonder I got those blisters last time. Met Cathy on the way back with my pressy of loads of nuts and a bowl.

In the evening Suzanne, Hilary, Caroline Ophelia and Izzy, Nick and Mia, Emily and I all went to the Downing College Gardens to have a picnic and to see Much Ado About Nothing. Very very funny especially at the interval when Em bought my cake with candles ablaze and some of the cast sang Happy Birthday and the really cool bit when in the performance he mentioned my name. Wow what an evening.

Afterwards Nick presented me with a Yorkshire flatcap and a SILVA Pedometer to measure all those steps I’m going to be doing! Now must go and calibrate it by walking the mile from Great St Marys church to the milestone on Trumpington Road.

suzanne on the pennine way

Kitchen Computer

Geoff's Kitchen Computer, originally uploaded by geofones.

Here is my much admired kitchen computer, a rather old laptop with no battery or cdrom, permanently on and connected to the internet. Uses a Firefox browser and Trillian. Ideal for settling arguments, checking train times and cooking recipes.

First attempt at using Flickr

Cambridge Skyline, originally uploaded by geofones.

Here is my first attempt at getting flickr to post to my blogger weblog.

Posted to my blog OK but didnt ftp up to my site!

Excellent article here
about all the good news in Afghanistan. I particulary welcome the education of women and the removal of burqa's. I personally find the burqa very offensive as a way of demeaning 50% of the population and by that I mean the men who are so weak that they can't be trusted to look at women.

Thanks to Omar for the link

Two really great sites mentioned here.

Pad2Pad enables you to download some pcb design software and get the boards made and stuffed.

Whereas at Online Machine Shop you can download some CAD software and design your own metalwork and get it made. The cool twist to this softwareis that you can specify the type of machine eg Lathe, brakepress, 3D miller or water jet etc

Exciting new material that stiffens on impact here Should transform Nick's business although not a very snappy name d3o . Link provided by Business Weekly

an interesting site that gives Stansted high rankings for unauthorised sleepovers here

And here is proof that the blogging movement is gaining ground at the expense of TV.

Wow over 3 million bloggers now on Technorati and to think I only read less than 200 of them regularly!

Weightlifters fly Easyjet

Easyjet remove weight restrictions on carry on baggage obviously to strike a blow to Ryanairs new 10Kg carry on limit.

With the bag size given 55 X 40 X 20cms give a weight of 48Kg at a density of 1

Having spent the last few years blogging and surfing I have steadily become more disullusioned with modern media (I no longer watch TV or read newspapers but gain all my general knowledge from blogs and the web) and have felt much critisiced by the folks around me for been a geek - in the negative sense.

Well this Sunday was a grand revelation to me. I travelled with Suzanne to see her relations one of whom is sectioned at The Homerton hospital and who is been subjected to ECT a rather barbaric treatment IMHO just for going wandering in London. However, the real surprise was at her brother in laws house were he was watching LIVE big brother and what did that involve? Yep watching folks sleeping!! Now I know why my dad used to watch "There will now be an interlude" cards on the old TV. Is this what digital TV was invented for. A mass soporific device?

So the question is who is the more crazy. The guy watching someone sleep on big brother or the old lady who wants to explore her childhood haunts? Jeez what a world

A cool diet and excercise programme constructed by an engineer and succesful businessman (the founder of AutoCAd) is here Just need to get those bluetooth scales designed and working so that it automatically updates the excel spreadsheet.

Just started the ladder excercise programme. Most difficult bit was the steps - fare got the heart going.

And here is a set of scales with a PC link

Interesting article here about what gave humans such an advantage. Yes the answer lies with your grandmothers. Apparently we started to live longer lifes about 30,000 years ago which meant that knowledge could be cascaded down especially if you had learned to talk. Mind you can anyone explain why rabbits know what is poisonous or not? and no its not a talking rabbit.