And Did Those Feet

Quite a shock - the man who championed Opendocument against Microsoft in Mass. has been forced to resign! Shocking news - and does it show misuse of power? http://203.98.164.153/~jlpowell/blog/?p=19

Yesterday I purchased a computer magazine which had OpenOffice 2.0 on its cover disc. Downloaded it and looks good - it includes a database for the first time. What is more interesting is that it uses OpenDocument as the file format for saving. This is designed to be an open format to help long term archival storage and not tied into any proprietory system. Microsoft are fighting it tooth and nail because if it succeeds, the Microsoft's monopoly is over! Trouble is Microsoft Office will not read OpenDocument files. So until that happens I'm stuck with using MS Office formats for saving. http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/other/0,39020682,39216101,00.htm

Now, I don't as yet have the faintest idea whether anyone, except the occassional, spammer and nasty advertisers, have ever looked at my web site. So, I have added a counter and tried improving it to get into the search engines. Had a look at Google's blog search and could not find it! Is anyone out there? Kevin Flude

Fraught few days resolving issues with the Operating Theatre Museum - incredibly frustrating as they could all have been sorted out with a short meeting held months ago. But fingers crossed today we may have sorted them out so that we can relax for Christmas Lots of work to do to make the Crypt presentable for Jan 5th and everyone already exhausted. One good thing to come of it is that it may have helped our relationship with the Chapter Group - if we can get through this together in one piece it will have been a miracle.

Just back from an exploratory visit to Koln. City very battered by the War and dominated by the famous Cathedral, or Dom which largely survives - it is surrounded by incoherent public spaces bounded by modernist buildings. The Dom is almost barbaric, blackened, towering with an incoherent mess of gothic flying buttresses, towers, and pinacles. It is dedicated to St Ursula, daughter of unknown King of the Brits who with 11,000 (or maybe the legend misinterpreated roman numerals and should have reported 11) martyrs killled by Goths on way back from Rome. The Cathedral also got relics of the 3 Magi in the 12th Century from Milan - no idea how they got them but Fred Barbarossa was responsible on return from Crusades. In December, Koln is just steaming with shoppers and tourist visiting the famous Christmas Markets. These are found in various places and serve Gluwein, Bratwurst, all sorts of german food and various stalls selling all types of Christmas gift. The main shopping drag is full o...

I was told about the following site which has lots of interesting rules to quote against those bigots of grammar! Prepositions are not words to end sentences with. The species was conspicuous by its absence. Avoid alliteration. Always. Avoid cliches like the plague (they are old hat). Employ the vernacular. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnescessary. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive. To boldly go.... Contractions aren't necessary. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos. One should never generalise. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: 'I hate quotations. Tell me what you know' Comparisons are as bad as cliches. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than is absolutely necessary; it is highly superfluous. Prof...

Last few weeks have been very up and down - doing some interesting work on longevity and public health - which has fed back in to my talks at the Old Operating Theatre Museum. What is quite amazing is that the average life span of humans has varied between 20 - 35 from the dawn of humanity to c1800. Then, and only then it started to rise, until it is now 81 in Japan and set to rise. Interesting as to why and it seems it is not a simple answer - neither medicine or public health have all the answers. See www.thegarret.org.uk/lifelong.htm . For more details. Meanwhile, could not progress it as I want as the threatened move of the Museum to the Crypt threatens and have spent loads of time either moving boxes or covering for staff moving boxes or liaising wih the builders. We seem to have drawn the very short straw - let me tell you about it some day! Central Saint Martins Narrative Enviroments going very well and would love to have more time to read around the subject. Went to see Ja...