Geoff Coupe's Blog

"Rita is an important artist whose work deserves to be seen and the Arts Council both respects the creative decisions she makes in her work and supports her right as a disabled person to be heard."

Pigeons rustled in the beams of the Staten Island Ferry terminal as Rebecca Miller, the writer and director, ordered a soft pretzel.

I’ve just finished reading David Leavitt’s The Indian Clerk (or The IND1AN CLƐRK as the book’s cover would have it). I found it very good indeed. It’s a novel based on real people and real events that happened mainly in Cambridge, England, between 1913 and 1920. The two central characters are G. H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan. Hardy was a prominent British mathematician, and was instrumental in bringing Ramanujan, a mathematical genius, from India to Cambridge.

The novel imagines Hardy’s innermost feelings as it tells the story of the relationship between the two mathematicians, both personal and professional. There are many other real people and real events contained in the book, and Leavitt has done a wonderful job in bringing them and the society to life. In particular, the evocation of life at Cambridge, and the Cambridge Apostles is very well done. I did notice one small mistake, though. On page 374, he mentions the “scent of Dettol permeating the air” in a nursing hostel where Ramanujan has been taken. Unfortunately for Leavitt, Dettol wasn’t invented until after 1929 and marketed in 1933.

I’m feeling a tad jealous of my brother at the moment. He lives in Southwest Scotland, not far from the Galloway Forest Park. And that park has just been designated as the first Dark Sky Park in the UK by the International Dark Sky Association. That means that the park is officially recognised as one of the best places in the UK for stargazing.

Although I live in the Dutch countryside, the Netherlands as a whole is badly affected by light pollution, and even here in our neighbourhood it can be difficult to see the Milky Way on a dark night. As a result of some recent research, it appears that the best place for stargazing is Schiermonnikoog in the province of Friesland. I see from the report that one of the sites where observations were made is the Zwarte Veen in the province of Gelderland. That’s just 15 minutes walk from here. Alas, the Zwarte Veen was way down the league table of the darkest spots in the Netherlands at number 22 out of 41 sites measured.

As I wrote here, we’ve got a new addition to the household: Watson, a Labrador puppy. He arrived in the house on the last day of September.

Originally, I wanted to call the puppy Pi, since our other dog is called Kai. Martin wasn't convinced that the names were different enough for canine ears. We tested it out with Kai, and he seemed to be able to distinguish between the two, but Martin still wasn't having it.

So then I came up with Watson. The origin is that the mentally handicapped son of a friend of ours cannot pronounce my name. So he calls me "What". That, I have to say is because of my habit of saying “What?”, when something strikes me as bizarre. From there, it was just a small step to arrive at Watson (or, "son of Wat" in etymological terms). Martin has come to accept it, although he took some persuading. A further twist on the name is the reference to Alexander Graham Bell, and the very first words to his assistant over the first telephone were "Mr. Watson — Come here —I want to see you". I suspected I was going to be saying something very similar, very often, to Watson...

The first couple of weeks with Watson were spent trying to stop a multitude of disasters from happening. Pissing and pooping in the house when our backs were turned, chewing through anything in sight, including live cables, pulling tablecloths on fully-laden tables with china and cutlery, the list went on and was added to as he increased in inventiveness. Nights were being woken up every couple of hours by Watson's whining to be let out to piss or poop. Needless to say, I was the one who had to leave a nice warm bed to go outside in my dressing gown in the rain waiting for a very small bundle of joy to perform its business. It was at times like this when I noticed the resemblance of a puppy to a rat.

Kai wasn’t too sure what to make of Watson at first. He spent a few days practising his hurt look, which he turned on us at any opportunity (particularly after his tail had just been chewed by Watson) as if to say: “What the fuck have you done? What did I do to deserve this?” Eventually he came round and started to let Watson play with him. Kai is very gentle with Watson, and takes care not to hurt him,  but I think that’s backfired on him. Watson is determined to be top dog, and plays very hard with poor Kai, who just wants to have a quiet life. Kai puts up with all the nips and barking very stoically. I would have bitten Watson's head off by now. Our shoes and slippers (and my hands) are being chewed to pieces, and I noticed yesterday that he's started to chew on the wooden surround of one of my loudspeakers. That is the last straw. We've smeared sambal on it in an attempt to stop that.

My great nephew, on seeing photos of Watson emailed to say that he thought that Watson looked “really cute, but a bit crazy”. Today, I was replying to his email. I’d just got as far as writing:

"...a bit crazy"? That's an understatement - Watson is as mad as a box of frogs!

At that point, I went to see what the dogs were doing. Watson was running pell-mell around the yard, ignoring Martin's calls to come to him, and Kai ran out of the house to see what Watson was doing. Watson sees Kai, and rushes towards him; Kai's momentum keeps him moving towards Watson, and they collide - heavily. Watson ends up on the ground, screaming. Kai immediately backs off, tail between his legs. Watson doesn't seem to be able to move his right hind leg and carries on screaming.

I pick him up very carefully and take him indoors while Martin rings the vet. Watson quietens down eventually, but still doesn't want to use his leg. Off we all go to the vets, where he gets x-rayed. Yep, he's broken his leg. The vet says that he's going to operate on him immediately and pin his leg back together. Martin has an attack of the vapours and all but passes out at the news.

So, as I write this, the vet is probably cutting open Watson's leg and is preparing to drill holes for the pins. I'm expecting to be called at about 7pm tonight and will go and pick up Watson. No doubt the vet will give me copious instructions on all the extra care and attention Watson is going to need over the next weeks.

As I say, never a dull moment…

As I mentioned last week, I’ve now got my new Windows 7 software, and am in the process of installing it on our computers. I’ve been running the beta version for a while, so I know what to expect; nevertheless, I’m pleased with it, at least for the most part. There are still some less than shiny bits on the final result, but on the whole it’s pretty good. The two areas that grate on me the most are these:

1. Windows Media Player. Windows 7 comes with a new version of Windows Media Player (WMP12). With this, Microsoft has given with the left hand and taken away with the right. What’s new is that WMP12 has a “Play To” feature, which allows it to act as a digital media controller (see my Fun With Technology – Part IV post for more geeky information on this). This is a nice feature, and it’s far easier to use WMP12 running on my Tablet PC to stream music from my Windows Home Server to my Denon Hi-Fi system than it is to use the Denon’s limited interface to hunt through my music collection. Alas, while Microsoft has given us “Play To”, they’ve taken away the editor that the previous WMP version had for editing metadata. While that editor was far from perfect, what now remains is so limited and clumsy that it’s a disaster. I’ve resorted to using Media Monkey purely for its metadata editor, oh, and for Podcast support, which WMP still doesn't have a clue about. Peter Bright’s extensive review of Windows 7 in Ars Technica deals with WMP12 in some detail, and points out just how poorly Microsoft has done with this latest, and not-the-greatest, incarnation of Windows Media Player.
2. Remote Access. I’ve ranted on before about how Microsoft’s marketing of Windows Home Server is misleading; in particular that you can use it to access “any home computer” remotely via the internet. The fine print actually points out that if you are running Windows 7 Home Premium on your home computers, then you can’t do this. What really irks me is that I recently discovered that Microsoft’s Live Mesh (a free download) will give you this capability. As Peter Bright points out:

“Home Premium users don't get the ability to remotely view their PC's desktop. Unless, that is, they install the (free) Live Mesh beta, which provides remote desktop support for all. One might suggest that perhaps the left hand is not so familiar with what the right hand is doing; if remote desktop support is a feature that we can have for a free download, on any supported version of Windows, why not let us use the (technically superior) built-in facility?”

Yet another example of the phenomenon that I’ve remarked on before: Microsoft’s teams do not leverage each others’ work to the extent that they could. “Not Invented Here” could be the unofficial motto of many of them.

If you’re a geek, it’s well worth reading Peter Bright’s review of Windows 7. I found myself nodding in fierce agreement with a lot of it. I note that some people have found his review too nit-picky, for example where he points out that the Windows 7 developers are not even following their own guidelines for Windows 7 look and feel. However, I side with Bright – it’s attention to detail where Microsoft often seems to fall down. And I had the same reaction as him when I saw the default wallpaper that now ships with the released version of Windows 7 - it is simply god-awful. Practically the first thing I did was to switch to another desktop theme...

Even though Peter Bright’s review is fifteen pages of often dense detail, he has not managed to cover everything that is in Windows 7. For example, he makes no mention of the Homegroup feature, or of the many under-the-cover improvements that have been made over Windows Vista. Still, and despite the fact that he spends much of his review bemoaning the shortcomings, I agree with his conclusion:

“But at the end of the day, that doesn't really matter. Windows 7 is, overall, a fantastic OS. It builds on a solid platform, and just makes it even better.”

I’m feeling very low in spirit at the moment. This is because the media, both in the UK and the Netherlands, are buzzing with the news that Tony Blair may well become the President of the EU. Well, here in the Netherlands, there’s also the fact that some are pushing for Jan Peter Balkenende, but even here, there is strong support for Blair. As I’ve said before, the thought of Blair being President of the EU makes me hang my head in shame. The reasons why are very well summarised in the opening paragraph of an article by George Monbiot in today’s Guardian:

Tony Blair's bid to become president of the European Union has united the left in revulsion. His enemies argue that he divided Europe by launching an illegal war; he kept the UK out of the eurozone and the Schengen agreement; he is contemptuous of democracy (surely a qualification?); greases up to wealth and power and lets the poor go to hell; he is ruthless, mendacious, slippery and shameless.

But then George made me do a double-take; he ends the paragraph with:

But never mind all that. I'm backing Blair.

Eh? Monbiot then goes on to explain that with Blair as EU President, it may in fact be our best chance of finally getting him brought to justice. It’s a crazy plan, but if it works, it will be brilliant. If it doesn’t, then we’re stuck with bloody Blair.

Now that Windows 7 has been released, I shall shortly be in the position to replace the beta versions of Windows 7 on our home systems with the real thing. One of the fundamental questions that I need to address is: do I go with the 32 or 64 bit version of Windows 7?

In an ideal world, of course, I would be leaping on to the magic carpet of technology that is ready and waiting to whisk me away to the land of 64-bit computing. And if you don’t understand the difference between 32 and 64 bit computing, here’s Microsoft’s take on the question.

Needless to say, it’s an utterly Panglossian take on the topic:

There’s no need to worry: Simply put, a computer running a 64-bit version of Windows 7 needs 64-bit drivers for all your hardware and devices.

Ah, but , yes, what’s that “needs” word?

What that says to me is that if all you have is a 32-bit driver for your hardware, then you’re fucked.

And so it is, my droogs. I have a Steinberg Midex 8 ; it is my MIDI interface with my synthesiser modules. And is there a 64-bit driver? Why, no, of course not. Steinberg don’t even allow the possibility of an open source driver to be developed for their obsolete hardware, So, no sensawunda 64-bit glory-filled computing dreamland for me… Welcome to yesteryear – it’s where I clearly belong. Sigh. And, thank you Steinberg, for showing me what customer support does not mean. Bastards.

Update: Mind you, Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor program doesn’t help matters either. According to it, the Steinberg Midex 8 is compatible with the 64bit version of Windows 7. Er, no, it isn’t, you stupid program.

Take it away, Lily and GayClic!