No geek
is an island

Google has released its Maps API. I’ve had a play and produced this map which marks the birthplaces of four generations of my ancestors.

(I couldn’t get the JavaScript to work properly directly so I’ve had to imbed it in an IFRAME element. Any suggestions for getting the code to work loads from a JavaScript file directly into this post would be welcome.)

When I’ve got more time, I’ll play with the icons and the XML source data with the aim of highlighting differernt branches of my family tree (or different generations) with different coloured icons.

John Hemming identifies clauses in the Identity Cards Bill governing the information that must be kept up-to-date on penalty of £1,000 fine:

(a) his full name;
(b) other names by which he is or has previously been known;
(c) his gender;
(d) his date and place of birth and, if he has died, the date of his death; and
(e) physical characteristics of his that are capable of being used for identifying him

(e) is probably the most exciting. If the campaign against ID cards fails and they are introduced, perhaps the system could be overwhelmed by thousands of people writing every day to the Secretary of State to update him on changes to their physical characteristics?

Dear Home Secretary,

I’m just writing to let you know that I cut myself shaving this morning and now have a clearly identifying mark on my right cheek.

Yours,
I.D. Card-Holder

or

Dear Home Secretary,

Just thought I should mention that I’m feeling really rough today. I drank too much last night (don’t worry, I wasn’t in an Alcohol Control Zone) and this morning my hair’s a mess, my breath stinks and I’m too hungover to do anything about either. These distinguishing marks may be important should I be today suspected of terrorist involvement.

With love,
I.D. Card-Holder

or

Dear Home Secretary,

Contrary to my letter last week, I have decided to wear contact lenses only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. not Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays as previously notified. I like to go out on a Saturday and I thought the contacts would make me look less speccy but the bars I’ve been frequenting are quite smoky (they don’t serve food, y’see) and the tobacco has been playing havoc with my corneas.

The upshot is that if someone tries to claim benefits in my name on Saturdays, you’ll know it’s not me if they’re not wearing glasses.

Yours sincerely,
I.D. Card-Holder

So I was looking at the Star Wars lego in the flat last night and thinking “I wonder if I could make an animation with this stuff.”

Not having a film studio to hand, I grabbed my digital camera and took some fuzzy shots which I then knocked up into a short movie file while Gordon Ramsay argued with someone on Channel 4 in the background. The result is this dark and blurry Boba Fett animation.

If my rudimentary technology is up to it, I’ll try something a bit more complicated. And hopefully better lit.

…they number a seven million strong audience for ad agencies and estimates that the “geek pound” is worth a staggering £8.2bn a year.

No, not when it’s a jar. When’s it’s an “exit and entrance”, specifically on First Scotrail trains.

Passengers safety information is located at the exits and entrances of this train.

Unless I’ve been using the train wrongly (and perhaps I have because I don’t always arrive at my destination on time), there are not separate “exits and entrances”. Passengers boarding and alighting use the same sliding doors, and as the message is intended for those on the train, for whom the doors are no longer entrances, spare us the already overlong train announcements and say:

Passengers safety information is located by the exits.

And while they’re fixing that they might like to look in to the inability of the automated announcer to say “Haymarket”. It’s not a mispronunciation - the word is always completely omitted. As in “This is —” and “This train calls at Linlithgow, — and Edinburgh Waverley.”

It’s not often that I shout at a newspaper but this article in yesterday’s Observer irritated me. Apparently there are calls for mobile phone signals to be jammed in schools in order to prevent “happy slapping” (or “assault” to you and me).

Two reasons why this is a dumb idea immediately spring to mind:

• Kids can still use the video recording feature of their phone even if there is no signal
• This does nothing to prevent incidents outside school (which is most of them, I imagine)

What annoyed me, though, was the inclusion in an otherwise sensible and balanced article of this paragraph:

Since the first attacks were reported about a year ago, their number - and severity - has dramatically escalated. Last week, an 11-year-old north London girl was raped after school by a gang of boys in a home near the school. The footage of the attack was then sent to other pupils by mobile phone.

That has nothing to do with the story being covered and isn’t part of a new craz - it’s a vile sexual assault of the most traditional sort, albeit with an unpleasant, modern twist.

Ironically, the very fact that the perpertrators videoed their attack and sent it to friends will probably aid the police in identifying and prosecuting the perpertrators.