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Archive for the Category "Geeklife"

Environmental pledge pyramid Jun 05

Today is World Environment Day and via Rob and the Liberal Democrats comes an excellent scheme from the Environment Agency. You sign up for certain environmentally-friendly actions that you can take (thinking globally, acting locally, etc.), and their website keeps track of how much you’ve helped. Suggested green pledges include reusing shopping bags and conserving household water.

You can also refer other people, building a pyramid of pledgees, all of whom commit to reducing their environmental footprint. Click here to see how you can help.

Shameless promotion Jun 04

My home broadband is from a company called Madasafish. While that may not seem immediately promising, they’re as fast as BT – since they use the same exchanges – and cheaper. The normal price is £17.99 a month, but you get the first six months at £11.99 a month, so the first year (which is as much as you need to sign up for) average at £14.99. It’s not unlimited usage, but you get 5Gb inclusive each month, and it’s £2 for each additional gigabyte. I’ve found them very good value for money even though I sometimes go over the download threshold. There’s also a pricier account that comes with 20Gb. The couple of times I’ve used their customer support they’ve been very helpful and polite and sorted out any problems quickly.

Why I am writing this? Because if you sign up using this link (or an ad on this blog), they’ll credit your account with £10 and give me £20. So it’s in my interest to get you signed up 🙂

While I’m at it, here are a couple of genealogy recommendations which I don’t get paid for. Ancestry now have the 1841 census online, meaning that all seven England & Wales censuses from 1841 to 1901 are now available through their site. There is a subscription fee, but if you’re doing a lot of research it’s well worth it.

Another source for genealogical research is the Society of Genealogists. It’s not cheap to join, but members get a quarterly magazine, some free credits for Origins, and, most importantly, free access to the Society library in London, which is full of useful resources, especially parish registers.

Factoid May 30

Something I’ve learnt today, having never previously felt the need to read Matthew Taylor’s official profile. Turns out the LibDem MP’s dad is Ken Taylor, who wrote, among other things, the excellent BBC adaptation of Sleeping Murder. It’s one of my favourite Joan Hickson Miss Marples (yes, ITV, Miss Marple), with a particularly nightmare-inducing climax.

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Where to draw the Line May 25

“Where would you draw the line?” asked the trailers for BBC Two’s The Line of Beauty. Having watched the lacklustre first episode, I was tempted to draw it there. No, I thought, I’ll give it another chance – maybe it’ll get going in the second episode – and, fair enough, the second part was a little better, but still pretty naff. (I was doing my best to watch the last half hour while also listening with one ear to James Graham on the radio – more on that story later – but I don’t think I missed anything.)

I haven’t read the book (not really my sort of thing), but I understand that much of its success is down to Alan Hollinghurst’s use of language rather than the plot. This would certainly be supported by Andrew Davies’s adaptation which, although peppered with incident, lacks any real interest. The few plot twists present are so heavily signposted that nothing comes as a surprise. That the MP is having an affair with his PA is telegraphed earlier in the episode; that Leo would get bad AIDS is foreshadowed explicitly by (the rather good) Floella Benjamin in episode one. Oh, and you can tell who has AIDS in The Line of Beauty because they cough.

The story presents little insight into the 1980s. We learn that some Tory MPs were racist, some Tory MPs were homophobic, that some gay men had promiscuous sex (and some caught AIDS), and that yuppies took cocaine (a line of beauty – geddit?). It’s hardly ground-breaking stuff, is it? Stephen Tall – who has been enjoying the series and can offer an alternative view – flags up the episode’s one fun scene, where the main character, Nick, dances with the PM. (Presumably the decision was taken not to make any effort to impersonate Mrs T – you wouldn’t recognise her unless you knew.) Also on the plus side, Barbara Flynn was in it, and I did at least learn something: an ogee is an arc shape. (The character’s pretentious and self-deluding attempt to launch a magazine of this name reminded me off the guy who (successfully) pitched a pompous style mag on Dragon’s Den.)

I may as well watch the final episode now that I’ve seen the first two. Presumably we will learn that for all money and leisure time that the various characters have, everyone will end up unhappy thanks to marital infidelity, drug abuse and unprotected sex – and thus, the 1980s weren’t as great as the first episode made out. Aaaah, do you see what they did? I could be wrong, of course – if everyone lives happily ever after, that will be an unexpected twist.

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