All my technology ramblings will be confined to the new blog. This one will continue with general mumblings about the rest of life.

I can now play my MP3 player and my iTunes playlists directly from my computer through the stereo. I’m looking forward to using it in the car, and I won’t have to take along so many CDs. Magic!

1. Set up my main site and my grandfather’s letters so that they can be automatically upgraded using the Fantastico utility provided by my hosting service.
2. Added any external php pages into the WordPress page structure.
3. Used a new theme, Greenflower which freshens the site.

At least it keeps me away from the mince pies and choccies.

RoundCube is a modern webmail solution that runs on a standard PHP/MySQL configuration and uses web standards such as XHTML and CSS2. The application is easy to install and configure, and even easier to use. It has a clean, modern UI, which uses Ajax to give an application-like feel.

This now gives me a realistic opportunity to migrate away from my btinternet mail address to addresses based on my hosting service.

Unfortunately, there are two teensy-weensy problems with our installation:

1. We’ve got a really old telly – in fact so old that our burglars five years ago left it behind. So it’s only got one SCART port. We therefore have to unplug the SCART from the set-top box and plug in the SCART from the DVD each time we want to watch a DVD. I have resorted to cabling diagrams to understand the spaghetti behind the telly.


[Web 2.0 diagramming with Gliffy.com]

2. We have quite an old aerial that is considerably shorter than it used to be due to a rusty aerial post, and it won’t pick up quite a few channels, such as ITV*, C4, E4, FilmFour. In compensation, at least QVC works. It looks like we will need a new aerial.

I understand computers, but home entertainment systems leave me all confused. But I’ll work at it and we might spend many a winters evening happily digi-surfing.

Credit to Claire Thomson.

We had some spectacular thunderstorms in Glasgow last night. Usually when there is a thunderstorm you can see it coming, experience it for 20 minutes, and then watch it leave. Last night’s was much larger – it lasted between 8pm and midnight, and covered the entire sky over Glasgow. There was both forked and sheet lightning, and some torrential rain. I was speaking to a taxi driver today who saw manhole covers being lifted above the road level by the force of the water.

Some very spectacular pictures in Flickr and on the BBC website.

Anyway, this leads me to the main topic of this post:

As we were out during the storm I had left all my kit plugged in and turned on. When we returned my broadband was down, although the ADSL router seemed to be working fine, it was just not connecting. I thought I’d leave it, maybe BT were out fixing it, so I turned off the router and the PC. This morning, still no connection, and none when I got home from work either.

So I call BT Broadband Technical Support (0845 600 7030) and I get through to a guy in India. After confirming all my details, he asked me to:

1. Turn off my router
2. Unplug all the cables (power, telephone, ethernet, USB)
3. Wait 30 seconds
4. Plug in all the cables and turn on the router

And it worked!. Immediately!

I asked the guy why this might make a difference. He said that turning the router off and unplugging all the cables discharges all the static electricity that may have built up during the thunderstorm – particularly in the cable that connects to the telephone line.

I found the engineer really helpful – and it’s not often I say that!

I found this fascinating Google Maps hack to show the effect of rising sea levels caused by global warming.

New sea-levels of up to +14m are overlaid on top of the Google maps or satellite imagery. The sea levels are from NASA satellite radar measurements – so they’re not exact, Ruth – but it gives a good indication of the effect of major sea level rises. Luckily, our house is 27m above mean sea-level!

Read more at Alex Tingle’s Firetree site.

It is also a great showcase of the power of free online mapping (that’s why I fully support the Free Our Data campaign being run by the Guardian Technology section).

I have spent all week on a PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) project management course at Learning Tree in London. The course was quite intensive, and involved:

• 20 hours pre-course reading
• 2 hours study each evening
• Foundation exam on Thursday – 75 multiple choice questions
• Practicioner exam on Friday – 3 hour open book written paper

Phew! I’m glad to be back home. I didn’t get to see much of London as there was lots of work to do, but there’s a nice sense of achievement in having worked so hard. I passed the Foundation exam, but I don’t find out about the Practicioner exam for about 6 to 8 weeks.

The real test will come on Monday, as I have to complete a Team Plan for the part of a project I’m working on, using the Product Based Planning technique.

It has a nice graphical editor, links to Del.icio.us and Technorati related to the topic you are posting on, and links straight into your blog, whether it is straightforward Blogger, hosted WordPress or self-hosted like mine.

OK, don’t expect any more blog entries now it is more convenient, in the words of Bill Gates, “content is king”.

I looked up some family names:

Adams | Full profile | Hide Adams maps

Adams 1998

Adams 1881

The 1881 map shows a strong concentration in NE Scotland, as well as in the south of England. I always thought that the Adamses originally moved to Ireland from Scotland, but I may be wrong.

The present-day geographic distribution within Britain and Ireland is interesting. Northern Ireland has 118% of the GB occurrence of the Adams name, while the Republic of Ireland only has 25% of the GB occurrence. This probably reflects the strong ethnic bias of the Adams name in the Ulster-Scots population.

Thompson | Full profile | Show Thompson maps

Thompson1998

Thompson1881

Again, I had thought that the Thompson name was mainly Scottish, but from these maps it looks like it is predominantly from Northern England.

Reid | Full profile | Show Reid maps

Reid 1998

Reid 1881

Predominantly Scotland, as expected.

Morrison | Full profile | Show Morrison maps

Morrison 1998

Morrison 1881

Strong concentration in the NW Highlands and in the Outer Hebrides. This is not the normal catchment for migration to Ulster in the 17th and 18th centuries, but there may be a link following the Clearances?

Pinchbeck | Full profile | Show Pinchbeck maps

Pinchbeck 1998

Pinchbeck 1881

As expected, the main Pinchbeck concentration is near Lincolnshire (the village of Pinchbeck is near Spalding).

Unfortunately the maps for Ireland are not yet available on the site. It would be interesting to see the distribution of the names in Ireland.