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Hot

Hottest weekend of the year so far. Saw “Hulk” with Alan on Saturday, took the bus out to Seton Sands and walked to Cockenzie Beach to watch Pablo and Richard kitesurfing. (Well, only Pablo was on the water…Richard was taking photos.) Then we all drove back into town, hooked up with Jess, and bundled out to the nearby pub, where much alcohol was consumed. (Too much, in my case… I keep forgetting that I am out of practice with drinking. When I got home, I unfortunately had to spend some quality time cuddling the porcelain teddy bear.)

Sunday hangover. Slept till 12. Hot again. First BBQ of the year. We had steaks, and also grilled some thick slices of aubergine, dipped in olive oil and liberally sprinkled with salt and pepper. Smoky and savoury on the outside, juicy and sweet on the inside. Yum!

Very hot again today. Went to work in my shorts. Didn’t get laughed at.

More coherent posting soon…maybe…

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More spam

“This is one-time email only, you were not subscribed to any mailing list – you don’t need to unsubscribe. If this email offended you in any way, recieve my deepest apology.

There was actually no other way how to address you directly. Your email wasn’t harvested by any robot, I personaly visited and enjoyed your website and chose you as a person who might be interested in my [product].”

Yeah, right.

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The Quiet PC, taken to extremes

I’ve taken yet another step on my continuing quest for a quiet PC. After bundling the guts of the PC into a specially muffled AcoustiCase, installing a Zalman Flower Cooler on the CPU, and another massive sink on the video card, what else could there be left to do?

Well, if you work on the assumption that all electrical equipment makes some noise, then the only way to get a completely silent PC is never to switch it on. Unfortunately that doesn’t actually make for a very useful piece of computing apparatus. The next best thing, though, is not to switch it on in the same room.

With the aid of a keyboard extension cable, a new USB hub (which acts as a USB extension cable, with added ports), and a very long monitor cable, my computer now sits on the other side of a nice, thick wall. It still makes the same amount of noise that it did before (which is very little, thanks to all of the earlier modifications), but it makes it somewhere else.

Which means that for the first time, it’s now really feasible to use my PC as a consumer music device: a stereo. Stereos don’t make any noise, except a very slight electrical hum. This is why “Media Center” PCs are doomed to fail–at least for the next few years. If your “Media Center” isn’t playing music, it has to be silent. Just “quiet” isn’t good enough. That means no fans at all. It’s got to be passive cooling all the way, unless you have the space and cash for a dedicated cabinet, or, like me, a convenient storage room on the other side of your living room wall.

Philips A3.300 stereo speakers + subwooferSo at the same time as getting the equipment to move the PC, I bought a set of Philips A3.300 speakers (2 flat stereo satellites + a chunky subwoofer). They don’t have the same depth and warmth of our old Mission 750 LEs, but for a set of mid-range computer speakers, they’re pretty good. They fill the living room with a crisp, clear sound that is great for radio and perfectly adequate for everyday MP3 listening. The big advantage they have over a full stereo set-up is that they don’t sit around on speaker stands waiting for a small toddler to knock them over.

I’m liking it a lot. We haven’t had music in our living room for about two years now, apart from the times we play music DVDs or cable radio through our TV, and the occasional cacophonic blast from the built-in speakers of my Iiyama monitor. But music is as central to my happiness as bread and pasta, and these new speakers are making me a very happy bunny.

Dave Matthews Band - Live in Chicago at the United Center 12.19.98Currently listening to: Dave Matthews Band – Live in Chicago at the United Center 12.19.98. Lovely.

(Next comes the whole question of what music/MP3 player to use on the computer…but that’s a topic for some other time.)

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Feminism and socialism

Ken MacLeod has a beautiful anecdote about people being uncomfortable with using the word “socialist” to describe themselves:

“Over the years I have met a lot of women, and heard of a lot more, who are feminist in every aspect of their beliefs and attitudes but who firmly insist that they are not feminists. The reason they give is always the same: they don’t consider themselves feminists because they don’t hate men.

“Imagine if the left had taken the most hostile caricatures of what socialism was and what being a socialist meant, and proceeded to live up to them. Lots of people would now be saying things like, ‘I’m not a socialist, but I think capitalism sucks and should be replaced by a system of society based on the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production and distribution by and in the interests of the whole community.’

“Oh, wait … ”

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Edinburgh Joiners

If anyone is looking for a joiner in Edinburgh, we can wholeheartedly recommend Southside Joiners (45 West Nicolson St., 0131 667 9744). They have just hung new doors throughout our house, and fitted new skirting boards in our hallway. They have done an excellent job, and at a very reasonably price, too.

This is going to be a big summer of house work for us. We’ve already painted the hall and the main bedroom, and now we’ve got the doors replaced. Over the next few months we’ll be painting the guest bedroom, and laying new wooden floors upstairs. We’ll also be getting Southside Joiners back to replace the doors of the built-in upstairs wardrobes, put in some new shelves, replace the bannisters on the staircase, and (the big one) build a new porch for our front door.

Oh, and we’re hoping to get a new bathroom at some point, too.

We’ve been in this house for five years now, and apart from laying a wooden floor in the living/dining room in 2001, we haven’t done much work in it in that time. We were thinking about building a conservatory last year, but we had very specific ideas about what we wanted. That took us out of the range of “standard” conservatories, and into the territory of the “specialist” conservatory companies. They produced some lovely designs, but the cost would have been almost 50% of the price for which we bought the whole house. So now we’re moving forward with lots of little projects instead.

Lots of work, but it’s worth it. The house is feeling a lot more sophisticated, complete, and relaxing already.

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Summer

Ah, summer. Wimbledon. Glastonbury. Strawberries and whipped cream.

But also, gardening. I hate gardening. It is a lot more fun than it used to be, though, because Alex enjoys playing outside so much. And when he sees me working, he wants to come and help. Today he was using a small garden fork as if it were a spade, pushing it into the ground, and stamping it down with his foot.

Also, no matter how much I dislike doing the garden work, it is quite satisfying to see the end results. Our jungle is slowly being transformed into something a bit more civilised…