To anyone who reads my blog regularly, welcome back. Yes — it looks rather different to normal. I’ve just installed Textpattern as my blogging tool du jour. The Movable Type blog is still there, but redirects to this one; I’ll be removing it just as it soon as I get the images etc moved across. Why did I do this? Well, Movable Type’s licensing isn’t as great as it used to be (I would have benefited from multiple authors during our /campervan/), I fancied a new challenge, and I like the opportunity to have a blank canvas, design-wise, to make this site look like it’s been designed. Read more...

Born and raised in Hampshire, UK; Husband to Kathy; Christian; member (and currently treasurer) of St. Stephen’s Church (Anglican), Lansdown, Bath; Southampton FC supporter; one-time drummer with New Generation Music and Mission’s band Rhythmworks; travelled in said band to Belgium, France, Germany and Spain; holder of a BSc(Hons) in Industrial Design from Brunel University ; Shipton Bellinger County Primary School Disco Breakdance Competition winner, 1985; hobbyist DJ — available for weddings &c &c; owner of two Technics SL-1210s and a Gemini mixer; big fan of music of various types: drum and bass, house, garage, hip-hop, IDM, jazz, classical, rock; self-taught guitarist — only a strummer though; Linux user (at work), Mac user (at home); computer geek/freak and family technical support; ColdFusion/Perl developer and Web Standards zealot advocate at Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol, UK;

So it turns out that the BBC are reporting that Harry Redknapp is to be unveiled (though not literally, one hopes) as Southampton’s third manager of the season. The club website says that "rumours are rife" but isn’t denying anything as far as I can tell, so the St. Mary’s Revolving Door™ looks set to be back in full effect today. I suppose it’s good timing, with the transfer window about to open in January, but this is going to help the Saints/Pompey rivalry not one jot. Read more...

Sorry it’s been a bit quiet around these parts lately. I’ve been spending my lunch breaks over at Digital Spy Forums and at various other times participating in the Podcasting revolution (!). While I haven’t been doing that, Kathy & I have been telling everyone who’ll listen that we’ll be having a baby next year! W00t! ‘Bump’ was all planned and everything, and occurred on our tour, but we’re not going in for Beckham-style location-based naming. Read more...

So it turns out that, in the UK at least, the record industry is in rude health: UK record companies are celebrating their best ever year for album sales, with a record 237 million sold in the 12 months to September. — http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4044303.stm But I thought that file sharing was killing music? That’s what the RIAA has been saying for the past few years, since Napster came on the scene in the late 1990s. Read more...

Macworld have photos of the new Apple Store, in good old Regent Street in that London, which opens tomorrow (November 20th). We’re busy tomorrow, unfortunately (visiting my parents, so a good kind of unfortunately), but I really want to go see!

My department Christmas Lunch will this year be at Bon Viveur, a relatively new restaurant in Bristol. For reasons of ‘equality for lunch non-attendees’ (more like ‘budgetary pressure’, I reckon), The Company will not be subsidising employees’ departmental Christmas lunches this year (last year we received £10 towards the cost). This makes the minimum £21.50 (two courses) or £26.50 (three courses) a little steep, especially considering the ongoing debt situation (when they say that debt ‘cripples’, they’re right) and the fact that, if I’m going to spend £20+ on a meal, I normally do it with people I really like to hang around with. Read more...

I stayed up until 1am, printing some of our holiday photos for Kathy to take into college on the last day of her course, and proof-reading her last essay. I just happened to be following the early election results progress, m’kay? I am a little tired.

In order to not have to give sweets to kids in Halloween costumes (how American; how ghastly!), Kathy & I went out to Bath’s new Odeon cinema last night. Yeah, I know — I ranted about their woefully inadequate web site back in July and their response to Matthew Somerville, who was …uh … doing them a favour. Five months on, and the site still blows, except they’ve added a "text-only film times" facility. Read more...