tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72972652024-03-13T14:55:46.191+00:00Dave's RamblingsLife on the slow lane of the South Lakeslakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-30225591524528791262014-02-12T20:37:00.002+00:002014-08-07T20:44:02.484+00:00Raspberry Pi & RetroPie<br />
So what do you do with a Raspberry Pi? Well to start with I built a case out of lego, never too old!!<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gQqA-2XR-CQ/UFXlb-ujB7I/AAAAAAAAKG8/EfP97Z4SAMA/s1600/IMG_7171.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gQqA-2XR-CQ/UFXlb-ujB7I/AAAAAAAAKG8/EfP97Z4SAMA/s1600/IMG_7171.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kbXR8vTeMDY/UFXlmFMA2tI/AAAAAAAAKIE/t37mTAPkhbU/s1600/IMG_7181.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kbXR8vTeMDY/UFXlmFMA2tI/AAAAAAAAKIE/t37mTAPkhbU/s1600/IMG_7181.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
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Got loads of ideas like the next version of my birdcam but lack of time hasn't been on my side to progress, I tried a build of XBMC but was to sluggish for my liking on my 256Mb Pi.<br />
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Finally I settled on an RetroPie install from an image and plodded my way through the setup instructions, not too bad as most are already setup but not being from the linux world where sudo is the kill command it was a case on slowly going through the instructions. One area to setup is the fanart, there's a ES Script that does much of the work but does miss some or picks the wrong details for you. So being from the world of Windows - groan I hear ;) I wrote a crude visual basic app to help fill in the gaps, which you can see a screenshot below.<br />
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<b>You can download my 'less crude' app from my <a href="http://goo.gl/7rj5xy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google Drive - Retropie Metadata Manager v2</a></b><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Update: New version at link above designed to work with the new RetroPie v2.X directory structures as well as ReproPie v1.X, also added a few more sources to search for FanArt - Original version available here - <a href="http://goo.gl/dBu8Mf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Retropie Metadata Manager v1</a></span><br />
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<b>Basic Steps</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Run RetroPie.exe</li>
<li>Follow instructions on Settings Tab to get setup in copying files from your Pi</li>
<li>Go to Main Tab and select an emulator</li>
<li>Select game from next list, details should appear on right side, which you can update a save via [Update] button</li>
<li>If you don't have the fan art, type a search term and press one of the three buttons to manual find what you want</li>
<li>The rest you'll need to figure out :)</li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6UzK36Dn1zJ7QC8t7DJXlob3wsZLGC-bIJ-zmoxvq8T67VoMm4KGl3gpZTpHg7otGrgkqos9wAw2fVrbfE2daoJIfqQP0i50ZehFED6_txjGW8-03pYR6aJ8CFasxxsl4GkY/s1600/RetroPie_Cleaner.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6UzK36Dn1zJ7QC8t7DJXlob3wsZLGC-bIJ-zmoxvq8T67VoMm4KGl3gpZTpHg7otGrgkqos9wAw2fVrbfE2daoJIfqQP0i50ZehFED6_txjGW8-03pYR6aJ8CFasxxsl4GkY/s1600/RetroPie_Cleaner.png" height="186" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-79645664864905355152013-07-30T20:36:00.002+00:002013-10-03T21:28:53.342+00:00UK Public Radio Browser hits Beta<div style="text-align: center;">
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Come a long way but finally the latest version has moved to Beta and is now feature complete, I've cut down what needs to be downloaded to just the executable and logo pack and the first time it's run it'll create the directories and xml's needed to manage the application - just copy the contents of the zip file to an empty directory and launch the exe - there isn't an installer so if you want to remove just delete all files in the folder/sub folders where the exe resides.</div>
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Following are some screenshots to help you out a tad figuring your way around the application </div>
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2Ufre4QmBA5VFhTUnh1c2pVb28/edit?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download from Google Drive</a></div>
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requires Windows with minimum .Net Framework 4.0 installed</div>
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First tab you're see when you launch the application, click on the AZ the first time and it'll download all the metadata, once complete click again to see programmes currently available or soon available</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiajFRPpCUExuUgTzRfXrbgUHpcPve6u6vpTm4PFJcNCp6L7ebMiwWoCgjC_J9cmCprbOslYSLxIb0yfQC94Mf-azD2Rt3Op0m1mrHaqeuaYukQ9w1yPdmSHHUtXpPbrTgZ7BY/s1600/UKRadio01.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiajFRPpCUExuUgTzRfXrbgUHpcPve6u6vpTm4PFJcNCp6L7ebMiwWoCgjC_J9cmCprbOslYSLxIb0yfQC94Mf-azD2Rt3Op0m1mrHaqeuaYukQ9w1yPdmSHHUtXpPbrTgZ7BY/s400/UKRadio01.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Double click on a programme that interests you to be taken to the next tab to see available episodes, from this tab you can add the programme to your favourites and schedules</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXq4lg0pEquIuGXqx8RTo4VDbhA4JRbZF6vEdP2B_RDY_OijGeuoDULy9OiTGGQfrAFP6MzEpi7rGV6CZKfbjJK3NNy1fT0S427uzGUSh1ZUdWXB9eFEWdPWhUdWE05ol-6bE/s1600/UKRadio02.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXq4lg0pEquIuGXqx8RTo4VDbhA4JRbZF6vEdP2B_RDY_OijGeuoDULy9OiTGGQfrAFP6MzEpi7rGV6CZKfbjJK3NNy1fT0S427uzGUSh1ZUdWXB9eFEWdPWhUdWE05ol-6bE/s400/UKRadio02.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Example of programme in your favourites list, I use this to keep track of programmes I don't listen to regularly but want on keep a eye on to see if the odd episode interests me.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSv4jFMrRxUCKzFaNOPZnLVye_lo0Pf36jxjwJQyrBznUXzBgKN1q1Z6yeHWg4y0lTpdse-dZndJ1ov59L3pTi-Hdara6YL-UOZF4xoDbneKmfmIOM4mcaRNTkq31sv_VJ3VU/s1600/UKRadio03.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="367" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSv4jFMrRxUCKzFaNOPZnLVye_lo0Pf36jxjwJQyrBznUXzBgKN1q1Z6yeHWg4y0lTpdse-dZndJ1ov59L3pTi-Hdara6YL-UOZF4xoDbneKmfmIOM4mcaRNTkq31sv_VJ3VU/s400/UKRadio03.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Example of programme added to the schedule list, this I use to keep track of programmes that I want to be notified of being available. Note that the application it's self doesn't do this notification but instead executes an external command (ie batch script). I've developed like this to keep it flexible and it's an area where one size won't fit all and could easily become a drain on development time.</div>
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An example is included which shows metadata being passed to an external command as shown in the screenshot - the application can't control the external command but can read return codes to indicate within application how the command have performed. At bottom of post is an example for passing a parameter to get_iplayer.</div>
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<b>Return Code Translation</b></div>
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Success 0</div>
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Failed 1 or greater</div>
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Unprocessed -1</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8yzwWjVAYPwC_KxYBS-227D88wGCme4XtVjS5GQyrfTnmJL4E2lekmGfVQYuxGLNgbcJQ-pQc-8jgXNzZjFZHix4Uw_ZHA8CVTDOAcNPp8cG6N9lMZbNVkps8vTqC98WBlHo/s1600/UKRadio04.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8yzwWjVAYPwC_KxYBS-227D88wGCme4XtVjS5GQyrfTnmJL4E2lekmGfVQYuxGLNgbcJQ-pQc-8jgXNzZjFZHix4Uw_ZHA8CVTDOAcNPp8cG6N9lMZbNVkps8vTqC98WBlHo/s400/UKRadio04.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Details of schedule run, if a episode is marked as success then it won't be picked up on the next schedule run. Currently there is no option to process just the latest addition on the first run, as seen below where many episodes are available which you may not be interested in</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEmNydYt2VPDkSp3xELYF4xQB9XkJodtIYdc5EP0goOuXAvjMmPWbq4ItsdDdQbz4jQKaCHWs4dHCG-mLYScJ-AVN79yjK6MP1bMcpPXAQs732ciBNGuEBkvFkaALAeuR7icU/s1600/UKRadio05.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEmNydYt2VPDkSp3xELYF4xQB9XkJodtIYdc5EP0goOuXAvjMmPWbq4ItsdDdQbz4jQKaCHWs4dHCG-mLYScJ-AVN79yjK6MP1bMcpPXAQs732ciBNGuEBkvFkaALAeuR7icU/s400/UKRadio05.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Final tab, you can switch on the scheduler rather than manually running it. Be mindful as to how often the metadata is polled, for most using the application once or twice a day then 8 - 12 hours would be a suitable period, currently I've got it set so if a local version of the metadata is less than 4 hours old than that version will be presents instead of the online version, so no point in setting any lower than 4.<br />
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Finally is the details for calling the batch file and the parameters that can be passed from the metadata</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGaRRRHlQ6-giVw0h-QNqkwDJtD4-dmGOV4jAa-bGuFssuZ61V34ZaLzZizlP0jABAwR7G4lkb7t7fLCurc8WJDUrfYMpTn0g37eNa3_XptmwKXLLh2vcezrkK9B9OYkJX4iY/s1600/UKRadio06.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGaRRRHlQ6-giVw0h-QNqkwDJtD4-dmGOV4jAa-bGuFssuZ61V34ZaLzZizlP0jABAwR7G4lkb7t7fLCurc8WJDUrfYMpTn0g37eNa3_XptmwKXLLh2vcezrkK9B9OYkJX4iY/s400/UKRadio06.JPG" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><b><u>Script example of calling get_iplayer</u></b><br /></div>
<b>create get_iplayer.bat (create in root folder) with following:-</b><br />
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SET iplayer_path="C:\Program Files (x86)\get_iplayer"<br />
SET ffmpeg_path="C:\Program Files (x86)\get_iplayer\FFmpeg\ffmpeg-shared\bin\ffmpeg.exe"<br />SET Lame="C:\Program Files (x86)\get_iplayer\LAME\lame.exe"<br />SET RTMPDump_path="C:\Program Files (x86)\get_iplayer\RTMPDump\rtmpdump.exe"<br />SET Meta_Path="C:\Program Files (x86)\get_iplayer\AtomicParsley\AtomicParsley\AtomicParsley.exe"<br />SET MPlayer="C:\Program Files (x86)\get_iplayer\MPlayer\mplayer-svn-36348\mplayer.exe"<br />
<br />%iplayer_path%\get_iplayer.pl --type=radio --pid=%1 --modes default --rtmpdump %RTMPDump_path% --ffmpeg %ffmpeg_path% --atomicparsley %Meta_Path% --mplayer %Mplayer% --lame %Lame% --tag-podcast --file-prefix="<nameshort>-<episodeshort>" --force > .\log\%1.log</episodeshort></nameshort><br />
<br />exit %ERRORLEVEL%<br />
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<b>Modify setupCMD.xml in folder root/setup to following:-</b><br />
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<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
name = Get_iplayer<br /> command = get_iplayer.bat<br /> argument = PID<br /></blockquote>
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lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-88040019427510488002013-07-14T16:58:00.002+00:002013-07-30T19:30:04.375+00:00UK Public Radio Browser - v003 now available<br />
New release available, still alpha, no instructions so you'll need to figure your way around - isn't that what everyone does? or you can watch the quick video shown below to get the picture ;)<br />
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<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/_ze3MFWdQ5g/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_ze3MFWdQ5g?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_ze3MFWdQ5g?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
<br />lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-56018436215835514442013-07-08T20:49:00.000+00:002013-07-14T16:02:55.879+00:00<b><i>New Release</i></b><br />
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<b>Change Log</b><br />
Prerequisites reduced to minimum .Net Framework 4.0<br />
Schedule section updated, not currently usable but any programmes can be added<br />
Installer removed, extract contents of zip including directories anywhere on your local harddisk and run UK Public Radio Browser.exe to start the app<br />
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<strike>UK Public Radio Browser - Alpha v002.zip</strike><br />
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<span style="color: red;">To download, select on menu [File] then [Download] to get the zip</span><br />
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This release has been tested on the following systems<br />
Windows 7 with .Net Framework 4.5 - 20sec delay on initial call to internet, ok after<br />
XP with .Net Framework 4.0 - no delay notedlakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-78405105690151950052013-07-07T18:03:00.003+00:002013-07-08T20:39:26.868+00:00UK Public Radio Browser - AlphaA couple of weeks back the excellent <a href="http://www.nerdoftheherd.com/tools/radiodld/">Radio Downloader</a> application became no more due to the author being asked by the BBC to remove the application from his site, reasons are unknown but guessing it could be due to the BBC planning to offer next year radio programmes for download on a 30 day availability basis. <br />
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Excluding the download feature this applications had alot of useful features to help keep track of radio programmes the BBC has broadcast so I didn't missing the start of a new radio series. When these features now unavailable and not finding an alternative I've attempt to build my first app using Visual Basic 2012 Express. Today I'm releasing a very early alpha release and what I've coded over the past few days.<br />
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It's been tested on Window 7 with .Net 4.5 framework installed, it won't install on my XP PC with checks pointing to the Visual Studio Express 2012 installer not being compatible with XP, so think minimum is Vista or above. <br />
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Go to the link below, on the file menu is a download option to get the zip file, extract to a temp directory and run setup.exe<br />
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<strike>UK Public Radio Browser v001.zip</strike></div>
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See recent post for latest version</div>
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Currently Features</div>
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A - Z of all currently programmes</div>
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Find programme from A - Z list</div>
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Favourites</div>
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Open Favourite in web browser</div>
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Send to external command (example provided on notify details in dos prompt)</div>
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Proposed </div>
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Add A - Z to web browser</div>
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Scheduling</div>
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See if the install can be improved, currently the install is hidden in the depths of the user data</div>
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Alter sections that are currently double click to select (A-Z programme list, Favourite programme list)</div>
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lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-54973422459136895262012-02-26T11:49:00.001+00:002012-02-26T11:49:30.323+00:00SLDC Council Meeting WebcastsLast Thursday South Lakeland District Council did a live webcast of their Full Council meeting for the first time following a previous pilot. This is an area I've casually moaned about in various forums (see bottom of post for various links) - councillors over time in general have commented on the lack of public coming to watch the council proceedings, my argument is that peoples working life don't allow the time needed to get themselves to these meetings to see what goes on, the council need to switch from assuming the public should come the them to making it easier for the council to get closer to the public.<br />
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Last year BBC4 broadcast a programme called Tales from the National Park, the first programme covered a issue in the Lake District which involved a planning application, one of the planning meeting was filmed, you could see the councillor stating their cases before a vote, some were with passion, others with nimby-ism. But what was clear was reinforcing my thoughts that with the technology we have available today why were these meetings not being made for open to the general public (the ones that can't attend)<br />
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So I'll cut to the chase, below is the live view I had (plus the football), a fixed camera on the whole meeting with the audio fed in so you can hear everything clearly. It was more than I was expecting, councillors were conscious of the webcast and acknowledged at odd points to need to do certain things to benefit those watching, like naming councillors as the majority of watchers won't recognise the councillor speaking.<br />
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Turned out the webcast had 250 viewers, which is a large number for something so local. For me it's not important how many watch live, it that's we with have a clearer record of what is said in council meetings, so it I read or hear a sound bite in the media that I can go to the council recording and listen to it myself and get the full context that you would never of got from reading the minutes.<br />
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So could this broadcast be improved on? I don't think it could or needs to - it would be interesting to see a meeting for a smaller committee, whether the camera needs to change it's position or how webcasts are dealt with which have sections which the public can't watch - also I think next they should move to broadcasting meetings that more often are likely to have the public involved like the planning meetings.<br />
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Next I need to see if LDNPA will start webcasting, recording their meetings which are open to the public<br />
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<a href="http://www.southlakeland.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=268">Confirmation of webcast trail</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/9474986.South_Lakeland_District_Council_newsletter_comes_under_fire/">Westmorland Gazette - SLDC Newsletter waste</a></div>lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-3280902900634292582011-09-26T21:56:00.000+00:002011-09-26T22:32:31.956+00:00Broadband Cumbria Map<link href="http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/default.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"></link>
<script src="http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false" type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
function initialize() {
var cumbria = new google.maps.LatLng(54.3, -2.8);
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zoom: startZoom,
center: cumbria,
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style: google.maps.MapTypeControlStyle.HORIZONTAL_BAR}
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var myOptions2 = {
zoom: 12,
center: cumbria,
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mapTypeId: 'OSM',
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map1.mapTypes.set('OSM',osmMapType);
map1.setMapTypeId('OSM');
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map: map1,
icon: 'http://www.daftlogic.com/images/cross-hairs.gif',
shape: crosshairShape
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marker.bindTo('position', map1, 'center');
layer1 = new google.maps.FusionTablesLayer({
query: {
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layer1.setMap(map1);
layer3 = new google.maps.FusionTablesLayer({
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Below are two interactive maps, first map contains parish boundaries, green representing parishes that are known to have a parish champion, red if a parish champion isn't currently known (see previous post on how to supply info of champions that can be used to update this map). Also on the map is the locations of current BT cabinets, data supplied for this was postcode based so location may not be exact.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
In the second map is a guide of current broadband speed rate as supplied by BT, do I hear coughing in the audience, yes you'll correct in noticing that the circles look very uniform and I expect from you local experience that the reality of this speed estimates from BT are likely to be wildly different in the lower direction.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Now the fun bit, <b>these maps are interactive</b>, click anywhere on the maps and you'll get a popup giving champion details, cabinet details or BT speed estimate details.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Move </b>one of the maps, the other map will move in line and vis-versa. You can zoom in/out of each map to make it easier to see your parish. Finally as well at the normal Google Maps, I've included an OpenStreetMap overlay (set as default) which in some areas will contain more detail.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Thanks goes to everyone who's helped add to the data that's used for the overlays on these maps<br />
<br /></div>
<div id="map1" style="height: 400px; left: 0px; top: 0px; width: 600px;">
</div>
<div id="map2" style="height: 400px; left: 0px; top: 0px; width: 600px;">
</div>
<img onload="initialize()" src="http://www.daftlogic.com/images/cross-hairs.gif" />
lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-66230947540520952432011-08-09T19:27:00.000+00:002011-08-09T19:27:34.474+00:00London Trip - Strange TimesToday I travelled down to London for an afternoon meeting which was planned to finish around 5pm,with all the mindless looting going on around London I paid closer attention to all the news reports, seeing if there were any reports of trouble within the bounds of central London. There was only one report of a problem at Oxford Circus on Sunday which the police said was contained so my main thinking was whether to walk to our meeting or to take the tube but I think it would be more the return journey that had the potential to be at risk.<br />
<br />
I arrived at Euston just after 11:15am with a couple of colleagues, it was a clear sunny day so we decided to do a 30 minute walk to where the meeting was planned to take place. The route was normal / uneventful, all shops along the way were open and there were no signs on problems or concerns.<script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript">
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We finally got to our destination which is a long street that is just full of expensive jewellery shops (no Ratners here). We were expected at what we told is known as the diamond exchange because as the name suggests it's where diamond dealers go to trade and with this security to get in is very tight with thick full length turn gates like you'd see in those bank job movies. This place also has normal office lets for none diamond related business which is what we were visiting.<br />
<br />
Now when we entered this street the atmospheric had changed, alot of the jewellery shops had their shutters half way down and the odd one had a staff member outside looking on nervously. We were early and had an hour to kill so went for a bite to eat and also met up with some other colleagues who were also attending. When the hour was up we headed back to the street where we now noticed that a few of shops had cleared down there diamond shop front displays and shut up shop, we got into the building for our meeting and commenced business.<br />
<br />
Within 30-45 minutes an office worker came into our meeting room and said the police had advised us to leave the area, so with that advise we quickly wrapped up and headed into the street to decide how best to get back to Euston (tube or walk). Out in the street all the jewellery shops were now closed with their security shutters down. Two police were at one end of the street with another five at the other end in the direction we decided to walk back to Euston. Once we got out of the street the rest of the walk back was pretty normal, on the route there are not many shops that match the type you seen in news reports.<br />
<br />
I think the police had decided to play safe and get everyone out of the area that has a potential risk so it's easier for them to deal with any issues and based on previous days things seemed to be at risk of happening from late afternoon although I've not heard of looting of jewellery shops, seems it's trainers and mobiles that are order of the day.lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com0City of London, Greater London, UK51.5176208838544 -0.1074821945678650151.5055528838544 -0.137385694567865 51.5296888838544 -0.077578694567865009tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-48279304985779108492011-07-31T10:18:00.000+00:002011-07-31T10:18:57.445+00:00Oxenholme to Heathrow in half the time?This week on the drive home I managed to catch the last part of Lakeland Radio's news bulletin which mentioned the possibility of travelling from Oxenholme to Heathrow in half the currently time that being in just two hours. I thought this very strange, why Heathrow, is there a need to travel there when we have airports closer at Manchester, Liverpool, Blackpool, and don't you have to travel into London first then back out to Heathrow.<script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript">
</script><br />
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Back home I did a search of the web to see if I'd heard things right and was only able to find two media outlets in the North West reporting this story, one of them being this <a href="http://lakelandradio.co.uk/2011/07/oxenholme-to-heathrow-journey-times-could-be-halved/">news report</a> by Lakeland Radio and the other from the <a href="http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/local/rail_plan_puts_london_two_hours_away_1_3622853">Blackpool Gazette</a>.<br />
<br />
From reading these two online reports it became clear that they were probable mostly copy n pasted from a Department for Transport press release that is trying garner support for the proposed High Speed Rail link (HS2) and seems to make out that it's be possible to travel from any North West station to Heathrow in two hours - the press release must be written by someone who thinks England doesn't pass the bounds of the M25<br />
<br />
Does this two hour claim stack up? I've tend to do the train journey into London from Oxenholme once or twice a year and it's possible to get down to London Euston from Oxenholme in 2 hours 45 mins, just enough time to settle down and watch a movie. If you want to then goto Paddington then the train times allow you 1 hours to get on the tube to Paddington then it's a 15 minutes train to Heathrow.<br />
<br />
Keeping the Euston to Heathrow times the same that would mean the journey between Oxenholme and Euston would need to be done in 45 minutes to meet the 2 hour claim - so is this possible with HS2.<br />
<br />
Short answer is No. Well HS2 could have a speed of around 240MPH and London is around 250 miles away so at best the journey would be over 1 hour into London. Now the HS2 proposed will only get as far north as Birmingham although the release implies that it's go as far as Manchester as uses this as the basis for the 2 hour claim. So lets say HS2 was to get as far as Manchester, could that help, I don't think so - all trains from Oxenholme tend to stop at other North Western stations which take up to a hour of the journey, I can't the number of stops reducing, so I can't see any time savings.<br />
<br />
Conclusion is I think the report is pie in the sky, at best I think it would reduce journey times by upto 30 minutes but that will be lost if you have to change trains on route to London.<br />
<br />
I wonder why more of the local media hasn't report this, is it obvious it's not a going or is it bad timing publication wise.lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-63536493262124260362011-07-24T12:39:00.004+00:002011-07-31T13:24:49.245+00:00Cumbria Broadband Champions Map<div style="text-align: center;">I've produced a overlay map of Cumbria marking out all the parishes and which have a known Broadband Champion based on information found on <a href="http://broadbandcumbria.com/">Cumbria Broadband</a>, looks sparse doesn't it, I'm sure there are more but look on the web it's not obvious who there are. So this is where you guys come in to help fill in the blanks so we see a sea of green instead of the current red.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">A walk-though on how to provide to details is available at the bottom of this post.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">I've created a <a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmUfre4QmBA5dDBXYnFRTHNTbkhPdnliRmROUGQ3TEE&hl=en_GB">Google Spreadsheet</a> where at minimum the name of the Broadband champion should be added against the relevant parish, also details like social network links can be added, these are optional but would be good to be added so as to extend the community and add ways on communicating on this subjects between those interested. The spreadsheet can be updated by anyone, I will periodically pull the data from the spreadsheet to update the map, I'm also happy to input names myself if that's easier for some, a link to the various ways of contacting me is on the spreadsheet. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">The current version of the map is shown below, link to larger interactive version is shown below which has options to embed in websites, this map can be reused by anyone supporting Cumbria Community Broadband, I'll post updates on this blog and on the spreadsheet, free free to let me know what your think of the map.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe height="500px" scrolling="no" src="http://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+*+from+1212719+&h=false&lat=54.39974815563759&lng=-2.735595703125&z=8&t=1&l=col15%3E%3E1" width="600px"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?snapid=S231738NX09">Map - Large Version</a><br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Walk-through on how to fill in the spreadsheet with details</b> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="396" src="http://www.screenr.com/embed/fkSs" width="550"></iframe></div>lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com14Kendal, Cumbria, UK54.3267888 -2.747577699999965354.2992493 -2.7795211999999654 54.354328300000006 -2.7156341999999651tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-40773431794851198112011-07-09T17:34:00.000+00:002011-07-09T17:34:25.318+00:00Google+<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb0cL6rckxiB-8NNBaS5rKCPUzBS9TwL067CRDc_g6CkUoQsYC1olp1Vsc7TKi-F5v-6Q_yL8FgKHIEbyetfquTqxTAgd8NZq-FX2jZ7Mmw6Rc0St-gRWehlA2bn0IQVJMAXY/s1600/GooglePlusBuzz.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb0cL6rckxiB-8NNBaS5rKCPUzBS9TwL067CRDc_g6CkUoQsYC1olp1Vsc7TKi-F5v-6Q_yL8FgKHIEbyetfquTqxTAgd8NZq-FX2jZ7Mmw6Rc0St-gRWehlA2bn0IQVJMAXY/s320/GooglePlusBuzz.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Yesterday my Google+ invite came through after someone kindly invited me earlier in the week - these things take time. This post is on my initial thoughts on using Google+</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Before getting onto Google+ the only knowledge I had was from watching the demonstration video's and certain users views from podcasts like <a href="http://twit.tv/twig">TwiG</a>. This was probable a mistake as these guys are the Google fan boys and give an impression that it's great but I'll come back to the difference between them and us 'normal' users. The impress I got was I could find and join a circle/hangout - how wrong could I be - VERY!!!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">So I logon Google+ for the first time and I'm presented with a blank canvas consisting of just me and a message from the kind soul who invited me. So lets find a circle to join, first problem met, there are no 'public' circles, you have to create your own circle and find people to add to it - they'll know they're in your circle but not what circle it is. If you're from the Twitter wealm think of a circle as a Twitter list which can't be shared, so rather than one person doing all the hard work curating a circle that can be shared, with G+ everyone has to create their own in the vain hope that everyone is roughly having the same Circles.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">To start with I've created a Circle called <b>Locals - South Lakes, Cumbria, England</b> and using names from Twitter added 11 people with Google+ accounts (you search in real names not nicknames), so I've been using it for nearly 24hrs now and between the 12 of us in my circle we've conversed between each other zero times. This may lie a problem for ordinary users like me, I think you're going to have to have alot of people in your circle to get to the point of finding out whether it's going to be useful for anything. You could say twitter on occasions is the same, alot goes on during the day but once midnight comes everyone turns into a punkin and all goes quiet till the morning.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">So why have the likes of <a href="https://plus.google.com/101261243957067319422">Leo Laporte's</a> <a href="http://twit.tv/twig">TwiG </a>clan taken to it so easily compared to Joe Public (you and I), well they've got the advantage to being able to quickly create a network of circles just by adding well known people from tech and as this network listen to shows like TwiG then Leo's Clan are invited into the right circles so they're able to get the most out of what Google+ is offering. For Joe Public we have to do alot of work upfront to just tip the surface to what Google+ has to offer and there maybe easier non Google ways of achieving the same goals for certain people.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">So far I have 40 people in my circles and my feeling of Google+ is like it's just Buzz 2.0, I can see alot of newbies losing interest and sticking with Twitter and/or Facebook, too much effort if needed to hunt out other people you think maybe of interest and create circles for them. Then when you have a starting point the next difficulty is turning your one way messages into a two way conversion both in written form and in a hangout. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">For me the only part I could see being useful is the hangout feature for discussing certain topics between upto 10 people via webcam, for example at work I use a suite of applications known as SAP Business Objects, there is a very good forum called <a href="http://www.forumtopics.com/busobj/">BOB Forums</a> for post requests for help regarding the application or helping others in written form. I think it would be good to have a Business Objects hangout for occasions when it makes sense to discussion face to face rather than through a long winded post thread. At the moment I trying to see if I can find a way to make this work - this maybe a long road as I'm having to try and set it up by posting in <a href="http://www.forumtopics.com/busobj/viewtopic.php?t=178964">BOB Forums</a> ask people to come and find me on Google+ - if Google was to allow people to setup public Circles then this would be a lot easier, all that would be need is for me to point people to the public circle.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">I've seen this sort of hangout type activity happen very successful and easily using a combination of <a href="http://twitter.com/lakeuk">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://tinychat.com/">TinyChat</a>. It's a simply a case of tweeting everyone in a Twitter list asking them to join a TinyChat session.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">My Initial Opinion - Google+ = Buzz 2.0</div><div style="text-align: center;">Improvements Needed - Public Circles</div>lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-37961621378215380652011-07-04T18:13:00.000+00:002011-07-04T18:13:33.968+00:00Cold Phone Call - International Routing System ScamLast weekend I was fortunate to get a cold call which when you hear the first few words you know it's a scam, normally I would just put the phone down but I wasn't the one who answered the phone and they managed with no difficultly to get past my first line of defense (another family member). So how do they know these details, well it's not hard to get this sort of info, the electrol roll matched to the phone directory - all bound to be sound on the open market - basic marketing data sold on and on to the point that it's being used illegally.<br />
<br />
So I decided to have a bit of fun, to see how long I could string them along - see end of post for some audio of the conversation (headphones recommended). The last time I did this was when someone called me saying they could do me a better deal on the cost of my phone calls, to which I asked how they were going to better a deal that doesn't currently costs me anything.<br />
<br />
Before I go through the details of the call I'll give a quick overview of the scam. You'll be picked a random from their list to be called and they'll imply that there systems have detected a slow response coming from your computer and would like to sort the problem out. They'll ask you if you have a computer and could you go to it and look at a part of the windows logs (Event Viewer) to give the impression that your computer has problems. Then they'll ask you to download some software from a website, this is the sting where the software could do anything, you're as good as installing there malware for them. Then the scammer attempts to get their reward where for a fee they'll offer to remove offending virus's they say you have - It's all a con and if you follow any instructions they give on your computer then you're good as opening up your computer to the whole world.<br />
<br />
Well I was never going to fall for this in a month of Sunday's, as I'm usually the first point of call from family & friends requesting tech support from me.<br />
<br />
<b>Let the FUN commence:-</b><br />
<br />
An Indian girl starts going through a short script explaining that they're router has identified a slow response coming from my PC and they're calling to check everything is ok. The art to not playing ball with these type of calls is to response with answers/questions that are less likely to form part of their script responses. <br />
<br />
Having said they've identified a slow response they asked if I have a computer to which I responded "What is a computer?" and proceed to have them explain what they are meaning, whether it is like a fax machine. I finally gave them the impression that I now had a rough idea from them of what a computer was and had access to one although I'm woolly on whether it was mine, works etc..<br />
<br />
Next they ask me to go and switch my computer on, now there's a difference between switching on a computer and saying you have - for my part in this exchange I just said to my Indian cold caller than I had switched it on but was nowhere near my computer through out this phone call. Time for the next phase of Operation String Along - I wait a couple of minutes, pretending the computer is booting up with them during this time asking if I'd switched it on and me saying yes then a finally response of "It's on a screen which says 'Checking system files - 2%'", this confused them but they were quite happy to see the progress of this message through, although my made up screen text I relayed wasn't in there script - so I put the phone down for a few minutes.<br />
<br />
When I next pick up the phone they were still there on the other end eagerly awaiting an update to which I responded "It's now saying 3%", this went on and on with me edging the % progress another notch when twenty minutes later I was saying it was at 15% which it stayed stuck at for the next 10minutes. Now if I was giving tech support then I would of quickly worked out that at this rate I was going to be here all day and would make my excuses to end the call but these guys were very happy to wait it out.<br />
<br />
Next phase now was to see what would it take for them to end the call, so I asked them as this was taking along time to resolve could they help with something else while I waiting - first I asked them if they can solve problems with televisions, then I moved onto trying to get them to help with a printer problem. Well they couldn't help with my television problem but were happy to help with the printer problem but not until they resolve my computer problem, to which I said my computer problem is going to take all day at this rate and whilst we're waiting could help me with my printer problem.<br />
<br />
At this point she was getting lost in how to deal with the call and wanted to put me through to a senior technical person who by coincidence sits next to her. Now over half an hour had passed and it was clear they were going stick at this so it was time to quickly bring <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">this to an end - so I told the 'senior' guy I wasn't happy with the service I was getting, I'd asked for help with sorting out my printer whilst we waited and that I wasn't happy to wait until the computer problem was resolved first. During this part of the discussion I questioned them on how they got my details and where they were based, the answers they gave didn't make much sense, they said they got the information from the <b>International Routing System</b>, then said it came from the info entered when you register Windows. I asked whether they were based - <b>Salt Lake City</b> the response (unlikely), also I asked if they get the information from <b>Microsoft </b>to which they said yes, so I tripped them up by saying I never registered windows - at this point they were starting to trip themselves up.</span><br />
<br />
I finally brought the call to an end when they said they'd have to put me through to their technical support team in order to resolve my issues but the sting in the tail which is the point to this whole scam if I'd allowed the call to follow their script is that they would be a charge of £29 for this service if they were able to solve the problem. I gave them a minute to put me through and solve to my problem but they wasted that time and I decided to terminated the call.<br />
<br />
Whilst this was all going on I dug out a mic and connected it to my ipod to record some of the conversation (last 8 minutes of the call) - now this was unplanned so the result isn't the best with me sounding loud and the other side being very quiet but it's still worth listening to as you'll get a good idea of the call from mostly my side and when listened through headphones you can pick up good parts of the other side. <br />
<br />
I've posted my clips using SoundBoard which also allow comments be to added to the track which I thought would be useful to allow listeners to do.<br />
<br />
<b>(Listen through headphones recommended)</b><br />
<object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F18277825&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F18277825&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object><a href="http://soundcloud.com/lakeuk/cold-caller-tech-support-clip1">Clip</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/lakeuk">lakeuk</a><br />
<object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F18277826&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F18277826&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object><a href="http://soundcloud.com/lakeuk/cold-caller-tech-support-clip2">Clip</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/lakeuk">lakeuk</a><br />
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Some websites I've found where others have come across this type of scam:-<br />
<a href="http://www.theogray.com/blog/2010/07/international-routing-system">Theo Gray - Blog Post</a><br />
<a href="http://money-watch.co.uk/7118/beware-of-the-windows-phone-scam">Money Watch - Blog</a><br />
<a href="http://www.eatonbray.com/news/2010/07/international-routing-system-scam">Eaton Bray</a><br />
<a href="http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/383261/microsoft_loss_over_event_viewer_scam/">Computer World - Austrailia</a>lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com18Kendal, Cumbria, UK54.3267888 -2.747577699999965354.2992493 -2.7795211999999654 54.354328300000006 -2.7156341999999651tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-19288324239777801432011-04-30T15:08:00.000+00:002011-04-30T15:08:01.994+00:00Homecoming Parade through Kendal<div style="text-align: center;">Today the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment paraded through Kendal starting at 12.10pm from the town centre to Kendal's Parish Church for a thanksgiving service at 1pm, returning to Kendal town centre just after 2pm. Below is a short video I took of the return at Kendal's Town Hall</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tr4qLOezOEs" width="480"></iframe></div>lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-26381613683520450932011-04-10T15:48:00.000+00:002011-04-10T15:48:31.900+00:00Sparrowhawk eating it's prey<div style="text-align: center;">This video is of a Sparrowhawk at the bottom of our garden eating it's last kill - probably a pigeon.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oSDsDSPF_b8?hd=1" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe></div>lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-20101773459317685992011-04-10T14:36:00.001+00:002022-08-24T10:58:28.109+00:00Secret Kendal - Royal Observer Corps Monitoring Post<div style="text-align: center;">Not a lot of people will be aware that hidden away on top of a hill just across from Kendal Castle towards Heron Hill is a Royal Observer Corps Monitoring Post, it was closed in 1991 as the Cold War ended and was designed to detect radioactive fallout. In the 80's our scout group were shown down inside the bunker, we were shown how they detected movement outside which didn't strike me as reliable as examples we were shown were the result of cloud movements.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Below 2 photos are what I took last summer, you can get to it by taking the footpath straight up the hillside from the entrance to Wasdale Close - I don't recommend exploring inside the bucker and previous visitor comments that there is asbestos inside. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HSDBlITuCxA/TQ4mBWwbUPI/AAAAAAAAG2E/0RI0tS1oEgU/s800/IMG_2230.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HSDBlITuCxA/TQ4mBWwbUPI/AAAAAAAAG2E/0RI0tS1oEgU/w640-h480/IMG_2230.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HSDBlITuCxA/TQ4mCSrSNCI/AAAAAAAAG2I/VbzhmBTbdOg/s800/IMG_2234.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HSDBlITuCxA/TQ4mCSrSNCI/AAAAAAAAG2I/VbzhmBTbdOg/w640-h480/IMG_2234.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Following is a photo of the inside from a Jun 08 / Mar 09 visitor who posted photos here <a href="https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/kendal-roc-post-cumbria-group.31771/">link1</a> <a href="https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/kendal-roc-post-cumbria-mar-09.38672/">link2</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz0Tud4E0bpvZyVdiyoQ24vURuoPEEbtNJkOCoK7LXfmpMpiyBWsfkLqgoduMzXYTAOfvGSK3oohd7vy6xk9dT0xTPOu1eU7ENLhVKlXIxEcCgXm-lUK4boz-WLR2btONWl1BiCGqsRSDauDpQVyGZyQHi9AHN9QRDuMSYfTQFW0T1U00/s500/Kendal%20ObPost%202008%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="500" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz0Tud4E0bpvZyVdiyoQ24vURuoPEEbtNJkOCoK7LXfmpMpiyBWsfkLqgoduMzXYTAOfvGSK3oohd7vy6xk9dT0xTPOu1eU7ENLhVKlXIxEcCgXm-lUK4boz-WLR2btONWl1BiCGqsRSDauDpQVyGZyQHi9AHN9QRDuMSYfTQFW0T1U00/w640-h426/Kendal%20ObPost%202008%201.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1y3TZaEXj1lcVO3uEopJhdPqk2lcTzKUBglfhpCjq0F87zhpa-K2Gc9-lnm4_i9m2ScHK6iqqz6tJFRoTM7K7_LkfILpKptxfxIK_joSRo_xQHHvhm88-3iJp-w_X3p81vx932Sn1SxfGlDepejyRe5Ij-k-uwtyf3CrSGlk7FFhT-Eo/s500/Kendal%20ObPost%202008%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="500" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1y3TZaEXj1lcVO3uEopJhdPqk2lcTzKUBglfhpCjq0F87zhpa-K2Gc9-lnm4_i9m2ScHK6iqqz6tJFRoTM7K7_LkfILpKptxfxIK_joSRo_xQHHvhm88-3iJp-w_X3p81vx932Sn1SxfGlDepejyRe5Ij-k-uwtyf3CrSGlk7FFhT-Eo/w640-h426/Kendal%20ObPost%202008%202.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm-g7so5xP6tKs5YVjEYOWyfZC0g8hO12DPR0CUhj1y0rJ-jo-ZRQV-5slYqwyoFU63hn1gaZSTHJ5KI1Q-XbArbirg8iUJJj8-a5UFCsSbLIdzJlW7qbOtaGvFH3fFpIMkWlmrFu7BEz0-8N4c8tgrFY9kFOCZexHfOKgYLnCfLoDyrs/s500/Kendal%20ObPost%202008%203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="500" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm-g7so5xP6tKs5YVjEYOWyfZC0g8hO12DPR0CUhj1y0rJ-jo-ZRQV-5slYqwyoFU63hn1gaZSTHJ5KI1Q-XbArbirg8iUJJj8-a5UFCsSbLIdzJlW7qbOtaGvFH3fFpIMkWlmrFu7BEz0-8N4c8tgrFY9kFOCZexHfOKgYLnCfLoDyrs/w640-h426/Kendal%20ObPost%202008%203.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoMshV6R_ztycOhES_KwxidJnYeJGzcrOD0A2wSSKmWhUXNGCsy3OneZ-bpEbH3ORpZWzp6anGniYLdxg1NDjizNiSdhGRJ1-vEkd3PPJwhILPFe2oqNAzDu98jS_vcqr2XtWEeZ2taJce67JVq9AsiovdJpzzZCrnccbJnYNREYmtjzY/s800/Kendal%20ObPost%202009%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="531" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoMshV6R_ztycOhES_KwxidJnYeJGzcrOD0A2wSSKmWhUXNGCsy3OneZ-bpEbH3ORpZWzp6anGniYLdxg1NDjizNiSdhGRJ1-vEkd3PPJwhILPFe2oqNAzDu98jS_vcqr2XtWEeZ2taJce67JVq9AsiovdJpzzZCrnccbJnYNREYmtjzY/w424-h640/Kendal%20ObPost%202009%201.jpg" width="424" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1oi4D1jvfiJDXRJP6_cGejbBO5KA_t5jsP7OxDhPnGtmA-C3xgjO55UoY8Bxx0VxkSQfIrK317q3Lvt2SfOzDKCn8Ps-gIi2f0NEHsbHTPFp0fktJkQcIj-B-aKWBEuL_p3YIfIYL751tBeyH5lQUH5Ko0i_yhxVdyWj-2gwMXOEHbWg/s800/Kendal%20ObPost%202009%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="800" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1oi4D1jvfiJDXRJP6_cGejbBO5KA_t5jsP7OxDhPnGtmA-C3xgjO55UoY8Bxx0VxkSQfIrK317q3Lvt2SfOzDKCn8Ps-gIi2f0NEHsbHTPFp0fktJkQcIj-B-aKWBEuL_p3YIfIYL751tBeyH5lQUH5Ko0i_yhxVdyWj-2gwMXOEHbWg/w640-h424/Kendal%20ObPost%202009%202.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Layout plan</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbDa9oSfgUgqGqwtcHrt1krp70ALEnTzPtzo1Xu9b_jGgYIAbT7aFB8_bOoTg1IEWiF7KBzWgKzLpyoXpvTbr8aHY0v9D5B7nCCm7AwuMP3hbl6F6qyfhsTo54t5nWgYa1amyP6igi4b0W4q25P0aG3f_DPSRjCgBfGQKqLt0VqnHP1SI/s1200/Kendal%20ObPost%20DigitalImpresion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1003" data-original-width="1200" height="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbDa9oSfgUgqGqwtcHrt1krp70ALEnTzPtzo1Xu9b_jGgYIAbT7aFB8_bOoTg1IEWiF7KBzWgKzLpyoXpvTbr8aHY0v9D5B7nCCm7AwuMP3hbl6F6qyfhsTo54t5nWgYa1amyP6igi4b0W4q25P0aG3f_DPSRjCgBfGQKqLt0VqnHP1SI/w640-h534/Kendal%20ObPost%20DigitalImpresion.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">More Info:-</div><div style="text-align: center;">Wikipedia - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Observer_Corps_Monitoring_Post">Link</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Location </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Best approach from Valley Drive or Parkside Road ends, take the public footpaths to the point marked with blue X, then take the upper path southwards to point mark with a red X, look left to see the site (marked green X). The footpath is slightly below the level of the private land, recommend tripod/monopod to aid any photography above eye level height.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBA5rIp5KGHd8yrgIovSM0lCDfaC2UWiANvLJtjQXPJrpyU7BRxjUs5aq4KtPrqPH9DzsGO0vRlR8gniLsecwA-2anI0EBlnzQqKOzGxwde64T8DpxokLoMM7CoU3qpJ58MXAdfHcwiflkORSFbYmKaPTq2KQ_X-q9HHwBMzVNfJMydbg/s1947/Kendal%20ObPost%20location.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1695" data-original-width="1947" height="558" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBA5rIp5KGHd8yrgIovSM0lCDfaC2UWiANvLJtjQXPJrpyU7BRxjUs5aq4KtPrqPH9DzsGO0vRlR8gniLsecwA-2anI0EBlnzQqKOzGxwde64T8DpxokLoMM7CoU3qpJ58MXAdfHcwiflkORSFbYmKaPTq2KQ_X-q9HHwBMzVNfJMydbg/w640-h558/Kendal%20ObPost%20location.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-715310803771127702011-04-10T13:38:00.000+00:002011-04-10T13:38:28.805+00:00Blogger Views<div>Blogger has introduces new ways to view blogs, here's a short video of how they look against my blog.</div><div><br />
</div><div>(1st few secs in the video are grey then it's ok)</div><div><br />
</div><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kS8li_NBov8?hd=1" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-85312954891273019952011-04-10T12:40:00.000+00:002011-04-10T12:40:02.381+00:00UK Radioplayer<div style="text-align: center;">A couple weeks back a new website launched Radioplayer that is a one stop shop for listening to UK radio and will allow UK radio stations to embed a common radio player into their own station websites making it easier for the listeners to access radio content across the country.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">At the time of writing this post all the BBC stations and alot of the national/local commercial stations are now of the platform, the backers of Radioplayer say those that have registered so far should be available on Radioplayer by end of May. Hopefully our two local commercial stations Lakeland Radio and The Bay have registered their interest and are not the odd ones out. Searching for Cumbria and only the BBC Radio Cumbria comes up as local radio stations available. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">I've done a short walkthrough of how to get the best out of it. (the first few seconds of the video show up grey, but then it's ok)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/npIlZ_8l_6c?hd=1" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe></div>lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-49069106702118975982011-01-09T12:54:00.001+00:002011-01-09T12:58:58.816+00:00BBC2's Antiques Road Trip - Kendal - Levens Hall - Cockermouth<div style="text-align: center;">Got home on Friday to find rest of household switched onto BBC2, different from the usual fair of Ch4's Come Dine With Me. Reason - they'd been tipped of that a local antique shop in Kendal would feature.<script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript">
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</div><div style="text-align: center;">It's a series that follows two antiques experts in competition with each other, they spend the week travelling to various places buying antiques with the aim of selling them for a profit at the end of the week at auction - sounds familiar !!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">This episode saw them visiting auction shops traveling between Morecambe, Lancaster, Kendal then at an auction in Cockermouth. One of the experts after buying all his antiques visited Leven's Hall for a guided tour by the wife of owner Susie Bagget, the other expert was up the Kendal to visit <a href="http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Sleddall-Hall-Antiques-Centre">Sleddall Hall Antique Centre</a> on Wildman Street where he bought a picture from owner Robert Aindow for £30.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">The episode can be viewed on BBC iPlayer until Friday 14th January 2011, watch from 24mins in for feature on Levens Hall then Kendal</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00xc5kv">http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00xc5kv</a></div>lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-68692127043005585412011-01-04T23:48:00.000+00:002011-01-04T23:48:48.079+00:00ITV Series - The Lakes - My view on 1st EpisodeOn Monday at 8pm saw the return on ITV of The Lakes above people living and working in Cumbria (yes they're very loose with The Lakes). Locals who are watching this series have love/hate relationship with this programme, mainly due to the over exposure of hotelier Thomas <em>The Gladiator </em>Noblett and his right hand man Andrew <em>The Admiral </em>Tighe repeating the same thing in each episode / series, and also how the series is presented in that the peoples stories are limited to sound bites across many episodes. Following is an overview of the first episode, yes I was abit anal in working out the timings:-<br />
<br />
ITV have put the programme in a prime time half hour slot at 8pm between Monday nights two Coronation Street episodes. The runtime of the show is 22mins 55secs, excluding a 2min 23secs break in the middle (Although it finished around 8:25pm the end break was short as Corrie started around 8:27pm). So what did we get in the way of juicy content, well....<br />
<br />
<ul><li>3mins 7secs - Starting titles and preview of what was coming up in the rest of the series</li>
<li>3mins 29secs - Sailing instructor Joe Pester and his wife Lindy who are preparing for their perfect lakeside wedding </li>
<li>4mins 31secs - Rob Rose and his micro pigs</li>
<li>0mins 13secs - Short preview of Thomas <em>The Gladiator </em>Noblett then into a break</li>
<li>2mins 23secs - Commercial break</li>
<li>0mins 58secs - Preview of whats coming up in rest of the series</li>
<li>2mins 54secs - Another preview of what Thomas <em>The Gladiator </em>Noblett will be doing in the rest of the series including why he's now laughs at being refered to as <em>The Gladiator</em></li>
<li>3mins 23secs - Back to this episode with Rob Rose's micro pigs</li>
<li>2mins 50secs - Joe Pester and his Lindy Wedding</li>
<li>1min 30secs - Preview of what's coming up in the next episode and end credits including Joe and Lindy's Honeymoon</li>
</ul><br />
So in summary the 22mins 55secs episode was broken down into 8mins 42secs of titles/previews/fillers that will get repeated from episode to episode and just 14mins 13secs of actually watchable content.<br />
<br />
This series could be a whole lot better if they didn't keep stringing us along and gave us more of a characters story in an episode.<br />
<br />
Recommendation is to record the the show but to fast forward through the soundbites.lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-29248929654547292692011-01-03T23:38:00.008+00:002011-01-03T23:43:47.292+00:00Cumbria Earthquake - 3rd January 2011 - UpdateBritish Geological Survey have updated details on tonight Earthquake<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/recent_events/uk_special/ripon_03_jan_2011.pdf">Seismic Alert PDF of event</a><br />
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Location was near Ripon<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="475" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=54.181+-1.633(M3.7+-+ENGLAND,+UNITED+KINGDOM+-+2011+January+03++21:03:09+UTC)&f=d&t=h&hl=e&ie=UTF8&ll=54.514704,-2.510376&spn=1.514639,2.746582&z=8&output=embed" width="500"></iframe><br />
<small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=54.181+-1.633(M3.7+-+ENGLAND,+UNITED+KINGDOM+-+2011+January+03++21:03:09+UTC)&f=d&t=h&hl=e&ie=UTF8&ll=54.514704,-2.510376&spn=1.514639,2.746582&z=8&source=embed" style="color: blue; text-align: left;">View Larger Map</a></small></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold;">Earthquake Details</span><br />
<br />
<ul><li>This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.</li>
</ul><table id="parameters" summary="Earthquake Details"><tbody>
<tr><th>Magnitude</th><td><strong>3.7</strong></td></tr>
<tr><th>Date-Time</th><td><ul><li><strong>Monday, January 03, 2011 at 21:03:09 UTC</strong></li>
<li>Monday, January 03, 2011 at 09:03:09 PM at epicenter </li>
<li><a href="http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_frb5_tz.html" target="_blank">Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones</a></li>
</ul></td></tr>
<tr><th>Location</th><td>54.181°N, 1.633°W</td></tr>
<tr><th>Depth</th><td>11 km (6.8 miles) set by location program</td></tr>
<tr><th>Region</th><td>ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM</td></tr>
<tr><th>Distances</th><td>45 km (25 miles) N of <b>Leeds, England, UK</b><br />
85 km (55 miles) NNE of <b>Manchester, England, UK</b><br />
90 km (55 miles) S of <b>Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UK</b><br />
315 km (195 miles) NNW of <b>LONDON, United Kingdom</b></td></tr>
<tr><th>Location Uncertainty</th><td>Error estimate not available</td></tr>
<tr><th>Parameters</th><td>NST= 3, Nph= 3, Dmin=162.3 km, Rmss=0 sec, Gp=209°,<br />
M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=5</td></tr>
<tr><th>Source</th><td><ul><li>British Geological Survey, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK<br />
</li>
</ul></td></tr>
<tr><th>Event ID</th><td>us2011frb5</td></tr>
</tbody></table>lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-9497013578098895432011-01-03T23:07:00.000+00:002011-01-03T23:07:35.247+00:00Cumbria Earthquake - 3rd January 2011Blimey these are becoming too regular, this evening at around 21:03, some in Kendal including me felt a quick tremor and a sound like a heavy gust of wind. Having now alot of experience of all this earth moving malarkey it was straight on to Twitter first to post that I'd felt the house move and then to search on keyword 'earthquake', loads of tweets were coming in from the Yorkshire, Bradford area.<script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript">
</script><br />
<br />
These are the details from <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2011frb5.php">here</a>, which centre the quake need Ripon, these details may get updated on the main site once the reading from the UK are taken into account.<br />
<br />
<h3>Earthquake Details</h3><ul><li>This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.</li>
</ul><table id="parameters" summary="Earthquake Details"><tbody>
<tr><th>Magnitude</th><td><strong>3.7</strong></td></tr>
<tr><th>Date-Time</th><td><ul><li><strong>Monday, January 03, 2011 at 21:03:14 UTC</strong></li>
<li>Monday, January 03, 2011 at 09:03:14 PM at epicenter </li>
<li>Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones</li>
</ul></td></tr>
<tr><th>Location</th><td>53.767°N, 1.508°W</td></tr>
<tr><th>Depth</th><td>10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program</td></tr>
<tr><th>Region</th><td>ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM</td></tr>
<tr><th>Distances</th><td>NEAR <b>Leeds, England, UK</b><br />
45 km (30 miles) N of <b>Sheffield, England, UK</b><br />
55 km (35 miles) ENE of <b>Manchester, England, UK</b><br />
270 km (165 miles) NNW of <b>LONDON, United Kingdom</b></td></tr>
<tr><th>Location Uncertainty</th><td>Error estimate not available</td></tr>
<tr><th>Parameters</th><td>NST= 3, Nph= 3, Dmin=115.5 km, Rmss=0 sec, Gp=205°,<br />
M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=5</td></tr>
<tr><th>Source</th><td><ul><li>CEA Lab. de Détection et de Géophysique, Bruyères-le-Châtel, France<br />
</li>
</ul></td></tr>
<tr><th>Event ID</th><td>us2011frb5</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<br />
Here the screenshot from this evening geological sensor in Keswick<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQOJH9NUDs-UKGwVe-umwF5J5sypxPHWDNakuH7BAojkdznI5AGKqDIVThME9Yn3h32Or4azVFJ7AZKgjTdhkebEYt31hi1-X4I1cCwfhpYUr8PMIyEfhtSNd8hwEk7iLfKC4/s1600/KESW_SHZ_GB_00.2011010300%255B1%255D.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQOJH9NUDs-UKGwVe-umwF5J5sypxPHWDNakuH7BAojkdznI5AGKqDIVThME9Yn3h32Or4azVFJ7AZKgjTdhkebEYt31hi1-X4I1cCwfhpYUr8PMIyEfhtSNd8hwEk7iLfKC4/s320/KESW_SHZ_GB_00.2011010300%255B1%255D.gif" width="320" /></a></div>lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-79491711406635223902010-12-22T14:37:00.000+00:002010-12-22T14:37:22.636+00:00Cumbria Earthquake - 21st December 2010<div style="text-align: center;">Last night at 10:59pm I was in the best room in the house for reading, yes I was on the toilet when there was a large noise like a heavy goods vehicle passing close by (impossible where I am) and the house shook for a second or two. This is not the first time I've felt an earthquake in Kendal so I knew what it was straight away and went straight to the Twitter to see whether others had felt the same.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://twitpic.com/3i8h40">Twitter</a> light up with local's reporting what they felt was an earthquake, wanting confirmation, one posted a <a href="http://twitpic.com/3i7ai8">picture</a> of a crack that had appeared in his wall.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">The <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0000sdh.php">US Geological Survey</a> were first to report the quake as a 3.6 in the hills south of Honister Pass, this was later revised once the British Geological Survey data became available to a 3.5 on the scale with the epicenter of Red Gill Head Moss which is 1.5km north of the Coppermine's Youth Hostel near Coniston.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">This is the fourth earthquake I've felt in the north west of England, three I've felt when at home in Kendal (including last nights) and one I felt at work in Lytham last year, I had a phone call from a work colleage in Arnside asking if we'd felt the earthquake, at that point we hadn't but within a minute we'd felt a very slight tremor.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">We are not near any plates that cause the big quakes you hear about around the world, but Cumbria does have alot of geological fault lines, in an interview on Radio 2 today an Geology expert said that it's not really known why we get these earthquakes but it's thought to be the related to faults created during our last ice age. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Here I've pull a drawing of the geological faults from <a href="http://www.cumbriarigs.co.uk/?Geological_Trails">Cumbria RIGS</a> and imposed it on a Google maps, you can see how close last nights quake was to a fault line.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSsvbiukFvx8HadvCyGDkih2AjNrIZ3g05zbiuRPtt2MEOkC8EsxMrcjSG2rd4sw4mC7TIeAFKNplf4t5qTx8PsVQHo0k1fH24VOqs1hwhgCzKLgRUq5SBFxE8gu-Mb5HivX8/s1600/earthquake_overlay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSsvbiukFvx8HadvCyGDkih2AjNrIZ3g05zbiuRPtt2MEOkC8EsxMrcjSG2rd4sw4mC7TIeAFKNplf4t5qTx8PsVQHo0k1fH24VOqs1hwhgCzKLgRUq5SBFxE8gu-Mb5HivX8/s320/earthquake_overlay.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Surprisingly we get alot of quakes in the UK but only 10% tend to be felt by the general public, following is a map of all earthquakes detected in the Lake District - yes there are a lot.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQhX5CRlPkez0N0DL20ERI6SFMWMQWAtOEg4Wgm58U4bZbI3y8Am6piMC2aJpS8hkp1eJSdxJkD1QB1cv2_UvGySCP74A4qE7Apoi_9NpF0j1WjDGCt7bdEXxV7Ms1qNQkt9c/s1600/earthquake-history.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQhX5CRlPkez0N0DL20ERI6SFMWMQWAtOEg4Wgm58U4bZbI3y8Am6piMC2aJpS8hkp1eJSdxJkD1QB1cv2_UvGySCP74A4qE7Apoi_9NpF0j1WjDGCt7bdEXxV7Ms1qNQkt9c/s320/earthquake-history.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Reading from the Keswick sensor</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOwqI-zM3HlYr9NwyGYTIROD1XRswxVKNqPThGgu7VkklmUqN7QvvNCetWmFKlew3Z8Uoj8KzXDXwu5jSC3QDgfbZitLcZQtUFrlCgpW3Ccx0NoUW2xn4ur5JQbFcHO9-OcTw/s1600/KESW_SHZ_GB_00.2010122100.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOwqI-zM3HlYr9NwyGYTIROD1XRswxVKNqPThGgu7VkklmUqN7QvvNCetWmFKlew3Z8Uoj8KzXDXwu5jSC3QDgfbZitLcZQtUFrlCgpW3Ccx0NoUW2xn4ur5JQbFcHO9-OcTw/s320/KESW_SHZ_GB_00.2010122100.gif" width="320" /></a></div>lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-14196549150175522112010-12-18T12:25:00.001+00:002010-12-24T11:37:21.501+00:00Kendal PubsLast Friday I was out for an annually tour of a few of Kendal's town centre pubs, two things jumped out at me, how quiet some pubs are and the wide range in the price of a pint. In some pubs it was close to £3 a pint !!<br />
<br />
The Fleece had half the pubs closed of with half of what was open devoted to a dance floor that cleared every ten minutes, totally different to 10 years ago when it would be full the bursting. The Wine Bar and Bootleggers held it's own being , Wetherspoon's had good ale at reasonable prices.<br />
<br />
The Fleece received some unfounded interest in a news report in the <span id="goog_2063240277"></span><a href="http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/cumbria/8461641.Worries_for_South_Lakeland_pubs_after_firm_s_record_loss/">Gazette</a> <span id="goog_2063240278"></span>a couple of months back on the struggling Punch Tavern's, the gazette placed a photo of the Fleece by the report which made customers think The Fleece was at risk of closing, based on my evening visit last week I would probable of thought the same thing. In the comments the landlord/lady of The Fleece wrote about the impact the report had made, from their posts to me it looks like they have looked to other income streams (food, group bookings) to mitigate the reducing evening trade. A week later the <a href="http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/8476026.Kendal_pubs_doing_well_after_revamp/">Gazette</a> did a report to try and rectify the confusion that inclusion of the photo made.<br />
<br />
Kendal used to have a lot of pubs, always popular, possible a high ratio per population than most places, so why have Kendal's pubs been closing, these are few suggests which may apply to some or all:-<br />
<br />
Brewery/Chain Rents<br />
I know of at least one pub in Kendal that closed as a result of notice of a increase in rent, landlord rightly wasn't willing to run at a loss and gave notice back to the pub chain that wanted to put in a rent increase. I think this is the biggest problem, the industry not helping themselves<br />
<br />
Wholesale Beverage Pricing<br />
Tide pubs generally have no choice but to buy from the one supplier at the prices dictated, another example of the industry not helping themselves<br />
<br />
Business Rates<br />
Rates are charged based on the valuation of the size of the premises, <a href="http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/8716951.Rates_are____crippling_Kendal_s_pubs___/">Gazette</a> ran a report this month on 3 local pubs complaining about the rates, but have the chain's just got themselves to blimey for increasing the rents. Would it be better to decrease the rents and then push to have the rates reduced.<br />
<div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Cheap Supermarket Prices</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: medium; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: medium; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: medium; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: medium; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; text-align: left;">The industry tries to put the decline in the pub industry down to cheap beer in the supermarkets, but I don't buy that argument, if you have a good pub people will come.<span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="color: black; text-decoration: none;"><br />
</div></div></div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Pub Landlords<br />
For some pubs it can be down to the management, alienate the regulars, be unwelcoming and people will desert in the droves. Pubs that do well know their customers and welcome new ones.<br />
<br />
<br />
Change in Customer Base<br />
People are finding other things to do, weekends in front of the TV is king again, go into work after a weekend and people will be talking about TV.<br />
<br />
</div>lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-19503806226732350002010-12-15T11:34:00.002+00:002010-12-15T11:35:45.467+00:00Birdcam - Winter feeding<div style="text-align: center;">Been testing out the cheap camera's I got, below is my first attempt, it's a little too close to the subject and I didn't take account that when the bird in on the fat ball that the camera will move.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">From the footage I got, think the bird too some interest in the camera at first before tucking into the fat ball.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qr1RN3dS300?fs=1&hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qr1RN3dS300?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> </div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/lakeuk/Home/blog-photos/mini_cameras_x2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://sites.google.com/site/lakeuk/Home/blog-photos/mini_cameras_x2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>lakeukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17338242987319749743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7297265.post-11610980594730801102010-12-12T12:43:00.000+00:002010-12-12T12:43:44.832+00:00Virgin Trains WiFiOn Wednesday I took the train from Kendal to Lytham so I could have a drink at the Xmas lunch, normally I do it by car taking around an hour, by train it's an example of why public transport isn't an alternative for alot of people, I caught the 7:05 from Kendal, 20 minute wait at Oxenholme for a connection then another 45 minute in Preston for the Lytham train, getting me into work for 9:30, two and a half hours later.<br />
<br />
That aside the reason for this post, Virgin Trains are offering free WiFi access on it's trains until 28 February 2011 after doing a deal with <a href="http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/trains/wi-fi/">Google</a>, so for the first time I tried it out with my iPod touch. Have to say I'm not all that impressed, on the way down, it worked, was easy to connect to (although a little slow), but in my 30 minute journey I only used it for 5 minutes to check my mail, facebook, twitter.<br />
<br />
On the journey back my iPod could see Virgin's WiFi hotspot but try as I might it wouldn't connect to their network - disappointed.<br />
<br />
I've concluded that I would pay for this service, not reliable and I would use it as much as I thought I would.<br />
<br />
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