simonvarwell.co.uk

A recent conversation made me recall something I’d heard about a while back – a song written by an Italian in a gibberish that portrays what English sounds like to Italians.

The song was originally written in 1972 but had a bit of a resurgence on the internet lately, and that registered in my mind.  I’ve just looked into it – yes, I know, I’m supposed to be writing today – and it’s called Prisencolinensinainciusol, and this is the video produced of it for Italian TV. It’s a crackingly catchy song, all the more so for the fact it’s a load of nonsense.

The composer, Italian singer Adriano Celentano, seems to have said it was written in total gibberish.  However I like the subtitles that the uploader of this video has added, based on the English words it sounds most like, because it makes it sound even more gibberish.

Longtime readers will know that I am really not a fan of Facebook. I never really thought it did anything that other things (eg this blog, or email, or Flickr, or – gasp! – talking to people) didn’t do. However, I joined a few years ago to give it a try, and found it tolerable though a bit creepy. Eventually though I gave up on it and was quite happy being an exile.

But increasingly, and against my prediction that it would be a passing fad, my absence from it has been felt keenly on a couple of occasions. Most recently and importantly, much of the emerging details about Kieran’s kidnap happened within Facebook so I only got information second-hand with some delay, which was frustrating when a friend was in danger.

Also, with my book “Up The Creek Without a Mullet” approaching its first birthday and still going strong, I’ve been working with my publishers to explore ways of keeping the book’s profile high – and indeed raising it. One consequence of this is that I have realised that Facebook is a valuable tool for those with something to promote.

So it is with a heavy heart – not to mention a full recognition of my own hypocrisy in changing my mind yet again – I have returned to Facebook.

Those of you who arrived at this post via the front door will have noticed some wee icons on the bottom-right of the front page (which I found here). These are direct links to my Twitter, my Flickr and my brand new mullet adventures page on Facebook; not to mention the wopping big box on the right hand side of this post glaringly and shamefully directing you to it.  You may also have noticed the “share” buttons at the bottom of each blog post too, allowing you to link easily via various social networking sites to anything I might have said in here that’s of interest (I know, hope springs eternal).

Further, you can even enter “Simon Varwell’s mullet adventures” as one of the Books that you like on your Facebook profile as well. If indeed you did like it. You might have hated it, but I don’t think there’s an option for that on Facebook. Yet.

Anyway, there are already plenty folk who have – in the parlance of Facebook with which I am slowly reacquainting myself – “liked” my mullet adventures page, and you’re welcome to “like” it too and tell your friends all about it.

I’ve really entered the world of social media now. And there’s no turning back.

I think.

When the software update for the iPhone that included iBooks arrived this summer, I had a scout around the iBooks store for some interesting free books to read.  I wasn’t necessarily a full convert to ebooks, so wanted to read one or two things on the iPhone to see how I felt about the format – especially considering my own book is now an ebook itself.

One of the books I downloaded was Haven (iBooks|Kindle) by American author Justin Kemppainen.  A science fiction story about a city whose aspirant citizens have escaped the grime of ground level for a new city built on top of the old, it sounds like an interesting read and of course at the time it was free, so figured it would be a good chance to read something new as well as try out the ebooks format.  Hence this post is really a review of both the book and the format.

First, the book itself.  Haven is a fairly dark, dystopian story.  At some point in the future, in an indeterminate location, a city has become polluted and uncomfortable, and high rises and new technologies give way to a new city, New Haven, above the Old Haven.  Those who escape commit themselves to a lifestyle of intelligence, wealth and scientific advancement, at the expense of those below who in the minds of those above live a primitive, dark life, good only for occasional raids to provide specimens who are brainwashed into docile servitude.

However, those below have other ideas, and launch an attempt to reclaim New Haven.  And so ensues a plot which is fast-paced, gripping, and multi-faceted.  There is no real central character, and the story follows and unfolds through the eyes of those in both Old and New Haven, so it is not necessarily presented as a clear-cut story of good versus evil.  With echoes of Orwell’s 1984, a perpetually dark tone and feel, and with plenty doses of violence, Haven is not the cheeriest of reads but it’s a very enjoyable piece of science fiction.  And with a cliffhanger ending, things are ripe for a sequel, which will come soon.

Although there are a few things in the story I struggle to get my head around (for instance, I might have missed something but why didn’t those left in Old Haven simply move into the light wherever the outer limits could be found?) and there were one or two characters or sub-plots I’d liked to have heard more about, my only really big criticism is the surprisingly large number of spelling mistakes.  This, however, is something the author has recently commented on and is a flaw I can fully emphathise with in terms of Up The Creek Without a Mullet’s own ever-growing list of typos.  Those few mistakes, though, don’t detract from what is a real page-turner.

And boy, are there a lot of pages.  Of course, it’s not an unusually long book, but on a screen as small as my iPhone you pack in no more than a handful of sentences in each page, meaning Haven weighed in at around 1600 pages.  Of course, iBooks comes to life with (and was really designed for) the bigger iPad, where you can read a page that’s more or less the same length as in a paperback.

I don’t have an iPad but found the iPhone no impediment to the process of reading.  You have control over font size (though I found the standard size perfectly readable), the page turning feature is a nice action, and the ability to put in as many bookmarks as you like means you’re never going to lose your place.  It also makes reading so much more easy to do, wherever you are – as long as you a have your phone you could get through a few pages here and there on the sofa, in bed, on a train, or wherever suits.  I know you can take a book anywhere with you, but an iPhone is so much lighter, more convenient and more robust.

Sure, you can’t lend an ebook, but I honestly believe that the increase in ebook usage (and associated piracy risks) will lead to prices coming down.  Haven, for instance, is no longer free but is on sale for less than a quid in the UK.  You may not get the same ability to linger over a book and read a bit before buying (though that freedom of course necessitates a handy local bookshop) but an ebook’s synopsis and review should give you enough information to make an informed choice, and if it’s cheaper than the paperback it’s never going to be too costly a gamble.  What implication that might have for authors’ incomes is probably a whole other debate, though I guess it is one characterised by arguments similar to those made by bands who say that free online downloads do raise their profile.

Reading Haven has reinforced my belief in ebooks, and while I of course wouldn’t say I’m never going to buy a paperback again, I would definitely explore ebook prices and availability for a title that interested me before automatically getting a physical copy.  Paperback is now no longer my default option for books in the same way that iTunes or other online methods is my first port of call for new music.  That’s quite a decision after just one ebook.  And Haven is a fine read to boot.

Even at 1600 pages.

The travel website A Dangerous Business is an interesting read, with all sorts of articles about places throughout the world and various bits and bobs about different elements of the experience of travel.  They have a weekly feature called “Thursday Traveller”, and I am this week’s interviewee.

I only discovered A Dangerous Business recently, via Fraser Balaam’s blog, Floating Spheres, which is, by the way, an excellent read.  I don’t really know Fraser well (he’s a fellow cult member), but he writes beautifully and thoughtfully about various aspects of travel, from going to Norway for two hours to the “moments” you get in travel.

So when you can’t travel, you can always read about others’ travels instead.  Talking of which, I’ll be posting a wee bit about Austria soon, and have made a start on uploading some photos.

I’m not a big one for using my blog to raise the awareness of major causes and trends going on in social media or the news.

Actually, no, that’s rubbish – I hope my blog comes over as having a conscience and a sense of what’s right, wrong, good and bad.  Hence my more than occasional forays into the maelstroms of politics, religion and suchlike.

And one thing that has really caught my attention in the last couple of days is the so-called “Twitter joke trial”.  For those of you who’ve not heard about this, the story concerns a chap called Paul Chambers who – upset about the closure of Robin Hood Airport in the English Midlands prior to taking a flight during the last winter snow – tweeted:

Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!

He was arrested a week later by anti-terror police, and charged under relevant legislation.  Yesterday, he lost his appeal.  This is on top of losing his job and much else in the surrounding controversy.

Was his tweet silly?  Of course.  Should he have been given a talking to by the police?  Perhaps.  Was it a genuine threat to security and a cause for prosecution?  Of course not.  Yet apparently simply being silly was enough for him to be prosecuted, and his case has been something of a cause celebre for not just freedom of speech but also some degree of sensibility in the application of anti-terror laws.

To emphasise the absurdity of his conviction, his original tweet has been retweeted, and the conviction lampooned, many times on Twitter under the hashtag “iamspartacus” (with a nod to the famous moment in the film Spartacus).  Not only that, but you can now generate your own ridiculous menacing tweet and sign a petition condemning his conviction and appeal failure.

I don’t want to get into a discussion about the rights and wrongs of the conviction – not only do others make the case more easily, but also it should be self-evident why it is a silly conviction and a waste of public money, not to mention unnecessarily damaging to an innocent man’s life and career.  Rather, I want to make a point about social media, particularly around the “iamspartacus” hashtag.  It’s amazing how quickly people can be rallied to a cause and informed of goings-on in society so quickly with things like Twitter around.

The situation with Kieran, which I mentioned in my previous post, is another case in point.  If you’ve not heard the news elsewhere, the state of play at the moment is that the ship captain/owner took the boat to Greece, apparently terrified that these aid workers were “terrorists” (some of them had beards and were Muslim!), where Greek authorities have intervened and, it seems, begun sorting things out.  It is unclear what will happen now, but it seems everyone involved is alright, which is a relief.  The situation may change rapidly, and the Twitter hashtag #GazaConvoyHostages will keep you abreast of the very latest (though with the invariable disclaimer about it being hard to verify facts as things move so quickly).

The story came to national prominence in the news over the last day or two (including BBC News), however, only due to the concerted effort of various of his friends to spread the word, contact journalists we knew, and keep each other informed; mostly via Facebook and Twitter.  I am sure that part of the public awareness and the UK Foreign Office’s intervention is down to the fact that word was spread so early and so fast.

Many of Kieran’s friends involved in that spreading of the word are joinees (including me, though I knew him long before Join Me was founded), and it’s a tribute to the tight sense of community the collective boasts that has allowed us all to be kept informed of the latest news (albeit that I miss out on the Facebook side of things).  It’s the power of friendship, sure, but enabled by the power of social media.  See fellow joinee Simon Bishop’s words on the same subject.

I think I’m rather enjoying being on Twitter.  It’s silly and inane at times, but it has got the most tremendous capacity to shape our society.  And that’s really quite exciting to witness and be a part of.

Not only was our recent trip to Spain my first trip abroad for nearly two years, it was my first major trip with the iPhone.  And far from being a distraction, something that detracts your attention from the places, sights, sounds and smells you’re meant to be immsersed in, it was a real help.

For sure, with roaming switched off to save on charges there wasn’t much opportunity to be connected (no bad thing, of course), but even offline the iPhone is an incredibly handy thing to have: it’s a back-up camera, you have your contacts handy for writing all those postcards, you can scribble down bits and pieces on the Notes app, and so on.

But before leaving, I had a hunt around the App Store for a few things that might help us while we were travelling.  Here are just two apps I found helpful.

The first was OffMaps.  I figured there had to be something resembling an offline Google Maps out there in the App Store, something that could tell you where you were going without having to be connected like the iPhone’s in-built Maps app.  OffMaps pretty much met our needs. While not as detailed as Google Maps, it provided the ability to download maps of certain areas, in various levels of detail, meaning we could very easily find our way around without the hassle of out of date road atlases or unwieldy tablecloth-size road maps.

Within the cities particularly, where the level of detail was fantastic, it was a great way of keeping track of our movements while avoiding the need to stop, unfold a huge map and erect a sign saying “we’re tourists!”.  It took up a lot of memory on the iPhone, but the great thing is that you can delete entire sections of map after you’ve moved on from them, which is handy.  We had wireless internet access along the way on one or two occasions, meaning we could download the next couple of places we were visiting and delete where we’d recently been.

As I say it’s not got the full level of detail of Google Maps, but in rural areas or where you’re driving you perhaps only need a rough approximation anyway, while in the cities it was more or less as detailed as we needed.  A very handy wee app.

The second one I found helpful was lastminute.com’s free Spanish phrasebook – one of the better-reviewed free language apps.  It was a nifty and easy app to use, giving a wide variety of phrases across a range of categories, even providing a button to press so you could hear the phrase and learn more about the pronounciation.  This – or something like it – was essential for us as we battled with a language we knew little of between us.

The sad thing was that the app didn’t have quite the range of phrases we needed, with some obvious absences, such as the ever-essential “no problem” or the occasionally necessary “no, we’re from Scotland”.

If there’s a better (and, ideally, free) range of phrasebooks, do offer your suggestions.  And while you’re at it, dear reader (well, dear iPhone-owning reader), what are your favourite travel-related iPhone apps?  What are your recommendations worth sharing for making a trip abroad that bit easier?

It would be interesting to read your ideas.

Justin was in town the other day, briefly, and I used a quick catch-up as a chance to play around with his new iPad.

The iPad was released to much gusto a wee while back, and – like many – I was not convinced.  The idea struck me as simply a large iPhone but without the phone.  Cumbersome, therefore, and not as functional.

Add to that the lack of multitasking, the fact that 3G was not free with it, and the expensive app store, and it really didn’t seem to be all that useful a piece of kit.

After having had a shot of Justin’s iPad, I remain of much the same opinion .

I will, however, say that it looks and feels brilliant.  The screen is great, with wonderful graphics on things like DVDs, the change of orientation from portrait to landscape is very nifty, the compass was great for games, and perhaps the biggest surprise was that it was not as big as I expected.

I feared something really quite unwieldy, which would lose some of the portability it was meant to rely on; but actually it was a perfect size – big enough for things like videos and games but small enough and light enough in the hand not to be too hard to hold or heavy to carry.

Word processing, though, something that would be a vital thing for me, was cumbersome, and tapping on a screen – as the iPhone proves – is simply not as easy as tapping on a keyboard.

Other plusses, however, include the games, which I can see – particularly for driving games and so on – being a major, major draw for the iPad.  Could it do for games what the iPod did for music?

Finally, a quick word about iBook, the digital reader which has generated much debate as a number of bits of kit bring about the much-vaunted death of the book in the face of digital versions.  Not that I would predict the decline of paper right now, but the books on the iPad are brilliant.  They scroll and turn over smoothly and engagingly, you can change the font, size and orientation, and with the excellent battery life I could imagine finding it very easy to sit on a train for instance and read a book off it.  And with the numbers of books that are out of copyright, finding free stuff of quality to read will not be difficult.

Overall, then, I could see the iPad killing off tiny wee midget laptops but not laptops like my MacBook – but then I don’t think it aims to.  Could I foresee needing to have this as well as a laptop and an iPhone?  No.  Is it, though, a really neat piece of kit?  Definitely.

For those who might have doubted my lofty claim of a mention in the haloed “what we’ve been surfing” column of the ICA, evidence of my ascent to the pinnacle of renown has arrived.

Mono-recommender-in-chief Donald has just emailed me with a photo of his copy he just dug up – see below.

Also among ICA’s recommendations in the same column is xkcd.com which they claim to have discovered via me. They call xkcd “wittily geeky”. I wonder if by default that makes me wittily geeky too?

I paid a visit the other day to the website of the Inverness City Advertiser – a free listings and features magazine that comes through letterboxes in the Inverness area each month – and was surprised to discover one of my photos on there, without permission.

It’s a photo of Billy Morrison, a legend of the Inverness live music scene, which I took a couple of years ago in the excellent Market Bar.

I dropped ICA a polite email, informing them that while I was flattered they wanted to use it, they were not using it in accordance with the licence I have attached to the photo (specifically, that they should have sought my permission and attributed it to me).

They kindly wrote back, explaining they were not aware of my ownership (so presumably they don’t ask their suppliers of photos anything about ownership), and sought my permission which I of course gave.

However, the photo has now been removed and replaced by another one, which is a shame.  Nice that they asked (eventually) but odd that they’d rather not use it at all once they have that permission.

Talking of the ICA, this blog (or its old address simonvarwell.wordpress.com) was featured in the ICA’s “What we’re surfing this month” column in the December/January issue.  I have to confess I missed that one myself, so have no idea what they said about it.  Hello to anyone who’s got here courtesy of that mention.

As you’ve probably noticed, my website has now finished its major overhaul, and it’s great to finally have it up and running.

Although the content is much the same as my old-look website, and the old blog has been imported over to here, there are a number of benefits to this new design which I am really happy about.

Firstly, it’s all in the one place – the website and blog are both hosted on simonvarwell.co.uk, which means you can surf seamlessly between the blog and the other pages, and the blog is now at the succinct address simonvarwell.co.uk/blog.

So don’t forget to update your links, bookmarks and RSS feeds – though I am keeping the old blog up for the time being in case there are historic links to entries there from around the interweb.

Secondly, the design is a lot more flexible.  For instance, the old site was designed with iWeb on the Mac, and the old blog hosted on wordpress.com.  Both those formats, while pretty enough, were not just different to each other but quite rigid and the website was cumbersome to publish.  The new look, where WordPress is hosted on my own filespace, is something I can play around with a lot more, with an easy-to-use interface underneath the bonnet, and publishing is easy because it’s directly on my server space.

This flexible design means I’ve been able to make the site a lot wider than its two predecessors, meaning there is less wasted space on the left and right.  I’ve also been able to replace the single banner photo with a randomly rotating pool of over a dozen pictures, which will change over time.  These represent some of my best efforts at photography (or at least, those photos that lend themselves to a 900×200 pixels crop).  The random pool of images, I think, makes the site look continually fresh and interesting, despite my words’ probable effect to the contrary.

Of course, this isn’t really my handiwork at all.  The complicated and technical stuff is all down to my friend, web designer and WordPress expert Matt Bee, who I think has done a sterling job over the past few weeks in designing the site and working with me to ensure I know how to maintain it myself.

With the forthcoming book launch there might be a bit more traffic coming this way, so I’m glad the website is looking a little more presentable.  Unlike me…