Clean windows

It was such a beautiful day here that I actually cleaned the windows just so I could see it. Not a bad view from the office.

Internet and Chairs!

Well the good news is that the internet is now up and running at the office, a nice 8mb pipe but only 576 kbps upstream. Seems ADSL is getting increasingly asymmetric. We also snagged some Aeron chairs from some company that recently went bust, I think Aerons must be the epitome of the dot com bubble, hopefully our company isn't as short lived.

Day 2

After the excitement of getting the name of the company agreed, we are now working on designing the identity of the company and completing all the paperwork required. Still waiting for our internet to be installed so we are relying on the generosity of strangers open wireless networks.

BrightLight is go

After much deliberation, delay and worry we are ready to launch our company on the world. BrightLight will be revealing the blindingly obvious in product and service innovation. We will be launching the site for more info soon at www.brightli.com. Wishing myself and my partners Hayden Hamilton and Samuel Judah the very best of luck, lets change the world!

Back in da House

Well back in our old Golders Green flat anyway. Very cool to be back, pretty much the same as when we left nearly a year ago, still the same amazing view over Hampstead Heath. Quite interesting driving through familiar streets and seeing what's changed. there is now a ridiculously large aquarium shop in Hampstead, I never knew the market was that big! Will be slowly making the place home again over the next couple of weeks, as well as an office for the new venture. hopefully the two aren't incompatible! Crappy camera phone picture included of the living room and my giant arms!.

Felix da Housecat at Neighborhood

It was my first visit to neighborhood, and my overall impression was pretty good. The club has two floors, the ground floor is dominated by a decent size dancefloor with a low stage at on end, both the dance floor and the stage were packed with people by the end of the night. The crowd was pretty good, a little older than the usual, and a little more stylish too. The second floor has a balcony all the way around, where you can look down on the dance floor below. A good place to chill out and check out the action below. A couple of things put me off though, firstly they have a bathroom attendant, offering you a handtowel etc after you have been to the toilet, in a busy club this just takes up space and wastes time. Though in general the drinks prices are pretty reasonable, £2.50 for a bottle of water is pretty outrageous especially with the bathroom police stopping refills. Felix da housecat played a great set as always and the crowd was really into it. I was particularly impressed by the two DJ's who played the set before him, have to check on the names, but the chest hair shaved into a George Cross is a good giveaway! All in all a good night and I will no doubt be going back there, particularly for their electro night.

A Walk in the park

View from Richmond Park
Originally uploaded by jkprime.

Took advantage of the beautiful autumn weather we are having at the moment, to take a walk through Richmond Park, down through richmond and back along the river. Took a few pictures along the way to remind myself how beautiful this part of London is.

First proper night out back in London

Going to check out Felix da Housecat at Neighbourhood in Ladbroke grove, looks like a cool venue. Saw Felix play in Singapore and it was the best DJ set I saw all year, so hopefully tonight will be even better with a hyped up London crowd. Will let you know how it goes once I have recovered!

Cycling!

Just got home after riding over to my brothers house in Old St earlier. Was fantastic riding through London, beautiful weather and lots to look at. Came back in the dark through Richmond Park which was eerily silent and dark with no cars. There was a fair fog in the park, and my headlight only illuminated a very small patch of road. Its quite easy under those circumstances that there is something creeping up behind you! Sorry still no picture of the pink machine. Also the burgers at the Strongroom on curtain rd, are superb and great value too, mmmmm.

Back in the UK

I have been back in the UK for nearly 2 weeks now, and really been too busy enjoying it, catching up with friends etc to really write anything. It has been fantastic seeing all the friends that it was so tough leaving a year ago. On the flip-side it's pretty tough having Chris stuck in Singapore finishing up her job. The weather here is fantastic at the moment, lovely autumn clear skies and relatively cool temperatures. Makes you want to rush out and do some exercise in the open air. Have been riding everywhere on my very pink bike! Pictures will follow! Ok got to go to kingston which as many of you will know is truly the house of HIDS!

Back in the UK

I have been back in the UK for nearly 2 weeks now, and really been too busy enjoying it, catching up with friends etc to really write anything. It has been fantastic seeing all the friends that it was so tough leaving a year ago. On the flip-side it's pretty tough having Chris stuck in Singapore finishing up her job. The weather here is fantastic at the moment, lovely autumn clear skies and relatively cool temperatures. Makes you want to rush out and do some exercise in the open air. Have been riding everywhere on my very pink bike! Pictures will follow! Ok got to go to kingston which as many of you will know is truly the house of HIDS!

Back in the UK

I have been back in the UK for nearly 2 weeks now, and really been too busy enjoying it, catching up with friends etc to really write anything. It has been fantastic seeing all the friends that it was so tough leaving a year ago. On the flip-side it's pretty tough having Chris stuck in Singapore finishing up her job. The weather here is fantastic at the moment, lovely autumn clear skies and relatively cool temperatures. Makes you want to rush out and do some exercise in the open air. Have been riding everywhere on my very pink bike! Pictures will follow! Ok got to go to kingston which as many of you will know is truly the house of HIDS!

Margarita's

Had dinner at this great mexican restaurant last night. One of those cool places that has a real neighborhood feel. You can get very tired of the clinical feel of all these restaurants in shopping malls, however nice the food. Margaritas is tucked away in Clementi, on a nice quiet residential street. We had quesadillas, which were excellent, followed those with the kitchen sink. The kitchen sink is a burrito with as the name suggests everything chucked in. Even with my monster appetite this burrito tested me! Overall, well recommended.

Returning to the UK

I am heading back to the homeland on the 8th of September. So for the three people that read this in the UK, I look forward to seeing you all again in 23 days!

Sweating over my computer - literally

I am currently working on a site design, and have gotten to the stage of building it into html, thats the fun bit! At the same time we just got the electricity bill, which shows us using way more than the average household, so I am trying to get through the day without the air-con! In Singapore that can be very tough. I hope the sweat doesn't stain my powerbook!

Technorati Tags: Work

Measuring Italy's coke use through its sewage

A very interesting way of measuring drug use. I am increasingly coming to believe that the data for anything is out there, you just have to find it. Measuring Italy's coke use through its sewage: David Pescovitz:

Researchers in Milan, Italy have analyzed sewage to estimate how many people in Italy's Po valley use Cocaine. The scientists from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research tested river and sewage water for a cocaine byproduct pissed out by users of the drug. According to their data, 40,000 "doses" of cocaine are taken daily in the region. Official estimates say that "15,000 users admit to taking the drug at least once a month." From a press release about the study published in the scientific journal Environmental Health:

Ettore Zuccato, from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, Italy, and colleagues tested a new tool to measure a cocaine residue called benzoylecgonine (BE), present in flowing river and sewage waters because it is excreted in the urine of cocaine users. The residue is a by-product of metabolism in the human body, and cannot be produced by other means. The researchers measured the levels of BE in the river Po and in the sewage water of medium-sized Italian cities. Their results show that the Po, the largest Italian river, with five million people living in its vicinity, steadily carried the equivalent of about 4 kg of cocaine per day.

Link Via boingboing

Technorati Tags: Drugs, Measurement

Cost of securing the PSP

I have been following with some interest the progress of the various teams of people hacking the PSP, to do a variety of things, from emulating other platforms to copying commercial releases onto playable memory sticks. Some of these hacks are perfectly legitimate in that they are not encouraging piracy but actually expanding the versatility of the device and allowing its full potential to be used in ways unrealised by Sony. All this effort would not have been required if Sony had not put in place so many systems to try to prevent piracy. From developing heir own unique storage format the UMD which they control all the authoring tools, to not allowing unsigned code to run etc etc. I am very curious to know what it cost in engineering and investment to develop these protections, that are systematically being defeated. Does the cost start to approach the projected lost revenue for piracy? Perhaps, but the protections have been defeated and it certainly appears only a relatively short matter of time before most PSP games can be ripped to a memory stick and played without the UMD disc, distributed via the internet. It is quite possible that tens of millions of dollars in engineering and investment will have been defeated in a couple of months and actually leave people with a more functional device as a consequence. One that has greater appeal to end users as they can do more with it, and may in the end sell more units. Each PSP could be somewhat cheaper and a substantially more flexible product without the unnecessary investment in digital rights management and content control.

Fright night II

Roller-skating Vampires what kind of 80's mindfuck is this!

Solo Living!

No one to talk to this week so I will be posting random rages as below!

Perfume Adverts

Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! What the Fuck!