R..

Along with a friend (whose identity most of you will guess), I am setting up a company to do sell guided tours of Shanghai. The basic user-offering is a dedicated, local English speaking guide for your small group, and a flexible agenda based around your preferences.

We're at that early stage of choosing a name, and hence URL. Want a .com, and to include the word shanghai.
early (already taken) contendors were ShanghaiTour(s) and ShanghaiGuide(s).

Any ideas??

Things get put up further than the sky and go round and round the place where we live. Some of the things look down at the ground and tell us what is here. Some of the things look out at further away things and tell us what they are like. Some of the things help us talk to people who are far away or watch tv or drive our cars to the right places.

Lots of other things are in the same places and might break the good things further than the sky. We need to know where the bad things will be, so that we can move the good things a little bit to make sure they don't get hit and broken. There are lots of these bad things, and they go very fast - faster than a thing fired from a gun. They are also quite small - smaller than your head. And they are a long way away - up further than the sky. So we need to see all the small things, going very fast, a long way away and work out where they will be next.

For this we need lots of computer eyes with glass on them, and some big computers and perhaps some new things we should send further than the sky to look for the bad things.

Some other things further than the sky are bigger and might hit the place where we live. And that might break things, perhaps even break everything and everyone (like we think it did for the big cold animals that used to live here). So we also want to see these things in time that we could send a new thing further than the sky, and move the bad thing, or break it up, or something. People write movies about this sort of bad thing, but they get it wrong.

I need to decide what computer eyes with glass on them, and what big computers, and what other things sent further than the sky we need to build to help keep things safe. This needs me to think very hard, and to talk to lots of people on the phone who have also been thinking very hard and to write lots of words that mean exactly the right thing.

Then we can build the thing that saves the good things further than the sky, and saves the place where we live.


(HT to many people, and originally to XKCD). [remarkably good fun to write, reminiscent of when you're building your second language]

Interested in a C/C++ senior dev job in Guildford?
A company I've worked with needs software systems for processing satellite images.

Details at http://www.dmcii.com/about_us_recr… and http://www.dmcii.com/pdf/C_C++%20S… and just ask me for more background on the company if you like...

The site says 2 year contract, but I understand they are hoping it would turn into something longer term (not that 2 years is exactly a flash in the pan these days).

Question:
Anyone got either:
1. an old Samsung phone charger
OR
2. an old unlocked SIMless phone
that I could borrow for a few weeks?

Difficulty Level:
Would need to be able to get it tomorrow...

Been entering crossword clue setting contests where someone sets an answer (word or words) and everyone comes up with a crossword clue for that answer. I managed to get a clue shortlisted last week so I thought I'd share it (and ask for any takers on proving it can be solved).

Gladstone's weightless coffin surprised bearers (11)

It's interesting to see the many, many ways you can define and construct clues for the same thing. Below, in white, is the winning clue for the word:

Reportedly, Wat Tyler has to get up for work (11)

Tagged by bateleur!

1. People who have been tagged must write the answers on their blog and replace any question they dislike with a new, original question.

2. Tag eight people. Don't refuse to do that. Don't tag who tagged you.

First eight people to read this, consider yourselves tagged! ;-)

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The book I am reading:
Between novels (finished The Book of Dave by Will Self a few days back), and currently re-reading parts of "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha" by Daniel M. Ingram.
The book I love most:
Hmmm, I'm not so much of a one for re-reading a set of favourites or ordering my thoughts that way. Probably something from when I was a kid - The Twenty-Elephant Restaurant, by Russell Hoban.
The last book I received as a gift:
Some of Steven Brust's Taltos novels...
The last book I gave as a gift:
There was a Beowulf and a few others I gave at Christmas.
The nearest book:
The Book of Dave by Will Self (I should put it back on the shelf really).

We can haz kittens.

Zenobia and Cleopatra are joining us to make the house a home and other such cliches. Cleo gets picked up on Saturday (though we're popping over to see her again tonight). Zen's settling in very well. She's in glorious video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayg…

As leathellin said, there are also photos at our usual place: http://www.flickr.com/photos/leath…

Anyone got experience with getting an internal house wall knocked through?
We're looking at buying a place and in a few cases think we'd much prefer them with eg. Living Room and Dining Room de-separated.

Any ideas on how expensive it might be to get a builder to do it? We know it depends on how load bearing the wall is, but not much more.

More generally, are there any relible sources for info on other "upgrades" like adding an extension, central heating, double glazing, or any other types of major work a house might need?

I use Spotify a fair bit atm for checking half known bands and creating playlists and generally trying to fit together some of the jigsaw that is my musical predilections (best to avoid the word "taste" perhaps). Also I "discovered" (in that dozens of people must have mentioned them, and I've probably heard quite a few tracks in passing, but not systematically) Dresden Dolls earlier, so thought I'd make something around them...

So here's a couple of Spotify links.

http://open.spotify.com/user/metam…

spotify:user:metame:playlist:5Zg0DwdwsMiKuBV2QYaqhv

I can't find online any sevrice that takes these URIs and turns them into a neat copy/paste-able list of tracks (anyone fancy creating one? There's a fairly well documented API I believe), and Spotify is flash-y enough to not be able to do so. So hand typing gives:

Kids, MGMT
Delicious, Sleeper
The Twist, Frightened Rabbit
Coin-operated Boy, Dresden Dolls
Show Girl, Auteurs
Missed Me, Dresden Dolls
Starstruck, Auteurs
Pretty In Pink, Dresden Dolls
Old Old Fashioned, Frightened Rabbit
What Do I Do Now?, Sleeper
I Would Fix You, Kenickie


Ideally I'd close out with a song called (perhaps¹) Game Over, by Inter - if you have it. It's not on Spotify (or perhaps anywhere sensible - though it looks like the compilation CD I have may still be available via: http://bluefiremusic.tripod.com/id… - or that may be an entirely archeao-website).

[1] I think a sticker on the front of the CD said that their track wasn't actually Game Over in the end, but some other track. I like whichever one is on that comilation anyway...