I’d seen this piece of the Cornish Coast from out at sea on a boat trip out of Padstow and have had it in my to-do list for a number of years.

Spent the whole day in Carlisle – a really nice city.

In the castle saw these three fledgling Swifts being fed on the wing by their parent.

Finally this is a view of Bassenthwaite Lake taken on my journey home.

I flew over late Wednesday arriving in Milan around 09:30 – about an hour late. Despite Hertz saying they would hold my car for at least an hour after my flight landed – they hadn’t and I had to settle for a lesser vehicle. Not a good start.

Late night was not the best time to be introduced to Milan’s crazy roads and to be driving on the wrong side of the road. No lane markings, and traffic lights at every intersection (approx. 200 metres apart). Anyway, as I was working I didn’t get to see anything more of Milan than the appalling traffic and I was glad to leave.

Next week I am working in Turin so I stayed in Italy over the weekend. Thankfully I planned to move to Turin on Saturday rather than stay in Milan. Turin still has crazy roads, but it is a far more pleasant place.

I’m staying in Le Meridien Lingotto which is located in the former Fiat factory – very nice with unique rooms and there is even a large shopping centre situated in the same building.

I spent today exploring the city on foot and also on the sightseeing bus. Turin is an incredible place with stunning architecture – there are also many attractions and museums. I decided that the must see place was “The Mole Antonelliana” – built originally to be a Synagogue but now home to the cinema museum. The added attraction is the glass elevator that takes you to the viewing platform high above the city. I hadn’t done much research, but the idea of the elevator and view seemed worth the hour long wait they were estimating and so I queued in the direct midday sun, for at least an hour at 35 degrees. Once through the door I queued for another 30 minutes but it was well worth it. The building is hollow – imaging inside the dome of St Paul’s, but twice as high. The museum is housed on several galleries inside the dome, leave most of the central space empty.

You catch the glass lift in the crypt level so you have no idea what you are in for. As the lift rises through the ground floor you are taken the entire heght of the dome, suspended in mid air with no lift shaft until eventually you pierce a tiny hole in the top on the dome and arrive on the observation deck in the tower.

The observation deck is not crowded and you are left with as much time as you need to enjoy the view over Turin.

Back inside, the museum is outstanding – there is so much there you could easily spend a whole day.

The event included a guided tasting with their Master Brewer and we got to sample some great beers.

They are all 10/10 so I have ranked them in the order of my preference.

1. Brewer’s Reserve

2. Gales Prize Old Ale

3. Vintage Ale 2005

4. Vintage Ale 1999

6. London Porter

7. 1845

8. ESB

9 Vintage Ale 2009

10. London Pride

11. Discovery

I’ve one more beer to try from the evening – we were each given a bottle of a one-off special beer brewed specifically for the occasion. Apparently limited to just 100 bottles. I plan to keep it a few years before opening it.

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The highlights were definitely the Top 3

Vintage Ale 2005 – Beautifully rounded taste and clearly demonstrates the benefits of age when compared to it’s younger sibling

Gales Prize Old Ale – An old friend I haven’t tasted for more than 20 years – Definitely different to the original Gales Brewery version, but still very special.

Brewer’s Reserve – Like no beer I have ever tasted – the flavour from the Malt Whisky Barrels give it a unique and very special taste.

The whole evening was most enjoyable – the brewery is run by people who are passionate about beer.

In theory it should be a lot more straight forward on the Server version of the operating system as everything you need is pre-installed. In practice, once you know what you need to do, it’s quite simple – but finding these things out is not so simple. In the hope this will help others here is my 4 step plan for getting Snow Leopard Server ready for WordPress.

Step 1 – Enable Short Open tags in PHP – otherwise you will likely see blank screens in your Web browser and errors like this in your Apache log: “Parse Error: syntax error, unexpected $end in …..”. Search for “short_open_tag” in /private/etc/php.ini and change it so it reads “short_open_tag = On”

Step 2 – Enable MySQL – Although it’s pre-installed, it’s not running by default and it’s not necessarily obvious if you are new to Snow Leopard Server, what to do to enable it. Open Server Admin and make sure your server is selected. Then click on the [+] icon in the bottom left corner and choose “Add Service”. Find “MySQL” and select the check box then press [Save]. After this if you click on the triangle next to the sever name it should expand to show a list of services including MySQL. Select MySQL then the Settings Icon. Here you can enable network access, set the Root password and finally click on the [Start MySQL] button at the bottom of the window.

Step 3 – Enable re-writes – required for Permalinks to work. Still in Server Manager – click on “Web” in the list of services and then click on Sites. if you are not using Virtual Hosts – just select the default site, otherwise create your virtual host and keep that selected. Next, click on the “Options” button for your site and check the box next to “Allow All Overrides”, then press [Save].

Step 4 – Enable PHP5 – Still on the Web Service in Server Manager, select “Settings” and then click on the [Modules] button. Scroll down and find “php_5_module” and click on the check box to enable it. Press [Save] and then stop and start the Web service using the button at the bottom of the window.

And that’s it – your server should have everything it needs to install a working WordPress Blog

Notes:

This will allow you to get WordPress running on your server but there are other things that you should consider that are out of scope of this post, like NOT using your root user in MySQL for the WordPress database.

if you didn’t enable the Web service or SMTP mail as part of the install – you can enable them in the same manner you enabled MySQL.

Given it’s location – it not somewhere I could normally visit so it was an opportunity not to be missed.

The rain had been chasing me all the way from Cardigan and it seemed I would be visiting the castle and gardens in the rain. However after I had been walking around the gardens for about an hour, the rain stopped and the sun reappeared. It was soon so hot that I had to make a return trip to the car to drop my coat off.

The castle is situated high on a hill and is surrounded by stunning gardens that descend through various levels to the foot of the hill. Inside the castle you have access to a good proportion of the rooms.

I ended the day a Llansteffan Castle. Perched atop a high hill, there is a steep climb up to the castle, but once again you are rewarded with stunning views.

Also, because of it’s remote location – you get it all to yourself – even the caretakers, Cadw, aren’t there collecting entrance fees – it’s free

I started reading it not long after it’s launch, and before I owned my first computer. I learnt a lot from it and it helped me over the years as a bought my various computers. It even carried program listings for my Sinclair ZX-81 and QL. I still have a wall-chart they gave away that shows all the BASIC commands and their syntax for all the popular operation systems of the time (around 1983) which allowed you to take a listing published for, say, the BBC micro and workout how to convert it to run on a Sinclair Spectrum.

When I moved over to the Amgia in 1991, I abandoned the magazine for a number of years, but went back to it when I got my own IBM PC in the mid 90′s.

By the late 90′s, before the World Wide Web had taken hold, it was at it’s height. At this stage it was over 3 cms thick – only the first centimetre was actual content – the rest was advertisements. From 2000 onward, the thickness of the magazine acted as a physical bar graph that showed the trend towards it’s inevitable demise. The most recent editions where only around a half cm thick.

In my opinion it as was WWW than signaled the magazine’s death. Physical adverts became less relevant as the web grew, and the magazine also saw competition from the many technical websites which offered that same information for free. The other reason, I feel, is it’s decision to define narrowly Personal Computer as IBM PC. In it’s early days it embraced all personal computer systems, Sinclair/Tandy/Commodore/Apple/IBM, whatever. With the domination of the PC they virtually abandoned all other platforms – this was fine for PC users, but when people like me started to look to Linux, and eventually to Macs – there was no longer any reason to buy the magazine. I cancelled my subscription shortly after I moved over to my first Mac around 5 years ago.

Anyway, I’d like to put on record my gratitude for all that PCW taught me over the years.

Before long the sun managed to break though and I headed to Porthleven for Lunch in the Harbourside Inn.

Next a return trip to Godolphin – a National Trust property that first opened to the public last year. The guide book promised a lot of change, access to the house and a new visitors centre – unfortunately neither had materialised.

It was still a pleasant place to spend an afternoon.

Him: “I’m here about the new government scheme to reduce energy costs through green energy. I just need to check the meter. This new scheme means that you get the electricity straight from the generator so there is no middleman to take a cut.”

Me: “Are you trying to sell be something.”

Him: “No, I’m the area manager, I’m here because of the new government legislation.”

He then took a meter reading and put it on a form. He said I just need to make a phone call and send them though – “then you can start saving straight away.” I could see space on the form for him to complete all my personal details and signature.

I told him that he could leave me information but if he was expecting me to sign a form, there was no way I would be doing that on the strength of his visit. Still avoiding the question, he started quoting how much I was going to save – the unit rate he quoted would have been 19% cheaper than I am paying today, if I had believed him. He also seem to think that telling me that my existing supplier was owned by the French, would sway me. Anyway, he finally got the hint that I would not be signing anything and went away.

Once he was gone, I did a quick check on some price comparison sites – As far as I can tell, I would have ended up paying more!

Unfortunately that’s not the end of the story as his pitch worked on my neighbours and they signed the form. I spoke to them after and told them what I thought. I showed the printout of of a Watchdog article investigating this particular company for exactly these tactics. My neighbour genuinely thought that they were signing up to a government scheme and that they didn’t have an option.

As to the company – it was Southern Electric. Here is a link to the watchdog article which includes information on your right to cancel.

I just wonder how many other people he has conned in the area!

However, it seems that Haywards Heath’s shopkeepers are not ready for some competition and as a result have insisted that some types of trader be banned. They totally missed the point that the market brought people to the shopping centre and as a result of their pettiness, it seems the market is now doomed.

Once upon a time, Haywards Heath had one of the largest markets in the South East – people used to travel from miles away to visit it. Unfortunately, the land was too valuable to “waste” on a market so it was sold to make way for a Sainsburys store.

This week’s market was the first under the new restrictions – there were at most 4 traders. What a shame it seems inevitable that the Farmer’s Market will, like the previous market, soon be just a memory.

The biggest absence was from The Giggly Pig Company who sold the best sausages and bacon I have tasted it a long time.

This had been sitting in my cupboard for some time – a tinned Fray Bentos Steak and Ale Pie!

Well it didn’t look anything like the picture on the tin when it was cooked – but it tasted OK.

I’ve just had to add another disk to meet my ever growing data requirements. This brings the total raw storage in my house to 5TBs.

This doesn’t so much represent a growth in data, but is more an indication of how important the data now is. I actually have less than a 500 GB of actual data – much of which is RAW format photographs. The newest addition to my storage is the wider of the drives in the above picture. This is a Western Digital My Book II containing 2 X 1TB Drives configured as RAID 1 to give 1TB usable space. This is now my primary data store and hopefully has enough space to last a few years.

The other two drives are used for backups of the data drive, my Mac Mini and my Laptop. One drive uses Apples Time Machine, the other a more conventional backup program – presently Apple Backup but I’m trying to find something better.

In addition the data stored on my Laptop is rSync’d to the data drive.

Finally my data (documents and emails) is also backed up off-site to Apple’s MobileMe service and EMC’s Mozy Service.

Ideally I’d like to have off-site copies of my Photos, but with the size of the files – it’s just not practical

Just 10 years ago I was running an OS/2 based network for 100 users – the total server storages was around 5 GBs. It incredible that I now have 1000 times as much storage, just in my own home.

Finally a word of praise for the Western Digital Drives. They are fast, very quiet and reliable – just what I need.

Despite the recent high court ruling, the battle is not over to allow these people the right to live in the country that they have risked their lives to defend,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIH1rvIDJBA

It’s been partly converted to a bar and restaurant – You pay the entrance fee at the bar and enter the gaol trough the back of one of the bars which is on the 3rd story. There is nothing to see on this floor and the first staircase only goes up. On the upper two floors there is also nothing to see – you have access to a short stretch of corridors on each of these levels the cell doors are all lock shut and are being used as store rooms for the bar. There is a second staircase that services all five floors – thankfully the bottom two floors do offer something for you money. They are quite extensive and the is a story attached to each cell. The keep the light levels very low, which is just as well as a flash photo of the mannequins in the cells shows

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After the Gaol – spent the afternoon on the Beach at Porrthcothan.

I spotted this beach whilst I was using Google earth – there is a strange hole in the cliffs that I wanted to investigate.

Anyway – it turned out to be yet another outstanding beach.