Bluetooth Castle

Today I visited Raglan Castle in Monmouthshire with my family. Cadw, the government body that manages the castle, were running a trial to deliver audio files to visitors' mobile phones using Bluetooth. As I walked through the entrance I simply made my phone discoverable, waited a few seconds for the MP3 to download, then started listening to a guided tour of the castle. It's a great use of the technology: it just worked.

The talk only lasted a few minutes, so we had plenty of time afterwards to run around the ruins.

A couple of technical questions that sprang to mind:

1. How would you set up a server to push files over Bluetooth? (There are loads of ways you could use this - maps of the local area at transport hubs, sharing the schedule at conferences, random photo of the day at home, etc.)
   
2. Can you make audio files navigable? That is, make it easy to go to the part of audio file that is about a given exhibit by typing in the exhibit's number? (This problem reminds me of Cliff Schmidt's talk about the Talking Book Device at ApacheCon EU 2008.)
   

Back on the net

Yesterday, after a month of waiting, we got broadband at our new house. Hooray!

Last time I was without net access it was fun - it was just for a two week holiday. This time the whole experience was frustrating, since it wasn't self-imposed: we were dragged into the labyrinthine machine of BT/Openreach and of course we didn't know how long it would take to get out. Eliane's got the gory details - all I have to add is that Eclipse Internet, our broadband supplier, provided excellent support every time I rang.

Still, it gave me the chance to practise lighting fires in the wood-burning stove.

Moved to Wales

Well the phone line is yet to be enabled, but in the meantime I've got this view to stare at.

Moving to Wales

Next week we are moving to the Brecon Beacons in Wales. This is a big change for us: I've been living in London for the past 11 years and Eliane for the last 17. But in some ways it's not so big as we both grew up in small towns. We're renting a barn on a hill, and Eliane is already planning the veg patch.

Work-wise I shall be leaving Kizoom at the end of November. I am one of the three original members (with Nick Knowles and Mike Storey) of the team that started Kizoom in September 1999, in Nick's library (Islington people have libraries and garages).

After that I shall be working freelance and specializing in Hadoop. The plan is to work from home as much as possible, but I'm realistic about the need to travel to make this happen. So - if you need help with a Hadoop-related project, please get in touch.

Two weeks off the net

I've just arrived back from a two-week family holiday in the Brecon Beacons in Wales. Before I went I confess I was a little worried that two weeks without a computer or net access would be difficult. The last two-week holiday was four years ago to see family in Thailand, and we ended up using their computer now and again. But this time it was fine - and I resisted the occasional urge to nip into the local resource centre to check email. (There were of course lots of other things to do as you can see in the picture.)

Also on holiday I read a Guardian article about BlackBerry addiction (in a real newspaper, of course) and was glad I don't have one of the blasted things...