I was playing tonight with the Plazes API again (not having done so since Hackday London). It appears that something has changed as my code no longer works. :(

Which is a shame.

I like Plazes, I am user 3465 I believe and i want it to succeed.

This is because I like the idea of location being tied to presence. I like the new traces feature which is kinda like twitter/jaiku/etc.

Lots of the conversation nowadays seems to be about presence, attention and context. I think that contaxt can be derived a majority of the time from location, so plazes location awareness SHOULD give it a headstart on the others.

I'd love to be able to use Plazes for example to manage my online status for work and personal contacts. For example, when I am in the office, put me as online for my work contacts and offline (maybe "at work") for my personal contacts.

Later when I arrive home, plazes could reverse the situation.

If (and hopefully when) a J2ME or similar client comes out, it'd be great if Plazes worked out I was say at the pub. Maybe it could then ping my friends in plazes nearby and tell them where I am?
This would work well with the future plazes function they now have.

And for me, I'd love for plazes to be able to pop up and tell me when someone I know (from facebook or AIM or twitter or wherever) is nearby. For it to tell me what they are up to (traces) and maybe help me ping them a message to meet up.


I've hacked scripts to post my current Plaze to twitter etc and there is a facebook app (thanks Andy) but I'd like to see it do more, be more, help more.

Mainly I'd like to hear more about what is going on over there in Germany at Plazes HQ.

So... should I buy one of these? It is a QT Fun 500 and I've had my eyes on these for a while and there is one going cheap.

Or... do I go whole hog and get one of these:



This is a QT Runner and look much better in person than in this picture. On the site there is a video which gives a better perspective.

I really want a new car and want a fun small car to take the place of my sadly missed Suzuki Cappucino.

Opinions?

I have been using www.Bloglines.com as my primary Blog reader for a long while.
I played with Google reader, but it did not (at the time at least) seem to suit my needs. Specifically it didn't allow me to read oldest to newest.

Bloglines has looked a bit "old fashioned" for a while with no updates for a while, perhaps as a result of being bought by ASK.com?

Anyway... that's all changing. This morning I took a look at http://beta.bloglines.com which looks pretty darn good to me. A big change aesthetically.

One change I've noticed (and this is an indication perhaps of how behind on the blogs I get) is that the number of entries on a blog seems to have increased from the 200 entry limit there seemed to be in the past.

There are also 3 different views of entries now, QuickView in particular looks like a good way for me to quickly see the general overview of what is in the blog in a short amount of time.

I am sure there are lots of changes tehre I have not noticed yet, let me know if you find them.

Brilliant!!! Thanks Steve, Thanks!
Steve Eley over at www.escapepod.org has just posted "The Sundial Brigade" a story from the Glorifying Terrorism book, which I have a paper copy of.

I really liked this story when I read it, but loved it when I heard it on EscapePod. It was more powerful, clearer, better. Maybe it was my reading ability, maybe it was knowing the story having read it already.
Nahh... it just worked well and was a brilliant listen, thanks EscapePod!!

More importantly it was probably illegal in the UK.
As Steve describes in the intro to the podcast under the UK Terrorism Act 2006 which makes glorifying terrorism a crime.

Again as Steve points out, that means it "might" be illegal to talk about terrorism. So say talking about Nelson Mandela and the actions of the ANC. or perhaps Guy Fawkes? or most of the history of the world!
As they say in "Faulty Towers" don't mention the war! What about all those brave resistance fighters in occupied europe during WWII? Fredom fighters to us but terrorists to the occupiers at the time.

Doh.... I've glorified terrorism!!
The Police shall be at the door . ;)

Go listen to the podcast, go order the book.

Lance

So this morning I went out for a 4 mile run. And my legs are fine. Woot!

Why make that post worthy?

A while back I bought a nice shiny new pair of Asics running shoes to replace my Saucony shoes. I did all that good stuff of taking the old shoes to the specialist running shoe shop. They looked at my feet, I tried all the shoes they had on, and finally settled on my Asics.

Shortly after this I started our running club's C25k running programme.
Those of you from the club will know that I have been suffering with bad calves all the way through the programme. I've thought it was weird as I really dropped the mileage, following the programme.

Anyway...

So, recently I started trying running with my old Saucony shoes again.
And you've guessed it, I'm not getting pain in my legs.

I have no idea what it is about my really comfy Asics that is causing the problem, but I am 90% sure now it's all down to them. So, I guess I need to buy a new pair of Saucony shoes.


It really highlights how important it is to NOT ignore pain when you run. It's taken me an embarrassingly long time to decide to try my old shoes again.

I suppose it is the Judoka in me, ignoring the obvious pain indicating a problem. :)

Anyway... so don't ignore pain when you run.

Lance