I’ve spent a large part of my time this week on holiday, working through some more magic books and DVD’s, as well as catching up on magic based emails. One item that really caught my eye was Richard Osterlind’s Breakthrough Card System.
Hailed as perhaps the greatest contribution to magic and mentalism, considered by many to be the most ingenious system ever devised!! That’s gotta make you sit up and take some note at least!?!
Once you get the basics down, its just pure cunning! Devilish cunning in fact!! The first time I just glanced over it, thinking ‘oh that’s kinda neat and clever’ but not really catching onto exactly how useful a system it is…
My brains rushing a bit now on things I can use this for, in addition to what Richard talks about.. I just need to get my speed up on it a bit, so that it flows more smoothly, and then find some willing victims to test drive the system, and my additional uses for it!!
I’ve always been a great fan of TabletPC’s I’ve had one since they first came out, and gone through a Fujtisu, and a Toshiba. They’ve been great for a number of reasons. Firstly.. I have a memory like a sieve. In my day to day work role, I have to record tons of information about customers, projects, conversations, phone-calls to name but a few, and to be bluntly honest. I forget half the stuff once it’s written down in a notebook someplace. Not to mention the fact of forgetting to bring the particular notebook you need to the office when someone just wants to know that vital bit of information you recorded 3 years ago..
I became a good IBM citizen a few weeks back, by dropping my Toshiba M200 off the IBM LAN and going with my ThinkPad T60p, reverting to the old ways of paper and pen, sticky notes and scrabbling for notes when someone rings me up asking about a meeting.
Years ago I saw some technology from Anoto, providing a Digital Pen and Paper technology that allowed quick transmission of hand written text from paper to digital media. The technology is based on a special digital pen and a paper printed with a pattern that is almost invisible to the eye, combined with advanced image processing.
The digital pens use ink and works just like a normal ballpoint pen, but it also contains a tiny digital camera, an advanced image processing system, some memory and a some sort of communication to a master device (say your PC or for some pens mobile phones or wireless)
The paper is the clever bit, it consists of an a dot pattern, almost invisible to the eye.The displacement of the dots, 0.1 millimetres in size, from the relative position enables them to be programmed to tell the pen the exact location on the page, pad, or pads you’re working on.
By registering the pen’s movement across the paper, and also the pressure, the writing is interpreted and digitalised. Meaning that you dont have to write in a special way, in fact you dont have to write at all, everything and anything you write on the paper is digitised.
Just like real paper, since it is real paper, since the pen’s movements are stored as a series of map coordinates and the paper defines where on the paper you’re writing, it’s possible to go back and complete previous notes in a pad (regardless of if you’ve already uploaded ink into the PC)
The paper is even smart. It enables different parts of the paper to be assigned different functions such as writing an post-it note, and ticking ‘done’ when you’ve completed that task, or want it added to a to-do list. Add to that gestures or tags that you can add through pure software.. the solution seems pretty advanced.
I decided to get a pen a few days ago, and see if it really did what it said.. I picked up the Logitech IO2 Digital Pen it’s fairly cheap, a good weight, and seems to be a fairly good implementation of the Anoto technology.
Now the other fly in the ointment is Lotus Notes, again being a good IBM employee, this is my choice of email client, love it or hate it, it does have some things other application don’t, normally it’s support from vendors. They tend to add some support for notes as more a token gesture than a feature. I was actually very surprised to find excellent support out of the box for Notes.
I needed to do two main things with the pen, firstly record notes and have them saved digitally on my PC, and secondly, be able to convert these into a form that was useful. On my TabletPC I used OneNote, which was an excellent application, but without a pen interface on the screen, it’s pretty useless to me. This offered me full search capabilities, ink to text and a place to store all my notes. Thankfully people have grasped onto the ink this time round and a number of applications support the .pen format provided by Anoto.
Logitech provide you with some software out of the box that uploads the ink from the pen into the PC, it provides a tagging system so you can start to organise your ink notes (keeping in mind you still have the paper copies as well). The whole upload process is smooth as could be, drop the pen into it’s cradle, and the ink is silently uploaded into the application, appearing as its own page per ‘real page’ view. This is the other nice thing. your digital ink is the same as your real ink. the dot pattern uniquely identifies your books, pages, pads, notes etc, and yes you can swap from book to book, A4 for meetings to A5 or BL for on the move stuff.
Now comes something I was very impressed with, IOTags. Lets say I’m in a meeting and I need to assign a to-do, or i need to send an email based on something from the meeting. I can assign an IOTag to a block of text, sorry, writting on my paper. By drawing a tag (e for email, t for to-do, w for convert this section to word) I can automatically cause something to happen when the ink it transferred.
if you take the example of email. I put in a to: someone@uk.ibm.com re: subject and the body of the email onto the paper. I then draw a small E circle it, and draw a single line down past the writing I want in the email. When the ink is uploaded into the PC, the software spots the IOTag, and converts the writing to text, builds an email and has it ready to go. The same with a to-do note.. little T, circle, mark.. done, To-Do items appearing in my Lotus Notes client as soon as the pens docked.
The pen and software does do a pretty good job of converting to text, even with my scrawl, although I still like ink, especially as it’s searchable!
The pen holds about 40 pages, and last for about 3 hours of constant writing, which is probably more than enough between docks. the special pads are readily available (ebay, amazon and other sites) for reasonable costs..
As for the TabletPC.. it’s ready to hit ebay later this week, it’s not because I dont love the TablePC idea, its just I cant get an IBM Tablet, and the Pen seems a great replacement
It’s a Saturday night.. reasons to be cheerful 1.. 2.. 3..
Faithless at the Nottingham Arena.. An excellent way to finish off a weeks holiday.. We stayed at the Jurys Inn, which was just a short walk from the arena.. a little odd on the parking arrangements, but some of the luckier ones in our group got transport back from the hotel to the car park in a Hummer!!!
This was the first time this week that I didn’t have the Canon 350D with me.. using my ‘action camera’ instead, the ixus 700. Of course photos don’t really capture a great gig.. but they look pretty cool, the ixus always has issues with darkness, smoke and big lights.. but it didn’t fair too badly this time.. I managed to get some very nice and clear shots in the dark (and the lights!).
I officially lost my gig virginity at the Fratellis in Brixton, so this was my second outing into gig land. Although some are arguing that a small festival or two counts as a gig or two… I think I’m definitely getting the hang of it now.. Roll on the V Festival!!!
I spent almost all of my time dancing (not sure if that was the bottle of wine, or the pints of Guinness ), obtained myself a nice t-shirt and bounced back to the hotel like I was 18 again!!
Whichever way. faithless rocked at the NIA.. great opening night.. loved it!!!
Following our last few days of myths, legends and all things weird, we blew out a day in London in favour of heading down to Avebury in Wiltshire. The stone circle and henge that surrounds the village of Avebury, is only one in a series of monuments concentrated in this small area. The site is a remnant of a ritual Neolithic landscape, which still survives although it’s degraded with time and the onslaught of various visitors over the last few centuries.
The stones that remain now are only a small proportion of what must have been an awe-inspiring place when it was in use over 4000 years ago. Avebury’s stone circle is thought to date from around 2600BC. The earliest focus of ritual activity in the area was at nearby Windmill Hill around 3700BC, at this time the first stages of West Kennet Long Barrow, a burial tomb a few miles away were also started.
Another IBM’er and my internal mentor lives within the village, and I’ve always liked Avebury more than somewhere like Stonehenge, There isn’t much folklore or legend associated with the stone circle itself, the legends relate more to individual stones and other features in the landscape.
The Devils Chair is one of the most massive stones within the structure, it sits where the West Kennet avenue joins the circle. So named because of the natural seat formation in the stone, young women used to sit here on May Day Eve and make wishes. A large stone known as the Diamond Stone, situated near the Northwest entrance, is said to cross over to the other side of the road when the clock strikes midnight. Which is quite a feat given the stone weighs around forty tonnes.
If we’re talking about odd things. there have been strange sightings around the stones. Small figures have been seen moving within the stones in the moonlight, and a woman called Edith Olivier heard music and saw lights amongst the stones whilst driving through the village at night.
We went to the henge shop, and bizarrely that book that stood out on the shelf at Glastonbury, fell off to the side on a bookshelf as I walked past.. I put it back upright and left the shop!!
I took some more photos of the stones, but it started to turn bitterly cold, so we had lunch at the Red Lion (also reputed to be haunted) and headed out to Silbury Hill.
Silbury Hill is the largest man made mound in Europe, an imposing sight standing 130 feet high (about 40 meters), the base of the mound covers over 5 acres and the flattened top is around 100 feet across. The hill itself has been to about 2500 BC. Although why it was built is still not clear. Legend says that it was the burial place of King Sil (or Zil), buried under the mound sitting on his horse, but in all the excavations on the hill, none have ever found any trace of a burial.
other legends state that The Devil was making his way to Marlborough with a huge shovel full of earth he intended to dump on the town. On his way he met a cobbler carrying a load of old shoes he was taking to repair. “Old cobbler, is it far to the town of Marlborough?”, asked the Devil. The cobbler had his wits about when he recognised “Old Nick” and replied, “It is a long way indeed, for I have worn out all of these shoes trying to walk there!”. Upon hearing this the Devil decided to give up and dropped his shovel full of earth by the road-side forming a huge mound. In this way the old cobbler saved the town of Marlborough thanks to his quick wits.
The hill’s suffered considerable damage over the years, most notably at the end of May, 2000 when heavy rain caused part of an old shaft to collapse. The shaft is about 100 feet deep and was dug in the 18th Century in an attempt to discover whether the mound contained a burial. Public access to the site is now restricted, although there are only security guards in the tourist season.. but you should respect the site and not climb it!!
I wanted to also go up to West Kennet Long Barrow as well. West Kennet Long Barrow is one of the many prehistoric monuments in and around Avebury. It’s one of the most impressive and well-preserved burial chambers in Britain, as well as being one of the most visited. The mound itself, of which the burial chamber is only a small part, stretches for 100 metres in an East – West orientation. The chamber, which extends 10 metres into the mound, consists of five seperate chambers, two on either side of a narrow passage, which then opens up into a further chamber at the far end. The tomb is thought to have been constructed around 3500BC, and was in use for a thousand years, until 2200BC, when the tomb was sealed with chalk rubble, and the gigantic sarcen boulders that now guard the entrance. When the tomb was excavated between 1859 and 1956 it was revealed that almost 50 people of varying ages were buried within the tomb.
Legend says that the mound is traditionally visited by a white spectral figure accompanied by a white red-eared hound at sunrise on Midsummer’s day. The strange atmosphere of the darkened chamber, and its associations in folklore and legend has led to it being used by modern day pagans and occultists. Unfortunately for the site, you’ll see a lot of occult symbols and markings on the tomb, placed there by modern day visitors.
The tomb is said to be haunted, and a high dynamic range photo that I took looking into the tomb does appear to be quite weird..
Today was a short trip down the road to Glastonbury. I’ve only ever been there once before, at the height of summer when it was full of the great unwashed, and people trying to bless me with something or another..
Since it was much quieter, it was a lot more enjoyable. I took quite a few more photos and some more HDR’s again, they turned out much better than the ones yesterday in the caves, probably due to the light, but again I think a mono or tripod would have helped big time.
We spent a lot of the time in the abbey, partly taking photos for Dad, he’s still working on his re-construction of Reading Abbey, a complete computer modelled and rendered view of the abbey ruins as they once were, and textured and the odd floor tile here and there always helps..
I’m thinking of putting one or two of the photos in for the Glastonbury Abbey Photographic Competition, although there are only a few I’d class as Life and Wildlife at the Glastonbury Abbey, possibly this main image with the daffodils might be nice after a bit of colour balancing, or even the original normal exposure photo..
We moved on from the Abbey to Chalice Well and gardens. The Chalice Well is one of the oldest continuously used holy wells in Britain. Archaeology has shown that the Spring was used by prehistoric tribes who inhabited the area, and for the last 2000 years the site has been in constant use.
The Chalice Well is actually a spring that naturally rises from the earth at Glastonbury (The word “Well” comes from the Anglo Saxon word “Wella” meaning spring). The spring itself is capped, to ensure its purity, and the water rises up in a stone well shaft, that is believed to over 800 years old. At the time of its construction it probably stood above ground at a height of 10 feet. Since that time it has been covered by subsidence and landslide’s from Chalice Hill and the Tor.
You can actually drink the water from the spring as it comes out of the the Lion’s head, further down the garden. The spring produces about 25,000 gallons (112,000 litres) and is constant even in times of great drought. In dry period’s in the past the Chalice Well has been the only remaining decent water source in Glastonbury, and it’s temperature is a constant 11 degrees. It tastes ok, slightly metallic, but I didn’t seem to kill me…
There’s lot of myth and legend around the Chalice Well, apparently having settled in Ynys Witrin (Glastonbury) and founded the first religious community in Britain, St. Joseph of Arimathea buried the Holy Grail deep in the hillside of Glastonbury Tor in order to safe-guard it from thieves and robbers. A miraculous spring welled up from that spot and the water runs through the grail before reaching the surface stained red with the blood of Christ. Looking at it from a more logical form (less romantic I know but..) although St. Joseph is said to have brought the Grail to Britain, it is rarely connected with his monastery of Glastonbury except in purely local legend. The water in the Chalice Well Gardens, below the Tor, certainly runs red, but that is more likely explained by the red Iron Oxide minerals in the Glastonbury soil.
Talking of spooky, in the shop there were a lot books on various ‘alternative’ subjects, for some reason a huge thick book caught my eye, standing out and proud from the bookshelf.. almost toppling out.. I picked it up.. read it.. and pushed it back again..
Today we headed down to Somerset, first to Cheddar Gorge caves, and then onto Wookey Hole. It’s been years since I’ve been down there, and I thought it would be nice to take some more photos, and play with some more HDR shots as well.
The nice thing was we were down then pretty much out of season, so although it was quite cold, it was very quiet and easy to get round. I managed to get some pretty good shots in the caves. Although I think in that lighting condition I’d have better been using a mono-pod or tri-pod for some of the HDR’s, but the results on the whole were pretty OK, especially as they were all non-flashed in the caves.
The Longleat Estate, who own the caves really have spoilt the museum that was there.. replacing it with ‘Cheddar Man & the Cannibals Museum’ which basically tells you nothing about the caves themselves, just about live and death in the stone age..
I also seriously hope that Cheddar Man, the oldest complete skeleton in Britain really isnt the one in the freaky flower power display case.. at rest in the middle of a flower bed with Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin playing 24 hours in his head, surrounded by flowers, astro turf, and signs that threw the hole cave thing off on a weird tangent about materialism in society and Einsteins thoughts on the argument of creationism versus evolution.. dead weird.. I have spoken to Bob Smart, who runs the exhibition (more on his views in another post) but like he said “This isn’t a ‘traditional’ museum experience.” which is quite an understatement!!
But.. back out in the day light, Derricks Cafe served one of the best Cream Teas so far this week!!!
We then headed onto Wookey Hole, which again being out of season meant that we almost had a personal tour of the caves with our guide. I do prefer Wookey to Cheddar caves. I think its because you’re personally guided round, and the caves are a lot more impressive..
We headed off at closing time to Shepton Mallet, to stay at The Thatched Cottage Inn a Grade II listed building. Which although a little expensive, really was a fantastically great place to stop over the night.
The building is in fact three cottages that have been merged into a single Inn. The thatched portion of the building is at least 330 years old. On the grounds is Turnpike Cottage, another listed building, which extracted fees for using the road to and from Frome in the 18th century. We stayed in their best room Aldhelm, reputed to have two ghosts; The Grey Lady, believed to be the wife of one of the Head brewers of Charlton Brewery, which was at the back of the building, and another, a lady said to have been ravaged by passing Roman centurions as they passed up the Roman Fosse Way.. We slept quietly after three Guinness’s and a filling meal!!
Yesterday we headed into London. First we headed off to the Victoria and Albert Museum to see the Kylie Exhibition. Then we headed over to the West End to see Mama Mia!, which was fantastic. It was a little different to what I expected, for instance you normally associate ABBA with the most outlandish ’70s outfits imaginable, rather than bizarre blacklight-lit frogman costumes!!
In Mamma Mia!, the songs come first, being hit releases by the ’70s Swedish pop music group ABBA. Catherine Johnson has put together a story which connects all the previously unrelated songs, resulting an excellent show. It was a little like being out with Ewald and Wim when they are drunk, the Dutch having the ability to hear something mentioned in a conversation, and being able to remember a song about it, and proceeding to sing it..
The basics of the plot are that Sophie is a 20 year-old woman who lives on a Greek island with her mother, Donna, who is the owner of a modest hotel. Sophie does not know the identity of her father, but has recently discovered that he is one of three of her mother’s former amours. Sophie decides to use the event of her wedding to draw the three possible dads to the island, certain that she will recognize her father when she sees him. Of course all three men show up, of course Sophie can’t figure out which one is her father, and of course no one figures out what Sophie is up to until well into the second act. The plot points fit the the songs quite well in most all instances, and it is an interesting discovery as each seemingly independent song reveals lyrics that are appropriate to the story. It’s also important to say that it’s very very funny, The actors really seem to have a great time, rather than just smiling for show biz..
Mamma Mia! is big and loud, definitely in the style of the music of ABBA. There are no solos or duets – singers’ voices are constantly augmented by not only on stage chorus members’ accompaniment, but the backing of unseen singers backstage in sound booths. This achieves the authentic driving sound of ABBA classics such as “Dancing Queen,” “Honey, Honey,” “S.O.S.,” “Super Trouper,” and of course Mama Mia!
After that, given we were really pushing the boat out, we headed over to Levant, a Lebanese restaurant just off Wigmore Street. We’d been there before, almost a year ago, and loved it.
Levant is completely different to pretty much any place you’ve been. You’ll find it in a small small courtyard just off Wigmore Street. At 11pm on a monday evening it was a little quieter than last time we went (which was buzzing to say the least). The low lighting, candles and eclectic collection of bizarre bazaar items also made for a very welcoming space. The bar area is made up of low chairs and metal topped table. The waiting staff are very friendly, including our Mohicaned waiter!! The whole setting it just like another world.. The belly dancers moving past your table as people laze on cushions and sit at the tables smoking their Hookah, traditional music playing as groups of people sitting in the bar clap in time to the dancers and laugh as they talk loudly in foreign languages.
We settled on the Mezze Feast, an enormous selection of hot and cold Mezze, but it’s presented on brass plates and just seems to keep coming.. You also dont go short on breads and hummus . Unfortunately we overdid it early on and left little room for the selection of meat brochettes and salad that followed, When we were completely stuff we had a massive selection of fresh fruit (pineapples, melons, grapes, apples, and strawberries). Then came the puddings.. two tall platters of Lebanese sweets; warm Turkish delights, dates, and things I have no idea what they were, but tasted like heaven.. and to finish, some mint tea poured in the traditional way (from a very great height), that soothed our over-stretched stomachs.
The whole feel of the place is like some secret place you found in a souk… It’s amazing..
We caught the last train back to Reading, having to try and keep warm on Paddington station, and fell into bed at about 3am..
We’ve had The Illusionist with Ed Norton and The Prestige with Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale hit the silver screens. Now a British comedy, seeming to be loosely based around the Prestige plot; a magic duo have an accident with a trick and a fierce competition of ego’s between them ensues.
Featuring ‘the hottest new British comedians’ Mitchell and Webb (who I still dont know.. but they’re growing on me..) and the from the creators of the award-winning ‘Peep Show’. It’s billed as a hilarious new British comedy set in the world of stage magic.
Lifelong friends Harry and Karl (David Mitchell and Robert Webb) are the greatest magic double act in the country. But after a guillotine illusion goes horribly and spectacularly wrong, their friendship and their careers are finished. Now, down on his luck and out of cash, Harry sets his sights on the prize money of the prestigious ‘International Magic Shield’ tournament. But to win he will have to compete against the world’s oddest (and saddest) magicians – including his deadly rival Karl, performing under the guise of ridiculous psychic ‘The Mindmonger’.
Directed by Andrew O’Conner, who’s credit includes producing almost all of the Derren Brown Series and Specials, Balls of Steel, The Real Hustle, and Rajan and his Evil Hypnotists, it has what looks like an interesting line up; including Jessica Stevenson from ‘Confetti’ and ‘Spaced’, and a huge list of magic related cast as well (Pat page, Ali Bongo, Anthony Owen, and Scott Penrose amongst others..) I’m looking forward to it’s release on May 11th..
I also love the fact that there’s a few Magic in-jokes in there as well.. (such as the International Magic Competition, and Pat Page eating Cigarettes – ‘Theres no method to that.. he just takes the pain.. sick bastard..’)
Favourite quotes from the trailer have to be.. ‘Suck my Wand.. ? It’s magic.. ? Kiss my arse…‘
I quite often get emails at home, the classic 419 type Nigerian scam, trying to get your details or money in a scam to defraud you..
A while back I was a little shocked to find that I actually got a letter at home, telling me of a large lottery win..
Maybe it wasn’t the best day to send me a letter like this, I had a cold, combined with headache from hell, so maybe wasn’t in the most understanding mood… however… My hand addressed letter clearly stated;
This is to inform you on the relased of the loteria primitiva internation programme, held on the 24th of august 2006… my name.. attached to ticket number xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx has won 615,810.00 euros…
and all I need to do is contact mr Stanley Moya (that well known spanish name) at the ocaso security company SA to claim my winnings….
Thankfully… He’d put his telephone number and fax number on the letter.. I obviously had some questions about the 10% fund that they will take from my bank on the winnings.. and just how lucky I was to win this lottery I’ve never heard of….So I thought.. best give them a ring then!!
bbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (the sound of spanish telephones…) I’m ringing (I assume) the office of Mr Stanley Moya, the forgein service manager of OCASO Security Company SA
Stanley: ‘Undefinable mumbling (Possibly I woke him up..) hello..’
Drew: ‘e’karo (couldnt resist that.. its nigerian for good morning.. I thought he’d not notice!).. you sent me a letter saying I’ve won some lottery?’
Stanley: ‘Ah.. yes you get confirmation of winnings?’
Drew: ‘Apparently… apparently I’ve wone almost 616 thousand euros…’
Stanley: ‘Ah yes. you have congratulations from <undefinable mumblings..> you fill in fax and send us.. and we can send you bank money for the winnings.. congratulations yes’ (I’m actually thinking he needs to improve the script here.. he’s not sounding overly spanish)
Drew: ‘Well thats great, I’m just not quite sure on something… I didn’t actually buy a ticket…’
Stanley: ‘yes yes yes.. you send the form we send the money..’
Drew: ‘no no no… how did you get my address and the ticket.. I mean I havent played the loteria primitiva bonus bonus bouns clap hands (which I think was a little lost on him…)’
Stanley: ‘Yes you play with the ticket, you name, was selected from (what sounds like..) the address errors !??!’
Drew: ‘But.. well.. ok.. but I need to pay you money to get my winnings…’
Stanley: ‘we. as your acting agent will use 10% of your winnings but not until the money is with your’
Drew: ‘But under lottery laws.. thats illegal.. and besides.. I need a physical ticket to claim my winnings…’
Stanley now starts to become a little hot under the collar.. even for a possible nigerian spanish madrid dweller… in fact stanley, far from the cosey view i’d have of a ’stanley’ having a nice thick yorkshire accent.. has one muther of a nigerian slant to his voice…
Stanley: ‘you win, you take money, congratulations, you fax us your bank details..’
Drew:’well personally I think this is a scam.. in fact.. i know it is.. your listed as a scam, and theres over 28 identical serial numbers on the internet the same as mine for my winnings, and apparently, theres only 17 winners worldwide… So can I ask where you got my details..?’
Stanley seems to be getting a bit annoyed now.. not sure why… I’ve not even started yet…
Stanley:’if you think this is scam then you dont take money, you dont talk to me again.. I have nothing to tell you on this..’
Drew: ‘well look. I’m only asking.. dont get upset…’
Stanley: ‘I no talk with you further on this…’
Clunk…
seemed stanley got a bit miffed and might have accidently dropped the phone… So I decided to give stanley some cooling off time… ooh about a minute… and rang him back..
Brrrrrrrr
Stanley: ‘mumblings…’
Drew: ‘Hiya.. i think we got cut off.. we were talking about how you got my address….’
Stanley: ‘I dont know what you are wanting me for…’
Drew: ‘Oh just would like to udnerstand the whole processes here.. how did you get my address..?’
Stanley: ‘we get address from (and I swear he said it again..) address errors and flight plan..’
Drew: ‘address errors?’
Stanley: ‘no… address erros..’
Drew: ‘yes thats what i said.. you got my address from address errors..’
Stanley: ‘no… address errors..’
Drew: ‘look stanley.. can call you stanley… ? I’m not good on these spanish names and mr stanley moya is a bit hard to pronounce, and I’m just worried I’ll get it wrong…’
Stanley: ‘you can call me what you wish…’
Drew: ‘ Excellent.. can i call you bert? or ernie ? e’jo? ‘ (again nigerian for please.. but he didnt pick up on it again…
Stanley: ‘I dont know what you are wanting from me…’
Drew: ‘Your the company that told me I’ve won almost 617 thousand euros right ?’
Stanley: ‘we have your ticket, you have to give us bank details to be have the money..’
Drew: ‘but how did I get a ticket… I didnt buy one..’
Stanley: ‘we have brought one for you as your agents and you have won the funds congratulations..’
Drew: ‘you brought me a ticket, without me even asking you? wow thats really nice of you.. hey bert… sorry stanley.. you sound a really nice bloke.. ‘
Stanley: ‘You have to send us your details so we can put the money into your bank please..’
clink… I think he accidently dropped the phone again…
brrrrrr…..
Drew: ‘Stanley..?’
Click…..
It seemed that stanley started to get a bit annoyed with me.. not sure why, I only called him 28 times.. a few times during the day.. and rang him a few time at about 3am his time, just to make sure my new friend was ok.. Sadly thought me and stanley didn’t work out.. I didn’t get my money.. and Stanley didn’t get my bank account details..
Michael Berry has a great book called Greetings in Jesus Name!: The Scambaiter Letters. It covers the conversations and letter to and from the Nigerian 419 scammers, which is a thought.. I dont think anyone yet has written a book about slightly amusing telephone conversations…
I’ve always been a great fan of TabletPC’s I’ve had one since they first came out, and gone through a Fujtisu, and a Toshiba. They’ve been great for a number of reasons. Firstly.. I have a memory like a sieve. In my day to day work role, I have to record tons of information about customers, projects, conversations, phone-calls to name but a few, and to be bluntly honest. I forget half the stuff once it’s written down in a notebook someplace. Not to mention the fact of forgetting to bring the particular notebook you need to the office when someone just wants to know that vital bit of information you recorded 3 years ago..
if you take the example of email. I put in a to: someone@uk.ibm.com re: subject and the body of the email onto the paper. I then draw a small E circle it, and draw a single line down past the writing I want in the email. When the ink is uploaded into the PC, the software spots the IOTag, and converts the writing to text, builds an email and has it ready to go. The same with a to-do note.. little T, circle, mark.. done, To-Do items appearing in my Lotus Notes client as soon as the pens docked.
Yesterday we headed into London. First we headed off to the Victoria and Albert Museum to see the 
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