Steve: Nick, don't forget Pink Floyd albums a fiver mostly at FOPP so if you want to give me an excuse to go let me know. I finally got the new Going for the One at the weekend and I love the extra tracks (already knew that from borrowing Nick's)

I've found some LP frames on the Internet so hopefully I can put some up in the playroom when it is painted shortly.

Just a Minute recordings were excellent Saturday night BTW.
 

 Steve: Cheers for the MDs Tim, I'd better ressurect that MD Walkman and power supply!
 

 Tim: The Bays tickets have arrived, I'll hand them over next weekend in case I have any delay getting to London on the day.

Is it time we formulated some sort of HJ plan?
 

 Steve: Thanks for getting the tickets, good job the interest rate is done (sorry Nick).

I was thinking of going to Nick's Thursday night with a bike, maybe get to his work again? So anything Friday morning onwards I guess from my point-of-view. I'll travel back Sunday morning.
 

 Tim: If there's any benefit kipping at ours on Fri and/or Sat (one bed + one long sofa available) then that's no problem.
 

 Steve: Actually Nick's place is being replastered etc so maybe that is an idea worth considering.
 

 nick: yes... I was going to mention that. You'd be welcome to stay at ours but it will be a bit of a tip. also we just got rid of both the spare beds.
 

 Tim: And I might have just given the sofa away, oops :-)
 

 Tim: No, we're OK, the sofa is staying until Sunday.
 

 Steve: Yay! I reassembled my resprayed bike on Saturday (took hours) and it looks the business. Got the cable through the frame no problem but working out what all of the bits were for the fork assembly was a puzzle. Gears not quite as slick as they were before but it's the bike I'll be bringing as it has mudguards.
 

 Tim: Are the decals on?

Anyway, let me know if you lot are coming down Friday... or I can train it to Liphook, or Winchester or wherever as usual on Sat am, whatever's easiest. I'll need carting back here after I'm afraid, no problem if you want to stop over (/again). Just need to get supplies in so let me know asap.
 

 nick: re: decals

see steve's bike, in which they're just about visible
 

 Steve: Actually as an assembled bike it looks even more amazing. I kept (just) looking at it while parked in the hall at the weekend. Paul wants me to create some decals for his bikes.

Nick can you confirm whether I can cycle to your office Thursday night please? Although I'm happy to train to Basingstoke I would have to book my ticket to make sure of a bike space.
 

 Tim: Yep, any day now he's going to start firming things up, I feel sure of it.
 

 nick: Steve

fine if you want to come to my office on Thursday.

We have plasterers in now, and I don't think they'll have finished until Saturday so staying here is probably less than ideal (we can manage if you need to but I think best not).

So while you are welcome here on thu, may be best if we go to Tim's that evening and stay there until Sat (me included) - is that ok with everyone?
 

 Tim: Right, let me see if I can get Friday off then. (It looked tricky before, things have changed, might be doable now.)
 

 nick: re: thu/fri night - sorry about lack of clarity tim - things are a bit of a jumble at home at the moment, so it may be politic for me to be around to help move things in the evenings rather than be completely absent for 2 days. Lesley is OK with me being away but I feel guilty leaving it all to her and I should be helping out a bit if I can.

So I think I'd suggest best for Steve to stay with Tim (I can transport you there Steve) and me to be based at home, coming down Friday morning etc.

Had a Wittgenstein evening class last night. Wittgenstein used truth tables to explain his ideas about logic: he may not have invented them but was one of the first to bring them into "common" use.

In his book (which is famously hard to read) he introduces an example truth table; you can see it here

Before the lecture, I'd come across this and puzzled over it quite a lot. What is the significance of the ordering of T/Fs? i.e. in the first column, "P" goes TFTTFFT. Why is it this way?

Eventually plucked up courage to ask. Answer "it's a mistake in the book: rows 4 & 5 of the first table should be swapped round".

Not exactly a misprint (all copies of the book seem to be like this), and it doesn't affect the validity of what he's saying, but confusing if you're used to seeing binary type alternating of values in the table.
 

 nick: Tim, I thought we'd all booked Friday off already?
 

 Tim: Not this one. 28th yes.
 

 Tim: Friday pm is looking good, am is still ....uncertain.

So, one to run by you, depends how bad the squalor is: how about roughing it (and moving stuff) Thursday night then evacuating Fri am and turning up at mine for lunch? Any good?
 

 nick: re:last - probably ok with me, think the best is if I give steve a call tonight.

nick
 

 nick: ok I spoke with steve and we're ok for him to stay here amongst all the toxic dust, and we'll aim to get to yours lunchtime friday

I am shortly going to be dismantling the office so will have limited internet access from home,...

nick
 

 Tim: Good, hopefully you'll have got rid of all the dust before you get to mine.

Are you bringing bikes? Just wondering if we're likely to do an early-afternoon ride. Don't mind either way.

Also, have you got a bit of dusty bedding you can bring for whoever's on the sofa? I think we've only got the one spare duvet. (Can do covers though.)
 

 Tim: Outlook: I'm pretty sure I'll be home by about 1pm tomorrow.
 

 nick: steve left a message on your phone; maybe you could give us a call when you're ready for us, but we should be able to get there around 1 or so. we'll bring bikes in case there is a chance of a ride

nick
 

 Tim: Gotcha, will do.
 

 nick: There are some pictures of HJ on this blog posting. I haven't yet got things sorted out at home to enable me to load my photos on, so I can't point you at Steve's megatastic shot yet.
 

 Tim: Unforgettable.

BTW did you spot my gloves on the back seat?
 

 nick: yes, your gloves were on the back seat, so they're reasonably safe, I'll bring them on Saturday if I remember.

following discussion on relativity paradox - I was talking with tony about a couple of things and the ref he quoted is, I think, about a different paradox that we'd been discussing, i.e. EPR paradox, which is about how info can seemingly travel faster than light (although it can't really).

I'll check with him about the other one - why should it be that an astronaut returning to earth finds that people have aged more than he has, but people on earth don't find that he's aged more than them
 

 Tim: I think I almost understand that one a bit, momentarily.

The other one is the Twin Paradox and apparently "Special relativity does not claim that all observers are equivalent, only that all observers at rest in inertial reference frames are equivalent." So that explains that then.
 

 nick: web page update: seems like the STM/LTM memory models pages have taken second place to studies of emotional attachment: highest hits for the last couple of weeks have been for my "Bowlby 44 juvenile thieves" page. Including, for the first time, someone browsing from a slightly unusual platform:


79.64.191.156 - - [19/Nov/2008:19:45:42 +0100] "GET /emacs_files/psychology/ss_dir/bowlby1944.html HTTP/1.1" 200 1666 www.nickoh.com "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (PLAYSTATION 3; 1.00)" "-"

 

 nick: This is no doubt very impressive but it makes me feel very uncomfortable: the claims remind me of this:

"They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
(from Genesis 11)

Just seems like hubris to me. And I can't imagine wanting to go there.
 

 Tim: Have you seen this one? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Dubai
 

 Steve: BTW see you outside on the paved area tomorrow night, say 7pm?
 

 nick: re: tall tower - ugh

re: tomorrow - yes 7pm on the vast paved area, should be no problem spotting you. I probably won't have a mobile: the charger is packed away in a bag somewhere and I've no idea where it is.

nick
 

 Steve: BTW HMV have a rediculous sale on King Crimson - maybe others. In the 2 for a tenner you could get The Great Deceiver for that price!
 

 Tim: I've no idea what half of those KC releases are!

Nick, what model is your joanna?
 

 Steve: BTW Nick, don't forget - decorators caulk (or filler) - sold for about £1.25 in tubes, it will neaten up all of those dodgy joins between frames/wall etc. Squirt it in and wipe with a wet finger then paint over in an hour or two.
 

 nick: our phone line at home is still out so haven't had internet access all weekend. Painted one room so far. Thanks for the caulk tip Steve.

My keyboard is a Yamaha PF70

nick
 

 Steve: BTW I can't cope with all of this stuff going on - VAT reduction likely now! Surely a pair of shoes (Nick) is £39.99 inc VAT. Won't the shoes stay at £39.99 and the retailer keep the difference?
 

 nick: Steve

Well I suppose if they cut the VAT rate and the retailer keeps the difference, that's helping retailers, who presumably are suffering from the financial problems?

Why don't we do a bit of field research on Friday - we can go and do some shoe-shopping together.
 

 nick: VAT cut not until Monday, so I'm going to have to stall on purchases of new TV/carpets/furniture/PC... until then...
 

 Steve: So selfish...

BTW def not bringing my bike as it means I don't have to get up at 5AM or rush to your office. But you have a spare for Friday. Can I train it to your office (Hampton) instead or shall I go to Basingstoke?
 

 nick: Hi Steve

you could train to hampton if you want, it's about 40 mins from Waterloo (make sure you get train to Hampton, there is also Hampton Wick, and trains don't always go to both).

Advantage of coming to Hampton is that I'll definitely be here. And the train fare is cheaper.

Maybe you'd prefer to go to Basingstoke which would be fine, just slightly less straightforward for me to guarantee being at B'stoke station at the time you arrive


btw last week's science/faith talk was pretty good - given by someone who knows and has had public debates etc. with Richard Dawkins, so had some interesting things to say. The next one is January 8, and is being given by someone who "played a significant role in the discovery of the quark".

See you there?
 

 Tim: Steve, being familiar with the SWTrains site, here's the pdf timetable for Hampton (and Hampton Wick, as it happens).
 

 Tim: The forecast is rain Friday, so I propose not bringing my bike either.

So if it's OK I'll drive up to you early, unless you prefer to come down here?
 

 Steve: No I'm happy for you to drive up Tim, it means we don't need to exactly coordinate with D's arrival in the late afternoon - 4/4:30.

I'll train to your work Nick, cheers for the timetable. Our train system is a nightmare to suss out. For example, if you know the town you want, how do you know which train company it is? I started searching for trains from Paddington as I thought it was on that line.

Ordered 2 KC collector doubles and a Kansas(!) album. Been listening to The Great Deceiver this week, forgot how good some of the improvs are.
 

 nick: well, you can come here on Friday if you want Tim, but the house isn't in a fantastic state. I suppose we could spend the day decorating?

OTOH If Steve and I drive to yours, that means we could bring the PF70 (and maybe squeeze bikes in as well, in case it's not raining too much?)
 

 Tim: I don't mind decorating.

Or if you come down here, sounds best to kick-off early (breakfast) but head back mid-afternoon so that there's no coordination stress?

Re PF70 I'm unconvinced so far I'm afraid.
 

 nick: re: looking at train timetables - I always use national rail enquiries - if you'd asked for it to tell you how to get from paddington to hampton, you'd have seen that it takes you via waterloo, and that bit is labelled "Train Company: South West Trains service from London Waterloo to Shepperton"
 

 Tim: ¿ǝɹoɟǝq ʇı uǝǝs noʎ ǝʌɐɥ 'sıɥʇ ǝʞıl ı
 

 Tim: Nick, I think we've covered the timetable issue :-) let's sort out the next bit.
 

 nick: I can't work out how that works - how do the characters get rendered properly, even in the email I got from the blog?

Some food for thought/ammo here The Big 10 Energy Myths
 

 Tim: It's disappointingly low tech, they're just characters.

I'm off soon, going to Portsmouth v AC Milan(!) tonight. Due to crap train times won't be home until midnight. Will check the blog then on the offchance of unexpected decision-making.
 

 nick: hi tim

ok for you to come here - we're intending to nip to DIY shop first thing to get some electrical supplies; steve reckons they're open at 8 which means we can be back here by 9, so see you some time after then (actually I think lesley will be here until about 10 so even if we're late, there'll be someone around)

nick
 

 Tim: Gotcha
 

 Steve: Hergest Ridge - you were right Tim all CD versions are the Boxed remixed one. I thought the following was interesting from Wikipedia:

"Hergest Ridge was the number one album the week of 14 September 1974 and remained so for three weeks until being knocked out of the spot by its predecessor Tubular Bells. Oldfield is thus one of only three artists (along with The Beatles and Bob Dylan) to have defeated themselves in this manner."

Soon be time to start the december entry...
 

 Steve: Oh forgot, it's pronounced "Hargist" or "Hargest"!
 

 Tim: Hargist?? Yeah I knew that obviously ;-)

This site confirms your Hergest/Piltdown similarity observation: http://tubular.net/analysis/tcmorg/

I'm currently BitTrickle-ing a FLAC of the original vinyl some Slovak guy has de-popped. Will send MDs if it ever completes.

But all I'm expecting is extra trumpet, snare drum (don't remember it but will) and general muddiness esp. on the vocals.
 

 Tim: IIRC it's pronounced hergist on "on horseback"?
 

 Tim: For an extra treat I've downloaded "The Orchestral Hergest Ridge". You lucky boys.
 

 Tim: Steve, have you cracked open that Sylvian album yet?
 

 nick: re: shakespeare - the guardian has an offer on with the full set of plays on DVD that says there are 37 plays in total.

I was trying to work out how many I'd seen, and I think it's only these
- Midsummer Night's Dream
- Richard II
- Richard III
- Merchant of Venice
- King Lear
- Merry Wives of Windsor
- Hamlet
- Taming of the Shrew

29 to go then.
 

 Steve: Shall we switch to December?