Month: June 2023

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Just An Annoying Ending

It’s been a while but it’s time for a rant. I’ve been thinking recently about the types of films and series that I like. They tend to feature space travel but ultimately end up being human stories. Science Fiction is just reality set off Earth. All the emotions and activities don’t really change. So, I want to posit a plot to you:

Aliens / discovered Earth creatures seem intent on destroying/enslaving/correcting humans/Earth. They justify this because they observe the terrible way humans treat each other with war and selfishness. But right at the last moment Earth is saved because humans have “love” or some other emotion or device that humans secretly produced and used because they are clever.

I have decided this is most likely an incorrect conclusion to all those stories. Humans are terrible creatures and I think the net morality of humankind is waaay over the side of the bad. Look at what we do:

  • We produce enough food to feed the world, but we don’t distribute it fairly.
  • We could solve disease problems across the world but we don’t.
  • We are very clearly destroying the climate of our planet, have known about it for years, but have done nothing.
  • We have individuals who are richer than the poorest countries.
  • We still have wars even though we recognised that there was a “war to end all wars”.
  • We look the other way from people trying to seek a better life and leave them to drown in the oceans.
  • We cause pain and suffering to children through adult-led organisations and yet allow them to shelter abusers – All churches and many youth organisations.

I don’t think that the feeling of love we can have for each other outweighs these things we do. I don’t think the central pillar of humanity is love. The central pillar of humanity is selfishness and power hunger. I’m not saying all people feel like that but I’m arguing the case that when observed from afar humanity is a pretty shit species. I don’t think the net result of humans being in the universe is anywhere near positive. I suspect the universe would collectively sigh with relief if an alien species decided we should be disappeared [now I’m thinking about the morality of destroying objects/things that have net negative contributions to the universe].

Maybe this is why we haven’t heard from aliens yet. They’ve seen what we’ve done and decided to shut us off from the universal trade system. We have been blackballed.

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Good Plant Placement

During our visit to the Harry Potter Studios I made sure to do a “deep look”. There’s no point just observing the surface stuff. It’s more fun to casually observe that and then look closer at the design and construction of everything else. Enjoy the overall spectacle and then look to see how it’s put together. During a drink break I noticed these:

Leavesden Being Really Clever
Leavesden Being Really Clever

These plants were visible through one of the sky lights and I decided that the studios were either really clever or just plain fortunate. So, plants are great. They like the sun (mostly) and they produce natural shade. The make places “warmer”, we all like plants in rooms or buildings, they add nature back into our sterile buildings. So, firstly, just seeing plants was nice. Then, they also filter the sun light heading into the building, making it less harsh, providing a more comfortable indoors. Finally, they just look good.

This has made me think more about the imminent crisis of climate change – I say imminent but it is happening now and has been happening for a while, history will judge the 1980s as the start of it all – we have to start doing things now to maintain a habitable country. We need to start planting trees in our streets. Right down the middle. We need to reduce car usage. But the trees would be nice. Imagine looking down most streets and seeing trees and flowers. The impact of extra trees in terms of CO2 capture would be minimal. But the cooling effect and shade provided by those trees would be immeasurable over the country. Actually that’s hyperbole, it could be measured, quite easily, but I’m trying to make a point. Now I’m starting to think that I should start a movement to push for trees and plants along all streets, let’s turn our country into one of boulevards.

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The Studio Experience

The Legend and I went for a tour around the Harry Potter studios near Watford in the recent past and I thought I would add my impressions of the place here.

Welcome To The Office
Welcome To The Office

It was a hot day when we travelled and I was very glad that there was some form of cooling system in the buildings. Our tour started at a particular time with some small talks and a grand entrance to the Hogwarts dining room hall. I was impressed and the production and direction was impressive. They did shove us out of the hall quite quickly but I had seen enough of it by then. None of the staff were rude, they were all remarkably upbeat and chipper.

Being able to see the movie sets used in the real films was really quite amazing. I really liked the Great Hall. Some of the smaller sets were really interesting and to see the level of detail that the prop makers had achieved was amazing. Every book had proper writing all the way through and all flasks were labelled etc. Absolutely amazing.

There were plenty of animatronic beasts lurking around and the detail and complexity that went into all the beasts was second to none. I was reminded of how much effort and planning goes into making a movie like this. After the script based on a book you then have all the art work that helps make the creations come true. After the development art work there’s more development and making the animals, sets and costumes. Then there’s the main act of filming it all.

Hogwarts School Of Wizardry
Hogwarts School Of Wizardry

It was a curious site to see the sets built up and looking remarkably real inside but then noticing that the outside is just scaffolding with wood work. Such a simple background to a complex interior. Of the large sets on display the interior of Gringots Bank, I think, was the one that I was most impressed with. A magnificent sight of marble (fake), gold (fake) and dragons (fake). Diagon Alley was recreated along with Kings Cross Station Platform 9 3/4. The whole tour is a very impressive sight. To see these places in reality was like those dreams when you are just waking up, seemingly real and unreal at the same time.

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A Decent Routine

I have, for years, had activity trackers. Many years ago I started with the Jawbone Up I think. I’d met someone in Washington DC who had one and I really liked the look, design and functionality. Over time I’ve moved to Garmin devices because they are better designed. I currently have a Garmin Instinct and I really like it. I’ve probably mentioned it here before but I’m not sure I can be bothered to make the links.

The Instinct can “track” sleep. I think what it does is effectively monitor movement and pulse to decide what stage of sleep you are in. The first main stage of sleep is Deep Sleep. This is when you are absolutely whacked out and probably won’t respond to much stimulation. During this time, which ideally is around an hour your body does some magical stuff. It flushes bad stuff out of the brain that has built up during the day and it also repairs your stomach one third of which gets destroyed through the process of digesting food. After deep sleep the body will cycle through REM and sleep, maybe about an hour of each.

Proud of this sleep pattern
Proud of this sleep pattern

The above readout from my watch is practically perfect. It’s not often I have a night like this. The deep sleep is about right and then the cycles of the other forms of sleep makes a lovely pattern. Below as a contrast is an example of not-so-good sleep. You can see the poor pattern and movement around. The good sleep is reasonably rare as you can tell from the fact I wanted to write a communication about it.

Not So Good Sleep
Not So Good Sleep
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How Things Should Work

I’ve been thinking of having a dedicated Minecraft server for a long time. Prior to recently it has been running on my PC if and when the server is needed. I play on different platforms and while I can use the PC Server anywhere in the world moving my world to a provided external company as a server wasn’t an option as my PlayStations would not join those servers. Currently most platforms, except the PlayStation, allow connection to external servers but Sony haven’t because of reasons to do with safety? So, paying a company for a server isn’t really an option. I needed something that would work at home and independently from the PC.

I quite fancied a Raspberry Pi to do the job and there are plenty of websites out there with instructions. As long as the Pi is reasonably spec’d it should work ok and is relatively cheap to buy and cheap to run. I’ve got experience with the Pi owning two already – both for specific purposes. So I ordered a Pi to see how well it would serve me. A couple of things I noticed I guess. If you use Ubuntu you can’t use the Microsoft Ubuntu server edition because it is designed for a different chip architecture. The are various dedicated Raspbian Minecraft servers and I followed the instructions to create one. I couldn’t transfer over my current world to the Pi server as the file format was different and I’m not sure that I want to start completely again yet. So, the Pi will be used for a different project at some point.

The next option was to get a cheap PC and run Windows or Linux and operate a server compatible with my current world. I searched Amazon and Ebay for mini-PCs and ultimately landed on getting a refurbished Lenovo ThinkCenter. It’s a small box around 15cm square and about three centimetres deep. It has all the things I need. A good-enough processor, reasonable RAM and an SSD. The moving parts are minimal and the count of them is probably two – the fan and the power switch.

I ordered one from an EBay shop with plenty of good feedback. I don’t read the good feedback, I tend to read the one star reviews to see what problems I might encounter. A lot of people out there will leave low reviews for stupid reasons which are nothing to do with the product. i.e. took too long to arrive, didn’t work with my device etc. So the new device arrived promptly and I started the whole boot up, log in procedure. I always find it a little exciting when starting a new device for the first time. I logged into Windows and started to sort out the software and run updates when I got a blue screen of death. I was a little surprised but thought that maybe the update had messed something up. From that point on I would get bsod every few minutes and sometimes I couldn’t even log in to the machine. A number of the error codes suggested the memory was faulty so I got in touch with the company.

They sent me some new RAM immediately. I fitted it and the PC works very now. I have server software running and it’s accessible anywhere in the world. I have remote access to the device and have set it up so it is “locked” after start up. I’ve learnt quite a few things about Windows along the way. I have a better idea of what sort of things are possible. I can also access the files remotely so that I can back up my maps and keep all the work safe. Ultimately I gave the company a five star review on EBay. While the product was initially faulty they sorted it out quickly and it works well now.

It’s a touch annoying when setting up a new server happens to coincide with the day that Mojang release new updates for Minecraft Bedrock. I’d got the server up and running and I went to test it on the PS5 and I was told the server was out of date! Little did I know that the PS5 had updated Minecraft while I was logging in and I then had to update the server software along with updating all my devices that have Minecraft. I think one device still isn’t updated as the roll-out takes some time. I’m looking forward to playing Minecraft in those spare moments and seeing where else I can explore in my world.

There are some other things that need organising. I need to figure out where to put the Server. It’s currently in a temporary place where I can get to it and use it with ease. I’m thinking I might attach it to the underside of my PC desk so that all the nice things are close together. This causes some issues as there will be cables stretching across a currently cable-free area. So, I’ve decided to get another ethernet switch and use that to minimise the cabling required. I think it will all fit nicely and be partially hidden. Also, I can have the server displaying on one of the PC monitors if I need it without moving things around.

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Anyone But Them

I recently visited my ancestral home village and read through the local magazine. My parents still live in the house I grew up in and so they are known in the village and are part of the fabric I guess. Somehow this area still has a Lord Of The Manor. I honestly have no idea what this means but the locals seem to have some sort of natural deference to this person, local societies have them as their patron, and it irritates me an awful lot. Imagine some twat being given deference just because they were born into a title or even bought it. This annoys me so much about this island we live on where the ideals of meritocracy are constantly overshadowed by the rights of those entitled (literally).

I read the local magazine during the visit and I have to say I want to write to them. There was a lovely little article responding to some criticism that had been placed at the door of the local GP surgery. I didn’t see the original argument but I imagine someone was annoyed at the “service” they had received. The Practice Manager had a short response piece along with a local asking that we all be nice and understand the pressures that the NHS are under. This is all positive community stuff. The local practice needed defending and so the locals defended the practice.

My message for the residents of that village is somewhat different. I’ve looked up who represents them as a local councillor and, as you would expect, I suppose, they are pale, male and stale. A classic tory. He even has the full name of the tory party next to him, which I don’t think I’ve seen that often. The conservative and unionist party. Next I looked up the local election results for the most recent polling date. I could only find the 2019 results, for some reason the 2023 results are not on the local website. This person gained 77% of the votes cast. But the votes cast only account for a turn out of 32%.

The slightly bigger picture in that area is that the Member of Parliament is Kemi Badenoch. A tory of the worst kind and utterly useless. Their election results was 37,629 votes. A majority of 24,966. That whole area is full of tories who, by definition, are selfish. This saddens me. People who complain about the struggling local services and yet they are resoundingly a tory area. What do you expect from these government services following twelve years of austerity – a political choice? Rather than moan to the local magazine how about you actually do something and vote for a different party? Vote for change. Vote for anyone but them.

The recent local elections where I live were just as depressing. I live in a small, mostly working class, village. There are some large properties but I had hoped that overwhelmingly the village would be left leaning. I was so wrong. The results were that all three tory councillors got re-elected. The village faces threats from lack of public transport, the doctors moving and nine hundred new houses being built to more than double the size of this place. And yet most people still vote tory because they are too scared to vote for anything else. Have you looked at the labour party? They are just tory-lite but would be so much better for nearly everything. They wouldn’t be the best party to lead this country but they would certainly be better than the current bunch of shits.

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Cobbles, Company, and Cocktails

I recently had a lovely weekend with friends of over thirty years in the Belgium city of Leuven. It was a celebration of getting old for one of us and we got together for probably the first time in twelve years. We live in different ends of the country and in different countries now so getting together is just a little bit harder than meeting up at the Star Of India or King Willy IV. It’s odd but when comparing technology from now to then and the ease of keeping in touch I feel it’s amazing we ever did anything. Imagine having to phone call people and organise things “live”.

So, trains, cars and cars on trains meant that we had a weekend in Leuven. It’s a very pretty town and had a lovely atmosphere, probably aided by the fact it’s a university town. On the Saturday we just met up, found our lodgings and drank and ate. On the Sunday we ate, drank, ate and drank and somewhere in the middle of that there was a visit to a little brewery on the edge of town. It definitely was not Stella Artois which has it’s home at Leuven.

Leuven Town Hall
Leuven Town Hall

Leuven has a large pedestrian area, although there were many bicycles on the loose! The roads were nicely wide and there were statues here and there. Effectively within the main ring-road the place is safe, quiet and impressive.

A Leuven Street
A Leuven Street

At night the town is gorgeous. It’s well lit and oozes sophistication – apart from that one little street which has a McDonalds – the rest of it is lovely.

Leuven Cocktails
Leuven Cocktails

This past week I also spend some time in the UK equivalent town of history and cobbles. I went to Canterbury. The streets are thinner but just as full of tourists as Leuven. There were many eateries but not so many bars which is a shame I guess. Canterbury is a university town and also the home of christianity in the UK – not that that fact is a draw on me going there. I’ve been in the cathedral and so am not that fussed about getting inside there again.

Canterbury Streets
Canterbury Streets

You can see from the picture above that Canterbury does pretty well in the “cobbled streets and old buildings look” category. Maybe Leuven is a bit better as they rebuilt the whole town after the first world war and made it look like it did before!

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