This week I have (whilst not working) been watching Torchwood and the second disc of Ultraviolet (television drama, not the movie) which I have rented.
Both deal with secret government organisations and I like them both, but this scenario (which could be common to both) demonstrates how they are slightly different.
Bad guy uses a payphone whilst being watched by a good guy whom the bad guy doesn't know is following him.
Torchwood: phone someone operating a computer who access the phone network and track the call, discovering the destination the number and location. They'd likely pull up a handy nearby CCTV camera to get an image of their face too.
Ultraviolet: good guy picks up the phone after the bad guy is done and presses redial.
Back to work...
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
It's also Canada Day
Ten years ago today I was standing around in Edinburgh because I wasn't very good at maths.
Easter 1999 and I'd opted to go to a study school thing organised between local high schools for people who wanted additional study/practice questions before exams. Although I'd done quite well at Standard Grade maths Higher wasn't going so well, so I went along. Of more than twenty pupils that put their names down for this from our school, only four of us actually turned up and that was how our school began the selection process for who was going to be sent from the fifth year to represent them at the opening of the Scottish Parliament. What they wanted was a boy and a girl from each school in Scotland to carry a banner and parade through the streets.
So the day began properly at Hamilton where all the representatives from South Lanarkshire were being taken to Edinburgh. Although we'd all dressed smartly in our school uniforms we were given sweatshirts to wear for uniformity and, this being Scotland in July, matching waterproof coats too. I still have both of these somewhere. The banners that we were to to carry would in some way represent some aspect of our area and the one I ended up with apparently represented farming in shades of lilac and black.
Obviously Edinburgh, opening of the Scottish Parliament (although not the actual building because that wasn't ready until 2004): it was rather busy. For one thing lots of coaches were dropping off school kids, some of whom had set off the day before on a boat. There were helicopters flying about - some delivering guests and some getting overhead views for television coverage. As we were gathering and being given our sweatshirts, raincoats, plan for the day and banners (complete with small leather belt to help support them as they were quite heavy and there was a steady breeze), a small group of men in suits pushed past evidently on their way to somewhere important. I later found out that one of them was Gordon Brown, and I resolved that if I were ever an important politician I would remember to say "excuse me."
The important procession happened earlier in the day - when guests, freshly elected MSPs, the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Charles had actually attended the official opening - and our bit began at noon. We basically walked to the Free Church on the Mound where the Royal Party and the First Minister were up on a platform outside. Sean Connery was there somewhere but I didn't see him. Concord and the Red Arrows flew over, and I wished I'd brought a camera. There were cameras everywhere, and I remember thinking at that time that I'd have no trouble seeing what the whole thing looked like on the news later. Of course owing to child protection regulations and the fact that digital cameras at the time weren't exceptional I haven't actually been able to find video or photographs of the parade to post here.
Our parade took us down from the mound and along Princes Street to the gardens where an afternoon of "entertainment" had been planned. This turned out to mostly consist of local boy/girl-bands who never made it and a group of performers wearing oversized papier mâcher masks called the "massive heids" who some people might remember from TFI Friday. The best bit of that afternoon was when Donald Dewar popped up to give a short speech thanking us for our involvement. I say best bit because, politics apart, he gave a genuine sense of excitement about the day in general and our part in it, even though we all knew that he'd basically just come down from lunch with the Queen, etc. At that point I was really glad that the person in charge of things was so full of hope and enthusiasm for the whole thing, and I wonder what it might have been like if Donald Dewar had been around for longer (he died suddenly in October 2000).
I wished that I'd stayed in Edinburgh to see Garbage play their concert that night, although I wasn't really dressed for it as school uniform isn't as ironic if you are still actually at school. Of course after all that we had the row over the costs of the Parliament building, an expenses scandal three years before everyone was doing it, the West Lothian question, and the ongoing debate about whether a UK Tory Government might result in another referendum on Scottish Independence. But on that day there was a great feeling that almost anything could happen and I'm proud to have been there.
Easter 1999 and I'd opted to go to a study school thing organised between local high schools for people who wanted additional study/practice questions before exams. Although I'd done quite well at Standard Grade maths Higher wasn't going so well, so I went along. Of more than twenty pupils that put their names down for this from our school, only four of us actually turned up and that was how our school began the selection process for who was going to be sent from the fifth year to represent them at the opening of the Scottish Parliament. What they wanted was a boy and a girl from each school in Scotland to carry a banner and parade through the streets.
So the day began properly at Hamilton where all the representatives from South Lanarkshire were being taken to Edinburgh. Although we'd all dressed smartly in our school uniforms we were given sweatshirts to wear for uniformity and, this being Scotland in July, matching waterproof coats too. I still have both of these somewhere. The banners that we were to to carry would in some way represent some aspect of our area and the one I ended up with apparently represented farming in shades of lilac and black.
Obviously Edinburgh, opening of the Scottish Parliament (although not the actual building because that wasn't ready until 2004): it was rather busy. For one thing lots of coaches were dropping off school kids, some of whom had set off the day before on a boat. There were helicopters flying about - some delivering guests and some getting overhead views for television coverage. As we were gathering and being given our sweatshirts, raincoats, plan for the day and banners (complete with small leather belt to help support them as they were quite heavy and there was a steady breeze), a small group of men in suits pushed past evidently on their way to somewhere important. I later found out that one of them was Gordon Brown, and I resolved that if I were ever an important politician I would remember to say "excuse me."
The important procession happened earlier in the day - when guests, freshly elected MSPs, the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Charles had actually attended the official opening - and our bit began at noon. We basically walked to the Free Church on the Mound where the Royal Party and the First Minister were up on a platform outside. Sean Connery was there somewhere but I didn't see him. Concord and the Red Arrows flew over, and I wished I'd brought a camera. There were cameras everywhere, and I remember thinking at that time that I'd have no trouble seeing what the whole thing looked like on the news later. Of course owing to child protection regulations and the fact that digital cameras at the time weren't exceptional I haven't actually been able to find video or photographs of the parade to post here.
Our parade took us down from the mound and along Princes Street to the gardens where an afternoon of "entertainment" had been planned. This turned out to mostly consist of local boy/girl-bands who never made it and a group of performers wearing oversized papier mâcher masks called the "massive heids" who some people might remember from TFI Friday. The best bit of that afternoon was when Donald Dewar popped up to give a short speech thanking us for our involvement. I say best bit because, politics apart, he gave a genuine sense of excitement about the day in general and our part in it, even though we all knew that he'd basically just come down from lunch with the Queen, etc. At that point I was really glad that the person in charge of things was so full of hope and enthusiasm for the whole thing, and I wonder what it might have been like if Donald Dewar had been around for longer (he died suddenly in October 2000).
I wished that I'd stayed in Edinburgh to see Garbage play their concert that night, although I wasn't really dressed for it as school uniform isn't as ironic if you are still actually at school. Of course after all that we had the row over the costs of the Parliament building, an expenses scandal three years before everyone was doing it, the West Lothian question, and the ongoing debate about whether a UK Tory Government might result in another referendum on Scottish Independence. But on that day there was a great feeling that almost anything could happen and I'm proud to have been there.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
The French will surely come
Proper blog half-written (I really have been back from London for a while) but in the meantime...
A while ago I expressed the opinion (first as a blog comment and then on Twitter) that Buffy Summers visiting Forks would work well for me, and probably not take terribly long in terms of narrative content.
I'm very happy to see that someone with better video editing skills and time on their hands had the same idea.
Doesn't Buffy's world look colourful. Maybe Angel Vs Edward would be fun too.
Also I bought some audio software recently and the box/content ratio was rather astounding. It may not be clear from the picture so here are the measurements of the box is 260 x 220 x 75 mm and inside is a folded piece of A4 and a paper wallet containing two DVDs.
It's mostly that seven and a half centimetres of depth that I feel is un-necessary; I've got a single DVD case which holds 6 DVDs. Also I had to pay for the shipping on two boxes like that (but with different data DVDs) from the Netherlands.
A while ago I expressed the opinion (first as a blog comment and then on Twitter) that Buffy Summers visiting Forks would work well for me, and probably not take terribly long in terms of narrative content.
I'm very happy to see that someone with better video editing skills and time on their hands had the same idea.
Doesn't Buffy's world look colourful. Maybe Angel Vs Edward would be fun too.
Also I bought some audio software recently and the box/content ratio was rather astounding. It may not be clear from the picture so here are the measurements of the box is 260 x 220 x 75 mm and inside is a folded piece of A4 and a paper wallet containing two DVDs.
It's mostly that seven and a half centimetres of depth that I feel is un-necessary; I've got a single DVD case which holds 6 DVDs. Also I had to pay for the shipping on two boxes like that (but with different data DVDs) from the Netherlands.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Moon carburetor
Not blog posts for quite some time, but I've been very busy - mostly working on forthcoming projects for Big Finish Productions. The big one is out of the way now and whilst the others aren't lesser projects they are a bit closer to what I'm used to.
Currently I'm writing this from London, with all the associated noise and bustle even in the relatively inclement weather. I travelled down here yesterday by train which was a bit of a mission. The train from Lanark to Glasgow was delayed, and then the train from Glasgow to London was basically cancelled due to problems with a bridge collision. The London train would start from Edinburgh instead but I didn't discover this until I was about to get on the train - wheeled suitcase in one hand and large coffee in the other - so I then had to dash across Glasgow to Queen Street station to get a train on an unaffected line to Edinburgh. I did make it in time, but the dashing was less than ideal. The train to London was delayed slightly as well due to another collision with a bridge near York. I can only assume that since yesterday was the first rain in some time that the road was slippery or something.
Annnyway... in London now, where as I mentioned it is raining. I found out yesterday that there's a Tubular Bells-related event happening at the British Music Experience in the O2 (the Millennium Dome) today but getting there will be problematic due to works on the underground. Then for 2 days next week there will be a tube strike. I normally use the underground to give London some kind of form that I can work around whilst going from place to place, so this will force me to use maps and things. I didn't bring my A-Z so I'll be relying on wifi and Google Maps. What fun.
Currently I'm writing this from London, with all the associated noise and bustle even in the relatively inclement weather. I travelled down here yesterday by train which was a bit of a mission. The train from Lanark to Glasgow was delayed, and then the train from Glasgow to London was basically cancelled due to problems with a bridge collision. The London train would start from Edinburgh instead but I didn't discover this until I was about to get on the train - wheeled suitcase in one hand and large coffee in the other - so I then had to dash across Glasgow to Queen Street station to get a train on an unaffected line to Edinburgh. I did make it in time, but the dashing was less than ideal. The train to London was delayed slightly as well due to another collision with a bridge near York. I can only assume that since yesterday was the first rain in some time that the road was slippery or something.
Annnyway... in London now, where as I mentioned it is raining. I found out yesterday that there's a Tubular Bells-related event happening at the British Music Experience in the O2 (the Millennium Dome) today but getting there will be problematic due to works on the underground. Then for 2 days next week there will be a tube strike. I normally use the underground to give London some kind of form that I can work around whilst going from place to place, so this will force me to use maps and things. I didn't bring my A-Z so I'll be relying on wifi and Google Maps. What fun.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Army of Goats
This is Simon Holub's cover for The Scapegoat, isn't it fab? Episode one of The Scapegoat is available directly from Big Finish as a download this weekend, and on CD in a few months.
Busy working on Other Things just now, which seems to be going well. In spare time I have recently been very much enjoying:
Deadwood series 1 (which I missed completely),
Emmy the Great,
The Mummers,
Busy working on Other Things just now, which seems to be going well. In spare time I have recently been very much enjoying:
Deadwood series 1 (which I missed completely),
Emmy the Great,
The Mummers,
Saturday, April 04, 2009
You could make Roman gasp when you'd go walking passed
Coming soon:
I did the sound editing for the eighth Doctor and Lucie story The Scapegoat. It's the fifth story in the current series, and each episode is being made available to subscribers on a weekly basis - so you can get a weekly fix of Doctor Who whilst the television series isn't on. The Scapegoat will be available to download from and on CD from July. Also there's a trailer here (where the credits for sound design/ music are currently incorrect - the talented Jamie Robertson did the music on this one).
The next season of Bernice Summerfield adventures have been announced and I'll be doing some of them. I've had thet scripts for a couple of months and they are all great. Benny will also be appearing in one of the stories that makes up The Company of Friends.
One of the projects I've been keeping quiet lately involves Mr Boom. Mr Boom is a children's entertainer - many people of around my age will remember seeing his television programmes. I've been occasionally helping him with recording stuff at his Earth Base (which isn't far from where I live), but one recent project involves helping to re-work his back catalogue. Technically this isn't not re-mastering because I didn't mess with the audio content much, but we moved track markers around and embedded the correct track and copyright information. Now the whole lot will soon be available on the online stores at iTunes, eMusic, Napster, Amazon, Rhapsody, etc., courtesy of TuneCore.
If you have or know young children it might be worth a look. The majority of the music I've been working on with Mr Boom is more singer-songwriter-with-a-band stuff (and not under the name Mr Boom) and I'll be plugging that in due course.
I think that's all I can mention for the time being, back to work...
I did the sound editing for the eighth Doctor and Lucie story The Scapegoat. It's the fifth story in the current series, and each episode is being made available to subscribers on a weekly basis - so you can get a weekly fix of Doctor Who whilst the television series isn't on. The Scapegoat will be available to download from and on CD from July. Also there's a trailer here (where the credits for sound design/ music are currently incorrect - the talented Jamie Robertson did the music on this one).
The next season of Bernice Summerfield adventures have been announced and I'll be doing some of them. I've had thet scripts for a couple of months and they are all great. Benny will also be appearing in one of the stories that makes up The Company of Friends.
One of the projects I've been keeping quiet lately involves Mr Boom. Mr Boom is a children's entertainer - many people of around my age will remember seeing his television programmes. I've been occasionally helping him with recording stuff at his Earth Base (which isn't far from where I live), but one recent project involves helping to re-work his back catalogue. Technically this isn't not re-mastering because I didn't mess with the audio content much, but we moved track markers around and embedded the correct track and copyright information. Now the whole lot will soon be available on the online stores at iTunes, eMusic, Napster, Amazon, Rhapsody, etc., courtesy of TuneCore.
If you have or know young children it might be worth a look. The majority of the music I've been working on with Mr Boom is more singer-songwriter-with-a-band stuff (and not under the name Mr Boom) and I'll be plugging that in due course.
I think that's all I can mention for the time being, back to work...
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
You spend your life putting money in his bonnet
I had been going to announce that I was working something intentionally ridiculous as an April Fool, however I cannot think of something that is ridiculous enough to place it outside the realms of possibility.
How about the one where it's set totally in the skies above pre-historic Earth and we remember to destroy each location as we leave?
Or the one where the Sixth Doctor communicates with giant insects by squawking at them, becomes involved in a bar fight, becomes involved in the French Revolution and meets Mrs Thatcher?
Or the one where (almost) everyone has lots of sex?
Or even the one with Krotons in the soup?
See what I mean?
How about the one where it's set totally in the skies above pre-historic Earth and we remember to destroy each location as we leave?
Or the one where the Sixth Doctor communicates with giant insects by squawking at them, becomes involved in a bar fight, becomes involved in the French Revolution and meets Mrs Thatcher?
Or the one where (almost) everyone has lots of sex?
Or even the one with Krotons in the soup?
See what I mean?
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