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I’ve finally sorted out a workable solution for running cron jobs at night on my laptop. The problem is that I don’t like leaving the PowerBook awake all night: Heat is pretty damaging to electronic components, and the longer the backlight in the LCD is on, the shorter its life. It’s also a bit wasteful of energy, and I try to conserve energy whenever I can.

We’ve been using a utility called iBeeZz at work for a while now to shutdown and reboot a desktop machine we use as a server, and I’ve finally got around to installing it on my laptop. The built-in Energy Saver preferences allow you to shutdown the computer at a pre-set time, but you can’t wake it from sleep automatically. iBeeZz has a lot of flexibility, and you can wake up, sleep, shutdown or startup at any scheduled time, while varying the behaviour on different days of the week. You can also arrange to quit an application, open a file or an Applescript, or you can launch iTunes–thus turning your Mac into a ludicrously over-priced alarm clock.

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We subscribe to a fantastic magazine called A to B. It’s lovingly produced by David and Jane Henshaw in Somerset, aided and abetted by young Alexander (who is apparently an enthusiastic magazine packer), and covers alternative modes of transport. There are articles on the increasingly arcane art of combining train travel with cycling, folding bikes, trailers and electric bikes: everything you need to know to avoid relying on cars as your primary means of transport. Despite the fact that it is more or less home-produced, it’s a very professional affair, with good writing, detailed reviews of bikes and accessories and lots of useful information¹.

The current issue has a great article about the Caledonian Sleeper train–a subject close to my heart. I’ve used the Sleeper twice, both times travelling with my bike from London to Glasgow, and then getting the train to Oban to make the ferry journey to the Isle of Mull. On the first trip, I travelled on my own, returning a year later with my new boyfriend–now my husband. Even if it wasn’t the cheapest and most convenient way to get a bike to the north of Scotland, I would still go by Sleeper because it feels so special. The train leaves London around midnight, and it feels odd to be pulling out of the city in the middle of the night. The cabins are pretty tiny, but comfortable, and as you have a drink in the bar before you turn in, you can’t help feeling that you’ve just stepped into an Agatha Christie novel. It’s pleasantly old-fashioned.

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Yesterday I discovered the perfect antidote for reading too many undergraduate essays and spending four hours trying to explain complicated theoretical models when your head hurts: a glass of wine and Hustle (not to be confused with Hustler). It’s frothy, knowing, ultra-glossy, and best of all it has a Man From U.N.C.L.E. You don’t even need to trouble your brain with the plot–just enjoy the fancy hardware and the frequent slow-motion shots of people in nice clothes walking away from office buildings. The slow-motion stylish walking is pointless, but surprisingly soothing to the troubled mind. There are also fertile Apple Mac¹ spotting opportunities.

¹ I felt that I should use the full designation here in case the word ‘mac’ conjured images of Columbo. The time that I did that Google search for “latex+mac” looking for LaTeX installations is still etched on my memory.

As Professor Farnsworth says in Futurama–Good news everyone!

According to Ananova, two Bosnian brothers have been found to have 4 working kidneys each:

Josip Galic, 69, from Kucetine in Bosnia said: “I had a car accident and doctors discovered I had four kidneys. That surprised me, but at least it explained why I could drink all my friends under the table, and never had a hangover.”

He added it was a further surprise when his brother found out after a visit to the doctor that he had four kidneys as well.

Handy, no? I mean, I know that one of your kidneys is technically a spare since you can function with only one, but multiple backups are definitely the way to go.

[via 2lmc spool]

I read a somewhat depressing article in the Independent yesterday about the upcoming strike action by AUT members over pay. It reported that 2,000 teaching and research staff are leaving UK Universities every year because of the poor salary levels compared to those in other countries (particularly the US, where salaries are about 50% higher).

Most people don’t go in to academia for the money (fools!); they love the job and accept job satisfaction and slightly more freedom to do what they find most interesting, in exchange for lower pay. But now that occupational stress is increasing (relentless budget cuts, fewer staff expected to cover the teaching load of those who have left, cuts in grant funding), and house prices are soaring, people are beginning to question whether the rather dubious benefits are worth the sacrifice. Certainly, if you are supporting a family, it becomes hard to justify.

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When I saw Finding Nemo at the end of last year, I wrote about how impressed I was by its educational qualities. As it turned out, there was accurate biological detail that even I missed. In an article in Nature, they reveal that Pixar employed a fish biomechanicist called Adam Summers to give them lectures on fish locomotion, biology and marine ecology.

The Pixar people were entranced by his description of the reproductive biology of the anglerfish. In this weird deep-sea species, the males are relatively tiny and attach permanently to the females by biting through their flesh and becoming parasitic–or rather symbiotic, since they are donating sperm if nothing else–on the female and stay with her for their whole life. The animators loved it so much (and who wouldn’t?) that–if you look closely–you can see that the anglerfish featured in the film has a parasitic male attached to her side. I didn’t see that the first time, so I’ll certainly have to watch it again.

They also asked Summers and a colleague what factual error would distress them most if featured in the film. Summers’ colleague said that he would be really irritated if they featured kelp (a cold water species) in a tropical coral reef. There was a bit of an uncomfortable silence as the animators realised that they had done just that. To their everlasting credit, they painstakingly took all the kelp out and re-rendered, which must have taken them ages. In my experience, very few science or nature documentaries take that kind of meticulous care with the facts, which makes Pixar’s attention to detail even more laudable.

Adam Summers got a credit at the end of the film as ‘The Fabulous Fish Guy’, which makes me insanely jealous. Never mind a Nobel Prize–if I ever get a credit on a Pixar film, I’ll be a happy little scientist.

I found this very funny but also a little troubling; if about 0.008%¹ of Britons can’t cope with even a simple and common article of clothing without doing themselves an injury, then the country is in desperate trouble. This quote really made me laugh:

According to Rospa, trousers are responsible for more accidents than any other garment: “In the UK around 3,695 people attend hospital every year as a result of an accident with trousers,” says spokeswoman Karen Blanchette. Among the incidents she recounts are “accidentally tripping because of a wide-flared trouser” and “putting your trousers on too quickly, losing your balance, and falling over”.

I know that people complain about the ‘nanny state’, but I hadn’t considered until now that it might be meant quite this literally.

[via 2lmc spool]

¹ Assuming that only people over 16 are stupid enough be unable to get their trousers on safely, the population of the UK over 16 is about 47 million. I’m also assuming that the numbers aren’t made up by a few people who repeatedly trip over their trousers. Perhaps this is a foolish assumption.

One of the joys of listening to an iPod on random play is that you occasionally hear a track so surprising that you would be prepared to swear in a court of law had absolutely nothing to do with you, because you have no recollection of putting it on the iPod, and you can’t think why you would have done anyway.

As an example, I was happily listening to my iPod this morning, when the intro to a new track began:

[iPod] DUM-da-dum, DUM-da-dum…

[Me, because I already recognise the song] What the…?

[iPod] DUM-da-dum, DUM-da-dum, It’s not unusual to be loved by anyone, DA-da-da-da-da, It’s not unusual to have fun with anyone…

[Me] Tom Jones! I swear that I’m not responsible for putting that on, officer–someone must have sneakily synchronised it over while I wasn’t looking.

I’ll tell you what though–nothing gets the hips a-swinging first thing in the morning like a good dose of the ‘Jones the Voice’. It did me the world of good. You see, my iPod knows me better than I do. There’s lovely.

Our trip to London on Sunday made me remember how much I enjoy daydreaming. I can’t read in buses or cars without feeling sick, which means that I can’t be tempted into trying to work. I listen to my iPod and daydream–I really need to do that every now and again. Life is often so hectic and relentless that having a space to just think about things is incredibly valuable.

I love watching trees flick by while I’m on the bus, and letting my imagination wander wherever it wants to. It seems to help me (in a subtle way) to make some kind of sense of all the things that happen to me, and to try out alternative plans for the future. Of course, it’s almost a racing certainty that none of these possibilities will come to fruition. But even though I know this, it’s comforting to think that there are multiple alternative futures out there. All kinds of random thoughts come along when I’m daydreaming, and it can sometimes lead me to make interesting links and connections between things. These links might not actually be useful, but it helps me to feel like a live, thinking human, modelling the world in her brain and creating something, rather than a stressed automaton responding passively to circumstances.

I suppose what I’m saying is that sometimes you need to lock your bossy, anxious, results-obsessed, boring brain in a cupboard and let your inner airhead out to play.

“A watched backup never ends.”

I’ve been watching the MB fall for the past ten minutes, and it seems as if time is slowing down. Perhaps I need a proper hobby.

In a bid to get out of Oxford for the day, and to get a bit of culture, we went to the National Gallery yesterday. There were a couple of good exhibitions: Thomas Jones and Bosch and Bruegel.

Jones was a Welsh artist of the late 18th century, who travelled all over Italy painting landscapes. He started off with a typical (and to me rather uninteresting) 18th century ‘Roman ruins adorned by decorative goats and and milk maids’ style of painting, but gradually moved to a strikingly-modern architectural style. A series of paintings in Napoli show peeling stuccoed walls, faded shutters and hanging laundry. He really captures the strong, heavy sunlight and dark shadows perfectly, and the images would not look out of place in a modern photographer’s work.

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I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for pigeons having worked with them for several years. Their ability to notice a new food source within seconds of it appearing is quite impressive.

[Trafalgar Square, London]

Mr. Bsag has fallen in love again on Valentine’s Day. He found the Retired Greyhound Trust’s page, and hasn’t been the same since. Every few minutes, he finds another really cute photo, and makes the kind of cooing sounds that people usually reserve for small babies. Now that I’ve seen them, I’m going all mushy too. Spike in particular, seems like the kind of goofy-looking dog I could do business with.

I grew up with lots of pets, but since I left home I’ve lived in rented places where I haven’t been allowed to keep pets, and I’ve always felt that there’s been something missing. We’ll have to wait a bit longer, as the tenancy agreement on our current flat specifically prohibits pets (and children, actually, so there’ll be no little Bsags until we can move). In any case, judging by these pictures, the first thing you need when you get a greyhound is a couple of spare sofas, as they seem to be comfort-seeking missiles, with an uncanny ability to fill any soft furniture to overflowing with miles of skinny legs.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m an avid user of GeekTool, so I was disappointed to find that it was broken in Panther. I sorely missed the little bits of information that got written to my desktop, though my desktop is already pretty rich in information. I’m glad to say that GeekTool has now been updated for Panther and works fine.

I had a nice GeekTool entry which ran an Applescript written by Pete, which listed the mailboxes in Mailsmith with unread messages, and gave the unread message count. This was very handy as Mailsmith doesn’t have a message count on the Dock icon like Mail. The only problem I had was that I would forget to disable the script when I wanted to logout or shutdown. As GeekTool runs the script at intervals, it would start up Mailsmith again, and therefore prevent me from logging out. Relying on me to remember to do anything is fraught with danger and disappointment, so I wanted to alter the script to check if Mailsmith was running before it did anything. That turned out to be inexplicably hard¹, but I’ve managed to get it working now.

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I’ve just had a very tense and stressful week, which was due to a combination of having a bad cough and cold and feeling rotten, and yet still having to prepare to give a research seminar at another University, which–for one reason or another–turned into a much more significant event than it would normally be.

I did the seminar yesterday. Things went fine, people seemed to enjoy my talk and my voice didn’t pack up, and now I feel exhausted but exhilarated. Finally, the weight that has been pressing down on me so insistently for a week has been lifted off, and I feel very light and free. Sometimes it’s worthwhile enduring stress–if only for the fact that it’s nice when you stop (like hitting your head against a wall). In fact life would be pretty dull (comfortable, but dull) if we didn’t stress ourselves at all. The challenge can be wonderful, and you get a great feeling from overcoming (or at least enduring) obstacles. The real problem comes–I suppose–when stress becomes chronic and inescapable.

I had a dream about the talk a few days before I was due to give it. I don’t normally talk about my dreams¹, but I’ll describe this one because I think it shows just how much pressure I felt myself to be under.

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