Summer concert of Baroque Choral Music : Winchester Festival, 10 July : Ashton Singers at St Cross

Summer concert of Baroque Choral Music

(part of the Winchester Festival)

Nigel Gardner chamber organ
Hilary Brooks 'cello
Pat Glynn chitarrone
Sackbuts, cornetts and other period instruments directed by Theresa Caudle

Ashton Singers
Julian Macey conductor

A varied programme of choral and instrumental music including works by Gabrieli, Schutz, Schein and Telemann. Complimentary interval drinks in the Master's Garden, weather permitting.

See the Ashton Singers website for more details.

Better use of Tagul

More experiments.

I've used the API this time, and that allows me to map each tag to exactly the right target URL without upsetting the appearance of the tag cloud - I was also able to edit the list so that one composer (James Oswald) did not overpower all the others.

The XML is really simple - I generated it from a single SQL statement.

When I have time I will improve it so that composers I want to highlight (e.g. this year's anniversaries) come out in a different colour.

Then it will be time to decide whether this is actually any use to potential website customers or not! But I do really like this technology, it's so simple to use.

What Smartphone?

As mentioned at boring length on this blog in the past, I currently have a Samsung Omnia, running Windows Mobile, with which I am pretty comfortable, especially since Windows Mobile was upgraded on it a few months ago.

However my contract runs out at the end of May & I need to decide what to do next.

I do understand that Windows Mobile is the 2010 equivalent of token ring or OS/2 ...

The easy option is obviously an iPhone.

I think I need the following functionality:

Essential:
a) Battery lasting at least 24 hours, and easy availability of spare batteries and battery (as opposed to phone) charger
b) Solid build quality (the Omnia is good re this, except for the ridiculous power/headset socket)
c) Ability to sync calendar and contacts with Outlook 2003
d) POP3 or IMAP email, ideally with ability to move emails between accounts, and without Windows Mobile's ability to corrupt account details at awkward moments
e) Good texting capabilities (this is not a strength of Windows Mobile)
f) Easy synchronisation of audio files with Windows XP, plenty of storage, and decent playback quality
g) Good wireless support that does not drain the battery
h) Ability to stream BBC radio (thinking especially of the Ashes this winter)
i) Bluetooth, including support of Motorola Sound Pilot headset
j) Browser with scroll bars (I know Opera Mobile is award-winning and I am a Luddite, but I do like IE on the Omnia, even though I never use it on my PC)
l) Easily managed connections - the Omnia does this really well, never leaving you needing a power off/on to reset a 3G or wireless connection

Less essential:
m) Access to my Hotmail account (the Windows Mobile support is excellent)
n) Access to iPlayer
o) Access to Skype IM and/or MSN Messenger

Realistically I will be using a PC running Windows XP, not Linux or a Mac, for the foreseeable future.

I'll post the results of my researches here, and meanwhile any input would be very welcome!

'Practical Implications of POWER7 and i/OS 7.1': Logicalis IT Forum, Bath Spa Hotel, Wednesday 24 March

The next Logicalis IT Forum meeting will be on Wednesday 24 March at the Bath Spa Hotel, Bath, with dinner and overnight stay on Tuesday 23 March.

The topic will be 'Practical Implications of POWER7 and i/OS 7.1'.

I am delighted to announce that our speaker will be Gottfried Schimunek from IBM Rochester. Gottfried is a Senior IT Architect and has been taking a lead role in application and product development projects for over 25 years. Currently he is the Program Manager and Technical Consultant for IBM i on IBM Power Systems in the ISV Enablement team. His primary interests are performance measurement analysis and capacity planning of applications. Gottfried is a frequent presenter at customer, user group, and technical conferences around the world.

The draft agenda is:
9.30am Introductions and POWER7 Overview
11am Break
11.15am IBM i 7.1 and beyond
12.45pm Lunch
1.30pm Power System Blade Integration
2.30pm Performance Capacity Planning and Energy Estimation (with short break)
3.30pm POWER7 Performance considerations and optimization
4.30pm Close

We know that many potential delegates will be attending the POWER7 overview in February given by Rod Adkins and Ross Maury of IBM; while there will obviously be some overlap, our focus is on the implications of the new hardware and operating system from an applications perspective (ISV and bespoke).

If you would like to discuss any additional related topic, please let me know.

Please get in touch with me if you are interested in attending, or if you have any queries.
Email mandy.shaw@iperimeter.co.uk
'Phone +44 1225 436302
Skype shawmandy

An example of good online service

I've just upgraded the tracker on www.iperimeter.co.uk to the chargeable version (so that I don't have to show the tracker icon on my pages, and also so that I can get more easily interpreted statistics and exclude my home IP address from them; it also means that casual browsers no longer have theoretical access to the IP address information of other visitors, which I think is a little iffy from a Data Protection perspective).

This is the third Extreme Tracking tracker I have bought (following my husband's website and the Ashton Singers one).

The extremetracking.com website is very quick, simple and clear to use, and I can even easily find and print off a VAT invoice. I have never needed to request technical support from them, and the only time I contacted customer services I received a speedy and effective response that did not appear to have been cut and pasted from a set of standard paragraphs.

After all my moans on this blog about certain other software and service providers, it's nice to be able to praise something unreservedly.

iPerimeter website updated

www.iperimeter.co.uk had remained untouched for over a year ... not good. Anyway I have added some recent experience and some older stuff that may be of interest to some people (there wasn't anything about Domino on iSeries on there, for example). I've also incorporated a couple of links to customer references on the Logicalis UK website.

It's difficult to know what potential customers are looking for - it'll probably need a few more iterations.

The look and feel and navigation need serious work, but that'll have to wait until another time.

Chandos Singers, Holy Trinity Church, Bath, Saturday 6 March

Music for a Time of Penitence

Adam Michna Mass for Lent (c.1650)
Michna Requiem
Victoria Salve Regina (double choir, c.1592)
Vaughan Williams O vos omnes (1922)
Poulenc Tenebrae factae sunt (1938)
Poulenc Tristis est anima mea (1938)
Bernhard Lewkovitch Exsultate Domino (1952)
Lewkovitch Laudate Dominum (1957)
Kenneth Leighton Quam dilecta (1966)

Debbie Warren Soprano and Recorder
Simon Caldwell Baritone and Violin
Chandos Singers
Malcolm Hill Conductor

Tickets £8.00 at the door (£5.00 for full-time students)

For more information, visit http://www.chandos-singers.co.uk