I wonder if there is any way to get people out of their cars. The argument people use against using public transport is that it needs improvements of some sort (e.g. punctuality, frequency, options). When the people of Manchester are told that £3bn would be pumped into doing just that BEFORE congestion charging would begin to pay for it they voted no!
Most arguments against using public transport (or dare I suggest it walking and cycling) are just excuses. Yes, there are problems with it and yes there are circumstances where it isn’t available or it really is inconvenient. However, there are many people who do have a bus just down the road or are just nipping round the corner and instead of catching the bus or walking 15mins immediately jump in their car. Also people easily forget the huge problems excessive car use causes, to mention a few; congestion, pollution, unreliability, huge level of road deaths, noise, stress, etc.
There are a lot of motorists who just will not use a viable public transport options unless they are forced to and a system of charging for silly journeys where there was a perfectly viable public transport option is the only response to that. This will either result in them using public transport or provide more funds to further improve it.
Here is a video of outside my window taken over about 1hr30 and speeded up to less than a minute. It looked like it was about to snow so I set the camera running, but seams that centre of Manchester is the only place in the country not to get any. grrr.
Tomorrow night (Wednesday 6th) the University of Manchester Christian Union are having the second annual a Jazz Café.
Its at Jabez Clegg at 8pm. There’ll be some smooth Jazz as well as a short talk and puddings.
It’s all free (except any drinks you buy of course). I will be going so give me a shout if you want to meet before hand.
I bought a JVC GR-DX77 off eBay primarily to use the Analogue to DV pass through to digitalise our old camcorder tapes before they get too old to play. I have hooked it up to my Mac mini and using it as a webcam from my window (a Windocam if you will). You can watch the 30sec refreshing image it produces at my homepage. I don’t know how long I will keep it going want to see how power hungry it is first. Oh and I apologise for the fact you can’t really see much through my window there is a lot of condensation in my double glazing but thats being replaced next week.
Well all the students around Manchester’s Oxford Road have know UK North (and GM Buses) to be quite dodgy. And what do you know they have been pulled off the streets following safety fears.
There is also to be a RNCM carol service to be arranged.
I will be going to the UMCU one and the Sunday evening Platt one so if you want to go let me know.
This is getting ridiculous, the West Coast Mainline does this directly. It is about time the government started taxing aviation fuel and this is coming from someone who has to fly to get home (the alternative would be at least 9 hours).
If you want find out a bit about the project I’m working on (and at the minute its very brief) and see an awful photo of me, head over to the project website (which I am in charge of maintaining).
The project is called WASPnet (Wireless Acoustic Sensor Pill Network) and the site can be found at www.WASPnet.co.uk
First of all Andi Hamilton is trying to do the whole get lots of people to pay you money online so he can buy a mac. However this is the 1st one I have seen where the recipient of your money will shave all his hair off except for an apple logo. Well anyways you can see his realistic artists impression at www.feckhead.co.uk/mac.html.
On the oldness side of things, I am starting to feel old when people ask me what year I’m in (normally expecting me to say 1st) and I have to day 4th year. I think I knew about 10% of the people at CU tonight (although this is good in that there are lots of freshers).
To-Do!
- Finish Real-time systems assignment
- Complete Tools and Techniques for Enterprise Report (this is a big one)
- Finish Wireless Comms Lab (Matlab won’t play nice) and finish simple report
- Get test programs on PIC Microcontroller (PIC18F2331) and check everything works
And if that wasn’t bad enough, other stuff to do
- Pack for going home and kinda start packing holiday stuff (going to Menorca with family)
- Put stuff on eBay for brother
- Update things on jonnypatton.com
But at least in 5 days time most of it should be over, yey!
