Clive

Owner and author of Clive's Blog.

Great Web Page

/ General

Last night I watched a programme about the Drake Equation – a mathematical way to “estimate” the number of planets in the universe which may have life, capable of transmitting a radio signal we could receive here on Earth.

N=R*•fp•ne•fl•fi•fc•L             (source SETI Institute)

For more details look here or look on Wikipedia.

After the programme had finished, whilst looking on the internet for further reading on the Drake Equation I came across this page,

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Wow was what I thought – that day it was a panoramic composite shot, from the Phoenix Lander on Mars – go and look and see what is there today.

I added it to my browser bookmark bar and added it to the browser on my iPhone so I would remember to go and look at the next spectacular image.

 

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Camping Supplies

/ Walking / , ,

We went to Tesco at the weekend for the family shop but I also picked up some stores for the forth coming camping season.

Our favourite spice for camping is smoked sweet paprika – and it was get three for £1.20, a real bargain.

With pancake day coming up there was Betty Crocker Pancake Mix, just add water to the mix in the bottle and shake. It will be easy to make at camp, so the plan is to have bacon, pancakes and honey for breakfast at Easter.

We often use bread sauce as a starch with ham and tinned carrots or our favourite jarred petit pois and baby carrots. It is a useful way to use up milk and a very compact ingredient to have in the camp kitchen box so I bought two packets.

My son and I like to cook when camping, various meals from fresh ingredients, lots of chopping, adding of herbs and spices, and stirring, but sometimes we need quick and convenient, if the weather turns bad, we get back late or we just want quick! There are a good range of wet pack meals available from camping shops but they can be expensive. On a recommendation from the UKBushcraft forum we tried a Chicken Korma in a bag with a pack of micro wave rice all cooked in a sauce pan. If we had added some bread, extra vegetables or a dessert it would be a hood meal for two. We were very pleased with the taste and quality of the sauce and quantity of tender chicken. So next week when I good shopping I will buy some of this curry for the Easter trip.

I’ll post some photos of the curry and other supplies after next weeks shop (I have already thrown the Korma pack away).

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iPhone 4 SMTP Servers

/ Business, Technology / ,

Whilst changing my email account from POP to IMAP I discovered multiple smtp servers listed in the account settings. Most of them were turned off but to keep things neat I wanted to delete the unwanted servers, however when I opened the servers the expected red “delete” button was not there.

These SMTP servers are inherited from other email accounts on the iPhone – and if the selected account send server fails, the email client will try to use an alternate server from the other accounts (an excellent feature as it allows the iPhone to seamlessly send email whether connected via 3G or wifi). But if like me you use your iPhone to test accounts for clients then you soon accumulate a selection of SMTP servers.

So after puzzling for a few minutes on “no delete button” I hit on the idea of editing the smtp server to something more relevant to me – however saving the information after editing with an error in the name meant if failed the verification, I continued and saved the details, on reopening the information the delete button was back. So following that fortunate error I had a plan.

Go to Settings – Mail, Contacts, Calendars
Select an email account where the server you want to delete is not the default send server
Open the account and tap on SMTP Server
Under Other SMTP Servers choose the server you want to delete
Turn the server off
Edit the Host Name to anything
Click Done
On the error message click Save
Close the account – when it is re-opened the Delete Server button will be there

On deleting servers check that all your email accounts still have valid SMTP servers.

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Practice Walk for the West Highland Way

/ Walking / , , ,

I am writing this post while waiting under the Kirkstead Bridge to be picked up. Why under the bridge, well although it started off sunny earlier today there has been hail and now it is pouring down! But I did get a 20k walking in – I think I will start a mileage tally of the practice walks for the WHW.

There are two words to describe today’s walk – DOG’S MESS. now I am sure there are many responsible dog owners who clean up after their pets, however there are many who do not. I took shelter under the bridge and sat on the concrete ledge to finish my coffee, to discover my boots were in several piles of unmentionable and these were not the first piles of the day. There were many not even at the sides of the track but in the middle. And to add a final twist to the behaviour of some pet owners, some people are clearing up after their animals and then hanging the full baggies in the trees along the path side! Someone explain that!

The photo below show the high level of the water in the Witham – making use of the flood protection overflow banks.

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Kick Start Seminars Present – A Touch of Marketing

/ General / ,

I am working with a group of local business people in Lincoln to present a series of seminars, to share best business practices. The third event of this series is now scheduled for 22nd March 2011 at the Lincoln Golf Centre. There will be a variety of speakers (speaking for 5 to 10 minutes) and plenty of time to network with the other attendees.

The flyer for the event is below (click on it for a better quality version).

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The Belgian Cafe

/ Walking / , ,

I am in Ramsgate this weekend, for my Granddaughter’s fIrst birthdays – but with the West Highland Way less than 8 months away, I wanted to get some walking in this weekend. So I got ip early and walked along the sea front. The only thing this morning is that the sun has forgotten to rise – it is a grey, damp claggy day.

Ramsgate Marina
Ramsgate Marina

Ramsgate was closed this early on a Sunday morning – except for a cafe near the Marina – The Belgian Cafe. It serves excellent coffee and the bacon smelled great, the only problem is that this is walking to get fit so bacon sandwiches are out. The decor is eccentric and I guess that adds character, and I am not sure whether the accents of the staff were Belgian but they were continental. Well except for the chef who was London/Essex! And the coffee was good.

Try it out The Belgian Cafe – pics below.

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iPhone and Text Files Again

/ Technology / ,

As I explained the other day, we use plain text files as part of our process of providing support for our clients – and I had discovered PlainText for DropBox. On Friday I went looking through the Apps Store for a good client to read tech PDF files and I discovered GoodReader. I bought it for the first job, and it dealt very well with the PDF file I needed to have reference to whilst crammed into a server cupboard. However GoodReader is far more than a well thought out PDF viewer.

* It includes a text editor and has a local file system so your iPhone now has a My Documents folder!

* You can import pictures info My Documents – I am now able to document a job now with both images and text.

* At Octagon Technology we not only use DropBox to share information but we have a NAS on our network with FTP access – GoodReader has the ability to connect to this and upload and download files to the iPhone.

* Working through the set up GoodReader gives you a URL to save as a bookmark in Safari, which if you use it when on a web page it will save a local copy of the page. Very useful when I am collecting information to solve a technical problem.

* It connects to many of the Cloud services as well as user servers.

* You can connect it to an email mailbox to access files or messages.

For a full list of features check out their web site,

For me this is a “must have” app.

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