On Tuesday morning I finally got round to weeding and digging over the little strip of front garden I have. The next day I felt very stiff, no doubt due to using unaccustomed muscles. There was a forecast of rain for the afternoon, and I was thinking of sowing some grass seed, but the rain never came, and it has remained dry since. I suspect if I sowed the grass seed in the dry ground the pigeons would soon have it, so I'll wait for some rain.
Yesterday I had an email fron Vodafone saying they were sending me a SIM card. This was odd since I've never had any dealings with them. I deleted it as spam. Today I received the SIM card. It says "We're delighted to enclose your free SIM card and details of the Vodafone TopUp and Get International Freebee you selected." But I've never "selected" any such thing. I have an old pay-as-you-go mobile phone that I got from Virgin but have not used for over a year, and have no intention of reviving. I did think of emailing Vodafone, but their website wasn't very helpful and came with lots of warnings and popups, so I think it best to just ignore it.
My twitter account was apparently hacked a few days ago, and a message under my name was sent to a number of my "followers". Originally the message came from someone I follow and said "is it you in this photo" I clicked on this thinking it might refer to the photo of me with Ken Ham taken in Leicester in 2006 that was published on the Answers in Genesis site. However the link just led back to the twitter log-in site. I changed the password on my account, and the problem has not recurred, but it seems this sort of annoyance must be very easy to do.
I've now sent over a hundred tweets and have over 30 followers, though a number of them just seem to be local businesses in St Leonards that are no doubt angling for my trade. The most useful contacts I have made are with mathematicians who have provided a lot of interesting links, to websites and PDFs. I also had an amusing exchange with Bob Churchill, formerly of the BHA, about the type face "Comic Sans" which I use for the navigation links on the Mayhematics site, but he doesn't like. He wrote that we must be "aesthetically incommensurable", to which I replied that that must mean I'm rational while he is irrational (a mathematical joke for those not in the know).
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Friday, 1 July 2011
Light Music Festival
I've been following the series of programmes on Radio 3 in the BBC's "Light Fantastic" music festival over the past week, since I enjoy this type of music, at least when it is well done.
An article by Stephen Hough in the Telegraph on line praises light music and has some links to several classics.
On the Sunday however I went to the concert put on by the Cory Band at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and, although I stood it all through to the end, found it extremely disagreeable simply because of the sheer loudness. Their only interpretation of forte was as fortissisimo. Maybe on a bandstand in the open air the sound dissipates, but at the back of the hall it was unpleasant.
Some pieces I've not heard for years, and have not so far heard on the programmes are "Parade of the Tin Soldiers" by Leon Jessel and "Do Not Forsake Me" (from the film "High Noon") by Dmitri Tiomkin; but I suppose these don't count as British Light Music. Another is the Oxford Street march by Eric Coates, although I have a CD with an old recording of this; I found the tune running through my head earlier today, and had to check that's what it was.
An article by Stephen Hough in the Telegraph on line praises light music and has some links to several classics.
On the Sunday however I went to the concert put on by the Cory Band at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and, although I stood it all through to the end, found it extremely disagreeable simply because of the sheer loudness. Their only interpretation of forte was as fortissisimo. Maybe on a bandstand in the open air the sound dissipates, but at the back of the hall it was unpleasant.
Some pieces I've not heard for years, and have not so far heard on the programmes are "Parade of the Tin Soldiers" by Leon Jessel and "Do Not Forsake Me" (from the film "High Noon") by Dmitri Tiomkin; but I suppose these don't count as British Light Music. Another is the Oxford Street march by Eric Coates, although I have a CD with an old recording of this; I found the tune running through my head earlier today, and had to check that's what it was.
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Website Upgrade
Yesterday my mayhematics website was unavailable due to the bandwidth limit being exceeded. This appears to be due to more people looking at it and downloading pages from it. There was a big spike at 4pm on Saturday for some reason. So I have had to upgrade to the next level, which about doubles the price to be paid each year to £60, which still seems very reasonable. At any rate I hope this resolves the problem. Perhaps I should look into ways of charging for donwloads.
I'm also thinking of registering some other domain names, since the subjects covered on the site do not all fall logically under the "mayhematics" heading, they have all accumulated in one place due to previous service providers closing down or not continuing to provide support, and due to changes from dial-up, to cable broadband, to telephone-line broadband connections.
Probably it is about time to upgrade my computer as well, but I dread all the problems that that could throw up so will probably leave it to the last minute as usual when it will be unavoidable.
I'm also thinking of registering some other domain names, since the subjects covered on the site do not all fall logically under the "mayhematics" heading, they have all accumulated in one place due to previous service providers closing down or not continuing to provide support, and due to changes from dial-up, to cable broadband, to telephone-line broadband connections.
Probably it is about time to upgrade my computer as well, but I dread all the problems that that could throw up so will probably leave it to the last minute as usual when it will be unavoidable.
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Coughs and Wheezes
I've had a touch of flu for several days, probably exacerbated by standing around in the cold on London Bridge station platforms last Monday. It's been making it difficult to get any sleep, since for some reason I start coughing whenever I lie down and try to relax. When it gets bad, the cough seems to go through my vocal chords so that it makes a mad laughing noise rather than a wheeze. I tried a packet of lemsip but it didn't seem to do any good. A mint toffee is effective for a while. Fortunately it now seems to be clearing up. I must get back to taking more regular exercise, haven't been swimming so far this year.
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Rationalism Advances
I took this photo at the AGM of the Rationalist Association, held on Monday evening in the Great Hall of the Art Workers Guild in Queens Square, London. This is a place I've not been to before. The bust above the big chair is of William Morris. In the middle Jim Herrick is talking to Caspar Melville (CEO of the RA, and Editor of New Humanist) and Laurie Taylor (Chairman). It seems the RA and New Humanist is making a determined move to be more active in promoting debates and vastly increasing circulation of the magazine. I asked whether this might mean some "dumbing down" of the content - not that I'm against this, I might be able to understand more of it!
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Ceremonials
On Wednesday 18th May I went along to the White Rock Theatre to attend the Mayor-Making ceremony (the present Mayor was re-elected) and presentation of the Freedom of Hastings to former MP Michael Foster. Having to keep on "be upstanding" every time the mayor entered or exited was a bit wearing. It was curious to note that the conservative councillors still observe the ceremonial aspects by wearing reddish-coloured robes, while the labour side were in normal dress. The "processing" in and out could well also be done away with. The best part of the show were the performances by children from local schools, though one of the songs was mildly religious. The dance by the older girls was apparently to celebrate the suffragettes.
On Saturday 21st May I accepted an invitation to attend a meeting of the Freemasons Lodge formed by Old Olavians from my former school. This was held at the Freemasons Hall in Great Queen Sreet in London. This is a very large building, in art deco style, built as a memorial after the first world war. We were admitted to the so-called "Indian Temple" which is apparently only one of the smaller temples in the building, and treated to a talk by one of the Masters. The temple was a large rectangular room with domed roof. The masons in their ceremonial aprons sat on thrones, three at each end, and one in the middle of each side, with lighted candles in front of them.
According to the talk the masons are now purely a philanthropic organisation, raising money for work done by other charities like the red cross, or to supply equipment to local hospitals, although they also provide relief for old masons fallen on hard times. However they require applicants to declare belief in a "supreme being" to become a member, and swear their oaths on a bible, which rules me out. Though doesn't this now contravene discrimination laws, if they are not an explicitly religious organisation?
I'm afraid I found their costumes and their "processing" only rather comical. They made me think of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, especially as most of the members were of portly proportions. This may be a consequence of their dinners, there was one following the meeting which declined to attend, since it cost £35, a price that represents a whole week of dinners for me.
On Monday I'm due to attend the AGM of the Rationalist Association. I wonder if they go in for robes and ceremonials? I hope not.
On Saturday 21st May I accepted an invitation to attend a meeting of the Freemasons Lodge formed by Old Olavians from my former school. This was held at the Freemasons Hall in Great Queen Sreet in London. This is a very large building, in art deco style, built as a memorial after the first world war. We were admitted to the so-called "Indian Temple" which is apparently only one of the smaller temples in the building, and treated to a talk by one of the Masters. The temple was a large rectangular room with domed roof. The masons in their ceremonial aprons sat on thrones, three at each end, and one in the middle of each side, with lighted candles in front of them.
According to the talk the masons are now purely a philanthropic organisation, raising money for work done by other charities like the red cross, or to supply equipment to local hospitals, although they also provide relief for old masons fallen on hard times. However they require applicants to declare belief in a "supreme being" to become a member, and swear their oaths on a bible, which rules me out. Though doesn't this now contravene discrimination laws, if they are not an explicitly religious organisation?
I'm afraid I found their costumes and their "processing" only rather comical. They made me think of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, especially as most of the members were of portly proportions. This may be a consequence of their dinners, there was one following the meeting which declined to attend, since it cost £35, a price that represents a whole week of dinners for me.
On Monday I'm due to attend the AGM of the Rationalist Association. I wonder if they go in for robes and ceremonials? I hope not.
Friday, 6 May 2011
Break Building
I spent most of the Easter and May holiday week-ends watching the snooker world championship from Sheffield, in the hope that newcomer Judd Trump might win over the old guard John Higgins, and he came quite close.
Rather than abolish the May Day holiday break, surely it is time to fix the date of Easter closer to the Spring equinox, in March, so that the two holidays don't come so close. It's getting like Christmas and the New Year.
Much of the rest of my time was spent revising and checking the section on King tours on the Knight's Tour Notes pages, particularly the enumeration of the tours on boards of two ranks. The totals are given by recursion relations and by formulae involving the Fibonacci numbers. This proved quite troublesome, but maybe that's because my brain isn't working a smoothly as it did even a few years ago.
On the 2x8 board there are 128 closed tours, which is easy to verify, but the number of open tour diagrams works out to the surprisingly large, and surprisingly round number T = 32000. I still wonder whether I've got this right, but the other figures seem to be consistent with this. On the same board there are 584 reentrant tours, and G = 8176 geometrically distinct open tours, of which S = 352 are symmetric. These figures are related by G = (T + 2S)/4.
Rather than abolish the May Day holiday break, surely it is time to fix the date of Easter closer to the Spring equinox, in March, so that the two holidays don't come so close. It's getting like Christmas and the New Year.
Much of the rest of my time was spent revising and checking the section on King tours on the Knight's Tour Notes pages, particularly the enumeration of the tours on boards of two ranks. The totals are given by recursion relations and by formulae involving the Fibonacci numbers. This proved quite troublesome, but maybe that's because my brain isn't working a smoothly as it did even a few years ago.
On the 2x8 board there are 128 closed tours, which is easy to verify, but the number of open tour diagrams works out to the surprisingly large, and surprisingly round number T = 32000. I still wonder whether I've got this right, but the other figures seem to be consistent with this. On the same board there are 584 reentrant tours, and G = 8176 geometrically distinct open tours, of which S = 352 are symmetric. These figures are related by G = (T + 2S)/4.
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