ISOC event Geneva

I’m in Geneva for 4 days, attending an ISOC event called GlobalINET. An Internet conference.

Workshops are taking place on Saturday and Sunday and Internet Society chapters from all over the world have send delegates (I’m representing ISOC England) to share knowledge. It’s the most collaborative conference I’ve ever been to – just sitting and listening isn’t an option!

Edelweiss fondue restaurant, Geneva
Chapter dinner at a Swiss restaurant

The cheese fondue was not universally popular. Most of my table were aghast at the idea of eating hot cheese and left in search of more traditional fare.

New electric hybrid bus

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This new No.19 has an electric diesel engine and is known as a Hybrid. The diesel engine cuts out at bus stops and traffic lights and it pulls away on its electric motor. The diesel kicks in seamlessly after a few seconds.
Should mean less pollution on our streets.

A Wright Gemini 2 hybrid double-decker
A Wright Gemini 2 hybrid double-decker (Front)

The rattle of the diesel dying at bus stops still feels as though the passengers are all about to ordered off the broken down bus.

A Wright Gemini 2 hybrid double-decker
A Wright Gemini 2 hybrid double-decker (back)

House Bites

A friend has joined www.housebites.com. It’s where you order takeway food from home cooks. People cook food for you in their home kitchens. Housebites provide the online menu, taking the order and the money, and the delivery. It’s all very ‘social’ so you get feedback, ratings, twitter and so on. Cuban anyone?

housebites

Steam Train news

As part of our regular feature on new steam trains, I’m happy to announce  that the second new oil-fired steam locomotive meant for the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) rolled out from the Golden Rock Railway Workshop on Monday.

‘X' class metre gauge steam loco
‘X' class metre gauge steam loco

You can read more at TheHindu.com.

Cold start

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Thats the time and temperature in our bedroom. Bit of a cold start this morning! No heating in my place – not normally needed, but this is the chilliest its been for a long time.

Software I can’t do without

Over the years my computer toolbar has established a small number of programs that I use all the time. I would like to use free* software every time, but there are some tools I use for work that I just can’t replicate with a free alternative. Some of the versions I use are ancient by today’s standards but do the job for me.

My most used software 2012

Free*Commercial
ThunderbirdSecureCRT (SSH client)
FirefoxWSPing ProPack
WinSCPNavicat (MySQL management)
OpenOfficeMS RemoteDesktop
DropboxTextPad
Pidgin (instant messenger)Fireworks

*Free has two meanings in the world of computer software

  • Free (as in beer) – this means at no cost. You get the software for nothing.
  • Free (as in speech) – this means not closed, proprietary. You could take a aprt the software and rewrite it if you wanted to, and this is explicitly allowed.

Why not let me know what software you can’t live without, by filling in the comment box below.