I’ve just finished reading two interesting books about the modern Internet and where it’s going. They are:
I believe that words are very important as labels, especially in technical fields. A terminology with commonly agreed definitions enhances communication and understanding in what can be a complicated area.
In the last week I’ve come across two unusual and interesting items on the web in terms of glaciers in perhaps unexpected places.
Yesterday I had a great day walking in Lochaber. I was walking in the hills west of Loch Lochy, just north of Fort William. Totally blue skies, light winds, almost no snowpatches and ground frozen firmly made for very good walking conditions. It was very cold though – my car thermometer was reading -7 degrees centigrade the evening before the walk (I was staying at the nearby Spean Bridge Hotel).
Last night I travelled through to Glasgow to see Porcupine Tree (the best band in the world that no-one’s heard of) at the Carling Academy. It was the third time I’ve been to a gig by this band in 16 months, and they just seem to get better and better (see my previous blog posting ‘Porcupine Tree‘).
Back in May I wrote about living on the open-source planet. This approach to web-based software development is often associated with the LAMP (I prefer the P to stand for Perl) ‘stack’ of technologies.
Yesterday I walked to the 815m summit of the The Cheviot. The summit is just inside England (it’s the highest summit in England outside Cumbria), but I started the walk from Sourhope, to the west over the border in Scotland. It made for an interesting route, crossing the border high up on a ridge. The walk was about 17km in total. You can see photos from the walk on my website here.
Last Sunday I went for a 16km hike across the moors of the Lammermuir Hills, not very far from Edinburgh, to an air wreck site that is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It was a gloomy day due to thick cloud cover and the bleakness of the destination made it even more of a gloomy walk.
On Saturday I walked to the 1130m summit of Ben Lui (or Laoigh) near Tyndrum. This is a summit I’ve been to twice before, and despite its height, the usual route from the A85 in Glen Lochy is a relatively straightforward climb. The difficulties are actually all low down on the mountain, where the River Lochy has to be forded, the Glasgow to Oban railway line crossed, and a route found through a confusing and incredibly muddy conifer plantation.
Last weekend Lesley and I went to Skye for a short trip. We visited Talisker Bay and Glen Brittle, and spent the Saturday evening eating and drinking in Portree. Highlight of the trip was a boat trip from Elgol to Loch Coruisk, in the heart of the Cuillin mountains.
