New Gallery at TNMOC

NEWS RELEASE

New Software Gallery opens at The National Museum of Computing

Young people invited to participate in 'The Grand Digital', a new computing world record attempt

13 June 2013

A new Software Gallery was opened yesterday at The National Museum of Computing by Sir Charles Dunstone, Chairman of The Carphone Warehouse Group and TalkTalk Group. The new gallery, sponsored by Insightsoftware.com, traces the development of computing software from its beginnings on huge computers to its presence in everyday household items. The Software Gallery complements the unrivalled collection of seven decades of working hardware on display at the Museum.

Sir Charles Dunstone said: "This is my first visit to The National Museum of Computing and I have been astonished at the amazing displays of working vintage computers. The Museum dramatically demonstrates the pace of change in computing since Colossus, the world's first electronic computer, a British first which has been such a well-kept secret and which the Museum displays so well as a working rebuild. Since then hardware and software have combined to give consumers access to so much information in a way that could not have been conceived of even a few years ago. I was particularly impressed to see the enthusiasm and wonder of a party of school pupils learning about their computer heritage as I toured the new Gallery and the Museum."

To read the full release with pictures from the opening see http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/new-software-gallery-opens-tnmoc

Quick update from the Himalayas

Brief email from Astrid this morning:

I'm ok. Have been going off-piste, following yak trails and such. Too
much to cover by email but having a lovely time.

News from Nepal -

Asti arrived at Kathmandu airport at 5am hoping to get on her reserved 6:30am flight to Lukla. But she discovered there had been some inexplicable mix-up with her reservation and it turned out to be in her former-married name. Of course she had no documentation or ID in that name and it was heading toward disaster until she phoned her contact/friend in Namche Bazaar. A quick phone call from there to some Powers That Be and the difficulties eased and Asti was able to get on a flight to Lukla. Ah the pleasure of power.

The flight to Lukla is infamously difficult and dangerous and this one lived up to its bad reputation. The wind and weather conditions were so bad that right after Asti's flight landed, the airport was closed for the day.  But after its difficult start, the day started going really well. The helicopter was waiting and took Asti directly to Namche Bazaar. She said it was a great flight and she got some terrific photos she will post to the web as soon as she can.

So far, no altitude sickness this trip but she was prepared. She's acclimating to the altitude well.

Random notes
1. Doha airport is excellent! Great shopping! Smoking Lounges!
2. Breaking the flight in Doha is much better timing than in Mumbai. More even flight segment and saner departure and arrival hours.
3. The connectivity of the new iPad is awesome!
4. Picking up a new sim card in Kathmandu is a wise move.

Packing Done

So as I passed a sleepless night last night, my mind incessantly whirring and plannig, it dawned on me that I haven't had a vacation where I wasn't working 50% in friggin' years! So while I had been toying with the idea of maybe trekking in Mustang or doing some Annapurna Circuit, I've decided instead to just relax for once. Or at least try?

That's the theory anyway.

So I've got my guidebook out and have been referring to it. Checked the weather. And packed accordingly. It's getting fairly warm in the Kathmandu Valley and Pokhara with daytime highs hovering around 30C so I've packed shorts, shirts, sundresses and a swimming cozzie. Plus some warm layers for Namche where it gets as warm as 14C during the day but as soon as the sun gets behind the mountain the temperature plunges back to freezing.. And sunblock. Oh, and my whiskey of course. ;-) And my new 100 lumen head torch.

Will also pack the new iPad from Atlassian. It will com e in very hand because, while I will not be working I will still be job hunting. Indeed, I had a phone interview this morning and will follow it up next week with a video conference interview from Namche.

Gosh, this is sounding less and less relaxing.

Anyway, I've emailed my flight details to Norbu. Just waiting on confirmation back from him. We tried to call earlier but he had way too much background noise. And I've let Sushila know to expect me after all.

So that's pretty much it. Just charging all gadgets and getting ready to pack my technology drysack. And my first aid kit needs to be packed - it's ready but I can't tuck it away until after I take my steroids tonight.

Surely I must be forgetting something. This is too easy.

Bowing to the Inevitable

Well I guess I'm going to Nepal then as no contract has been offered to me. So I trotted off to the Post Office today to get my passport photos for my Nepali visa. I'm not going to bother getting the visa before I go but will rather get it at the airport when I land but what I will do is print out and fill in the form so I can run to the queue instead of filling it out  while the line grows long.

I've also laid in my supply of travel stuff like shampoo, conditioner, etc. and picked up my hair colour so I can freshen it up tomorrow. There's not really much else for me to do other than my laundry. As usual I'm only packing 3 sets of clothes for the mountain and 1 or 2 sundresses and flipflops for town. I picked up snickers bars last night and I've selected the whiskey for this trip. What else is there to do? This is feeling too easy or maybe I've just done this enough times now that I'm not stressing it?

London Girl Geeks Dinner

So I went to the London Girl Geeks Dinner last night. It was held on the Google London Campus which seems to be some sort of space set up by Google as a startup incubator. I would be interested to learn a bit more about that but the focus last night was on the GGD.

Atlassian sponsored the food and drink last night and muggins here was the speaker. Not sure how it went as I wasn't allowed to use slides so instead I pulled out my bag of tricks and talked though the decision making process for which equipment I bring to run my team from remote locations. I was also utterly shattered from all of the running around I've been doing lately (ACCU conference in Bristol, etc.) and hadn't had any sleep the night before. Still, there were some excellent questions from the audience.

To cap it off, Atlassian presented me with an iPad so now I'm having enormous fun setting it up, installing applications, etc. This will definitely be better for running a project remotely. Don't get me wrong, the kindle was sufficient to get the job done BUT having a bigger screen makes it easier to run the management dashboard, it's easier to use the onscreen keyboard, the web browser is faster and more responsive and it's far more convenient to have the cellular connection built in rather than juggling a mifi or tethering via my phone (which is expensive, burns up phone battery and doesn't work with the iPhone/kindle combination).

There was a great deal of interest in the tech that I use, particularly the powerbars. Quite a few of the gals hadn't seen them before and my point was that they are enormously useful in everyday life, not just when in remote locations. It's always wise to have backup power. I also passed on the point that you have to be careful with li-on batteries and that it's best to have 2 spares and alternate using them - when we hear stories of li-on batteries melting down or blowing up it's usually because they have been used too soon after charging. You should have two that you alternate using so that they have time to sit after charging (tip of the hat to my baby bro Andrew for that info).

The USB dongle that I use for transferring data/files/photos from an SD Card to main machine was also a piece of kit that some hadn't seen before. I use it so that I'm not burning up battery on my camera or other peripheral when I want to transfer items. It's tiny and cost me the princely sum of ~£2.75 so definitely a worthwhile investment.

Another question from last night was "Why don't you use a satellite phone?". I have had this one before (actually, I may have to compile an FAQ) and it's a good question. After all, connectivity can be rather problematic and a satellite phone would certainly reduce the risk of not being able to connect to my team. The answer is, I would love to have/use a satphone but my budget prevents it. If some company like Garmin would like to donate one then that would be awesome but even then  that is just offsetting the cost of the basic equipment. The cost of actually using a satellite connection is still a major consideration.The cost of a phone that works well for both voice and data (as a satellite modem) including a minutes/data bundle would be ~£1500. Realistically the most cost-efficient thing would be to get a satphone sleeve adapter for my iPhone but between that and a bundle of minutes for voice we are still talking about £600-700. Either way we are talking about crazy money and as I pay for my own equipment, that's a big NO. If someone would like to sponsor/donate a satellite phone then this may change and I'm certainly willing to try this method of connectivity.

Anyway, many thanks to Atlassian for the iPad, it will almost certainly make managing my team easier. Now I just have to find a new team! Speaking of Atlassian, I will be at their London RoadTrip in Camden tonight. I'm looking forward to it as there are new versions of a bunch of their tools that have come out recently and I'm quite interested to see what has changed and what new functionality is available. Expect a report from me tomorrow although I am also heading up to the National Museum of Computing tomorrow so results of that visit may supersede tonights event.

Speaking of TNMOC, I have just downloaded and installed their smartphone app  which looks fun. It has a floorplan of the museum, highlights of the displays, events, etc. but I think they missed a trick in that there is no button to make a donation. Until that is rectified though, you can use the button to the right on this screen to make a donation to TNMOC. Don't hesitate, do it now. Remember that 100% of the funds that I raise go to the museum, I do not use my fundraising as a mechanism to subsidise my trips or the technology used on those trips.

Furthermore, I've just learned that the ground rent that the museum pay has been raised to £75,000/year so it's more important than ever that we reach in our pockets and help to preserve our computing heritage.

New Tablet?

Atlassian - my corporate sponsor - have kindly offered to buy me a new tablet to help me with me Managing  From The Mountaintop. Any tablet I like. Which is tremendously kind of them.

The problem is - do I need a new tablet? And if so, which one do I go for?

I confess that the ability to includea sim in my tablet holds tremendous appeal as at the moment I have to use a mifi so 3G->WIFI from the tablet would be very convenient. But other than that what, if anything, do I need? For example, more real estate (bigger screen) would be great for running a management board and for  onscreen keyboard but a PITA for reading books.

I've also tried to think of any other kit I could possibly use but haven't been able to think of anything. The best I've been able to come up with is something like a tracking thing so people can follow me but even that isn't necessary when I have the right tablet/connectivity.

So, opinions please? iPad or Nexus or WTF?