I recently worked my way through the Jung Typology Test using the Myers-Briggs typology (see http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm ) and I came out as:

INTJ

The actually signifies Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging, but this needs a little explanation:

Introverted is aligned not with shyness etc. but whether the person needs others as an expression of themselves or gets energy from others. So an introverted means that they are self-activated.

An Intuitive person means that they believe the information that they themselves have received from the internal or imaginative world.

Anyway, the results did not really surprise me. But it got me to wonder whether I’ve turned out like that because of the things I’ve done in my life to date or that some of the trends are inherent. I looked back at what I assess were significant decision points and experiences in my life and felt that some of them had clearly had a life-changing impact and some were following a preferred path but some, as a I remember, were rather less significant at the time or less serious but turned out to be significant in hindsight.

I certainly think that my degree choice was significant - I still to this day over quarter of a century later have people surprised that I chose to study Theoretical Physics. I am still interested but realise that my interest is very much at a somewhat knowledgeable member of the public. But the scientific outlook still remains. Again a career as a school teacher, though at this time occupied about a quarter of my working life (this first quarter) has left me indelibly marked as having a teacher’s perspective - and this comes out even today in my desire to assist people to understand, the importance and practice of good communication, etc. My personal decision to follow Christ as an adult, and this is not meant to be a cliché, was and is still a life-changing event. This also has imbued me with new attitudes and outlooks.

There are others, but I wonder where some of the drivers to make the choices I made came from. I’m not so sure that everything is inherent - or “in your genes” as I believe that there is choice, which no doubt is another discussion. Did I make such choices because I was already pre-disposed to that route or was there a post-event change that shaped me? I’m not sure - but I’d probably say both, and that means that there may be a cascade effect that as your make choices that reinforce outlooks then the next choice is more likely to go the same direction. But sometimes I feel that we sense we’re constrained and make a leap - almost deliberately to be unexpected (or perverse).

I was intrigued to read some of the perspectives of an INTJ and several rang very true.

Well - I do have some more feedback on the iPhone. In regard to 3G, I was given the wrong information by O2 at the store - my SIM card was not sufficient. I had to get to new SIM card sent through by O2. I finally realised that in a place where other had 3G I did not and checking on the coverage map there was something not right.

In terms of Apps in the App Store, things have both improved in that many of the Apps are of higher quality but the sheer number of apps makes it difficult to find something suitable. I confess to having a number of apps that are no longer on the iPhone - I have tried a number of RSS readers and I have returned to Google Reader (ie via Safari) as I want to maintain that read count etc. across the various machines I use. The few I tried were either a) only the first import of feeds - Mainfest b) used Newsgator (NetNewsWire) which didn’t seem to sync that well across my platforms - which is also why I still use Google Reader on my Mac and XP laptops.

Am I still happy with the iPhone? In the main yes I am. I do wish for more integration between some apps - even the Apple included ones - eg I do find reusing a sent email to send to someone else very hard to remove the superfluous text. I also wish that O2 would get more coverage for even EDGE nevermind 3G.

Yes - it's true - I've joined the ranks of those who have an iPhone. So let me start by saying for me, it's not just a clever phone - it's a new iPod and a new PDA. It was time to replace the Sony Clie (PalmOS based). The new iPhone has the AppStore and that means more than just the bundled apps. Yes I could have got an original and jailbroke it. But too many stories of things going wrong. And also insufficient decent apps - that is coming true for the new AppStore - though it is earl;y days and I'd say that in the main - many of the apps look good and don't do a lot or look naff and still don't do enough. The second set will those from other platforms merely recoded for the iPhone. When you see it as a replacement for a iPod and a PDA and you get a phone and a GPS as well then the cost in my terms is great.

I did take the tariff with O2 that was the lowest and I paid up front for the phone. It turns out that this is the least expensive over the time. The free WiFi at the Cloud and BTopenzone are very welcome.

So what's it been like?
Initial acquisition - not good. I find it incredible that for a) a mobile phone company and b) selling a mobile internet device like the iPhone that I was astounded to be filling out paperwork. It's like going to buy a new car and being fitted for new walking shoes. As for Apple - I expected that they'd learned the lessons of last year's hypo-hype of the launch and scaled the systems to cope. They hadn't, they didn't. It took me most of the rest of the day to activate the new iPhone. I had iTunes 7.7 ready. What made matters worse was the obscure, unhelpful dialogue boxes with error messages that didn't tell you a) what was wrong and b) what to do.

Usage - good - as I live in a rural area - it was only when I went to local city that I even saw 2.5G (aka EDGE) I have still not seen 3G. At home it's GPRS. Fortunately the wireless (WiFi) connect is great both at home and in various places (Caffe Nero).

AppStore - good but needs to improve - both in terms of the apps on offer, and better ways of navigating the categories and getting the number of downloads accurate - how can an app have 15 reviews and zero downloads? I guess that reviews are global but downloads are local (ie UK only). I have 4 apps installed and in use: Evernote (already been updated once); Twitterific, Remote and GuitarTooklit (this being the only non-free app). I've been intrigued to see that there is a PalmOS app under development - so maybe some of those apps I liked can be redeemed. Also I've noticed that developers selling in the AppStore already feel constrained - I have asked whether users of a desktop or previous version of an app can get the iPhone version at discount - they have used the excuse or it's a proper reason to say "We cannot give discount in the AppStore because it is not constructed to let us do that."

Push Email - yes that's working and it's good along with Contacts, Calendars. I do wish that notes and todo would make it. But I'm looking at my GTD app (OmniFocus) which has a proper iPhone app that syncs. Evernote is OK - but the notes are in the cloud rather than on the iPhone.

MobileMe - as a .Mac subscriber since I was an iTools user (also all the way back to eWorld!) - MobileMe is still getting there. I'm very disappointed that iCards are going (there is a petition) - what is the point of that - it clearly cannot be highly complicated, expensive to maintain. Or is this something that will be replaced with something from Google? My judgement is still out on MobileMe.

It's that time again. The Tour de France is back on and yet again we cannot see it directly. There do seem to be a number of youtube videos but we cannot get it on TV as we're still in the analogue-only region and still waiting for the great digital switchover. Next year we should be able to watch the TdF directly.

It's a sign of the times that our usual mechanism is to get our next door neighbours to record the TdF off Eurosport on VHS. However, like most people they've migrated away from VHS onto a DVD recorder. However, with our tests we cannot get the DVD into a normal DVD player or computer to play back the recording. It looks like the DVD recorder has a proprietary format. So it looks like You Tube will be the 2008 TdF means. Next year on TV (I hope).

Topics covered in Episode 2:

Christmas
Coffee
Ableton Live
Getting Started

This is a standard mp3 format at 128kbps.

Click here: Podcast

Here is my first entry of 2008 - and I've had the plans to create and post my second audio podcast ever since the end of last year. So it's about procrastination, interruptions, distractions and intentions. They all crash together and the result is reality. And for my reality - I've not done much that you the reader or listener can access.

Yes, it's been on my ToDo list, yes I have made plans consisting of small steps, but there are lots of other things as well - some scheduled (like birthdays), some more enjoyable (like riding my bike), some more important (getting the car it's first MOT certificate) and some just easier (like watching some TV).

Well to err is human and to confess is good. But the hardest thing is beginning.

For those of you without the ability to play back the enhanced podcast (ie in m4a format) then here is the podcast in mp3 format:

Podcast

Vince

Today is my first audio podcast in m4a format
Podcast

I hope that you enjoy this, maybe with later versions it will be even better.

As I listened to someone else talking this morning, I was thinking along the same lines and then as my mind is inclined to do go off at tangents and metaphors. I pondered the nature of our society and then the smaller sub-groups within it. I was thinking that a lot of behaviour is very individualistic and even selfish (perhaps that's the true nature of man). Our consumer, individualistic, no respecter of authority society is driven in a metaphorical way by being receivers - we get, we watch, we don't get that involved. But then how to have a better, is to transmit as well as receive - which is a rephrasing of a well-know and significant statement.

If individuals are more often that not receivers then who or what are the transmitters? Are they the movers and shakers, the trend setters, the influential people in our society? For many it seems to be the celebrities - but I don't follow that - more often than not - it is in my nature to be the opposite! Just perverse I suppose. But I have my influencers - so living some memories and some written. Maybe we all re-transmit what we receive - but the danger is that we lose some stuff in this process - we may add our own perspectives - but what sort of transmitters are we? Though many people do not respect authority - they give authority to their influencers - implicitly by letting them shape their lives, behaviour and thoughts.

We should all be transmitting from ourselves and checking to what do we give authority. We should also do as much transmitting as we receive. We're not dumb radios that merely reproduce what we have received - we are walkie-talkies (hmm...) that broadcast as well as receive. Though of course, my metaphor shows that it takes less energy to receive than to transmit.

What I need to do is make sure that the signals I send are a) good b) true c) honest and d) positive wherever possible.

I'll stop now before I overuse my metaphor.

I had an opportunity to actually sit and listen to someone and have no pressure to listen for acts, issues, etc. - a refreshing change from the usual work and work-style life that I seem to live. It is amazing how malleable we can be. Still after listening to two speakers talk from the Northumbria Community, we were then asked to consider our thoughts.

Well. I did and I pondered and considered with how the following three things can be positive and negative in terms of influencing who I am and how I act: Reviewing, Regretting and Rating. I thought that reviewing was looking back at what had happened, how I reacted, how I changed; Regretting wasn't only just thinking that I could have done that instead, or wouldn't it have been better to say that, but it was about what would have happened if I had chosen this rather than that. This was, no doubt influenced by the fact we were in Durham and surrounded by the University places. I was considering what might have been my life I had got a SRC research grant for particle physics at Durham. And my bugbear - Rating - always looking at someone else and thinking "if only I could be as * as they are" (insert whatever as the *). My ratings are always me being lower than someone else.

Of course, all of these are good in the proper balance. I need to review and assess my past actions, thoughts so that they might change my future actions and thoughts. I might compare myself to others as having aspirational challenges, but regrets probably is a good trigger word for the negative aspects of most of these. What is in the past is done and unchangeable, however, positively learning and changing from the past in the present is good. This led me to my fourth R - Realisation - being true, being content and knowing yourself - having a proper perspective. In this I can count on several benchmarks and people who will put me right.

Finally, some aphorisms that also came to mind that mean a lot and maybe more if I spend time pondering some more: Investment and Return - not in a financial sense; Joy in small things and Serendipity - which I've thought about previously and Capturing the moment - taking the opportunity presented.

PS We sat for a while in Durham Cathedral - great place - stunning building and so much peace.

Stu tagged me, and so I must respond. So here are 5 things you don't know about me - confession is good for the soul.

1 I have still got a book from the school library -Watership Down. I took me several attempts to get past the beginning to read the whole book. I never got around to returning the book.
2 I have met Brian Aldiss and Harry Harrison. Science Fiction authors - if you didn't know.
3 I nearly got a job on CERN when I was in my final year (79-80). I was really interested in particle physics and did as many of those course as possible during my degree. Just considering how different things might have been for the rest of my life.
4 I did do 100mph on my motorbike (Kawasaki GT550) on the M58 - that was a while back.
5 During my school years, I worked at an angling store where I prepared maggots. They were dyed and it took a few days for the dye to wear off. Mainly orange!

Well - after what seems to be akin to a Noah-like period of deluge in NW England, Saturday was both predicted, and turned out, to be a fine day. I took the opportunity to go out for a walk in the Lake District. However, considering all of the rain we've had, I was careful about which route and then factoring in time constraints such as not getting started for various reasons until 11am. I decided to start from High Oxen and head around the Tarn Hows and then pick up one of the great views of the Langdale Pikes from Iron Keld. The weather was kind, a little rain, some hail and lots of rainbows. The conditions underfoot were OK, clearly the choice had been a good one.

Upon our circumnavigation around Tarn Hows, the NT are doing some work and a lot of trees, mainly pine, spruce, etc. had been cut down. I found it interesting to read that they are hoping to reduce the spruce, pine trees and plant some more native species and open the landscape. They pointed out that some areas were unsafe - I presume from the height of the trees and the depth (or lack of) of soil.

At the time, it reminded me a piece on the local TV news about the Lake District NP bidding for UN World Heritage status and the news programme had the usual vox populi section whereupon some said how lovely and natural it was. Pah! if it was natural then the lakes would probably be covered in dense forests almost up to the tops of most of the fells. It is the centuries of farming, grazing, forestry, industrial exploitation and tourism that make the lakes look like they are. For example, Tarn Hows is a man made reservoir to provide power to a saw mill, in a area that had much mining (copper) as well as slate and other quarries. Ironic I thought.

Still it was good to get ignited to get out, and I pondered on the difficulty of ignition - the hardest thing often is starting. I'm so full of good intentions it is the hardest thing to get going, but once ignited then for a while at least it is easier to keep going. I look forward to another walk in the forthcoming Christmas break.

Well - another year's panto is done and dusted. You can see some of the photos on the following page. It seemed such a rush and panic at times. As usual, I was at the back operating the sound - consisting of sound effects and snippets. I did start to wonder where such a form of drama originated and is it very British?

Low and behold there is a wikipedia entry for it Panto is very British. In looking at the form that Panto takes, we seem to tick most of the boxes, but we haven't had for a few years the traditional principal boy. In a small village, you have to work with what you get. But we've never had a pantomime horse or cow - there's a thought....

Many years ago I read a book written by a couple of people who had spent a lot of time with people suffering from leprosy. One of the significant things that I remember from that book was the importance of pain. One of the things that leprosy causes if that pain is not felt at all. In the light of many recent medical advances you might think that this was ideal. However, it's not. The book describes a couple of times that people had turned up at the centre having walked a long way to get there. In one tale, they had failed to realise that they have twisted their ankle and continued to walk on it until it was completely twisted. We often fail to appreciate the importance of pain - both in terms of an early warning - like nearly touching a hot item or changing the way we do things - such as walking along and continually altering our gait automatically to alleviate the start of blisters.

Without pain, we fail to learn important lessons, and I'm concerned with a) the rampant health and safety risk assessments b) wrapping people in cotton wool c) the lack of adventure. I'm sure that there will return a balance point back towards acceptable risk but in this environment of allocating blame and suing - I cannot see it happening for while.

In another sense, pain of many sorts is the mechanism to force us to change. We say - no pain no gain. In a work sense, the pace of change is something we all struggle with, and often it is only the fact that doing things the old way is now more painful (ie more difficult, more expensive) than doing it the new way is what forces us to make the change.

I don't know whether it's because I'm getting older and the perception of time changes, but I certainly experience the seasons much more than when I was younger. I see the leaves on the trees starting to change, and yet there are buds ready to spring into new growth next year.

I also find that I see similar and analogous cycles in many more places, organisations, events and technologies. To take an example or three, when videos first came out, they were very expensive. I remember these huge Grundig machines at university and college. Then after the VHS-betamax war was won, there were video rental stores springing up on nearly ever street corner. Today, with a few exceptions, they are consolidated into a few stores - ie Blockbuster or they have become commodities that Asda, Tesco, etc. sell them. Similarly, with mobile phones - we have, in the Uk, a number of major chains supported by a still viable (for how long) set of independents - the networks - orange, O2, Vodfone, T-Mobile and then the other chains - Carphone warehouse, Phones4U, etc. Again, much of it has become a commodity that Adsa, tesco etc. sell them. There are other examples.

What will be next? The next season for my examples? Well the way things seem to be going is to try to continue to eliminate atoms from the chain. So we have music downloads beating out physical CD purchases in many places. And the latest thing is video - Apple have their new additions - the Disney set first, but probably not the last. As with the other aspects of the iTunes Music Store we'll see many others - and we have that with Amazon already.

It's a different season for the content creators - ie the music labels and film studios - and they've not realised the season is changing and if they don't change they'll be left behind. Musicians are already cutting out the labels and going directly to MySpace, or iTunes Music Store without the labels. Just wait until video goes the same way. And I haven't even mentioned TV.

See the following:

Tour de France 2002
Yealand Panto 2002
Yealand Panto 2003
Yealand Panto 2004
Yealand Panto 2005

File Sharing

Temporarily until the other pages have been redeveloped.

Some are now in the sidebar.

Yealand Panto 2003
Yealand Panto 2004
Yealand Panto 2005

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