I’ve been interested in languages for a few years (despite only being able to speak one with any fluency) and consider myself a bit of an amateur linguist. It’s long been a standing question as to how to determine ‘correct’ English. Linguists divide grammar into two competing factions: descriptive (30% people speak like this, 70% people speak like that) and prescriptive (thou shalt speak in this way, as others have since time immemorial).

I’ve been interested in photography since I was small, progressing through a simple fixed-focal-length compact camera to a basic 35mm SLR, playing with many cameras, including SLRs and compacts, and now back just to a digital compact camera I quite like. I’ve found digital sufficiently liberating that it has re-invigorated my interest in photography: primarily because it makes everything easier and cheaper. (Maybe one day I’ll invest in a 35mm digital SLR but I still want something smaller).

Just spent a little while consolidating all my photos: moving the remainder from my Gallery installation on andrewferrier.com to their new and preferred home on Flickr. My Flickr account is now vastly more populated with photos (and more variable in quality). This script basically did all the work. It doesn’t support nested albums, so I had to move all sub-albums to the top level, as well as removing the few ‘symlinks’ I had on photos (later versions of Gallery support this).

Just finished reading Mark Hurst’s new book, Bit Literacy. Mark is a chap of many interests and the creative driver behind the excellent (and varied) euroGel conference I attended in Copenhagen last year. The premise for the book is that the computer-using public are getting swamped by e-mails, web content, blogs, photos, files, and so on - something that most folk would probably agree with. Mark ranges over all of these topics, and gives recommendations for how to handle each.

Got back from Rome - I had a great time with Laura, Minder, and Nick. Some photos and some impressions: Don’t go there if you don’t like Italian food. Do if you do, it’s delicious. Don’t go there if you like breakfast. Do if you don’t mind a half-arsed croissant. Don’t go there if you like modern architecture. Do if you like crumbly stuff a few thousand years old. Don’t go there if you like your shops to be open and accessible (grumble, continental Europe, grumble).

Some photos from Oslo today. I’m not sure what is about this city, but I’m really not gelling with it. Apart from the ludicrous expense attached to everything, it seems to lack much definition, centre, or character. The food, often a highlight of travel for me, is sorely lacking (with the exception of the bread - dark and flavourful). Having seen some of the Norwegian countryside whilst staying in Drammen this week, I suspect I’d much prefer rural Norway to the city.

So we’ve just finished our last day with the customer here in Norway, and presented on the work we’ve been doing for them. All in all, it’s been a pretty enjoyable (if stressful) week, and I’m looking forward to doing more direct customer work in the near future. Due to a mix-up with dates, my flight doesn’t leave until Saturday evening, so I’ve got Friday and Saturday in Oslo to find out a bit more about the city, have a good time and take some pictures.

I wrote the other week about Dopplr and am finding it quite cool (despite some competition for attention from Facebook, Plazes, and others). They’re now allowing unlimited invites, so if you know me and would like one, let me know.

Sometimes travel produces the strangest combinations of experience. I was upgraded to Club Europe by BA on my flight to Oslo (probably something to do with the AA Gold Card that I was mysteriously sent after returning from San Jose earlier in the year). So as I write this inflight, I’ve just finished an impressively delicious chicken curry, polished off a bottle of red wine (no, not THAT size), and a decent bit of Stilton (which, I might add, goes particularly well with left-over curry sauce - yes, really).

It appears that Starbucks is finally coming to Winchester. No doubt many will lament over this further Americanisation and homogenisation of our high street, but I’m kinda curious. For a long time, Winchester’s most obvious and best option for coffee (in my humble opinion) has been the equally sterile and characterless Caffè Nero chain. There are a few other chains and independents around, but they’re all weaker for one reason or another (low ceilings, no air-conditioning, dirty tables, etc.