Boy was Zac unimpressive. He spends most of the interview arguing over whether or not he had been approached to do the interview in the first place. This goes on an on. He’s demanding an apology from Jon Snow.

Obviously I don’t know what happened but the lengthy argument about it suggests that he is trying really hard to avoid answering the questions about his the expenses on his election campaign.

He says that the blue jackets were bought for the constituency party on the whole, not just for this campaign. It seems they only paid for the stickers on the back “I’m backing Zac” they say. They look really large those stickers. It would be interesting to see how well stuck on they are. It could be that they are next to impossible to remove which is often the case with things like that.

He ends the interview with what appear to be threats to Jon Snow and Channel Four News.

Oh dear, that doesn’t look very good at all.

I wonder if he thought he considered getting his campaigners hoodies to create an impression that they were all just plain ordinary people. Would have been amusing I think.

in Red Rag’s blog post.

Soon after that blog post Della sent me a better pic of the trailer, the idea being that I replace the one in that post.

Anyway I’ve been really busy since then and so it has taken me until know to get around to doing it!

So, instead of replacing the pic in that post here instead is a new post for the new pic.

In this pic I can see that Della’s trailer has a green soft cover of some kind, whereas my trailer has a yellow solid plastic cover. My solid cover needs bungee cords to keep it on, but it is 100% waterproof.

Della’s trailer and bicycle is parked by by a big recycling skip, which I am glad to see

In the Mac world we have become used to the mini-displayport. We haven’t really thought too much about the fact that this is a smaller version of a pre-existing connector called the displayport. Odd, given that the name “mini-displayport” is a bit of a clue to the existence of something bigger.

I was quite interested to connect my new monitor to my Mac Pro with a displayport <-> mini-displayport cable. So I phoned up an Apple retailer quite close to where I live and asked them if they had one. In fact they’d never heard of it. I phoned another retailer in Brighton, they had never heard of it either.

I tried Maplin’s website but I could see no sign of it there. I did some searching of the Internet and could not find it in the UK. The only place I could find it was in a US store called Circuit Assembly. So, I bought it from there and after only a few days I had the cable. Mine is two metres and white. Pictures below:

Curled up like a snake.

Displayport connector is a fair bit bigger than Apple’s mini-displayport. Also displayport has a button which releases a pair of locking teeth on the top of the connector.

The teeth of the displayport.

Mini-displayport plug is, well, mini.

The teeth of the mini-displayport

My big question about the mooted Tablet is whether it will be suitable for touch typing. I’ve been wondering how they will implement the keyboard.

From that AppleInsider article I can see that maybe when you go to type on the Tablet the keys will become tactile. However all the imagined pictures of the Tablet I’ve seen show it to be like a large iPod Touch on which the screen takes up the whole device on one side, so if they are accurate, I wonder if the tactile keyboard will be built into that screen?

Continuing to read the article reveals that Patriarch Kirill has made a number of statements that reveal he is no liberal.

In March 2007, Kirill objected to Moscow hosting a gay pride parade.

It is directed against the majority of Russian society.

We believe that the law should not interfere in citizens’ private lives.

You can sin if you want to, but you will answer to God.

However, if you are trying to propagate your sin by seducing and degrading people, society must oppose it.

Patriarch Kirill doesn’t want LGBT people discriminated against, but equally he doesn’t want them parading in Moscow, its the seducing and degrading he worries about. The propagation of sin is causing him sleepless nights.

I don’t think Patriarch Kirill fears these things very much. What Patriarch Kirill fears is that elements of Russian society will start to think that it is okay for LGBT to be open about their sexuality. They will see these LGBT people proud and happy about themselves and they might think that you can live a lifestyle which does not have the approval of the Patriarch and be a happy contented individual.

The Patriarch and his ilk in other major churches are not fearful of LGBT people themselves but rather they fear the possibility of society accepting them. This is why the Patriarch will oppose discrimination against gay people, but equally oppose them having a parade in Moscow. For society to become liberal and tolerant of LGBT people it means that it is adopting its own social values and not those of the church.

In the Pink News article Patriarch Kirill is quoted:

The task of the Church is to say that sin is sin. Otherwise, the Church is not needed.

If people start to decide for themselves what is sin and what is not sin then the Church is not needed. That’s what Patriarch Kirill fears.

I originally purchased my Rogers db101s on eBay in June 2003. They had been the speakers in my living room Hi-Fi. Then in July I decided to sell the components of my living room Hi-Fi, I sold the amplifier and tuner leaving the db101s without a role.

First a bit about them and their appeal. According to the manual the styling is by Peter Stevens and the acoustics are by Andy Whittle. Peter Stevens is credited on the manual with projects including the McLaren F1 amongst some other exotic British cars. Andy Whittle is described as the Chief Design Engineer, Rogers International, UK Ltd.

They are pretty small with the following dimensions in millimetres:

The cabinet is injection-moulded ABS painted black and fitted with aluminium side-panels. The side panels are painted in cool colours and in fact there was a selection of nine possible finishes available, I haven’t seen them all just just a couple. The back of the cabinet is convex top to bottom looked at from the rear. According to the manual: The cabinet profile and carefully contoured back panel ensure that all internal standing waves are minimised, resulting in a cleaner and greater dynamic musical presentation.

I think possibly the most distinctive aspect of the design is what Rogers described as the floating tweeter. From the manual: The tweeter ‘floats’ in the middle of the bass reflex port. This design unique to Rogers optimises the full range directionality and driver integration of the db101. Looked at from the front the tweeter is in the middle of the bass reflex port. I’ve never seen this done in any speaker, I wonder if it really does bring any benefits or if it was done because it just looks rather cool.

From the rear the db101s look rather cheap I think. The back panel has clips for the cables and touching it suggests plastic rather than the more impressive sounding injection-moulded ABS. Although they look cheap I like the cable clips because they are really secure. The cable I’m using is bog standard stuff from Maplin which works just fine. Oddly enough on my speakers the top screw is missing for the back panel for each speaker. Fortunately the back panels seem to be very well screwed on and are very secure.

Athough Peter Stevens, the stylist, had been involved in the design of the Maclaren F1 and other exotic British cars I think the one car they remind me of is in fact the Frogeye Sprite. It’s those bass reflex ports with the tweeters in them sticking out like the headlamps of the Frogeye Sprite.

The Rogers db101s were very much ahead of their time I believe when they were put on the market in 1996. They were initially priced very high at just under £400, Rogers dropped this price substantially to boost sales, but this wasn’t enough. The Rogers company went out of business.

In 1996 the vast majority of Hi-Fi speakers were wooden boxes, it was a much more conservative market than today. There were a few different looking designs around but these tended to be viewed by Hi-Fi enthusiasts rather disparagingly as “lifestyle speakers”. I think the market for speakers today is very much more diverse. I feel that the Rogers db101s would fit today’s market better than that of 1996.

These speakers are suitable for many roles, not just Hi-Fi. They are extremely robust and can be used for small PA work or maybe for providing music at a party. As Mike Hennessy points out at his website (link at bottom) there is a protection device built into the crossover. They can also be wall mounted if required as the reflex port is on the front. Putting them on shelves or close to a wall will destroy the stereo imaging of which they are capable but I guess this is true of all speakers. They are quite bass light so mounting close to the wall does give a good balance by reinforcing the bass. The db101s are also very good for nearfield monitoring.

As I said at the top I’d been using them as the speakers for the Hi-Fi in my living room. The amplifier there was an Arcam with 40 wpc. They sounded very excellent with that amplifier and would also play very loud if wanted, although I never did.

When I was selling that living room Hi-Fi on ebay I was also looking for a good amplifier/speaker system for my computer. Obviously I had thought of using the db101 prior to the sale but the bulk of a regular Hi-Fi stereo amplifier had put me off. Then I discovered the Pro-ject Amp Box.

This is a 20 watts per channel class D amplifier. It is very small as can be seen from the pic. With this the Roberts db101s work beautifully as speakers for my computer. I’m using the standard analogue out port from my Mac Pro and this just behaves like a DAC and pre-amplifier for the Proj-ect power amplifier. For my particular purposes 20 watts per channel is enough but for playing really loudly the db101s would probably like a few more watts. I find they go quite loud enough. In fact I am sitting very close to the db101s, they are on a shelf on the wall behind the computer, the desk is right up against the wall, so it is not far.

I’m really glad I didn’t sell my Rogers db101s. They are excellent in their new role as monitors for my computer.

I’ve used the following websites for some information for this blog entry. You will find more info here about the Rogers db101s.

Mark Hennessy’s website

Mark Hennessy takes a pair apart and gives an excellent analysis of the design.

GB Audio Data Sheet

Facts and figures are here.

Home Theater Review

Ken Kessler writes in his inimitable style. He was very optimistic about them in this review which must have been written soon after their release.

Sound on Sound Review

Paul White likes them as well. A pity the general public weren’t enthused by these reviews

Rogers International Ltd.

Looking at this website you’d think they are still being manufactured

There wouldn’t be any profit in this for the people who donated money towards the commissioning of the music but I think they will enjoy having made the creation of something possible.

To illustrate with a hypothetical commission. The Internet service might contact Harrison Birtwistle and talk with him about possible things he might be thinking of creating at the moment. These would be smaller works, not an opera of course. Then at the website of the online service these possibilities would be displayed. People would be asked to vote on their favourite. Then the website would go on to ask for donations towards the creation of this music, its performance and recording as a complete package. There would be a minimum donation size I think, like €500 perhaps. It could be that the composer will start on the composition when 50% of the money has been gathered at the website. When it is finished then the recording would be made available at the website. Names of the donors would be listed at the download page.

Maybe this kind of thing is happening on the web already, I don’t know. Maybe there is nothing new about this idea.

I had this idea because I don’t think that there is any future in getting money by selling recordings. Although Peter Mandelson has announced forthcoming legislation in the UK to block persistent file-sharing offenders I don’t think this or other measures will make a great deal of difference. The problem for the music industry is that technology has made it easy for people to share music online and it is going to be very hard to stop them doing that.

People do want music and they want new music, so I think what is required is a new way of getting the musicians paid for their work. That’s why I’ve had my idea of group online commissioning.

I know this is an example of extreme paranoia, but I couldn’t help but imagine that maybe it has gone to prevent people from transferring their cash. In truth it doesn’t make sense that because the new arrangements don’t start for a few weeks yet.

I’ve emailed Halifax about it and I am waiting for the reply. At the end of the email I put that I wanted to charge Halifax a £25 administration fee for my writing the email.

I use a Mac, but I do have Windows XP which I run with Parallels Virtual Desktop. Yesterday I installed QuickTime in it, the QuickTime installer gave me this dialogue:

It looks like there is an option to Automatically update QuickTime and other Apple Software. However it doesn’t say install other Apple Software. Anyway I’m going to let nature take its course. When I am told I need a QuickTime update I will see what happens and report back.