The bearded rotund dude clad in red paid a visit a few days ago, leaving a selection of gifts, among them a Squeezebox Radio.  This is part of a range of wi-fi audio devices from Logitech - I already have one of the original Squeezeboxes, now renamed Squeezebox Classic.[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="268" caption="Squeezebox Radio (image via Logitech website)."][/caption]Each of these devices connects to a server system that serves audio streams, either from local audio files of from the internet.  In my case, I'm using a QNap NAS box as a server.  The software for this, Squeezebox Server, is available as a download for a variety of platforms, including Linux, OSX and Windows, as well as a perl tarball.  Squeezebox server supports multiple players, which need not be playing the same audio streams.  Squeezebox Server is open source, and supports a whole array of plugins.  My current set up consists of a Squeezebox Classic, the new Squeezebox Radio, and the iPad app SqueezePad which following a recent update now has the ability to use the iPad as a player.  In addition, one can emulate the players on one's computer using Squeezeslave.I intend to use the Squeezebox Radio to replace an ageing radio alarm clock.  Reviews suggest that it's a bit unreliable as an alarm clock when used to play internet radio feeds from the Logitech server.  In my case I'll be mostly streaming BBC radio via the iPlayer plugin.The Squeezebox Radio is principally operated by the buttons and knobs on the front panel, though some of the functionality can be accessed via Squeezebox Server.  A remote control is available separately along with the rechargeable battery pack (which bizarrely isn't included unless you've selected the device as part of a bundle).  So, in order of size:The colour monitor shows the status of the device.  It can be set to show a variety of information while playing or in standby: I've set this to show the time and date most of the time.  It can be a bit bright for use as a bedside radio, but this can be addressed by adjusting the brightness and the theme in use.The large knob isn't actually the volume, but the selecter used to scroll down configuration options and through the music files.  You push it to make a selection.  The on/off button, actually more of a standby button is bottom right, with the volume knowb bottom left.  There are several switches for 'Home', 'Back' and the like, which are used in navigating the menu system, along with conventional play, pause, ffwd etc functions.The six silver buttons (three either side of the display) are used to preset playlists and radio stations.In use, the thing was almost ridiculously easy to set up.  It quickly found my wireless network.  I had a brief pause while I figured out what my login details for the squeezenetwork were, but then the remaining setup was straightforward, including a download of a firmware update.Sound quality is pretty good for such a small device.  Setting the alarms is easiest using Squeezebox Server, but many of the things I've tweaked have had to be done through the devices interface itself.  This includes setting preset playlists, and setting the display brightness and theme.Does it work as an alarm clock?  Yes, no problems on the testing so far.  I have one or two worries about bandwidth when the server is doing backups, and I'll need to keep an eye on this.I'm really very pleased with the device - so far it's worked well, though of course it needs to b

A seasonal cartoon from xkcd...[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="551" caption="Incident"][/caption]Somebody must read all those logfiles...surely?

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="220" caption="Captain Beefheart"][/caption]I see from the BBC news website that Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, has died (Don Van Vliet, aka 'Captain Beefheart', dies aged 69).  Very sad news.  Although Van Vliet had retired from music back in the 1980s to concentrate on painting, his music has been a major part of my life since I first listened to Trout Mask Replica several decades ago.More obituaries:The Captain Beefheart Radar StationThe Guardian - Captain Beefheart, who has died aged 69, was provocative and unpredictableLA Weekly - Top 14 Reasons Why Captain Beefheart Was a True American GeniusA sad day indeed.  Here's an old video of the Magic Band playing 'Electricity'...

Not too much activity here on Flies&Bikes lately, mostly because I've been more active posting about intelligent design over at Wonderful Life, and grumbling about politics at Posterous.  Oh and the small matter of the day job.I just thought I'd point out the current status of voting intention, as revealed by YouGov polls.  I note the spike in LibDem popularity, back in the General Election campaign, when they were at the height of their campaign (including their stated intentions about Higher Education funding).  But look how their popularity has slipped since they took on the role of patsys for the Tories.

[caption id="attachment_1217" align="aligncenter" width="568" caption="Voting intentions 2005-2010"][/caption]Visit the site for more information (click on the image).

The Rev Dr Peter Hearty of the excellent 'Platitude of the Day' website is clearly concerned that former Archbish Carey is rather upset at the (supposed) continued victimisation of christians in the UK*.  He thinks we should send Christmas cards to the poor old soul.

It's been suggested that Lord Carey deserves a response to his Not Ashamed campaign. He's obviously feeling a bit down, what with all this Christian persecution that's going on. I think the idea of sending him a Season's Greetings card, perhaps with a picture of some jolly penguins or some reindeer on the front, is an excellent way of cheering the old chap up.

Click over to Platitude of the day for more...I think I may well just do the same...and I'm sure Lord Carey, ensconced in the House of Lords with the others who are there merely because they are senior figures of the Church of England will enjoy all those seasonal sentiments and images.*Of course, not everyone agrees that there is any persecution.  The Bishop of Croydon disagrees (Bishop bashes Christian persecution complex).

This is a listing of my favourite iPad apps:Dropbox - Absoutely invaluable for shifting files too and from the iPad; synchronise files between iPad and other computers; useful for collaborationsSqueezepad - Excellent and easy to use interface for Squeezebox Server.  Logitech's series of Squeezebox audio devices are really rather a nice way of managing and playing digital audio files.iAnnotate - read and annotate pdf files.  Aji Reader Service can be used to synchronise pdf files between Mac or PC and iAnnotate.  I use this to synch my pdf collection which I manage on the Linux and Mac notebooks using Mendeley.  Unfortunately the current version of the Mendeley iPhone/iPad app leaves quite a lot to be desired.iWork - three iWork applications have iPad versions: Pages, Numbers and KeynoteSkype -VOIP telephony via the iPad.  No video of course, but the rumoured second generation iPad may have video.  Works well on my WiFi model iPad.The Feed -Interfaces with Google Reader to help keep on top of your RSS feeds (I usually follow around 120 or more feeds).Tweetdeck - Not quite as full-featured as the desktop version, but still pretty good for emitting thoughts into the twitterverse.  Has a useful browser panel.Headspace - A kind of hybrid task manager, planning, to-do list app that is really quite versatile.  Three dimensional effects!Wolfram - Very useful if your web searches aim to pull out numerical analyses.  Reasonably good value when I got it on special offer, but I guess one could always access Wolfram Alpha via Safari.  A bit too focussed on American data.Notes Plus - very versatile note taking app, with diagrams and text.  No character recognition - for this try WritePad.  Works best with an iPad stylus.Quickoffice - read and edit MS Office documents.Penultimate - a neat and easy graphic note-taking app.  Works best with a stylus, otherwise you're finger-painting

The BBC reports that the UK ISP TalkTalk (also known as StalkStalk) is pressing on with its intrusive malware scanning system (Talk Talk to introduce controversial virus alert system).  However a better analysis can be read over at NoDPI (Update: StalkStalk, Time to Switch ISP).Essentially TalkTalk will visit every website visited by every TalkTalk customer, and investigate it for malware.  Essentially this is an exercise in recording customers' web activity, in many cases recording URLs containing personal information.  TalkTalk customers cannot opt-out of the URL stalking.  As NoDPI put it:

Yesterday, TalkTalk announced the forthcoming relaunch of their ‘anti-malware’ service. The same system was covertly tested on TalkTalk subscribers in June/July.[...]Every URL that you visit will be captured, and used to classify the web site that you visit. The technology is supplied by Chinese company Huawei, who are commercial partners with notorious spyware company Phorm, who in turn use technology supplied by malware hackers OCS Lab in Moscow.

TalkTalk customers are advised to read the NoDPI article and judge whether their privacy would be best served by leaving for a new ISP. Personally I left BT over their dalliance with the dreadful Phorm.See also

Related articles

• TalkTalk rapped for trial silence (bbc.co.uk)
• TalkTalk to launch controversial Virus Alerts system (v3.co.uk)
• ISP to test controversial alerts (bbc.co.uk)
• TalkTalk reprimanded over Malware trial (ghacks.net)

Techdirt's latest story on the ongoing saga of the Murdoch media paywall rounds up the apparent effect on the ability of the Murdoch media to break stories (How Murdoch's Paywalls Meant Some News It Broke Went Unnoticed & Uncredited | Techdirt) - no-one notices.This on top of falling advertiser revenues makes me wonder how long they plan to continue the paywall.  On the other hand, they've just moved The News of the World behind the paywall.I read a multitude of sites regularly - using the Feedly front-end to Google Reader - and I probably do so just as most web users do.  I'm what you might call a 'fly-by' reader - I follow links from feeds, twitter, other websites.  I don't read on line newspapers as I do (did) print newspapers, I read single articles.  Paywalls just mean I don't go to those sites, so when the NewsCorp paywall went up, I went elsewhere.I guess the big question for NewsCorp is whether paywall income compensates for the loss of advertiser revenue.

Buoyancy, fat and metabolism

In a previous stage of my research career, I spent a considerable amount of time screening a collection of recessive lethal Drosophila strains for abnormal mitotic phenotypes. I looked for such phenotypes in squash preparations from third instar larval brains, and to get the larvae out of the fly food, we often floated them out in salt solution.  So, while scanning through an alert of new publications in PLoS Genetics, one particular title popped out at me:

A Buoyancy-Based Screen of Drosophila Larvae for Fat- Storage Mutants Reveals a Role for Sir2 in Coupling Fat Storage to Nutrient Availability

One of my mantras in the lab is that if one can think of a suitable selection, one can find any kind of mutant phenotype. In this paper, the authors have used a seemingly trivial selection system to identify mutants with a phenotype of altered fat metabolism. You can see the selection in this figure (Panel A in Figure 1):[caption id="attachment_1189" align="alignleft" width="160" caption="Selecting mutant larvae by buoyancy"][/caption]The plastic cuvette is filled with 10% sucrose, and the larvae added and left to float or sink to equilibrium.  You can see the wild type larvae in the left cuvette mostly sink, while all the adp mutant larvae float.Clearly there's a difference in buoyant density between the two genotypes.  adp is a spontaneous mutation identified many years ago.  Somewhat oddly, the authors refer to adp as "a conserved anti-obesity gene first identified as a naturally-occurring mutation in Drosophila".  This sounds kind of odd to me.  The FlyBase record for adp describes it thus:

There is experimental evidence that it is involved in the biological process: lipid metabolic process; response to desiccation; negative regulation of sequestering of triglyceride.

Still, it clearly affects lipid deposition such that adp mutants mostly float in 10% sucrose, thereby demonstrating the efficacy of the selection.The authors used this buoyancy test to screen nearly 900 strains, each bearing transposon insertions, that represent about 500 distinct loci.  66 genes were identified by this assay as affecting body fat composition - some were previously characterised as having a function related to fat physiology, and about two thirds of the genes had mammalian orthologues.

Over at Grumpy Bob's Posterous - Lunatics in charge of the asylum

Over at Grumpy Bob's Posterous - Is this evidence of Liberal Democrat moral bankruptcy?Yes, I think it could be construed as such.

While 50,000 students protest the proposed fees increase, this exchange in Parliament:

The flies&bikes blog has been a bit quiet lately.  This has been partly because I've been rather distracted by events and activities at work, partly because much of what I write about relates to my bike racing (which is seasonal), and partly because I write on a few blog sites.My blog 'Wonderful Life', which is hosted at this site, is where I blog about biology and atheism, frequently on topics such as creationism and its deviant offspring 'intelligent design'.  This has lead me to accept an invitation to join the committee of the British Centre for Science Education (website, forum and blog).  So a bit more effort has gone towards 'Wonderful Life' lately..Normal service will be resumed...

It's been quite a few weeks (or perhaps months) since dear Valv. (Piti) - aka Alejandro Valverde's doping case graced this blog.  Today, CyclingNews.com reports that Alejandro Valverde has lost the final appeal against his doping ban (Valverde Loses Final Appeal).This of course follows one of the few instances in which DNA fingerprinting led to a correlation between a pro cyclist and ablood bag recovered from Dr Fuentes' stash.  I guess the DNA profiling was felt to be rather incontrovertible.  Oh, and the barely concealed code name on the bags.He's now banned until the end of 2011.  He was formally banned from the first of January this year, but kept on racing for a while.  But the bottom line is - why couldn't the Spanish authorities succeed in getting more of the blood bags sampled for DNA fingerprinting?  How many riders got away with it?  And is it fair to clobber just a few of the cyclists involved?

Clocks change this weekend (from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time) in the UK, and as usual we get a bunch of silly stories about how we ought to change this practice (for example BBC News - Putting clocks back damages our health, says expert).I'm a cycle commuter, and personally I think increased darkness in the morning would be a dangerous change.  I'm not convinced drivers are fully awake during the morning commute - a suggestion supported in the article by Dr David Lewis, a chartered psychologist who has done research into the effect of sunshine on our well-being

"But there is a danger that people leaving for work in the morning don't really wake up properly if it's not light."

It is apparently recommended that adults take 30 minutes exercise per day and children take 60 minutes.  It does seem to me that the easiest way of getting this exercise is by encouraging people to commute by bike where possible (and take public transport with its attendant walking to/from buses and trains): I expect people are less likely to do so in the dark.

I've finally shaken off the recurrent cold that's been a bit of a burden since I returned from the USA in the first week of October.  This was convenient since my Team Grumpy team mate was visiting and we'd planned a bike ride.  This is actually rather a rare occasion for us.Of course all my assertions that we should 'take it easy' and 'don't forget I've been off the bike for four weeks' had zilch effect as we found ourselves zipping along on a beautifully clear and sunny morning (though it was rather cold at the start), particularly after we encountered an old club mate on the way, with the consequences that generally follow.  We covered around 50 miles in about 3h riding time - the furthest I've cycled since our trip to France in September, and the first 'proper' bike ride in the last month.  We did stop at a cafe in Winslow, which was just as well, since by the last 10 miles, my legs were suffering.It was notable how 'mobile' my heart rate was: while mostly it was in upper level 1 or lower level 2, it didn't take much for it to leap up to levels that I normally see during short time trials.  So recovery is still some way off, I guess.  Added to which, as I write this the following morning, I do seem a bit achy - particularly my neck.Oh, and I did collect a slow puncture a mile or two from getting home.

It would seem as though the UK government has quietly performed an about turn and revived the Intercept Modernisation Plan ('Surveillance state' fear as government revives tracking plan | UK news | The Guardian).  As The Guardian reports:

A £2bn plan to allow the police and security services to track the email, text, internet and mobile phone details of everyone in Britain is to be revived, the Home Office has confirmed.The coalition agreement promised to scrap the "surveillance state" plan by pledging to "end the storage of internet and email records without good reason". Both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats voiced criticism in opposition.But the project, known as the interception modernisation programme, has been quietly revived - a decision buried in the back pages of the strategic defence and security review published this week. Senior Home Office officials have confirmed that legislation is being prepared.

You might have thought that in the current climate of swingeing cuts in public expenditure this might have remained axed.  But no, it's back.The plan doesn't yet include retention of the content of messages (but as ever, beware of 'function creep').

Following the announcement of the upcoming OSX app store, it's reported that Microsoft is (supposedly) working on a Windows app store, too.Hang on - isn't this what we do with Ubuntu?One of the things that delayed my buy-in to the iPad was the whole walled-garden of the thing - without jailbreaking (with it's attendant consequences) I'm committed to only obtaining and running software available through the App Store.  Now, I eventually concluded that the iPad, like the iPod Touch, is actually a consumer device rather than a computer per se, and I can see why Apple have gone down that route. And I've found the iPad to be an impressive device fr many of my day to day work (and entertainment) activities.Regarding the proposal of an "App Store" for Mac OSX, I was rather relaxed.  After all Linux distros have really had this kind of facility for years - in the form of the repository system used by whatever packaging system used.  In Ubuntu I either access this via the command line or via Synaptic.  There is of course the "Ubuntu Software Centre", which seems to me moving from just a listing of free software to also offering commercial software.In that sense, moving to an App Store model for distributing software for computers isn't particularly innovative, unless it becomes the only way to install software.  It appears that the OSX app store is to be incorporated in next year's OSX 10.7 and added to the current OSX 10.6 pretty soon (Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" - Sneak Peek).I'm a little uneasy about this move: I don't want to work in a completely closed software ecosystem, and I'm not getting a sense of whether this will be the exclusive mode of software installation. I guess this will be resolved quite soon, as it's coming to OS X 10.6 in the coming months.Update:  Ars Technica's review of yesterday's Apple media shindig (Mac OS X 10.7 Lion: "Mac OS X meets the iPad") quotes Steve Jobs as saying that the Mac App Store won't be the only place to get applications—just "the best place." So that's OK -  for now...

Sitting awake after another nocturnal coughing fit (will this darned cold never shift?) in the early hours of the day in which the Government's Spending Review details will be announced, I notice that the BBC is reporting that the civil science research budget is to be cut by "only" 10% over four years (Science cuts 'less than feared').   Still bad, but  I guess we will feel a sense of relief after the  Government spin of recent weeks.  As the BBC report says, the Royal Society submission to the Government earlier this year said:

A 10% cut would "fundamentally damage the quality, productivity and capability of the UK's research base".

I guess the quality of the Government's spin doctors is revealed by the sense of relief that the cuts will be 'only' 10%.Still of concern is where the cuts will fall.  The BBC's report says that the Medical Research Council may lose least as it's viewed to fund research that fits "national priorities", while those funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council may be more worried.  No mention of the BBSRC in the report.Still, while the USA and other competitor nations raise their research budgets (in terms of % GDP), we are taking the opposite direction.See also Spin Spin Spin.

The BBC reports 79% cut in University teaching funding (Will this mark the death of UK Universities? - Grumpy Bob's Posterous).