I've been visiting a couple of prestigious Research Institutions this week, and delivering presentations of my current research work. This was fine and dandy - I'd updated my standard presentation as appropriate to the audience, and with new data. For this I generally use Open Office, which has a rather good presentation app, called Impress.

Unfortunately, I ran into an issue with output of the slideshow to a projector. My laptop is a slightly aged Sony VGN-TX5XN - about 2.5 years old, with a meagre 1Gb RAM onboard. As soon as I plugged in the cable to the projector, the display went black, with only an immobile mouse cursor visible. I rescued the situation by using a PowerPoint version I'd made (not perfect, but good enough for the job) on the host's XP laptop.

This looks to be good.  As legal blogger Jack of Kent writes today (Libel Reform: Free Speech is not for Sale), two pressure groups, English Pen and Index on Censorship, have conducted a joint inquiry into English libel law - their report is now available on a new website:

The Libel Reform Campaign

Some weeks ago, I noted the existence of Google's Sidewiki (Is Sidewiki evil? (Probably not, but it's annoying)) and mentioned that I'd planned to install a Sidewiki blocker on my websites.  Well, I've done that.  I've also installed the Google Toolbar thing, and now have a Sidewiki button nestled up there next to my Firefox URL box.

Every so often, I click on it to see if a website has any Sidewiki annotation, but thus far, I've yet to see one.  Does this mean that Sidewiki's a flop?  Or just reflect the nature of the sites I visit (many are forums or blogs with pages of relatively transient interest)?  And need I have bothered to install a Sidewiki blocker at all?

Apparently this isn't a wind-up, though it sure looks like an early April Fool.  Here's an 18 button mouse from OpenOffice.org, from a report in The Register (OpenOffice.org pushes gamers' buttons with OOMouse):

I anxiously waited for some try roads to take my new pride and joy (Cervelo P3 time trial frame; The new time trial bike) for a spin.  Being as I was off to the USA first thing Sunday morning, I got all set up to ride it on Saturday.  Tubs pumped up, bolts tightened, new cycle computer picking up the GPS satellites...only to discover issues with the heatset being loose.  And the rear wheel pulled.

By the time I'd got that dealt with it was getting dark.  So, the maiden ride will have to wait until I'm back from the USA.

Cyclingnews.com reports that the Belgian press claim that Astana are offering Alberto Contador a huge wad to stay with the team for four years (Astana offer Contador up to €8 million per year).  This is apparently double what Contador has asked for to stay.

Interestingly, Astana's finances have been sufficiently rocky that they nearly didn't get to start the Tour de France this year, and they were sufficiently dilatory in completing their UCI paperwork that Contador has an exit right from the team.  Whether Astana would be able to come up with the cash, is something of a moot point.

Dear old A. N. Wilson has an article over that the Daily Mail, prompted by the recent sacking of the chair of the Government's drugs advisory committee (Yes, scientists do much good. But a country run by these arrogant gods of certainty would truly be hell on earth).

There's a cracker in the article which kind of gives the game away:

Here's a physics lesson from a homeopath. I can't wait to pass this by my colleagues in the Physics Department.

Apparently this is subject to a takedown notice. Make a copy for posterity... Hat tip - PZ Myers

I posted earlier about my new time trial frame - a Cervelo P3 time trial frame, which is an early birthday present.  The frame has now been built up, mostly using existing components from my other bikes.  The bike hasn't been on the road yet, and its first competitive use is likely to be the club's New Year's Day '10'.  Here's a not very good photo of the bike, taken this morning in rain and half-light (I'll post a better one when available):

The specs are:

Lord Mandelson, the unelected Minister in charge of a vast swathe of Government business via his roles as the current First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, President of the Board of Trade and Lord President of the Council, has been pretty vocal of late over what to do about illegal filesharers.  As one who presumably mingles with the dinosaurs of big media, he's keen to hit back at individuals seen to be stealing content from the big media.

His latest proposals seem to strike at the core of justice - to disconnect individuals accused of illegal downloading.  Presumably accused by big media?  Anyway, The Register reports (TalkTalk to fight net disconnection plan) that at least one ISP is preparing to put up a fight. 

This sounds truly bizarre.  Former T-mobile cyclist Andreas Klöden (Astana), who has been under investigation for involvement in a blood doping ring (following the 2006 case of Patrik Sinkewitz).  However, this investigation is now at an end.  Cycling news reports (Klöden to pay fine in Freiburg clinic doping case):

A spokesman for the public prosecutor in Bonn said that, in return for the payment, the district court will stop proceedings for sporting fraud against the 34-year-old. The payment, said to be 25,000 euros by the German magazine Focus, is not considered an admission of guilt  under German law.

The Register reports today (UK gets final warning over Phorm trials) that the UK Government has moved closer to Infringement proceedings over the Phorm phiasco.

The UK government today came a step closer to international embarrassment over its failure to act against BT and Phorm for their secret trials of mass internet snooping technology.

The European Commission said it had moved to the second stage of infringement proceedings after the trials, revealed by The Register, exposed failings in the UK's implementation of privacy laws.

Some months ago, I wrote briefly on my early attempts at developing a website with Drupal. (see Drupal vs Joomla! part 1, part 2 and part 3)  I was pretty impressed by Drupal, but considered it had some odd omissions from the default installation.  In particular, the lack of a stock WSIWYG editor seemed pretty glaring, especially as installing an editor turned out to be so fiddly.

I've restarted the development of that website, and have concluded that:

On Saturday, I made another sortie to the Local Bike Shop (LBS) to be bought a 50th birthday present, albeit somewhat early.  This took the form of a new time trial frame, and had been generously offered by Mrs Grumpy.  The trip to the bike shop was the third in a week or so during which I had been browsing the interweb and think about several different brands and models.

In the end, the decision was (apart from aesthetic grounds) made largely on whether the frame made use of standard components.  I decided against the Specialized Transition Module because of its oversize BB shell, which would mean I couldn't use any of my existing chainsets, and its slightly eccentric cable route to the rear brake caliper (I also didn't like the look when I saw it for real).  I went against the Argon 18 E114 because it had a rather odd system by which the handlebars attached to the steerer tube - this would have meant I couldn't use any of the existing handlebar/stem setups I have.  I looked at one or two other brands before plumping for a Cervelo.  But a P3 or a P4?  Both were reduced because the 2009 models were about to be replaced by 2010 models.

I had thought of writing a pointless article about the launch of Windows 7 earlier this week, but really, I couldn't be bothered.  The big news in the OS world for me is next week's release of Ubuntu 9.10 'Karmic Koala'.  I've been running Karmic in alpha and then beta for some time now, very happily.  It's running on a 2.5 year old Vaio laptop that was never really capable of running the Vista Business that it came with, and very nice it is too (last week I booted into Vista last week for the first time since January 2008, but quickly decided I'd had enough of interminable spinny "wait...wait...wait" type cursors).

Despite my dislike for Microsoft's bullying business style, I kinda hope that the gargantuan misadventure that was Vista may be behind them.  Certainly there's quite a bit of enthusiasm for Windows 7 out there (and I don't just mean the breathless puffery at the likes of the BBC website), but quite a bit of it seems to be based on the observation that "it's not Vista".  Many commentators are saying however that for many a significant hardware upgrade is still going to be needed to get the max out of Windows 7.

Apparently the Google Toolbar has a new addition, Sidewiki. It's kind of passed me by, as I don't use the Google toolbar, but it's a bit misnamed.  It's not truly a wiki, but it does offer website visitors an opportunity to leave comments about a website or webpage. 

These comments are only visible to Sidewiki users (see picture). 

Cyclingnews reports that Jan Ullrich visited Dr Fuentes 24 times. Which all goes to make me wonder how many times Alejandro Valverde (sorry, Valv. Piti) may have popped into see the gynaecologist with sporting interests.These are two cases where DNA fingerprinting evidence demonstrates that Dr Fuentes was storing bags of blood that are definitively linked with professional cyclists.

Ivan Basso, of course, took it on the chin with a two year ban (that mysteriously didn't seem to be followed by the ProTour ban the rules would indicate). But dear old Alejandro Valverde (sorry, Valv. Piti) continues to fight, claiming innocence despite CONI ruling that the DNA match was sufficient to ban him from racing in Italy (and therefore preventing him from riding the 2009 Tour de France). Meanwhile, it looks as though the Operacion Puerto affair will drag on till 2011, leaving UCI president McQuaid furious.

Here are a couple of other video segments, taken from the roadside at the 2008 Duo Normand.  Both videos were taken with a pretty basic 5Mp Kodak camera by Carol (who in 2009 had to drive the support car), and both clips are mercifully short, compared to the 2009 feature film. The first clip shows us leaving the start ramp, and climbing up the little lane at the start of the race.

Team Grumpy rode the Duo Normand again in 2009 (see this story, and also the Team Grumpy blog and website). Silent Movie is my first effort at editing video footage - in this case recorded from a video camera attached to "Grumpy" Art Vanderlay's tri-bars.  Thus, you can periodically see my backside and legs, but "Grumpy" Art doesn't feature much at all. I edited the video using the Linux package kdenlive, and rendered it as a 320x240 pixel flash video. Be warned, this is a 90' video, and if bandwidth issues result, I'll need to unpublish this article.  It's also rather boring for those not interested in the Duo Normand! The video seems to play well with Firefox on Linux and WinXP.  IE8 on WinXP seems to throw a wobbly about the Flash Player, though after installing Flash Player 10 it worked OK.  Haven't tried other browser/OS combinations yet.

This just in from the "foot in mouth" department.

The British Chiropractic Association has written a press release, or rather two in quick succession following yesterday's ruling that Simon Singh has leave to appeal against the BCA's libel case.