So many keyboards

... and so silly in most cases! Take a look here and let me know what you're favourite is - no promises for Christmas of course but... ;)

I had trouble waking up this morning..

...the week before Christmas is turning out to be particularly long and tiring, and my alarm clock just doesn't seem to cut it any more. The answer seems to be this:

A flying alarm clock. When the alarm goes off the rotor launches itself out of the top of the clock, around 9 feet vertically and then refuses to shut up until the rotor is reinserted! Great idea huh? At least until you get the idea that unplugging it would shut it up rather easier!

New Member of the Team

This is going to sound a little cheesey, but I'd just like to welcome a new member of staff in this post. Sarah's joining us part time covering some of our evenings and weekends, and generally filling in as required. So "Welcome to the Manor, Sarah!"



See cheesy, but well meaning!

Wind up MP3s

A short one today, just sharing a link I found with you all : a wind up MP3 player. Never mind being better for the environment - never running out of battery power sounds wonderful!

The only problem seems to be its size - only 2 gig - nowhere near enough in these days of 100gig plus players.

Hotelympia

Well our tickets are booked, and the times filled into the diary for myself and the owners to go to Hotelypia in Febuary next year. It bills itself as the worlds leading foodservice and hospitality show, running for over 75 years.

It's going to be my first time there, and looking through the list of exhibitors theres load there. More tomorrow when I've had a chance to read through properly and decide where I'm going first!

Model or Paintshop? Surprisingly model. Its a large white paper sphere suspended on a wire, with four projectors. And the best bit? Its animated - it actually seems to spin and to have weather patterns - have to pop in and see it the next time I'm in Harrisonburg!

Top 10

Stumbling around the web a few minutes ago I came across a list of Top Ten Science Fiction Novels and as a fanatical sci-fi reader I don't agree with most of the choices here. Oh, they're all good books, but best 10? Not really in some cases.

So naturally this leads me to ask what would my top 10 be?

Well in no particular order:

• Dune - agreeing with the other list here, a complex and deep far future space opera, even if I'm not a huge fan of the sequels and prequels.The
• The Nights Dawn Trilogy - A huge space opera and horror crossover, and possibly the longest single story I've ever seen commercially - to all of you who don't know it put is this way, its at least 50% longer than The Lord Of the Rings, even ignoring its prequel.
  
• The Day of the Triffids - No one does end of the world as well as Wyndham did, particularly with his own very eccentric twist.
  
• The Uplift War - a set of six books loosely bound together, set in a nice twist in a galaxy where humans are a small unimportant race who can't resist sticking their nose in where its not needed, with predictable consequences.
  
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - In my opinion Heinlein's finest hour, and a book every should read once. Seriously if you haven't read this you're missing out.
  
• Childhoods End - The phrase not with a bang but with a whimper might be made for this book, which deals with the end of humanity, not through war but through evolution away from what we would understand as being human. Moving.
  
• Excession - My favorite of Ian Bank's Culture Novels, largely dealing with the Cultures Minds (AIs) and the attempted use of the titled Excession (a visitor from another universe) to pursue their systematic brutality.
  
• The Forever War - What would really happen in an interstellar war if Einstein is right about the speed of light and time dilation? This book less with war and more with the alienisation of the soldiers who fight in it, 100s of years removed from their own culture.
  
• The Stand - Well what can I say about this? A virus with a near 100% mortality rate gets released by accident, and the world is basically over. The book follows two sides, clearly shown to be good and evil in their attempt to rebuild and to mold the future in their images.

Anyone agree? Disagree? Any I've missed?