Serendipity

Who ? The cat ...

Old news perhaps, but I noticed a Zimbabwe news site quoting from the Botswana Daily News of 13 July, 2004

Khama laments destruction of Botswana/Zim electric fence
BOBONONG - The Vice President Seretse Khama Ian Khama has lamented that government's efforts to electrify the border fence between Botswana and Zimbabwe had borne no fruit as people cut the fence and stolen the solar panels.

How to encourage energy self-sufficiency in the surrounding population - build a solar powered electric fence ...

I saw this security system mentioned on Bruce Schneier's blog and as he says it looks interesting. Security by not putting in the dangerous bits. Security that's aimed at being easy to use. Security turned on by default. Distributed secure keys for updates. We could do with more systems like this. I'd not taken much notice of the OLPC project to start with but they're coming up with some really good ideas. I see these laptops selling well in the first world too.

S.Africa expropriates first farm in reform drive
Reuters South Africa, Tue Feb 13, 2007 5:31 PM GMT

Interesting to read that the South African state has embarked on a process of colonial compensation which tore Zimbabwe apart. South Africa has an unbroken history and justice system which, in the Cape, goes back some 200 years, and the Truth and Reconciliation Committee seemed quite successfully handled. So I hope land reform can be compensated in a fair and legal way, as the paper says:

"South African officials, by contrast, emphasise that land redistribution will be governed by law and in most cases will rely on negotiation with landholders to arrive at a fair price for the farms being repossessed."

Let's hope it comes true without any corruption. Amen.

Freemind: a mind mapper, and at the same time an easy-to-operate hierarchical editor

Description: A Java Program for creating and viewing Mindmaps

Taking the Concept-Mapping approach to Human-Computer Interface design. A mind mapper, and at the same time an easy-to-operate hierarchical editor with strong emphasis on folding. These two are not really two different things, just two different descriptions of a single application. Often used for knowledge and content management.

deb http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.blackdown.org/java-linux/debian sarge non-free

Have Fun

"Rainbow Diary", John Malathronas, Summersdale, 2006

Hi John, I just wanted to let you know that I'm reading Rainbow Diary, which S**** bought me for Christmas ! It's a really interesting contrast with my experiences out there and in Zimbabwe in 1984/5/6/7.

I do think you're a bit harsh on Afrikaners sometimes. That poor God-fearing bi- or tri-lingual Boer family with their children, hearing your table describing Monkey-gland sauce, were probably disapproving of your language rather than of black integration :-)

Like I say a great contrast though. I went out in the middle of "sanksies" to see for myself and make a bit of money whilst I explored the railways there at company expense :) Sub-contracting from my UK employer cost SA about quarter of a milion pounds, that was 1M Rand at the external exchange rate but it deprived business of 2M Rand worth of foreign currency allowance at the official forex accounting rate (half as much as the other, and used for any corporate deals). A complicated economic sanction, but I decided to take the job as I strongly believe in seeing and forming my own opinions on contentious subjects.

Amongst my closest friends in Jhb were a big bullet shaped black man called Simon D***, with an amazingly lazy but humorous laugh and a Chinese bloke called Paul F***. They were both travelling technicians with ICL Retail Systems, staffed by a mixture of ex-pats, Afrikaners and anyone local who was relaxed and relatively liberal :) We three used to sit on the grass at lunchtime with a monkey gland burger in front of City Hall in jacaranda filled Braamfontein and swap bitingly cynical jokes at the racist system. Even then the richer suburbs of Jhb were defended to the hilt with walls, electric gates, lights, dogs and armed response signs.

Simon had been banged up one New Year for leaving his dompass at home, and had to be bailed out by management on NY Day. Paul was worried that the Coloureds and maybe even the Blacks would get at least the 1986-7 partial vote before the Chinese, overtaking the long-delayed Chinese voting negotiations. Had some great Chinese dinners at his home. Remember this was before the crackdowns and necklacings, they weren't unknown but it wasn't a reign of fear then. Everyone always had a smile and a "yebo" for the black security guards and asked after their families.

For my second long trip there I lived in a flat in Hillbrow, just round the corner about two streets from the Rotunda. It certainly wasn't a war zone, it was cosmopolitan, liberal, had great book and record shops, clean buildings around greened squares, half a dozen restaurants on every block, not to mention Johannesburg's last electric trolleybus route. It also had a great scene. I never got to go in any of the clubs (still a bit timid) but I walked past many evenings and heard the African jazz, which I was really into at the time.

I didn't go into a township either - I hated the idea of turning someone's suffering into tourism - but they were a fact of life for anyone who travelled by train as much as I did. When we passed through them, official or unofficial, neat railway township or squatters camp, as we looked out of the window - First Class, Second Class, Third Class Bunks, Third Class sitting, and in Zimbabwe Fourth Class - we were all the same as them. The black community itself though oppressed was also a fact of life and the underpinning of the country's economic success. I'm glad it's more liberal and equal but wish everyone didn't have to lose their livelihoods. In Zimbabwe the entire black middle class still supports a community of black maids, shop assistants and gardeners, there's no shame seen in it.

I never got down to Cape Town but I read that section and especially District Six and Robben Island movingly. I liked Port Elizabeth, I saw it in the cool winter sunshine. You should have explored down towards the docks as there is some great architecture underneath the freeways ! However you did see quite a bit I didn't. It also has a narrow gauge steam train with scenic views ;-)

I did PE and George/Knysna in the same long weekend on a triangular air trip, with steam at each corner. I haven't done the scenic Montague Pass by rail yet, but special trains do tackle it from George or even Mossel Bay and take the western Garden Route to the top of the pass to Oudshoorn. You could cycle down :) You can take a "power van" motor rail trolley from Oudshoorn up the Outeniqua, the old Eastern Cape main line, and back down again, downwards is the route you cycled. And another little power train at some times of year from Oudshoorn along the old branch line to a hotel in Calitzdorp, which I think sounds much easier than cycling !

Durban and Zululand I also loved a lot! As you say luxury there is so cheap and I liked that I could just walk into a sea front hotel and pay my bill cash in advance - only money to keep was for spending. Warm sunny and cosmopolitan with a great beach (and shark nets, you didn't swim before breakfast following a storm), I brought back some nice little railway related bits from antique/upmarket flea shops on the road from the station to the sea front. Glad to hear the snake farm is still going well ! I loved the South Coast from Durban too, the wooden electric slam-door train over the beach-front lagoons and causeways to Kelso was really beautiful (which back then went onto beach resort of Port Shepstone and another narrow gauge steam train through the sugar cane and rondavels of the Valley of 1000 Hills). On other visits I explored the railway route through Tzaneen and down the edge of the Kruger park, and we drove across the Escarpment and battlefields of Zululand - an area that still tugs at my heart almost as much as the 1000 Hills.

I'm just starting the "Saved the best for last" British bit but I wanted to commit these thoughts. A great read John and I really look forwards to raving with you again some time - we have a significant birthday coming up soon - otherwise we must meet up abroad somewhere if we ever get organised ;-)

"Rainbow Diary", John Malathronas, Summersdale, 2006

Hi John, I just wanted to let you know that I'm reading Rainbow Diary, which S**** bought me for Christmas ! It's a really interesting contrast with my experiences out there and in Zimbabwe in 1984/5/6/7.

I do think you're a bit harsh on Afrikaners sometimes. That poor God-fearing bi- or tri-lingual Boer family with their children, hearing your table describing Monkey-gland sauce, were probably disapproving of your language rather than of black integration :-)

Like I say a great contrast though. I went out in the middle of "sanksies" to see for myself and make a bit of money whilst I explored the railways there at company expense :) Sub-contracting from my UK employer cost SA about quarter of a milion pounds, that was 1M Rand at the external exchange rate but it deprived business of 2M Rand worth of foreign currency allowance at the official forex accounting rate (half as much as the other, and used for any corporate deals). A complicated economic sanction, but I decided to take the job as I strongly believe in seeing and forming my own opinions on contentious subjects.

Amongst my closest friends in Jhb were a big bullet shaped black man called Simon D***, with an amazingly lazy but humorous laugh and a Chinese bloke called Paul F***. They were both travelling technicians with ICL Retail Systems, staffed by a mixture of ex-pats, Afrikaners and anyone local who was relaxed and relatively liberal :) We three used to sit on the grass at lunchtime with a monkey gland burger in front of City Hall in jacaranda filled Braamfontein and swap bitingly cynical jokes at the racist system. Even then the richer suburbs of Jhb were defended to the hilt with walls, electric gates, lights, dogs and armed response signs.

Simon had been banged up one New Year for leaving his dompass at home, and had to be bailed out by management on NY Day. Paul was worried that the Coloureds and maybe even the Blacks would get at least the 1986-7 partial vote before the Chinese, overtaking the long-delayed Chinese voting negotiations. Had some great Chinese dinners at his home. Remember this was before the crackdowns and necklacings, they weren't unknown but it wasn't a reign of fear then. Everyone always had a smile and a "yebo" for the black security guards and asked after their families.

For my second long trip there I lived in a flat in Hillbrow, just round the corner about two streets from the Rotunda. It certainly wasn't a war zone, it was cosmopolitan, liberal, had great book and record shops, clean buildings around greened squares, half a dozen restaurants on every block, not to mention Johannesburg's last electric trolleybus route. It also had a great scene. I never got to go in any of the clubs (still a bit timid) but I walked past many evenings and heard the African jazz, which I was really into at the time.

I didn't go into a township either - I hated the idea of turning someone's suffering into tourism - but they were a fact of life for anyone who travelled by train as much as I did. When we passed through them, official or unofficial, neat railway township or squatters camp, as we looked out of the window - First Class, Second Class, Third Class Bunks, Third Class sitting, and in Zimbabwe Fourth Class - we were all the same as them. The black community itself though oppressed was also a fact of life and the underpinning of the country's economic success. I'm glad it's more liberal and equal but wish everyone didn't have to lose their livelihoods. In Zimbabwe the entire black middle class still supports a community of black maids, shop assistants and gardeners, there's no shame seen in it.

I never got down to Cape Town but I read that section and especially District Six and Robben Island movingly. I liked Port Elizabeth, I saw it in the cool winter sunshine. You should have explored down towards the docks as there is some great architecture underneath the freeways ! However you did see quite a bit I didn't. It also has a narrow gauge steam train with scenic views ;-)

I did PE and George/Knysna in the same long weekend on a triangular air trip, with steam at each corner. I haven't done the scenic Montague Pass by rail yet, but special trains do tackle it from George or even Mossel Bay and take the western Garden Route to the top of the pass to Oudshoorn. You could cycle down :) You can take a "power van" motor rail trolley from Oudshoorn up the Outeniqua, the old Eastern Cape main line, and back down again, downwards is the route you cycled. And another little power train at some times of year from Oudshoorn along the old branch line to a hotel in Calitzdorp, which I think sounds much easier than cycling !

Durban and Zululand I also loved a lot! As you say luxury there is so cheap and I liked that I could just walk into a sea front hotel and pay my bill cash in advance - only money to keep was for spending. Warm sunny and cosmopolitan with a great beach (and shark nets, you didn't swim before breakfast following a storm), I brought back some nice little railway related bits from antique/upmarket flea shops on the road from the station to the sea front. Glad to hear the snake farm is still going well ! I loved the South Coast from Durban too, the wooden electric slam-door train over the beach-front lagoons and causeways to Kelso was really beautiful (which back then went onto beach resort of Port Shepstone and another narrow gauge steam train through the sugar cane and rondavels of the Valley of 1000 Hills). On other visits I explored the railway route through Tzaneen and down the edge of the Kruger park, and we drove across the Escarpment and battlefields of Zululand - an area that still tugs at my heart almost as much as the 1000 Hills.

I'm just starting the "Saved the best for last" British bit but I wanted to commit these thoughts. A great read John and I really look forwards to raving with you again some time - we have a significant birthday coming up soon - otherwise we must meet up abroad somewhere if we ever get organised ;-)

Who was the Mystery Guest ? We think it was someone from Tribe of Frog, we loved the familiar Froggy tunes :) We danced for an hour and three quarters continuously thanks to all those wonderful swirling acid lines. And no folk barging through the dancing pack to get across the dancefloor. Who were the crew in Post Office dayglo vests ? We couldn't get away from the floor until the Frogz finished, only then could we tear ourselves downstairs to hear the second half of Barclay's excellent chillout set. It was a really good night for exorcising the frustrations of the last few months. I have never tripped the light fantastic so much to Rest Proof Clockwork in my life. The final DJ downstairs was another deck wizard, with tunes like "1200 Micrograms" to get us on our feet (in the chillout nochmal). Didn't chuck us out until 2.30 and we eventually got home at about 3am. One of the best Psycles ever I think !

What conversations is Nick in ? Google for it ...

A peacable weekend at Shamania enjoying top psychedelic trance somewhere near Skipton, despite being camped on a pimple-shaped shade-free hilltop with little breeze on the hottest weekend of the year !

Official pics

My boss at the time bought one of these expensive high end gamer's laptops for development use, having ignored all my discussions with him about cheaper and more suitable machines. As we developed under Linux I had to try and get the hardware working before I could use it ...

Update: after this article was written, I suffered the most catastrophic filesystem corruption yet due to the Promise RAID driver bugs, and I was unable to recover from it. I gave the D870P back to my boss. After another six months, I saw him using it as a very hot, noisy and slow desktop, because the battery life had dropped to about 10 minutes ...

20th-21st August, 2005. A weekend of real ale, psytrance and chilling with our friends from Baraka at a very relaxed country pub, somewhere in deepest Oxfordshire:

More Chillathon 2005 pics

I like acid techno. I seem to be the only person who still does. I still think the Liberators and Rowland The Bastard and Choci are gods. I don't care if I'm the only person in my musical acid heaven, I don't think it's out of fashion.

Now playing: V.C.F.- Modernistic Acid Trance: Part Three , Choci's Chewns / J Liberator

Scotland's own Royal Palace

Cast list - all identifications of people in pictures welcome ! I know who most of you are (waves), but I'm not feeling up to typing it all in just now.

The Declaiming of the Ode

Colourscape is a maze of coloured bubbles, through which you can wander and experience the atmosphere changing as you move from one to another. It's like breathing liquid colour ...

Uk.Media.Radio.Archers and what it is about.

The Umra BBQ

Umra BBQ pictures: 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2004

Other Umra Barbeque pictures (also here).

Umra Links and other Archers Links.

Google on The Archers

What Is It ?

Qmail is a modern replacement for sendmail, written by Dan Bernstein, who also has a web page for qmail. qmail is a secure package. There was a $1,000 prize for anyone who can show otherwise, which went unclaimed. Qmail is being increasingly used by savvy and security-conscious admins on the net. You can read more on qmail, including many other useful patches which work with it, on the Qmail Users' web site.

I've created a simple patch to qmail, which greatly simplifies the use of it on dial-up hosts. Until now it was not quite ideal for dial-up use, as it assumes the remote delivery path is always available, which when using dial-on-demand meant by default it would dial up straight away to deliver. This required additional software such as the use of serialmail, or else stopping and restarting qmail upon connection to pick up new parameters.

With this patch, which modifies only qmail-send, it's possible to hold and release the remote delivery queue at will, using a new parameter "holdremote", which will be re-read when qmail is kicked with a SIGHUP. Thus outgoing mail can be queued as normal, but with the holdremote flag set it will not be delivered. When going online, arrange in your ip-up script for the parameter to be unset, tickle qmail-send with a SIGHUP, and Roberta is your mother's senior sibling - all queued remote mail will be immediately rescheduled. When you go offline, set the flag again and re-SIGHUP qmail-send: any futher mail will be queued for next time.

There is also a holdlocal option for symmetry and because it virtually fell out of the code, should anyone find a use for it.

Why use this patch ?

Advantages of my method over serialmail are:

• serialmail is additional software and configuration beyond the basic qmail package which a user may download first time; with my patch there is no additional software (except the patch, obviously) or configuration.
• serialmail requires a looping call should more mail be queued whilst online; this requires installation of still another DJB package (daemontools). With my patch, further mail is delivered instantly by qmail as designed, with no extra load or complexity.
• multiple serialmail instances can end up being run at the same time (for instance if using diald set up by a naive admin) unless, again, daemontools are used, thus resulting in duplicated mail; with my patch, this cannot happen as only a qmail parameter is changed.
• using serialmail to forward to a smarthost restricts the amount of mail which can be sent at once; by sending the mail directly it can potentially be sent faster, as the full bandwidth of your outgoing link can be used by dispatching several mails at the same time.
• Using a smarthost introduces an additional Single Point of Failure into your outgoing mail. Dispatching it directly to remote hosts using their MX records avoids this.

You do not need (though may still want) this patch if:

• you have a permanent network connection for outgoing remote mail.
• you have a dial-up link but not over IP.
• you send remote mail immediately it's queued via a dial-on-demand dial-up IP link and are happy to continue to do so (typically applies to people who don't pay their own phone charges :-)).
• you send remote mail to different destinations via two or more different links (e.g. internal-to-work and net-at-large). In this case you will require serialmail, which is an excellent package for this purpose.

Download this Patch

At the time of writing, qmail is at version 1.03. There are versions of this patch for use with both qmail 1.01 and qmail 1.03. You need the qmail sources, to which you add this patch using the following command:

zcat qmail-hold-<version>.pat.gz | patch -p0

Then compile and install - simple as winking !

Using the Patch

Here are some script excerpts which illustrate how I use it.

Firstly, an extract from the script which runs when my PPP link to my ISP comes up (in my case /etc/diald/ip-up):

{ rm -f /var/qmail/control/holdremote
/usr/bin/killall -HUP qmail-send
} &

The following should be added to the PPP down script, for me that is /etc/diald/ip-down:

{ echo 1 >/var/qmail/control/holdremote
chmod 644 /var/qmail/control/holdremote
/usr/bin/killall -HUP qmail-send
} &

Finally, in order to ensure that Qmail starts up in the held (offline) state, you need to add the following to the script which starts it (for me this is /etc/rc.d/init.d/sendmail.rc, in the "start" case):

echo 1 >/var/qmail/control/holdremote
chmod 644 /var/qmail/control/holdremote

From: Nick Leverton
Subject: Barticle physics
Date: Tue Sep 28 21:51:24 1998 GMT
Message-ID: <907015884snx@warren.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: uk.music.rave

In article <6u86hd$jjh$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> barticle@my-dejanews.com writes:
>barticle physics :)

Barticle Physics refers to that branch of physics which concerns or is affected by the group of elementary particles known as "munterons" or "barticles". This includes the "definite barticle" or "barton" itself, which is a slepton, as well as a number of particles of similar if varying spin, orientation, et cetera, known as "indefinite barticles"; and the hardon-like group of "munterons". The interactions between these slepton and hardon particles are mediated by a hitherto-unknown nuclear force known as "munt". The previously known hardon particles are now generically referred to as "non-munterons".

As an example, let us look at an amorphous disorganised group of classical non-munterons. They may be in one of several different states: Sulky, Angry, Sad, Bored, Lonely or Frustrated. There will be little or no alignment between the states of neighbouring non-munterons. When they are stimulated by the application of sound energy, it is almost certain that they will exhibit widely differing reactions to it, and this in turn will lead to physical contacts and interactions between the non-munterons. These interactions may involve at the least the release of sound waves, and in cases of serious misalignment may also involve physical energy, which in the extreme can lead to one or both non-munterons being violently ejected from the group by the non-munteron mediator particle which is known as a "bouncer".

Consider now a similar amorphous disorganised group of munterons. Thanks to the mediation of the munt force, which is notable carried by small flat rounded particles generically called "munterases", it is highly likely that all munterons will be in the same state, known as Plur. Thanks to this alignment, when munterons and barticles are exposed to suitable ranges of sound frequencies, synchronised and co-ordinated motions will be observed, again often including physical contact, but in this case in a frictionless, synergistic mode rather than an antagonistic mode. If the contacts become too frequent, the infringing barticle or munteron will generally modify its modes of movement, or in severe cases may shift its spatial position slightly so as to reduce the level of interference to a more suitable level. Despite the far higher particle densities normmally found in a munteron group as compared to a non-munteron group, this will normally be achieved without the need for any outside mediation or any change in Plur alignment whatsoever.

Though it is still an open question whether barticles are subject to the munt force as they do not appear to interact with munterases, it is undeniably observable that they are normally to be found in the Plur state, and that they frequently interact with munterons, hence they undoubtedly belong in the same classification as other munterons.

Munterons are normally to be found in small groups of from two to a dozen particles. They will however naturally aggregate wherever suitable sources of sound waves are to be found. As noted above, densities in a munteron group may far exceed anything that can be sustained by non-munteron groupings. Though they can sometimes be observed exhibiting sound reactions singly, it is normal that once one commences, the alignment in Plur states and the action of the munt force will ensure that the reaction arena (quaintly called the "dance floor", for reasons that are unlikely to become clear again at the moment) quickly becomes crowded with well-aligned munterons.

There are two known extreme groupings of munterons. The first, muntronium, occurs when munterons are so closely packed that there is room between them only for the most minimal of sound reactions, the distance between barticle centres being between 0.5 and 1 times the munteron's normal free action radius. In this case there can still be free movement, because the Plur alignment guarantees an almost frictionless environment and, despite the density, each munteron is within reason still able to choose its own modes and degrees of movement. The second, known as bartronium, is a still denser packing, in which case there is no free space at all between munterons, and there is only room for a co-ordinated motion in the vertical plane. This state has never yet been observed naturally, and there is some doubt amongst researchers whether it will occur outside articifial conditions, as munterons generally prefer to have more than one degree of freedom.

Where munterons and non-munterons mix, the result depends on the proportions of each particle. If non-munterons are in the preponderance, then the munterons will not become bound to the sound source and are likely to be radiated from the group until they enter an environment more conducive to the Plur state. Interestingly, they are unlikely to return to the reaction site or "club" in which the experiment was carried out, which suggests some sort of quantum "memory" effect may be at work. Where munterons are substantially more numerous, however, it is likely that they will prevail. In this case one of two things may occur. Usually the non-munteron, unable to achive the sort of reaction which it is seeking, will leave the reaction site (mediation by a "bouncer" is rarely necessarily in well-run sites). Sometimes, however, the non-munteron may find that the Plur environment is, to use an unjustified but hopefully pardonable anthropomorphism, "congenial", and may itself become sensitive to the munt force and commence interacting with munterons and munterases in its own right. In this case, there is little alternative but to consider that the non-munteron has now become a munteron. Unfortunately the reaction rate is slow, otherwise it is likely that the entire universe would quickly be converted into munterons.

In summary, the study of munterons and barticles is a fascinating and rapidly expanding area of modern dynamics, and this researcher would heartily recommend that anyone interested in a career in this area should seek out a source of suitable munterase as soon as possible in order to commence their own investigations.

This article would not have been possible without the munterons and barticles of uk.music.rave, to whom all acknowledgements and massive respect are due for this researcher's own induction into the field.

N.J. Leverton, BA (Cantab(Pt.I))

For some reason, there seem to be a lot of pictures of mud. It was my first and probably (now) only Glastonbury, and I had a great time. I wish I'd taken more pics of the non-mud features of the festival too ... mind you most other people's pics look the same !

Filth or freedom of speech ? Hugo Gurdon talks to an American group trying to clean up the Net

You are 13-years-old and your english teacher sets an essay on Little Women, the novel by Louisa May Alcott. You have heard that the Internet is the greatest advance in education since the pencil sharpener, so you tap out Little Women on your keyboard, click your mouse and find... what?

Hello! I'm Nick Leverton, and Warren was my first personal dial-up Internet host. Welcome to this archive of Warren's web pages, a copy of those originally hosted on Demon's server, to give 24 hour access to them even when Warren was off-line.

On Warren's pages here, you can read some background on its history, its family tree and its Internet software, as well as a load of useful information on configuring and using KA9Q.

Warren's History

In late 1991, the Internet was just starting to rise in profile amongst computing and networking professionals. Cliff Stanford of Demon Systems Ltd (suppliers of modems and networks to the gentry) floated the idea on CIX of a group of people clubbing together to buy their own link to the Internet, which as far as the uk was concerned was then the preserve of Academia and of a few large companies with private Transatlantic links.

I was one of the Founder Members of Cliff's "Tenner a Month" service, being one of the 130-odd people who paid a year's subscription in advance to get Britain's first public link to the Internet off the ground. It was a brave venture: at the time of taking the decision to go ahead, Cliff had fewer than half of the commitments he needed to break even.

As it turned out, Warren remained in daily service after the fledgling Demon Internet - hosted on a single Apricot 486 with eight modems and connected via what was then Pipex's transatlantic leased line - answered its first phone calls in June 1992, right up until I changed ISPs around year 2000.

Why "Warren" ? Well, an old friend used to call me "Leveret", and I rather liked the nickname. And I used to live on Warren Avenue, so the lapine connection amused me when I had to choose a demon.co.uk hostname. Unfortunately I'd forgotten at the time that hares actually live in scrapes, not warrens ... but only one person has ever pointed out the error !

Warren's Family Tree

1992 - Warren the First

An ICL PWS Model 80 - a 20MHz 386DX with 8Mb of 32-bit memory and two slow 80Mb ST506 disc drives. This machine still exists, and is still configured, albeit it has no permanent modem and only one working drive and indeed is rarely powered up nowadays.

1993 - Warren II

An AST Premium 386 - also a 20MHz 386DX with 8Mb of RAM, but a nice fast 100Mb ESDI disk, which made it much faster than Warren I despite both having the same processor speed. Unfortunately this machine no longer exists as some bastard stole it in an office break-in, so Warren Mk.I was pressed back into service.

1994 - Warren III

An ICL 486SX25, my desktop PC at the site where I was working (I'm a contract programmer). Using this machine I could keep myself up to date with software and hardware developments. I learned a lot of information about the powerful range of Unix utilties and I made a lot of use of them for my job. Withdrawn when I left, naturally, and once again Warren 1st was resuscitated.

1995 - Warren IV

An ICL 486DX2/50. Not much to say about it, it worked, until it was upgraded to ...

1996 - Warren v

a Fujitsu/ICL ErgoPro x Pentium, 75MHz, 16Mb RAM, 519Mb PCI disc, built-in 16-bit sound card and pci-bus ati Mach64 video. All plug-and-play, which seems to work surprisingly well. a nice little machine - if only it was my own ! (And if only I could persuade the boss to pay the very reasonable cost of OS/2 Warp version 4 for it ...)

Warren's Software

For most of its life, Warren has been running ms-dos, connecting to the Net via Phil Karn's shareware KA9Q package, as heavily customised for use at Demon. This provides good, fast, reliable Usenet, email, telnet and ftp and is excellent for use on machines of any class or age. I've always run it under Windows, using an old freeware version of wincron to dial automatically and collect news and mail in the small hours, thus minimising phone bills and maximising transfer rates on lightly loaded systems.

Warren Mk.I was also configured for Windows access via winsock, until the drive with Windows on it went west ...

Warren Mk.3 ran OS/2, v2.11, which I found to be an excellent operating system, and which knocks Windows (even Windows 95) into a cocked hat in terms of speed and reliability. OS/2 had all the features of Win95 over two years earlier, yet the computer press is only now raving over their inclusion in Microsoft products. And suddenly everyone who pooh-poohed their utility in OS/2 finds that after all they are useful, even essential, features. Unfortunately W95 users still don't get the stability, the memory management, the object orientation, the built-in Java, the integrated voice recognition or the performance that users of OS/2 Warp are used to. But hey, that's the power of Microsoft marketting for you. Prime candidates for being first against the wall when the revolution comes ...

KA9Q

When I used KA9Q for dial-up Internet access, I wrote a few notes based on my and other people's experience with configuring and running KA9Q.

Where Else ?

Please also see my current personal home page. I no longer maintain the Unofficial Uk.Singles Home Pages or the uk Railrover Ticket Summary.

The Advanced Passenger Train is frequently quoted as one of the Great British Non-Starters of our time. But was it ?

This isn't the original text: we didn't have HTML in 1993. I've also corrected a few points and added extra details!

That's a different train: the APT-E. "E" stands for "Experimental", and the APT-E was the technology proving train. It never ever ran in passenger service and was a completely different beast from the production train. APT-E was only four cars long: two gas turbine power cars, and two trailers chock full of instrumentation. It ran regular tests in several places, but particularly on the Midland Main Line and the Old Dalby Test Track. It achieved its maximum of 152.3 mph on the Great Western. You're probably familiar with the photograph of a prototype Concorde making a low pass over the GW main line near Filton as the APT-E passed underneath. What a fluke that must have been for the photographer — I just cannot imagine it being set up! And, too, there are photo's of the APT-E and the experimental HST (41 001 + 41 002, later numbered as a multiple unit 252 001) side by side at Swindon.

The train which did run in service was the APT-P, for "Prototype". There were three full trains, each composed of two identical half trains of driving trailer, six (I think) articulated cars and a non-driving electric Bo-Bo power car. The two power cars were formed in the middle of the train because, at the time they were designed, pantograph technology wasn't up to having two pans at opposite ends of the train both working at the 150mph envisaged for the train.

By the time they reached passenger service one half of each train had been reduced to just driving trailer plus power car because it wasn't economical to provide two full sets of staff — there was no access between the two halves except via a cramped, noisy walkway through the guts of the power cars.

Launch was originally set and publically announced for May 1980, but technical problems meant several delays to the date. After it was again delayed from May 1981, to September and then October , the date was eventually set by fiat, and testing and tuning continued right up until Monday 7th December 1981, when APT-P was introduced to a blaze of publicity.

APT achieved, if I remember right, a maximum of 140mph southbound and about 138 northbound. As noted by another poster, journalists looking for a story exaggerated the nausea problem, nobody I spoke to found any problems with it. I even went to the extent of standing up round reverse curves. Later trials proved that some people did genuinely experience it; it was mainly due to the fact that the tilt mechanism compensated too perfectly for the sensations of cornering. But the train did suffer two or three stops due to minor tilt failures during the trial run, which didn't help its credibility either. Nor did an unauthorised stop at Carstairs on the return journey to set down the minor television personality Isla St. Clair. I think despite all the delays we were about 40 minutes late into Glasgow, which meant the trip took the same time as a normal train :-)

However the major problem was that the night of 7th-8th December brought some of the worst winter weather for several years to the whole of England. During the following three days British Rail tried to continue the APT service, but — as with most other stock on the network — moisture kept freezing, not in the high-speed hydraulic brakes, but in the air brake lines which were supposed to take over at lower speeds. On the Wednesday the southbound trip was cancelled at Crewe, amongst service problems all around, and the train withdrawn from passenger service.

As far as the media were concerned that was the end of the APT. However the engineers kept working on tuning the tilt mechanism, or rather carefully de-tuning it to give the most sensitive passengers a sense of balance. And in summer 1982 the APT was very quietly reintroduced to service. At first it ran as a relief train shadowing a normal service; later, as confidence grew, it gained its own departure slot, about 10.30 from Glasgow and an early evening return from Euston if I remember. I travelled on it several times between 1982–1984 and the ride was quite superb and the reliability exemplary. I deeply regret though that, photographically speaking, it was a bit of a 'jinx train' for me. I have many feet of badly-exposed film of it due to undetected camera failures or wrong exposure settings.

But, though the train was technically a success, the political battle had been lost and the management will to build the APT-S ("Squadron") had evaporated. Eventually it was withdrawn from service; two trains were scrapped and one sent to Crewe Heritage Centre (now The Railway Age) where from time to time the newspapers rediscover "BR's Wonder Train Shunted Into History".