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November's PicturesMore archive pics I'm afraid (busy week), this is from the Orient Express trip to Hever Castle. This is just near the Chess Set that are carved out of the greenery. Those are the front line pawns.
This is what the poor train drivers and passengers drive out into from Manchester Piccadilly… deep dense fog. I never got out of second gear driving from A to B it was so thick.
This is back at Manchester Piccadilly and from the other end of the platform despite the fact like it looks like a tube station... I think.
This is sort of a bad pic, but only because you can't see what's going on too much. This is Manchester Piccadilly when you can't see the end of the platform. Not because it's dark but because there is fog in the station. Despite the strong lighting causing the k700i and the distance of the fog, you can just about see this abyss in the distance. It’s been like this all day.
On the way back from the European Markets, here's the picture of the wheel in Manchester again, but this time with all it's lights on. Unfortunately other pictures I took here came out all blured.
Still at the wheel waiting for my wife and daughter to come off it. I think it's a pity that it's a bit blury at the right hand side, it looked like the reflection would have been nice.
This is the large wheel that has been up for at least two Christmases. This is a picture on the way to the European Markets. I didn't go on but my wife and daughter did. Thye enjoyed it. Perhaps I'llhave a go next time.
Here are some more fountains just near Chets in Manchester. I did have another pic from another angle. I thought that the other one would be better, but no. This one looks OK to me.
Here's Albert Square with the fountain in the foreground, the European market beyond that and the tallest tower in Manchester being build in the background.
This is a picture from the platform looking South down the track at Ardwick Station, perhaps I did this as proof that the next picture is actually taken on the platform and I didn't just walk into a cemetery and take a picture.
This is why I was going to Ardwick station. Every day the train stops at Ardwick Station and amazingly people do get off. One day I noticed a stone set into the station. The next day I noticed there was a cross, so this is what it is. With no more information it makes you wonder what happened to Paul McLaughlin so near to Christmas in 1997, but perhaps this says that I am a little morbid. Right in front of this (or behind me in the picture) is a rose bush; I can't help but think they are connected.
This is the footbridge across the track at Ardwick station that sits in the middle of a junction. The tower near the left of the picture is some tower they are building in Manchester, the tallest tower in some area whether it's Manchester, the North or whatever I don't know, it looks strangely small here and yet down the road in Gorton it looks huge when you're driving down the A57 towards Manchester. I do plan to take a picture of it. I work 5 minutes away from it and have completely failed to take a snap in my lunch.
Blind Lane, turn into this lane and it's almost as if you've travelled back in time I feel. Just off to the right is Ardwick Station, but I have absolutely no idea what that building on the right was, it seems too small to be a house, but it's got two floors and a chimney. Who knows?
About a year ago (or perhaps it was two) I took a set of pictures of 50 pubs in and around Manchester. The idea was over the period of 10 years you could look back at the changes and I could possibly write a book. I took the pictures, got them developed and though they we rubbish and stopped. This was one of the pubs I took a picture of. I never went into the pub but it was strange. No frosted glass, so it looked a little like someone's living room except with a fully fitted bar. It's a pity I never made it in. I suspect they'll do the usual demolish it a throw up a load of luxury apartments or flats.
I woke up this morning with this greeting me as I pulled back the curtains in my daughters bedroom. Half wondering whether to get annoyed about dirty fingers on the window I stopped and took a picture. I'm sure we have bigger things to deal with in our house than dirty finger on windows such as no decent covering on the bathroom ceiling for a start, or a back bedroom still with wood-chip wallpaper, to name just two.
Please don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a blog, but there was a news article recently that caused me concern, it was this story which was about a teenager that caused a denial of service attack on a company. There are no good explanations of what a denial of service attack is on the web, so for the untechie people it's basically where you flood the service/server with requests. In this case the flood was five million emails. At some point the service (i.e. the mailserver in this case) cannot continue and/or genuine requests get turned away. The business suffers due to lack of genuine requests or emails and the time it takes to rectify the failing server costs and so does the clean up of the five million mails. The judge ruled that the unnamed teen could not be prosecuted under law... and quite rightly. My problem is that this sends a strong message out, and every online business should be worried where people could be prosecuted under the UK law from a denial of service attack which (as the judge said) are not illegal. In itself this sort of seems OK in that the law has been maintained, but the problem is that in the last five or eight years denial of service attacks are the mainstay for blackmailers and the like. These people we cannot stop is a sense, they route through servers in ISPs in China who don't care and history says they have at many points hit the gambling industry at key points. Whilst I don't think this is right, this isn't the problem that I'm talking about. What I am saying is that any script kiddie with a PC or many PCs can launch an attack on a company they don't like and this is fine in UK law. OK it's not big potatoes, but let's get the little things right before we start tackling the real tough ones. As a an employee of an online business I really don't like the idea that a disgruntled customer can legally shut down our site or our email system with little effort, whilst I have no doubt that the big boys in the world could do it with zombie pcs allowing anyone with a grudge to do so and legally and traceably seems silly. Of course it needs a change to the law and perhaps that what I shall be fighting for.
This was the best pic taken when reviewing the pictures on the camera. I'm not too sure now. This was one of the best for a couple of reasons. It was only until I'd taken a couple of pictures did I fully realise the digital camera lag and how to "play" it. When you hit the "take a picture" button it waits for a while, so you end up having to guess when the thing will explode because you can't always go too much on the sound of it (sound travelling slower than light), anyway this was the best one from that point of view. And that is the end of the lecture.
The display was OK in all, the waiting and standing round a fire that heated your face and did nothing for your body or feet was sort of worth it. I suspect standing under a tree canopy was not the best place to stand to see rockets but hey let's make the best of what we have.
It occurred to me that if my feet were cold then my daughter, who was wearing the obligatory childrens Wellington Boots, which are made of material less substantial than the stuff Sainsburys wrap sandwiches in, would be even more cold. Nice pic though.
It was at this point I was having no fun, so I started getting my camera phone out, which kept me amused as well as the people who thought I was rather sad.
Bonfire Night. Ah such wonder. I used to love it as a kid and yet now as an adult I like the idea (a bit like the idea of going to Blackpool) it never really brings the excitement I look forward to. Back garden displays are inevitably punctuated long by pauses where the "Alpha Male" gets the fire work out of the biscuit box, places it on the ground securely, reads the instructions and lights the fuse. So we went to an (dis)organised one. This is the fire for the display.
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