Saw Laurent Garnier at the Electric Chair on Saturday night (Monthly @ the Music Box in Manchester. It was a truly amazing night – Laurent started his musical career in Manchester in 1988 at the Hacienda. His set was really progressive, slowly built up to a real heavy techno set, the crowd went wild for most of the night and the atmosphere was electric! The club is quite small and definitely works for a DJ who wants to get intimate with the crowd.

No photos because my camera is temporarily broken and having to be sent back which is a little disappointing after only owning it for a couple of weeks…

I’ve just thought that when everyone has camera phones, you won’t be able to lie about where you are. For instance, you say to someone, I’m going to London for the night (or for the kids, I’m going to a mates for the night) – Mum would then say – ok, send me a picture text when you arrive…. I suppose the one way around this is to have a selection of pre-taken photos ready for this occurence (like a picture of yourself looking ill in bed to send to your boss on a Monday morning.

I’ve been saying this for a while, but with the huge decreases in the cost of wi-fi cards and routers recently coupled with the non-existant 3G networks, 3G (or UTMS) could die a painfully slow death before it’s even got off the ground. This article talks about the costs associated. Why would someone want to pay £50 quid a month for a new ‘3’ phone just to watch video of the news and football on a small screen? Wi-fi will be part of the new Intel centrino chips in every laptop next year, so everyone in effect can transmit data wirelessly. The headmap
model could benefit this growth in wireless data.
Wow, that was boring.

“Wired News: U.S. EBay Seller Refuses Canucks” Quite ridiculous what is going on – and I wish i’d stop getting spam for US Flags and Support the US Pro War T-Shirts in my Hotmail inbox.

Its the time of year when you hear people talking about “Changing the clocks at the weekend” – Whenever I hear anyone talking about this, you undoubtedly get one person saying “So do they go back or forward?”, someone on the sidelines will go “Whats that phrase, Spring forward, Fall back, so the clocks go forward”. Next person will then say “So does that mean we get an hours extra sleep”… and on and on and on. I have heard this twice already today…. (“ooh and it’ll be light til 7pm” – how amazing….)

I already predict the clocks will go forward at 2am on Sunday morning and it will rain all day Sunday hence reducing the extra hours “daylight” to dark gloomy skies (+ I am in Manchester for extra gloom)…

While on the subject of things people never remember, the number of days in a month. Certain people know the “30 days hath September…” rhyme, but why does it just not work when it comes to February? Couldn’t the inventor of this have thought of a more rhythmic ending?

Is this the sunniest March ever anyway? Just been sat in the park and Reading feels slightly continental…

This article, Channels of Influence, from the NYTimes, shows how the pro-war rallies in the US were orchestrated by a much larger force than pure people power…

My own personal viewpoint about the war hasn’t changed much but I am more and more concerned that this could drag on for weeks and months. If the republican guards retreat into Baghdad, the street battles could claim thousands of lives on both sides. They are not going to give up their power that easily – they know the fall of the Saddam regime would mean the end of their power, so they have nothing to lose.

On the question of Chemical and Nuclear weapons, there is speculation they may be used by the republican guards as the US forces approach. This is truly scary for all sides – of course, the US are firing shells with depleted uranium in Iraq. These have been scientifically proven to increase cancer rates in war zones where they have been deployed. Scary times indeed.