One of the main problems with electronic publication(of anything) is I think the role and idea of copyright is going to have to change. Since the user no longer has a physical copy what will their rights in relation to a text or piece of music or video mean? I think that it will be seen by many of the current generation that when they purchase the rights to something they are in fact buying the right to experience that purchase whenever, where ever and for as long as they want. If they don't have a book that they know they "own" on hand they will assume continuing ownership and re-download it.

One question that has arisen already is ownership of electronic media once a publisher or provider stops operating. Where this has happened to date the result has been for the consumer at least, unsatisfactory. Purchasers have found themselves losing their rights to purchased items and if wanting to continue to experience what they own need to resort to re-buying or downloading "illegally" material. It could be argued that under the old regime of print and audio this was the same. If a book, tape or record broke or became otherwise useless the owner would have to repurchase and the music industry in particular has done well out of the changes in media that has resulted in repurchases of content.

All the recent hoo-haa about Google and the add revenue from Google Books could have been a lot more productive. To me it looked like publishers and authors scrabbling to get a piece of a pie that they had been collectively been ignoring and their haste to assert their "rights" once Google had done all the hard work to my mind was to my mind unseemly and disingenuous considering that there seems to be no push to digitise back catalogues and make them available for purchase.

The time and effort getting money out of Google could have been better used in my view looking at how to partner with other electronic distributors for books, music, films and gaming to create a record of purchasers of material. This could be used for individuals to show ownership in the case of loss of locally stored material especially when the vendor the purchase was made through goes bankrupt or otherwise stops being able to support a product or service.

I envisage things such as price, purchaser, conditions of sale(both from author to publisher and final sale to consumer), seller, author or rights holder and conditions of copyright being stored with an onus of especially rights holders to ensure their information is kept up to date. I see this as being an ideal place to check on orphaned works and expired copyright to enable correct transferral of items into the public domain.

The reason why extra emphasis should be placed on the rights holder here is that this person would be the one who has the highest financial stake in the rights associated with the material. Please note I am not suggesting that the rights holder should be footing the bill for this scheme, I would have used the windfall profits from Google Books add revenue to pay for it(so yes it could be argued that by giving up the profit here is costing the rights holder but seeing as this was a form of revenue that wasn't being exploited in the first place there is no real loss associated with it).

All I have spoken of has been in relation or the electronic rights of copyrighted material so far as in the future I see this as the predominant right being sold. For physical media there are additional costs and additional remuneration to publishers and rights holders will need to be considered. I see the sale of such items as being prestige purchases and will be costed as such although the basic electronic right may be included in the purchase price of these items.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Blast no double entendres. The Frenchman was a man who came to the region to train people in horticulture. Learned this in our quick visit to the visitors centre attached to the railway station. We didn't have a long wait till our train but we put it to good use. We also learned that the stairs we climbed the night before were called the "hundred steps". The advice of the brochure we found was that given its steepness he steps be used as a way down from the hills only. Typical of us to do things the hard way by accident.

( Further Adventures... )

Day Nine: We were off to merry Wales. After travelling in the south where the rises are gentle and the hills few and far between to pass Shrewsbury and see first one large rise then another and another and higher and higher until the land could almost be called mountainous. The villages we saw as the train wound it's way through the valley were huddled at the bottom of the hills; all at a level; lining the circumference.

( Further adventures... )

Alderley Edge!

I of course didn't want to go there to gawk at all the Man U players who live there and possibly may be glimpsed walking down the streets, I wanted to visit the Edge itself, roam around the spots Colin and Susan did and pretend for an instant that Cadellin would make an appearence as he so seldom does.

There are no buses that run along the road to The Wizard pub and the maps I had seen didn't prepare me for the 2km hill I would be climbing. I had a map of the walks available so when I got to a spot that entered the protected woodland I insisted that we stop walking along the road and take to the forest paths. Mum who wasn't suffering as I was wanted to keep walking along the road and do the walks properly as mapped out but my idea was that we could do half the walk, stop at The Wizard for lunch and then finish the walk and head off(it was the heading off that appealed to me at this point).

We hit the paths and as I was trying to do the route in the wrong order I got us immediately lost. The route we had was not the same as the ones on the brochures we later found(but better) so none of the route markers meant anything. We found our way through eventually to find that the promised info centre was a open room with posters on the wall but nothing else apart from a notice that info on the walks could be obtained from the Parks officials in their workshop further down the road. The Wizard wasn't open yet and I had just twisted my ankle again so on the whole my trip was not turning out as I had planned.

As we went to the Forestry Commision workshop we saw someone pull in there(5 minutes earlier we could have knocked to hearts content and not got a response) so we were able to ask him for the promised brochure. It cost £1.20.

By now The Wizard had finally opened so we went in and had lunch. Apart from a couple of old gents at the bar everyone else who had come here was pretty fancy, I think the regular people just park in the car park and bring sandwiches, we didn't seem to fit with the ones who had popped in for lunch in their lamborghinis.

We started off on the walk after lunch and everything started going well. Having instructions on where to go written by a local produced a winding route that covered a lot more than the official walks and seeing we now were not trying to start in the middle and go backwards it was easy to follow too. We did get stumped at one point when I started reading directions from the wrong paragraph but soon got on track again and the rest of the walk went well.

The last-minor-problem was the 2km walk back to town but seeing as this was all down hill it was no where near as daunting as earlier.

The plan for the latter half of the day was to catch up with Fil a friend of Alison's who lived just outside Manchester and she met us at her local station and we got a good tour of her garden, met some of the animals she encourages to live there, met her sons and husband and had a spiffing meal. A good time.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Some may dislike the view the writers of the Romantic era provided because they promoted reverence of the bucolic way of life. Of shepherds in the fields, blacksmiths at their forges and the lord of the manor looking down benignly on the simple peasantry he ruled.

To do this they argue is to ignore the future, to denigrate the advances made since the days of the Enlightenment and to focus attention away from where it could be most productive: In pushing the boundries of understanding both scientifically and philosophically.

I have been travelling through England and while I haven't necessarily converted to the Romantics way of thinking I have seen things that have helped me understand and appreciate what they said and inspired.

When I was visiting excavation sites along Hadrian's Wall I learned that the initial digs and preservation of the wall were carried out by people acting against the policy of ripping the useable stone from the wall and forts and using it to build 'modern' homes and buildings. These people's veneration and intrest in the past saved these sites from which we can now gain valuable insights when we examine them.

One aspect of industrialisation is the shrinking of the rural populaton. Improved farming practices meant that less people were needed to produce primary goods for a swelling city population. While intellectually the later Romantics probably understood the way that the population changes in fact made life better for more people what they saw as they travelled the country-side was unused barns and shepherds huts, stone fences that had divided the land collapsing as the boundry they deliniated became meaningless and railroad tracks that split off main lines into nowhere since the communities they served had died - and the track soon died with them. It is hard to witness this and not see 'the wild' taking back what man had fought for and won. They were living in places that during the industrial age had become dirty, unhealthy and crowded but could still visit places of beauty and splendour where these things had not entirely gone. Here the air was fresh, small communties still ecked a living in the way they had for generations and around them the grandour of their surrounds reminded them of the stories and scenes they had learned of from the classics. Is it any wonder they appreciated this and venerated it in story, stanza and song?

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Another travel day. This time it was to Manchester. The taxi we took to the hotel when we arrived decided to go the scenic route, delighted in weaving through tragic to no account and driving in lanes marked for buses only. When we got to our Travelodge the gentleman who had let us have the first taxi in the rank had finished signing in and was just heading up to his room.

The only thing other thing that made this day at all interesting was the decision to see a film. While there were numerous films I think Mum would have liked but she poo-pooed them. That is why we ended up seeing District 9 a decidedly un-mum friendly film. I did enjoy it though.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

We were off on the bus again this time for the Lost Gardens of Heligan and Mevagissey. We bought return tickets and boarded the bus. More windy lanes, more scenery that is visible for just long enough to want to take a photo but not to pull your camera out. The gardens were beautiful with lots of tracks winding around all over the place. Seeing Heligan makes it all the more easy to understand how the Secret Garden became lost and how children could play all day without seeing any adults bar the occasional gardener in the distance.

We couldn't do the whole thing but the two and a half hours we were there just wheted the appitite for more.

Back on the bus and we were off to Mevagissey. I insisted that we get off near the school so we would have to walk down into town. Oh, and I do mean down. There is a warning notice up on the road warning of a 17% gradient, the steepest we have seen so far in our trip.

So after experiencing the hilly aspect we went to investigate the tasty aspect, in particular a serve of fish & chips. We were advised that the best were served in the Pub and that they did take-away but the kitchen had closed 1/2 an hour before. Close to the harbour there was another shop so we got our cod and chips, sat down on the wharf and enjoyed them in the sun. I bought icecreams for the two of us and once Mum had finished hers she took off to check out the place for tacky souvineers. I just sat back and enjoyed myself.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

The first day in Cornwall and we were off to the windswept coast and one of the oldest castle sites in Cornwall. Getting there by public transport was a bit of an adventure all by itself as the trip required a train ride followed by a bus trip with two connections. Somewhere between bus one an two mum lost her ticket-probably when she spilt all her change over the floor of the bus and so had to get another to continue the journey. The second driver couldn't figure out our explaination of what we wanted or couldn't supply it on that section of the route so Mum ended up getting a second more expensive ticket.

Once again roaming through the narrow roads was an experience in itself. Every time I would see a spectacular vista or an old bridge or or other noteworthy landmark I would just have it in the viewfinder when a hedge or stand of trees would intrude and we would be able to see nothing but green for the next five minutes. There was a huge variety in the fencing we saw as we travelled as well. There were the standard stone walls(although every wall in every part of the country we have visited seems to have its own style of construction), the either well tended or rampant hedges and the tree lined fields but added to those were dirt mounds boardering the road and stretching off into the distance, cross-crossing the slopes around us. It was on this trip I saw the field of sunflowers. This may not seem much but it was the first crop I had seen that was not corn.

We could tell we had got to Tintagel by the proliferation of King Arthur related signs, shops and car parks. Tintagel did have a really good tourist info centre but after seeing a National Heritage shop nearer the castle an knowing we had s limited time we took off for the coast. Tintagel is built on what is still a promintary(just) and successive waves of people from the dark ages onward have settled on the highly defendable spot.

After a steep descent along a walking path that was wider than the road beside it we chose to walk along the hill instread of heading all the way down the NH shop. We got a map and booklet from the NH lady at the entrance and after checking the view from the oubliette made our way to Tintagel proper down flint stairs that made the spiral staircases of the day before look like a gentle rise. Then we had to go up an equally precarious staircase up again.

Unfortunately there was not much left of the various waves of settlement. There were still a couple of walls with their crenelations intact bur most of them had fallen into the sea. There was other evidence of dark ages settlements, the early Norman settlement and even later buildings(there was a gun placement protecting England against the Spanish Armada).

While roaming around I twisted my ankle but it was such a small hurt that I had soon forgotten about it as I roamed marvelling at the view of the coast on offer. It was only when we started heading back that I did my ankle again more spectacularly and painfully with still a lot of climbing to go. We checked out the NH tourist trap... er... shop which wasn't any where nearly as interesting as the TI one. In a heroic effort(after a much needed respite and drink) we made our way back up the hill I intent on emptying my wallet once we got to the TIC at the other end of the village. After sitting a while to recover and having a beef & Stilton pastie, Mum wanted to check out the historic post office. We had to ask where it was as it was covered in scaffolding but it turned out we asked at the shop next door so ended up looking like a bit of a dill. I had had my fill of tiny rooms & needlecraft and was waiting outside when Mum came out all a wailly, waillying because she had lost her camera. I turned around and backtracked as far as the hill down to the castle(I wasn't going back down there again as my ankle was still hurting) without seeing it and then started back to the post office. On the way I thought to ask in a shop we didn't enter but did stop outside of for a while and as luck would have it some kind soul had handed it in there. Exuberant I started hobbling back towards Mum with the good news and only realized that the search had eaten all our spare time and we would have to dash for the bus. We could have stayed longer if we really wanted to but he nextbus was two hours away.

The bus we boarded went all the way to our train stop so we had no worries about missing connections this time. The rest of the day was nice and relaxed, there were lads out on the town for the night all dressed in monkey outfits except for one dressed as a banana. They were well worth a stop and stare, and the Hop and Vine served good beer.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

We only had a limited amount of time today as we were heading off to St Austell in the afternoon, and Mum had organised a vertical 220 ft climb just before we left. We had found a pub that would look after our bags for us while we did our thing around Salisbury so we hot-footed it across town to dump the cases before making a dash for the bus depot. We jumped on the bus and after a very short bus ride were below the hill of Old Sarem Castle. The castle was a hill fort taken over by William as he went around pacifying his newly conquored land. It was the site of the original cathedral but this was struck by lightning soon after it was built which proved to be an omen of sorts since even though William thought it was a good idea to keep the clergy on side, it was not 100 years later that relationship between the monarchy and the bishops declined to the point where the bishop decamped and started building the current cathedral on his own land down in the valley.

Since the actual castle didn't open until 10am we only got a chance to look around the outside before having to tear off down the hill to catch the bus back to Salisbury. We did have a few minutes through to poke our head in take a shot or two from the gate and to raid the gift shop.

Back in Salisbury we tootled off to the cathedral for the Tower Climb. It was fascinating to see the level of detail put into ornaments and working 50ft up. The guide had interesting facts and stories including the time that the cathederal was bit by lightning(this happens fairly frequently-4 or 5 times every 100 years) and the bucket brigade had to run to and from the river and up the narrow spiral staircases aprox 100 ft up to where the fire was. Given a few of the red faces in the crowd on our leisurely trip to that point I can only hope that they formed a bucket line as more than a couple of trips to and fro would be a real killer.

After getting to the top of the tower-the spire is another 200 feet higher again-we got a chance to check out the view on all four sides with little tit-bits of info to go with each vista. It was all well worth the effort.

Once we had got back onto terra firma there was just enough time to grab our bags, head on down to the station, and jump on the train for St Austell.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Conned Mum into going to Avebury so I could see the stone circles there. It was worth it just for the bus ride which wound through small picturesque villages as well as some decidedly low rent places(near the army range. I don't know why the well heeled don't to live there). As we drove up the Avon valley a source of amusement were the "tank crossing" signs and the thatch roofed cottages, some with thatch squirrels and other beasts on the crown.

When we got there my worry that Mum would not appreciate the visit disappeared as we walked around the man made ring of chalk. The stones here are truly ancient, they don't seem to be worked and yet a few have almost uncanny human like shapes. Unlike Stonehenge you can walk around and touch the monoliths, looking for a pattern that may not be there, a significance that has been lost(the guide book says of nearby Silbury Hill, a manmade hill of chalk that they have no idea of why it was made. They have a better idea of Avebury but not by much).

We had a very nice beef & beer pie served with mashed potatoes that was just fabulous. It came with a tureen of rather weak and runny gravy that mum suggested was mainly to stop people asking for it. I considered suggesting they add to the menu "When you ask for gravy you are insulting our chef" Beer: Old Speckled Hen-Bury St Edmonds

The return trip ended up being on a school bus and so was quite noisy. But we did get to drive through the residential area of the local military base.

The afternoon(what was left of it) was devoted to the cathedral. Although the official tours had ended a volunteer offered to show me around. Lots of interesting tit-bits of info ranging from the way the cathedral is actually floating to monkey effigies taking pot shots at the clergy. The guide was still upset about what 'Wyatt the Destroyer' had done to the original french stained glass over two hundred years ago. Salisbury has the best preserved of the original signed copies of the Magna Carta(the guide pointed out with great glee that the one over in the US was a copy made a couple of years later, not an original as they advertise). I met with Mum who had been doing her own thing before heading home. Then it was out to The Mill for our last evening meal in Salisbury. Mum got the relaxed meal by the waterside she requested and I narrowly avoided being eaten by midges at the first table we sat at. We then moved to a seat higher in the pub garden and our tea concluded with out any further concerns.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

The first full day in England! After a partial English Breakfast(cereal, bacon, eggs & sos) we were off to Bath. The first stop was the Roman Baths and the work that had been done to conserve and present them was impressive. I think Bill Bryson was right in his commentary(there were three different commentaries that you could listen to on a portable device. Enter the number on the placard, press go, and learn something new). Bill found the juxtaposition between primitive beliefs and advanced engineering to be fascinating and I must say that it was things like their use of hollow bricks in their roof arches, something that would cut down on weight as well as help with insulating the building that impressed me.

After the Baths we did two bus tours - one around the city and the other around the surrounding country side. The Bathians insistence on keeping the architecture firmly planted in the 18th-19th C was a bit daunting and while the tour guide didn't have much good to say about the new bus terminus(including the name) but I found it as the only building I saw not covered in 'Bath Stone' to be quite refreshing.

The tour guide for the outskirts tour(we found there was no need to keep the servants houses as beautiful as central Bath. Dump their housing in a ditch on the wrong side of the river and hide the narrow lanes of red brick tenaments with a screen of trees and everything was fine) told us that the best views were in late autumn when the leaves had fallen. We only saw theveiww of Bath from the hillside on the rare occasion we came to a gap in the trees.

The guide told us about the building of the university and how the chief architect roamed around Bath giving commands that the balloon they were flying be lowered 5 ft at a time until he couldn't see it any more. This was to ensure that the school would not impinge on the native Bathians view. I was later to say to Mum I was sure they probably regularly wrote petitions to stop any aircraft crossing over their patch of sky with their unsightly flight trails.

After Bath we tootled back to the B&B for a short break before heading back to the cathedral for an organ recital. The organ sounded superb even when it was doing its best to imitate a computer circa 1970 with a tinny speaker doing its best to imitate an organ!

We made our way home after buying food at the first place we came to still serving(it was around 9 by then) and took our knockoff KFC aka 'Chicken Land' fried chicken(it was a real night of immitations) home with us.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

What can one say about the beginning of a month away? There is anticipation(I slept for about two hours on the night before for a variety of reasons) about what you will see and do; there is trepidation because you are going to be stuck in a plane for twenty-two hours. It was daunting to realize the size of Australia as I watched the the world map and the planes location on it and found we still hadn't reached the Indian Ocean four hours after we left Melbourne.

The airline quite cannily served a good dinner just before they turned the lights down for the night. Mum along with many of the passengers, weighed down with the meal nodded off for a good while but I found myself unable to sleep and relied on the large selection of movies to keep me amused. During this and the next leg I would get an aproximate total of four and a half hours sleep.

Twelve hours after take-off it was quite refreshing to land at Abu Dhabi if only to rush down the far end of the airport, back through airport security(our departure was from a different terminal), rush down to the far end of the terminal and after a short wait, drink and freshen up, board for the second leg of the journey.

Another eight hours later we found ourselves over London heading in a slow downwards spiral before landing at Heathrow. After another lot of passages that seemed to stretch forever we found ourselves quickly though station security and waiting for a train that would take us to somewhere we could take a train to our first stop: Salisbury!

We got a taxi to our B&B but after we had plonked our bags down were soon heading out for a quick look around and some food. Upon advice from Cathy I started as I meant to go on; with a pint of one of the local beers. I mean to try and not double up on any brew while in GB. We will see how it goes.

On the first night I slept well.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

It took a while before I got into diary writing mode(too busy) then another while before I hit a place with wireless internet, so I am just starting posting the days events now. The news will follow in upcoming posts.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

I just answered the phone-a mistake I know-and work needs me to do a second 11 hour shift in two days. Well, if you include the union meeting at 11, this one will be 12 1/2 hours really. All I can say is they will have no chance of getting me in on my next five days off stretch.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.