Pete's Eats

La Fourchette (encore..)

Originally uploaded by Pete Barr-Watson

A Boxing Day interlude with ABW today. We managed to avoid all shops of all kinds today, and spent a superb hour just reading and talking in La Fourchette.

Try it with a black background maybe…

La Fourchette

Originally uploaded by Pete Barr-Watson

Missing France already

Found the Snow…

Originally uploaded by Pete Barr-Watson

Le Tour, in the Chamonix Valley, France.

There were folks snowboarding here today, and the weather was fantastic. Snow rocks…

Sussex, From Ditchling Beacon

Originally uploaded by Pete Barr-Watson

Great foggy layer across Sussex tonight. This is looking out from Ditchling Beacon towards Burgess Hill.

24sec exposure… Thankfully I just happened to have my trusty Benbo Trekker (tripod) in the back of the car! I used a bulb exposure on a self timer due to the lack of cable release however…

Reculver

Originally uploaded by Pete Barr-Watson

Looking out from Reculver, towards a wind farm. This is where Barnes Wallis tested his invention, the Bouncing Bomb, famously used by the RAF’s 617 Squadron during "Operation Chastise" (more commonly known as The Dambusters).

This area of the UK has lots of family connections for me, as indeed do the exploits of 617 Sqn too.

Hornby 1991 - 2009

Hornby was the Hollingsworth’s cat and I just found out that he died last week. Now there’s no one who can out rock ‘n roll Ben when it comes to late night shenanigans.

Leica M8 in New York W Hotel

So, the Leica M9 was launched the other day… The biggest thing is the full frame sensor of course, but it just looks like rangefinder digital has come of age a bit too; it seems just a lot more ‘together’ than the M8 for some reason. Can’t wait to get my hands on one at The Classic Camera next week-ish…

I know most of my friends shake their heads in puzzlement at my fascination for rangefinder cameras but I just love the understatement of them; the size is perfect for traveling and fitting into most bags etc. I just don’t like the size of the typical SLR camera with decent lens… (Despite being in awe of the 5D mkII’s capability)

Check out my M8 set on Flickr.

photo: a self-portrait of my black M8 taken last year in New York

I just found a great company based in Brighton called Stride UK. They specialize in gait analysis and sports injury (via Studio 57, owned by the same folks) and are also the only Newton running shoe dealer in the area too. I needed to get a new pair of Newtons and just happened to find them via a comment on someone’s blog. I gotta say, they were pretty good to deal with too – really friendly and very clearly knowledgeable too (I saw Elle). Sort of a nice change to most other UK businesses in this space…

Definitely thinking of booking in for a proper gait analysis session once my calf injury has healed a little more (torn muscle from running in heavily cushioned and motion-controlled Brooks shoes :s).

Courtney Remes. Who’s that?

Nancy Lyons? Hmmm… Nope.

Meghan Wilker? Sorry, still nothing.

Is my lack of awareness of who these people are evidence of a ‘boys club’ in the Flash community? I don’t think so. I think it’s evidence of a meritocracy in action; a community where excellence of any relevant kind will rise to the top. That’s not suggesting that the people named above are in any way lacking, just that they have yet to reach that point perhaps (if in fact that is their goal of course..).

Hoss Gifford did this years ago though. He’s never been the most fluent of public speakers and for me at least this has convinced me that he’s someone very worth listening to. His language can be colourful no doubt, but it doesn’t affect the content of the presentation which has always been one of the most applause-worthy sessions of any conference I’ve spoken at or attended. His continued high profile work is another testament to this quality.

I think it’s unfortunate that an individual was offended at Hoss’ recent talk at Flashbelt. It was definitely worthy of a discussion with him where I have no doubt he would have really taken on board any comments given to him. Or a complaint to the organizers in the same vein? But that wasn’t only what happened. The complaint was made in public too, with several allegations leveled at Hoss which have subsequently been pulled apart elsewhere. Few of them seem to have stood up to this examination and yet the deluge of condemnation has continued. Not surprising perhaps given the sensationalist nature of the whole thing, but given the substance of the complaint it’s probably taking a fairly terrible toll on Hoss himself.

I think there has been some amazingly blatant and wholesale manipulation of this situation in order to force conversations about things that are just not an issue (now or ever, in our part of the industry). The fact is that people are coming across as afraid of speaking out in case they are also labelled as women-haters or even just sexist. People keep telling me how difficult the situation is for everyone involved but really, is it? If the original complainant has experienced any kind of sexism when competing for work or within a work environment then I am appalled, but I nevertheless propound that it is more isolated then perhaps they think.

Here’s how things normally happen in the real world. Someone makes a complaint about something. The relevant authorities examine the complaint and either uphold it or dismiss it. Coming from the UK, with the most aggressive press known for scandal I think it’s fair to say that any public disclosure of a ‘crime’, serious or not, never ends well. In this situation though, it seems that the Geek Girl blog has indeed taken the form of a tabloid newspaper and published some sensational claims that would not have, perhaps, stood up to an official complaint procedure. Or maybe just not delivered the response that was desired by the complainant in the first place. It’s pretty hard to tell really…

I think the original complaint was issued in the wrong way assuming that the complainant really wanted her concerns to be taken on board by the actual people involved.

I think that the organizers initial public response was hasty and without doubt tipped the whole saga from allegation to fact in the reader’s consciousness. It gave credence to the allegation before it had been examined correctly.

I think the organizers responded in this way because they feared being accused of the same crimes as Hoss had been. For me, given the very serious nature of the accusation, this is no excuse.

Update: I notice that there are now disclaimers on some of the blogs listed above saying how they are unable to ‘control the conversation’ and how this level of vitriol was never their intention. Jeez, give me a break… I have no doubt that it was not their intention, but I also think that it does not take too huge a leap of logic to think that publishing such claims could not result in high levels of emotional polarization.

Ultimately though, the price is Hoss’ to pay, no?

I’m really looking forward to Barcamp Transparency in Oxford later this year (July 26th).

Transparent business/government has become somewhat of a fashionable topic recently (especially so since the UK MP’s expenses abuses have been revealed) but as is normal with the usual media outlets, the discussion has not been very in-depth so far. It’s a great phrase to drop into a sound-bite.

At Barcamp Transparency, I’m looking forward to really digging into the subject and gaining a better knowledge of what it really means. In particular, what the increased calls for transparency in government mean for the democratic process.

I’ve also suggested to the IWF (Internet Watch Foundation) that they attend the event too. I’d be interested to hear first-hand why they do not value transparency in what they do as well as why their main ‘sponsors’ in government seem to be the very MP’s who moved to suppress the FOI Act (Freedom of Information Act) in relation to their own activities.

From their own Website:

The Internet Watch Foundation, law enforcement authorities and internet content service sectors have achieved more in a year without legislation than we could have achieved in five years through legislation alone. This very successful model of partnership and self-regulation has achieved outstanding and continuing results.

- Rt Hon Alun Michael MP, Former DTI Minister of State for Industry. (His voting record on government transparency is here)

The two subjects I’ve proposed to talk about at the Barcamp are:

1) “What about my mum?” The average person on the street probably takes it for granted that politicians are most likely corrupt and that big business will always be more important than they are. So how do we convey the need and requirement for increased transparency to them in a way that gains their vocal support? Such a fundamental shift in thinking needs the support of all.

2) The IWF (Internet Watch Foundation) and self-regulation. How one self-regulated organization prevented the UK access to Wikipedia and got noticed for the first time. How many other sites have been blocked that you don’t know about? Who watches the watchers? This organization and it’s potential to go badly wrong is a very big concern for me. No one would (or perhaps I should say, no one ‘should’) deny the need for some regulation and monitoring of severely objectionable content on the web but as we’ve seen, these people can and do get it wrong and they have no oversight whatsoever. How can we be certain of their immunity from commercial or political influence?

If the whole subject of transparency interests you too and you’re in the UK in July then I’d urge you to attend. You can find out information and follow updates using the channels below:

Site: http://www.barcamptransparency-uk.org/
Wiki: http://barcamp.org/barcamptransparencyuk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/transparency_uk
Hashtag: #bct09