The view from our balcony just now. And yes, it really did look like this…
Category Archives: Travel
Time travel
My friend Mike Flynn has been working for some years on very fast routing algorithms — routing as in maps, that is — and his primary demonstration of this is TimeToAnywhere – a system which can work out how long it takes to drive from one location to everywhere else on the map.
So you can say, for example, “There’s been an accident here. Which ambulances could reach it in less than 15 mins?” Or, “I work in Dry Drayton. Where could I live, and still have less than a half-hour commute?”
Each coloured boundary represents 10 minutes’ driving.
This is pretty, but those of you with a computing background may also realise that, using most of the standard algorithms, this is also a very time-consuming problem when you try do it across this number of points. Mike, however, measures the time taken by his system in microseconds.
He’s recently set up a demo server which, if it doesn’t get too swamped, is fun to play with to get a feel for the speed! You can find it at TimeToAnywhere.com, and if you want to know how to get the most out of it, watch Mike’s short video.
Pie charts
Well, that’s what they reminded me of! Crooked Lake, Michigan.
To every day turn, turn, turn
From our ‘Things we could patent but probably won’t’ department…
Here’s something I’d like, which should not be too hard to create: a satellite navigation system that understood, when it gave you a direction, the consequences of your failing to do so.
If it’s telling me to take a motorway exit which, if I miss it, will involve driving 10 miles further on before I can even turn round, I’d like it to notify me of that in no uncertain terms. It can flash red and yell at me if necessary, especially if I don’t seem to be slowing down and changing lane. It can do so even if I normally have the audio turned off. And it can do so if the route it previously suggested is no longer appropriate, because there’s been an accident resulting in a three-mile tailback.
If, on the other hand, it wants me to turn left but there are several other left turns ahead, any of which will do, and none of which will add more than a minute or two to my journey, then it can inform me in a much more relaxed way.
What do you think? Am I on to something here?
Images from Eltham
We visited Eltham Palace, in London, today. An enjoyable outing. Henry VIII grew up here, though he wasn’t a great fan of Art Deco, so that was added more recently.
Once more unto the beach
Holkham Beach in Norfolk is an amazing place. It’s just vast.
Yesterday, the car park was packed, and the path from it to the beach a queue of people and dogs, yet when we got there and walked for just a few minutes, it looked like this:
A few more, and it looked like this:
(Yes, that’s Tilly – you can click for a bigger version.)
Looking away from the sea, you get this:
And I’m fond of that, admittedly less exciting, view, because it features in the memorable closing sequence of my favourite movie.
Tilly absolutely adored it, and seemed to keep running, flat out, for about an hour and a half.
All in all, a most enjoyable stroll.
Oh, the weather outside is frightful
I’ve just returned from a few days’ skiing at La Tania, in the Trois Vallées. A pretty spot, and quiet, since we were there before the half-term madness!
However, it snowed almost continuously from our arrival on Weds night to our departure yesterday evening. This was the view from my window on the first night:
Well, actually, it looked like that almost every night – the snow just got deeper.
This trip therefore had the nicest snow I’ve ever skied on, accompanied by perhaps the worst weather I’ve ever skiied in. When you could see where you were going, and the headwind wasn’t blowing ice at you, it was nice!
This meant that, overall, I took very few photos. After all, there’s a problem with skiing pictures: large areas of white are generally of little interest to anyone who wasn’t there. This was some of our better weather, for example:
See what I mean? It gets much less exciting and more cloudy above the tree line.
And then, on Saturday morning, just for a few hours, the sun came out, and even a quick iPhone snap could look like this:
We headed to the top of the mountain, and skied down to La Folie Douce: a bar just below the cable car, parts of which have been around for some time.
This is a place where they know how to party. A large outside area has tables that are specially reinforced, so you can dance on them, which they encourage strongly. Regretfully, I felt I should decline, on the grounds that my table-dancing was not at its best when wearing ski boots.
Most of the music was intended for people two or three decades my junior, but some of the performers were really quite good.
(We made our entrance down that slope behind him.)
Playing instruments outside, especially metal ones, does require some extra equipment:
But it also makes for some dramatic pictures. This lass did a really rather good Lady Gaga cover:
And this guy, as well as having a great singing voice, was just too cool not to shoot:
But then the weather closed in again, and we skied down to the vin chaud in the valley. All of which explains why I spent several days in the Alps, and mostly came back with pictures of people standing on tables!
But I can at least finish with one classic skiing shot, and my thanks to Steve, Paul, JP, Ray and Mani, who welcomed me into their group, and were great companions whatever the climate!
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