Peter Burton's daily log, covering Peter's personal interests, e.g. jazz, travel and general grumpiness plus (occasionally) the business of Isomatic and its associate companies.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
VO-DE-O-DO at the Cricketers
On Monday night we saw the VO-DE-O-DO band at
the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking. Good musicians but we prefer our jazz to be improvised and unplanned rather than just read from the printed score.
Monday, August 22, 2005
Spreadsheets, Redwing
Advice from Bob Holland via the IEE chat line led me to try much harder. I have cracked the problem.
In both OOo and NeoOffice (and MS Works) one must put the required data series in successive columns, starting with the x-axis values, e.g. x series in column A, y1 in column b and y2 in column C. Selecting (highlighting) all three columns and clicking
gives just what is required.
In practice the data series are rarely together because there will be intermediate steps in the calculations. In future I must use COPY - PASTE SPECIAL to bring them together.
On Sunday evening we saw Redwing at the Saddlers Arma. The fine trombone player Bob Dwyer was 'helping them out', and doing a great job.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Burford Bridge Hotel
On Saturday afternoon we went for a drive through the beautiful Surrey countryside stopping for tea, coffee and shortbread at
the Burford Bridge Hotel. It has recently been refurbished and is looking really good.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
John Softley's jazz band at Chipstead
On Monday evening we went to Chipstead fotball club, the home of John Softley's just the job dixieland jazz band. John on guitar/banjo and Peter Rudeforth on trumpet/cornet/flugelhorn are two of our favourites and they were joined by an all guest line-up, including John Crocker on reeds, Campbell Burnap on trombone and John Elmer on drums. John is featured on our great CD 'Cool Vibes, playing vibraphone. The band's wonderful singer, Beverley, joined them for just one number; Fly me to the Moon.
Labels: Jazz
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Bosham
On Sunday morning we visited Bosham, a beautiful spot on England's South coast. We even chatted to a local couple over coffee.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Euros, USDs, Mike Piggott CDs (jazz violin)
On Friday we painfully worked through the Isomatic money in various Euro and USD accounts to see if there was anything worth repatriating. There was, although its origins are lost in the mists of time. We used the spreadsheet from the Open Source suite
NeoOffice. It is better suited to Mac OSX than OpenOffice and does not require X11 to be installed.
In the evening we listened to the 'Blues for Stuff and Steph' CD that we bought from
Mike Piggott on Thursday. Great Jazz Violin although we still prefer the 'Strohlin' and Stumblin' CD we already have.
Friday, August 12, 2005
Mike Piggott with Ann Odell trio
On Thursday evening I went with Selina, "Hot Ginger" and Leon to the
Watermill Jazz Club in Dorking.
Mike Piggott was guest on violin with the
Ann Odell trio, comprising Ann, Simon Woolf on bass and Derek Gayle on drums, all great musicians. Mike was as brilliant and entertaining as ever and Ann is such a fantastic pianist and singer. She does both better than anyone who specialises in one or the other. I particularly enjoyed a number called 'The Gift' aka Riccardo's Bossa Nova.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
NeoOffice
Having tried the standard version of Open Office we are now trying
NeoOffice. It is more compliant with Mac standard commands and does not have the problem with bold/standard formatting of spreadsheets.
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Microsoft-free environment; Open Office
With the new iMac G5 we are trying to create an environment free from all Microsoft products. To that end we have installed
Open Office. The very first spreadsheet I copied across showed that Excel had produced a major error in column summing, resulting in a 20000 GBP mistake. The Open Office spreadsheet summed it correctly. How can any company continue with software that contains bugs ? Answers by E-mail please.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Blue Moon Jazz band at the Watermans Arms
On Wednesday evening we again saw the Blue Moon Jazz band at the Watermans Arms, Hersham, joined by anyone who wanted to play with them. The leader/ trumpeter was on holiday in Guernsey so was replaced by Tony Nutt from the Apex Jazz Band on cornet.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
iMac G5 from Cancom
Today we collect our new computer. We decided on an
Apple iMac G5, 1.8 GHz, 20 inch screen with wireless keyboard and mouse plus an additional 1 Gbyte of memory. We saved money by omitting the airport and taking a refurb. option from
Cancom.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Phil Brown's Swingtet; Ken Ames
We have just seen Phil Brown's Swingtet two evenings in succession, The quartet on Sunday at the Saddler's Arms, Send and all seven of them on Monday at The Cricketers, Horsell. The full band is much preferred, particularly as it includes Ken Ames on guitar. He plays blues and jazz with equal proficiency but it is the blues where he is really needed by the band. They can just about manage without him on the swing numbers but we still prefer his presence.
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