George's journey through life

2007-08-30T08:28:00.000Z

Dijon is, of course, famous above all for its mustard and I couldn't resist buying a couple of different flavours to cook with when I get back home.

Dijon Palais des Ducs

2007-08-19T12:27:00.001Z

Dijon Palais des Ducs
Originally uploaded by George Perfect

This panorama shows the Palais des Ducs in Dijon. The picture is formed from five separate photos taken hand-held with the little Contax camera then stitched together with Canon Photo-stitch software.

Dijon proved to be a very pleasant city to visit - in fact the highlight of our trip so far. In contrast to Beaune (which we visited later in the day) which has become highly commercialised and almost entirely ruined with retails chains allowed to replace the fine old shop-fronts with the aluminium and glass affairs they prefer to show off their wares, Dijon has become a far more pleasant place than I remember from my last visit (about 18 years ago!) with pedestrianised streets, a healthy food market in Les Halles, excellent shopping and a good range of restaurants.

Relaxed

2007-08-19T12:20:00.001Z

Relaxed
Originally uploaded by George Perfect

After a couple of days fairly heavy driving (traffic jams in Holland and the search for our hotel making the first day far longer than it was supposed to have been) it was bliss to arrive at our first gite and put my feet up with a glass of Burgundy's best!

Pasteur - in Arbois

2007-08-19T12:12:00.001Z

Pasteur - in Arbois
Originally uploaded by George Perfect

A statue in Arbois celebrates Louis Pasteur. Best known for his work with micro-organisms and the pasteurisation process that bears his name, Pasteur also discovered the secret of producing consistently good wine. Before his research, batches of wine would almost randomly turn out sour (ggod enough for vinegar, at best). He discovered that good wine relies on use of the proper yeast during fermentation - and then, heat treatment (the pasteurisation process again) to kill off that yeast to prevent the wine from souring in the bottle.

You could argue that he lay the foundation for the prosperity of every wine maker since. And, as a town reliant on the wine industry for its very obvious prosperity, who better for the good burgers of Arbois to celebrat in their town square?

Arbois

2007-08-19T12:04:00.001Z

Arbois
Originally uploaded by George Perfect

Leaving Strasbourg, we headed down the autoroute toward Mulhouse then to Besancon where we turned off the motorway onto cross-country N-roads. Besancon looked very interesting as we passed through (sadly having no time to stop) with a fort on the edge of the escarpment above the town and pleasant gardens and roads in the town itself.

The road south from Besancon - the RN73 - proved to be a great driving road with a succession of fast swoops and sweeping bends accompanied by truly stunning scenery - definitely a road to bank for a future car rally - just watch out for "les flics" if you decide to drive it at any speed!

The road heads over the western edge of the Jura mountains and through the Jura wine region. By chance (it was lunch time) we stopped in the town of Arbois which proved to be very pretty. We spent so much time walking around that we missed lunch completely and had to resort to buying bread and pastries from one of the boulangeries - not a bad turn of events as it happens as they were delicious.

Strasbourg - la Petite France

2007-08-09T06:56:00.001Z

Strasbourg - le Petite France
Originally uploaded by George Perfect

August 3rd, 2007: Our ultimate destination for the first week of this trip is Burgundy - about 450 miles from Amsterdam. Deciding to drive through Germany (and a fine decision it was too - the opportunity to show a pair of Porsches a clean pair of heels during one 160MPH blast along an unrestricted autobahn providing all the justification I need) we turned off the autobahn at Koblenz to drive down the Rhine Gorge.

Short on time (thanks DFDS again) we had no time to stop at any of the castles or even any of the towns proper but it proved an enjoyable enough break from the pell-mell pace of the motorways.

Arriving in Strasbourg, finding our hotel - in the Petite France old part of town - proved too difficult for us, our GPS and even the locals we asked, all of whom expressed their dismay and told us what we had already discovered - the pedestrianisation of the area has blocked all the roads you would normally choose to take to get to the hotel which we could clearly see.

Eventually, I gave up and walked through the streets to the hotel and asked the bell-hop. The answer it seems is that everybody's GPS maps are wrong - you don't ask for the hotel's published address, you ask for a square somewhere else in town then ignored the warning signs and drive down a canal embankment - et voila!

How very Gallic that it's not the hotel's directions to guests that is wrong but everyone else's GPS maps!

Ho hum ... Strasbourg itself is a delight - and la Petite France in particular. We enjoyed a romantic stroll along l'Ill (that's an L, an apostrophe, an I and two more Ls) and ate in a pretty restaurant on its banks overlooking the light show played out on the old buildings.

Leaving the Tyne

2007-08-09T06:42:00.002Z

Leaving the Tyne
Originally uploaded by George Perfect

August 2nd, 2007 - the first time I've sailed out of the Tyne. On our way to France for our summer holidays, we decided to take the Newcastle to Amsterdam crossing instead of my more usual Hull-Rotterdam. It was certainly convenient driving just a few miles to Newcastle to get on board - and, let's face it, start the holiday.

On board, the staff were friendly and efficient but, though DFDS had obviously spent money tarting her up, the old ship showed her age by being so noisy (in fact, our cabin vibrated with noise) that sleep proved difficult thereby negating the whole point of taking an overnight ferry service. Arrival in Amsterdam was met by very slow unloading and border controls - added to the later than normal arrival (9:30am) this meant we weren't on the road until 10:30 - losing over two hours against a Rotterdam arrival.

I'm looking forward to sailing back into the Tyne when we return - but not the boat. Future crossings will surely be courtesy of P&O from Hull.

Fame at last

2007-07-22T07:32:00.000Z

One of my photos of the White House taken last summer has been chosen by Schmap to illustrate its on-line guide to Washington DC. Schmap looks like an interesting publishing exercise - an admittedly quick look suggests that most if not all of its material is user contributed or taken from "free" sources on the 'net - eg; maps from yahoo, pictures from Flickr (though the authors do take the time to ask permission from photographers who usually deny commercial use fo their photos - like me).

Schmap is an interesting example of a 'mash-up' - a web site created by combining feeds (ie, bits of) taken from other web sites and resources in the hope of making something greater than the sum of its parts.

I only get a few seconds of fame so wait for my name and piccie to appear in the Schmap widget here or look at the photo they used on Flickr here.

5-4-3-2-1

2007-06-30T06:45:00.001Z

5-4-3-2-1
Originally uploaded by George Perfect

To Beaulieu for the UK Maserati Club "Spring Event" - now named after the sadly missed former club president, Cameron Millar.

One intriguing part of the weekend was the appearance of examples of all five types of Quattroporte, including the ultra-rare Series II with the V6 and Citroen hydraulics that was painstakingly tracked down and is now lovingly owned by Edwin Faulkner.

Yes, that's me next to the blue QPIV

Maserati 4CS

2007-06-30T06:42:00.001Z

Maserati 4CS
Originally uploaded by George Perfect

Adam Painter was at GPLive "demonstrating his (or is it still Ken's?) 4CS.

Sir Stirling Moss

2007-06-30T06:39:00.001Z

Sir Stirling Moss
Originally uploaded by George Perfect

Got the opportunity at GPLive to interview Sir Stirling Moss on his experiences in various Maseratis over the years - synopsis: he loved the 250F, hated the 450S (in all forms) and greatly enjoyed driving alongside Fangio.

Full interview will appear on the MRC site in due course

Fresh fish

2007-05-12T05:04:00.001Z

Fish bowls
Originally uploaded by George Perfect.

In most of Europe and the U.S. when we say "fresh" we mean food that was caught/picked/plucked some weeks ago and then preserved by freezing or removing all the fluids for transport to our far away homes.

Even though I've seen it many times before, it still comes as a surprise to see what the Chinese shopper defines as fresh food.

In this fishing village on Lantau island, the morning's catch is sorted into plastic bowls and kept alive by pumping air through the water (you can see the plastic pipes feeding the air in the photo but not the electric pump and attached car battery under the trolley).

To the locals, "fresh" means still alive when bought.

Fresh meat anyone?

2007-05-12T04:48:00.001Z

Self-service butchery?
Originally uploaded by George Perfect.

In more recent visits to Hong Kong (it was a regular stop-over for me during the 1980s) I've struggled to find any of the old flavour of the place. Wander through the glitzy shopping malls on the island or Kowloon and you could be in almost any developed city on the planet, surrounded as you are by shop after shop selling over-priced designer goods in an effort to pay the naturally exorbitantly high rent.

Heck, even Mong Kok - once home to professionals (photographers who came for the specialist camera shops and hookers who worked the brothels that lined the narrow streets) is now the location for 5-star hotels, computer supermarkets and Starbucks.

So a trip into the New Territories was taken. It's years since I was last in this hinterland of Hong Kong's administrative region and, to be honest, had never really understood why the British Government had felt so compelled to hand the whole of Hong Kong back when the lease on part of the territory ran out. Until I saw what had become of the area I remembered as sleepy villages and gentle farm land.

The whole area is a sea of high-rise apartment blocks with fast train access into Kowloon. All became clear - the "independent" territory that would have remained would have consisted of millions of people with nowhere to work and no way to feed themselves.

Anyway - tucked away in one of the newly developed streets was this "traditional" street market. Traditional, not in the sense of having been there since the Tang dynasty (the street itself looked no more than 30-40 years old) but in the sense that traditional Chinese shopping values remained intact.

Fresh food was piled on stalls all along the street for passers-by to pick up and examine (see the lady in the photo who I watched pick over an entire tray of pork chops until she found one she liked) and the sale of hopelessly useless (as well, it's fair to say, unrealistically cheap) goods.

Needing fresh AA batteries for my camera I bought a dozen Chinese zinc-carbon examples (the best available) from a stall for a few HK$ (around US 5c each) discovering over the next couple of hours that each and every one of them was completely devoid of electricity.

Some things never change. Hong Kong enterprise - gotta love it!

XP Media Center

2007-03-22T10:34:00.000Z

Let’s cut to the chase – Windows Media Center (at least in XP guise – I haven’t tried Vista) is, if not quite a disaster, a long way from being capable of acting as a reliable living room device. Even ignoring the product’s shortcomings (restrictions on the number of tuners it supports; poor support for digital terrestrial television in UK/Europe among them) the darned thing crashes far too often.

Being (humbly) pretty good at setting up my PCs and strict at avoiding the installation of software that causes so many reliability issues, it’s been a long time since I’ve had to give a “three-fingered salute (aka Ctrl-Alt-Del) to my PC and the dreaded blue screen of death (BSOD) is almost never seen in these parts. Media Center (sic) reset all these expectations by frequently requiring the use of Task Manager to shut it down when it froze and far too frequent reboots of the entire machine.

That’s not to mention Microsoft’s habit of releasing “security updates” to the operating system itself that cause the PC to reboot all by itself – a more than annoying activity when it interrupts a film or sports program you were recording overnight.

Problems with Media Center include:

The program is so tied to Microsoft via its Internet connection that almost any disruption to the network connection causes a crash.
Miscellaneous and meaningless errors: eg, the program frequently refuses to record a program showing in the guide, claiming that “the guide does not contain information on this program” – even when it patently does – stopping and restarting the Media Center shell allows the recording.
Microsoft doesn’t think people outside Seattle watch TV. Specifically, the program’s ability to tune in digital broadcasts in UK regions is at best patchy. Reading independent web sites reveals similar problems in many regions along with the registry hacks(!) necessary to allow or force the tuning software to work with local broadcasts.
It supports at most two tuners – unless you’re prepared to hack the registry (and do so every time it downloads an update). In this multi-channel age, it’s far from uncommon to find several appealing programs broadcast across different channels in the same peak viewing slot and with DVB-T tuners available for a few measly pounds/dollars it’s hardly unreasonable to expect support for four or five.
Playback of a recorded DVB-T program within which signal quality fell causing dropouts causes a crash necessitating a complete reboot of the machine.

I could go on (and on, and on …) but suffice to say that I have given up with Microsoft’s Media Center and replaced it with something rather better.

PVR to Media Centre

2007-03-20T11:20:00.000Z

While music and photos were being streamed wirelessly to the bedroom, the good old VHS video recorder had been replaced with a hard-disk based PVR (Personal Video Recorder) – at first a Humax device that also incorporated a DVD player then a Digifusion unit.

The impact of these devices on TV watching habits can’t be overstated. The ability to “point-and-shoot” (where have we heard that phrase before? ;) ) at a program and have it reliably recorded is addictive – in fact, it’s far too easy to quickly build up a library of hundreds of hours of recorded TV that you will never have time to watch! More usefully, a 14 day program guide meant that I could easily and reliably ensure that I need rarely miss a Grand Prix just because I was away on my frequent travels.

All good and great but …. how do you get the recordings out of the box? Ok, you can buy PVR units that have a built-in DVD recorder (so sons that forgot to record the Grand Prix for themselves might be sent a copy) but any thought of watching recorded programs in another room rely on old-fashioned video distribution and those infra red remote extender gizmos. Hardly “bleeding edge” and not at all in keeping with the thinking round here.

So, just over a year ago a moment of weakness in PC World made me the new owner of a Sony VAIO XL100 Media Center PC – a reasonably smart (silver and black, almost hifi-looking) unit that runs Windows XP Media Center edition.

Media Centres

2007-03-20T10:59:00.000Z

To a software/networks/gadget geek with a deep interest in music and film, the lure of having access to my music, videos, photos and a choice of independent radio anywhere in the house is just too much to resist. My CD collection has slowly been migrating to one of the servers in the garage for a couple of years now (I have a lot of CDs!) and my photography and occasional forays into video went digital years ago but finding ways to distribute these files around the house has occupied many an hour.

A couple of years ago, I bought first a Linksys WMA11B network media player (NMP) and installed its companion software on one of the PCs to act as the stream server. That never worked too well – the low (802.11b WiFi) network bandwidth restricted it to music playback only; photos took an age to appear and it had no support for video at all. Worst of all, its proprietary server software consumed far too much CPU overhead and was incompatible with other devices.

The Linksys was replaced fairly quickly with a D-Link DSM320 NMP that supports 802.11g (54Mbps) WiFi and works using open standards (UPNP) to replay music, videos, photos and streamed Internet radio stations. It also has a captive 100Mbps Ethernet connection. That worked well connected to a PC running the separate Windows Media Connector freebie (now incorporated into Windows Media Player 11). Music (including CD quality WAVs) played back fine over the WiFi connection and it was even possible to watch MPEG and DivX encoded movies – as long as you ignored the lack of lip-sync!

The Outlook is circular

2007-03-20T10:58:00.000Z

Remember the start of this epic voyage of email and PIM updating started with a desire to move away from Outlook. Where has it ended up? Back with Outlook, that’s where.

A few reasons:

Try as I might, it’s hard to escape Microsoft’s marketing muscle – in this case translated into compatibility with the portable devices I use (IPAQ and Nokia phone/PIM) and others that I might consider using in future. The sheer market weight of Outlook means that manufacturers are compelled to provide at least some level of data interchange with Outlook and, while I did discover products and add-ons to programs such as Thunderbird that aim to do the same thing, they are all affected by the problems that surround Open Source “products” (which I will get round to discussing some time soon, I promise).
Office 2007 appeared and is a substantial step forward for Outlook. While still some way from my ideal (that I can’t find elsewhere in any case) it is better at organising tasks and calendar and, even in beta form, proved more reliable than the alternatives (Thunderbird, The Bat, Eudora, Pocomail) that I tried – several of which lost data (or would have, had I not been strict about keeping backups.

So … which Linux distro got the job?

2007-02-15T12:29:00.000Z

Well, it took a while but I finally have a mail/groupware server alternative to Exchange Server in the shape of Kerio MailServer6. But what to run it on?

If you’ve been following this saga, you’ll know that the initial brief I set of replacing Exchange Server expanded into a need to replace the underlying Windows server operating system as well with one of the many Linux variants out there. But which?

Fedora Core 6 is the answer – at least for me. Being based on Red Hat it had the blend of server functions and management tools I was looking for as well as access to the latest stable versions of Samba.

In praise of Kerio

2007-02-15T11:13:00.000Z

To refresh my knowledge of Kerio MailServer I downloaded a copy of the latest version 6 from the company’s web site and loaded it up on a test server. All the things I remember liking about the product are still there and it has improved and solidified in several key areas. The product can run on either a Windows or Linux platform.

The first thing to like is the clean and simple management interface. For anyone used to Microsoft’s muddle of tools spread across different management consoles, Kerio’s approach will come like a bolt out of the blue. A single console window provides access to all functions of the server from configuration, choice of protocols, user management through to logs on its behaviour. Setup is a breeze – complete a few forms to set up the domains and users you want to give access to (with convenient import functions for large setups) and you’re up and running. Safely! Which brings me to the second thing to like …

Antivirus is built in to the mailserver itself. You can either use the supplied McAfee with its automatically updated database or one of several alternatives from the likes of Sophos, Grisoft etc that you supply separately. You can even use several AV engines in tandem if you want. Spam is equally well covered with a comprehensive arsenal of filters, blocklists, repellents, caller-ID lookups, SPF checks and SpamAssassin bult in. Less than 2% of spam gets through even the lightweight configuration I have implemented with very few false-positives.

The server’s database can be automatically backed up and archived without user intervention. It can retrieve email from other servers or external accounts (such as Yahoo or Hotmail) and drop the messages into recipient mailboxes directly. It can handle multiple identities and email addresses, aliases at individual or group level. And it has good status and logging functions that keep this administrator well informed of what is going on.

The latest version even has ActiveSync functionality built in so sync’ing a Windows based PDA or mobile phone over a Bluetooth or wireless connection is automatic and seamless. Wonderful!

But the very best thing to like about Kerio MailServer 6 is that it just works. It sits there and does its job of delivering, sorting and sifting emails, storing calendar, tasks and notes while demanding zero attention from me.

And that makes it worth every penny of the price I paid for the licence to use it.

Choosing a Linux distro (part 2)

2007-02-15T08:28:00.000Z

By now I’d done my fair share of reading up on the current state of Linux and how to get it to work as a server back-end for a Windows desktop environment. I was pretty confident that a recent Linux build with recent Samba version would handle the domain control (network authorisation) and file sharing tasks. So my mind turned back to the choice of software to replace Exchange Server as my email and PIM back-end.

There are a number of Linux based email server products that claim at least some level of Exchange compatibility:

Open Exchange (http://www.open-xchange.com/EN/developer/)
Scalix (http://www.scalix.com/)
Kerio Mail Server (http://www.kerio.com)

For links and reviews of most of the competitors try the ServerWatch web site at http://www.serverwatch.com/stypes/index.php/TWFpbA==

I had just tried Scalix with the Xandros Server product that I had been forced to send back. Exchange “compatibility” can mean many things it seems. To Scalix it seems to mean that they might provide (I never found it) an Outlook plugin that makes their back-end server look like Exchange. Of the promised migration tools there was no sight. I was not alone among the user forums in experiencing a distinct level of underwhelment with Scalix!

Open Exchange looks like a possible contender. It’s available in commercial and free variants with an Outlook plugin (the “Oxtender”) that – again – promises to make the back-end look like Exchange to Outlook. I haven’t tried it.

The reason is that I – somewhat belatedly – remembered that I have previously used Kerio MailServer as a (then) cheaper replacement for Exchange Server in several client installations - and all had worked very well. Again the product relies on an Outlook plugin (this time called the “Kerio Outlook Connector”) to connect the Outlook desktop client to the back-end server.

Why all these connectors? Well, Microsoft being Microsoft, OE not only use proprietary protocols to communicate with each other, MS keeps the details of the protocols close to its corporate chest. In the Open Source arena there is a surprising and woeful lack of standards for groupware message exchange. This is a subject I may come back to in a later post as – to this grey-bearded old software designer – it encapsulates a lot of the problems that beset the Open Source community and prevent wider up-take of the technology and product offerings.

So – anyone who wants to provide a back-end email/groupware server and wants any kind of market share needs to address Outlook (I haven’t looked up the figures lately but it is surely the dominant email client in the corporate world) – and that means at the very least writing a connector to bridge the gap.

Why is Exchange so important?

2007-02-15T07:53:00.000Z

Why, you may ask, is Exchange compatibility so important to me? At heart, it’s because I travel. And when I travel, I don’t always want to carry a laptop with me or be reliant on Internet cafes to catch up with email and my diary. For several years, I have carried an IPAQ combined PDA/cellphone that runs Windows PocketPC operating system – this wonderful device has GSM (mobile phone) Bluetooth and 802.11b WiFi access built in and does a pretty good job of providing me with telephony (expensive cellphone and cheap VOIP), email, contacts database, diary/calendar, todo reminders and all my notes on which I rely so much. It synchronises with Outlook and my desktop file system as soon as I get it in reach of my desk.

For the past year, I have also carried a Nokia N70 mobile phone. This has most of the functionality of the IPAQ (lacking the WiFi connectivity and decent screen size) including all the essentials of email/calendar/notes. Again, it synchronises automatically and seamlessly (via Bluetooth) whenever it’s near my desk. The advantage of the Nokia over the IPAQ is its size and its 3G plus quad-band cellular access.

2007 is looking likely to be the year when these two devices get replaced by a single device like the soon to be released Nokia N95 that (if its screen is as good as claimed) should offer everything the combined IPAQ/N70 provides in a smaller (read “more pocketable”) package and with better integration of the cellular and VOIP telephony for good measure.

This mobile access to all my important data at all times has been a personal holy grail for over 25 years. And my quarter-century-old prediction that we would all, one day, be wirelessly interconnected with access to data held privately back at home or publicly has become a reality.

In fact, there’s quite a choice of devices that you can carry round with you to gain remote access to data and people using email, web, file transfer, speech and video calling. And they use a fair variety of platforms and technologies to achieve these goals. But regardless of platform, technology, vendor or format, the one common denominator among them almost all of them is that when it comes to synchronising data changed while you are on the move with the master copy back at the ranch or getting updates of data added or changed on the servers, they will all work with Outlook/Exchange.

Moan as we may about monopolies, the fact is that the makers of these devices (sensibly) follow the market … and the market is led by Microsoft – so strongly in fact that even devices that don’t use Windows based operating software (such as the Nokia, Symbian based phones, Blackberries, Palm Treo etc.) all sync up with Outlook/Exchange.

And very, very few offer any kind of alternative – and none will sync with (say) Thunderbird or other non-MS email/PIM clients.

My researches did reveal a few projects and even a couple of working programs that replace the ailing ActiveSync technology that MS foists on mobile users with a more flexible and open alternative. But – here’s the rub – with mobile device technology moving at a pace that sees new devices released daily with an expected life cycle of maybe a year or two at best, the alternatives are never going to keep up. What works today will almost certainly not work tomorrow. Or, an update to the phone/PDA firmware will suddenly break that all important connection with home.

Like it or not, Outlook/Exchange – for me at least – is a must-have. Or at least compatibility with OE …

Choosing a Linux distro

2007-02-15T07:25:00.000Z

These days, there is a truly bewildering choice of Linux distros out there. From the “roll your own” versions out on the bleeding edge of the development curve through commercially supported offerings such as Red Hat right up to (by my standards for this project) mega-expensive products from the traditional enterprise-class vendors such as HP, Oracle, Novell etc.

A word about money

Before looking at what I chose and why, it’s worth looking at the budget I had for this project. In moving away from Windows I was writing off a sizeable (for an individual) chunk of change invested in the server operating systems and software. My goal was to replace software that was proving far too costly – in management time and poor reliability – with functional alternatives that would be easier to manage and less costly to run – in both time and pounds sterling!

My Microsoft server environment harks back to my time as owner of an international software development company. In company terms, a few thousand pounds spent on something as essential as email and company-wide network access controls is small change. At garage level, those costs are witheringly unaffordable. To be fair to Microsoft, If I were starting from scratch and buying an MS server environment, their Small Business Server (SBS) product provides most of what I need. For $600 per copy I’d get the base OS, Exchange Server and a primitive firewall. This would buy me 5 user licences which barely covers my needs and once you exceed this figure, costs start to escalate enormously – especially as I’d be buying licences twice over (once for each server) or have to forego the backup and security of the two-server approach I was used to.

I set a purely arbitrary budget figure of $500 for my Linux replacements – as much to see what could be achieved for this small sum as to keep expenditure in scale with income. Xandros Server fit this budget pretty well (for a single server licence with Scalix email thrown in) and would have only exceeded it slightly once a second OS licence had been purchased. But, Xandros didn’t work.

Time to rethink the way to spend the budget.

My kingdom for a reliable server OS

2007-02-15T06:36:00.000Z

After wasting what became a fortnight with Xandros Server I took the sensible decision to throw the thing back at the company and demand a refund. I eventually got most of my money back though for some reason they thought they were entitled to keep the shipping charge they made – even though its product doesn’t work! Bad product = Bad company.

Ditching Xandros left me back at square one – servers still running Win2k3 and no Exchange replacement.

My intention in using Xandros had been simple enough – replace the email server OS and application with a non-MS alternative – while retaining Exchange compatibility so that all my PIM data cold be held centrally – and in a way that allowed synchronisation with my PDA and phone.

Behind that simple requirement, of course, lies a morass of complexity. For a commercial grade network, the most important task performed by a Windows server is domain control – the central management and control of access to all network resources. Only after this basic requirement is met can you go on to provide network file shares, web and email services etc. In the Windows networking scheme, one (and only one) server acts as the Primary Domain Controller (PDC) holding the master copy of all login IDs and security authorities. One or more other servers can act as backup controllers (BDC) answering login and access requests by automatically synchronising their copy of the security database with the PDC. Since Windows Server 2000, this basic mechanism with its poor mix of MS proprietary (eg; WINS) and open services (eg; DNS) has been supplanted by Active Directory (AD) – still MS proprietary but easier to manage and automatically updating DNS etc. My Win2k3 domain was AD based.

In part, Xandros failure to live up to its promises is down to the fact that it uses the well-known and well-established Samba software to provide Windows-style domain services. None of which is a criticism of Samba, which is one of the best established, most reliable and useful Open Source projects around, backed up by people who really know their stuff and are very happy to support their “product”.

Simply put, Samba does not (at the time of this writing) support or understand Windows Active Directory – it only supports the older PDC/BDC mechanisms. More than this, interoperability between Samba domain controller services and their Windows equivalents is severely limited – you can’t, for example, have a Samba PDC with Windows based BDC – or vice-versa. For my simple needs, these restrictions would not be a problem – but they do mean that planning the migration from Windows to Linux server technology required a little thought. And again, for my relatively simple needs (and, I suspect, the needs of most small to medium sized businesses) the lack of AD support would not be an issue, especially as it’s not that hard to have a Linux DHCP service update a DNS domain automatically so that XP (and soon-to-be) Vista based PCs wouldn’t have to bother with the creaky old MS WINS directory service to find each other.

Xandros Server

2007-02-15T06:13:00.000Z

I’ll cut this short. Xandros was a disaster. For the full background story, see this thread in the Xandros forums. The product offers much – tying a collection of Open Source projects and packages together under a proprietary umbrella of management tools that promises Windows like integration and full interoperability with Windows network environments. The documentation provided is among the best I’ve seen in the Open Source community.

The problem is a simple one – it doesn’t work. At least the early release version I tried doesn’t and the problems I encountered with the product tell me that a LOT of work (possibly even a fundamental rethink of how they’re trying to achieve their objectives) is called for. I went so far as to say that they should not be taking money for this product right now.

Time to dust off those UNIX skills …

2007-02-14T18:53:00.000Z

You may recall that in the time BTM (Before The Move) I had started looking and planning to replace Exchange Server/Outlook as my principal email programs. Work on this was underway (though temporarily stalled) when the Trojan struck.

Quick recap: The garage houses four servers;

two were running Windows 2003: the PDC for the domain (login services and central storage for the PCs round the house) and the mail server
one was running Linux (Centos) as the host for the Asterisk PBX (VOIP phone system)
the fourth is an old tower PC now crammed with large hard drives and running a stripped down Linux providing a backup store for the rest of the network of machines via NAS

The Trojan attack – and especially the cost to me in time and effort – was the nail in the coffin for Windows 2003. Though both machines were up to date with patches and protected by several layers of protection they still got hit and the fact is that Microsoft’s operating systems (especially the server versions) are too attractive to “the bad guys”.

Though it’s been a few years since I last used Linux in any serious way, I had been reading that the various new versions and distros had come a very long way in terms of usability and (relevant here) ease of management. So, after doing a lot of reading and research on the web I took the plunge and bought a copy of Xandros Server – a commercial Linux variant that includes a small-business copy of the Scalix email server that claims to offer full Exchange compatibility.

The servers are dead – long live the servers!

2007-02-14T18:49:00.001Z

The reason things went quiet here between late October and December are easy to understand: TWO house moves (my own mega-move that formally finished on 11^th November but dragged on till past Christmas) and Adam’s move to his new bachelor-pad in London. Throw in the completion of my first issue as editor of iL TRIDENTE magazine and the general mayhem that preparation for Christmas always involves in this household and there you go ... time gone!

The plan was to get Christmas out of the way then get back to writing and being generally productive in a form that didn’t involve trips to IKEA and hours assembling office furniture.

It wasn’t to be.

In mid-December both the Win2k3 servers were hit by a zero-day Trojan. This was despite protection that included a hardware firewall and live-updated anti-virus and anti-spyware software on both servers, plus similar protection down to packet level within the mail server software. The first sign I had that anything was wrong was slow Internet connections. When I checked, the activity indicators on the router and modem were solidly lit – not the normal case round here. Just as I was pondering the cause an email arrived from my ISP advising me that my network had been reported as a source of spam … Aaaaarrrrrggghhhhh!!!!

Sure enough, both servers had been compromised and were spraying out junk mail at a rate of several hundred messages per minute. In the few gaps this left in my outbound bandwidth, they were also sending out port-probes methodically working their way through several IP sub-nets at the command of their new masters looking for other systems that the Trojan could compromise.

Now, despite all the protection in place here (protection I’d still say is among the best available) a successful attack like this is a risk run by anyone with a computer connected to the ‘net. Especially servers as they generally sit on fast pipes connected directly into the ‘net so can do the most work for the crooks behind the Trojan. My own servers sit on a domestic ADSL line with upstream bandwidth of only around 500-800kbps (my main web servers are hosted elsewhere) so they lucked out with me but even so, they managed to get several tens of thousands of spam messages out before I discovered and could solve the problem.

And the cost …!!

Like many people these days, I rely on email – as do the family and friends who also have email addresses here. So just “pulling the plug” was not an option unless I had a way of getting at least the email server back on line without too much delay.

More importantly, the other server also provided a raft of network services to all the other machines so taking it down causes everything else to collapse with, if delayed, still inevitable certainty. Not good. Having identified the nature of the beast, my first approach to fixing the problem was to download the removal tools and patches from the AV vendors and MS. So … both machines taken off the network (internal and external) removal software run – check OK – then patches installed.

Reconnect to Internet and ….

… BOOM! The blasted Trojan was back again!

Several hours later and it was obvious that the Trojan removal software had not done its work. Despite its efforts and mine (painstakingly trawling through system files all over a large server is NOT fun) it had managed to conceal some part of its payload somewhere that would take more time than I had or wanted to spend playing detective to find.

At this point, I want to restate that tired old advice to everyone who has or uses a computer anywhere for any purpose. Back it up. In fact, do more than that. Back it up in a way that allows you to go back and restore it to any point in time. If you’re sensible, you’ll back up the backup too.

Thankfully, that’s pretty much what happens here. I’ve used Acronis to back up both servers and PCs to a large NAS server at least nightly with other specialised software archiving the email repository and other fast-updating files in almost real time.

Plan B swung into effect. Machines taken off the Internet and restored to the point a few hours before the Trojan struck. Next the patches were installed to prevent the crooks getting back in the hot seat. Finally, the email and other databases were rolled forward to their last current position and, with a deep intake of breath, the servers were put back on-line …

Plan B worked. The servers stayed clean – though monitoring the firewall saw several thousand attempts by other distributed servers to talk to the now exterminated Trojans.

Catchup

2007-02-14T17:19:00.000Z

Hmmm … three months since I last posted here … where were we? Ah yes – the new network at the house. And the search for replacements for Outlook/Exchange Server.

Lots to catch up on so I’ll break it down into several posts. Network first …

The network is running splendidly. All the machines that have wired connections (that’s all the servers in the garage and my office and recording PCs) have gigabit connections to each other and file transfers now take place at speeds limited by disk transfer rates rather than network bandwidth. The wireless segment runs flawlessly too. The Linksys WRT54GS (with replacement firmware – something I’d definitely recommend) is sitting inside the loft at the top of the house providing a strong, 54Mbps link to each of the laptops and a solid 11Mbps to my IPAQ handheld. As for range, it’s great for what I want.

I have SJphone (http://www.sjlabs.com/sjp.html) installed on the IPAQ so that when I’m away from home I can still receive and make calls using the Asterisk VOIP exchange in the garage at free/cheap network rates rather than the ludicrous rates charged by mobile (cell) phone companies, especially for international calls. This works extremely well – when away from home I just login to a WiFi access point and make calls while checking email and browsing the web. When at home, the IPAQ naturally connects up to the wireless network in the house so, if I wanted to, I can make and receive calls using it. Usually I don’t as I have a better phone on my desk (an Aastra 480i) but – here’s the good bit about the new network – the wireless extends to the garage and to the bottom of the garden. Which means that I don’t have to remember to carry one of the house mobile phones round with me – I just carry the IPAQ as normal – it already handles both cellular and VOIP calls.

Problems = Opportunities?

2006-10-20T09:22:00.000Z

That's what the corporate suit trainers and life coaches would have you believe, any way.

Putting consideration of positive mental attitude to one side the move, nevertheless, has opened up some opportunities. For a start, the garage in the new house is detached from the house but has a good mains power supply. Best of all, I'm allowed to drill through the walls!!

So, job number 1 as part of the move was to run some trunking between the house and garage and install a pair of CAT6 cables to act as tie-lines between house and server farm. While I was at it, another CAT6 cable was run from my new ground-floor study up into the loft space and further lines run down from there to the room where Louise now has her study and the main bedroom. This allows the wireless (WiFi) access point and a small network switch to be sited in the loft - out of sight (and harm's way!) and - with high-gain antennae installed - to broadcast a strong 802.11g signal throughout the house.

As home networks go, this is close to nirvana. The computers in the house are mostly now on a gigabit backbone connection that ties to the similar setup in the garage. Hence, file transfers and backups now take place at lightning-fast speed. The laptops get a solid 54Mbps connection - and this without the repeater I was forced to deploy previously. It's been raining of late so I haven't tried to read my emails on the patio - yet. But, when I do, I'm pretty sure there'll be a solid connection there too - and if not, there's always the WiFi repeater now sitting in the cupboard to extend the range.

Who said moving was easy?

2006-10-20T06:57:00.000Z

While on our U.S. trip, Louise and I had decided that it was pretty daft continuing to maintain two houses - especially as they were 30 miles apart and our weeks were spent driving up and down the A19 - one of England's less attractive trunk roads. So, a plan was hatched ...

I've been living in rented accommodation for the past two years so giving up "my" house was an easy decision to take. The problems started to appear as soon as we began thinking through how to squeeze two lots of possessions into one space. Thankfully, neither of us are particularly "precious" about most of our possessions and we are both extremely tolerant of the few things we each have that are held dear to our hearts.

But, where most people moving in together have the problems of wardrobe space and deciding whose furniture to keep, those considerations were just the starting point for us. In my case, I arrive with a whole lot more "baggage" than the norm: the cars, the computers, the recording gear ...

Two things quickly became clear: If we were to set up home together this side of Christmas, we would have to move into Louise's existing 4-bed house and all thoughts of (sensibly) looking for a new home big enough to hold all our stuff would have to wait and ... the move itself was going to be a major exercise requiring some careful planning - and not a little bit of luck!

The search for a garage-friendly Outlook replacement

2006-09-12T13:00:00.000Z

This quest started innocently enough - a desire to ditch Exchange Server and increasing frustration with Outlook. Managing an Exchange Server environment is a big enough job inside an enterprise - even when you can employ someone to do it. Now that I no longer own an international software business, I no longer have someone to run the servers for me - which shouldn't be a problem as theory suggests that life should have become somewhat simpler.

Not so ...

... I have developed multiple personalities - not in the hearing-voices sense but in my professional and personal activities. I'm out of touch with "consultant-speak" but I'd probably be described as a "multi-presenced" individual these days, what with the (now doubled) Maserati role, my music recording and my personal and business roles. Outlook had served me well for many years while I ran my company so, when I became "company-less" it was going to be a big drag to move to a less functional environment.

So, my garage became home to a small Exchange Server environment, initially on NT then a couple of years ago migrated to Windows Server 2003. Running it - especially keeping on top of the patches needed to keep it safe - became what felt like a full time job. It became increasingly obvious that Exchange was not a garage-friendly product. I don't mind if you ask why it took me so long to realise - I'd like to know myself!

What really killed Exchange Server for me was the number of bugs and open exploit holes and the ever increasing cost of upgrading. When it came to a decision about upgrading to Exchange 2003 the cost was prohibitive for my (relatively) humble needs.

The trouble is, if Exchange gets dropped, what happens to Outlook? The answer is that a lot of its functionality disappears. Let me look at what I do and don't like about Outlook:

Things I like about Outlook:

It brings most of the info I need daily into one place: Email, Contacts, Calendar, ToDo and Notes
Synchronisation between desktop PC, laptop and PocketPC are (suppposed to be) simple
It's reliable - even when it doesn't do what it's supposed to it does so consistently!

Things I didn't/don't like about Outlook

It really needs an Exchange Server back-end to work as advertised
It doesn't handle multiple identities - I need to originate and respond to emails acording to the 'hat' I'm wearing - eg, people who contact me via the Maserati Resource Centre should get messages from my MRC address.
I never did get it to integrate all its functions properly - not within itself let alone the rest of the MS Office suite. Even simple tasks (such as dragging an email to a ToDo list or calendar entry) never worked and as for being able to click on a contact to write a letter in Word with the address already copied across ... I gave up writing and editing the macros and VBA to do that after about the fifth change-of-mind within Microsoft.
It has no way to easily group tasks and ToDos into projects or sub-headings to cope with the way I work

Without Exchange Server, Outlook loses most of its - increasingly slender -appeal. While email can be stored on just about any server these days using IMAP to leave copies on the server and handle filing and archiving for later use, the same isn't true of contacts, calendar/diary, notes etc. In a non-Exchange environment, Outlook still offers these facilities but stores the data locally on the host workstation PC. Synchronising this data to a laptop and a Pocket PC becomes a royal PITA if you travel as often as I do.

Especially after having been used to it all just sort of happening.

A simple home network

2006-09-12T12:35:00.000Z

Call me an old white-bearded geek but I continue to run a small cluster of servers at home - one main (Win2k3) server that provides LAN services and storage, another that acts as the mail and web development server here, another that runs Asterisk for the phone system, another NAS box that all the PCs here back up to. That's four if you're counting - all sitting in a nice rack powered by a big UPS.

Then there are the workstations: my lovingly crafted, SILENT workstation here in the study, the two in the recording studio, the laptops, the Sony VAIO Media Centre in the lounge (subject of another post before too long, I'm sure) the IPAQ pocket PC ... the media players ...

Networking this little lot is a bit of a problem as I'm currently (for a few more weeks at least) in a rented house so can't drill holes to run network cables between house and garage or between floors. I'm also stuck with the location where the phone line - and hence the broadband ADSL - comes into the building, in my study.

So the servers that talk to each other on their gigabit-LAN connect to the rest of the machines via a mains-borne network that is advertised to run at 85Mbps but actually runs at around 25Mbps on a good day. This mains-borne segment also has to carry the Internet traffic to and from the servers - including the phone traffic to the Asterisk box. The study has its own mini gigabit-LAN for the firewall, my main workstation, printers, the various IP phone devices etc. Finally, there's a WiFI segment driven off a Linksys WRT54GS with upgraded, open source firmware with a repeater to help cover the upper floor - that provides connection to the laptops and the machines in the music recording room upstairs.

Arriving at this mixed-bag approach to the network here took quite a while. The big problem is the connection between the house and garage. For practical reasons (noise, space) the server rack has to sit in the attached garage and there's no way to run a network cable between the two without causing problems with the landlord. My initial attempt used wireless links with a router in the house transmitting through the wall to the garage. Signal quality was appalling, however - maybe the wall has been lined with metal mesh or similar as the link was repeatedly dropped.

I went through several expensive antennae supposed to boost the signal along with equally expensive extension cables to locate the antennae as close to each other as possible with just that wall separating them - all to no avail. The link would still occasionally drop for no apparent reason.

Dropped links are not a good thing on the most critical segment of your network.

I stumbled across mains-borne networking while trawling the 'net looking for a solution to this problem. The units I bought came from Solwise (http://www.solwise.co.uk/net-powerline.htm) who have proved to be a nice company to deal with - one I'd heartily recommend - they quickly replaced one of the (now four) units I've bought from them when it stopped working.

So, are power line devices the networking panacea for the cable-free home or office?

Not quite. Apart from the hardware reliability (my one failed device might be an exception but the build quality of the plug-top units isn't that impressive) it's almost impossible to predict the actual throughput that can be achieved. In my case, I now have one of the units in the study that acts as the master and three slaves. I'll list them and their data rates as reported from the master unit:

Garage - server farm - 27Mbps
Lounge - media centre - 9Mbps
Kitchen - WiFi router - 53Mbps

Note that none of the links is achieving the claimed 85Mbps transfer rate - the best rate is to the kitchen only about 20 feet of mains wiring away, while the garage (that sits on another mains ring the other side of the distribution panel) just manages half that - and less than a third of the claimed rate.

The stand-out oddity in the list is the lounge. As far as I can tell, this is on the same mains ring as the master but suffers interference from one of the PSUs that power some of the boxes surrounding the media centre or something else I haven't yet been able to track down.

It's interesting to note that even when plugged side-by-side, these units only manage about 60Mbps. I'd need to research the technology better to be certain about this but it seems to work on similar mechanisms to WiFi - only using the mains cable as its medium rather than radio waves. Of course, the carrier frequencies needed to carry network traffic at these rates has to be very high (in the GHz range, I suspect) so the mains wiring is surely acting as a very large radiator of UHF interference to the neighbourhood and, it would appear from the poor performance of the unit in the lounge here, the coupling of the power-line unit to the mains wiring is pretty critical.

Conclusions - if there are any from this?

surprise, surprise - WiFi doesn't travel well through walls
mains-borne networking can be a life saver - my garage link has proven reliable apart from the one hardware failure
neither of these technologies replace a good old copper network cable

Solwise have been advertising a powerline device that's claimed to provide 200Mbps over mains cabling. Initially listed for release this summer, their web site now promises delivery some time in October. Had these devices been available earlier I would certainly have tried at least one pair on the garage link but as I'm hoping to move out of this rented place before too long, the £150 cost will go a long way toward a drum of CAT-6 cable and some fascia outlets.

Of printers

2006-09-11T07:33:00.000Z

Last week also saw me finally install the new Xerox Phaser 6100 colour laser printer I had ordered before leaving for the States. Bought as an end-of-run bargain complete with extra paper tray this machine replaces the venerable HP5100 mono whose noise and smell finally got the better of me (donated to a local school where it will, I'm sure, continue to do sterling work for years to come) and the HP4500 colour laser recently recovered from my ex-wife in non-working condition.

I had initially hoped that the HP4500 would become my main work-horse printer after I'd got it working again with a thorough clean, removal of the jammed paper that was wrapped many, many times round the fuser(!) and replacement of a couple of cartridges but it was not to be. Just days after I'd started to use it, the machine demanded a new set of imaging belt etc. and the cost of these items for what remains an oldish device - and one that may yet have thrown up further problems - swung me into looking for a replacement. The offer of the Phaser 6100 at a price just a few pounds more than the cost of the replacement parts for the HP made the decision easy.

So far, I have to say I'm extremely pleased with the Xerox machine. It warms up faster than the old HP, produces very acceptable print quality for my needs (mainly general office printing and correspondence) prints duplex to save paper and doesn't smell. Best of all - in power-save mode it is SILENT.

Bliss!

Back home (can I go away again ... please?)

2006-09-11T07:06:00.000Z

Back from the USA and, after a brief, hectic but most pleasant interlude entertaining and being entertained by Aussie friends it's back to the grindstone. I have a mountain of letters, emails and phone calls to write / make / do following the U.S. trip and the small matter of a magazine to put together over the next few weeks.

I returned from the States to find that one of the hard disks in one of the servers here had crashed, losing the entire content of my software repository. No biggie - all the machines here are backed up at least nightly to the big NAS server so the task involved no more than installing a replacement hard drive and restoring from the backup. A new 320GB drive was duly ordered and installed and (thanks to Acronis) with just a little bit of fiddling with Windows drive letters all the data (about 150GB) was back on the server in pretty quick order - though it could have been quicker had I installed the gigabit ethernet cards I had intended to buy a while ago - a job for later this month, methinks, especially as the network switch in the garage has now been upgraded to gigabit - thanks to a special offer that couldn't be turned down.

Before installing the new drive I had checked on the current inventory of drives installed in the machine which now runs Win2K3 - an odd mix due to the historic nature of ths particular beast thast started life as the primary LAN server here running good old NT (hah!). The error that was being reported for the faulty drive was "unable to read MFT". In my experience, the loss of the MFT (master file table) on an NTFS drive is more likely to be due to some form of software driven corruption than hardware so I left the old drive in the machine and, once the data was restored, told Windows to delete and recreate its partition. Bingo, the drive sprang into life without a problem and, diagnostics report no errors.

This leaves me with the worrying question of just how the data was lost while I was away and (in theory at least) the machine was inactive apart from servicing the occasional DHCP and DNS request for the network. A thorough check with anti-virus and anti-spyware software revealed no nasties present so it may just get written off as one of those questions that never gets answered.

I don't like those questions but I may just have to play wait-and-see with the machine to see if it happens again.

In the mean time, another example of how important it is to back up regularly. Without the backup, this would have proved - if not quite a disaster - a major upset and time taker. Later in the week, another example had me giving thanks to backups in even bigger style after a planned upgrade to the mail server caused a system fault that saw the complete machine become unusable.

Redwood Forest

2006-08-26T00:09:00.000Z

Redwood Forest
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Although standing no more than a hundred yards or so from Highway 101, the sense of quiet and peacefulness among the redwood groves is almost over-powering.

This is the best of several shots I took trying to capture the magic of the place.

Sadly, we had to leave (though I'd be sorely tempted to come back and make my home amongst the trees and mountains of Northern California) as the afternoon wore on and the 260 mile drive to San Francisco and our hotel for the night was yet to be tackled.

These things are BIG!

2006-08-26T00:06:00.000Z

These things are BIG!
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Thursday and time to head back south in preparation for the homeward flight in two days time. About 30 minutes south of Eureka on Hwy-101 finds the start of "The Avenue of the Giants" - as it turns out no misnomer or idle boast.

This scenic road winds through some of the surviving groves of giant redwood trees. Stunning, majestic, gigantic, humbling - all words that have been used before but words you may not fully appreciate until you have stood among these ancient trees - some of which have been here since Egyptian times.

The scenic route is supposed to add just 30 minutes to a journey but we lingered far longer, stopping repeatedly to take photos or just take in the feeling of being there.

One stop we made was when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a fallen tree a little way off the road. It looked big from the car - up close ... well, you can see for yourself. Louise took this photo of me standing inside the fallen trunk - about 25 feet across I think!

Stink hole

2006-08-25T23:58:00.000Z

Stink hole
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

On the descent through Lassen Volcano National Park you reach this stinky hole - actually one of several - marking an old natural sulphur works. Yes, the place stinks of rotten eggs (it's hydrogen sulphide steam escaping from the rocks) and signs warn of not stepping off the paved areas as burns are likely.

Quite likely if the boiling noises that can be clearly heard emanating from the steam-holes is any guide.

By the time we were out of the park, it was after 3pm and still had the (now) almost 200 mile drive to Eureka to cover.

That drive (over Hwy-299) across the Coastal Range of mountains was also stunning. This is one of the best driving roads I have discovered in the USA - mile after mile of twisting, roller-coaster roads - almost entirely smooth surfaced and a complete contrast to the pot-hole ridden farm tracks they call roads further south in the state.

We stopped at a town about half-way across for coffee and to top up the essential travel supplies (GatorAid and M&Ms! :) ) but didn't stop to take any photos - we were too busy enjoying the drive and the scenery.

Managed to stay awake long enough to find yet another Red Lion Hotel and crashed into bed around 9pm.

Volcanoes as far as ...

2006-08-25T23:51:00.000Z

Volcanoes as far as ...
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

The road through Lassen Volcano National Park gets up to about 8,500 feet above sea level. Even in late August, snow lies on the ground here and seems impervious even to direct sunlight.

My blue period

2006-08-25T23:49:00.000Z

My blue period
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Taken at around 8,000 feet ... amazing scenery in every direction. I love the way the shades of blue band up through this shot.

Upper Meadow

2006-08-25T23:47:00.000Z

Upper Meadow
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Up around the 7,000 foot level lies the Upper Meadow ... peace and tranquility next to the harshness of the volcanic peak.

Torrent

2006-08-25T23:08:00.000Z

Torrent
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

A cliched blurred water shot, I know but an abiding memory of Kings Creek - a beautiful part of the park as we drove through. This creek crosses the Upper Meadow then tumbles over some rocks as it falls - eventually (I think) forming an impressive waterfall that we saw as we descended the mountain.

Framed

2006-08-25T23:06:00.000Z

Framed
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Driving through the 31 miles of Lassen Volcano National Park it seemed that every turn of the road brought a new vista. We had planned to spend no more than an hour in the park but spent a whole morning and would - had time permitted - have spent a day or two exploring it.

The main peak here last erupted in 1915 and seems stable enough ... for now!

Looking across the park as the road (Hwy 89) traverses it, the number of smaller volcanic peaks is obvious.

Volcano

2006-08-25T23:02:00.000Z

Volcano
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Spent Monday in Sacramento, just lazing about after the hectic weekend, washing clothes etc. Tuesday morning was much of the same, added to the panic of packing everything into bags for the journey (eventually) homeward.

On Tuesday afternoon, we drove north as far as Redding and stayed in the Red Lion Hotel again. I say again, because it is the same chain I stayed at in Winemucca several years ago. More of a multi-storey motel, the rooms are nonetheless, clean, large and have coffee and wi-fi.

Had we started out earlier, my plan was to swing east on the way to Redding through the Lassen Volcano National Park. Time (and tiredness) being against that on Tuesday, a little overnight route planning (thank you Autoroute) told me we could just manage the trip before heading west that night. It was looking like a long day in prospect as there was nowhere but campgrounds and "bring your own sheets" cabins to stay over the 140 mile mountain road between Redding and Eureka on the coast.

I am SO very glad we made the trip through the park. To say that Lassen's scenery is stunning is a major understatement. Personally (as someone whoe prefers to do his sight-seeing within 50 yards of his car) Lassen is much more beautiful than Yosemite or other American parks I have visited.

California coast

2006-08-21T21:54:00.000Z

California coast
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

I got a few good shots of the coastline along Highway 1

Hail fellow, well met!

2006-08-21T21:47:00.000Z

Hail fellow, well met!
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Sunday morning - throat still sore but feeling a bit better thanks to a mix of medicines so we decided to take a drive down the famous - and stunningly beautiful - Highway 1 south from Carmel toward Big Sur.

Stopped at Hurricane Point to take some photos of the coastline and who should pull in behind us but Steve Garran from the Denver Maserati crowd. We'd seen Steve a couple of times over the weekend - he'd driven his Lancia Scorpion (known as the Monte Carlo in Europe) from Denver to Monterey for the Lancia 100th Anniversary celebration at Concorso and was now on his way to L.A. for business next week.

It was the right time for lunch so we stopped at a place called Nepenthe that had been recommended. Situated on a promontory overlooking Big Sur the view from the dining terrace was magnificent. The food was ... OK.

Chat went on covering Bora rebuilds, the provenance of historic racing Maseratis and life in general ... till we realised how much time had passed. Steve needed to be on his way to L.A. and our plan to drive further south before heading across the mountains to pick up Hwy-25 north to Hollister had flown out the window so we hurriedly retraced our tracks to Monterey and joined the traffic heading out of the peninsula.

Four hours later we were back in Sacramento with just enough energy to eat an ordered-in pizza and crash into a warm and, for the first time in over a week, comfy bed.

"THE" Red Bora

2006-08-21T21:40:00.000Z

"THE" Red Bora
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Not even a concours entrant but the old girl got many an admiring glance nonetheless as she sat shining in the sunlight on the Concorso green.

More importantly, "my" red Bora (I've driven more miles in it than Paul has these past few years) got me safely around another 700 mile trip without incident or mishap.

Concorso Italiano

2006-08-21T21:36:00.000Z

IMG_3725
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Friday is, of course, Concorso day over the Monterey weekend and the show is bigger than it used to be when at Quail Lodge (which now holds its own, competing event)

Great to meet up with everyone again and see plenty of Maseratis standing on the greens - about half new cars.

We left the event around 4pm to get back for an hour's sleep before the TMC dinner at Tarpy's Roadhouse Grill ... an odd name for what turned out to be a very good restaurant in true California style.

I ate the buffalo!

Saturday was the turn of the MCI awards dinner which was again very pleasant - great to put faces to names I'd only spoken to over the Internet - Harry Garschagen and Elliot Siegel among others.

On Sunday, I had planned to go into Pebble Beach early (the crowds make it impossible to get near the place after about 8am - despite the public opening not being till 10) but a feverish sore throat and respiratory infection meant I stayed in bed until the medicine took effect :(

Reflected glory

2006-08-21T21:29:00.001Z

Reflected glory
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

... or, come to that, this stunning Alfa Romeo

Otto Vu

2006-08-21T21:29:00.000Z

IMG_3703
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

... though I'd have preferred to drive this home with me

a fabulous FIAT Otto Vu (literally, V8)

Envy

2006-08-21T21:28:00.000Z

Envy
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Looks like I got caught lusting after this OSCA MT4

Louise was extremely patient while I wandered among the cars, snapping photos, noting down chassis numbers and generally lusting after voluptuous bodies - luckily for Louise, all of the automotive kind!

Pebble grill

2006-08-21T21:27:00.000Z

Pebble grill
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Press credentials to the Pebble Beach Concours meant I just had to go - for the first time in about ten years.

Almost no Maserati interest (just a 4CLT and one OSCA among the entrants) but that didn't stop me from oogling a few of the cars.

Gus's place

2006-08-21T21:25:00.000Z

Gus's place
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

It's good to have good friends. Especially when they go out of town each year just as you'd like to stay in their luxurious house which just happens to be conveniently positioned on a hill-side above the track at Laguna Seca - as the Historic Races are on!!

Not quite as it left the factory

2006-08-21T21:16:00.000Z

Not quite as it left the factory
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Jay's Quattroporte III engine bay - with just a few changes visible. The main one being the large, straight-cut-gears supercharger that help the venerable (and much internally modified) V8 push out a shade over 700BHP last time it was on a dyno.

I can attest that this car goes "quite well" for such a big old bus!! :)

To Monterey and the cars

2006-08-21T21:13:00.000Z

Line up
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

After Sonoma it was time, on Wednesday, to drive south - stopping for just an hour in San Francisco at Fisherman's Wharf for old time's sake and for a quick burger lunch. The old Dehavilland Beaver seaplane we rode in a few years ago doesn't seem to be there any more. Shame :(

A quick dash to Pleasanton to meet up with Paul and Ellen at Jay & Bev Witham's house was followed by an even quicker dash down 101 to Gilroy and the "Pre-Monterey" party thrown by Don and Sandi Treadwell at their home.

An interesting group of friends, old and new, was assembled with some interesting cars. Check out the Maclaren CanAm car they had parked on their lawn!

The party went on late so it was very dark when I had to lead Paul and Jay out of Gilroy. Thank heaven for GPS ... but not for the Bora's headlights which are both as dim as a candle and point wildly heaven-ward! Not much use when you need to see where you're going along unlit country lanes!

At least once we reached 101 I could drop back and let Paul and Jay overtake - allowing me to follow their lights. About 20 minutes shy of our destination (Paul's friend Gus's empty house above Laguna Seca) Jay came to a sudden halt in front of me, clouds of smoke appearing from his (much modified) engine bay. The water-pump belt had snapped. Thankfully, AAA got there in record time and the only damage was the belt and a little lost coolant so the car was back on the road the following morning.

Aerial photography

2006-08-21T21:03:00.000Z

Aerial photography
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Paul's a wine buff so a visit to the northern California wine country was always on the cards.

As it was Louise's birthday on this part of the trip, I had booked us a couple of nights in a superb spa hotel in Sonoma. On Louise's actual birthday I dragged her (and me!) out of bed at 4am for the ride in a hot air balloon I'd booked as a surprise.

I'd booked a ride over the Sonoma valley but, as luck would have it, one of the fogs the area is famous for made flying over either Sonoma or Napa valleys impossible so the early start was followed by an hour's drive to Winters - half way back to Sacramento (just a short way north of Vacaville).

The company we were flying with flew five large balloons - each taking between 16 and 20 passsengers - and the sight of so many balloons in the air at once added greatly to the experience. Flying over the farm area around Winters was possibly more interesting than the wine valleys anyway as the fields held varying crops - several of which were being harvested.

After the flight it was back to Napa for a champagne brunch before being taken back to our hotel - where Louise had appointments for a cornucopia of spa treatments.

And I fell asleep in the room!

All in all, not a bad way to start the day.

Lazy days

2006-08-21T20:54:00.000Z

Pattern
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

We spent a few days at Paul's in Sacramento, recharging batteries (especially mine!) after the hectic pace set by Seymour in New York and the military grade agenda set by David in Virginia!

We borrowed Paul's Lincoln one day and took a trip down memory-lane - actually along I-80 over Emigrant's Gap to Donner Lake then south and along the western edge of Lake Tahoe before returning via Hwy-50 to Sacramento. Memory lane for me, at least. For Louise this was her first visit to this part of the U.S. but her desire to see lakes and mountains was most assuredly satisfied on this day alone.

At the south-west edge of Tahoe lies Emerald Bay. Idylically beautiful, surrounded by high rock walls with a small island nesteled at its heart it's obviously a popular spot. I was attracted by the pattern made by these boats as they powered into the bay.

The road out is interesting... it runs over the ridge between Emerald bay and the smaller bay to its south. No photo as the ridge is exactly one road-width wide and there were no barriers to prevent the plummet a momentary lapse of concentration might cause.

Hotel California

2006-08-21T20:40:00.000Z

Looking good
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Sad goodbyes said to Gail and David in the hotel car park in Annapolis before we drove back to Newark to crash out in Seymour's sumptuous home again. Up the following morning to reassemble our travelling gear (ie, try to cram everything back in cases) and off to Newark Airport to catch our west-bound flight (cue Joni Mitchell!)

It took a full day to travel from New York via Chicago to Sacramento so it was a great relief to find Paul waiting at the airport to meet us and our luggage. 20 minutes later and we arrived "chez Muizelaar" where I discovered just how much had changed since I was here exactly a year ago. Jay Witham was up bright and early the following morning to fit railings round the new balcony. The patio had just been relaid the week before.

Good advice, always

2006-08-11T15:16:00.000Z

Good advice, always
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

After the ballgame, we drove to the nearby coastal city of Annapolis - capital of Maryland and home to the U.S. Naval Academy. David was very good about being forced away from the game before it had finished and felt only slightly better when we heard that (to nobody's great surprise) the Yankees had continued their form and won the game by what we would call a landslide.

That evening, we all had a great steak in an Outback steak house (oddly, Audstralian themed). Louise had discovered this chain on one of her previous visits to Gail and David and I had been promised an "Outback steak and flowering onion" for months. Happy to report that the wait was worth it.

We spent Monday wandering the town and taking a guided tour of the naval academy.

The city of Annapolis is American-cutesy with plenty of preserved old buildings. Very touristy - more T-shirt shops than anything else on Main Street.

The Naval Academy is enormous and extremely impressive - there's no doubt the US military is well funded and has been for a very long time. Tour guide Bob had one of the loudest voices I've heard in a while and an enthusiastic presentation style. In return for promising "five years of their lives" students at the academy get a free university education and a career as a naval officer.

And, of course, they also get brainwashed in that universal, military manner. We watched as a group of "plebes" (new recruits) were marched across the campus to a parade ground to meet 1200 of their new closest buddies in an assembly with presentation of flags and a full marching band before being marched into lunch. This ritual takes place every day at precisely the same time - even when all 4400 of the students are on campus - and everyone sits down at tables of 12 and gets served lunch and back out the door within 20 minutes.

Scariest comment? The window in the campus chapel that reminded recruits they serve on behalf of "God and country".

Not only are they protecting their backyard, they are doing it because they are RIGHT!

Sheesh - when do we learn that other people's beliefs and views count too?

Baseball

2006-08-11T14:51:00.000Z

Baseball
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Sunday and a very early, 5am start followed by a four hour drive north from Norfolk - all to get to Baltimore in time for the Orioles v New York Yankees baseball game ... the first I have ever been to.

The Orioles have an impressive stadium right in downtown Baltimore - about the size of St James's Park in Newcastle. The first thing that struck me was the sheer friendliness of the crowd - both Orioles and Yankees fans jibing each other but in a friendly manner. None of the tribal antagonism and hostility we see at football matches.

The weather was - once again - roasting hot. And I do mean roasting! Our seats were on one of the upper decks but sadly with no shade so exposed to the full force of the sun. The seat was so hot that I really did burn my bum when I first sat on it :( I had to put my game program on it before I could sit.

The Yankees won by an embarrassing margin - with four home runs in their tally.

Maybe it was the heat but I couldn't get as excited as everyone around me about the game. It remonded me of cricket but played at a much faster pace. When even my frequent and regular trips to the drinks stall for more water/ice cream/frozen lollies failed to keep me healthy and with the outcome a foregone conclusion, I left before the crowds at "the bottom of the ninth"

Lump in throat moment

2006-08-11T14:35:00.000Z

IMG_3579
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Spent a day visiting Virginia's Outer Banks among whose claims to fame is the site of the first English settlers to set foot on American soil and the site at Kittyhawk where the Wright Brothers made the first powered flight.

This visit was truly a "lump in the throat" moment for me. There's a good little museum dedicated to the achievement containing recreations of the Flyer and the earlier glider that proved their theories on 3-axis flight control. Most moving for me though was to walk along the field where the flights took place - the fourth and last of which over a distance of just 852 feet. Considering I was there thanks to a jet aircraft that had whisked usfrom Paris to New York (a distance of 3,000 or so miles) in about 7 hours and that we are only a little over 100 years from the Wright Brothers first success it's hard not to think about the rate of technological progress over the past century - and speculate on what may come over the next.

Personally, I hope to stay around to see as much of it as I can.

Wisconsin ... Norfolk!

2006-08-11T14:16:00.000Z

DSC00258
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Interesting town, Norfolk Virginia. Turn a corner on a city street and the sight of a large battleship confronts you. The USS Wisconsin - a WWII destroyer - is moored downtown, permanently attached to the naval museum and free to wander around.

One famous van

2006-08-04T12:35:00.000Z

One famous van
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Thursday morning and a visit to see and interview Kyle Fleming for iL Tridente. Kyle is one of "the good guys" in Maserati circles, having spent 35 years supplying parts at reasonable prices - along with a willingness to share his vast knowledge on just how old Maseratis are put together with anyone who cares to phone him.

I'm saving the full description and photos for the magazine but it was great to meet Kyle (and his wife, Pat) again and get to see his garage and hear some of his stories.

I have an invitation to visit Kyle's mythical barn (the home of the fantastic store of rare Maserati parts) and I hope I can find time to do that before I have to head back north.

Remains of a blow-out

2006-08-04T12:30:00.000Z

Remains of a blow-out
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Hmmm ... this is where it gets scary. When this tyre blew, it went big-time! I had thought I must have run over some debris that had cut through the tread but when the wheel was taken off, the entire inner sidewall had separated from the tread. That is one SERIOUS failure!

The damage was too severe to be able to see whether something had cut through the side wall (though there was no damage or sign of any object being thrown around inside the wheel-arch) and I suspect that the tyre may have become blistered due to the proximity of the rear silencer box on the Spyder - something I have heard of happening to other cars.

So, I wasn't too unhappy to fit two new tyres to the back (so the tread patterns would match) as I at least can expect them to last the rest of my time in the car - road debris permitting!

Interstate blowout

2006-08-04T12:24:00.000Z

Interstate blowout
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Wednesday morning we left Washington for the approximately four hour drive south to Virginia Beach. Getting out of Washington at around 9:30am proved just as easy as getting into the city - a couple of turns and we were on a feeder road that led straight to the Interstate highway we wanted.

The Interstate came to a halt, followed by a slow crawl after a few miles so we turned off onto Hwy-1 and saw a little local life for around 30 miles, stopping for brunch in a Subway along the way.

Back on I-95 and making good progress with traffic flowing at a smooth 70-80MPH, we had an interesting interlude arising from a rear tyre that blew out quite spectacularly. I managed to bring the car to a halt safely but, as can be seen, the tyre was beyond serviceable use!

The interesting part came when, having removed all my luggage from the boot, we discovered a complete set of tools and a complete lack of spare wheels - the space normally occupied by the spare now taken up by the extra oil cooler Seymour had fitted ...

Maybe I spend too much time awake in the early hours but I remember seeing one of thosed "Police, camera action!" shows of the kind of thing that can happen to a car stranded on the shoulder of an Interstate so I was paying special care to traffic - still blasting by at 70+MPH.

I told Louise to stand by the back of the car and look out for anyone straying off the carriageway in our direction.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, a young woman in a red Toyota came swaying off the road and hurtling down the rumble strip that you can see in the photo (harsh enough to rattle your teeth!) missing the door mirror of the Maserati by about the width of a cigarette paper!

Drugged or asleep, the woman carried on with two wheels rattling along the rumble strip until she was out of sight. Which was not quite as far as might have been the case because by now Louise and I were across the drainage ditch and in the bushes! At least our self-preservation instincts remain intact! :)

Next excitement? A Nissan pulled on to the shoulder about 1/4 mile beyond our position and reversed back to us. Half suspecting we were about to be held up at gunpoint and all our possessions removed for the good of the driver, we got ready to jump back into the bushes.

To our utter amazement and gratitude, the driver turned out to be a well dressed man who said he had stopped because he couldn't in all conscience see us standing at the side of the road in the intense heat - and offered a lift to the next town. Chivalry and good manners are alive and well - and I got a good lesson in cynicism.

I phoned Seymour who arranged for AAA to come and collect the car. I was still worried about being rear-ended by another dozy driver so I was extremely relieved when a highway security patrol arrived and parked behind us, lights and big warning arrow signs ablaze. The guy was extremely friendly and chatted away for the hour it took for the tow truck to arrive - during which Louise sta in the one remaining seat in his air-conditioned cab and I spent more time "sunbathing" than I had honestly planned - I now have medium-rare calf muscles!

Once the car was on the back of the flat-bed, things got better - a short ride to the nearest town found a tyre depot that had tyres of the right size (if not the brand Seymour would have preferred) and an hour's wait while they were fitted was the easy part - the $240 bill was the OUCH factor of the whole episode.

The hour Louise spent in the beauty parlour next to the tyre shop having a manicure was the bonus of the episode - or so I am told! ;)

Capitol

2006-08-04T12:01:00.000Z

Capitol closer
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

The Old Post Office was originally just that. It was scheduled for demolition some years ago but saved by one of those determined American women who interest themselves in good causes - and all power to her (sorry I forgot her name ... Nancy something, I think).

The building now houses some of the Smithsonian admin offices and the central courtyard has been roofed over, air conditioned with some small shops and a food court in its lower levels. Oddly, as it's considered a "government building" (because of the Smithsonian offices I assume) there's a full X-ray scan and metal detector search to get into the place - a truly bizarre way to enter what is, in essence, a small shopping mall.

Never mind - maybe it was the security that kept the crowds away as inside it was cool, airy and refreshingly crowd-free.

The building has a tower, making it one of the highest buildings in the downtown area and the ride to the top (on two elevators) is free. There's even a friendly guide once you get up there to give the names of the buildings you can see and describe the sights.

Lincoln Memorial

2006-08-04T11:52:00.000Z

Lincoln Memorial
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

From Union Station, we took the trolley bus to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum where, had we had the time, we would have happily spent most of the day. We watched an IMAX movie about moon walks and lunar landscapes - very odd movie as, in part, it talked about the conspiracy theory (the one that insists the moon landings never took place but were filmed on a Holliwood back-lot) - obviously pooh-poohing that idea.

But then, just about the entire film was CGI generated!!

Understandable (the lack of high-definition IMAX technology in the 1960s being a bit of a hindrance) but ironic nevertheless.

All the Smithsonian museums in Washington are free to visit - a wonderful treasure trove - and I wish I'd had more time to spend in them. Just have to come back and spend a week here some time.

After the Air & Space museum, we took the bus round to see the war memorials and to take a peek at Abe. Impressive but so hot by then (around 4pm) we had had more than enough of the open air so headed back to an interesting looking building we'd passed earlier in the day - the Old Post Office.

Union Station

2006-08-04T11:38:00.000Z

Union Station
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

I like American railway stations - especially the ones in the big cities I've visited. They are inevitably spotlessly clean, air conditioned and offer a collection of interesting food and shopping opportunities!

Union Station lived up to expectations with some superb architecture to match. We had lunch in the cafe on the roof of the information booth then wandered around - probably spent more time there than we would normally but it was COOL! :)

Clang, clang, clang

2006-08-04T11:32:00.000Z

Clang, clang, clang
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Given the weather, the only sensible way to get round the city and see the sights without flaking out (or losing the sight in one eye!) was on a tour bus.

A company called Oldtown Trollies runs an excellent service using buses built to look like old trolley cars - not air conditioned but shady and easy to take pictures from. Not that I took many pictures 'cos it was too darned hot to hold a camera!

Buddha Belly

2006-08-04T11:28:00.000Z

Buddha Belly
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Fine figure of a man, eh? ;)

Washington is a fascinating city - well laid out with monumental architecture and normally a city I'd walk round. Not this time! With shade temperature at 100F with humidity to match (the tour bus driver came up with the term "humature" to describe the combined effect of high temperature and humidity :)) any time outside is asking for trouble.

Louise took this photo of me anyway ... just to prove I was there! :)

Manhattan skyline at night

2006-08-02T13:02:00.000Z

Manhattan skyline at night
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

On enormous benefit of being shown a city by locals is getting to places you would otherwise never discover for yourself. After a magnificent steak in New York's oldest steak house in Brooklyn, Seymour and Cynthia took us down to the Esplanade - this, unedited, is the view.

The missing part of any photo of the Manhattan skyline these days is, of course, the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. I couldn't look at this view without thinking of that tragic, destructive act that I, like many others, watched happen live on TV with incredulity and sickness. The building of the new Freedom Tower on the WTC site is surely the best response to terrorists.

And ... though the WTC is missing (and without wishing to reduce the suffering and harm caused to so many people in any way) just look at that skyline to understand that, horrific though the event was, the amount of damage caused was no more than a scratch. New York and the free world remains as strong and resolute as ever.

Grand Central Station

2006-08-02T12:48:00.000Z

Patriotism
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

I just had to visit this place again. If memory serves, it has been restored since I was last here in the early 1980's and now looks more magnificent than I remember it. Louise had never been here so her reaction - and comparison to our main stations such as Kings Cross - was fun to see.

Of course, it's hard not to look at the main hall here without smiling at the thought of the surreal dance scene Terry Gilliam shot here for Baron Munchhausen.

Village life

2006-08-02T12:43:00.000Z

DSC00082
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Sad to say that much of the character of Greenwich Village has disappeared - the coffee shops, Tibetan artefact merchants, art and book stores have disappeared as the area has become prime real estate.

So, it was good to see that Linda, the "psychic consultant - first session $10" was still in business!

Right next door to a Tibetan store, too :)

Live music

2006-08-02T12:40:00.000Z

DSC00045
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Despitethe traffic, we beat our hosts to the Village so sat behind the monument in Washington Square Park to listen to this group of musicians who were jamming along.

If these guys weren't professionals, they darn well should be. The best though was hearing them perform just for the pleasure of making music.

Busy city

2006-08-02T12:37:00.000Z

DSC00033
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Discussing music with Seymour (he was a rock musician for many years) I mentioned seeing Eric Sardinas a few months ago with Leo. Seymour had never heard of him so we scoured NYC looking for a CD - eventually finding one in the fifth store I tried - the Virgin Megastore on Times Square. By then, we were late for the lunch appointment with Seymour & Cynthia in an Italian restaurant down in Greenwich Village so jumped into a cab.

This was the result!

Mecca

2006-08-02T12:33:00.000Z

Mecca
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

After the park, we took a walk part-way down 5th Avenue, stopping in department stores and buildings to cool down (America's mastery over its climate remains evident in the way the buildings are super-cooled in summer and super-heated in winter).

Coming across this Gant store, imagine my delight on finding its summer sale was in full swing. Just had to buy a few shirts! :)

Japanese Koto

2006-08-02T12:31:00.000Z

Japanese Koto
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

The Koto is a kind of Japanese harp (at least that's the closest thing it sounds to). Music is everywhere in New York - these ladies were tuning up prior to giving a free performance in the band shell

A view of Central Park

2006-08-02T12:28:00.000Z

A view of Central Park
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Yegods it's hot here! Well into the 90's F with humidity to match. I always prefer to walk round cities, finding that the best way to discover sights and sounds you'd miss any other way but i managed to lose the vision in my left eye on the second day through heatstroke or a blood pressure problem and had to be helped into a cool restaurant by Louise and Seymour where I eventually recovered after about an hour and plenty of fluids :( Ho hum ...

New York is a great city - it's hard to think of anywhere else on the planet that has such a buzz about the place. Even in the summer heat, New Yorkers go about their business like over-wound clockwork mice. Me, I just amble along trying to keep cool. Staying in Cynthia's apartment on W.71st right next to Central Park, an obvious starting point was to walk through the park. Coming back after around 20 years, the changes are manifold - not to the park but to the feel of the place. The druggies and winos have all gone and the park feels SAFE!

On a hot afternoon, we found a shady place in the park and lay down - this photo is one of my favourite memories of the park ... I was cool for a while!

Seymour and Cynthia were not just great and generous hosts, they also love their city and took me to some fantastic restaurants and sights I

I want one

2006-07-21T17:05:00.000Z

IMG_3309
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

In fact, this is the one I want as it's the only one! The car is the Drogo bodied Maserati Birdcage and Matteo Panini should consider himself very lucky that it's still in his museum.

Ermanno Cozza

2006-07-21T17:03:00.000Z

IMG_3333
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

The panel Sig Cozza is holding happens to be the engine cover of an original Maserati 250F Grand Prix car.

Maserati factory visit (MK???)

2006-07-21T17:01:00.000Z

IMG_3271
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

May 2006: A visit with other TMC members to the Maseratoi factory where I was able to meet the company's CEO and several other members of the (largely new) senior management team as well as interview the venerable Ermanno Cozza, who has worked at the factory for over 50 years - much of that time in the racing department.

Do Italians love cars?

2006-07-21T16:59:00.000Z

IMG_3452
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

May 2006: Venice - the town of Mestre, near Venice, on hearing that about 40 Maseratis would be in the nearby city for a rally (I know - a car rally in a city whose streets are water - only in Italy!) invited the cars and drivers to a charming presentation where we were all given a small bag of souvenirs and asked to cut the cake baked especially in our honour.

Lake Como, Italy

2006-07-21T16:55:00.000Z

IMG_3175
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

May 2005: After Belgium, I drove through Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland to Italy to visit the Maserati factory and to attend Maser Miglia 9 in Venice.

A one night stopover - and, by happy circumstance - the chance to meet up with son, Adam who was on his own motoring holiday led to a pleasant morning around and across the lake and some time spent in the very pretty town of Bellagio.

Ghana

2006-07-21T16:51:00.000Z

IMG_2740
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

This photo sums up the people of Ghana for me. This group of young girls had just finished dancing in their school's end-of-term dance/drama performance put on for parents and local dignitaries. Their dancing was wonderful to watch. They asked me to take a group photo - the first shot was very formal but as the camera kept clicking, they lost their nerves and this is the joyful result.

Maserati Club Spring Rally 2006

2006-07-21T16:40:00.000Z

IMG_3063
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

May 2006: Belgium for the UK Maserati Club's Spring Rally organised by John and Susan Bennett. This photo was taken at one of the lunch stops - at a cafe just outside the Spa Francorchamps race circuit.

And so, to Arizona

2006-07-21T16:38:00.000Z

EPV0053
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

September 2005: Another month, another Maserati rally - this time based around the Grand Canyon (though I drove a Bora from Sacramento via Los Angeles to the Canyon and beyond).

One of the drives involved a fabulous set of twisting mountain roads into Arizona and the town of Sedona - famous for rock formations, trading posts and ... Mexican restaurants!

A really Grand Canyon

2006-07-21T16:34:00.000Z

EPV0245
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

August/September 2005: It's easy to see why people fall in love with this place. Never mind the sheer scale ('breathtaking' might sound cliched but, for once, it's accurate) the ever-changing light and shadow playing over the many-coloured rock strata provide a constantly changing scene. This photo (taken just before sunset) is unique - as are the millions of others taken there every year.

The rocks might be static but blink and you'll miss the light!

Paris, Tyne & Wear

2006-07-21T16:27:00.000Z

EPV0089
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Summer 2005: Paris? No .. Newcastle upon Tyne for the Tall Ship Race. This photo is part of the huge ride placed above the quayside where the ships themselves were moored.

Those Magnificent Men ...

2006-07-21T16:24:00.000Z

IMG_1495
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

August 2005: Longleat, UK for the Red Bull Air Races

View from Hong Kong Peak at night

2006-07-21T16:10:00.000Z

Hong Kong Peak at night
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

July 2005: In Hong Kong for ten days holiday with my sons. This was the view from the top of Victoria Peak on HK Island when we were lucky to time our visit on a fairly clear night. The photo is a composite of five separate images - all taken hand-held with a small Contax digital camera.