The new balance

The webcam Dad gave me for Christmas is online (from time to time). Just hit 'refresh' to get a new image. It's hosted on my home computer, so may not always be available to everyone, even when the server's up, so there may be no image here at all. Clicking the photo allows you to view a realtime, jerky movie effect by using a 3 second META refresh. If you care. Look, just click the pictures, ok?

EDIT: For the aspiring voyeurs amongst you (you really could find a more interesting target), I've put a page up with both camera images refreshing automatically. But as I say, I don't really do anything interesting.

Proof of concept (in case my servers are down and you just go, "uh?"):


One on PARS:


And one on GARNET:



As you'll note, typically what you'll see is me sitting statically at my desk, occasionally grimacing to myself as I encounter a knotty theological problem, a conflict of ideologies or a logical error in some buggy code. I will dance to order, though, so send me an e-mail if I look as bored as you feel.

In case you're wondering, these feeds are achieved using the spca5xx webcam driver and a little program called webcam which is in the Breezy Universe repository. The apache servers on my computers are then forwarded through my firewall.

Senate's statement is on the Xnet forum. Yesterday was a very sad day for academic music. People were in tears. There is the slimmest of chances that Council will overturn Senate. In my view, this is sadly very unlikely. If our government forces academic institutions to be run like businesses, then we have to expect things like this more and more.

If you care about music and culture, and if to you, (in the words of our conductor who made a speech to the audience last night) these things "mean more than an Excel spreadsheet", then please send a personal note to your MP (maybe using FaxYourMP.com) or chop around the Guild's approved letter.