About the new site design, that is? Too spare? Or nice and clean? I thought the basic background could be quite low key so that when pictures and cover designs appear, they are the centre of attention. Is the font legible to everyone? Rob sent me through an idea for a lovely, delicate design yesterday, which made me think 'ooh, site redesign!', but when I started tinkering I couldn't get his lovely light design to look right and it evolved into this. I am less a designer, more a grand tinkerer.

Anyway, thoughts very much welcome. The only changes have been to the CSS and the images so it's a snap to tweak and fiddle. I use Firefox's Developer plug in to 'Edit CSS' in a live browser, so I can see immediately what the changes I make look like. Then I copy and paste that revision into a new doc and upload it. The only thing is you have to be very careful not to hit 'refresh' after tinkering for an hour, as I found yesterday...!

And of course, doing a redesign was a displacement activity to actually uploading some new content for our forthcoming books (which is also very easy, but I got sidetracked by the pretty colours). So those enticing new covers you see in the header up there? More news to come on them later in the day!

I've got to say, I don't give a rat's whiskers about the Olympics. However, apparently Team GB (yey, go us, bleaurgh) have just won some cycling races. So in the spirit of very half hearted marketing, please now be encouraged to consider buying one of our cycling titles (which are much more interesting and relevant than the poxy Olympics).

City Cycling

Bike Design.

Both look nice. Both smell nice. Both are written by experts. Both will last you a lot longer than any excitement you might feel about the Beijing Games.

Ooh, I'm slipping. I forgot to put a paypal button on the slipcased Affinity Bridge post. Here they are:

For UK and Irish sales of The Affinity Bridge slipcased edition, priced at £30 with free delivery, click the button above.
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For non-UK/Irish sales of the slipcase edition, priced at £30 with postage at £2.75, click the button above.

Problem solving, when the problems aren’t too grievous or pressing, can be fun. Provided you’ve got a metaphorical easy-chair to recline in and a figurative pipe to puff upon, then thinking up neat solutions to whatever pickles you encounter in daily life can be every bit as rewarding as tackling crosswords, blurting out the answers to University Challenge questions or dreaming up revenge fantasies. Unfortunately, when the problem has a social dimension, there’s a temptation to come up with solutions that are a little bit mischievous.

Lately, one of the books I’ve been visiting in my spare moments has been the semi-classic Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman. There’s something very satisfying about reading the catalogue of bad designs which led D. Norman to put quill to parchment. Less thrilling, but rather unsurprising, is that what prompted Donald to begin the book was an extended stay in Britain where he was regularly baffled by which light-switch controlled which set of lights, or which combination of button pushes would put a telephone caller on hold. You’d think, like a stand-up comedian doing a routine about the difference between cats and dogs, there wouldn’t be much to say about the design of taps, light-switches, phone keypads and door knobs – but actually this book, which is now twenty years old, is full of critical observations which still apply and simple recommendations which still need taking up.

You know when you've been hill walking for a weekend, and when you shut your eyes at night all you can see is maps? All I can see when I shut my eyes is piles of slipcases:

Good-sized home-made blueberry tart plus risk of heartburn, or simple glass of water? I think we both know what it's going to be.

Hey, look at this - Leila Johnston on the Actual Telly! She is a very funny lady.

An article in today's Guardian talks about the high social price paid in Nordic countries for their amazing social programmes. The downside is that everyone is bound by a strict set of cultural rules which would be stifling and alien to most Britons. But the glimpses the article gives of specifics suggest they're not rules, as such, but principles: respect for each other and a determination to foster the common good. It sounds fantastic. And their reluctance to accept outsiders who don't want to abide by those rules could almost be called racism, the author points out. Well, that's not my definition of racism at all. The one example given of why this strictness is a problem is that the author, a Brit, was the only one whose family was running riot in a Finnish restaurant. Imagine, giving up the freedom to behave inconsiderately in exchange for a measly efficient and benevolent state. Pah. But what if you already happen to be the sort of person who thinks it's appropriate to keep your voice down in restaurants and to generally limit your own behaviour so as not to inconvenience or intrude on others? Do you have to go and live in Finland?

I can heartily recommend Pelaw Presentation Packaging should you be in the market for slipcases. It's one of the few things that Haynes can't do, so I had to find another supplier. I found one, who turned out to be crap (not returning calls or emails, overpriced) and at the last minute googled to find Pelaw. I gave them a ring, said I needed a slipcase doing within the week, and would they oblige? They have been nothing but attentive, responsive and organised since. True, there was a slight hiccup with the die, but they kept me informed and we worked to resolve the issue. The final delivery has been made and the slipcases are spot on - even the delivery driver was charming.

More companies like Haynes and Pelaw, please, Universe.

They're greasy-looking and you can't trust them. Starlings, that is. Or what Anna would call grackles. It seems they've been stealing money. Who knows what they've been spending it on.

But maybe we can pool our resources. If we each read the post and then, say, 25 comments, we could come back and discuss what this post means. Anyone game?

Aside from the Wicker Basket of Shame which you were introduced to a few weeks back re: domestic filing, I have a further, deeper affliction. I have a relatively addictive personality and whilst I work hard to make sure that doesn't manifest itself in really bad ways (step away from the online gambling and G&Ts, Barnes), I do have weak spots which I indulge. One of those is collecting domain names.

Ah, bibliographic data. Always good to see when it works. I am, of course, being sarcastic.

Our latest Bike book, Bicycle Design by Mike Burrows, is at #38 in the Amazon charts in:
Books > Reference > Transport > Automotive > Trucks, Lorries & Vans

Trucks, Lorries and Vans, eh? I sure as hell didn't put it in that category. I wonder who did?

Still, I'm very pleased with the end result. That book nearly killed me, so it's good to see it looks rather fine. Smells nice, too.

Woohoo. And guess what it was for? Ryvita and low fat cream cheese. How healthy is my subconscious?

More pain. < mock wailing> Oh god, what have I done to deserve this? < /mock wailing> This time it's funny, though. I have been eating a bowl of strawberries, and absent-mindedly rubbed my eye which was sore. The strawbs must have been extra ripe or something, as I have now got loads of strawberry pips in my eye! My eye! Owowowww.

I don't understand this story about a 93 year old who's used her advance to buy a 5 bed house and escape some of her friends from nursing homes. Her book's published by AuthorHouse, a self-publishing business so presumeably not one that pays advances. But the Telegraph (sorry) article linked to above says she bought the house with her advance.

Someone explain it to me, please!

Well that was fun. A weekend lying on the sofa in varying degrees of pain as my bump exerts its ever-growing pressure on a range of ligaments, arteries and organs. I read ("Childbirth Without Fear" by Grantly Dick-Read, written in 1942, still relevant, except perhaps for the advice on how to suspend your stockings during your confinement) and knitted (bobble hat, in the round, drove me crazy, never tackling socks), but it wasn't particularly enjoyable. I should have sat at my desk - I have an excellent office chair which seems to make everything settle down. But no, the siren call of leisure smashed me into the rocks. Hey ho.

Anyway, whilst lying there, I was musing on lists. You know my view on them - I think lists are a very fine thing indeed. Life wouldn't run at all well without them. But I thought about a terrible flaw in a life of lists, and it is this: if it's not on the list, it doesn't get done.

I wish I could remember exactly the logical granny-knot my teachers used to tie themselves in when explaining what's so great about the Olympic Games. There was something about nations setting aside their petty differences and their pointless vying in order to scrabble for national glory in a range of slightly exotic sports - although it was never clear to me that they couldn't do both at the same time (or even the latter as a seamless extension of the former). And then there was something about how great it was to watch amateurs competing for once, instead of people who had dedicated their lives and careers to the sport. Of course that stipulation has now gone and achieving appropriate amateur status is as simple as saying 'I want to win a medal'.

Read this piece celebrating Dyfed Edwards' (who may or may not be one of our top horror writers who goes under a pseudonym) prize winning abilities!

I am quoting from one of the finest radio series to grace Radio 4 in years. It is called Fags, Mags and Bags and Rob and I are well on the way to knowing it off by heart.

I would strongly, strongly recommend that you listen to the 6 episodes right now, this afternoon. Nothing you might be doing at work is more important than being on the receiving end of this fine entertainment. If you're really on the clock, I would probably recommend the 'Wall of Crisps' episode. Oh yes.

Slightly low quality but perfectly listenable youtube version of Wall of Crisps episode here.
Part 2.
Part 3.

Textbook shop, Dave, textbook shop.

Quaker William Penn - invented Pennsylvania

I'm not a religious person, and have in fact been known to say things which upset religious people on occasion* (though not through any wish to distress them), but I have to say that if I were in the market for a religion, I think I'd be taking a long, hard look at being a Quaker. They're peaceful (which I feel Jesus was more than clear about) and tolerant, and egalitarian and non-hierarchical and all in all pretty groovy. What's more, their beliefs fit pretty well with what I thought Christianity was all about when I attended lots of Sunday School: peace, love, acceptance, humility and being a good egg. And check this Wikepedia excerpt out: "many Quakers believe that the depth of [a] loving relationship is more important than [the] genders involved". Now that's some good religion. Not sure about the god aspect, but everything else gets a thumbs-up. They even eschew designer labels. I think Quakers are people I could really respect. Assuming my endorsement counts for anything.

*Though goodness knows you can't avoid upsetting some religious group whatever you believe. Oops, there I go again.

I've been getting on very well with the covetable HP 2133 mini-notebook that I wrote about here. I did wonder whether a longlife battery might be a good idea, though. Apparently HP sell them for $129 in the States. Not a huge surprise to find that they were £109 here. At no time in the last six months has that been less than a 60% price hike for the same product on this side of the Atlantic. But I was even more horrified to see that a replacement screen could cost me £391. It seems a bit steep considering the whole machine retails for £300 + VAT. But then I suppose someone has to disassemble one, take out the screen and put it in a box. It's only fair to charge for that.

No gems of wisdom here, I'm afraid. I'm after your ideas.

OMG...
Rob's Note: I'm pretty sure you don't want to go anywhere near that video if you suffer from photosensitive epilepsy

Is this. I am going to collect some of the choicest (choiciest? A word only ever used to advertise pet food. I am unclear on the spelling) messages that I see on the bottom of emails that I receive today, and post them as they arrive. Sometimes they make me roll my eyes; sometimes they make me laugh. Usually they remind me never to work for a large company with Policies.

Check out this lovely review of David Muirhead's The Clamour King from the lovely Bookbag.

So it's just conceivable (geddit) that in as little as six weeks I will have a baby. Could be as long as ten weeks, of course, but point is it's rather soon. Read on for the latest update on how this will affect Snowbooks.

...and 1% female, which is a more definitive score than I'd expected. I went here and clicked on the button. A script ran, which analysed the history of websites I'd visited and worked out whether I was male or female. Clearly, when I've got a browser in front of me, I'm not in touch with my feminine side.

Hasn't this been fascinating? Lots of detailed replies to my question about man-made climate change and those who doubt its reality. Given that so many people are working hard to begin a process that will turn the planet's economy upside-down in order to reduce CO2 emissions, and given that based on our little sample plenty of people think the whole idea is bunk, it seems like there's still a lot of work to be done on establishing the facts. I thought this debate had been settled and we were all just ignoring the inevitable. But it seems like the debate still needs to happen. Every bit of evidence that any of us have heard needs to be dragged out in public and affirmed, or debunked, and then placed in its appropriate pigeon hole in the consensus view of what's going on. Because we clearly need a consensus view of what's going on, and not just six billion different variations on anecdote, instinct, analysis and trust.

I have to say I've been stunned by the comments to Rob's climate change post, which broadly say 'there's not much wrong'. It's shaken me because if you and I feel so differently, what can I say - about anything - that's going to resonate with you? So I find myself a bit short of things to say, because I have to recalibrate who I thought I was talking to. Instead of writing, then, here's a list of the webtools I use in my everyday life.

At last, a vaguely book-related post. Don't you love firmware updates? No? Well, my Sony e-book reader has a firmware update available for it and another due soon. So I download a file, load it onto the reader, and then it can do things it couldn't do before. Such as 1) reflow PDFs and 2) work with books stored in the .epub format. So without spending any money, I have a more capable device than before. (And yes, I know that it would have been nice if those features had been available from the start).

Really getting freaked out as I keep reading estimates of how we've only got seven or so years to re-structure our industries and lifestyles if we're to avoid really cataclysmic climate-related damage. We should be seeing huge changes to our economies underway and there's no sign of them. Just out of interest, are any of the readers of this blog doubtful about the threat of man-made climate change? I'm not planning to ridicule you; I'm just interested to know if anyone feels the case has not been made yet? And if so, would you say the main reason you're not convinced there's a man-made apocalypse in the offing is that if there were, surely everyone would be talking about it and the government would be acting?

Poor Gary McKinnon. An unemployed IT worker from North London, he hacked into the Pentagon and looked for evidence that the government knows about aliens. (Which is interesting, because he always looks like a vulcan to me.) He actually thinks he found some - but while he was rooting around he left a few messages on people's desktops. One said 'Your security is really crap'. That seems to be the extent of his crimes. But he's to be extradited to the U.S. so that they prosecute him for imperilling their national security. And apparently he caused $700,000 of damage. Though I've seen plenty of instances of how calculations like that are performed and I've yet to see one that isn't nonsense. They're probably including the cost of patching their own faulty security in that estimate. Anyway, sentences of 70 years are being mentioned (plus sketchy references to the death penalty). Thanks to Gary the Pentagon's security is now more secure and no one got hurt - just as he intended. If only he'd been sensible and killed someone. He'd be looking at a fraction of the jail time.

Just something the internet (which I have now officially got bored with capitalising) put my way. Imagine while you were out for a walk you saw that scene (click on the thumbnail for a larger version). Imagine how pleased you'd be if you got a really good picture of it. But even without the snap, you'd probably be able to remember what seeing it felt like for the rest of your life. (image source)

As you know, I try not to copy-and-paste heaps of stuff straight from BoingBoing to the SnowBlog, but I make exceptions. I think in future I will set myself some sort of quota. Perhaps one poached link per week. Anyway, today's find is a priceless rap explaining the purpose, functioning and significance of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. So if you like high-energy physics and cute rap, go here.

I need say no more.

You know who has it easy? Who has no excuse for achieving anything less than 100% of his annual fundraising target? The marketing director of the Cat's Protection League. I mean, how can you say no to images of tiny, defenceless kittens, especially ones who look a bit hungry?

Which is why their logo angers me.

It angers me in the same way that Garfield angers me. Kittens are CUTE. Why make them look like bulbous, custardy blobs? Honestly, give me the marketing director's job for a week and I'll sort them out. Will accept kittens for payment.

...and one invoice stands out. It's for £587.50 - not a small sum, indeed greater than my monthly salary - and it's for promotional support for a work of fiction published this summer. Promotional support, to the uninitiated, is the amount of money a publisher pays to a retailer to cover the costs of promoting a title. You and I both know that whilst it does cover some of the costs, it's a rather blunt instrument (it's a flat rate, so it's not like retailers calculate the actual costs each time). This particular invoice covers one week's front of store promotion in a chain retailer.

Having worked in retail for most of my adult life, I know that it's impossible to get all stores to do what you want them to do, at the right time. And for a promotion that lasts only a week, a retailer would have to be pretty world class to get all the stock in the right place, displayed correctly, stickered correctly and on sale. I bet that only half the stores were running the promotion on Day 1. I bet that 30% of stores never had the stock out at all.

What am I saying? I don't really know. I'm not ever going to stop supporting retailers - they make our business viable - they are our cherished customers. And having worked in most retail functions, including stores, I have every sympathy with the challenges they face. I guess all I'm saying is that £587.50 is a lot of money, but I don't think we'll necessarily have got what we paid for. Remember my story about Xmas 2006, where we experienced 19% promotional compliance? (i.e. stock was only visible in 19% of the places it should have been.) Our business can flourish on the trading terms we have down on paper. It's just real life that gets in the way sometimes.

There's a lovely, and interesting piece, on Sue Hepworth today in the Sheffield Telegraph. Have a gander.

Many of you will know what's wrong with the Far Side cartoon in the thumbnail. I mean beyond Penguins not having speech or names and Polar Bears not making or using disguises. Yes, it's the fact that Penguins and Polar Bears live twelve thousand miles apart with no prospect of making the crossing through the equatorial tropics. Without help that is. I mean, Polar Bears are going to go extinct soon because there'll be no ice at the North Pole in the Summer. What do you suppose would happen if they were relocated to the South Pole? Be a shock for the Penguins I'm sure. But it might keep the bears alive at least until we run out of things to burn and the temperature comes down again.

Not content with forcing images of my swollen feet on you, the viewing public: click below the cut to see my belly at 31 weeks (fully clothed, you'll be grateful and relieved to know). Funny - it feels bigger than it looks.

To the casual observer - me - it looks like I have recently, and badly, sprained both my ankles. Click below to see the damage (below the cut to avoid exposing innocent browsers to graphic medical images).

I say again - Summer, please go away now. Autumn and Winter, form an orderly queue.

to our pals at Tindal Street Press for getting another book on the Booker shortlist! It's Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold. I am so chuffed for them. Go small presses!

Am just trying out the BBC's iPlayer service. I'm about halfway through the two-part drama broadcast on BBC Two last week: Burn Up. It's about man-made climate change and the grubby power politics that slow our response to the problem. It's neatly written and capably acted, with a very solid cast. Despite unhurried pacing, it's good meaty stuff with occasional high points that hold the attention (well, mine at any rate). It's the sort of drama I wish there were a lot more of (even if we set aside its worthy intentions). What's extremely depressing is the audience viewing figures for the second instalment:
Celebrity MasterChef    4.89m viewers
A Touch of Frost         4.3m viewers
Big Brother             3.65m viewers
Burn Up Part II   1.56m (down from 2.4m for Part I)

Call me selfish perhaps, but I have a me-centric idea for a solution to Em's (and my) weather dilemma. Hot weather is nice, but I can't stand more than a few days of it before I want a break. Not unreasonable if you think about it. The same is true of many other things too, so why should the weather be allowed to get stuck in a monotonous rut? I mean you wouldn't want even your favourite food for every meal (unless it was ice cream, of course). My solution? Wobble the Earth on its axis so that instead of 365 days, a year takes a week, or maybe two. We might also have to lay the Earth over on its side a little more to accentuate the seasons, because otherwise they might not kick in quickly enough. But the upshot should be a couple of days of scorching sunshine followed by a nice, refreshing snowfall. The precessing of the Earth's axis might have to be rather abrupt because you want that snow to kick in quickly, like a cold drink after a hot afternoon, so there is some risk of shaking the Earth to pieces, but if we're not planning to fix the whole man-made climate change thing, then what have we got to lose?

Now go away. It is totally too hot. My hands are scary and veiny, and my feet are vast and, get this, bruised from being too big.

And I can't think.

Hot hot hot hot hot.

Sorry I've freaked out so many people by saying last week was traumatic - you are sweet to get in touch. Don't worry, it's not life-threatening, and I'll tell you all about it once it's resolved. But it did mean that I spent Sunday furiously knitting as I couldn't really focus on anything else. Result: another cardigan for Rowan The Forthcoming Baby:

It's done in moss stitch, and I am particularly impressed that I could fathom sufficient meaning from Debbie Bliss' incomprehensible pattern to make the collar. What would I do without YouTube and its instructional movies?

I have had a completely traumatic week, because of a personal something that I'm not at liberty to discuss on the blog, but for which it would be very useful if I could find a webpage from March 2008 - now deleted - that proves a certain thing. So I've been researching caching, archiving and recovery of old web pages, and in my travels I've come across The Wayback Machine - and oh my god, it's awesome.

Run by archive.org - the Internet Archive - the Wayback machine (named in reference to the famous Mr. Peabody's WABAC (pronounced way-back) machine from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon show) is a service that allows people to visit archived versions of Web sites. Sadly it couldn't find me my bit of evidence, but hoo boy, did it make up for it in other ways.

Don't get me wrong - I'm grateful whenever publications give us coverage. But since Rob and I have been on the receiving end of weird sub-editing more often than not - sub-editing that strips out all the jokes, changes the meaning of the writing and makes me look stupid - I did appreciate this email written by food critic Giles Cohen to his subs at The Times. Warning: contains plenty rudewords.