Dr Laura James's writings

At the Silicon Valley Innovation Forum tonight (of which more later!) I met the delightful editor of Radio 4's In Business . Stephen Chilcott. He was quite rightly chuffed that more than 730,000 people downloaded the In Business podcast in September, thoroughly beating supposedly more popular shows. I've always enjoyed In Business, and wish Stephen and Peter Day continuing success with this excellent programme, which always has something new to teach me.

The Union debate last Thursday was a lively affair, with venture capitalists and other entrepreneurial types attempting to decide whether Europe, or the Valley, will be the best place to start billion dollar companies in the future. In the end I felt i had to abstain though - I can't bring myself to care much where innovation happens most. It was encouraging to see that some of the leading lights of entrepreneurship can also compose a strong speech and present it with panache, although most of the points were comical rather than intellectual. NESTA and Silicon Valley Connect had organised last night's forum in London, as part of a tour for visiting Valley luminaries. It had rather more content than the debate! (As ever, I am reminded of an old colleague of mine, who always called it the valley of the silly clones.) George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor, spoke coherently and well about the need for university and industry interaction, the importance of an encouraging tax regime,...

It's been quiet of here late, although Michael has been tracking what we've been up to quite well! Last night we saw Paul Merton at the Corn Exchange, hosting an evening of silent film comedies. The pianist accompanying the films was excellent, and the selection of comic moments from Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin and more was excellent. Merton introduced the films briefly, but didn't really give enough information for me. I caught references to names and years, but not enough detail about the world of films, or the stars and directors, to feel I'd learnt anything. Still, at least the presence of a big name has some of these wonderful films in front of people again. The second half was Lloyd's splendid Safety Last , which remains an engaging story after 80-odd years.

On Monday, a lecture by Jorge Cham, who creates the wonderful Piled Higher and Deeper comics. Yesterday, a Mitch Benn gig - actually Mitch Benn and the Distractions. I hadn't really known what to expect of this, as I only really knew of Benn through the Now Show on Radio 4 . But it was wonderful - a really vibrant live performance, and some stunning funny songs, reminiscent of Weird Al (only more topical, perhaps, and certainly more British). It turns out that Mitch is from Liverpool, has an accent that fluctuates madly, and does a very fine rendition of Macbeth in the style of Eminem. Tonight, we're off to see Stardust , which I'm really looking forward to! Tomorrow, less culture, at a Web2.0 discussion meeting. No idea of what to expect there!

Many engineers remember the annual Faraday Lecture, as an inspiration in their childhood or teens. The IEE (now IET), which ran it, took the decision that a lecture tour could only ever reach a small number of people, and have this year launched The Faraday , which is a set of videos and activities presented online, and supported by a team of Faraday Engineers around the UK. The website includes various games for you to try, and challenges for school teams to undertake (with the incentive of starring in a film, if their competition entry video is a winner). If they need any help, any school can call the IET and request a Faraday Engineer to come in and support them with activity help, careers advice, or whatever. Yesterday was the launch event in London, compered by Dr Jack , the "face" of Faraday 08. He seems a lively chap, with a real PhD (neuroscience), and very hip, which is undoubtedly what science needs these days. There was quite a party atmosphere.

AlertMe's first corporate video is out! You can play at spotting your favourite AlertMe staff in it.

A very nicely done example of viral marketing: Smart Enlightenment . Are you vacuuming the carpet of pain? If so, Dr Tridion can help. (Thanks to Mum for the link!)

then I'd strongly recommend going to see "I am Shakespeare" at the Arts Theatre. This was, sadly, somewhat poorly attended tonight, but was a great show, starring Sean Foley (of The Right Size, a duo I admire hugely) and Mark Rylance of the Globe. If you are interested in Shakespeare, or the internet, or just enjoy a lively show, go see it.

Michael has a new passport. It contains a wide selection of images of British birds. However, the note that came with it, full of puff about the high tech security features, fails to describe the birds! A great deal of effort with Google reveals one leaflet about the birds ( here , on a very unofficial site), but the bird on the "chip" page is unnamed. Does anyone know what it is? It's pictured in the leaflet I've linked- twice, in fact.

Yesterday, the podcast. Today, I was interviewed by Rory Cellan-Jones for BBC News 24! The video is linked from the image of a tasteful toy Post Office in that article, half way down. As well as showing some of the first bits of AlertMe kit we've revealed to the public, it was nice to be asked about the reasons I moved from academia to industry, too.

I'm featured in the latest SET Women podcast , produced by Cobi Smith. It's very strange to hear your voice and words, processed and tidied up by someone else! Cobi has done a good job on the podcast series though, even if I don't feature until number 6 :)

Our website is now live. Enjoy!

A pleasant consequence of living near a jam factory is that sometimes the village smells of strawberries. If you listen to the Archers , and have read all the Harry Potter books, you are likely to enjoy Lantana2's fantasy . Last year, Michael and I attended an excellent Wine Appreciation course at Impington Village College. It is on again during the autumn term and I would strongly recommend it to anyone who would like to learn more about wine in an informal setting. If they don't get the numbers, the course will be cancelled, so do consider registering and joining us! It was so good, we're taking the course again.

We've had the Wattson at home for a while. Using the Holmes software (subtle naming there!) I can view our household electricity usage over the last few months. Holmes may be in beta, but it makes lovely graphs. We've been glad to find that our "resting" power consumption is quite low, even with the server running. You can see the kettle boiling and so on in the morning, and the washing machine (ouch!) in the evening. Our consumption goes up when Michael stays at home with a cold, boiling the kettle and running extra computers... We can also spot the weekends when we are at home more, and more likely to be running washing machines and so on: It's very interesting to see how our power usage varies over the hours, days and months. I look forward to the winter to see how that changes things! (Aside: I recently read Arthur and George by Julian Barnes - a fascinating book. I'd recommend it to all those who like the naming of Wattson!)

I've put up the photos from last week's Smart Festival . Everyone should watch the fascinating video (" shift happens ") about what the 21st century is probably going to be like - I spotted it here on John's blog .

I was unaware until yesterday that Cambridge had a Fringe festival, which starts this week. This year, the Fringe included a science comedy cabaret last night at Footlights, and all the hip scientists from the region were there. The evening started with Mark Stevenson , who did some traditional standup with a vaguely scientific spin. Lots of sex and a small amount of monkeys. (Photos are the traditionally bad mobile phone camera in bar style, I'm afraid!) Harry Witchel was up next, "you can see me on Big Brother, but you're better off not". He eschewed straight standup in favour of a lecturing style, well-suited to his audience, and presented some scientific analysis of dating and body language. It was a great act, only slightly let down by his audio-visual aids (movies are not best shown on a laptop screen, picked up by a CCTV camera, and relayed to an LCD panel!). Finally, we heard from Ron Laskey , the creator of Songs for Cynical Scientists, and the man who wrote...

AlertMe employees apparently do not wash up their mugs. We have therefore been given our own mugs to force us to wash up. They are lovely mugs; although not the easiest to wash.

A Smart Festival at Mercedes World in Brooklands, Sam and Zoe's wedding, and another Impington sunset.

BarCamp is coming to Cambridge! BarCamb will happen on 24th August. It should be interesting to see how the web2.0ish BarCamp types blend with the science people local to Hinxton. Hopefully there will be some interesting sessions anyway. There's a MiniBar in London tomorrow too, which sounds like a hoot, although I won't be there.

A beautiful picture of "the graceful concentric arcs traced by the stars" as the earth rotates. (Thanks to Amyas for the link!) It's part of the wonderful Astronomy Picture of the Day series.