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Quite a few people I know who use a Mac like to take advantage of the UNIX-like Terminal from time to time. I use it for remote logins to the computer clusters that do my PhD work for me, but there are all sorts things you can do using the built-in command line utilities, and for certain automated or repetitive tasks it’s often far quicker than using a graphical interface.

I recently found a great application called TotalTerminal which takes control of OS X’s inbuilt Terminal app and allows it to bring up a terminal ‘visor’ just by pressing a shortcut, a bit like the console in iD Software games like Quake, Doom etc. This is very handy if you want quick access to the command line regardless of what else you’re doing at the time, and it’s very customisable too. I use ‘Apple+§’ to bring up a terminal from the bottom of the screen, so that I can quickly use SSH to check on my simulations.

 

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I don’t listen to many podcasts at all, but there is one that I’m so obsessed with that I sometimes can’t sleep without listening to an episode. The Peacock and Gamble podcast is hosted by comedians Ray Peacock and Ed Gamble, it’s about nothing in particular, it sometimes has regular sections (if that’s possible), it’s edited down to half an hour and it’s released every week for free.

It’s probably best to start from somewhere near the first episode, and by the time you’ve listened to a few and made friends with Ray and Ed — which is very easy — it all makes sense. Unlike a lot of shows in this vein, it comes across as completely uncontrived. It’s just two naturally funny people who have great chemistry together, enjoying and exploiting the complete freedom the format gives them.

Peacock and Gamble’s main website is here, and the podcast’s available from Chortle or iTunes. They’re currently doing a live show at the Edinburgh fringe, which is called ‘Peacock and Gamble’s Emergency Broadcast’.

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Here’s a picture of some pasta I made recently for my friends Mazep, Emma and Tom. It’s linguine with king prawns, tomatoes, and spinach. Also, there’s quite a lot of chilli, and some ricotta which I put in right at the end. Whenever I’m doing pasta with fresh tomatoes I find it’s best to get horribly expensive ones, even at the expense of other ingredients. Or, move to Europe for a bit.

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Welcome to my website and blog. I’ll be using this to post about things which interest me such as music and science and cookery, as well as to link to examples of my work, and to people I work or play with. Take a look at the various sections and look out for updates and posts if you like.