29th October 1969 saw the birth of the Arpanet network – the US-only forerunner to the Internet we know and love/hate today. Hirsute boffins in bow ties, based at UCLA and Stanford, sent the first data between its nodes… 400 miles across country. When the sender typed in the third letter of the sequence, the system crashed and had to be reconfigured, but since then it has all managed to work reasonably nicely (well apart from Tiscali and the occasional bit of congestion at the BT exchange, that is).

More on the story at the BBC’s website.

Well, a few beers to be more accurate. The Norwich beer festival opened its doors at 5.30 yesterday evening and I was in a 7-strong team forming part of the queue which meandered round the corner and down the road.

It didn’t take too long before we made our way inside to buy our festival glasses and stock up on beer tokens (no money changes hands at the bar). The place was packed, but we made our way to our usual ‘family spot’ between the two main halls. No seating, but a bit of space to move and lower background noise so it was possible to hold a conversation.

There’s a massive list of beers to choose from, but true to form the ones I’d singled out to find weren’t available. I’d been keeping an eye open for Timothy Taylor Ram Tam as it’d been recommended before. For the third year running it wasn’t on when I was there. Same went for one of my favourites, Fullers London Porter, although I’d managed to get a glass of that at last year’s event.

As each different ale was brought back from the bar, it was tasted by various members of the group – a nice way to sample even more varieties. We had ales tasting of orange, grapefruit, ginger, chocolate, coffee, and my personal favourite Theakstons Old Peculier – sweet and dark with hints of apples and liquorice. I also had my first glass of Kuppers Kölsch on draught – a light German (Cologne) beer which reminded me of an unfizzy lager (can you tell I was slightly underwhelmed with that?) which isn’t strange as that’s kind of what it is.

So, in all a nice afternoon and evening, which started in Wagamama with spicy prawns and sticky rice (thanks for treating us to the food Chris & Helen) and finished in a quiet pub in St. Georges Street supping a glass of Adnams Old Ale.

It’s Curry Central in the Hall household today. I’m donning the chef’s hat again in an attempt to use all our balti dishes for a single meal!

We have a visitor coming down from Middlesbrough, so he’ll probably need warming up with a couple of chillified concoctions before sending him out to sample our local beer tonight!

On the menu: lamb rogan, chicken balti, dhal, saag aloo, mushroom bhaji, Bombay potato, Gujerati carrot and cabbage (that’s the missus’ speciality) and naan bread. Should keep everybody quiet for five minutes!

It’s that time of year again – the Norwich Beer Festival is held every October at St. Andrews & Blackfriars Hall, this year (the 32nd annual event) it runs from 26th to 31st of the month.

With over 200 cask-conditioned ales from independent brewers across the UK, a wide selection of draught and bottled foreign beers and 25 kinds of cider & perry to try, it’s a great place to visit. It’s become a bit of an annual pilgrimage for our family and there’ll be at least half a dozen of us in attendance on Monday. Always a friendly atmosphere there – it gets jam-packed but there’s never any bother. Everybody’s too engrossed in tasting the ale!

I was at the Fakenham Chamber of Trade AGM during the week. It was an ideal time to hear what the Chamber are doing on behalf of the town’s business community, to speak to fellow business owners and traders, ask questions and suggest ideas.

There was a really nice ’spread’ supplied by the ever-willing Fakenham Garden Centre – sarnies & nibbles, a choice of wines, juices and so on. Ideal for members who didn’t have time to eat at home before the 6.30 start.

Two guest speakers were there – one from North Norfolk Radio, who provide lots of support for the Chamber and Fakenham in General. The other from Larking Gowen accountants, who also provide a great deal of assistance to the business community in and around the town.

The Chamber has over 60 members, with an extremely wide spread of business interests from agriculture through to industrial companies, large-scale employers to sole traders. A meeting like this is a great way to see who’s doing what, make new contacts, swap advice and maybe even pick up a bit of extra business

Why was it then, that I was the only non-committee member there?

Everybody got an invitation. The details were on the Chamber website. Food was provided. The venue is easy to get to. There are few excuses for the low attendance by the membership.

Businesses can’t expect the Chamber to do anything for the membership when they can’t be bothered to put any effort into supporting the committee – and each other.  The committee must sometimes think they’re banging their heads against a brick wall.

These guys are trying to help YOU. Get a flamin’ grip!

The next Kickstart Fakenham meeting has been set for Thursday October 22nd at 7pm in the Wensum Lodge, Fakenham. There is an open invitation for anybody to come along and see what’s being done for the town by the group and make suggestions & contributions.

The basic agenda (subject to change) is as follows:
Committee announcements and prospective changes.
Formation of Carnival Committee/other Carnival Business.
Forthcoming events including Autumn Tidy Up and Christmas Lights event.
KSF Website & Logo.
Top of the Shops.
Any other business.

… pass it on!

… well about 8 hours of it, so far. My home PC decided to foul up big time yesterday, so I had to reinstall Windows XP (it refused point blank to repair itself from the CD). Working until 1 o’clock last night. Now I’m slowly putting back all my software and settings – nightmare!

I’ll be happy to get to work today – just for a rest from computers. No… wait a minute. That won’t work, will it?

The 2009 Firework Display at Fakenham Racecourse is on 7th November. Gates will open at 5.00pm for the funfair and the main display will be at 6.30pm. This year, the Chamber of Trade (who run the event) are supporting the Help for Heroes charity.

Advance Tickets available at…

Lawnwise and Leisure – 01328 851251
Carl Lake Butchers (Holt & Fakenham)
Martins Newsagents, Wells
Burnham Motors Garage, Burnham Market
Mileham Post Office
Melton Constable Co-op
The Eye Man – 01328 855051

Here’s a thought-provoking question from a book released today - David JC MacKay’s “Sustainable Energy – without the hot air”. It refers to a quote by Sir David A. King, who was chief scientific adviser to Blair and Brown’s government.

If climate change is “a greater threat than terrorism,” should governments criminalize “the glorification of travel” and pass laws against “advocating acts of consumption”?

Here’s another gem of a question posed in the book:

Climate modelling is difficult and is dogged by uncertainties. But uncertainty about exactly how the climate will respond to extra greenhouse gases is no justification for inaction. If you were riding a fast-moving motorcycle in fog near a cliff-edge, and you didn’t have a good map of the cliff, would the lack of a map justify not slowing the bike down?

It’s the Fakenham Chamber of Trade’s AGM on Thursday evening and I’ll be there in my capacity as the Chamber’s tame Internet nerd. Fakenham Garden Centre’s the venue, which is quite a pleasant one. If you’re in business in the area, I hope you’ll be dropping by too – there will be a guest speaker and refreshments afterwards (as always) plus a good chance to network and catch up with local biz gossip!