please empty your brain below
Yesterday's post not unconnected with today's, then?

Gordon | 26.11.12 - 7:48 a.m. | #

Missed it again. I do think that as my brother organised similar events in Sweden decades ago, I should get priority something or other to remind me (that had golf too I think and was in Swedish so proper boring: nothing as racy as the Shipping Forecast.)

Karen | 26.11.12 - 8:43 a.m. | #

Drat, missed it again. I'll just have to console myself with the fact that I've met four of the speakers. Perhaps I could ask them to recreate their talks next time I see them.

Actually, I wonder if knowing so many boring people qualifies me to speak myself? I'll have to get working on a submission for next year.

martin | 26.11.12 - 9:17 a.m. | #

Gosh, it's in the Guardian too http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/25/boring-festival-brings-unexpected-intrigue . I couldn't find a piece about next train indicators though, so perhaps its not the start of a dg reader grab that I first suspected.

Lorenzo | 26.11.12 - 9:42 a.m. | #

Excellent account of the day, DG! I was there for all except the last speaker (because I had to meet some friends across town), which was a bit embarrassing because he was sitting next to me. I would humbly point out that I'm quoted (after a fashion) in the article Lorenzo mentions. I gave a plug to DG's blog for introducing me to the event, but I'm afraid they didn't print it.

Baldassaro | 26.11.12 - 10:23 a.m. | #

I believe 'vampire numbers' have an even number of digits, rather than necessarily being even numbers.

NLW | 26.11.12 - 10:58 a.m. | #

I thought at first this was a joke, then I realised it wasn't. I could have come along and talked about my collection of Hotel and resort pencils.

| 26.11.12 - 1:20 p.m. | #

Thank you so much for this summary and the links DG, I wish I could have been there. Listening to people talking about their small and unusual interests is one of the joys of life. There isn't any chance they will post videos is there? Or would that be too interesting?

misspiggy | 26.11.12 - 4:40 p.m. | #

I really should have gone...

Anyhow, I do know why it is called the bagging area.

When these machines first launched (I was working with Optimal Robotics ones in 2004), they said "Please place the item in the bag".

Sometimes, especially in smaller convenience style stores where these machines tended to be at the time, people did not want a bag, and therefore put the item on the side, or given to a friend, or anywhere really.

It had to be explained continually to the customers that even if they weren't taking a bag, they still needed to place the item on the bagging area, as that's how the machine worked.

Eventually, the voice prompts were changed to bagging area, and we have the situation we have today.

Kirk | 26.11.12 - 7:04 p.m. | #

That's really interesting about the Yamaha PSR-175 Portatune (discontinued).
Ummm. When you say, 'Hip-hop phrases' are you referring to musical phrases or phrases frequently used by DJs?

RogerW | 26.11.12 - 7:47 p.m. | #

I was there too. I will never be able to ignore an IBM till again.

Good summary and usefully you have provided all the names which I didn't catch on the day.

ganching | Homepage | 26.11.12 - 8:32 p.m. | #

DG diplomatically omits to mention that the whole thing began late, was in a freezing cold venue, was beset with technical problems, and provided its attendees with no running order or timing information whatsoever.

I guess this wouldn't have mattered so much if the event had been, say, free of charge, or the speakers been uniformly articulate. Instead it was £20 to get in, and what I saw of it (admittedly not all) was inconsistently presented.

I'm afraid I felt the conference was a great idea poorly executed.

Ian | Homepage | 26.11.12 - 10:08 p.m. | #

I sadly couldn't make it this year. Would love to know how to pull of the portobello mushroom trick, but I suspect DG won't divulge... :(

David | 26.11.12 - 11:19 p.m. | #

Thanks for this write-up. I like your summary of my talk but would you mind please fixing the spelling of my surname (then delete thi comment if you like) – I wouldn't normally ask but I'm getting a lot of hits from your excellent blog so I'd like to nip this in the bud! Cheers, L

Leila Johnston | Homepage | 27.11.12 - 7:47 a.m. | #

Can I be really boring and point out that, in the entire history of the Underground, no car has carried the number 42015?

timbo | 27.11.12 - 10:30 a.m. | #

Between 1956-59 3-car DM stock carried 42xxx numbers so 42015 was possible (although of course they were later renumbered)

DullerThanTimbo... | 27.11.12 - 12:59 p.m. | #

DTT you're wrong. Thee 42xxx cars were even numbers so 42015 still not possible - 42014 and 42016 would be valid.

EvenDullerThanEvenDullerThanTimbo.. | 27.11.12 - 1:05 p.m. | #

You're both wrong. The 1956 stock had both odd and even numbers but there were only three trains, eacj of which had only one 42xxx car. The third train was numbered
40002 – 45004 – 44002 – 43002 + 42002 – 45005 – 41002 (from which it should be possible to guess how the first two were numbered!)

After 1959 they were renumbered as part of the 1959 stock fleet in the 1xxx, 2xxx and 9xxx series.

Information from this five year old article http://lurs.org.uk/documents/pdf%2007/oct/NEARLY%2097000%20OCTOBER%2007.pdf

You can't out-dull Timbo! | 27.11.12 - 1:59 p.m. | #

Here's video evidence of the longstanding Swivelympics world record (15.75) being smashed. I think the low temperature helped.. http://youtu.be/eqbdGd9swvE

Richard | Homepage | 28.11.12 - 1:35 p.m. | #











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