Tom’s European Vacation (Part 1): Paris

Years passed (or at least one did) and Europe beckoned…  By the way – for those that missed the previous posts, years didn't just simply pass – as they often do; and I suppose they did in a way – but, to be more accurate, in this particular situation years passed between my previous exploits abroad and today – or rather the moment in which I decided to go to Europe. That was a moment – I remember it well; although not much happened at the particular moment…  perhaps I just went to a travel agent.
Anyway…
I was drawn to the continent – it beckoned with the long pointy part of Denmark; so I went to Paris. Nothing much grabbed my fancy at the outset; I booked a cheap hotel using the wonderful http://www.laterooms.co.uk which furnished me with a seemingly very respectable hotel in the centre of Paris – a brief walk from Gare du Nord.
Simple really – how could I go wrong, nice looking hotel near the station…  those that travel may already know the error of my ways (an error I managed to repeat all across Europe), but for those that have yet to be enlightened to the ‘raw facts’ with regard to travellers I will continue writing as the innocent that I am. So, there I was, in Paris – a brief walk, following my map printed from the website, thinking to myself:
“Travel is so easy today, one day I’m sitting at work booking a trip to Paris, the next I’m actually here…”
The first sight I see? Obvious:
So – ok, it’s the famous Moulin Rouge nothing too worrying about that. Indeed it is still the den of inequity that it ever was – except now it’s all sanitised (I should think – I couldn’t actually afford the £80 entrance fee so continued onto my hotel). The hotel was pleasant enough and the area seemed comfortable – with restaurants and cafes strewn all over the place. Knowing, as I did, that the Basillica

Technorati Tags: Sacré-Cœur,travel,paris,moulin rouge,red light

was only a 10 minute walk away it seemed like I was in the heart of the tourist area…
Which, perhaps I was. On the other hand perhaps I was close to the railway station and, therefore, not too far away from the very centre of the red light district. Having worked in Amsterdam years ago (I was a Software Engineer before you jump to any conclusions) my expectation of a red-light district is exactly that: lots and lots of red lights. A beacon to all who have lost their way, red lights and scantily clad women in windows – you know where you are in Amsterdam. In Paris, however, things are a little less obvious – you can just as simply walk through an old wooden doorway to find yourself in a beautifully old fashioned bar with excellent service as you can enter an establishment that seems almost to be a carbon copy except for the overly attentive female clientele – who, after some thought, you realise aren’t buying drinks.
So, in summary, even the catholic church overseeing the whole experience doesn’t stop any of it happening – but then ‘it’ isn’t illegal in France so the boundaries of right and wrong are blurred once more.
Favourite phrases: I need calcium. Must drink some more milk.
Best Memory: finally finding my hotel after I had been lost for some two or three hours in a series of streets that all looked the same. (Admittedly I relaxed for about an hour in a bar somewhere before returning, so it wasn't quite as bad as I make out)…

Technorati Tags: travel,paris,moulin rouge

Superb Channel9 Video

This is possibly the finest Channel 9 Video I have seen in a long time – she knows her hardware architecture well enough that she understands why C and (to a lesser degree) C++ is useful. Whatever happened to those days, hey?

http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/InsideXbox/Corrinne-Yu-Principal-Engine-Architect-for-Halo-Team-Microsoft-Part-Two/

JQuery – Scroll up Headline Display

A really simple newsfeed scrolling display – at time of writing only displays one item at a time, but the author intends to write a multi-item display version before long: http://www.learningjquery.com/2006/10/scroll-up-headline-reader
Just in case the original source disappears here’s the code from that page:
HTML:

<div id="scrollup">
<div class="headline"> ... </div>
<div class="headline"> ... </div>
<div class="headline"> ... </div>
<div class="headline"> ... </div>
</div>

CSS:

#scrollup 
{   
position: relative;   
overflow: hidden;   
border: 1px solid #000;   
height: 200px;   
width: 200px   
}   
.headline 
{   
position: absolute;  
top: 210px;  
left: 5px;  
height: 195px;  
width:190px;  
}

Javascript:

var headline_count;   
var headline_interval;   
var old_headline = 0;   
var current_headline = 0;   
$(document).ready(function()
{   
headline_count = $("div.headline").size();   
$("div.headline:eq("+current_headline+")").css('top', '5px');   

headline_interval = setInterval(headline_rotate,5000);  
$('#scrollup').hover(function() {  
clearInterval(headline_interval);  
}, function() {  
headline_interval = setInterval(headline_rotate,5000);  
headline_rotate();  
});  
});  
function headline_rotate() {  
current_headline = (old_headline + 1) % headline_count;  
$("div.headline:eq(" + old_headline + ")").animate({top: -205},"slow", 
function() {  
$(this).css('top', '210px');  
});  
$("div.headline:eq(" + current_headline + ")").animate({top: 5},"slow");    
old_headline = current_headline;  
}