Fahrenheit 451

Fixing missing/deleted Feedburner feeds in my Google Account

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:07:00 +0000

A quick note to share how I resolved my problem with disappearing RSS feeds when migrating from Feedburner to Google Apps for Domains. (RSS is the syndication bit that makes this blog appear in your reader.)

Back in May when forced to migrate from the Feedburner service to the… Google Feedburner service I needed to associate my old username with a Google Account. I chose to use a Google Apps account, i.e. my own domain name, and thought nothing of it. When I finally came to look for my feeds I couldn’t find them under my ‘new’ account nor my ‘old’ username. They’d gone, and it was looking like they were gone for good - although the feeds themselves still existed.

Google support is notably flaky when things go wrong (fair enough, I’m not paying for the service but I’m also wise enough to back up the important stuff, particularly email). Hours of searching left me none the wiser until I landed on this page.

Searching for “gtempaccount.com” in my old emails showed that I have another Google account called username%domain.com@gtempaccount.com - whoda thought it? - which, when I finally figured out the password, was found to have those ‘missing’ feeds. Confusingly the email address for this ‘temp’ account appears the same as the one for my ‘regular’ account. Nonetheless I was able to transfer the feeds and double-check that I do still have two subscribers. Phew.

Good luck if you’re stuck in the same situation.

We’re off to see (if we can see) the Northern Lights from...

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:07:00 +0000

We’re off to see (if we can see) the Northern Lights from Tromso this weekend. I wonder if they’ll be a tenth as spectacular as this. (Via Urban75.)

Thanks to young Upstart for a loan of this documentary which...

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 23:50:37 +0000

Thanks to young Upstart for a loan of this documentary which presents a partisan, engaging defence of modernist public architecture. I mention it here partly as it’s rather interesting, and also as I learnt through it that the 1966 film adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 was shot on the Alton Estate in Roehampton. This may mean little to non-South West Londoners, but I was tickled to know how this dystopian vision of the future, referenced in the title of this electronic page of toss, was filmed so close to home (and so close to the homes of the current leadership who seem so keen to bring that dystopian vision inches closer to reality).

If you are, say, a hot air balloon pilot used to flying without...

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:00:00 +0000

If you are, say, a hot air balloon pilot used to flying without permission in the South East of England, then you’re in for a big shock between 13 July and 12 September 2012 as you’ll suddenly be required to deal with the ‘Relevant Control Authority’. Orwellian and ominous.

"I blog the same way I make love. Infrequently but spectacularly. Or should that be, badly and you’ve..."

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:53:39 +0000

“I blog the same way I make love. Infrequently but spectacularly. Or should that be, badly and you’ve seen it all before. Either way, with the best will in the world I can’t seem to make it happen more than once every three weeks to a month. I’m talking about this blog now.”

- Adam Buxton on the challenges of writing regular toss when the real, money-paying world gets in the way.

Food Porn, or How to Shoot Ugly Food. There is often a mismatch...

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 11:22:00 +0000

Food Porn, or How to Shoot Ugly Food.

There is often a mismatch between how food looks, and how food tastes, especially if it’s intermediated by my cooking skills. Here’s an interesting NYT blog about the professional’s approach to glamourising carbs and starches.

The photo above was my attempt to show how unattractive airline food can be. Pea… mousse?, anybody?

Take a close look: is this an orchestral score? The Da Vinci...

Thu, 27 May 2010 09:12:35 +0100

Take a close look: is this an orchestral score? The Da Vinci code? Nope, it’s one of God-in-waiting Craig Venter’s previous synthetic genome applications - a map of Mycoplasma genitalium (snigger). Is it possible to patent life? 1,000 words on my desk by Friday, thank you.

Via Steve van Dulken’s always interesting British Library Patent Blog

“AND ER VICTOR GOLF ECHO WE HAVE A MAJOR PROBLEM A MAJOR POWER...

Sat, 22 May 2010 11:48:23 +0100

“AND ER VICTOR GOLF ECHO WE HAVE A MAJOR PROBLEM A MAJOR POWER PROBLEM IT LOOKS AS THOUGH WE’RE ER GOING IN WE’RE GOING IN.

You’ve just taken off and think one or both of your engines have failed. You try and restart them whilst circuiting to return to the airfield. You realise you’re not going to make it. What’s going through your mind? Who do you think of? What do you say?

The transcripts of flight deck conversation on BA038 shortly before crashing at Heathrow have not been released, apparently out of respect for the crew (although the Air Traffic Control audio is worth listening to for the calm manner in which the event was handled); now we can read the transcript of a Cessna Citation crash at Biggin Hill. In a situation that’s almost impossible to imagine, the crew attempt to return to the runway before realising they’re “going in”.

And it was all because of a faulty bearing in an airconditioning unit.

"The truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or..."

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:20:54 +0000

“The truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more”

- Gabriel Zaid quoted in Nick Hornby’s The Complete Polysyballic Spree

BBC News - Today - Audio slideshow: 'Shaped by War'

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:31:40 +0000

BBC News - Today - Audio slideshow: 'Shaped by War':

‘I don’t want to be remembered as a war photographer’

747:40

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:25:01 +0000

THE icon of the jet age, the most alluring and attractive of all widebody airliners (A380 designers take note), the 747 is 40 years old this week and Flight International has a slightly geeky yet quite readable history to date - and there are still more than 100 on order.

Having already travelled in seat 1A this year I can report there is still something novel and exciting sitting in the very tip of an airliner, with the windows curving into the nose. (I’m enough of a bore to know that the ‘bubble’ idea grew out of Boeing’s bid to build what became the C-5 Galaxy, but didn’t realise that this was a feature of the 747 since in the late 60s it was expected that most passenger transports would soon be supersonic aircraft, and the 747s would have to be converted to cargo lifters. They got that one wrong…)

If you’re still in the ‘air travel is allowed’ camp, then you’ll appreciate the marvel of the Jumbo Jet. And to think it was designed by hand! (Via Flight International paper edition)

Hahnenkamm Downhill - You Finish, You Win

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:36:16 +0000

Hahnenkamm Downhill - You Finish, You Win:

With the Winter Olympics on the horizon, here’s the downhill skiing experience in the words of a racer. I got scared just watching it…

"Our ideal passenger is someone with a pulse and a credit card, who will follow the simple..."

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:40:49 +0000

“Our ideal passenger is someone with a pulse and a credit card, who will follow the simple instructions to lower our costs to the maximum”

- Michael O’Leary exhibits his normal love for customers.

Netflix movie queues

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:57:15 +0000

I (geekily) think this is very interesting - charting the relative popularity of DVDs rented through Netflix. Have a play around. As Junk Charts writes, this is the best yet from the New York Times team.

via mydavidcameron.com

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:36:31 +0000

via mydavidcameron.com

Not so far from reality, and equally reliable. (From The...

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:22:40 +0000

Not so far from reality, and equally reliable. (From The Economist.)

"Motivational speaker, celebrity, drywaller"

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:42:00 +0000

“Motivational speaker, celebrity, drywaller”

-

First among eagles - The Globe and Mail - Eddie the Eagle’s back in Calgary, and still puts on his bottle glasses even though he’s had eye surgery.

Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot Demo - possibly the only useful...

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 05:31:53 +0000

Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot Demo - possibly the only useful thing I’ve ever found through Holy Moly. Surely for some of these shots it would be easier to just… go there?

So, Ivan Brackenbury’s alter ego has been sacked again. An...

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:53:15 +0000

So, Ivan Brackenbury’s alter ego has been sacked again. An acquired taste but possibly very, very funny.

As Is : Flashback

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:15:00 +0000

~~Quite~~ Very surprised when the first album to appear on Spotify this evening is Nitzer Ebb’s As Is. Never heard of them? Of course not, but this was probably the band that I followed most closely around the age of eighteen. Can’t remember why, but just listening to it again (I had only the vinyl) brings back every lyric.

Turns out they’re still in the studio and touring. Even playing the O2 in February. I’m almost tempted to go. Almost.