Another Chance To See

INTERNET EXPLORER PROBLEMS

2008-03-12T16:33:00.002-04:00

I've recently discovered that this website is not rendering correctly in Internet Explorer due to a serious problem deriving from my Comcast webspace. While I explore my options for moving images and other page elements away from Comcast, may I HEARTILY recommend using Firefox where the problem does not seem to occur. That's the reason I didn't know about this problem earlier, because I ditched IE years ago. I have no idea how long this problem has been going on. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Sony Reader PRS-505: Stephen Fry's blog

2007-11-05T11:55:00.000-05:00

I'm thoroughly enjoying my latest toy, the new Sony Reader PRS-505. It's been a very enjoyable experience, and I've already read three books on it. Surprisingly, the short "flash" between page-flips has not been any distraction at all, and I'm finding that I actually engage MORE with the Reader's text than I do with a regular paper book. Once I get comfortable, I never need to move, save for a thumb-blip on the page turn button every few seconds.

The beautiful electronic-ink screen is truly marvellous, and because there is no back-light there's no eye strain at all. When I'm tired at the end of the day, I sometimes boost the font-size up to "Large", so every book can be a big print book. It's a shame that the older generation who would most benefit from such a feature, are the least likely to be interested in such a device, but every "more mature" person I've shown it to really likes it. You'll still need a book-light if you want to read in the dark, but that's not something I do anyway.

It's a great device, solid of construction, but nice and light. It will be perfect for my trip back to the UK in November, and my carry-on luggage will be considerably lighter than it would be normally. I won't need to carry three or four bulging books with me, instead I'll have the three new e-books I bought from the Sony Connect store (Stephen Fry's "Revenge", Alan Alda's memoirs and Ewan McGregor's "Long Way Round"), plus a dozen of the "100 free classics", Jules Verne, Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin etc. In addition, there's also 2000+ public domain books available on MobileRead.com, where I picked up some of the less well known Jules Verne stories.

I also converted Stephen Fry's blog posts for the Reader by copying and pasting the contents to a Word Doc and then dragging them across to the Reader via USB. Stephen Fry's "blessays" are the longest and most entertaining blog posts on the web, and with a little jiggery-pokery they became almost like book chapters on the Reader. Very worthwhile train reading. The good folks at MobileRead.com have lots of other tools that can be used to convert or make content for the Reader.

Below you'll find a quick slideshow of my Reader in action, as well as the home-brew "softcase" I made from a $0.50 clearance item at Staples.

There's no doubt that this technology is still in its infancy, but over the next few years these screens will get bigger and more usable for student text-books. Right now they are a perfect replacement for reading novels on the go, and considerably lighter! I won't be carrying any more hefty hardbacks around in my backpack if I can avoid it.

The Reader is available for purchase at SonyStyle.com, Borders and Best Buy stores, and online in various places. Purchasing from Amazon.com will help me with the up-keep of this site, and some other projects I'm working on.

Funny Google Searches #1

2007-10-19T16:02:00.000-04:00

Any website owner is probably familiar with this one. Checking your Search Engine Referral logs for the wild and wacky searches people are performing that enables them to land on your site. Here's a couple of doozies from the last week...

Query: where can I buy condoms in shanghai?
Result: Post about the condoms for underwater sound recording in the Yangtze River

Query: Hugh is the only person I know who doesn't talk bollocks.
Result: Post about the Stephen Fry webchat at the Douglas Adams Continuum

Template Update Part 2

2007-08-10T07:42:00.000-04:00

I have a modified template launching soon which means you'll see a few "permanent post placeholders" appearing for Shopping, Links, RSS and Labels. Just so you know...

Template update

2007-08-04T22:48:00.000-04:00

Please bear with me as I test a new version of the Another Chance To See template. If you notice anything particularly horrible, do please let me know. I suspect any major problems will be with Internet Explorer at low resolutions, so time to upgrade folks!

Poll: What's your favourite animal from Last Chance To See?

2007-05-23T13:28:00.000-04:00

Beyond ACTS: More News

2007-03-03T12:18:00.000-05:00

I've been using Google Reader for quite a long time now, and I've decided to add a "More News" list to the right side-bar of this site. It will show the latest stories that I've tagged as "ACTS-Extra" in my Google Reader. The stories may (or may not) be tenuously linked to Last Chance To See, but I've found them all to be interesting. You can also see the list by visiting the "Read More..." link that appears below the bulleted list, or subscribing to the RSS Feed.

Another Chance To See: Upgrade in progress

2007-01-13T22:25:00.000-05:00

I am in the process of upgrading Another Chance To See to the new version of Blogger. Please bear with me as I go through 700+ posts and and sort them with Blogger's new Label feature. This will replace the current hack that I have been using to categorize the posts. This process is sending the RSS feed a little screwy, but it should settle down in a day or two.

I've also used the Custom Domains option to make www.anotherchancetosee.com the new, easy to remember, address for the site. The old blogspot address will automatically forward to the new address, so any bookmarks or favourites will still work.

Another Chance To See: A Blog Of Note

2007-01-08T12:07:00.000-05:00

Hurray! I was delighted to discover that Another Chance To See has been named as today's "Blog Of Note" by the Blogger team.

So, welcome to all our new visitors! I hope you enjoy learning a little bit about the endangered animals and birds that Douglas Adams wrote about in his marvellous book "Last Chance To See". Adams was best known for his "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" series of course, but "Last Chance To See" is just as much fun, and well worth reading.

As a quick summary of important developments since the book was published, there are 86 Kakapo Parrots left, the Baiji Dolphin was recently declared "Functionally Extinct", and the Northern White Rhino may be down to as few as 2 animals left in the wild.

We sponsored an endangered Mountain Gorilla called Urwibutso in 2005 (one of about 700 left), and we're currently raising funds for "Save The Rhino" through the JustGiving network. Douglas Adams was patron to the charity before his untimely death in 2001, so I'm very proud that we've managed to raise over £160 for them. We still have a long way to go in reaching our £500 target, so any spare Dollars, Pounds, Euros or Krugerrands will help us towards our goal.

** UPDATE 1/9 ** Thank you for all the lovely comments, and a great big thanks to Mark Neale for adding £50 to our "Save The Rhino" fundraiser this morning. Very much appreciated!

Sincerely,
Gareth

BLOG THEFT - AnotherChanceToSee is being stolen

2006-10-30T12:13:00.000-05:00

I regret to inform my loyal readers that this Another Chance To See blog (http://anotherchancetosee.blogspot.com) is being stolen and reformatted by an unknown Blogspot user in India. I have found two blogs that are using my template, republishing my full RSS feed and hotlinking to my webspace images. I have contacted Blogspot etc to report the violation, and get his accounts shutdown.

Please bear with me while I try and get this situation rectified. I will be making some image modifications to my webspace in the next day or so, so please stand by until normal service is resumed.

**UPDATE 1** (Monday)
The two offending sites have been removed, presumably by the perpetrator. I assume he saw that I was on to him. For the time being, I have truncated my RSS feed. Apologies for any inconvenience.

**UPDATE 2** (Monday)
I have received an email apology from the perpetrator. I consider the matter closed.

**UPDATE 3** (Wednesday)
This site is still receiving some strange traffic relating to this incident, but all relevant organizations have been notified of this atypical behaviour.

BLOG - Template V2.0

2005-02-25T21:38:00.000-05:00

I thought it was about time I gave the blog a bit of an update, and try and move it away from the basic Blogger template that I started with (and which so many other Bloggers still use). Hope you like "Another Chance To See - Version 2.0"!

Looks OK on Internet Explorer and Firefox as far as I can see. Comments always welcome, especially if it's screwed up in your own favourite browser.

BLOG - New site feed available

2005-01-19T13:36:00.000-05:00

Finally got around to adding a SmartFeed from Feedburner.com. Should be better than the basic Atom feed from Blogger. Firefox users can subscribe to the new feed using the LiveBookmark icon in the bottom right corner of your browser window.

BLOG UPDATE

2004-11-10T21:20:00.000-05:00

Honestly, when I started this blog over 3 months ago I didn't know whether there'd be enough material to keep it going. But it's quite extraordinary how much news does pour in about the animals Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine went to visit for "Last Chance To See".

Just the last couple of weeks it has slowed up a little, giving me a bit of time to take stock, make some adjustments to the layout that I've been wanting to do for ages, and generally tidy the place up a bit.

It is very gratifying to see many of my visitors return for another quick update, and I'd like to thank you personally for dropping by from time to time. I knew when I started this project that there had to be other fans of the book out there who'd like to know what had happened to all the creatures in the intervening years.

Thanks for visiting. Please do introduce yourself in the comments and tell us a little bit about yourself, why you enjoyed the book, and why it keeps you interested after all these years. And, if there anything else you think I should be covering on the site, do let me know. Contributions are always welcome.

Gareth

BLOG UPDATE

2004-08-03T13:55:00.000-04:00

I have just updated the THE CREATURES sidebar section, and re-ordered them by their IUCN classifications.

For those in CAPS, I have added links to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Save The Rhino International and the Kakapo Recovery Programme. I will update the other animals once I find suitable links for them. For now, they remain a Google Images search.

I have also added each animal's IUCN (STATUS) and linked them through to their page on the IUCN Red List website.

(IUCN=International Union For Conservation Of Nature and Natural Resources)

Where it started

2004-07-30T16:09:00.000-04:00

Douglas Adams will forever be remembered as the author of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, a favourite of mine since my youth, and which spawned in me a love of all things Adams.

In July of 2004 I exchanged a couple of emails with MJ Simpson^*, the author of Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams, and we got to chatting about Adams' other popular, if less well known, book Last Chance To See. The book (and BBC Radio series) described his travels around the world with naturalist and broadcaster Mark Carwardine and their visits with many endangered animals, such as the Mountain Gorilla, Northern White Rhino, Komodo Dragon, Kakapo Parrot and many more.

So many of the fascinating creatures they had described were teetering on the very brink of extinction back in the late 1980s, one had to wonder how they were doing now, some 15 years later. I thought a blog might be a good way to bring the stories up-to-date, and so Another Chance To See was born.

*Simpson's own site, Planet Magrathea, was a great resource for news about everything Hitchhikers, including the two new radio series and the 2005 Hitchhikers movie. Sadly, the site is now closed - [April 18, 2005]