Beyond Seven Years In Tibet: My life before, during and after has been the third book that I have read by Heinrich Harrer, and probably the last for sometime. Being his autobiography, it really is more than just an expansion upon his most famous work, Seven Years In Tibet, and the other book I recently finished, Return to Tibet.

It’s odd that I never showed any great interest in his writing before, or really had any knowledge of this man’s life. It wasn’t until after my time in Tibet, India and Nepal that I actually got around to reading any of it. Most of the volunteers who we met out there had already read the book, leaving me a little out of the loop until I got back home and started my way through some of it.

This version in English was only published in July, and it took me 6 months for a copy to arrive. I rarely use the local library, but it saved me £25 as ithey had to purchase it specially as there were no copies in the system when I first asked after it.

Harrer penned the original German copy of the book back in 2002, but his death at the age of 93 (this time two years ago) meant that he didn’t live to see the UK release.

The book is very much in the same distinctive literary style that all his writing takes. Incredibly matter of fact, with little in the way of emotion or ornamentation, it makes makes for text with exceptional clarity, although at times you do wish he would give away just a little more. I felt more satisfied with this book than with the previous two for a couple of reasons. Firstly, this book really does set the scene. His childhood life in Austria, his (Olympic) sporting career, and his successful first ascent of the famous Eigerwand mountain in the lead up to the second world war (which is interesting as it is from a German perspective). It also covers his time spent at Dehra Dun civilian prisoner of war camp in India, and then joins up with Seven Years as he makes his way deep into the Himylaya.

His time in Tibet provides an extraordinary account, and after visiting the place, and comparing it to the photographs and accounts of previous explorers, I can’t help but find the whole idea of pre-occupation Tibet as being a truly magical and romantic existence.

But of course that was all to end, and after returning home to meet his son for the first time, he then tells of the many expeditions and photographic assignments he undertook in the following 40 years. And this is where I became truly captivated with this book. I had read a lot about Tibet by the time I started this, and I’m glad he doesn’t dedicate more than he needs to the subject - if you want to read about that you clearly should read his 1957 book. But for all the details of his experience in the Belgium Congo, with the final days of the remote tribes of New Guinea, along the Amazon, Borneo, Africa, India and Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet once more, then you need this volume.

It amazes me that after his time in Tibet he spent so much time networking with the mountaineering/explorating elite - encounters with Sherpa Tenzing, Edmund Hillary, King Leopold III and others - and to think that all of this occurred in only the past forty years is astounding. Mainly because it’s hard enough to believe Pygmy tribes living in a practically Neolithic existence still survived well into the mid to late 20th century. His encounters with native inhabitants in still highly unchartered and often dangerous lands and times seem impossible now, and his love of the outdoors and for ethnological study really comes to the foreground as his passion - something I don’t think that is so easily picked up from his most famous, earlier writings.

Clearly he experienced some distress in the later part of his life when journalist started digging up his past, but as I can’t seem to find much discussion about this and it’s hard to draw any conclusions. If anything, this is one aspect of his life that I still am unsure I truly understand. By the time he got around to producing his memoirs he seems to have been content with his achievements, and I think I’m now content with my exploration of his life.

A truly remarkable man who led an extraordinary existence and never seemed to waste any of his 93 years.

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This week I did a mass purge of content. I rarely touch my CD collection these days, but I decided to do a mass clean out and managed to rediscover a fistful of Now That’s What I Call Music discs and one Pepsi Chart CD. Yes I know, but I was young and naive, and it was right at the end of the last millennium (and that was ages ago).

I decided to hook them up and see whether in all this time I had missed any classics tchunes; the sort of thing that remind you of the summer days out on the grass, or drinks at the weekends with your mates, but a few years before you’re meant to be able to buy them.

We’ll I was in luck. While most of the double discs contained a mediocre paste of pap, I’ve discovered that even pap can disguise a few little memorable gems and hastily ripped these forgotten beauties into iTunes. Tracks include Heart of Asia, Toca’s Miracle, On The Beach, Fields of Love, Blood is Pumpin’ and a couple of other ones. They’ll never be considered greats, but while the sun has been out and things have been looking up, I’ve been lapping it up and enjoying my very own early 00’s revival.

Also victim to the clearout, about £300 worth of old Computer Arts magazines, some going back to 2001. It’s sad to see them all go, it’s sort of how I learnt my trade (if only I could have claimed them as expenses in those days) but there comes a point where they become a health and safety hazard due to their combined weight, so I made the decision to get rid of the lot, including about 60 trial CDs all containing trial versions of Dreamweaver 4 and tutorials on how to make a wicked website using frames.

I’m making my way through yet another Heinrich Harrer book, and soon will have a review for it I’m sure. It’s much thicker than the previous volumes, but it does cover a lot more and fills in some of the gaps. I’m keen to finish it.

This week I’ve got a slew of projects to kick start and I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be a little manic, but I like it like that anyway.

What with Skins back on, the weather improving, some good comedy coming up, my swim routine getting back into shape and the hunt for more space all on track, I’m really enjoying watching the last few days of winter slip away.

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Thanks Yahoo!

It’s like you read my mind… all I want it IMAP now…

And it now officially supports Safari 3 - even better - no more nag screens for Yahoo! Mail.

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It’s very odd for me to be championing something that appears on the ITV schedules as in recent years I’ve found very little worth watching on the network. However, there appears to have been a coup de grace in the form of a new comedy improv show which is apparently an Australian import.

I spotted about 10 seconds of the show last weekend while getting ready for to go out, and mainly attracted by the presence of Paul Merton doing something different, I took the time to setup ITVs ridiculously complicated Catch Up system on Windows (Mac not supported) and watched all the back catalogue of episodes still on offer from this first series (I think I’ve only missed the first one).

The programme is called Thank God You’re Here and seems to me like a slightly more accessible and up-to-date successor to Who’s Line Is It Anyway?

Like I mentioned before, Merton was the big draw for me, and it’s really good to see him back in an impro role, even if it isn’t his performance that makes this show good. In fact, if you like to watch for new comedy talent, it supplies a really good selection (Michael Macintyre, Marcus Brigstocke, Rufus Hound, Lee Mack etc etc), although there have been one or two guests whose inclusion seemed a little strange (Corrie actors), but then again that’s probably just because I can’t help comparing it to the WLIIA? format.

So that’s my current recommendation if you want some good quality improvised TV comedy.

This was another Multipack Saturday and there was a good collection of familiar faces at the meet on the balcony of the Old Joint Stock. Good news from One Black Bear who have just won a very important contract and Paul’s stories from MacWorld gave some insight into the new Macbook Air.

Aside from the local geekery, I spent three days with Rattle this week working on a couple of projects and took some time to visit Chris whilst I was up there. I know some of my friends think it’s odd to insist on visiting people everytime you go anywhere out of your usual territory, but I can’t help it - surely it’s better to stay in touch anyway?

Rugby-wise, I’ve only seen the England games due to some poor scheduling, but can’t say I’m feeling particularly pleased with our current form. I mean, we’ve done the same thing two weeks running (luckily this time it didn’t have such strong repercussions) but how do we let our game play fall apart so easily in the space of 25 minutes? At least it looks like we’re consistent.

Finally, and probably most surprisingly from the past week, I noticed quite plainly that in the new series of Lost, Bromsgrove (yes, like the local Bromsgrove) gets a mention. There’s clearly nothing more mysterious than Bromsgrove.

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I’m really pleased to write about some exciting changes for the Midlands based web group, The Multipack.

The ‘Pack have been going strong for over two years now, and being a collection of web developers it seemed only right that after all that time we might be able to muster up an update to the logo, website, forum and set out a new direction for 2008.

Kudos to Paul Lloyd & Gareth Brown for the artwork and Trevor Morris & Ross Riley for the hardstuff. The new site is really refreshing and looks fantastic.

There have been some other changes too. Our key venue is now the Victorian splendour of The Old Joint Stock on the edge of Birmingham’s St. Philip’s Square, right between (and no more than one minute walk from) Snow Hill and (3 minute walk from) New Street stations.

There will be some more opportunities to meet with us further out in the West Midlands, as we are hoping to start venturing outwards once more.

Meetings are (as they have always been) open and free to anyone who wants to informally discuss, learn or network with other local developers, designers, experts and non-experts. We meet on the second Saturday of every month at 2.00pm over a few beers and a even occasionally a late lunch.

For more details about Multipack events (including our next meeting on Saturday 9th February), check out our new website and forum, or feel free to ask questions of any of the regulars such as myself - we’re always looking forward to meet and join up with others who want to learn, share and engage with other web professionals.

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There has been plenty going on with me in the past few days. What with the completion and delivery of a piece important print work this week (with a Sunday to-press deadline) it wasn’t much of a weekend.

I’ve finally encountered the swathe of completions and launches for projects that have been ongoing (there are one or two anomalies that are yet to be mopped up, but on the whole things are wrapping up nicely).

Monday was no let up, heading to London for a meeting in South Kensington and an introduction to yet another exciting project. After all the formalities of work, I managed to track down probably my longest-term associate and friend (it’s hard to know someone longer than a person who you first encountered on the day you were both born - a day neither of us can truthfully say we remember) and we went for a couple of drinks to catch up on two years of life. Andy (we share the same name too) is an accomplished jazz musician, while I am a web type, but we’ve both ended up following the self-employed path. The number of coincidences between us including others probably are matched by an equal number of unrelated events, but I find it amusing how around 15 years ago (after a period of time when our two families had lost touch with each other), I was helping Dad cut down a hedge in the back garden of our new house, and we were all a little more than surprised to find that we’d moved in next door to each other. Despite all the odd gaps, the geographical differences and the rest, we always seem to manage to start conversations where we left off. It’s the only time I ever wonder whether your date of birth actually does have any possible influence on the way things pan out, and I’m certainly not one for believing those types of things.

Also today, quite surprisingly I came to learn that Dan had managed to inadvertently stumble across the co-founder of Tangerine design agency while organising some rental transport for him. Dan recognised the name of the complex where his customer worked, and mentioned he had previously collaborated with a design agency in the same estate. It turns out Dan’s customer was now working for the very same company, but had previously been attached to a rather more well known ID outfit.

Dan didn’t recognise the name of the agency ‘Tangerine’ (I could have told him who they were straight away), but the customer soon enlightened him that he had co-founded it few years ago with a bloke called Jonathan Ive. Had I been in the car I think I’d have a few more question. This opportunity was probably as close as you could get to achieving any kind of insight into the notoriously elusive designer’s method. Either way, I still find it highly amusing that Dan managed to get into a conversation with his ex-business and design partner, especially whilst doing something completely unrelated to design.

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About this time two years ago I encountered my best practices epiphany, when in a whirl of blog posts, articles and university modules I managed to haul myself onto the table-free markup bandwagon.

At the time there was a frenzy of community based activity, and even if a lot of other people had made the conversion to high-quality code before me, I’m sure there were also a lot more who followed after.

I loved the engagement, the semantic pedantry, the arguments, the twists and turns through the intricacies of the markup, which by all accounts had turned out to be a much larger tapestry than I might have previously believed. This empowered movement has been one of the web industry’s greatest achievements to date, and it’s effect seems to have manifested itself into the lifeblood of most web professionals today.

However (and there is always a however), I came to realise soon enough that this was a phase and not an era. This level of frenzied output would eventually be stifled by a number of factors. Ever-increasing, ever-more critical audiences meant that the pace of discovery and analysis quickly reached a boiling point and saturation occurred. We ended up running out of useful things to say on the topics of HTML and CSS. Whereas a small group of people had championed and educated the masses previously, the masses were now looking for their own slice of web pie, and the advent of Web 2.0 was the real world consequence of our new found knowledge and confidence with our technologies. It was like Ug had been making sparks for years, but had only just discovered how to arrange kindling.

The effect was a revolution that was probably the most bloodless in history. Ever.

I don’t know anyone who has been put out of work by Web 2.0 (I’m talking creatives, not entrepreneurs), and it seems that some focused retraining is really all it takes to make the leap. It’s not like the industrial revolution when your Spinning Jenny suddenly needed to be replaced; we even had the luxury of knowing our equipment was still adequate and the training was completely free (especially if you knew how to use a search engine, and most web professionals don’t feel they even need to include that skill on their CV these days).

This was all part of something big. It wasn’t just about clean code and semantics. Nor was it wholly about getting your styling to work in every goddamn, picky version of Microsoft’s browser. It was about a general step forward which brought us nose up against the glass bottom that is Genuine Progression.

Staring at the arse of Genuine Progression is also where we left Ug. Ug is a simple chap who has very recently learnt how to light a fire. Even before he mastered how to create it for himself, he knew what could be achieved with it. He saw it warming things, destroying things and cooking things. Ug is harbouring big ideas for his new skill, but frustratingly he doesn’t seem to be able to execute them.

For a start, Ug wants to make a bonfire with a Guy on top. The problem is that King James won’t be born for another 8,000 years, and no one has a clue how to make sculpture because ancient Greece doesn’t even exist yet. Ug knows what he wants, but he just can’t do it. He also pines for wonderfully sqidgy, sweet, melt-on-a-stick marshmallows, but despite having more sticks that he could ever desire, he sadly lacks the powdery pink and white confections needed to make the experience truly ‘complete’. Roasted sticks just don’t taste as nice.

And this is like us, the web professional in early 2008. Save for a few minor distractions and spending time taking a Polyfilla-like approach to smoothing out the gaps in our knowledge, we can’t actually go much further without improvements to the technologies we work with.

There are two monumental events that still and always will get web pros excited (aside from LOLcat). The first is the release of a new web browser. This really gets us going, especially if anything vaguely interesting has been done with the rendering engine. Wowsers at browsers.

The second things is far more important, and far more rare. In fact, it is so rare that at the going rate, a web professional might only ever encounter four of these events in their entire working life. What I’m talking about is a Specification Upgrade. Oh how we lust for a Specification Upgrade; waiting for some acronym-prefixed-decimal to increment just once is like hanging around for the phoenix to figure out how to begin the ignition sequence.

So is this going anywhere? Good question. I’ve always been interested in what we can do to improve the web, and more than happy to get into discussions where we debate future progress. After all, those choices we make now will affect our direction in the future. But in recent weeks and months, I’ve become bored of the debating floor. Far too many superfluous opinions make making judgements cloudy and decisions hard to make. Bitterness between parties is prevalent, enlightened argument is either lacking or overflowing - either way, no one seems to be able to agree on anything - and I’m not talking major divisive issues - I mean anything.

Our next scheduled monumentals are Firefox 3, IE 8, widespread adoption of CSS 3 and then finally HTML 5. The first two are on the radar (albeit with a wedge of time between them) but the last two are not. The bickering, the in-fighting, the lack of direction, the flawed design by committee route means that a decade will pass between the recommendation of 4.01 and the ordination of new version (and then we can look forward to the adoption process afterwards - like an after-party, but one that goes on for just a little longer than eternity itself).

Essentially like Ug, I am disillusioned with staring up the backside of progress. We’re waiting for a monolithic system to finally display some kind of life and allow us the space we need to fly some new kites, and which ultimately is the reason why the entire web community for the foreseeable future will continue to waste dedicate all it’s creative resources and energy to having a massive free-for-all arguments on topics like the use of a meta tag.

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