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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A while ago I wrote about the things that you most certainly need on your Macbook , or at least my take on it. Three quarters of a year on, I’ve made the full switch to Apple, and my desk is now also sporting a 24-inch shiny, aluminium iMac.

I thought therefore it was probably a good time to add and edit my original list, especially since I have now made the leap from Mac OS X Tiger to Leopard on both my machines and certain things are either irrelevant, more essential than ever, or just specific to desktop-based working.

So here is my all-new iMac Essential Selection.

AppDelete

This funky little freeware app has served me well of recent. With the need to remove quite a lot of old programs that I’m no longer using, the newest release of AppDelete swiftly removes any application and associated system files to the Trash.

Initially I was worried about losing some critical files (typical of my Windows-paranoia) but so far I’ve not encountered any such problem, and it does a very tidy job.

Caffeine

This is a DVD-watcher’s essential that I discovered a few weeks ago.

Caffeine is a truly featherweight program that has only two states with no configurable options – just ‘on’ or ‘off’ – and when ‘on’ ensures that your screen will neither dim nor sleep. Like matchsticks for monitors.

This was never a major concern for me on my Macbook as I only used it for work, but when watching videos it’s a bother to fiddle with the energy settings every time.

Camino

I didn’t really cover browsers in my last mac selection, but being as they come in a few flavours and I have the fortune of knowing most of the major ones inside out, I thought I’d share my choice.

Camino is Mozilla’s Mac-native offering, and though not ideal for developing (it can’t handle plugins like developer’s-dream Firefox), it is a beautifully quick’n‘slick.

If you use Firefox on a Mac and you haven’t tried the new version of Safari or Camino, do it for a week and you maybe be surprised at how slow Firefox can seem. If you are wondering what the pages look like (if you are worried that you are going to get some odd Konquerer-like experience) don’t worry – it’s Gecko, so it looks like Firefox, but feels like it’s drunk a crate of Red Bull.

Expanding Camino: MoreCamino & UserAgent

If you are going to run Camino, I strongly suggest the following two extensions.

MoreCamino is an extra preference pane and just a single file to be copied to your Application Support folder. For the sake of a few seconds to install the thing, you can benefit from Firefox-like Google searches from the address bar, instant search-as-you-type functionality and a couple of other things that I’m not that bothered about.

Secondly and more importantly if you are a Yahoo! Mail user, you’ll want to grab a copy of UserAgent – another small extension that allows you to bypass Yahoo!‘s annoying and not-turn-offable inbuilt your-browser-is-not-officially-supported message by pretending you are using Firefox.

Flickr Uploadr

Well, you might not be bothered if you don’t use Flickr, but then again, why aren’t you using Flickr?

Quick and easy, I used to use the Windows one, and now I use the Mac one. Flickr Uploadr is fully Quicksilver compatible too.

Transmission

OK, I used to use an app called bits on wheels, but when I saw Transmission and how truly simple the whole thing was I switched over. If you need a handy little BitTorrent client that doesn’t take up acres of screen real-estate, this is my recommendation.

MAMP

As I predominantly work with Apache/PHP/MySQL sites, having a development environment is key to everyday coding. If you are not a web designer/developer, this isn’t going to be much use to you, so I’ll let you skip to the next app.

Leopard comes with Apache/PHP/MySQL pre-installed, just not enabled. I used to use XXAMP on Windows for my development environment, but their Mac version is still very new, so I opted to try MAMP after failing to really get to grips with the default OS X installations (config file nightmare).

MAMP is very simple. You install it, you install the widget, you pick your default root directory for websites and then you’re off. Simple as that.

If like me, you want a little more control, you probably could do with upgrading to MAMP Pro, or if like me, you are feeling a little adventurous, you can use your existing apache knowledge to customise the shipped httpd.conf and your hosts file to get multiple Virtual Hosts. It just takes some of the headache out of setting up the environment.

gReader Theme (from HicksDesign.co.uk)

So this isn’t strictly a piece of mac software. I used to use it on Windows, and all it is a theme for Google Reader, but none the less, it makes the rather stark, white and blue interface a little more appealing.

For the sake of copying a CSS file into your Application Support folder, it will make your feed reader a much happier place to be.

Transmit

Cyberduck, I’m sorry to say, for me is dead, and Panic’s Transmit is the way forward. Trev has recommended this little FTP client to me again and again, but it wasn’t until last week I downloaded the trial version and have been FTPing gloriously ever since.

There are some great little features such as semi-direct FTP from one server to another. If you’ve ever had to switch servers, you’ll probably know how much double checking you have to do to make sure you have all the files you wanted – but this seems to be a thing of the past with Transmit. Again, full Quicksilver integration and ‘droplets’ which allow in-Finder drag-and-drop uploads a breeze.

Quicksilver

If you saw my last list, you’ll realise I’m repeating myself here, but Quicksilver really does need another mention. In terms of time-saving, this app is just awesome.

The development stalled for a long while, but is now back on track as an open-source project, and despite the improvement’s to Leopard’s Spotlight feature, it’s not quite time to give up on Quicksilver. Especially with the new and rather suave Cube theme (install from the plugins pane)

For those who don’t know what Quicksilver is, it’s a application launcher and system indexer that allows access to practically any aspect of your mac in a matter of keystrokes. Ctrl + Space brings up a floating menu that you can use to locate any application, file or folder, then carry out pretty much any action upon it.

Want to open a word document without trawling the filesystem – you can. Want to instantly bluetooth sync your phone – can do. Want to create a new text file on the fly – completely possible.

If you can get into using it, it will speed up your workflow.

iWork, Numbers

Since my last evaluation of Apple’s own iWork suite, the addition of Numbers, the spreadsheet application has added to the desirability of the package. Much in the same vein as the other offerings, it makes a good all-round accountancy log.

Generally, iWork’s ability to handle Microsoft Office documents is fantastic, but I wish that saving files back into their original .doc, .xls and .pps formats wasn’t quite so much of a clicking-trail.

Actually, I’m not fully decided on my choice of office suite at the moment. Matt recommended NeoOffice as a suitable replacement to the rather clunky basic OpenOffice app, and which I found useful for a while, but Google Docs has actually proved it’s weight in gold over the past few months when I’ve collaborated on projects that were separated by the Atlantic Ocean.

Bento

Now this is a odd one. I’m not really recommending it as such (it’s not fully baked yet), but more expressing my intrigue as to this new, preview-only app from Apple-subsidiary, Filemaker.

Bento, which is named after the compartmentalised Japanese lunchbox (think sushi/sashimi), neatly and smartly fills the gap in iWork that Access bulkily fills in Microsoft Office.

I say this because it is not a power-user application, but if as I suspect, it does become part of the iWork suite, I think it will become indispensable at home and in the office.

Until now, creating a database has really been the preserve of the software engineer, but this very elegantly and simply allows anyone to tap directly into their existing Mac databases (your media collection, your Address Book and iCal) and combine that data with your own custom collections of information to provide new and exciting catalogues and databases.

The examples provided are things such as sports-team tracking, room-booking, class-monitoring – all the sorts of things until now might have required a much heavier-duty and costly solution.

This is definitely one to watch.

Honourable Mentions

New to Transmit, I am also new to Panic’s other major offering, Coda. I’m in the process of looking at scaling down my current editing processes to something a little less heavy, and this program appears quite promising. I have to admit, I’m not entirely sold – inline editing such as tag wrapping and auto-completion lacks somewhat, but the file-management aspect is a definite plus. I’m still undecided whether this is my next purchase.

Automator for a long time wasn’t on my list of favourite applications. I struggled to see it’s use. Macro recording was one of the things I sorely missed from Windows 3.1 onwards, yet Automator still seemed to be taking a step backwards.

However…

I have since discovered the wonders of what can be done with Applescript in combination with Automator, and have produced some nice little routines which I now use to maintain my photo collection, my development environment and well, not much else at the moment, but I do have a list of things I want to try and batch up in the near future.

Productivity Tips

There are a few other little productivity tips I would like to share now also.

Active Screen Corners/Hotspots

OS X allows you to setup four hotspots on your screen (each corner) where, if you thrust your mouse, you can control certain Expose and screen functions. This is great if you need to quickly disable your screensaver, turn on your screensaver or sleep your screen – all things I need to do regularly. To set them up, visit the System Preferences > Expose & Spaces.

Inserting Odd Characters

As a Windows user, I used to know all those useful keycodes for strange characters. OK, well I knew two – the copyright symbol (Alt + 0169) and (Alt + 0232). Exciting eh?

Well for a convert, this is all different now, so I thought it might be worth mentioning that if you quickly need to insert the copyright symbol on a mac, it's Alt + g (not really logical is it?), and to add an accent is far easier than remembering a whole code – Alt + e once, then just follow it with the letter you want to accent (such as an a, e or u).

Other diacritic marks are achieved with other Alt + combinations, but a good way of making sure you can reference these shortcuts quickly is to enable the language icon in the menu bar, which provides very quick drop-down links to the Keyboard Viewer and Character Palette. Do this in System Preferences > International > Input Menu and tick the two options mentioned. A little British (or other) flag will appear next to the date.

Making The Date Better

Talking of the date – it always annoyed me in Windows that I had to hover to get the correct date, and on Mac to have to click on the menu bar time. A problem no longer. Taken from a Lifehacker tip, simply open the International System Preferences pane as in the previous tip, but select the Formats tab instead.

Now click on the Customise button in the Dates section. Change the show drop-down to Medium, then copy the contents of text field below.

Cancel the page, then click on the Customise button in the Times section. Once again, select Medium from the drop down, then paste in the copied block in front of the time. Press OK and see the date magically display next to the time in the address bar.

If you are a Leopard user, you may also have noticed that the iCal icon now updates the date in real time if you keep it in the dock, but I still quite like it up in the top right-hand corner.

Navigating Menus Using The Keyboard

I could continue to go on at length about this, but you’re probably bored stiff if you’ve even got this far, so I will conclude with this final Leopard-only tip.

Press Ctrl + Shift + ? on most applications and the help menu will drop down. Now start typing what you are looking to do. Copy, Paste, New Smart Folder (this is how I discovered this) and the help menu will not only show appropriate topics, but also the menu item you might be looking for. Another couple of keystrokes to select the item might have stopped you from touching the mouse all together.

Conclusion

There are loads of brilliant little apps and shortcuts out there, and these are just the ones I like/find indispensable. If you have others, feel free to share (until the comments close).

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Being as it’s been a week and a bit since I installed Leopard, I thought I’d share my thoughts.

As an ex-Windows user, upgrades in OS X tend to be less visually different than the ones for their Microsoft counterparts. Rather than re-skinning the whole interface, they instead have a more evolutionary approach to the process.

I’m not overly excited by the new translucent menu bar, the rounded corners and gradients on the context menus, the new screensaver features, the shiny dock or the black Apple button, but it does add enough to make you feel like you have upgraded; at least a little bit.

Apple touts version 10.5 as including 300 new features, but you won’t realistically notice most of these on a day to day basis. That said, there are some very nice additions, and one or two annoying ones.

Time Machine

Time Machine, like most reviewers have reported, is bliss. Backup is a nightmare for me and to be able to just whizz back through a collection of files until I get the one I want is far superior to my current methods (running tailored Windows BAT files, and on my MacBook, occasionally copying the contents over when I remember). I probably would have liked a little more control over the setup, the ability to publish to a wireless drive (apparently this feature was originally to be included, but then pulled for the final release) and also a way to change the regularity of the backups on certain folders.

Terminal

Terminal can now be made a lot prettier, and I think it’s possible to load up custom windows at startup, but so far I haven’t been able to figure it out. If I do, I will be very happy.

Coverflow, Quicklook & Network Access

Coverflow for files – now that is awesome. Speed-wise it’s like greased lightening and to be able to visually go through several hundred web files in realtime and pick the correct one is ridiculously nice. I also absolutely love the fact this is not restricted to the machine I am using. Machine-sharing has become ludicrously easy and I can use Coverflow on not only the contents of the other Macs on my network, but also the Windows machines too.

The new networking benefits improve screen sharing (Remote Desktop style) too, and it’s much nicer than using VNC. Super speedy too over my wireless network.

Although Quicklook is sold as a feature of it’s own, it’s just another implementation of the technology used in Coverflow, but again is super quick and very nice to use, although I did have to customise my toolbar in order to get the icon to appear.

Finder

I always used to read that people hated the default Finder application, but my only problem with it was the lack of a working ‘Cut’ function. Well, that still appears to be missing, so no happier there, but the newly laid out views and search tools are fantastic and a much welcome upgrade to the old one.

Speed

I can’t really tell much how much speed improvement I have over my old installation, but it does seem quicker, and I don’t think I could ever have said that about my previous Windows upgrade experiences. That said, boot up seems to take about the same amount of time, but as my Macbook stays on sleep mostly, that’s not really a problem – actually if anything I think it wakes faster now.

iTunes

Of course, since I didn’t overly praise the visual elements above, I’ll have to make some sickening applause of something eye-candyish, so it’ll be the new iTunes visualisations. There are a handful to choose from, and they are stunning. I mean really stunning.

iCal

iCal has received a nice refresh that hasn’t alienated me too much (which is just as well as it is one of my most frequently used apps) and now has a more sensible use of screen real-estate – allowing the changes to events to be made ‘inline’ rather than occupying a drawer that used to take up a quarter of the screen. I’m also enjoying publishing my calendars to the web, although I’m unsure if that is a new feature, or just something that became more obviously labelled in Leopard.

Stacks

I’ve not found much use for the Stacks feature yet, but I have a feeling it will come in more use as I start using my iMac for major development work. I can see potential for dropping current project folders down there for ease of access.

Mail

Lots of Mail users appear very happy, but it’s not an app I use at the moment, mainly because Yahoo! don’t yet offer IMAP (and they better do soon because these GMail types are making me weep now). I will use it as soon as the doors are opened (I could use POP, but it’s just too limiting).

Issues – Skype, Firewall, Dock, Quicksilver & Growl

I have fallen foul of a few compatibility problems however. Skype hasn’t been working and I found out that is because I had turned on the OS’s firewall. Leopard’s firewall is controversially off by default, but setting it to anything other than ‘allow all incoming connections’ makes the Skype icon bounce twice before quitting automatically. No explanation given. A reinstall solves it, but then a restart means you have to reinstall again. It’s a rubbish situation. Turning off the firewall and a reinstall apparently solves this, but it’s not ideal.

Another minor issue for me is that Quicksilver now appears in the dock permanently and there doesn’t appear to be anyway of removing it (I really don’t need anything else clogging it up). If you are using Quicksilver, make sure you upgrade to the newest version now, as there has been some issue in the old one pinging the author’s server so much that it has taken the site down. You will need to download the new version from the link posted here.

In the old dock, running applications used to be marked with a very obvious little black arrow. Initially I though this had been totally removed, but it turns out it has been replaced with a thoroughly wimpy glowing puddle. If there is one thing I really want back, it’s an obvious way of telling which apps are running.

I had an issue with the Candybar theme in Growl not displaying any text, but switching to any other theme seemed to solve that. Apart from these handful of irritations, I have been genuinely impressed with the upgrade and yet to discover anything truly horrible.

So far, loving it.

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The reason this is probably one of only a handful of reviews of this product at this time is that I am lucky enough to have become one of the first forty people in the UK to own a fully-fledged, working PocketSurfer2.

This device has been in development for a number of years and trying to find out much about it’s predecessor (not launched in the UK) is fairly fruitless.

This newer incarnation of the PocketSurfer certainly boasts an impressive array of features. On-the-go, free* internet anywhere on a mobile-sized device, with GPS built in. Using a compression technology it claims it can load full-content web pages in 7-9 seconds, including Flash, Java and Ajax content as it was intended. This doesn’t sound like your standard mobile-web experience.

This isn’t a phone though. The PocketSurfer2 is a standalone unit which has a gloss-black and chrome clamshell design which inside sports a full, backlight QWERTY keyboard that will be familiar to anyone who has seen the keypad on a Motorola RZR.

The screen is an odd postbox size, but shows 640 true pixels in standard mode, or a full page using the nifty zoom button. Depending on how the site was constructed this can reduce the font-size below reading size, however that’s not really the point of the feature, which allows you to see a single full-width page at anytime.

The PocketSurfer isn’t 3G, or EDGE for that matter, but instead uses GPRS. GPRS? Isn’t that a bit 2001? Well it would be if Datawind, the company who manufacturers the product, wasn’t doing something interesting with it. By downloading the pages to their servers first, they repackage the full site (as seen in Internet Explorer 6) and send it to the device, very, very quickly. They claim that no other PDA or smartphone device is faster, and earlier in the year challenged anyone to prove them wrong. Apparently no one could contest it.

Unfortunately this still isn’t proper 3G and true streaming isn’t possible, so video or Skype calls are out of the question (there is no audio output anyway).

My usual upload/download speed benchmarking didn’t work because it measures the connection speed of the server, but suffice to say, I have been impressed with the general loading times, and yes most of what I’ve been accessing has arrived within a 9 second timeframe.

You are initially logged onto a homepage which you have no control over (it’s full of links to useful services, unfortunately you can’t customise this page; annoying as the useful services I use aren’t linked to). This isn’t a major issue, and you can see why they have done it (sponsored links), but thankfully as most of their software is based on the server and not actually on the PocketSurfer, meaning updates can be done at their end without having to go through the rigmarole of firmware updates.

The PocketSurfer essentially acts like Remote Desktop, in that you are pretty much in control of a remote virtual machine. After a little bit of playing I discovered I could get into the backend of the system and navigate around Windows on the Virtual Machine that is my user area, but most of it has been locked down, and I am assured by Datawind that is it not a security issue.

Because of this VM nature, you can open PDF, Word, Excel and other files using the native viewers installed on the server (Adobe Reader for example). Downloading other files is limited (don’t expect to install anything) but on the whole it does enough to make most normal internet-surfing tasks a possibility.

There are a few drawbacks however. The pre-release information regarding PocketSurfer2 described the inclusion of 25GB of free storage space, the ability to control your PC remotely and editing facilities for Office documents. Whilst this is true, it is all done through 3rd party online software which you have to create separate accounts with, and are not at all optimised for the device. With the more than obvious comparisons that will be made to the internet access aspects of the iPhone/iPod Touch, the lack of inclusive features (at least automatic account creation for each of these services) is a big omission. It makes the homepage links look like an old fashioned web portal from 1996, each one prompting you to sign up for their own service.

The additional apps which aren’t third party are for webmail (supporting POP3, IMAP and HTTP) and for multi IM use, and they are Java applications. Like all Java apps, a little clunky, but functional none the less.

Trying to access the facebook iPhone app wasn’t particularly successful, and I soon established that this is because the pages are not being rendered using the most up-to-date version of Internet Explorer (IE6 it transpires). Doing a little digging into the page code it’s quite clear that the current portal stuff hasn’t been ‘designed’ or put together by anyone who understands web standards, both of which are unfortunate because the device is capable of displaying it. With really great mini browsers like Opera Mini available for most phones, it seems silly to be using out of date software.

Some of the interface leaves something to be desired. Mobile web has always been patchy, but the implementation of bookmarks is just plain ugly – a concoction of firmware, web and windows backend. Support told me that they hadn’t quite worked out how to deploy user profiles without slowing the device down at boot, but to me the answer is simple. Ditch the bastardised Windows Favourites and create a fully web based system allowing users to store their list of links in with their user profiles and account information, cutting out the need to wait for windows user profiles to load.

GPS works well, but unfortunately is functionally limited at the moment, and currently their is no API to write your own apps (maybe a little optimistic). However it’s implementation with Google Maps makes me hopeful of what can be achieved, and I’m looking forward to the software update (hopefully a ‘find directions from here’ using postcode application…).

There is a slight hum when using the device, but it’s barely noticeable, and the keyboard/screen illuminates only while using the keys meaning better preservation of the battery which lasts a day on sleep. Charging unfortunately isn’t indicated as you might expect – a light does come on, but it’s internal, and you can only see it if you open the mysterious second rubber flap next to the charging slot (rumoured to accept memory cards in future models).

Functionally, I wish there was the ability to use left, right, up and down keys, because although tab is fine, sometimes I want to correct something I’ve typed without having to pick up the cursor to locate the error. Similarly, there is no use of standard browser/interface shortcuts (even though there are Ctrl and Shift keys for other tasks) so ticking boxes using spacebar, copy and pasting are all nos. The lack of right click doesn’t pose any practical problem really, so I haven’t been fussed about missing that.

Strangely and clumsily they have opted to leave a huge status bar across the top edge of the screen, which essentially only serves to display a logo and two or three indicators which are unnecessarily stacked on top of each other. Had they been placed linearly, they could have halved the size of it and increased screen real estate.

The keyboard is fantastic (apart from the space key on mine which doesn’t give any tactile response unlike the other keys) and the implementation of a 8-way mouse control (like on a SNES) is unfortunate, but I assume that might be remedied in a future model. Clearly it would have increased production costs though. That said, no WiFi seems an odd omission being as the Canadian makers admitted it would only cost them another $10 to include it.

Overall, the PocketSurfer is very handy and allows you to see more of the net, in more places, faster, for less money, in better quality than any other comparable device. However, they should have employed an interface architect and a proper HTML/CSS coder to put together their software, especially in a world where people expect as much from the software as they do from the hardware.

At the moment there is still some work to be done, but it appears that most of it can be done serverside if they are willing to do so. Hopefully this means in the next few weeks and months we will see the updates needed to make the system truly sound, and the addition of a touch of ‘user delight’ that it currently lacks. See these changes, and the rating could rise to 4/5 stars.

*Free means inclusive with the price of the unit, the �179.99 price tae includes 20hrs usage a month, or �5.99 p/m subscription to make your usage unlimited. It’s �40 for a second year with the same 20hr p/m dataplan.

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So probably the most anticipated music of the year for me arrived a couple of weeks back in the form of the Foo Fighter’s first studio album in two years.

If you know I’m a big fan, you probably won’t be surprised to learn I pre-ordered and played the thing on repeat for a couple of days and on a couple of longish train journeys.

For me, The Foos are at their best when on their ‘rock’ setting – I didn’t buy the Skin and Bones album which was released last year – not that I wouldn’t want it to make a complete set, but I wasn’t overly impressed with the second (acoustic) CD from their In Your Honour album.

Maybe they overdid it, providing too much material to digest, but thankfully their newest (one CD album) really impresses, including the slower stuff.

Knowing that I love their stuff anyway, writing an unbiased review is not straight forward, although I can be pragmatic comparing it their back catalogue, and overall I think it falls perfectly.

I won’t individually dissect all the tracks on the album, but here are my pick:

• The Pretender – The first track released, the first on the album. A piece that crescendos to a great punchy and scream-along chorus.
• Statues – The slowest pace I like from the Foos, this is one of the more relaxed pieces, and very easy listening.
• Long Road To Ruin – Starts with some fantastic opening lyrics, soon launching into a memorable chorus and although I didn’t warm to it immediately, now my second favourite track.
• Summer’s End – Ok, so other’s have called this country and western but I think that’s unfair. A late-summer feel good track (like Stereophonics – Daktota) that seems to be keeping it’s appeal now the nights are drawing in.
• Erase/Replace – Rock again, feels like something from One By One and really enjoyable. Only problem is the title – Erase/Replace reminds me of Erase and Rewind by The Cardigans, a song I mysteriously find hard to tolerate for no good reason.
• Cheer Up Boys (Your Make Up Is Running) – Poking fun at the Emo crowd apparently, I just like the chorus…

So that’s my recommendation, and in terms of the album as a whole, a big thumbs up and most certainly some of their best stuff ever. It’s one of the main reasons I love this band – they can’t stop (at least partially) improving on their prior work.

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Well it took me forever to get around to seeing this film (it’s down to two showings a day now I think) and there were richer pickings on offer this summer in my opinion, but when Raj told me in the pub the other night that he had “seen it twice” and he’d “see it again” I thought it’d be a good way to make the most of an Orange Wednesday.

I’m one of those people who pays lip service to the Transformers cartoon in the eighties, but honestly, I can’t really remember too much of it. I remember the merchandising and toys more than watching the programme. Optimus Prime, the Deceptacons, the Autobots – are all familiar though – as is the basic but enjoyable fantasy concept of mechanical objects turning into something living.

This isn’t an intellectual film that plays out complicated characterisations, but that doesn’t matter in the slightest. You come to see this if you want to be swept along, not challenged.

The two main assets of the film are the humour (which is spot on, both obvious and subtle throughout) and most certainly the eye candy. It wasn’t unintentional to cast a leading lady as a hotpantted greasemonkey me thinks (thinks back to Gone In 60 Seconds). Nor was the choice to pick some damn sexy cars. The combination only makes me despair at the thought of all those MAX Power girls who wouldn’t consider picking up an oily rag let alone hotwire a pickup. The zesty Camaro sort of puts my “Matchbox” Polo to shame (though it does give me hope that it might one day flash blueish and morph into a Mustang).

The special effects are stunning and the camera work showcases the true graphic reality/hyper-reality fluidity achievable movies now – I think it’s fantastic. I would have left the cinema thoroughly convinced that the robots were completely real had it not been for a barrage of of unashamedly cheesy lines that clearly drew a direct decent from the action genre of the 1980s. I think the piece de resistance for me had to be “you’re a soldier now” – brilliance.

It’ll be a shame if they make a sequel to Transformers, but it is inevitable of course. It will only be following the tradition that started twenty five years ago when a box office smash is followed by two equally high grossing films that nobody actually enjoyed or rated. Be that as it may, it doesn’t devalue this film which is a piece of happy action, and my only regret is that I didn’t see it on IMAX.

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I’ve finished Return To Tibet , Heinrich Harrer’s second book on his time in Tibet. Written in the early eighties, soon after the border was reopened for the first time since the Cultural Revolution (1960s), this book is a completely different animal to his first volume, Seven Years in Tibet .

For a start this not a story – more of an account – and it only spans but a couple of weeks. By far the most significant change though is how much more political this is than Seven Years.

Harrer clearly was disgusted by many of the changes since the time he spent there, and although the physical destruction of the country’s heritage clearly appals him, I also found his negative attitude towards the Tibetans who collaborated with the Chinese revealing. In the first book there is little in the way of a personal revelation – much of what he says is very matter of fact – but here we learn his opinions on the Tibetans in general. If you can believe anything of the film in relation to his personal behaviour, it is clear why he now expresses his admiration for the Khampas (out-of-city warrior tribes) and belittles those who co-operated with the Chinese invaders in order to save themselves.

I wasn’t so sure of the book format this time – many of the chapters are of unequal length and at times Harrer repeats himself, but by the final sections I definitely was reaping the benefit of his insights. The more I have read, the more I have found his story ingratiating. With it being nearly 25 years since this second book was written, it is interesting to now compare my own experiences with his.

This book is not to be tackled without first reading Seven Years, and doesn’t quite grip you in the same way, at least initially and certainly if you are more interested in a good story than reminiscing on the past, the airing of personal regrets (if circumstances had been different) and conversations with Buddhist lamas on the level of oppression suffered by their countryfolk.

Overall I enjoyed it, although not as much as the first book. It had that same appeal of the ‘Seven Up’ television series – with a genuinely worthwhile gap left between instalments (unlike the distance between Charlotte Church’s two autobiographies).

Harrer died in January last year, which is a shame as there are many questions that seem unanswered and especially in relation to the differences between the books and the 1997 film portrayal. I don’t have anything concrete to back this up with, but after reading this second book I get the impression Harrer probably wasn’t too dissimilar from his portrayal on the screen.

His full autobiography is due out this year, so I’m hoping to get my hands on a copy. In the meanwhile, I’m going to have to locate some other reading material…

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