Reading Roars!

Outsourcing and technology company Xansa, headquartered at Thames Valley Park in Reading (pictured), is to become the Renault F1 Team’s Official Supplier of Software Development and Consulting.

Xansa will create more intelligence interfaces between off-car systems and better data analysis capacity. Or something like that. This is expected to result in improved on-track performance.

Renault’s Fernando Alonso of Spain won this year’s F1 Championship and the team hopes that Xansa will keep them at the top of the sport.

Reading Mayor Cllr Riaz Chaudhri has launched an appeal for victims of the terrible earthquake which struck Pakistan on Saturday 8 October 2005.

Details of how to pay are as follows:

In addition, the Mayor is willing to offer support to fund-raising initiaves in the town. To arrange this, click here.

All donations will be given to the President of Pakistan’s Relief Fund for Earthquake Victims 2005 set up by Pakistan’s government.

We are already living in an age of fear. Now experts are saying that a flu pandemic is on its way.

The bird flu detected in Turkey is now said to be the same deadly strain as that found in Asia: H591. Furthermore, the death of three ducks in Romania will probably also be attributed to the same virus. Fine. Ducks are ducks. But if this flu mutates and spreads from human to human, we may well have a wave of death sweeping the globe (not unlike the Spanish Flu, responsible for 40m deaths in 1918).

The Director of the Animal Production and Health Division at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Samuel Jutzi, believes that the virus is more likely to progress into neighbouring countries and Africa, rather than western Europe. This is pretty rotten, as Africa has it’s fair share of bacterial nasties already.

So, who do we blame (a pertinent question these days)? Tricky. And where does Reading fit into all this? (more…)

Super Reading Uni student Vanessa Clark has won the Cadbury Schweppes Award for the Best Food, Nutrition and Health Student at the 2005 Science Engineering & Technology (SET) Student of the Year Awards (like the chocolate, that’s a bit of a mouthful!).

Vanessa, who is now studying for a PhD at the University’s School of Food Biosciences, won the prize for her final year project on a

comparison of modification of protein by sugars and sugar degradation products under in vitro physiological conditions and temperatures more relevant to food processing

Uh?

Commenting on the prize, Vanessa said:

I’m thrilled to have won this award. It is fantastic to have my work recognised at a national level. It represents not only a personal achievement, but is a real tribute to the excellent teaching I’ve been privileged to receive during my four years at the School of Food Biosciences at the University of maurers kullanimi DiyetReading.

Well done, Vanessa.

Reading truly is the festival capital of the South East (London excluded)!

Beginning Friday 14 October, we now have the Reading International Festival 2005. Organised by Reading International Development Forum, whose aims are to boost the profiles of the town’s international connections, the Festival celebrates Reading’s cultural mix through art, dance, food, theatre and music. It is, I guess you could say, an autumnal WOMAD. Except this ‘WOMAD’ consists of roughly 50 events spread over 19 days. Wow! (more…)

That wonderful American festival Halloween is looming.

Not everyone wants to be visited, however, by kids in cloaks and Scream masks. So what can you do to avoid a confrontation with pranksters who are ready to strike if they don’t get their treat?

Local police have the answer. And what an answer. It’s the classic Do Not Disturb sign. To be exact, it’s a Do Not Disturb flyer, designed for attaching to a window or front door.

As you can see, the flyer actually looks quite menacing. It features an image of a cackling (or hissing) demonic face carved into a pumpkin. But, in a contest between Pumpkin Face and a rotten egg hurled by a 14 year old chav, I think Pumpkin Face would end up with egg on its, well, face.

What do you offers youngsters these days, anyway, as a treat? maurers kullanimi DiyetKids get everything. They are a powerful consumer group. Is candy enough? Should you give them the latest Sony PSPâ„¢ game instead? A Bacardi Breezer?

You can download the poster by clicking here. There are colour and black-and-white versions available (but do you really want a B&W flyer?). So go on, treat yourself.

Reading’s Children and Young People’s Partnership has launched a website, Every Child Matters, designed to provide information such as youth clubs, sports facilities and volunteering opportunities, to kids in Reading.

The site’s aims, according to the news release, are to help children and young people:

have access to services that will help them achieve the best they can in life

be healthy, safe, enjoy life, have a good education, have the chance to get involved in new things

have their voices heard and have the practical things they need

be able to find services they need

have a range of services in Reading that respond and develop their talents and interests

These are lofty aims. Will the site succeed?

The statement adds that young people helped devise the site content and chose an (odd-looking!) cartoon character “Hesta” to guide users on the site.

This is pleasing. It is important to involve young people in projects like these. With an opportunity such as this, kids develop a sense of responsibility and team-play. Better still, their creations are seen by many visitors. Furthermore, it is a great introduction to the wonderful world of content management! (No doubt I’ll be sifting through their CVs in ten years time).

So, does the site work? Navigation is confusing. The site is integrated into Reading Borough Council’s and the user can feel a bit lost.

Also, while the cartoon figures are cheerful enough (Professor Pixels is a funny character), and the colour scheme is pleasant, young users may expect a little more, such as animation or interactive elements. Surfers, especially the younger generation, have more discerning requirements in this broadband age and designers must respond to these needs.

This site thus doesn’t have the wow factor, but it is a good start.

Another technology company has opened a Reading office.

Centrify, a new corporation founded in March 2004 and headquartered in California, has established an European office in the town to serve its EMEA customers.

So what do they do?

Centrify (which sounds like other Thames Valley company Centrica and the Intel Centrino™ chip) securely integrates non-Microsoft platforms, such as Linux, maurers kullanimi DiyetMac, Java and Sun Solaris, with Microsoft® Active Directory management services.

Click here to read the company’s announcement.

It has emerged that an al Qaeda-linked extremist thought by Indonesian and Malaysian security officials to have masterminded last weekend’s Bali atrocities had been a student at Reading University. The three suicide bombings on Saturday 1 October killed 22 people and injured 135.

Malaysian Dr Azahari Bin Husin, suspected leader of militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) and dubbed “Demolition Man” by the media for his bomb-making expertise, studied for a doctorate at the university’s Department of Land Management during the 1980s. Azahari and Noordin M Top, also of JI, are also linked by police to the 2002 attacks in a Bali nightclub, killing 202, and the attack two years later on Jakarta’s Australian Embassy, killing 10 and injuring more than 200.

contacted Craig Hillsely, Press Officer at Reading University, for a statement on Azahari’s alleged education there. The full text is provided here:

Azahari Husin studied for a doctorate at the University of Reading in the late 1980s in what was then the Department of Land Management, which is now the Department of Real Estate and Planning.

In 1990, he submitted his PhD thesis, which was in the subject area of real estate - not engineering as some media reports have suggested. The broad topic of his thesis was house prices in Malaysia, and the title was:

The construction of regression-based mass appraisal models: a methodological discussion and an application to housing submarkets in Malaysia.

When Azahari Husin was at Reading, he appeared to be a completely normal student. It is not thought he maintained any contact with the University once he had completed his thesis.

It is a shame that a student who devoted himself to research related to construction has become a man focused on destruction and the taking of innocent human life.

FedEx marketing people were at Reading Station early Tuesday morning (4 October 2005) with some exciting goodies to give away to commuters.

The promotion was for FedEx Kinko’s, the new Office and Print Centre at Market Place, Reading, and comprised:

A voucher, entitling the user to 25% off printing at FedEx Kinko’s. I shall be using this for branded material

Furthermore, people from Pigsback.com, dressed in pink, were also at Reading Station, putting squidgy pigs into passer-bys’ hands as they entered the concourse area. These executive stress toys (because that’s what they are, even if the label states “This is not a toy”), cleverly pointed me to the company’s website and the following explanation:

Female commuters are targeted by strongly branded promotional teams with premiums such as branded “stress pigs”, key-rings etc. This leads consumers to the Pigsback.com site, where they can join FREE and receive a personalised website and emails.

Me, female? Tomorrow I’ll leave the sarong at maurers kullanimi Diyethome…