Status-Q

Well, OK, landlines are almost gone already, but their demise took another big step closer with AT&T's testing of a $150 3G femtocell.

If femtocells haven't played a big role in your life so far, let me explain, because they probably will do in the future. These are little cellphone base stations that you plug into your broadband network and, hey presto, give you mobile coverage in your home or office. Your phone can use them in just the same way as it would use a traditional cellphone tower, and the calls get routed over the broadband to the mobile service provider. Goodbye DECT.

I live about a mile from the centre of the UK's high-tech hub, Cambridge, and still get pretty patchy coverage in my house from most of the major providers. It's a disgrace, but soon devices like these will allow us to fix the phone companies' failings. At our own cost, of course, but that's better than not being able to make calls at all.

Anyone trialling them in the UK?

Cambridge was a seething, bubbling broth of tourists and language students today – more than I can remember in a long time. They were trying to go in all of these directions. At once. I had to push my bike along a few streets because it was pointless trying to ride it.

Normally I know better than to go into town on a sunny Saturday morning, but I had promised myself a new camera lens. Very pleased with it so far…

This time, the River Cam, on a day when the water was unusually clear.

Back home, jetlagged but happy. And back to a rediscovered Cambridge insitution... I was delighted to hear recently that Domenic - the hairdresser who nobly strove for nearly twenty years my 'knotted and combined locks to part, and each particular hair to stand on end' - has come back from retirement and is working again, this time at 45 Newnham Road - about here - which is just around the corner from me. Splendid news. This information will be of very little interest to anybody outside Cambridge, but for those nearby desirous of the services of a gentleman's hairdresser, he comes highly recommended.

Any idea what this is?

It's a punt pole, with my camera attached to the end using a Gorillapod. Look, here's a close-up:

And why, you might ask, would you want to do this?

Well, when my pal Bill Thompson organised this year's geek punting picnic, PuntCon, I felt I needed to find a suitably geeky way to take a photo of the gathering. So I put my camera on a timer and raised the pole. It's a bit tricky to aim, but here is at least a part of the group:

Many thanks to Bill (and everyone else) for a most enjoyable afternoon.

I’ve always felt that one of the things I’d miss most if I ever left the UK for, say, America, is our network of public footpaths. I’ve spent many a happy weekend afternoon on them, discovering places I’d never seen before.

An example from this afternoon for all you Cambridge residents. Where, within 10 miles of the city centre, can you find white limestone cliffs? You can’t see them from the road.

They’re a lot more dramatic than they look here, too.

But as well as drama this afternoon, there was beauty:

And history:

and cuteness:

But the cutest moment came near the end of my walk when, hearing lots of cheeping coming from the river, I went closer and saw a couple of swans and three cygnets heading homewards:

There was quite a current, and the little one were having to work hard to keep up.

But no, wait, I was mistaken. Four cygnets:

One had obviously found the current a bit too much and had to be given a lift.

They headed off in the evening sun.

And so did I.

More photos here.

Yesterday I visited the Møller Centre here in Cambridge.

Interesting architecture, and a great view from the tower:

There's some other quite interesting architecture visible if we zoom in to the right:

The buildings on the right are the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, and the other tower, on the left, is the University Library, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, who created several other rather Stalinist-looking buildings but redeemed himself by designing the iconic British red telephone box.

Giles was continuing in the family business - his father was also an architect responsible for some notable buildings, and his grandfather designed the Midlands Grand Hotel which formed the front of St Pancras' Station. Now, that is something to be proud of... take a look!

Last month, my friends Gerry & Tessa took a picture of me working outside a Cambridge café. I knew nothing about it until our Christmas card from them arrived!

Kings Parade, Cambridge

There was an amazing light against a dark sky over Cambridge on Friday.