New year, same old problems...

Arriving back at work and summarily dismissing all the emails that had piled up while I was away, I discovered I'd been scheduled to meet with Altair to discuss a problem that had been seen over the Christmas period.

Unfortunately our visitors were caught up in traffic after the M5 was closed in both directions following a kerosene tanker crash, arriving at mid-day just as we were all thinking about lunch. Which, fortunately for me, gave me enough time to familiarise myself with the basics of the situation before the start of our much-delayed meeting.

Farewell, Pierre Boulez

With the death of Pierre Boulez, one of the towering figures of 20th century music — both as a composer and as a conductor — what else to play but part of Pli selon pli?

The Guardian has a substantial obit and a shorter piece from Andrew Clements focusing on Boulez compositional output.