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As lots of other blogs are reporting, satellite imagery provider Digital Globe, yesterday launched WorldView I - company’s latest high resolution earth observing satellite which joins the likes of QuickBird in a 500km-ish orbit, with the mission of providing pictures of your house for Google. Those of you blessed with the ability to play Advances System Format videos can watch a video of the launch here. If the video doesn’t play, dowload VLC. On Ubuntu/Debain do:

sudo aptitude install vlc mozilla-plugin-vlc

and sit back and enjoy.

Rumors were rife amongst delegates at this summer’s StateoftheMap conference about Google’s satellite launching ambitions. Maybe its Google’s proximity to and friendlyness with NASA or maybe their sponsorship the X-Prize to land a vehicle on the Moon that makes the idea of Google-in-space seem not that far fetched at all.

In Septmber 2005 I moved into a flat at 50 Maple Street, London:

Regent 2000 Properties - find your dream home

I was about to start a Masters degree course at UCL, which is just accross the road. I was an undergraduate student in London between 2000 and 2003, but from 2003 to 2005 I had worked and lived in East Africa, Ireland and Leeds. In September 2005, I had just enough time and money to spare two days to find a flat in London.

Finding a flat in London, on a student budget is not easy. I had up to £500 per month to spend on accomodation and travel costs, which really doesn’t buy you that much. To make matters worse, September is probably the worst possible time to try to find a new flat in London, as the influx of students ramp up demand. On the second day of looking, I walked into the offices of Regent 2000 Properties Ltd, in Camden. I was greeted by the Director of Regent 2000 Properties, a Mr Fahmy Elgamal, who performed a fantastic peiec e of Estate craft / am dram, and told me that I was ‘just in time’ to let one of their ‘best properties’ - a two floor flat at 50 Maple Street.

Shabby but cheap

The flat at Maple Street was shabby and poorly maintained, but it was available, very close to the university and above all, it was cheap. When I say cheap, I mean that I was to pay around £100 per week for a 3.5m*2m room, in a 4 bedroom, one bathroom, one kitchen house. There was no living room, but you rarely find a place in London for £100 per week, including travel costs that has one.

So we singed the contract, transferred the £2000 odd deposit (one months rent between 4 people) and I got back onto the train to Leeds.

October 2005 - the leaking begins

Everything that follows, was submitted to the Central London County Court on the 22nd June 2007. I have changed to names of the people I lived with to protect their identities. I have not changed any other details. My full statement to the Court can be found here.

On the 16th October, the leaking began. Water leaked from the roof, down the kitchen wall for days at a time. I phoned, emailed and wrote to the Landlord repeatedly, and they eventually sent a workman around. This is an exceprt from a document I prepared for the Court:

After phoning Regent 2000 Properties, the letting agents who deal with the letting and maintenance of the property, several times they had not sent any representatives to inspect or repair the leak. On Thursday 20th October 2005, I sent an email to Regent 2000 Properties stating:

“With regards to the water that is dripping down the wall - it is now dripping at a rate of one pint per 2.5 hours. Again, I am not trying to irritate you or anger you by telling you this. I have a legal duty as a [t]ennant to inform the landlord of such matters immediately. I have a family background in building surveying and water like this can cause permanent structural damage.”

By Saturday 22nd October 2005, Regent 2000 claimed to have repaired the leaking roof. However, there was now a growth of fungus in the area circled in blue on the sketch floor plan. Over the next few weeks the entire west wall of the kitchen became more and more increasingly damp, a fowl smell developed in the kitchen and the fungus began to decompose, which attracted flies.

This is documented in an email from Nicholas Black to Regent 2000 Properties, sent on the 22nd November 2005:

“Due to the leaking water almost a month ago there are dead mushrooms rotting in our kitchen, above the only shelves we have to keep food on. As you have so far failed to take action about this, we have contacted Camden Council with our concerns.”

This was the course of things for the next 6 months. Water would leak through the ceiling, I would complain, I would be ignored. Eventually a workman would come - often after I had waiting at the flat for hours with no one turning up. When they arrived, the workmen usually couldn’t speak enough English for me to be able to explain the problem to them. They usually had no, or very few tools, and they never managed to stop the water from leaking from the ceiling.

A wet start to the New Year

After a wet January, the kitchen ceiling collapsed on the 8th February 2006, showering an assortment of rotten plaster, wood, insulation, fungus and water all over the kitchen. We were unable to cook or even to access the kitchen for several days. When workmen eventually turned up, some days later, they simply nailed new plasterboard onto the still-damp joists. A new water stain appeared on the ceiling within hours of the workers leaving.

Bear in mind that whilst all of this is going on, I am trying to study for a Masters Degree in Geographic Information Science - I am studying for 12+ hours a day and battling with my land lord at the same time.

Here is another excerpt from the document I prepared for the Court:

My concerns about the inadequacies of the repair to the kitchen were confirmed on the 25th February 2006, when water leaking into the kitchen caused a light bulb to burn out. The incident is documented in the following email, sent by Nicholas Black to Regent 2000 Properties on the 26th February 2006:

“Last night leaking water caused the light bulb in the kitchen to burn out, leaving exposed live electric wires. This is an extremely dangerous situation as there is the potential for water to leak over exposed live electric cables. We can also not use the kitchen when it is dark as there is no light. Please send a qualified electrician to fix the problem and to determine the exact cause. “

Reading over the emails I sent and the document I prepared for the Court, its really hard to believe that this ever happened, but it did. By the end of February, water had been leaking down the kitchen wall for 4 months. The ceiling had collapsed once, mushrooms had grown, died, rotten and began to grow again. Now there was a live electric cable sticking out of the ceiling, with water dripping over it. Think it can’t get any worse, wait until the next installment.

Comming up next…

• Health inspectors are called
• My bedroom ceilling collapses
• I file my case with the Court

It just gets worse…

Hell yeah.

I’m talking at tonight’s Minibar about the api that ZXV produced for eCourier.co.uk. Come along, I hear there’s free beer.

After that, I’m off to San Francisco for Where 2.0, and I’ll also be at the Google Developer’s Day at Mountain View.

Maybe catch up with some people along the way?

Nor even Manhattan space. Fillling out my "Family Doctor Registraion" this morning, I see the question: "[Do you] live more than 1 mile in a straight line from the nearest chemist?" Oh Dear. The NHS could do with some kind of information system that stores geographic information.

Steve has ensured that I go for a mammoth 3 blog postings in one day, as I spread the 5 things you didn’t know meme:

1. After graduating from UCL in 2003, I won a graduate scholarship with the British Institute in East Africa, a research body who conduct Archaeological, Historical and Geographic research in East Africa. I got the chance to work in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and got my first exposure to sordid world of GIS and surveying, helping run mapping and surveying projects in Laikipia and Engaruka.
2. I have a strange aversion to honey-comb and some other organic materials that have repeating patterns. The aversion is so servere that I have not been able to research the problem on the web for fear of seeing an image of a honey-comb
3. I have always had an interest in music, playing the saxophone and piano and have experimented with electronic production, under the producer alias CubicSphere. More recently I’ve turned to Djing and organised a night last year.
4. In 2002 I was the Treasurer of ARSE - The Association of Ramsay Street Enthusiasts - a ULU society that I started with the aim of diverting as much cash from the University of London’s coffers into my body via beer. The union were bankrupt that year due to administrative ineptness, so the project died. The Freshers Fayre was fun though.
5. I have a long-standing problem with authority, which has always caused me trouble and has recently manifested into a tendency to argue with the police. They nearly always deserve it!

   I choose…

   Rich, Tom, Dan, Chippy and, err, thats it.