Cold and dreary again this morning, and there was even a thin film of ice on the car windscreen so I had to deploy the scraper for the first time in weeks. It looks like the Easter weekend is going to be a bit of a washout, but that's only to be expected of an English bank holiday weekend. I'll be happy with a few days off and a bit of a rest, I think.
The software build at work got pushed back to the afternoons that we could get a few more things in. I think that we only missed one feature and picked up one bug that's been there for a while. Par for the course.
We bought Philip Pullman's new book 'The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ' as an enhanced edition audiobook/ebook from iTunes yesterday. This is an excellent way of buying a book, and for your £9.99 you get the full text of the book in an ebook reading app, the audio book which synchronises to the text and various other videos and interviews as extras. This means that you can switch between the text and audio at any point, set your own bookmarks and notes and search the text too. It's excellent value for money, I think.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Haikusday
The beams are ramped up
Collisions at full power
Atlas will observe
Seven TEV
The unimaginable
Has been imagined
Summer is welcomed
Heavy rain, wind, hail and the
Odd bolt of lightning
No one has the right
Not to be offended by
Freely expressed views
Busy day at work
Finishing code for release
As well as support
Standing on the bridge
Wearing samurai armour
Watching shooting stars
Collisions at full power
Atlas will observe
Seven TEV
The unimaginable
Has been imagined
Summer is welcomed
Heavy rain, wind, hail and the
Odd bolt of lightning
No one has the right
Not to be offended by
Freely expressed views
Busy day at work
Finishing code for release
As well as support
Standing on the bridge
Wearing samurai armour
Watching shooting stars
Monday, March 29, 2010
Slippery People
Cold and rainy this morning, and something of a shock to the system to be getting up in the dark again, but it wasn't too long before it brightened up a little outside and I'll happily swap that for the extra hour of light in the evening.
I thought that I'd reached my limit of outrage about the Catholic church, but the Pope has just pushed it up another notch by dismissing reports of the covering up of child rape as "petty gossip". The next time that somebody tells me that morality is only possible within religion I will shove those stinking, mealy mouthed words of the Pope down their throats. As far as I am concerned, *all* religions are whitened sepulchers filled with loathsome decay. That is not to say that there aren't good people who also happen to be religious, but they seem to be an increasingly rare breed, and by associating themselves with the vile public expressions of religions like Christianity and Islam they lose any shred of decency they may possess. Sorry, rant over for now.
In slightly happier news, I've spent a bit more time playing Assassin's Creed II, reaching a gloriously daft mission where you get to fly Leonardo Da Vinci's flying machine across Venice, kicking archers off of roof tops and then swooping back to land inside the Palazzo Ducale. This could very well be up there with my other top gaming moments including the casino heist from San Andreas and the end of Bioshock. Aces.
I thought that I'd reached my limit of outrage about the Catholic church, but the Pope has just pushed it up another notch by dismissing reports of the covering up of child rape as "petty gossip". The next time that somebody tells me that morality is only possible within religion I will shove those stinking, mealy mouthed words of the Pope down their throats. As far as I am concerned, *all* religions are whitened sepulchers filled with loathsome decay. That is not to say that there aren't good people who also happen to be religious, but they seem to be an increasingly rare breed, and by associating themselves with the vile public expressions of religions like Christianity and Islam they lose any shred of decency they may possess. Sorry, rant over for now.
In slightly happier news, I've spent a bit more time playing Assassin's Creed II, reaching a gloriously daft mission where you get to fly Leonardo Da Vinci's flying machine across Venice, kicking archers off of roof tops and then swooping back to land inside the Palazzo Ducale. This could very well be up there with my other top gaming moments including the casino heist from San Andreas and the end of Bioshock. Aces.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
- 18:35 twitpic.com/1bbrqv - Can't the paparazzi leave me alone on #caturday ? #
- 18:42 I just conquered "Triple-U" in geoDefense Swarm! bit.ly/SfWey #
- 09:01 I just conquered "Chromasome" in geoDefense Swarm! bit.ly/SfWey #
- 13:17 I just conquered "The Groove" in geoDefense Swarm! bit.ly/SfWey #
Only Time
So summer time is here, and the livin' is easy. At least in theory.
I woke up this morning and was a bit disconcerted to see that according to the clock it was half past four and just starting to get light outside. It took me a while to twig that I had actually put it back an hour instead of forward - doh! Still, at least I am back to my proper body clock time now with lighter evenings to enjoy.
The walk in the woods was a bit on the stressful side. We were leaving the woods at the point where the path narrows with Barney on a short lead as usual, when a pair of loose dogs ran round the corner and one of them launched into a ferocious attack. The dog had hold of Barney on the back of his neck, making him yelp, and it seemed an age before the owner caught up and got it off. Fortunately Barney has a thick scruff and so the only injury he suffered was a scratch on his ear, but it could have been a lot worse. It frustrates me that people let their dogs off the lead when they don't have absolute control over them, particularly in narrow places where there is no opportunity to get out of the way.
I woke up this morning and was a bit disconcerted to see that according to the clock it was half past four and just starting to get light outside. It took me a while to twig that I had actually put it back an hour instead of forward - doh! Still, at least I am back to my proper body clock time now with lighter evenings to enjoy.
The walk in the woods was a bit on the stressful side. We were leaving the woods at the point where the path narrows with Barney on a short lead as usual, when a pair of loose dogs ran round the corner and one of them launched into a ferocious attack. The dog had hold of Barney on the back of his neck, making him yelp, and it seemed an age before the owner caught up and got it off. Fortunately Barney has a thick scruff and so the only injury he suffered was a scratch on his ear, but it could have been a lot worse. It frustrates me that people let their dogs off the lead when they don't have absolute control over them, particularly in narrow places where there is no opportunity to get out of the way.
Sunday Links
- Thermonuclear Otters Quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen on Zooborns!
- Homebrew Turing Machine Someday, all computers will be this elegant
- Antique Typewriters Elegant writing machines from a more civilised age
- He's not the Messiah Real life meets Monty Python
- How to spot when somebody is carrying a hidden handgun Just one of Megan Jaegerman's brilliant news graphics
- Alien vs Pooh Just in case there is anyone who hasn't seen this yet
- Fine art meets pop video 70 Million by Hold Your Horses. Excellent and very clever.
- The Big Match vs Your Girlfriend Which would a true football fan choose?
- A Collection of Lovecraft Classic horror, in a variety of e-book formats for your squamous pleasure (h/t Nancy)
- The Ten Greatest Modern-Day Recreations Of Ancient Technologies
- Blue People After Avatar, this is the ultimate blue movie ...
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Other voices
A gloriously sunny day, and just about warm enough to go out without a coat when we went out with the dog this morning. I did a bit of work in the garden too, cutting back some of the bush that was overhanging the path, before coming in to do a bit of T175 work on queuing theory and network management.
A spot of lunch and then off to collect Alicia from Uni for the Easter hols. A very pleasant drive in the sunshine and a chance to listen to some more of 'Under The Dome' which is my current audio book from Audible, and gripping stuff it is too. Nobody writes about small town America with quite the same insight as Stephen King, and it just about makes up for the daft endings that seem to be included for contractual reasons in most of his novels.
In games news, I aced the level that I was stuck on in GeoDefense:Swarm eventually (missile turrets and lots of them), then the next one and then promptly got stuck on the last of the new medium levels - an absolute swine where the creeps are zooming round the screen at a rate of knots by the fourth or fifth wave.
I've just looked at the weather forecast and apparently we are in for a final blast of winter next week with heavy rain, snow and sub zero temperatures. Not sure I entirely approve ...
A spot of lunch and then off to collect Alicia from Uni for the Easter hols. A very pleasant drive in the sunshine and a chance to listen to some more of 'Under The Dome' which is my current audio book from Audible, and gripping stuff it is too. Nobody writes about small town America with quite the same insight as Stephen King, and it just about makes up for the daft endings that seem to be included for contractual reasons in most of his novels.
In games news, I aced the level that I was stuck on in GeoDefense:Swarm eventually (missile turrets and lots of them), then the next one and then promptly got stuck on the last of the new medium levels - an absolute swine where the creeps are zooming round the screen at a rate of knots by the fourth or fifth wave.
I've just looked at the weather forecast and apparently we are in for a final blast of winter next week with heavy rain, snow and sub zero temperatures. Not sure I entirely approve ...
- 22:05 I just conquered "Stripes" in geoDefense Swarm! bit.ly/SfWey #
- 09:29 I just conquered "Close Call" in geoDefense Swarm! bit.ly/SfWey #
- 10:28 Dawn chorus? Whut dawn chorus? *Nobody* disturbs mah #caturday lie in! twitpic.com/1b8nta #
Friday, March 26, 2010
World in Motion
As is usual, I was very grateful of the opportunity to snooze until seven o'clock this morning, and I certainly needed it. It was very pleasant to open the curtains to a bright and breezy day too. Lovely.
I've managed to avoid having my work laptop anti-virus 'upgraded' to run Sophos anti-virus, and a good job too. It sounds like it's causing all sorts of problems for various people with reports of the scanning process taking up 98% of cpu time for no readily apparent reason. The technical support people rolled it out after testing it on four of their machines, but they don't run Subversion code control like we do - my suspicion is that switching code branches causes the virus scanner to go ballistic and aggressively scan the whole hard drive. Isn't windows marvellous?
In complete contrast, I downloaded and installed Ubuntu 10.04 today and was suitably impressed. The new interface is very slick and the whole system feels very snappy, even on my aging desktop machine. I really can't think of any reason not to use this in preference to windows if you have a choice in the matter. I've got it set up as a dual boot system and the difference in how much windows thrashes the disk as it struggles into life is startling.
I've managed to avoid having my work laptop anti-virus 'upgraded' to run Sophos anti-virus, and a good job too. It sounds like it's causing all sorts of problems for various people with reports of the scanning process taking up 98% of cpu time for no readily apparent reason. The technical support people rolled it out after testing it on four of their machines, but they don't run Subversion code control like we do - my suspicion is that switching code branches causes the virus scanner to go ballistic and aggressively scan the whole hard drive. Isn't windows marvellous?
In complete contrast, I downloaded and installed Ubuntu 10.04 today and was suitably impressed. The new interface is very slick and the whole system feels very snappy, even on my aging desktop machine. I really can't think of any reason not to use this in preference to windows if you have a choice in the matter. I've got it set up as a dual boot system and the difference in how much windows thrashes the disk as it struggles into life is startling.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
The Machman
A miserable start to the day - raining and so dark I actually had to switch the bedroom light on even after opening the curtains - but by some spring time alchemy it soon brightened up into a surprisingly warm and sunny day. We are definitely on the right side of the vernal equinox now, I think.
I think that I am finally starting to get the hang of the java development environment that we are using for our web development, at least to the point where I can see where it is getting the data from and how it is formatting it on the page. We've still got a fair amount to do, but it seems like the project manager has lined us up with another project (for the same client) that is going to take precedence. Or something. Grrrr.
On telly, we have been enjoying seeing Rhod Gilbert taking on various low paid and under-appreciated jobs including being a bin man, a mother of seven and in last night's episode hair dresser. Quite insightful, as well as amusing, and not quite as rose tinted as these sort of celebrities in unexpected jobs sort of programmes usually are. Worth a watch, I'd say.
In games news, the purchase of the additional levels for GeoDefense:Swarm is proving to be excellent value for fifty nine of your Earth pence, and I can exclusively report that I am stuck on one of the medium levels (oh, the shame!). It should be a fairly straightforward one, with only three tower types to choose from and no obvious alternatives for the configuration to put them in, so it must be down to the order that you upgrade them in. Hmmm, I'm going to play it again now, I think.
I think that I am finally starting to get the hang of the java development environment that we are using for our web development, at least to the point where I can see where it is getting the data from and how it is formatting it on the page. We've still got a fair amount to do, but it seems like the project manager has lined us up with another project (for the same client) that is going to take precedence. Or something. Grrrr.
On telly, we have been enjoying seeing Rhod Gilbert taking on various low paid and under-appreciated jobs including being a bin man, a mother of seven and in last night's episode hair dresser. Quite insightful, as well as amusing, and not quite as rose tinted as these sort of celebrities in unexpected jobs sort of programmes usually are. Worth a watch, I'd say.
In games news, the purchase of the additional levels for GeoDefense:Swarm is proving to be excellent value for fifty nine of your Earth pence, and I can exclusively report that I am stuck on one of the medium levels (oh, the shame!). It should be a fairly straightforward one, with only three tower types to choose from and no obvious alternatives for the configuration to put them in, so it must be down to the order that you upgrade them in. Hmmm, I'm going to play it again now, I think.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Hypatia of Alexandria
The 24th of March is the birthday of Ada Lovelace, the world's first computer programmer. It is a day to celebrate the achievements of women in all fields of Science and Mathematics by the simple act of blogging about them. If you would like to find out more please go to findingada.com
Hypatia of Alexandria who lived from around 370 - 415 was notable as the first woman to be credited with making a substantial contribution to the study of mathematics and science. She studied in Athens and Venice, and taught philosophy and astronomy as head of the Platonist school in Alexandria. She is also credited with inventing the hydrometer and also recording the orbits of the planets.
She lived in an age where the glories of the Hellenistic culture of Greece were under attack by those who regarded knowledge, and the desire to acquire and promulgate knowledge, as inherently sinful. The reasons for her death are unclear, but her cruel fate at the hands of a Christian mob has been well documented. This same barbarous mentality also saw Alexandria's famous library destroyed, and persists today in those who would rather live in fearful ignorance than expose their beliefs to the clear light of reason and science.
Hypatia of Alexandria who lived from around 370 - 415 was notable as the first woman to be credited with making a substantial contribution to the study of mathematics and science. She studied in Athens and Venice, and taught philosophy and astronomy as head of the Platonist school in Alexandria. She is also credited with inventing the hydrometer and also recording the orbits of the planets.She lived in an age where the glories of the Hellenistic culture of Greece were under attack by those who regarded knowledge, and the desire to acquire and promulgate knowledge, as inherently sinful. The reasons for her death are unclear, but her cruel fate at the hands of a Christian mob has been well documented. This same barbarous mentality also saw Alexandria's famous library destroyed, and persists today in those who would rather live in fearful ignorance than expose their beliefs to the clear light of reason and science.
- 20:44 fallenlondon.com/c/39962 #
- 20:44 fallenlondon.com/c/39963 #
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
- 19:05 twitpic.com/1aaeqr - Skyekat has just whupped my ass at #wordswithfriends - is 153 points on one word a record? #
Haikusday
Dinnington Brass Band
Sounds of a small town heard in
The city of steel
Rain in the Crossing
Perfect weather for fishing
Still no coelacanth
Alas, Words with Friends
My record of high scores has
Been thoroughly jounced
The joint has been cased
With care I prepare to rob
The Brass Embassy
New recycling scheme
Blue bin for cans and bottles
Eco made easy
James Randi, skeptic
As well as amazing he's
Also fabulous!
Sounds of a small town heard in
The city of steel
Rain in the Crossing
Perfect weather for fishing
Still no coelacanth
Alas, Words with Friends
My record of high scores has
Been thoroughly jounced
The joint has been cased
With care I prepare to rob
The Brass Embassy
New recycling scheme
Blue bin for cans and bottles
Eco made easy
James Randi, skeptic
As well as amazing he's
Also fabulous!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Search and Destroy
With the inevitability that comes from living in a linear timeframe, Monday rolled around this morning. Again.
At least I seem to be mostly sleeping through the night and then waking up slightly before the alarm as it starts to get light outside, which is a much better state of affairs for me than the trouble I was having a couple of months ago. I'm still feeling tired when I wake up, but I'm hopeful that will improve too.
A busy day at work, with a new person starting on our team. It's going to be a while before he gets up to speed but at least in the longer term he will be taking a bit of the current workload which we have been crunching with since the last developer left before Christmas. Which is nice.
An excellent episode of 'Wonders of the Solar System' last night, talking about the thin blue line of atmosphere that protects our fragile eco-system. The true wonder was the atmosphere on Titan which allows for lakes of liquid methane, as revealed by the Cassini mission and the incredible achievement of the Huygens lander. I remember following this on the internet as the mission unfolded, particularly the sounds that came back of wind blowing on an alien world.
In games news, just have a look at the score that Skyekat just racked up in this game of Words with Friends - wowzers.
At least I seem to be mostly sleeping through the night and then waking up slightly before the alarm as it starts to get light outside, which is a much better state of affairs for me than the trouble I was having a couple of months ago. I'm still feeling tired when I wake up, but I'm hopeful that will improve too.
A busy day at work, with a new person starting on our team. It's going to be a while before he gets up to speed but at least in the longer term he will be taking a bit of the current workload which we have been crunching with since the last developer left before Christmas. Which is nice.
An excellent episode of 'Wonders of the Solar System' last night, talking about the thin blue line of atmosphere that protects our fragile eco-system. The true wonder was the atmosphere on Titan which allows for lakes of liquid methane, as revealed by the Cassini mission and the incredible achievement of the Huygens lander. I remember following this on the internet as the mission unfolded, particularly the sounds that came back of wind blowing on an alien world.
In games news, just have a look at the score that Skyekat just racked up in this game of Words with Friends - wowzers.
- 22:33 I just conquered "Jellyfish" in geoDefense Swarm! bit.ly/SfWey #
Sunday, March 21, 2010
- 09:24 I just conquered "Lesser Evil" in geoDefense Swarm! bit.ly/SfWey #
- 17:46 Read The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov bit.ly/bbO3AI #
Sharkey's Day
In the absence of anything from Lovefilm to watch, we plumped for The X-Files movie which has been sat on the hard drive of the Topfield for ages. For some reason I didn't get around to seeing this when it first came out, even though I was a huge fan of the X-Files at the time.
Unfortunately the whole thing was a bit of a confused mess that fell apart under the complexities of half a dozen different conspiracy theories, none of which made any sense. To pick just one example, if they (whoever 'they' were, which was never really explained) wanted to stop anybody from finding out about the bodies infected with the black oil/killer bee virus/alien embryos (or whatever it was) why didn't they just squirrel them away somewhere rather than issuing a bomb threat (which had the effect of summoning half the FBI) and blowing up a huge building, which didn't even have the effect of destroying the incriminating evidence? I think the X-Files was at its best confined to 45 minutes of hokum, once a week. Disappointing.
Today was mostly OU work, finishing off block 3, part one of T175 followed by a bit of M150. I'm comfortably on target for both courses and the end is in sight, so I need to start thinking about what I want to do next. I'll probably arrange to see a course advisor at the regional office to discuss my options, as it's all a bit confusing with the named degree paths changing at some point in the next couple of years.
Unfortunately the whole thing was a bit of a confused mess that fell apart under the complexities of half a dozen different conspiracy theories, none of which made any sense. To pick just one example, if they (whoever 'they' were, which was never really explained) wanted to stop anybody from finding out about the bodies infected with the black oil/killer bee virus/alien embryos (or whatever it was) why didn't they just squirrel them away somewhere rather than issuing a bomb threat (which had the effect of summoning half the FBI) and blowing up a huge building, which didn't even have the effect of destroying the incriminating evidence? I think the X-Files was at its best confined to 45 minutes of hokum, once a week. Disappointing.
Today was mostly OU work, finishing off block 3, part one of T175 followed by a bit of M150. I'm comfortably on target for both courses and the end is in sight, so I need to start thinking about what I want to do next. I'll probably arrange to see a course advisor at the regional office to discuss my options, as it's all a bit confusing with the named degree paths changing at some point in the next couple of years.
The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov
The Robots of Dawn by Isaac AsimovMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another case of murder for Detective Elijah Baley and his robot partner R. Daneel Olivaw to investigate, but what makes this case unusual is that the victim is an advanced robot who has been placed into a state of irreversible mental lock. The only person with sufficient skill in robotics to have done such a thing is the robot's designer Dr Fastolfe who happens to be Earth's only ally in a political schism between Earth and the Spacer worlds. Is this a plot to discredit the progressive faction or is something more complex afoot?
As with the previous books in the trilogy, this novel is concerned more with human relationships and motivations than the technology of the robots. The robot brains with their positronic desires form an analogue for understanding the workings of the human mind.
The concept of psychohistory - mathematically modeling the behaviour of large populations in order to predict the future - is introduced here too, touching on the concepts of determinism and free will. Are humans as predestined in their actions as the robots? What are the implications for relations between humans and robots, as more worlds are explored and colonised?
Fascinating concepts that are explored with Asimov's trademark insight. The longest of the robot novels, the most complex, and also the most satisfying in its conclusions. Excellent.
View all my reviews >>
Sunday Links
- Naked, Wrinkly, and Adorable - ZooBorns
- Top 20 Unsigned Acts of 2009 available to download for free from purevolume
- Games summed up in 5 words My contribution for Mr Driller would be 'Dig dig dig dig die' ....
- Paris 26 Gigapixels Interactive virtual tour of the most beautiful monuments of Paris
- River of Fire
- Five Ways You Probably Wouldn’t Die In a Vacuum and One Way You Probably Would
- Progress Wars The ultimate online game
- The pope's entire career has the stench of evil about it. By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine
- Manly Slang from the 19th Century From the book 'The Art of Manliness' - this looks to be a rather splendid volume!
- 20 Great Infodumps From Science Fiction Novels If you are going to drop a whole heap of information on your reader, then at least do it properly ...
- Digital: A Love Story A computer mystery/romance set five minutes into the future of 1988
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Big Science
A gray and wet day, but no matter. We went into town today.
'On a Saturday?' I hear you cry. 'Unthinkable!'. It was however true, and it was for a reason too.
I had an invitation through the post a while ago to take part in a health screening experiment run by an organisation called 'Biobank' which is aimed at building up a large database of medical data which would be used to track the incidence of many diseases and health problems in the general population. As someone in favour of evidence based medicine I reckoned that I should do my bit and toddled along today for my check up.
It was all very efficiently run, starting with a questionnaire on a touch screen (including some memory and reaction games) followed by an eye test, blood pressure check, height and weight and body fat percentage (yes, I'm officially tubbular), a lung function and heart rate check and finally giving samples of blood, saliva (surprisingly difficult to produce the required amount) and urine. The whole process took a little over ninety minutes and I did get a cup of hot chocolate and some biscuits at the end.
Worth doing I think, and it will be interesting to see the results that come out of it in years to come too.
'On a Saturday?' I hear you cry. 'Unthinkable!'. It was however true, and it was for a reason too.
I had an invitation through the post a while ago to take part in a health screening experiment run by an organisation called 'Biobank' which is aimed at building up a large database of medical data which would be used to track the incidence of many diseases and health problems in the general population. As someone in favour of evidence based medicine I reckoned that I should do my bit and toddled along today for my check up.
It was all very efficiently run, starting with a questionnaire on a touch screen (including some memory and reaction games) followed by an eye test, blood pressure check, height and weight and body fat percentage (yes, I'm officially tubbular), a lung function and heart rate check and finally giving samples of blood, saliva (surprisingly difficult to produce the required amount) and urine. The whole process took a little over ninety minutes and I did get a cup of hot chocolate and some biscuits at the end.
Worth doing I think, and it will be interesting to see the results that come out of it in years to come too.
- 19:38 twitpic.com/19l4oa - Mr Driller #
- 20:03 96% on my T175 TMA03 OU assignment - w00t! #
- 20:29 #ebz Either he's learnt to pass from body to body, or there are dozens of him. Every so often some st... fallenlondon.com/c/37863 #
- 09:05 New levels for @geoDefense - oh yes! That's my weekend sorted ... :-) #
- 10:58 twitpic.com/19qr8h - Keeping it clean for #caturday #
Friday, March 19, 2010
Bubbles in my beer
This week seems to have dragged on more than usual, one way and another, and it has left me feeling somewhat drained. At least today was a work at home day, with a bit of a lie in and a chance to recover from driving yesterday. The day started promisingly enough with blue skies and sunshine, but clouded over later on and turned a bit gloomy. Still, it's only one more week till the clocks go back and I get back the hour of daylight in the evenings that I have been missing.
In games news, I did manage to find my copy of Mr Driller 2 for GBA as well as Drill Spirits on the DS. I was pleased to note that my GBA SP still had some charge in it, despite not being used for a couple of years as far as I can recall. It's still an excellent form factor for a games machine, even if the screen isn't as bright as the DS Phat that I also found this lunchtime. I have a hankering for a GBA-mini as I've heard very positive things about them - can they still be got, I wonder. I've also just totted up the other versions of Mr Driller that I've got on other formats and remembered that I've also got it on Xbox Live and a Mame rom somewhere, as well as on my iPhone. I do like this game. A lot.
Friday night approacheth, with a glass of wine and a Meantime wheat beer to go with the pizza later - enjoy!
In games news, I did manage to find my copy of Mr Driller 2 for GBA as well as Drill Spirits on the DS. I was pleased to note that my GBA SP still had some charge in it, despite not being used for a couple of years as far as I can recall. It's still an excellent form factor for a games machine, even if the screen isn't as bright as the DS Phat that I also found this lunchtime. I have a hankering for a GBA-mini as I've heard very positive things about them - can they still be got, I wonder. I've also just totted up the other versions of Mr Driller that I've got on other formats and remembered that I've also got it on Xbox Live and a Mame rom somewhere, as well as on my iPhone. I do like this game. A lot.
Friday night approacheth, with a glass of wine and a Meantime wheat beer to go with the pizza later - enjoy!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Cars hiss by my window
A bit gray and overcast today, but not oppressively so. At least it was dry and comparatively good driving weather, apart from the worrisome experience of nearly being sideswiped twice by people pulling across without indicating or looking over their shoulder as I was alongside them. Don't they teach people to check their blind spots in driving lessons any more? Scary beans.
Work today was quite successful, with the hard work of yesterday paying off with a smooth upgrade that did what it said on the tin on site today. It's very satisfying to get the process working so that a web query seamlessly produces a pdf document in a viewer.
Not much else to say, mainly due to tiredness and general lack of inspiration. Normal service will be resumed etc.
Work today was quite successful, with the hard work of yesterday paying off with a smooth upgrade that did what it said on the tin on site today. It's very satisfying to get the process working so that a web query seamlessly produces a pdf document in a viewer.
Not much else to say, mainly due to tiredness and general lack of inspiration. Normal service will be resumed etc.
Podcast Thursday
- The Matilda Myth Australia in the 1890s was in the grip of a bitter labour dispute, threatening to spill over into civil insurrection with arson attacks and running gun battles. In the midst of this turmoil, a swagman was found dead in mysterious circumstances. Was this the incident that inspired the adventurer, poet and pamphleteer Banjo Patterson to write his most famous song, 'Waltzing Matilda'? This hugely evocative programme tells the story of the dark roots behind Australia's unofficial national anthem.
- Robowars Will the battlefields of the future be ruled by unmanned vehicles guided by pilots sitting safely behind a desk on the other side of the world? What are the implications of this technology for the way that we fight wars? Fascinating and worrisome stuff
- The Moth Jamie Johnson tells the story of how a support group for rich people (yes, really) led to an unexpected discovery about his father's reluctance to talk about his wealth.
- Who did it better? The same song covered by Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, but which one is better? There's only one way to find out ... FIGHT!
- Tech Weekly Aleks Krotoski unpicks the Digital Economy Bill, amongst other issues.
- 7 Day Sunday Topical comedy, not quite the same without Sarah Millican this week.
- Marsha Meets ... Bootheby Graffoe Interesting interview with one of stand up comedy's best musical surrealists
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Technology Boy
A grayish day, and noisy in the office too with the sound of the gasometer filling up across the road persisting for most of the morning.
A frustrating day workwise, testing a build that I am due to take on site tomorrow. It was running fine on my laptop and also on the other developer's pc, but it kept failing on the test server. We spent hours tracing it through until we pinned it down to a fecking IIS configuration problem. There seems to be neither rhyme nor reason to setting up Microsoft products, and yet we insist on using them. Bah.
I didn't leave the office till well after six, but at least the traffic was comparatively light at that time so I was home before seven. Not too bad, really, but I've got an early start in the morning. On the bright side I have a playlist full of podcasts to listen to and if I finish those I've just got the audiobook of the new Stephen King novel from off of Audible which weighs in at thirty odd hours of listening time.
Please take it as read that I am grumpy about the catholic church's shameful behaviour, the ludicrous digital economy bill that is being shoehorned through parliament and the woo merchants who are still trying to push their sugar pills turn out to have the backing of a homophobic, anti-abortion group with a liberal (hah!) mp Tim Farron as their figurehead.
A frustrating day workwise, testing a build that I am due to take on site tomorrow. It was running fine on my laptop and also on the other developer's pc, but it kept failing on the test server. We spent hours tracing it through until we pinned it down to a fecking IIS configuration problem. There seems to be neither rhyme nor reason to setting up Microsoft products, and yet we insist on using them. Bah.
I didn't leave the office till well after six, but at least the traffic was comparatively light at that time so I was home before seven. Not too bad, really, but I've got an early start in the morning. On the bright side I have a playlist full of podcasts to listen to and if I finish those I've just got the audiobook of the new Stephen King novel from off of Audible which weighs in at thirty odd hours of listening time.
Please take it as read that I am grumpy about the catholic church's shameful behaviour, the ludicrous digital economy bill that is being shoehorned through parliament and the woo merchants who are still trying to push their sugar pills turn out to have the backing of a homophobic, anti-abortion group with a liberal (hah!) mp Tim Farron as their figurehead.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Haikusday
Auroran robots
Pose deepest mystery yet
Third time is a charm
The future mapped out
Predicted by the science of
Psychohistory
Dreams of code breaking
Strange cryptographic ciphers
Prove an enigma
When left on their own
Dog and cats cooperate
To sleep on the bed
Distant ice fountains
One of the many wonders
Described by Prof Cox
When I play Forza
I find myself talking like
Jeremy Clarkson
DVD extras
Prompt memories of school days
The Headmaster's Son
Pose deepest mystery yet
Third time is a charm
The future mapped out
Predicted by the science of
Psychohistory
Dreams of code breaking
Strange cryptographic ciphers
Prove an enigma
When left on their own
Dog and cats cooperate
To sleep on the bed
Distant ice fountains
One of the many wonders
Described by Prof Cox
When I play Forza
I find myself talking like
Jeremy Clarkson
DVD extras
Prompt memories of school days
The Headmaster's Son
Monday, March 15, 2010
A letter to the bees
In retrospect, eating all of that chili seafood last night may have been a mistake, or at least that's how things seemed at two o'clock in the morning. We'll draw a discrete veil over the biological processes involved - enough said. Bright and breezy today, but at least the roads were clear both to and from work.
Work itself has been busy, building a new software release for testing before sending it to a customer site on Thursday. It should have been straight forward and completed before I finished my first cup of coffee, but it ended up taking most of the day with my cow-orker wanting to shoe horn in more fixes at the last minute and then the actual build running extremely slowly for no readily apparent reason.
In games news, I've started playing Forza 3, which we picked up as part of the software bundle with the xbox purchase the other week. It's really jolly good too, particularly when you can drive a Bugatti Veyron round the Nurburgring Nordschlieffe at two hundred and odd miles an hour. Oh yes.
Work itself has been busy, building a new software release for testing before sending it to a customer site on Thursday. It should have been straight forward and completed before I finished my first cup of coffee, but it ended up taking most of the day with my cow-orker wanting to shoe horn in more fixes at the last minute and then the actual build running extremely slowly for no readily apparent reason.
In games news, I've started playing Forza 3, which we picked up as part of the software bundle with the xbox purchase the other week. It's really jolly good too, particularly when you can drive a Bugatti Veyron round the Nurburgring Nordschlieffe at two hundred and odd miles an hour. Oh yes.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
A Sunday Smile
A lovely sunny day, a bit of breeze first thing that soon dropped allowing the early spring sunshine to get to work. A walk in the woods followed by mushrooms on toast and a mug of filter coffee - smashing. I even managed to make it two weeks in a row of going down town, being tempted by a Subway club sandwich for lunch.
Last night's film was a classic bit of schlock horror from Sam Raimi - 'Drag Me to Hell'. Very much in the (jugular) vein of his early films like 'Evil Dead' et al, with a finely judged mix of horror and comedy that was perfect viewing for a Saturday night. It put me in mind of 1950s EC comics morality tale with an ambitious bank clerk foreclosing on a loan to prove how tough she is in order to win a promotion. Needless to say, she finds herself on the wrong side of a gypsy curse and being stalked by a demon aiming to drag her ... well, you get the picture. Great fun all round, I think.
In games news, I seem to have been playing rather a lot of Mr Driller on my iphone. I've got the hang of the controls now, and my record now stands at 790m for the brutally unforgiving survival mode where you get just one life in order to dig as far down as you can. I shall have to dig out (ho, ho - I am satirical) my copy of Mr Driller 2 on GBA and Drill Spirits on DS to compare and contrast.
Last night's film was a classic bit of schlock horror from Sam Raimi - 'Drag Me to Hell'. Very much in the (jugular) vein of his early films like 'Evil Dead' et al, with a finely judged mix of horror and comedy that was perfect viewing for a Saturday night. It put me in mind of 1950s EC comics morality tale with an ambitious bank clerk foreclosing on a loan to prove how tough she is in order to win a promotion. Needless to say, she finds herself on the wrong side of a gypsy curse and being stalked by a demon aiming to drag her ... well, you get the picture. Great fun all round, I think.
In games news, I seem to have been playing rather a lot of Mr Driller on my iphone. I've got the hang of the controls now, and my record now stands at 790m for the brutally unforgiving survival mode where you get just one life in order to dig as far down as you can. I shall have to dig out (ho, ho - I am satirical) my copy of Mr Driller 2 on GBA and Drill Spirits on DS to compare and contrast.
Sunday Links
- Mama Meerkat Snuggles with Her Pup - ZooBorns
- Search the PopSci Archives Every article from Popular Science magazine, available to search
- Boing Boing Video Game Quiz! I got 100% on this. That's either one hell of an achievement or very, very sad.
- Tokyo/Glow Tokyo by night
- Beautiful collision of two colored smoke rings A ten second video guaranteed to make you say 'wow!'
- Adventures of Grandmaster Flash On the Wheels of Steel *This* is how to sample records.
- The Sandinista Project Cover versions of every track from the Clash classic, free for a limited time
- Top 20 5 Second Films Perfect for people with short attentions spans ...
- The top 100 sites on the internet Visualised
- The Original Dungeons & Dragons Revisited
- Toyota Simulator Just in case you were wondering about that reported problem with the accelerator sticking
- AltShift An intriguingly different take on the platform puzzle genre. Give this one five or six levels until the twist in the game mechanic is introduced
- Bank Run Interactive movie game from the people who did a similar sort of thing with a zombie outbreak. It's quite short and obviously a hook for the iphone game that continues the story, but well produced and fun all the same. Perfect if you enjoy things like 24.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
- 19:35 Friday night starts .... now! #
- 17:00 twitpic.com/18cg0w - I intend to spend #caturday wif mah favrit pillow and blankie #
- 17:33 twitpic.com/18cnez - Snowdrops in bloom #
Asleep on a Train
Not entirely surprisingly I was flagging by half past ten last night, so we only got to watch about half of the Collings and Herrin video podcast from off of the DVD of 'Headmaster's Son'. Good fun though and no doubt we'll watch the rest of it tonight. My resolution this year is to go and see a live recording of a podcast at some point.
Back to T175 work today, looking at ICTs in medicine and considering how things like NHS Direct function. I had no idea that it had been available via digital TV on Sky until last year, although perhaps the lack of publicity led to a low takeup of the service. Also, I imagine that it might be a bit embarrassing looking up information about piles or something on the TV when the rest of the family are waiting to watch Strictly Come Dancing. Mind you, it doesn't seem to stop the people off of 'Embarrassing Bodies' from revealing all on prime time telly - a close up shot of someone's anal fissures are not really what you want to see when you are eating your tea.
Anyhoo, I've had a nap this afternoon, so I'm raring to go for Saturday night - bring it on!
Back to T175 work today, looking at ICTs in medicine and considering how things like NHS Direct function. I had no idea that it had been available via digital TV on Sky until last year, although perhaps the lack of publicity led to a low takeup of the service. Also, I imagine that it might be a bit embarrassing looking up information about piles or something on the TV when the rest of the family are waiting to watch Strictly Come Dancing. Mind you, it doesn't seem to stop the people off of 'Embarrassing Bodies' from revealing all on prime time telly - a close up shot of someone's anal fissures are not really what you want to see when you are eating your tea.
Anyhoo, I've had a nap this afternoon, so I'm raring to go for Saturday night - bring it on!
Friday, March 12, 2010
Live Fast
Crikey, it's been a busy week.
Going out three times in one seven day period might not seem like a lot to most people, but it is a lot more than I usually manage. We've had a shopping and coffee expedition last Sunday, followed by Skeptics in the Pub on Monday and then Richard Herrings last night, so I was rather glad of an extra hour in bed this morning.
Work today was adding a step into the payrun to allow calculation of tax on D0 codes on a cumulative basis rather than just week 1/month 1. Riveting stuff. I think I've cracked it, or at least got it to the stage where it can be tested on Monday morning. Not a bad point at which to close the working week I think.
In OU news, I got my M150 TMA back with 97% this time with the three marks only being dropped because I'd skipped a step in one of the questions. It's the first time I've had code that I've written come back with comments like 'Lovely' - nice to know that someone else appreciates elegant programming techniques.
In tech news, I saw a thing on the BT website that promised to increase our broadband speed. It's free to BT customers so I sent off for one, and it proved to be a replacement faceplate for the main phone socket that apparently cuts down on interference from extension lines in the house. It took a day or two for the speed to improve but by jiminy, it seems to have added an extra 1.5Mbs to our rather creaky connection. Hurrah!
It's Friday night, so that means Mojito time shortly!
Going out three times in one seven day period might not seem like a lot to most people, but it is a lot more than I usually manage. We've had a shopping and coffee expedition last Sunday, followed by Skeptics in the Pub on Monday and then Richard Herrings last night, so I was rather glad of an extra hour in bed this morning.
Work today was adding a step into the payrun to allow calculation of tax on D0 codes on a cumulative basis rather than just week 1/month 1. Riveting stuff. I think I've cracked it, or at least got it to the stage where it can be tested on Monday morning. Not a bad point at which to close the working week I think.
In OU news, I got my M150 TMA back with 97% this time with the three marks only being dropped because I'd skipped a step in one of the questions. It's the first time I've had code that I've written come back with comments like 'Lovely' - nice to know that someone else appreciates elegant programming techniques.
In tech news, I saw a thing on the BT website that promised to increase our broadband speed. It's free to BT customers so I sent off for one, and it proved to be a replacement faceplate for the main phone socket that apparently cuts down on interference from extension lines in the house. It took a day or two for the speed to improve but by jiminy, it seems to have added an extra 1.5Mbs to our rather creaky connection. Hurrah!
It's Friday night, so that means Mojito time shortly!
- 19:36 On our way out to see @Herring1967 's Hitler Moustache - hurrah! #
Hitler Moustache
When Adolf Hitler adopted the toothbrush moustache as his preferred style, he ensured that this humble bit of facial hair would henceforth be inextricably linked with fascism - it was possibly the worst thing that he ever did. This show is Richard Herring's attempt to reclaim the Hitler moustache for comedy, pointing out that Charlie Chaplin was the first to popularise it, and also the first to use it as a weapon of satire in his film 'The Great Dictator'.
Herring explores the origins of racism, and also relates his experiences of wearing the eponymous tache when he faced a very real fear of being attacked or abused purely on the grounds of his physical appearance. In the end the reaction of most people is either to ignore the moustache or openly laugh at it, which is no bad thing really. One of the funniest sections in the show is Herring's experience of being mugged for his iPhone and then wondering exactly why the police were so keen to help a man with a Hitler moustache.
The second half of the show moves into more explicitly political territory when Herring looks at the recent political success of the BNP which they enjoyed purely because over 50% of people simply couldn't be bothered to vote in the last European election. He demolishes the facile and lazy excuses that people have used to avoid the not exactly onerous task of going to your local polling station every couple of years to put a cross on a ballot paper. We should both laugh at the simple minded racism of Dick, I mean Nick, Griffin and then make sure we vote for anyone except the one eyed, melty faced twat.
Perceptive, clever and very funny.
Herring explores the origins of racism, and also relates his experiences of wearing the eponymous tache when he faced a very real fear of being attacked or abused purely on the grounds of his physical appearance. In the end the reaction of most people is either to ignore the moustache or openly laugh at it, which is no bad thing really. One of the funniest sections in the show is Herring's experience of being mugged for his iPhone and then wondering exactly why the police were so keen to help a man with a Hitler moustache.
The second half of the show moves into more explicitly political territory when Herring looks at the recent political success of the BNP which they enjoyed purely because over 50% of people simply couldn't be bothered to vote in the last European election. He demolishes the facile and lazy excuses that people have used to avoid the not exactly onerous task of going to your local polling station every couple of years to put a cross on a ballot paper. We should both laugh at the simple minded racism of Dick, I mean Nick, Griffin and then make sure we vote for anyone except the one eyed, melty faced twat.
Perceptive, clever and very funny.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Spies in the wire
A bit gloomy today, but I can forgive that as the sun did peek out for a while at lunchtime when I went out for a walk. In fact, it was surprisingly warm for March and most conducive to a mooch round the retail park.
My mission this lunchtime was to buy a VGA monitor cable and I saw one in the first shop I went into (a Comet), but I ended up checking Staples, PC World and even Argos before returning to my original find. I made the mistake of looking a bit confused when trying to find the right till to pay at and a suspiciously talkative sales assistant rail roaded me across the store, asking me what I was listening to on my ipod and commenting on the weather. Hmmm - I think I prefer my assistants taciturn, thank you very much.
My mission this lunchtime was to buy a VGA monitor cable and I saw one in the first shop I went into (a Comet), but I ended up checking Staples, PC World and even Argos before returning to my original find. I made the mistake of looking a bit confused when trying to find the right till to pay at and a suspiciously talkative sales assistant rail roaded me across the store, asking me what I was listening to on my ipod and commenting on the weather. Hmmm - I think I prefer my assistants taciturn, thank you very much.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Haikusday
Psychic spoon bending
Seems a lot of effort when
A cheap trick will do
Colin Fry, medium
Trumpet waving charlatan
Ectoplasmic goon
Woo tells us nothing
Science measures the sun with
Umbrella and tin can
Nempi fuel challenge
How far can you drive in a
Volkswagen Polo?
Conflict resolved by
Judicious x-box purchase
Modern ceasefire called
Java code engine
Crawls when run concurrent with
Weekly virus scan
Frustration prompts request
Please sir, can I have some ram?
Hurrah for tech support!
Seems a lot of effort when
A cheap trick will do
Colin Fry, medium
Trumpet waving charlatan
Ectoplasmic goon
Woo tells us nothing
Science measures the sun with
Umbrella and tin can
Nempi fuel challenge
How far can you drive in a
Volkswagen Polo?
Conflict resolved by
Judicious x-box purchase
Modern ceasefire called
Java code engine
Crawls when run concurrent with
Weekly virus scan
Frustration prompts request
Please sir, can I have some ram?
Hurrah for tech support!
- 21:12 Excellent @SheffieldSitP meeting tonight - psychic phenomena, spoon bending and dream detectives - most entertaining! #
Monday, March 08, 2010
Exit Music (For a Film)
The thermometer dipped to minus six this morning but the temperature quickly picked up as the sun rose, making the morning task of defrosting the car easier than it has been recently. Need I also add that, monsieur - with these blue skies you are spoiling us!
There was quite a buzz about the Oscars on Twitter last night and on breakfast telly this morning, with breathless live reporting from the red carpet but I don't really see why they are such a big deal, comparatively speaking. Is cinema (and, let's be honest - this is mainstream Hollywood cinema with only the briefest nod to anything made outside of Tinseltown) really the most important art-form in the world today? In terms of commercial returns, the videogame industry left cinema standing quite some time ago, but even then, surely art is not judged purely on how much money it makes?
I can see how technical awards may be decided by people who can appreciate the work involved but with something like the award for best picture, what sort of objective criteria could be used to choose between the diverse offerings on the short list. The acting awards have an air of 'buggins turn' to them, so that if an actor keeps at it for long enough they end up with something to go on their mantelpiece, even if it is only a 'Lifetime Achievement' (or the 'blimey - didn't even know they were still alive') award.
There was quite a buzz about the Oscars on Twitter last night and on breakfast telly this morning, with breathless live reporting from the red carpet but I don't really see why they are such a big deal, comparatively speaking. Is cinema (and, let's be honest - this is mainstream Hollywood cinema with only the briefest nod to anything made outside of Tinseltown) really the most important art-form in the world today? In terms of commercial returns, the videogame industry left cinema standing quite some time ago, but even then, surely art is not judged purely on how much money it makes?
I can see how technical awards may be decided by people who can appreciate the work involved but with something like the award for best picture, what sort of objective criteria could be used to choose between the diverse offerings on the short list. The acting awards have an air of 'buggins turn' to them, so that if an actor keeps at it for long enough they end up with something to go on their mantelpiece, even if it is only a 'Lifetime Achievement' (or the 'blimey - didn't even know they were still alive') award.
Sunday, March 07, 2010
Mr Blue Sky
A touch of frost this morning, but no matter with gloriously clear blue skies and a crisp chill in the air. I gave the dog a bath and washed his blankets too, and he's now all fluffy and clean, and happily shedding his winter coat. The cats have been enjoying the great outdoors as well, patrolling the fence and chasing away any rogue squirrels that dared to poke their noses into the garden.
In a shocking development I was even persuaded to take the air down town this afternoon for a mooch in Waterstones followed by a coffee in Starbucks for a treat. Lovely. It was also a nice excuse to listen in the car to the latest Perfect Ten podcast from Messers Jupitus and Wilding at their filthiest best.
Last night's DVD from Lovefilm was the low budget but surprisingly good sf comedy 'Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel'. Chris O'Dowd plays pretty much the same character as he plays on 'The IT Crowd' as Ray, a SF nerd (who prefers the term 'imagineer') who gets lost in an increasingly convoluted time paradox after accidentally stumbling through a time portal in the gents loo with his two friends. Lots of geeky in jokes to enjoy along the way, and nods to SF fandom. Good stuff.
In a shocking development I was even persuaded to take the air down town this afternoon for a mooch in Waterstones followed by a coffee in Starbucks for a treat. Lovely. It was also a nice excuse to listen in the car to the latest Perfect Ten podcast from Messers Jupitus and Wilding at their filthiest best.
Last night's DVD from Lovefilm was the low budget but surprisingly good sf comedy 'Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel'. Chris O'Dowd plays pretty much the same character as he plays on 'The IT Crowd' as Ray, a SF nerd (who prefers the term 'imagineer') who gets lost in an increasingly convoluted time paradox after accidentally stumbling through a time portal in the gents loo with his two friends. Lots of geeky in jokes to enjoy along the way, and nods to SF fandom. Good stuff.
Sunday Links
- A Big Wobbly Baby at the Paignton Zoo - ZooBorns
- The New Commandments As re-chiseled by Christopher Hitchens
- My Solar System Orbital mechanics made easy
- Mark Moore Gallery Architectural blueprints of note, including such delights as the Batcave and the Flintstone's house
- Obsolete Occupations From lectors to lamplighters, a fascinating photogallery with recordings of people who once worked in jobs that no longer exist
- Slo Mo Goggies
- Tupac Shakur and the End of the World Apocalyptic short story by by Sandra McDonald
- Make a thank you movie! An excellent and very clever viral campaign for a Swedish TV network
- Math for Primates Podcast Interesting math (yes, it's American) based podcast
- Space and Numbers Big numbers, visualised
- Sushi Cat A rather pleasing pachinko style sushi nomming game
Saturday, March 06, 2010
- 19:06 Volkswagen - Volkswagen Think Blue. Challenge - itunes.apple.com/gb/app/volkswagen-think-blue-challenge/id359140225?mt=8 #iTunes #
- 09:07 Paws for thought #caturday twitpic.com/16ws13 #
Rain Dogs
Not a very promising start to the day. I woke up to the sound of rain at around seven o'clock and looking out of my window only confirmed my suspicions. Oh well. Into the study and lumie light on for the day.
Today's module was a very useful and interesting look at the principles of user interface design, with a digression into how to present information graphically. This involved reading an excellent essay by Stephen J Gould about how an understanding of statistics quite literally saved his life. If you have a few minutes to spare it's well worth a read.
One of my personal bug bears is the way that some people take an almost perverse pride in not understanding maths and statistics. To be fair, the situation is not helped by the way that certain sections of the media (as well as unscrupulous politicians) delight in willfully misusing statistics to mislead and frighten people. The classic example is for a newspaper headline to trumpet that such and such a thing 'doubles cancer risk' when the actual increase may be from one case in a hundred thousand to two cases. Ben Goldacre's 'Bad Science' contains many examples of this sort of thing.
Gould's essay points to the way that gut feelings trump intellectual knowledge and cold, hard figures. People are suspicious of the figures on climate change, for example, because it is very easy to pick a range of short term figures and graph them in a particular way, to try and argue any case that you choose. Understanding such things requires a bit more effort than can be fitted into a (in)convenient soundbite or snappy headline.
I was reminded of this clip of a particularly egregious buffoon who managed to get himself elected to the Texas school board (and has thankfully just been voted off) who said 'Someone has to stand up to these experts!' whilst fatuously quoting Stephen J Gould out of context. After all, what do these experts know with all of their fancy expertise, eh? Isn't it more important to just go with what you reckon about an issue? After all, you can prove anything with facts ...
Today's module was a very useful and interesting look at the principles of user interface design, with a digression into how to present information graphically. This involved reading an excellent essay by Stephen J Gould about how an understanding of statistics quite literally saved his life. If you have a few minutes to spare it's well worth a read.
One of my personal bug bears is the way that some people take an almost perverse pride in not understanding maths and statistics. To be fair, the situation is not helped by the way that certain sections of the media (as well as unscrupulous politicians) delight in willfully misusing statistics to mislead and frighten people. The classic example is for a newspaper headline to trumpet that such and such a thing 'doubles cancer risk' when the actual increase may be from one case in a hundred thousand to two cases. Ben Goldacre's 'Bad Science' contains many examples of this sort of thing.
Gould's essay points to the way that gut feelings trump intellectual knowledge and cold, hard figures. People are suspicious of the figures on climate change, for example, because it is very easy to pick a range of short term figures and graph them in a particular way, to try and argue any case that you choose. Understanding such things requires a bit more effort than can be fitted into a (in)convenient soundbite or snappy headline.
I was reminded of this clip of a particularly egregious buffoon who managed to get himself elected to the Texas school board (and has thankfully just been voted off) who said 'Someone has to stand up to these experts!' whilst fatuously quoting Stephen J Gould out of context. After all, what do these experts know with all of their fancy expertise, eh? Isn't it more important to just go with what you reckon about an issue? After all, you can prove anything with facts ...
Friday, March 05, 2010
Pinky blue sky
Another lovely pre-spring day - sunny enough to put the washing out on the line, even if it wasn't quite warm enough to dry it all by half past five when I fetched it in as the sun dipped behind candy floss clouds.
Working at home was reasonably productive again. The usual pile of emails to trawl through, then a tech review on a specification to write up and finally putting back some bits of functionality that had been taken out in the last release. It does make me realise just how noisy it is in the office though, with phones ringing and general chatter going on.
In games news, I have been enjoying Uniwar which I picked up for free yesterday. It's a classic hex grid based strategy war game with an interesting mix of units to choose from. It's nothing revolutionary, but very well presented and perfect for playing on-line with time to think about what you want to do on each turn.
It's certainly a better implementation of an online game than the Assassin's Creed II multiplayer, which is a nice idea but it takes so long to match you up (even in so called quick play) that I have only played precisely one game so far. It would be fun if they could get this sort of stalking targets style of multiplayer in the xbox version though.
Anyhoo, tis Friday night - huzzah!
Working at home was reasonably productive again. The usual pile of emails to trawl through, then a tech review on a specification to write up and finally putting back some bits of functionality that had been taken out in the last release. It does make me realise just how noisy it is in the office though, with phones ringing and general chatter going on.
In games news, I have been enjoying Uniwar which I picked up for free yesterday. It's a classic hex grid based strategy war game with an interesting mix of units to choose from. It's nothing revolutionary, but very well presented and perfect for playing on-line with time to think about what you want to do on each turn.
It's certainly a better implementation of an online game than the Assassin's Creed II multiplayer, which is a nice idea but it takes so long to match you up (even in so called quick play) that I have only played precisely one game so far. It would be fun if they could get this sort of stalking targets style of multiplayer in the xbox version though.
Anyhoo, tis Friday night - huzzah!
- 19:03 Free iphone strategy game ahoy! Uniwar looks like interesting take on Advance Wars et al - anybody fancy a go at it? bit.ly/c3tdRF #
Thursday, March 04, 2010
A moment in dub
Gosh, I'm tired.
Haven't used that opener for a while, but there you go. I never sleep particularly well when I know I've got to get up early the next day, and then the routine of driving for three hours, working and then doing the same journey in reverse really took it out of me today. I even got to the point where I was starting to worry about falling asleep on the way home, so I stopped at the services for a drink and a short break which was enough to see me home where I did fall asleep for an hour, waking up with two cats on me.
At least the weather was clear and dry, and the work went well, apart from one hiccup where one of the pages on the site refused to load in any way, shape or form with no useful error messages in the log files to indicate why. Fortunately it didn't take us too long to spot that it was security on the database object that was causing the problem, which was just resolved by ticking something to make it viewable.
Last night's movie was Wendy and Lucy, an unexpected gem of an indie film. It's a fairly short movie but utterly heart breaking. You can keep all of your three hour films about blue gonks - this is what cinema should be like.
Haven't used that opener for a while, but there you go. I never sleep particularly well when I know I've got to get up early the next day, and then the routine of driving for three hours, working and then doing the same journey in reverse really took it out of me today. I even got to the point where I was starting to worry about falling asleep on the way home, so I stopped at the services for a drink and a short break which was enough to see me home where I did fall asleep for an hour, waking up with two cats on me.
At least the weather was clear and dry, and the work went well, apart from one hiccup where one of the pages on the site refused to load in any way, shape or form with no useful error messages in the log files to indicate why. Fortunately it didn't take us too long to spot that it was security on the database object that was causing the problem, which was just resolved by ticking something to make it viewable.
Last night's movie was Wendy and Lucy, an unexpected gem of an indie film. It's a fairly short movie but utterly heart breaking. You can keep all of your three hour films about blue gonks - this is what cinema should be like.
- 18:42 5 of 5 stars to The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov bit.ly/9rxHPw #
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Anywhere
The skies were not quite as blue today, but it was dry and not too cold, so I didn't mind too much. I'm really starting to feel that Spring is on the way, even if there is still the tail end of Winter to get through yet.
Awake at four in the morning again, but not for too long. It doesn't seem to make much difference what time I go to bed, as to whether or not I'm awake in the wee smalls, so my reasoning is that I should just go to bed when I'm tired rather than fighting to stay awake longer than my body wants.
Work has been busy with some planning as well as fire fighting issues that I'm going to have to go on site tomorrow to do some work on. There's not actually all that much to do physically when I'm there, but a spot of pragmatic diplomacy is called for once again.
Awake at four in the morning again, but not for too long. It doesn't seem to make much difference what time I go to bed, as to whether or not I'm awake in the wee smalls, so my reasoning is that I should just go to bed when I'm tired rather than fighting to stay awake longer than my body wants.
Work has been busy with some planning as well as fire fighting issues that I'm going to have to go on site tomorrow to do some work on. There's not actually all that much to do physically when I'm there, but a spot of pragmatic diplomacy is called for once again.
The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov
The Naked Sun by Isaac AsimovMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The society of the planet Solaria is the polar opposite of that of Earth. There are a mere twenty thousand spacers living there, and they in turn are outnumbered by robots by a factor of ten thousand to one. This wealth of resources and space allows the Solarians to live lives of splendid isolation on their large estates, communicating with each other solely by remote holographic viewing and devoting their time to the pursuit of academic studies or art rather than physical labour which is the purview of the robots. The robots in turn have an elaborate system of communication between themselves so that they can respond instantly and appropriately to any human need.
It is a society in which crime is not only unknown, but practically unimaginable. When a murder is committed the Solarians have no alternative but to call for the services of Earth detective Elijah Baley, once more partnered with robot Daneel Olivaw. It seems that there is only one suspect, but also that there is no possible way that this suspect could have committed the crime. A mystery is once again afoot, although this time Baley will have to conquer his fear of leaving the safe enclosure of his cosy city to walk outside beneath the naked sun of an alien world.
This is not quite as taut a novel as its predecessor 'The Caves of Steel'. It is structured like a classical murder mystery with each suspect being introduced and interviewed in turn, followed by the traditional drawing room dénouement with the motive, means and opportunity being explained before the murderer is unmasked. The interest comes from the explanation of the functioning of Solarian society with all of its strange mores, and the realisation of just how very different it is from that of Earth. Asimov also uses this novel to expound further on the workings of his famous three laws of robotics and just how they would function in a true C/Fe (or human/robot) society.
Classic golden age sf of the highest calibre.
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Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Haikusday
Positronic brains
Governed by three laws, still show
Emergent functions
A C/Fe culture
Harks back to ancient Sparta
Robotic helots
Comatose iphone
Revived by timely docking
OK, I can breathe now
Unexpected snow
Dusts the fields with brilliance
Blinding under blue skies
Morpheus beckons
Jinsy's surreal whimsy fails
To keep me awake
On the streets of Rome
Assassins stalk their targets
Free game, slow servers
Citizens awake!
Barbarians at the gates!
Save Six Music Now!
Governed by three laws, still show
Emergent functions
A C/Fe culture
Harks back to ancient Sparta
Robotic helots
Comatose iphone
Revived by timely docking
OK, I can breathe now
Unexpected snow
Dusts the fields with brilliance
Blinding under blue skies
Morpheus beckons
Jinsy's surreal whimsy fails
To keep me awake
On the streets of Rome
Assassins stalk their targets
Free game, slow servers
Citizens awake!
Barbarians at the gates!
Save Six Music Now!
Monday, March 01, 2010
Blue Monday
Blue skies today! Hurrah and huzzah!
Even after another somewhat disturbed night of sleep, I felt somewhat better this morning. The official sunrise is now ten to seven or thereabouts, so it's not far off being light when I roll out of bed and stumble downstairs at twenty past six.
B&Q Man was pretty good last night, although for some reason it seemed to drag on too long at the end. It was if the writer had written a forty five minute episode and then suddenly realised he had an hour to fill, so all of the suspense and build up in the hq of the evil anti-monster brigade (or whatever they were called) was reprised in the hitherto unseen cottage in the middle of nowhere (or whatever it was). A bit of an unexpected cliffhanger ending as well, although it looks like they are possibly going down the Buffy route of bringing back popular villains by resurrecting them whenever they feel like it. Hmmm.
In OU news, I can chalk up another 100% for the T175 CMA. I always panic that I've ticked the wrong boxes on multiple choice questions, particularly where there are questions for which you need to tick more than one answer, but I've obviously got it right in this case. Phew.
Even after another somewhat disturbed night of sleep, I felt somewhat better this morning. The official sunrise is now ten to seven or thereabouts, so it's not far off being light when I roll out of bed and stumble downstairs at twenty past six.
B&Q Man was pretty good last night, although for some reason it seemed to drag on too long at the end. It was if the writer had written a forty five minute episode and then suddenly realised he had an hour to fill, so all of the suspense and build up in the hq of the evil anti-monster brigade (or whatever they were called) was reprised in the hitherto unseen cottage in the middle of nowhere (or whatever it was). A bit of an unexpected cliffhanger ending as well, although it looks like they are possibly going down the Buffy route of bringing back popular villains by resurrecting them whenever they feel like it. Hmmm.
In OU news, I can chalk up another 100% for the T175 CMA. I always panic that I've ticked the wrong boxes on multiple choice questions, particularly where there are questions for which you need to tick more than one answer, but I've obviously got it right in this case. Phew.
- 22:15 #ebz The rarer and cleverer of the city rats - the dangerous ones - employ their tiny hands to marvell... fallenlondon.com/c/26920 #
- 09:54 Blue skies and sunshine - if we really must have Monday mornings can they all be like this, please? #
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