- 18:31 Just sharpnin up mah clawz for #caturday twitpic.com/10j99d #
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Second hand news
I was aching this morning, although I suspect that that has more to do with walking round Leeds yesterday than any lingering side effects of my arsenic overdose. Still, I soon perked up after a walk in the woods and mushrooms on crumpets for breakfast. Yum.
The rest of the day was spent working on a TMA question for T175 which conveniently enough asked me to compare and contrast coverage of a news event between traditional broadcast media and the internet. It just so happens that the ten23 event yesterday fitted the bill nicely and I was even able to include the actual tv news report that I was analysing by copying it off my trusty Topfield and converting it to mpg format to go on Youtube.
I was thinking this afternoon that this sort of protest, and other twitter storms and flash mobs, simply wouldn't have had the same impact even as recently as a couple of years ago. By being able to upload easily available pictures and videos while something is actually happening the news can spread a lot faster than if you have to wait for half a day to see maybe 30 seconds worth of tv coverage on the local news.
I am really enjoying the convergence between my academic studies and things that are actually relevant to current events right now.
The rest of the day was spent working on a TMA question for T175 which conveniently enough asked me to compare and contrast coverage of a news event between traditional broadcast media and the internet. It just so happens that the ten23 event yesterday fitted the bill nicely and I was even able to include the actual tv news report that I was analysing by copying it off my trusty Topfield and converting it to mpg format to go on Youtube.
I was thinking this afternoon that this sort of protest, and other twitter storms and flash mobs, simply wouldn't have had the same impact even as recently as a couple of years ago. By being able to upload easily available pictures and videos while something is actually happening the news can spread a lot faster than if you have to wait for half a day to see maybe 30 seconds worth of tv coverage on the local news.
I am really enjoying the convergence between my academic studies and things that are actually relevant to current events right now.
Sunday Links
- ZooBorns: Shy Maned Wolf Pups at Paignton Zoo
- FSM protect us! Forget all of your visions of Jesus on a slice of toast - this is how a real god manifests!
- Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results The most interesting exclamation in science is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's odd ...'
- You maniacs! Movie made by chimpanzees to be broadcast on television
- Famous Literary Drunks & Addicts Hic!
- Panopticlick Ok, so you might have cookies and javascript turned off. What is your browser still telling the world about your identity?
- The Scale of the Universe
- Bear vs. Cat FIGHT!!!!
- Little Italy: 1900 Extraordinarily evocative picture
- Windows 3.1 Instant nostalgia. I actually quite liked Windows 3.1 at the time.
- Country & Western Swing Radio Shows I know I linked to this blog before, but these classic old time radio shows are well worth a listen
- gnop The opposite of pong
Saturday, January 30, 2010
- 08:36 Off to Leeds to guzzle an overdose of arsenic with @SheffieldSitP #ten23 #
- 10:53 84 arsenic pills consumed - I ain't dead yet! Now for a coffee and bacon roll. #ten23 #
- 10:54 We've just been on the telly! #ten23 twitpic.com/10h5o6 #
- 10:56 Apparently homeopathy is worth £40 million in the uk a year - who's big pharma now, eh? #ten23 #
- 18:01 Lawks - we've just been on the local TV news! #ten23 #
The Bitterest Pill
We set off for Leeds this morning, on a bitterly cold but brilliantly bright day, with the aim of taking an overdose of arsenic pills in a public demonstration.
Luckily the pills were nothing more than homeopathic arsenic where the supposed active ingredient is diluted to the point of non-existence leaving only a surprisingly crunchy little sugar ball behind. The event was organised by 1023 and Sheffield Skeptics joined forces with the Leeds group to protest outside the Leeds branch of Boots the Chemist who are happy to sell these pills for £5 a go despite describing them in the obligatory small print as having 'no approved therapeutic indications' (in other words they don't do anything).
We paid off the local busker who was playing maudlin Elvis songs and downed our pills at 10:23 exactly and I am happy, though not exactly surprised, to report no instances of sudden death from poisonous overdose. The event was filmed for local tv news and the other events round the country also got plenty of coverage on the media and the internet. It also seems to have got up the noses of the Homeopathic lobby, which is hardly surprising - a £40 million pound a year business based on selling sugar pills is a nice little earner by any standards. If anybody wishes to spend their money on things like this, then good luck to them, but there should not be any funding from the NHS (£12 million pounds would go a long way in these cash strapped times) and high street retailers should not be selling them to an unwary public in contravention of their own code of conduct on the sale of medicines.
Anyway, it was a fun event, and it seems to have at the very least raised a bit of awareness, if only at the local pub that we decamped to afterwards for a reviving coffee and bacon sarnie (we're not called the skeptics in the pub for nothing, you know).
Homeopathy - there's nothing in it!
Luckily the pills were nothing more than homeopathic arsenic where the supposed active ingredient is diluted to the point of non-existence leaving only a surprisingly crunchy little sugar ball behind. The event was organised by 1023 and Sheffield Skeptics joined forces with the Leeds group to protest outside the Leeds branch of Boots the Chemist who are happy to sell these pills for £5 a go despite describing them in the obligatory small print as having 'no approved therapeutic indications' (in other words they don't do anything).
We paid off the local busker who was playing maudlin Elvis songs and downed our pills at 10:23 exactly and I am happy, though not exactly surprised, to report no instances of sudden death from poisonous overdose. The event was filmed for local tv news and the other events round the country also got plenty of coverage on the media and the internet. It also seems to have got up the noses of the Homeopathic lobby, which is hardly surprising - a £40 million pound a year business based on selling sugar pills is a nice little earner by any standards. If anybody wishes to spend their money on things like this, then good luck to them, but there should not be any funding from the NHS (£12 million pounds would go a long way in these cash strapped times) and high street retailers should not be selling them to an unwary public in contravention of their own code of conduct on the sale of medicines.
Anyway, it was a fun event, and it seems to have at the very least raised a bit of awareness, if only at the local pub that we decamped to afterwards for a reviving coffee and bacon sarnie (we're not called the skeptics in the pub for nothing, you know).
Homeopathy - there's nothing in it!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Black Dog
Well, it will be heading that way soon, I fear.
Barney was barking in the night again and started scratching at the door as well. I really don't know what's bothering him and it's getting very wearing, not to mention the damage he is doing to the woodwork. In other dog related horribleness, I had to shovel out some rather unpleasant detritus from the dog loo in the garden today, presumably stuff that the digesting enzyme doesn't break down. As yucky jobs go it's probably on a par with cleaning out the drains. Nuff said.
In work news, we have stupid amounts to do and not enough people to do it, particularly with my boss about to go off on paternity leave. I also need to go up to Newcastle on Monday for a bit of diplomatic hand holding, which I could really do without having to do but needs must and all that.
Anyway, it's Friday night, so hurrah for that!
Barney was barking in the night again and started scratching at the door as well. I really don't know what's bothering him and it's getting very wearing, not to mention the damage he is doing to the woodwork. In other dog related horribleness, I had to shovel out some rather unpleasant detritus from the dog loo in the garden today, presumably stuff that the digesting enzyme doesn't break down. As yucky jobs go it's probably on a par with cleaning out the drains. Nuff said.
In work news, we have stupid amounts to do and not enough people to do it, particularly with my boss about to go off on paternity leave. I also need to go up to Newcastle on Monday for a bit of diplomatic hand holding, which I could really do without having to do but needs must and all that.
Anyway, it's Friday night, so hurrah for that!
- 13:04 Eating the last mince pie left over from Xmas - it's a week out of date so I'm living on the edge ... #
- 13:28 #ebz the Starveling Cat! the Starveling Cat! it knows what we think! and we don't like that! fallenlondon.com/c/12544 #
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Keep taking the tablets
Light cloud, with glimpses of blue sky and even a much appreciated spot of sunshine today, but still nippy though.
It does seem to make a huge difference to the journey time when the roads are dry and clear. It's still a bit slow around the junction with the M62 but at least the traffic flows relatively smoothly rather than being stop-start.
Some more thoughts on the iPad - it is slightly unfair to see it as version 1.0, I think. It seems to me that it is building on the experience of the iPhone in the way that the interface works, and it looks as if it has sufficient processing power to make everything run smoothly whilst still maintaining a ten hour battery life. It goes without saying that on top of the app store and iTunes, the book store will be a major attraction, as long as they don't try to jack up the prices for the European market as Amazon did with the Kindle.
Another point that I was pondering was the complaints about the lack of support for Flash in the browser. The major use of Flash on the web is for embedded video and there are much better ways of supporting that with HTML 5. Apart from games, the other main use of Flash is for animated gewgaws and adverts that just serve to make web pages clunky and irritating. As Safari on the iPhone has shown, it doesn't take much thought to make web pages attractive and functional at the same time. Also, simple Google ads generate more click throughs than intrusive pop ups and banners. The iPad is certain to sell in sufficient numbers to be a major influence in web design and use in years to come.
Apple really are going to be in this for the long haul. Future versions will likely have cameras and more memory and who knows what else, but this is a lovely product right now.
Do want.
In other iPad news you may also be interested in an alternative product called the ePad, and the definitive preview video is here:
It does seem to make a huge difference to the journey time when the roads are dry and clear. It's still a bit slow around the junction with the M62 but at least the traffic flows relatively smoothly rather than being stop-start.
Some more thoughts on the iPad - it is slightly unfair to see it as version 1.0, I think. It seems to me that it is building on the experience of the iPhone in the way that the interface works, and it looks as if it has sufficient processing power to make everything run smoothly whilst still maintaining a ten hour battery life. It goes without saying that on top of the app store and iTunes, the book store will be a major attraction, as long as they don't try to jack up the prices for the European market as Amazon did with the Kindle.
Another point that I was pondering was the complaints about the lack of support for Flash in the browser. The major use of Flash on the web is for embedded video and there are much better ways of supporting that with HTML 5. Apart from games, the other main use of Flash is for animated gewgaws and adverts that just serve to make web pages clunky and irritating. As Safari on the iPhone has shown, it doesn't take much thought to make web pages attractive and functional at the same time. Also, simple Google ads generate more click throughs than intrusive pop ups and banners. The iPad is certain to sell in sufficient numbers to be a major influence in web design and use in years to come.
Apple really are going to be in this for the long haul. Future versions will likely have cameras and more memory and who knows what else, but this is a lovely product right now.
Do want.
In other iPad news you may also be interested in an alternative product called the ePad, and the definitive preview video is here:
The iPad - watch more funny videos
- 09:36 Blue skies and sunshine - that's more like it! #
- 11:08 Homeopathy: Fast acting relief from excess cash! #homeopathyslogans #ten23 #
- 11:09 Homeopathy: No added extras - guaranteed! #homeopathyslogans #ten23 #
- 11:13 Homeopathy: Warning - may contain up to one molecule of active ingredient #homeopathyslogans #ten23 #
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Groovy Little Hippie Pad
According to the weather station it was theoretically a bit warmer this morning, but it still didn't feel like it when I went outside into the morning gloom, with a chill wind blowing and a threat of rain.
It felt cold in the office too, even though all of the radiators were on, and my fingers started seizing up until I wrapped them around a mug of hot coffee. I was even tempted to get a cheese and onion pasty from the pasty van when he tootled his horn, but I thought twice when somebody told me that they are 600 calories and 32 grams of fat apiece. My consumption of said comestibles probably didn't help with my weight gain last year, so I resisted today and had a bit of fruit instead.
Work was mainly tracking down some very strange behaviour in our web app that turned out to be data in the wrong format, going back several years to a conversion of the database from an earlier incarnation. Slightly disconcerting when default documents for things like FAQs come back with something else entirely.
In common with just about everybody else on the internet, I've been following the launch of the iPad. Very nice, particularly the reported ten hour battery life. I'd like to get my hands on one to try it, and I suspect that I would probably wait until version 2.0 before buying, but it does look very shiny indeed. I don't think it would ever replace my iPhone as number one gadget though - that really does have everything I need in the perfect portable form factor.
It felt cold in the office too, even though all of the radiators were on, and my fingers started seizing up until I wrapped them around a mug of hot coffee. I was even tempted to get a cheese and onion pasty from the pasty van when he tootled his horn, but I thought twice when somebody told me that they are 600 calories and 32 grams of fat apiece. My consumption of said comestibles probably didn't help with my weight gain last year, so I resisted today and had a bit of fruit instead.
Work was mainly tracking down some very strange behaviour in our web app that turned out to be data in the wrong format, going back several years to a conversion of the database from an earlier incarnation. Slightly disconcerting when default documents for things like FAQs come back with something else entirely.
In common with just about everybody else on the internet, I've been following the launch of the iPad. Very nice, particularly the reported ten hour battery life. I'd like to get my hands on one to try it, and I suspect that I would probably wait until version 2.0 before buying, but it does look very shiny indeed. I don't think it would ever replace my iPhone as number one gadget though - that really does have everything I need in the perfect portable form factor.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Haikusday
Dog barks in the night
I pointedly ignore him
Aided by ear plugs
Cat luxuriates
Stretching out on the blanket
He must be mithered
Clear roads, two degrees
Podcasts to brighten my day
Traffic flows smoothly
Our planning meeting
Concludes that lots of things are
Top priority
A wave of fatigue
Prompts a temporary switch
From decaff to caff
The stalk market tanks
I think Tom Nook is running
Insider dealing scam
Consider the issues
Of streaming video online
TMA question
I pointedly ignore him
Aided by ear plugs
Cat luxuriates
Stretching out on the blanket
He must be mithered
Clear roads, two degrees
Podcasts to brighten my day
Traffic flows smoothly
Our planning meeting
Concludes that lots of things are
Top priority
A wave of fatigue
Prompts a temporary switch
From decaff to caff
The stalk market tanks
I think Tom Nook is running
Insider dealing scam
Consider the issues
Of streaming video online
TMA question
Monday, January 25, 2010
From the Ritz to the rubble
Slow drive into work this morning and another grey, miserable day to boot.
I think that there must have been some sort of problem on the M62, but due to the fundamental interconnectedness of all motorways, any incident anywhere will have a knock on effect on everything else, thus reducing the M1 to the average speed of treacle on a cold day (which it was). Grumph.
It wasn't much better in the office, when it took my laptop at least ten minutes to boot up and come to the slow, dawning realisation that it was actually connected to the network and that it might be nice if I could open some work related windows and get on with something. Grumph. Again.
In games news, I have finally reached La Serenissima itself in my game of Assassins Creed II that I have been savouring, and wow - it really is the most stunningly realised environment in any game that I have ever played, just about edging out Liberty City by a whisker. It is an astonishing technical achievement, but it is even better when you realise that every building and rooftop is a wide open playground crying out to be scampered across. I remember being impressed by the Venetian level in Tomb Raider II all those years ago, but that was just a couple of canals and buildings, whereas ACII is as close as it possible to get to the whole city.
I think that I am about half way through this now, in terms of story missions, so at the current rate I should have it finished before Red Dead Redemption is released, which looks like another good open world game from Rockstar.
There is also the small matter of the new Aliens vs Predator game that I didn't know that I wanted quite so much until I saw the trailer that I posted the other day. I can see that game getting me back into multiplayer FPS in a way that Modern Warfare 2 has singularly failed to do. I hope that they have the single predator vs a squad of marines mode that was so much fun in AvP2, or the co-op marines vs aliens overrun mode for that matter. I'm really not bothered about such traditional FPS staples as Capture the Flag or Deathmatch, but playing as an invisible killing machine stalking heavily armed marines through a dripping jungle (or vice versa) is very appealing indeed.
I think that there must have been some sort of problem on the M62, but due to the fundamental interconnectedness of all motorways, any incident anywhere will have a knock on effect on everything else, thus reducing the M1 to the average speed of treacle on a cold day (which it was). Grumph.
It wasn't much better in the office, when it took my laptop at least ten minutes to boot up and come to the slow, dawning realisation that it was actually connected to the network and that it might be nice if I could open some work related windows and get on with something. Grumph. Again.
In games news, I have finally reached La Serenissima itself in my game of Assassins Creed II that I have been savouring, and wow - it really is the most stunningly realised environment in any game that I have ever played, just about edging out Liberty City by a whisker. It is an astonishing technical achievement, but it is even better when you realise that every building and rooftop is a wide open playground crying out to be scampered across. I remember being impressed by the Venetian level in Tomb Raider II all those years ago, but that was just a couple of canals and buildings, whereas ACII is as close as it possible to get to the whole city.
I think that I am about half way through this now, in terms of story missions, so at the current rate I should have it finished before Red Dead Redemption is released, which looks like another good open world game from Rockstar.
There is also the small matter of the new Aliens vs Predator game that I didn't know that I wanted quite so much until I saw the trailer that I posted the other day. I can see that game getting me back into multiplayer FPS in a way that Modern Warfare 2 has singularly failed to do. I hope that they have the single predator vs a squad of marines mode that was so much fun in AvP2, or the co-op marines vs aliens overrun mode for that matter. I'm really not bothered about such traditional FPS staples as Capture the Flag or Deathmatch, but playing as an invisible killing machine stalking heavily armed marines through a dripping jungle (or vice versa) is very appealing indeed.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Spies in the wire
Faroon asked me yesterday about the T175 course that I am doing, and seeing as that is mostly what I have been doing today, I shall oblige.
The full title for the course is T175 - Networked living: exploring information and communication technologies which is a bit of a mouthful, but actually quite a concise summary of the contents. In contrast to the M150 - Computing course that I am also doing, this course focuses more on the social impact of ICT systems. Not just the internet, although that is a major area, but things like how electronic news gathering has changed the way we hear about what is going on in the world, games and entertainment media and also privacy issues raised by things like omnipresent RFID tags in things.
It's a level one course, so some of the material is about learning how to learn. This is things like analyzing academic papers, writing summaries and reports and the bane of my life, correct referencing for quotations. The course material is a mix of books, material on DVD and online activities, including discussions on the OU tutor group forums and one real-time chat. That has been a little bit frustrating, trying to get some of the other students in the group to participate, but there are enough people joining in to make it worthwhile.
If you have the time and the inclination, I'd recommend OU study to anybody.
The full title for the course is T175 - Networked living: exploring information and communication technologies which is a bit of a mouthful, but actually quite a concise summary of the contents. In contrast to the M150 - Computing course that I am also doing, this course focuses more on the social impact of ICT systems. Not just the internet, although that is a major area, but things like how electronic news gathering has changed the way we hear about what is going on in the world, games and entertainment media and also privacy issues raised by things like omnipresent RFID tags in things.
It's a level one course, so some of the material is about learning how to learn. This is things like analyzing academic papers, writing summaries and reports and the bane of my life, correct referencing for quotations. The course material is a mix of books, material on DVD and online activities, including discussions on the OU tutor group forums and one real-time chat. That has been a little bit frustrating, trying to get some of the other students in the group to participate, but there are enough people joining in to make it worthwhile.
If you have the time and the inclination, I'd recommend OU study to anybody.
Sunday Links
- ZooBorns: Oliver the Koala Comes out to Play
- Giacomo Brunelli The antidote to cute. Stunning black and white pictures showing the sinister side of nature.
- The Writer's Tale - The Missing Scripts A must read for fans of Doctor Who - some example of Russell T Davies scripts
- Everything I need to know I learned from D&D
- I played D&D before it was cool
- The Science & the Fiction Good and bad science in the movies
- Real birds eye view! A golden eagle in flight
- Electric guitars attract the birds
- The Train of Terror Extraordinary live footage from the 1950s of a train being wrecked as part of a British Army training exercise
- Wu Tang Vs The Beatles
- Love Love Promise Lady Gaga vs Nathan Jay
- Dewey Music Free music!
- The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures Profile pictures for men and women analysed with some surprising results from the number crunching
- The Importance of Unbelief by Stephen Fry
- 50 Free Online Educational Games That Are More Fun Than You’d Think
- Endless Migration How long can you fly south for the winter?
Saturday, January 23, 2010
3AM Eternal
Well, that wasn't a fun night.
I didn't so much eat something that disagreed with me, as something that took violent exception to me, so thus I spent the better part of the night contemplating the mysteries of the universe and having, what is commonly referred to in polite company as as a good clear out.
Still, I didn't feel too bad come the morning, so it was on with some more T175 work, today dealing with news gathering technology from Pathe news reels and newspapers, to satellite uplinks and digital video. Interesting stuff, and it's leading up to a TMA question involving comparing coverage of a news story on broadcast media and the internet. Good stuff.
In games news, I had an urge to dig out my old copy of Dune II and try a Dosbox emulator called Boxer, which works remarkably well on my macbook. Damn, I have too many games to complete, so why did I have to go and get addicted to the old ones as well.
I didn't so much eat something that disagreed with me, as something that took violent exception to me, so thus I spent the better part of the night contemplating the mysteries of the universe and having, what is commonly referred to in polite company as as a good clear out.
Still, I didn't feel too bad come the morning, so it was on with some more T175 work, today dealing with news gathering technology from Pathe news reels and newspapers, to satellite uplinks and digital video. Interesting stuff, and it's leading up to a TMA question involving comparing coverage of a news story on broadcast media and the internet. Good stuff.
In games news, I had an urge to dig out my old copy of Dune II and try a Dosbox emulator called Boxer, which works remarkably well on my macbook. Damn, I have too many games to complete, so why did I have to go and get addicted to the old ones as well.
Friday, January 22, 2010
The Football War
Another 15 minute gem from the Speechification blog, this time telling the tragic story of how a contentious World Cup qualifying match between Honduras and El Salvador sparked off a brief but bloody war in 1969.
Subterranean Homesick Alien
Weather : wet, but that's not really a surprise. It's been chucking it down with rain for most of the day, and I was surprised to see some piles of snow dotted around the paths, still stubbornly refusing to melt, as I dodged the showers and took the dog for his statutory two walkies.
Not a huge amount to report today, being a work at home day and all. I managed to get a reasonable amount done, with only one question from the software testing team to field in the afternoon. I did have to chivvy number one daughter to pay her rent, after she didn't check that her loan money had gone into the right account to pay her hall fees. I think that she's learnt her lesson though, after getting a nasty letter from the bank.
What else?
I reached level 60 Shadowy in Echo Bazaar, after a couple of days of playing the last few story missions in Spite. I've also unlocked all of the other hidden areas, so it's back to Watchmaker's Hill to work on my Dangerous qualities instead.
I hereby declare Friday night ... open!
Not a huge amount to report today, being a work at home day and all. I managed to get a reasonable amount done, with only one question from the software testing team to field in the afternoon. I did have to chivvy number one daughter to pay her rent, after she didn't check that her loan money had gone into the right account to pay her hall fees. I think that she's learnt her lesson though, after getting a nasty letter from the bank.
What else?
I reached level 60 Shadowy in Echo Bazaar, after a couple of days of playing the last few story missions in Spite. I've also unlocked all of the other hidden areas, so it's back to Watchmaker's Hill to work on my Dangerous qualities instead.
I hereby declare Friday night ... open!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
All in a mouse's night
Weather : grey, mood : grey, underpants : grey.
I could leave it at that, but being verbose and with an obsessive compulsive need to write something every day, I won't.
Just after I posted last night, Daisy the cat brought in yet another mowsie. I tried to rescue it, but it scampered away over my feet and under the sofa. Doris the cat came to join in the hunt and eventually both cats cornered the poor little creature who promptly popped his proverbial clogs from fright. The cats are evidently making up for lost time from when they were snowed in and they must have found a nest in the field somewhere, providing them with steady supply of the mouse based equivalent of a Kinder egg - something to eat *and* something to play with, not forgetting a nasty surprise for any hoomins in the house at the time.
I've finally cleared the backlog of podcasts from the Christmas period, and appropriately enough the last one in the queue turned out to be the Adam and Joe boxing day show, and it was slightly odd to hear all of the festive banter and present giving three quarters of the way through January. I did enjoy the Bob Dylan Christmas songs though - timeless!
Time Gentlemen Please continues to be an excellent antidote to gloom. We've been watching two episodes a night recently and they are tremendous fun. As well as being astonishingly crude and very funny in places, they really are a text book example of how to structure a sitcom, with character development, running jokes, catch phrases, sight gags and callbacks to earlier episodes, with Terry's never-fail chat up technique making several unsignposted reappearances. Unfortunately, I can't see any way that a programme like this would make it past the blue pencils of the compliance editors of the BBC and ITV nowadays, but at least we have things like 'As It Occurs to Me' (a-eye-ottima!) as an alternative.
I could leave it at that, but being verbose and with an obsessive compulsive need to write something every day, I won't.
Just after I posted last night, Daisy the cat brought in yet another mowsie. I tried to rescue it, but it scampered away over my feet and under the sofa. Doris the cat came to join in the hunt and eventually both cats cornered the poor little creature who promptly popped his proverbial clogs from fright. The cats are evidently making up for lost time from when they were snowed in and they must have found a nest in the field somewhere, providing them with steady supply of the mouse based equivalent of a Kinder egg - something to eat *and* something to play with, not forgetting a nasty surprise for any hoomins in the house at the time.
I've finally cleared the backlog of podcasts from the Christmas period, and appropriately enough the last one in the queue turned out to be the Adam and Joe boxing day show, and it was slightly odd to hear all of the festive banter and present giving three quarters of the way through January. I did enjoy the Bob Dylan Christmas songs though - timeless!
Time Gentlemen Please continues to be an excellent antidote to gloom. We've been watching two episodes a night recently and they are tremendous fun. As well as being astonishingly crude and very funny in places, they really are a text book example of how to structure a sitcom, with character development, running jokes, catch phrases, sight gags and callbacks to earlier episodes, with Terry's never-fail chat up technique making several unsignposted reappearances. Unfortunately, I can't see any way that a programme like this would make it past the blue pencils of the compliance editors of the BBC and ITV nowadays, but at least we have things like 'As It Occurs to Me' (a-eye-ottima!) as an alternative.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The White Room
I miss the snow.
There, I've said it. I don't miss the slippery roads and bone chilling cold, but I do miss the clean blanket of white, reflecting the sky and lighting up the world. Since the thaw it seems that the everything has reverted to a uniform shade of grey, with no sign of the green of spring to be seen as yet. I really am looking forward to a serious bit of sunshine and warmth.
The weather matches my mood. Not miserable so much as flat. I've been waking up in the night again recently, from strange dreams of floods and journeys. It seems that my energy levels have reached a plateau again too, although it is hard to be objective. Not so much a blue Monday as a weary Wednesday.
A bit of an odd occurrence at home today. We don't know what happened exactly, but it looks like Barney has chewed out the corner of a foam mattress on the sofa bed in the study. He's not been destructive before, apart from scratching at a door when he gets shut into a room by accident, so it's very unusual behaviour for him. The cats usually sleep in that room though, and there was a dead mouse in the kitchen, so it's possible they were chasing it around and Barney decided that he wanted to join in somehow.
There, I've said it. I don't miss the slippery roads and bone chilling cold, but I do miss the clean blanket of white, reflecting the sky and lighting up the world. Since the thaw it seems that the everything has reverted to a uniform shade of grey, with no sign of the green of spring to be seen as yet. I really am looking forward to a serious bit of sunshine and warmth.
The weather matches my mood. Not miserable so much as flat. I've been waking up in the night again recently, from strange dreams of floods and journeys. It seems that my energy levels have reached a plateau again too, although it is hard to be objective. Not so much a blue Monday as a weary Wednesday.
A bit of an odd occurrence at home today. We don't know what happened exactly, but it looks like Barney has chewed out the corner of a foam mattress on the sofa bed in the study. He's not been destructive before, apart from scratching at a door when he gets shut into a room by accident, so it's very unusual behaviour for him. The cats usually sleep in that room though, and there was a dead mouse in the kitchen, so it's possible they were chasing it around and Barney decided that he wanted to join in somehow.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Tuesday haiku
The last of the snow
Melts in the fields, mist rising
To obscure the world
The morning routine
From alarm to leaving house
Double check laptop
Pint for the fella
Fruit based drink for the lady
Time Gentlemen Please!
Sex, drugs and trauma
Nurse Jackie rules the ER
The pain killer queen
Embroiled in scandal
As I foment a revolt
In Echo Bazaar
Carmack's coding hacks
Make for an interesting read
T175
At 10:23
A sugar pill overdose
There's nothing in it
Melts in the fields, mist rising
To obscure the world
The morning routine
From alarm to leaving house
Double check laptop
Pint for the fella
Fruit based drink for the lady
Time Gentlemen Please!
Sex, drugs and trauma
Nurse Jackie rules the ER
The pain killer queen
Embroiled in scandal
As I foment a revolt
In Echo Bazaar
Carmack's coding hacks
Make for an interesting read
T175
At 10:23
A sugar pill overdose
There's nothing in it
Podcasts
Collings and Herrin
Approaching a century
Of podcast chatter
Seven Day Sunday
New kids on the podcast block
Topical banter
Friday News Quiz
Turns a gimlet eye on the
Corrupt and inane
Approaching a century
Of podcast chatter
Seven Day Sunday
New kids on the podcast block
Topical banter
Friday News Quiz
Turns a gimlet eye on the
Corrupt and inane
Monday, January 18, 2010
How does it feel
Apparently, according to rigorous scientific analysis today is 'Blue Monday' - the most depressing day of the year. Supposedly, it's a combination of time since Christmas, broken resolutions, credit card bills from the festive spending spree arriving and poor weather, and not at all made up gubbins designed to fill a few newspaper columns on an otherwise slow day. I haven't noticed any particular difference, but I have had this song stuck in my head all day.
The dog didn't bark in the night last night, but I was still a bit spaced out at twenty past six this morning. I got onto the motorway by autopilot and then realised that I had no conscious memory of having put my laptop in the back of the car. Fortunately, it turned out that I did have it with me when I got to Leeds, but the gap was slightly worrying me. Obviously I've managed to kill a critical number of neurons over the weekend by drinking two pints of Speckled Hen instead of my usual one.
The sun made a brief appearance in the sky this morning which was most welcome, if somewhat short lived. I'm going to try and take a walk into town on a couple of days a week, weather permitting. I haven't updated my RunKeeper log in a while so it would be a good excuse to start using it again. I haven't weighed myself recently but I think that the healthy eating regime since Christmas is starting to have a positive effect on my waistline.
The dog didn't bark in the night last night, but I was still a bit spaced out at twenty past six this morning. I got onto the motorway by autopilot and then realised that I had no conscious memory of having put my laptop in the back of the car. Fortunately, it turned out that I did have it with me when I got to Leeds, but the gap was slightly worrying me. Obviously I've managed to kill a critical number of neurons over the weekend by drinking two pints of Speckled Hen instead of my usual one.
The sun made a brief appearance in the sky this morning which was most welcome, if somewhat short lived. I'm going to try and take a walk into town on a couple of days a week, weather permitting. I haven't updated my RunKeeper log in a while so it would be a good excuse to start using it again. I haven't weighed myself recently but I think that the healthy eating regime since Christmas is starting to have a positive effect on my waistline.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Bark at the moon
Another disturbed night of the dog barking.
I was very disorientated when he woke me up at around one o'clock. I thought it was half past six and so I was going to get up and make a cup of tea, and it was only after I'd come downstairs and let the dog out into the garden that I realised what time it actually was.
Earlier last night we made a start on the box set of 'Time Gentlemen Please', the sitcom written by Richard Herring and Al Murray featuring the Pub Landlord character. It originally went out an obscure satellite channel in 2000 to miniscule audiences and pretty much sunk without trace. I suspect that if it had been on ITV a few years later then it would have been a much bigger hit. Anyhoo, it's well worth watching if you haven't seen it, although I recommend getting the box set with 37 episodes on which I picked up from Amazon for a tenner rather than the single disc DVD with a measly six episodes on.
Today has been pretty lazy. A spot of Animal Crossing (complete stegosaurus skeleton for the museum - GET!), a bit more Assassin's Creed (a tomb with some tricky timed sections) and finishing off the audiobook that I have been listening to.
I was very disorientated when he woke me up at around one o'clock. I thought it was half past six and so I was going to get up and make a cup of tea, and it was only after I'd come downstairs and let the dog out into the garden that I realised what time it actually was.
Earlier last night we made a start on the box set of 'Time Gentlemen Please', the sitcom written by Richard Herring and Al Murray featuring the Pub Landlord character. It originally went out an obscure satellite channel in 2000 to miniscule audiences and pretty much sunk without trace. I suspect that if it had been on ITV a few years later then it would have been a much bigger hit. Anyhoo, it's well worth watching if you haven't seen it, although I recommend getting the box set with 37 episodes on which I picked up from Amazon for a tenner rather than the single disc DVD with a measly six episodes on.
Today has been pretty lazy. A spot of Animal Crossing (complete stegosaurus skeleton for the museum - GET!), a bit more Assassin's Creed (a tomb with some tricky timed sections) and finishing off the audiobook that I have been listening to.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg LarssonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Mikael Blomkvist, financial journalist and publisher of the modestly successful magazine 'Millennium' finds himself facing financial ruin and a prison sentence when he is sued for libel by a crooked business tycoon called Wennerström for running a story based on an off-the-record tip off. He reluctantly accepts a commission from another businessman, Henrik Vanger, with the promise of not only a large sum of money but crucial information to help him clear his name and nail Wennerström. Ostensibly he is to write a family history of the sprawling Vanger clan and their convoluted business dealings, but his real task is to investigate the disappearance of Henrik's 16 year old niece Harriet, who vanished in mysterious circumstances forty years previously. Henrik believes that she was murdered, and that the killer is now sending him a pressed flower in a frame every year to torment him. Meanwhile, a young computer hacker called Lisbeth Sallandar has been commissioned to run a background check on Blomkvist, but she has more pressing problems of her own to deal with.
This is an intriguing mystery story with a large number of characters to keep track of as Blomkvist tries to piece together events from the past. The resolution is slightly disappointing after the excellent build up, and will seem quite familiar to anyone who has read any crime genre fiction from recent years, including the obligatory nutty room. Larsson also has an odd habit of listing in detail the contents of bookshelves and the technical specifications of any computers that the protagonists use. The book is saved though by the Swedish setting which manages to feel familiar to British readers and oddly different at the same time. The characters of the phlegmatic Blomkvist and the tenacious Sallandar are very engaging, and would probably encourage me to pick up the other two books in the series.
View all my reviews >>
Sunday Links
- 70 Cutie Baby Animals Bring You a Good Mood
- ZooBorns: Maxing Out on Penguin Chicks
- CUTE THINGS FALLING ASLEEP
- The Internet Is Made Of Cats Fact.
- Western Swing on 78 Western Swing is probably mah favourite musical genre. Imagine the blues played on fiddles and slide guitars with a jaunty air by men in cowboy hats. This blog collects some of the rarest examples available only on old 78s.
- Grand Canyon Aerials Stunning HD aerial film
- Two Gentlemen of Lebowski I am not Master Lebowski; thou art Master Lebowski. I am the Knave, called the Knave. Or His Knaveness, or mayhap Knaver, or mayhap El Knaverino, in the manner of the Spaniard, if brevity be not in thy soul nor wit. A Knave by any other name would abide just as well. The Big Lebowski, as written by Wm Shakespeare.
- Place Your Bets 40 Gut-Busting Restaurant Challenges for Free Food
- Space 2099 A true labour of love - the wonderful (if somewhat shonky) Space 1999 given a spit and polish for modern audiences.
- If HP Lovecraft wrote C manuals What horrors lurk within the code?
- app.itize.us A useful blog of the best iPhone apps
- The Evolution of Life in 60 Seconds Somebody show Stephen Baldwin this video, please.
- I'm a Barbie girl Barbie the computer engineer? I'd vote for that!
- The Physics of Space Battles
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Raindogs
The rain has mostly washed away the remaining snow now, leaving only the grubby heaps of shovelled ice dotted with grit.
It's too wet to walk through the field so I went round the path with the dog twice today. Hopefully it will dry out if we get a bit of sunshine at some point. I really hope so, because the current grey, wet weather is not at all pleasant.
It's Saturday today, so that means pretty much all OU work, all the time. After giving a final read through and submitting my M150 TMA, I made a start on T175 Block 3 which looks like something I'm really going to enjoy with some stuff about digital technologies in entertainment media including video games like the original Wolfenstein. This is the half way point in the course and looking back, we really have covered a lot of ground - it's definitely value for money.
It's too wet to walk through the field so I went round the path with the dog twice today. Hopefully it will dry out if we get a bit of sunshine at some point. I really hope so, because the current grey, wet weather is not at all pleasant.
It's Saturday today, so that means pretty much all OU work, all the time. After giving a final read through and submitting my M150 TMA, I made a start on T175 Block 3 which looks like something I'm really going to enjoy with some stuff about digital technologies in entertainment media including video games like the original Wolfenstein. This is the half way point in the course and looking back, we really have covered a lot of ground - it's definitely value for money.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Hey bartender!
Friday, and a cold, misty and wet one to boot as a persistent rain started to make some headway into melting the snow.
The day started with a bit of a shock. I'd set the alarm a bit later for my usual work-at-home Friday and I was half awake waiting for the clock to click onto seven. There was a ring on the doorbell and I stumbled downstairs in the dark with my heart pounding. I'd watched one of those Police Camera Action type programmes a couple of days before and one of the themes was about coppers going to people's houses to break bad news to them. Fortunately it just turned out to be a delivery man with some replacement bulbs for my Lumie box, but seven in the morning is a touch on the early side, I think.
The bulbs turned out not to be the cause of the problem with the box, so we'll have to send the whole thing back to be fixed which is a bit of a pain. I really rely on my light, and it's a good job I've got my spare one.
Work has been productive with the problem from yesterday being fixorized which should earn me some brownie points, and I knocked off a couple of other things on the list too. I did the last bit on my M150 TMA which seems to have taken quite a long time, with a lot of bitty questions and sample code to write. Mind you, I'm well on schedule, so I can get on with the T175 stuff tomorrow and then submit the TMA on Sunday.
In Echo Bazaar news, there was another twist in the tale. I have been mostly concentrating on shadowy pursuits such as casing stately homes and burglarizing jewelery shops and I hadn't realised that my activities were raising the suspicions of the constabulary. Eventually I had my spider-silk collar felt by the long arm of the law and it was off to chokey in Newgate Prison for me. Fortunately a combination of alibis from some of my accomplices, a bribe of a couple of cases of Greyfields 1882 and a letter from my lawyer sprung me from the nick, eventually.
Friday night approacheth!
The day started with a bit of a shock. I'd set the alarm a bit later for my usual work-at-home Friday and I was half awake waiting for the clock to click onto seven. There was a ring on the doorbell and I stumbled downstairs in the dark with my heart pounding. I'd watched one of those Police Camera Action type programmes a couple of days before and one of the themes was about coppers going to people's houses to break bad news to them. Fortunately it just turned out to be a delivery man with some replacement bulbs for my Lumie box, but seven in the morning is a touch on the early side, I think.
The bulbs turned out not to be the cause of the problem with the box, so we'll have to send the whole thing back to be fixed which is a bit of a pain. I really rely on my light, and it's a good job I've got my spare one.
Work has been productive with the problem from yesterday being fixorized which should earn me some brownie points, and I knocked off a couple of other things on the list too. I did the last bit on my M150 TMA which seems to have taken quite a long time, with a lot of bitty questions and sample code to write. Mind you, I'm well on schedule, so I can get on with the T175 stuff tomorrow and then submit the TMA on Sunday.
In Echo Bazaar news, there was another twist in the tale. I have been mostly concentrating on shadowy pursuits such as casing stately homes and burglarizing jewelery shops and I hadn't realised that my activities were raising the suspicions of the constabulary. Eventually I had my spider-silk collar felt by the long arm of the law and it was off to chokey in Newgate Prison for me. Fortunately a combination of alibis from some of my accomplices, a bribe of a couple of cases of Greyfields 1882 and a letter from my lawyer sprung me from the nick, eventually.
Friday night approacheth!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
We come from the land of the ice and snow
Another icy day, and after checking the traffic flow on the M1 (still overloaded with cars from the blocked A628) and listening to the warnings about black ice on ungritted surfaces, and also taking into account the chesty cough that I seem to be coming down with I took an executive decision to work at home.
I ended up mostly remote desktopping to a customer site via a citrix connection, and as far as I can tell it makes no difference whether I do that from the office or at home in my slippers. It was a bit of frustrating process trying to switch on error logging for part of the application that is supposed to return a pdf version of a document from the image server into an embedded applet, but I think that I may have made some progress on it. I also need to do a technical review of a spec that needs working on as soon as possible.
The other benefit of working at home was downing tools at five, only to pick them up again and carry on with the remainder of my M150 TMA that is due in next week. Have I ever mentioned quite how cumbersome I find Harvard referencing? I think I need to do a big memo print out to stick on the wall with : Author surname + initial, (year), Title, [on-line], publisher, available from : [url], accessed on : date. I suppose I'll get the hang of it eventually.
Right, time for my daily dose of Animal Crossing. I'm getting a little antsy again because it is Thursday and I still haven't seen a good price for the 900 turnips I have in my upstairs room.
I ended up mostly remote desktopping to a customer site via a citrix connection, and as far as I can tell it makes no difference whether I do that from the office or at home in my slippers. It was a bit of frustrating process trying to switch on error logging for part of the application that is supposed to return a pdf version of a document from the image server into an embedded applet, but I think that I may have made some progress on it. I also need to do a technical review of a spec that needs working on as soon as possible.
The other benefit of working at home was downing tools at five, only to pick them up again and carry on with the remainder of my M150 TMA that is due in next week. Have I ever mentioned quite how cumbersome I find Harvard referencing? I think I need to do a big memo print out to stick on the wall with : Author surname + initial, (year), Title, [on-line], publisher, available from : [url], accessed on : date. I suppose I'll get the hang of it eventually.
Right, time for my daily dose of Animal Crossing. I'm getting a little antsy again because it is Thursday and I still haven't seen a good price for the 900 turnips I have in my upstairs room.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Frozen
The brilliant snow from last week has now been replaced by miserable, gray, icy slush.
I went out to my car this morning, thinking merely that the windscreen had a bit of condensation on it. It was only when the wipers skittered across the glass that I realised that the whole car was encased in a coating of almost transparent ice. It took me nearly ten minutes of concentrated chipping to restore some measure of visibility.
The roads weren't much better. Although the motorways were clear, the A628 route to Manchester is still blocked by snow with all of the usual traffic diverted via the M62 and the M1 which just so happens to be my journey. It took me over an hour this morning, and even yesterday morning when I was driving that way at seven o'clock it was still crawling. This is a major trans-Pennine route, at least judging by the extra traffic on the M1, so surely it should be a priority for the snow ploughs and gritters?
At least the office was relatively quiet after the stress of yesterday, giving me a chance to catch my metaphorical breath. It was even quieter in the afternoon as people disappeared off early as news of cancelled buses and trains came through due to lack of (true) grit.
In games news, after about five years of trying I finally managed to catch a dung beetle in Animal Crossing. The only time that you ever see them is during the winter, when they push snowballs around. If you startle them (very easy to do) they fly off immediately, so I really did hold my breath whilst I got my butterfly net out, and then gave a cheer when I actually caught one. Now for the pesky coelacanth ...
Meanwhile in Echo Bazaar, the nightmares became too much for my fragile psyche and my mind snapped like a strumpet's garter, leaving me in a strange state of confusion. It took a day of patient exploration of the dream world that I was trapped in before I was returned to the relatively sane world of Fallen London. This game reads like a cross between Charles Dickens and HP Lovecraft, with a healthy dose of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere for good measure, and it really should be tried by anyone with a penchant for the outré and strange.
I went out to my car this morning, thinking merely that the windscreen had a bit of condensation on it. It was only when the wipers skittered across the glass that I realised that the whole car was encased in a coating of almost transparent ice. It took me nearly ten minutes of concentrated chipping to restore some measure of visibility.
The roads weren't much better. Although the motorways were clear, the A628 route to Manchester is still blocked by snow with all of the usual traffic diverted via the M62 and the M1 which just so happens to be my journey. It took me over an hour this morning, and even yesterday morning when I was driving that way at seven o'clock it was still crawling. This is a major trans-Pennine route, at least judging by the extra traffic on the M1, so surely it should be a priority for the snow ploughs and gritters?
At least the office was relatively quiet after the stress of yesterday, giving me a chance to catch my metaphorical breath. It was even quieter in the afternoon as people disappeared off early as news of cancelled buses and trains came through due to lack of (true) grit.
In games news, after about five years of trying I finally managed to catch a dung beetle in Animal Crossing. The only time that you ever see them is during the winter, when they push snowballs around. If you startle them (very easy to do) they fly off immediately, so I really did hold my breath whilst I got my butterfly net out, and then gave a cheer when I actually caught one. Now for the pesky coelacanth ...
Meanwhile in Echo Bazaar, the nightmares became too much for my fragile psyche and my mind snapped like a strumpet's garter, leaving me in a strange state of confusion. It took a day of patient exploration of the dream world that I was trapped in before I was returned to the relatively sane world of Fallen London. This game reads like a cross between Charles Dickens and HP Lovecraft, with a healthy dose of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere for good measure, and it really should be tried by anyone with a penchant for the outré and strange.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Tuesday haiku
A long stressful day
Early start, well before dawn
Roads lined with gray slush
Problems manifest
Phone calls and some work arounds
List of bugs to fix
Training is delayed
Not even chance to eat half of
Lunchtime cheese sarnie
Escape at half four
Audiobook on my iPhone
Shortens the journey
Home to a warm house
One versus one hundred and
A vodka and lime
Early start, well before dawn
Roads lined with gray slush
Problems manifest
Phone calls and some work arounds
List of bugs to fix
Training is delayed
Not even chance to eat half of
Lunchtime cheese sarnie
Escape at half four
Audiobook on my iPhone
Shortens the journey
Home to a warm house
One versus one hundred and
A vodka and lime
Monday, January 11, 2010
The persistance of delusion
The second meeting of Sheffield Skeptics in the Pub tonight and the drive through slushy back streets was well worth it to hear Andy Lewis from Quackometer talk about topics as diverse as cures for 'bad' electromagnetic energy, Perkins tractors and John Wesley's rather unusual treatment for consumption (which may have been a typographical error).
The theme of the talk was why belief in ineffectual treatments continues to persist in the face of all evidence to the contrary. We had a whistle stop tour from the spa treatments of Bath where the original Roman gods thought to be responsible for the cures have been supplanted by lots of fancy sounding therapies with the word holistic in them somewhere. He also pointed out that a lot of alternative therapies that claim to have long histories have actually been invented comparatively recently, with Reiki being a prime example, and Hopi candles turn out to be a product of a 1970s German company and nothing to do with Native Americans at all.
As with all these things it all boils down to money, and if somebody can get away with selling a few wires and a bit of copper tube from a central heating system for £50 as a protection against wifi and mobile phone signals, then it really is a case of caveat emptor.
Simon Singh next month!
The theme of the talk was why belief in ineffectual treatments continues to persist in the face of all evidence to the contrary. We had a whistle stop tour from the spa treatments of Bath where the original Roman gods thought to be responsible for the cures have been supplanted by lots of fancy sounding therapies with the word holistic in them somewhere. He also pointed out that a lot of alternative therapies that claim to have long histories have actually been invented comparatively recently, with Reiki being a prime example, and Hopi candles turn out to be a product of a 1970s German company and nothing to do with Native Americans at all.
As with all these things it all boils down to money, and if somebody can get away with selling a few wires and a bit of copper tube from a central heating system for £50 as a protection against wifi and mobile phone signals, then it really is a case of caveat emptor.
Simon Singh next month!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Meltdown
I was enjoying my morning cup of tea today when there was a crash from the front of the house.
It turned out to be one of the large icicles falling off and hitting the porch roof. Fortunately there was nobody underneath at the time, as several large chunks landed on the path. At least it seems to indicate that the snow is finally starting to thaw.
I drove down to the garage to get some petrol and some mushrooms for breakfast (well, the petrol was for the car, not for breakfast before you go getting the idea that I enjoy a nice cup of petrol on a Sunday morning). I had no trouble on the road, apart from a bit of wheelspin going over the speed bumps, but I think it will be mostly clear by tomorrow.
Back home for a nommy breakfast featuring said mushrooms (and not any petrol) and then a bit of a nap before making a start on the second TMA for my M150 course. I am pretty confident with this one all told, and we've now done all the sections necessary for me to complete it. I also hit the word count exactly on two of the longer answers without even trying, so I think I'm getting into the right frame of mind for this sort of thing.
I think it may well be time for a spot of Assassin's Creed II now. I've not played for a week and I feel the need to spend a little time climbing absurdly high towers in the Tuscan sunshine.
It turned out to be one of the large icicles falling off and hitting the porch roof. Fortunately there was nobody underneath at the time, as several large chunks landed on the path. At least it seems to indicate that the snow is finally starting to thaw.
I drove down to the garage to get some petrol and some mushrooms for breakfast (well, the petrol was for the car, not for breakfast before you go getting the idea that I enjoy a nice cup of petrol on a Sunday morning). I had no trouble on the road, apart from a bit of wheelspin going over the speed bumps, but I think it will be mostly clear by tomorrow.
Back home for a nommy breakfast featuring said mushrooms (and not any petrol) and then a bit of a nap before making a start on the second TMA for my M150 course. I am pretty confident with this one all told, and we've now done all the sections necessary for me to complete it. I also hit the word count exactly on two of the longer answers without even trying, so I think I'm getting into the right frame of mind for this sort of thing.
I think it may well be time for a spot of Assassin's Creed II now. I've not played for a week and I feel the need to spend a little time climbing absurdly high towers in the Tuscan sunshine.
Sunday Links
- ZooBorns: Hanging Out with San Diego's Koala Joey
- THIS JUST IN: A Dangling Baby Panda
- Four Photographs of an Atomic Bomb
- Capturing the Veined Beauty of Lightning
- ’tis a bit nippy, guvnah! Amazing satellite photos of frozen Britain just in case anyone hasn't seen them yet
- Celebrities and Science 2009 Sense About Science has collected the stupid things that celebrities have said about science into one handy pdf for your edification and amusment
- Suicide Food Bizarrely inappropriate food packaging
- How To Rob a Bank
- The Case of the Collider and the Great Black Hole If the LHC does destroy the Earth, who do you sue?
- iPhone-controlled helicopter very much do want!
- Pixel Force : Left 4 Dead An 8 bit take on the zombie killing classic (Video here)
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Saturday night at the movies
Or more accurately, at home on the sofa with my feet up.
We've just been out with the dog, twice round the field through the deep snow, and then back home to brush the fresh snow off of the drive, and that's enough to leave my muscles quivering thank you very much.
It's been a productive day on OU work, all told. In lieu of the study day we had a javascript quiz and several examples of code to produce. As with any language, it's just a case of getting the hang of the syntax and it's not all that different from other stuff that I've done before.
In the afternoon we had an online tutorial which I eventually had to resort to booting into Windows to run. Apparently the version that the OU use is not compatible with Snow Leopard for some reason. I also couldn't get my microphone working but that could be because it's been stuck in a draw with all of my spare cables for several years. Only one other person made it to the tutorial (~waves~ at Saz!) but it was still useful with plenty of tips on the style of code that the TMA will be looking for.
In other news, I have finally collected a full set of snowman furniture in Animal Crossing (phear my l33t snowman making skillz) so that should up my Happy Room score tomorrow. I've also made considerable progress in Echo Bazaar with my shadowy skills reaching level 25 at the cost of suffering nightmares which are apparently starting to become dangerous. I will have to seek out some laudanum to sooth my shattered nerves ...
We've just been out with the dog, twice round the field through the deep snow, and then back home to brush the fresh snow off of the drive, and that's enough to leave my muscles quivering thank you very much.
It's been a productive day on OU work, all told. In lieu of the study day we had a javascript quiz and several examples of code to produce. As with any language, it's just a case of getting the hang of the syntax and it's not all that different from other stuff that I've done before.
In the afternoon we had an online tutorial which I eventually had to resort to booting into Windows to run. Apparently the version that the OU use is not compatible with Snow Leopard for some reason. I also couldn't get my microphone working but that could be because it's been stuck in a draw with all of my spare cables for several years. Only one other person made it to the tutorial (~waves~ at Saz!) but it was still useful with plenty of tips on the style of code that the TMA will be looking for.
In other news, I have finally collected a full set of snowman furniture in Animal Crossing (phear my l33t snowman making skillz) so that should up my Happy Room score tomorrow. I've also made considerable progress in Echo Bazaar with my shadowy skills reaching level 25 at the cost of suffering nightmares which are apparently starting to become dangerous. I will have to seek out some laudanum to sooth my shattered nerves ...
Friday, January 08, 2010
Middle of Winter
Crikey, it's cold out there. The sort of cold that gets into your marrow and grabs hold, refusing to let go. Time to turn the heating up a notch and have a cappuccino with vanilla syrup, I think.
Much as predicted, I failed to get off the end of the road this morning, although it turned out in the end that the meeting that I was supposed to go to didn't need anything from me that couldn't be sorted via email so I had a more productive day at home. Jan did a bit more shoveling so at least the area in front of the drive is clear now which means I should be able to get onto the road with a bit of momentum to get past the slippery bits.
The bad news is that the M150 java day school scheduled for tomorrow in Leeds has been canceled due to the weather, but the good news is that we're going to be doing it on-line instead. It should be fun if we can get an Elluminate session going (the OU's voice chat tutorial thingy) as well. I know that Maungy Mare is planning on (virtual) attendance, and it would be nice if some more of tutor group were around as well.
Right, nearly time to call in the UN peace keepers on Jamie's never ending game of Modern Warfare so I can get fired up for tonight's 1 vs 100 head to head death match with. Oh, and a mojito might be in order as well.
Much as predicted, I failed to get off the end of the road this morning, although it turned out in the end that the meeting that I was supposed to go to didn't need anything from me that couldn't be sorted via email so I had a more productive day at home. Jan did a bit more shoveling so at least the area in front of the drive is clear now which means I should be able to get onto the road with a bit of momentum to get past the slippery bits.
The bad news is that the M150 java day school scheduled for tomorrow in Leeds has been canceled due to the weather, but the good news is that we're going to be doing it on-line instead. It should be fun if we can get an Elluminate session going (the OU's voice chat tutorial thingy) as well. I know that Maungy Mare is planning on (virtual) attendance, and it would be nice if some more of tutor group were around as well.
Right, nearly time to call in the UN peace keepers on Jamie's never ending game of Modern Warfare so I can get fired up for tonight's 1 vs 100 head to head death match with
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