After a week (well, strictly speaking three days) of half term empty-ish roads it was business as normal this morning with the situation not being helped by a nasty crash in the middle of the roadworks where the M1 meets the M62. The traffic was crawling past the scene where the usual three lanes were reduced to one. Not good.
Work today has been mostly meetings, or meetings about meetings, with a bit of interviewing thrown in for good measure, although I did manage to do an actual bit of coding this afternoon to fix the issue with rounding decimals on SQL server. Lunch was eaten in the fifteen minutes between the end of one meeting and a tele-conference, and I have made the discovery that cheesy coleslaw with a bit of herb salad makes an excellent filling for a wrap. Nom.
In OU news, I completed the first draft of the technical writing section of my T215 TMA, so I just need to do a critical review of it and trim it by about forty word to fit within the word limit. Shouldn't be too difficult, and I'll be able to submish it tomorrow I think.
In telly news, I finally got the necessary circular tuit to plug a network cable into the tv to try out the internet apps and we were able to watch this week's episode of Nurse Jackie using the iPlayer app in full screen resolution with no buffering. Nifty. We do tend to record most things we watch on the Topfield PVR box, but it's nice to have this as a fallback option. It would be even nicer to have 4OD on there as well, but that's not there at the moment.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday Links
- A Star Is Born in Chattanooga! Bebe Snow Leopardage on ZooBorns!
- In your face! Adam Buxton, triumphant
- Sadat's Dat The middle east unrest put in perspective by Adam Curtis - essential reading
- Fashion, Qaddafi-Style Style guru and brutal dictator
- Why can we see through glass but not other solids? Let this awesome video explain
- What Happens When You Stick Your Head Into a Particle Accelerator Enquiring minds need to know
- How to Open a Wine Bottle Without a Corkscrew Thirsty minds need to drink
- Hundreds of Tourist Photos Weaved into One Eerie
- images from the secret STASI archives Haunting
- Selene A hip-hop concept EP based on the excellent film Moon - wondrous
- Everything is a Remix Part 2 Quentin Tarantino, deconstructed
- Five Seconds Of Every #1 Pop Single Obsessive (Part 2)
- What Your Favorite Classic Rock Band Says About You.
- Run from zombies inside street view How far would you get in a zombie apocalypse? Works best with Chrome or Safari
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Riding the Low - Leadmill 25/02/11
A rainy Friday night in Sheffield and what better place to go than the Leadmill to drink beer and listen to music?
First on the bill were the 'Hometown Hobos' - a raw but engaging pub rock band who did a sterling job in warming up the crowd starting to fill up the back room. A short break and then next up were 'Lateral Vision' - continuing the rock theme. A little more polished than the Hobos, with some blistering guitar and interesting use of a six string bass. The last of the support bands was 'Ruberlaris' a fun, bouncy ska band with a touch of Arctic Monkeys thrown in for good measure. They brought along a contingent of mind bogglingly young skins who bounced around at the front, having a good time. A good varied mix of styles there, I think.
Finally, the headliners 'Riding the Low' took the stage ...
Lead singer Paddy Considine, perhaps better known for his acting roles, makes for a charismatic front man for a tight and efficient group of musicians who gave us an excellent and varied set of tunes. We somehow managed to find ourselves right up at the front and it really was a superb experience to see music this good close up. They held the attention of the crowd all of the way through the gig and left us wanting more - always a good way to go out. We didn't manage to grab the set list at the end, but I found the EP 'They Will Rob You Of Your Gifts' on itunes for the bargain price of £1.99.
All in all - ACEBEST!
First on the bill were the 'Hometown Hobos' - a raw but engaging pub rock band who did a sterling job in warming up the crowd starting to fill up the back room. A short break and then next up were 'Lateral Vision' - continuing the rock theme. A little more polished than the Hobos, with some blistering guitar and interesting use of a six string bass. The last of the support bands was 'Ruberlaris' a fun, bouncy ska band with a touch of Arctic Monkeys thrown in for good measure. They brought along a contingent of mind bogglingly young skins who bounced around at the front, having a good time. A good varied mix of styles there, I think.
Finally, the headliners 'Riding the Low' took the stage ...
Lead singer Paddy Considine, perhaps better known for his acting roles, makes for a charismatic front man for a tight and efficient group of musicians who gave us an excellent and varied set of tunes. We somehow managed to find ourselves right up at the front and it really was a superb experience to see music this good close up. They held the attention of the crowd all of the way through the gig and left us wanting more - always a good way to go out. We didn't manage to grab the set list at the end, but I found the EP 'They Will Rob You Of Your Gifts' on itunes for the bargain price of £1.99.
All in all - ACEBEST!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Ten Years
A gloriously sunny, spring-like day today with a very pleasant stroll around the block at lunch time. Smashing. The drive in has been getting steadily better too - I set off at the same time of twenty past seven and I'm at the office for just after eight (no mints though), which allows me to snuck off a bit earlier in the afternoon.
It was our tenth wedding anniversary yesterday, but we kept it fairly low key as neither of us are big on the ushy-gushy stuff. We did treat ourselves to a very nice meal at the pub up the road though. It was surprisingly busy for a Wednesday night, but we managed to get a table and I was stouffered after eating a magnificent creation known as a Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding wrap (slices of roast beef, rolled up in a big Yorkshire pud - nom). We are also going out tomorrow night to drink beer and mank around to disreputable bands at the Leadmill, but more of that anon.
In games news, I am back to where I was in Plants vs Zombies with a fully stocked zen garden and some cheevos under my metaphorical belt. I have been racking up some cash by watering the garden, applying bug spray and soothing music where required, feeding my pet snail some chocolate and then leaving him to hoover up coins for half an hour whilst I do other stuff.
It was our tenth wedding anniversary yesterday, but we kept it fairly low key as neither of us are big on the ushy-gushy stuff. We did treat ourselves to a very nice meal at the pub up the road though. It was surprisingly busy for a Wednesday night, but we managed to get a table and I was stouffered after eating a magnificent creation known as a Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding wrap (slices of roast beef, rolled up in a big Yorkshire pud - nom). We are also going out tomorrow night to drink beer and mank around to disreputable bands at the Leadmill, but more of that anon.
In games news, I am back to where I was in Plants vs Zombies with a fully stocked zen garden and some cheevos under my metaphorical belt. I have been racking up some cash by watering the garden, applying bug spray and soothing music where required, feeding my pet snail some chocolate and then leaving him to hoover up coins for half an hour whilst I do other stuff.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Haikusday
Lambing at Brookfield,
A reassuring part of,
The yearly cycle
Plenty of fresh fruit,
Water and senna appear,
To have done the trick
He talks of revolt,
Liberating the country,
From its own people
He orders warplanes,
To attack protesting crowds,
Fuck you Gadaffi
A reassuring part of,
The yearly cycle
Plenty of fresh fruit,
Water and senna appear,
To have done the trick
He talks of revolt,
Liberating the country,
From its own people
He orders warplanes,
To attack protesting crowds,
Fuck you Gadaffi
Monday, February 21, 2011
Crosseyed and Painless
Or not, as the case may be.
The weekend bug seems to have gone, but I've been left with grumbling pain in my lower abdomen combined with bloating and, to put it delicately, a lack of regularity in the toilet department. I'm pretty sure it's not appendicitis, but it's uncomfortable all the same. I've been drinking water, eating lots of fruit and had a couple of senna-pod tablets, so we'll see if that does the trick.
Apologies for the minimalist blogging - normal service will be resumed when, er, normal service is resumed.
The weekend bug seems to have gone, but I've been left with grumbling pain in my lower abdomen combined with bloating and, to put it delicately, a lack of regularity in the toilet department. I'm pretty sure it's not appendicitis, but it's uncomfortable all the same. I've been drinking water, eating lots of fruit and had a couple of senna-pod tablets, so we'll see if that does the trick.
Apologies for the minimalist blogging - normal service will be resumed when, er, normal service is resumed.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Sunday Links
- Baby Aardvark Stumbles Its Way into Colchester Zoo - ZooBorns It's Cerebus!
- Who knew? Pudú! The proshest bebe deer ever seen!
- The fun, exciting, potentially deadly world of Tactical Pens Shiny!
- The average face Mix faces to see a cumulative average
- Back to the future Old photos recreated by the same subjects - charming and strangely affecting
- in Bb 2.0 A collaborative music/spoken word project.
- Rupert and the God Delusion Your viral meme caused such confusion, until I read the God Delusion
- The Great Gatsby The world's strangest retro video game
- How to Secure and Encrypt Your Web Browsing on Public Networks
- How to make a digital microscope for £15 New Scientist
- Fight Back! A Reader on the Winter of Protest A free book of articles discussing the recent anti-cuts protests from a variety of perspectives
- The best Joy Division cover version in the world! Guaranteed to brighten your day (the original) (and in Playmobil)
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Fever
Dammit, we both appear to have 'flu like symptoms' which could cover everything from a bit of bad cold to the ebola virus according to NHS direct. I was awake for most of the night, alternately shivering and feeling like my eyeballs were melting (and not in a good way).
I perked up in the morning after a couple of ibuprofen for breakfast and managed to make it round the snowy woods with the dog and do a bit of OU work (cat permitting) before I had to go back to bed again this afternoon. I felt so achy that I had to turf Frank the cat off of me because he was too heavy for my fragile bones. Yuck.
I perked up in the morning after a couple of ibuprofen for breakfast and managed to make it round the snowy woods with the dog and do a bit of OU work (cat permitting) before I had to go back to bed again this afternoon. I felt so achy that I had to turf Frank the cat off of me because he was too heavy for my fragile bones. Yuck.
The Mitch Benn Podcast
Mitch Benn has a new podcast out of comedy songs which is a little bit like his old BBC7 show but with all new, never heard before stuff. Needless to say it is ACEBEST, particularly Mitch's own Tom Waits style blues lament about the perils of cooking food when you are drunk. You can find it on mitchbenn.com or by searching in iTunes for 'Mitch Benn Podcast'.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Breather
I seem to be a bit croaky again (and no, I don't think it's anything to do with yesterday's frog related shenanigans). If I talk for more than a couple of minutes, I start coughing and eventually end up sounding like Tom Waits on a bad day. I'm also starting to wonder if it is linked to my complete lack of energy even boosted by my light box in the evenings. Hmmm.
In other news, since getting the iPod interface in the new car I have been listening to a lot more music. I've set up a 'Not Heard Lately' smart playlist to pick out things that I haven't listened to recently and it has turned up some real gems including Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, John Otway, Cabaret Voltaire, Nat Johnson and the aforementioned Tom Waits. I have a last.fm profile set up if anybody wants to take a nosy.
A bit of OU java work tonight, including some stuff on StringBuilder objects which are actually extremely useful for manipulating strings with lots of handy methods provided. I did manage to crash the IDE at one point trying to do a recursive search and replace function without checking if the new string was a sub string of the old string. Or something. I got it working in the end though.
In other news, since getting the iPod interface in the new car I have been listening to a lot more music. I've set up a 'Not Heard Lately' smart playlist to pick out things that I haven't listened to recently and it has turned up some real gems including Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, John Otway, Cabaret Voltaire, Nat Johnson and the aforementioned Tom Waits. I have a last.fm profile set up if anybody wants to take a nosy.
A bit of OU java work tonight, including some stuff on StringBuilder objects which are actually extremely useful for manipulating strings with lots of handy methods provided. I did manage to crash the IDE at one point trying to do a recursive search and replace function without checking if the new string was a sub string of the old string. Or something. I got it working in the end though.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Peace Frog
I had a bit of an odd start to the morning today.
I went to feed the cats in my usual quarter past six catatonic state and noticed something odd in the water bowl. What at first glance appeared to be a bit of mud turned out to be a perfectly hee-yuge frog. I suppose that one of the cats must have dragged it in during the night and it had taken refuge in the water. I took it outside by the grass and it happily hopped away. Makes a change from meeses and birdersons I suppose.
Work has been the usual busyness today. As alluded to yesterday, I finally figured out why my HMRC end of year split submissions weren't going through - the number of parts does not include the final summary part and once I changed that, it all sailed through. Now we just need to test it on site with the full 50,000 record database. Should be fun (for some values of fun).
In OU news, I finished the section on WiFi network protocols, so I'm on to Service Oriented Architectures now. This fits in quite nicely with the java stuff that I am doing, but on a larger systems level rather than individual software objects. I think I can probably make some headway on the first TMA at the weekend, as well as continuing to chip away at TMA 03 for M255.
In games news, I've got back to where I was in Plants vs Zombies with Survival mode and Zen Garden for relaxing with. Bliss.
I went to feed the cats in my usual quarter past six catatonic state and noticed something odd in the water bowl. What at first glance appeared to be a bit of mud turned out to be a perfectly hee-yuge frog. I suppose that one of the cats must have dragged it in during the night and it had taken refuge in the water. I took it outside by the grass and it happily hopped away. Makes a change from meeses and birdersons I suppose.
Work has been the usual busyness today. As alluded to yesterday, I finally figured out why my HMRC end of year split submissions weren't going through - the number of parts does not include the final summary part and once I changed that, it all sailed through. Now we just need to test it on site with the full 50,000 record database. Should be fun (for some values of fun).
In OU news, I finished the section on WiFi network protocols, so I'm on to Service Oriented Architectures now. This fits in quite nicely with the java stuff that I am doing, but on a larger systems level rather than individual software objects. I think I can probably make some headway on the first TMA at the weekend, as well as continuing to chip away at TMA 03 for M255.
In games news, I've got back to where I was in Plants vs Zombies with Survival mode and Zen Garden for relaxing with. Bliss.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Haikusday
For Valentine's day
How to mend a broken heart
With medical science
The Pennine hill tops
White with unexpected snow
Winter still has teeth
The number of parts
In the file does not include
The P35
OSI layers
Describe the interactions
Of the internet
We bail out the banks
Then borrow back our own cash?
Fuck you Cameron
How to mend a broken heart
With medical science
The Pennine hill tops
White with unexpected snow
Winter still has teeth
The number of parts
In the file does not include
The P35
OSI layers
Describe the interactions
Of the internet
We bail out the banks
Then borrow back our own cash?
Fuck you Cameron
Monday, February 14, 2011
The Mountain Road
Over to Manchester today for a seminar at the HMRC to talk about the new real time information reporting system that they want to bring in. Apparently they want the pilot schemes in place by next April - yikes! That's a tight timescale, particularly as we won't even be getting the final spec for the schema until the end of March.
The drive over was the usual crawl through the benighted village of Tintwistle which had the bad fortune to be situated between the end of the M67 out of Manchester and the start of the A628 over the Woodhead pass to Sheffield. It took at least half an hour to travel the two miles or so through the bottleneck, both in the morning and the evening. Lovely.
On the way back we were stuck behind a lorry and the guy behind me was itching to get past. He overtook me in a risky maneuver and then took a detour up a side road to try and beat the lorry. Five minutes later he was waiting to pull out again, just behind his nemesis. I could see him itching to get past all the way up the pass until he finally got to a two lane section where he could get past - only to find himself stuck behind another lorry just in front of the first one. I wonder what his blood pressure reading was after that ... much better just to cruise along and not stress about it, I think.
Plenty of OU work done over the weekend, including finally seeing off the dreaded Cisco course on the OSI network model. It was interesting material, but it was a real pain clicking through endless flash animations with non-resizable text. I downloaded the accessible version so that I could read the text on my Kindle whilst still being able to see the illustrations on screen, but it's not an ideal way to study I think. I also made a start on my next M255 TMA which looks like it should be straightforward.
The drive over was the usual crawl through the benighted village of Tintwistle which had the bad fortune to be situated between the end of the M67 out of Manchester and the start of the A628 over the Woodhead pass to Sheffield. It took at least half an hour to travel the two miles or so through the bottleneck, both in the morning and the evening. Lovely.
On the way back we were stuck behind a lorry and the guy behind me was itching to get past. He overtook me in a risky maneuver and then took a detour up a side road to try and beat the lorry. Five minutes later he was waiting to pull out again, just behind his nemesis. I could see him itching to get past all the way up the pass until he finally got to a two lane section where he could get past - only to find himself stuck behind another lorry just in front of the first one. I wonder what his blood pressure reading was after that ... much better just to cruise along and not stress about it, I think.
Plenty of OU work done over the weekend, including finally seeing off the dreaded Cisco course on the OSI network model. It was interesting material, but it was a real pain clicking through endless flash animations with non-resizable text. I downloaded the accessible version so that I could read the text on my Kindle whilst still being able to see the illustrations on screen, but it's not an ideal way to study I think. I also made a start on my next M255 TMA which looks like it should be straightforward.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Sunday Links
- First Palm Cockatoo in (almost) 40 Years! - ZooBorns It's a baby Skeksis!
- Australian Mugshots A fascinating collection of mugshots of Australians from the 1920s
- Iridescent Clouds from the Top of the World Highway Astronomy picture of the day
- Can't get it up! Punk's Not Dad (of In Me Shed fame) are having problems in the bedroom department ...
- With a Little Help, by Cory Doctorow Now available in daily email installments on Dailylit.com
- How to Hold Your Breath For a surprisingly long time
- What's your street age? Are you down wiv da kidz or are you down the post office to collect your bus pass?
- Occult Detective Club Free MP3 from a rather good Texas punk band
Inception
It's an intriguing idea.
An elite gang of psychic agents, infiltrating the dreams of others by creating elaborate subconscious scenarios to steal information and possibly plant new ideas in the minds of their victims. The visual effects are fantastic, with Escher like staircases, cities folding in on themselves and strange shifts in gravity, and the soundtrack gives the DTS surround sound a good workout too.
Unfortunately, that's as far as the good stuff goes. The film is an overlong (two and a half hours!) muddle, that has exposition where it should just show and changes the rules as it goes along (if you die in a dream, you wake up, except in some dreams where you get stuck in limbo. Or something).
The major problem is that the dream sequences are not imaginative or dream like enough. Instead of the furthest reaches of imagination, we get some not very original car chases and shoot outs. Instead of altering somebody's psyche for some vital reason, it's to get a business man to sell some shares in his father's company which is up there with the trade disputes of Star Wars episode One for dull plot points. At no point in the film does anybody dream about going to school and realising they are not wearing any pants. I rest my case.
Ironically enough, I nodded off fifteen minutes from the end for a couple of minutes, but I don't think I missed anything.
Avoid.
An elite gang of psychic agents, infiltrating the dreams of others by creating elaborate subconscious scenarios to steal information and possibly plant new ideas in the minds of their victims. The visual effects are fantastic, with Escher like staircases, cities folding in on themselves and strange shifts in gravity, and the soundtrack gives the DTS surround sound a good workout too.
Unfortunately, that's as far as the good stuff goes. The film is an overlong (two and a half hours!) muddle, that has exposition where it should just show and changes the rules as it goes along (if you die in a dream, you wake up, except in some dreams where you get stuck in limbo. Or something).
The major problem is that the dream sequences are not imaginative or dream like enough. Instead of the furthest reaches of imagination, we get some not very original car chases and shoot outs. Instead of altering somebody's psyche for some vital reason, it's to get a business man to sell some shares in his father's company which is up there with the trade disputes of Star Wars episode One for dull plot points. At no point in the film does anybody dream about going to school and realising they are not wearing any pants. I rest my case.
Ironically enough, I nodded off fifteen minutes from the end for a couple of minutes, but I don't think I missed anything.
Avoid.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Exam
Eight candidates for a prestigious job at a mysterious corporation walk into a windowless room. They represent a equal mix of men and women, ethnic groups and personalities. An invigilator tells them that they have passed all of the preliminary tests and they now face the final exam. He explains the rules: if they leave - they will be disqualified, if they attempt to communicate with the invigilator or the guard on the door - they will be disqualified, if they spoil their paper - they will be disqualified. They have eighty minutes to complete the exam and he starts a countdown clock at the front of the room before leaving. When they turn their papers over, they are blank ... what would you do?
This is a low budget movie with a simple and intriguing premise that echoes the nightmare we all have of turning up for an exam with no idea of what to expect. The on screen caption at the beginning says that it takes place 'soon', but it is very easy to imagine a similar scenario taking place on 'The Apprentice'. The acting is a little stagy at times, and the ending a touch melodramatic, but it held my interest throughout with a satisfying conclusion.
Worth a watch.
This is a low budget movie with a simple and intriguing premise that echoes the nightmare we all have of turning up for an exam with no idea of what to expect. The on screen caption at the beginning says that it takes place 'soon', but it is very easy to imagine a similar scenario taking place on 'The Apprentice'. The acting is a little stagy at times, and the ending a touch melodramatic, but it held my interest throughout with a satisfying conclusion.
Worth a watch.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Lego Rock Band
I like Lego games. I *really* like Rock Band games. So, when I saw Lego Rock Band on sale buying it was pretty much a given.
We fired it up for a quick go last night and after an excellent lego version of the usual RB1/2 intro movie started the career mode. It suffers from the old problem of signing in the first controller it sees with the logged in profile, but this can be worked around by starting the game with just one controller plugged in and then adding the others later. Other than that, it is pretty much business as usual and very familiar territory, with the notable addition of a super easy mode to make things easy for youngsters.
We played a couple of songs in career mode, followed by some quick play choices. I was especially tickled to see lego versions of Blur and Queen as playable characters in the appropriate songs.
I think we will just end up exporting all of the songs to use in Rock Band 3, and there are some goodies on there, including Queen, Blur, Bon Jovi and Blink 182. Aces!
We fired it up for a quick go last night and after an excellent lego version of the usual RB1/2 intro movie started the career mode. It suffers from the old problem of signing in the first controller it sees with the logged in profile, but this can be worked around by starting the game with just one controller plugged in and then adding the others later. Other than that, it is pretty much business as usual and very familiar territory, with the notable addition of a super easy mode to make things easy for youngsters.
We played a couple of songs in career mode, followed by some quick play choices. I was especially tickled to see lego versions of Blur and Queen as playable characters in the appropriate songs.
I think we will just end up exporting all of the songs to use in Rock Band 3, and there are some goodies on there, including Queen, Blur, Bon Jovi and Blink 182. Aces!
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Haikusday
Outcasts: copying
Battlestar Galactica
With no battles, no stars
Primeval, meanwhile
End of the world cliffhanger
Pants this series : none
Richard Herring takes
The first step towards his much
Coveted COBNOB
Twenty past seven
The first glimmerings of dawn
Promise longer days
Battlestar Galactica
With no battles, no stars
Primeval, meanwhile
End of the world cliffhanger
Pants this series : none
Richard Herring takes
The first step towards his much
Coveted COBNOB
Twenty past seven
The first glimmerings of dawn
Promise longer days
Monday, February 07, 2011
City Life
We've just come back from a weekend down south, staying with my mum and dad. The principle reason was for Jan, Jamie and Jamie's fried Matt to go and see 'A Day to Remember' at the O2 Academy in Brixton, but it also allowed me to spend an afternoon mooching around the Imperial War Museum being impressed by the V2 rocket on display and finding out what it was like to be in a bomb shelter in the dark during the blitz. (Dark, smokey and noisy in case you were wondering).
I'd booked today off of work to allow me to catch up on OU work, so I've been plowing through more of the Cisco networking material. Mostly fairly dry stuff on OSI network layers, but it's starting to make sense now that the jargon is being explained.
In weather news, it's been very windy for the last couple of days and only now shows signs of letting up, although the temperature has dropped from 14 degrees to 6 degrees over the course of the day, as the wind direction has shifted. It looks as if we might be in for another stretch of cold weather.
I'd booked today off of work to allow me to catch up on OU work, so I've been plowing through more of the Cisco networking material. Mostly fairly dry stuff on OSI network layers, but it's starting to make sense now that the jargon is being explained.
In weather news, it's been very windy for the last couple of days and only now shows signs of letting up, although the temperature has dropped from 14 degrees to 6 degrees over the course of the day, as the wind direction has shifted. It looks as if we might be in for another stretch of cold weather.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Sunday Links
- Meet Dora and Diego the Maned Wolf Pups! ZooBorns
- How to Communicate if Your Government Shuts Off Your Internet
- Angry Birds in Lego awesomely excellent
- Coney Island - Abandoned Playland Nathan Kensinger Photography
- Chart of Nut, Bolt and Screw Types One day, this may just save you from DIY embarrasment
- 100 best songs of 2010 with downloads
- Art Project, powered by Google Take a virtual tour of some of the world's greatest art galleries
- Google magic trick
- Do Nothing for 2 Minutes
- Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property Useful free book from MIT
- Powers of Ten A classic short film
- Marmalade for lunch?
- McBain : The Movie
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Friday, February 04, 2011
Thursday, February 03, 2011
The Static Age
The dawn may only be two minutes earlier each day, but little increments do make a difference to me. I noticed a faint hint of red in the sky when I left this morning, and the official sunset time this evening was 16:52 which gives half an hour of twilight after that point. I am probably at my lowest ebb, energy wise, and I actually fell asleep for a couple of minutes at lunchtime today sat on one of the sofas in the break area at work when I was trying to read one of my OU documents.
In other work news, I managed to solve an awkward coding issue with constructing XML documents that I have been looking at for a while. The issue has been getting sufficient time to think about it without getting interrupted by other stuff, and when I realised where I had been going wrong it was a proper lightbulb moment.
Time for a coffee to perk me up, I think ...
In other work news, I managed to solve an awkward coding issue with constructing XML documents that I have been looking at for a while. The issue has been getting sufficient time to think about it without getting interrupted by other stuff, and when I realised where I had been going wrong it was a proper lightbulb moment.
Time for a coffee to perk me up, I think ...
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Stormy weather
It's been one of those days where my concerns seem very small beer in comparison with the ongoing events in Egypt and now news of the tropical cyclone about to hit Queensland. It is difficult to picture a million people on the streets and even more difficult to imagine 180 mile an hour winds.
Scary times.
Scary times.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Haikusday
Rap star considers
Ending it all, is saved by
An unlikely song
When a tyrant fears
The will of common people
It is time to go
At last, a web site
To manage and then output
Harvard citations
Student card ordered
Will be very handy for
Apple store discounts
If I were a bear
I'd crawl into my cave and
Hibernate till spring
Ending it all, is saved by
An unlikely song
When a tyrant fears
The will of common people
It is time to go
At last, a web site
To manage and then output
Harvard citations
Student card ordered
Will be very handy for
Apple store discounts
If I were a bear
I'd crawl into my cave and
Hibernate till spring
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)