Racing your shadow is one thing, discovering yourself to be winning is something entirely different.
Commuters are great for advertisers. There are millions of them, they are predictable and they have money. This makes them a prime target to get a new product rolling. For this reason I have been attacked everyday with some form of free version of a new product since I started work. The funny thing is I get of the train at London Bridge station and from there I have a 5min walk at most. During this time I get presented without fail some for of food or drink, 2 newspapers, 3-4 leaflets and normally some form of card holder.
Yesterday (well, Thursday) there were lots of people standing outside the station doors handing out loads and loads of mini cans of the new product “Coke Zero”. This is just a sugar free version of coke with supposedly the same taste. o be fair it isn’t bad, but you can still tell. Plus, its loaded up with aspartame. The really funny thing though was that along the main commuter route that I walk (over London Bridge) there were absolutely thousands of these little cans, empty and on the side. Obviously there are no bins in the city of London thanks to the IRA. There was maybe 200 on each post-box, pillar, box, van, railing…well, pretty much any static object. I wish I had a photo, I really do.
Ok, so that was funny enough, but just to prove they watch what’s going on, today (Friday) there were more people with little drink cans. This time however it was not Coke, this time it was Pepsi showing of their new product, “Pepsi One” which is basically the same as idea (i.e. no sugar). Yet again thousands of cans lines London Bridge for the second time that week.
I bet the city council was annoyed…..
Ok, time to move onto work stuff.
It seems so far I spend a lot of my time working on applications that don’t work. I find this quite cool because I enjoy working out what’s wrong and taking things to bits. The one I’m working on is a particular challenge. First it is a VB6 application designed to run on NT4 in a manor which emulates a service. It has been in use for years now and apart from one bug fix in early 2004 it seems fine.
My task was to take it apart, work it does (so reverse engineer it) and then rewrite it in C# as a real service. Now there are a few problems. The first is that I don’t read VB6 so a day was lost to me learning a fair bit of that. I have now been pulling apart this app for about 3 days. Its one of those things that the more you uncover the more you realise you have left to uncover.
It has now been decided that I’m going to take this back all the way to initial spec, then technical spec, then design and then finally code it. This is not the simple re-code it started as off. You see, the code was written by someone who really was no good, its just it seemed to work so they left it (“it ain’t broke so don’t fix it”….). As a measure of how bad parts of it are I know how bad they are and its not my language!
I have been talking bits over with the guys at work as I find them. I spent an hour on a guy in the states who looks after the server and I pulled a log file from it too. Monday will be spent researching some very important little quirks of SQL server 2000. Basically, the app works, but they are so lucky it does. The error checking is so bad that it may as well not be there in many cases. To prove this point (and how bad the app is) I opened the log file. It was a 118MB text file (txt). It takes a while to open in word and when it did it was over 28,000pages. It has been generating 2 errors every 20seconds for the last 6months!
One of the developers did point out that at least I can really screw my version up and still be an improvement!
Why is we have to censor whatever we say just incase someone else might be stupid enough to not understand or do something silly with our ideas? For example, how many times do you hear the phrase “it’s just a suggestion, take it or leave it, it’s up to you”? It seems for every idea, every thought every spark of imagination there is a clause to make sure we are not at fault. Is this just part of us as people or is this a feature built-in over time given the shocking misuse of ideas in the past? I suppose it relates a bit to my points on Beta. People need to understand that not everything is correct, not every idea will work first time. After all we are all only human. If people are too stupid to grasp this concept then I propose natural selection should run its course and be done with them. Why prolong the agony and the pain for everyone else?
People also avoid making decisions to ensure they can’t be blamed. This makes for rather meaningless people, as what are we without the choices we make. That’s sounds like something out of the Matrix…
I stumbled upon this article on the BBC news section today:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5195580.stm
The bit that really got me was “There remains an economic need for more graduates, and to achieve this we need a more representative student population”. Now last time I looked to call someone a student is like saying I’m tall. It has no bearing on how smart I am and what my skills are (bar maybe high jump). It also gives no indication to how I would survive outside the education system in this countries increasingly tertiary, quaternary and even quinary businesses. For some strange reason many moons ago the government noticed that all the people with degrees made all the money. Now this is back in the day when maybe 2% o the countries population had degrees. This is because these people worked at the top end of the profitable companies and had to be very smart to get there. So the government though “why not get everyone to have a degree, then they would all earn lots of money”. Now here we have an issue. If everyone has a degree, unless everyone in that country is smarter than the rest of the world (which they aren’t) then there is still no more money to share around. All it achieves is it devalues the degree as its standards have to be lowered to get everyone into the Universities and requires it as a standard qualification for most jobs.
Now to me this is a bit of a stupid idea, but who am I to judge the all mighty decisions of governments, I am merely a minion to make them money…
If people were allowed to do qualifications and training based on aptitude then perhaps we would have more workers to drive the trains, recycle the rubbish, build the houses and so on. Then everyone could be paid the same because each it working to the best of their abilities, whether that be with money of rubbish. That would be one big step forward to a utopian society.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are that of the author (unless having such views is illegal, in which case they are the views of some unknown source). The author (whoever they may be) takes no responsibility for any harm that may or may not come to the reader (including occasional browsers) of this blog (or text if blog becomes patented). Such harm may or may not include broken teeth and varicose veins.
Yeeeash is hot in here, must be in hell. No, wait, no Nissan Micras or Smart cars, can’t be hell. Ah, heat wave, I knew it was something like that.
Hottest July day since 1911 apparently. This was made very apparent when I left the cool of the office air conditioning for the dash to the train. It hit me like a wall of rather hot air and it wasn’t overly pleasant.
London is never a nice place to be when i’ts hot. Any geographer will tell you that cities are always hotter than the country because of the sheer volume of concrete which radiates heat all day. I was mildly relived though safe in the knowledge that my train would have air con also. Getting to my train however was quite a task.
The British rail network is a strange beast brought up through years of neglect and with old half-baked technology which not makes up the core structure. Perhaps it was this core that was to blame for the platform number finally appearing for my train 40 seconds after it had left the station. I bet that train left a bit empty. Always, like any good commuter I have several backup trains times in my head. This time I decided to take a guess at the platform as apposed to wait for the all singing, all dancing (fucking useless) sign to tell me. Off I dashed along with the thousands of others all cramped into the same small square that is London bridge station.
Why is it people just have to stop mid stride, put down their bags and look up aimlessly WHEN THERE ARE FIFTY PEOPLE BEHIND THEM. So after eating the bastard that didn’t that I moved on. I was correct about platform number (human brain: 1, computer 0) and did at least make that train. Obviously the other train only my journey was delayed by 15mins or so. They did announce why, but I don’t care, they seem to have a message (excuse) for every eventuality.
Thinking about it the trains pissed me off even before that today. This Friday coming there was going to be a big rail strike. Our team at worked had already put plans together and we had already worked out how we were all going to work from home (bar two who were having the company pay for a taxi to get them home). It was going to be a good day and I was looking forward to it. It was going to mean a 2 hour lie in and unfiltered internet. Typical bloody unions, they averted the strike didn’t they.
Internet explorer showed yet another facet of its lunacy today. I opened a 3000 line XML file in it and it told me there was an error on line 2362. It was close, the error was in fact 300ish lines on from that, I will let you guess how long that took me to find. The error was there was an “Ž” when it should have been an “Z”.
Oh, while on the train I happened to read one of the headlines on someone newspaper. It read “wealthy children more prone to cancer”. Now is it me or is shit a load of shite. Last time I looked there were so many reasons for cancer that there is no way you can rationalise them into statements like that. Similarly to the time a few years ago when one week we were told fatty foods could increase your chance of getting cancer, and the following week were told salads could increase your chance of getting cancer. What they really mean is that of the minute sample of the population we have used to get these figures, they showed that 1% of the people who got cancer had 3p more than everyone else. Oh aren’t scientists good at producing number that done help to a population that doesn’t care.
In other news, I have passed my second year at Uni. Grades were spread about how I expected them to be (straight A’s in web application development and a D for systems analysis and design etc. The rest were mainly at the top end of that spectrum.). This at least means I don’t have to think about that anymore as that’s 2 down, 1 to go. Not that they matter anyway, they are worth something like 5% of my total degree (or maybe it was 10%).
Ah, one last thing. How do teenage girls between the age of 14 and 18 make it any further? I know I’m generalising, I don’t care, I have to to make it all fit in my head. I suppose I am specifically talking about girls of that age in collective groups (i.e. more than 1 of them). I watched as I got of the train a girl of about 16 run across right in front of a car (which should would have seen) to her friend whilst giggling and screaming like she was surprised it was still moving. How fucking thick do you have to be to do this. It not the first time I have seen this and it will not be the last. It almost seemed like the giggling was almost a defence mechanism.
Another example of this level of stupidity was when I was on a residential weekend 3 years ago. The boy were on the ground floor and the girls on the 1st floor. The fire bell when off (falsely, but unknown at the time) at 1 in the morning. Within 60seconds (I kid you not) every boy was outside, almost all had managed to put a reasonable number had put some clothes on and many had phones, keys and other valuables on them.
After about 5 minutes one girl crept down (fire bell still going) in her dressing gown. It turned out they had been having a little discussion up there about if they should come down. It’s a fucking fire bell, you don’t wait, you move. Especially when that is the first night you have stayed there and you don’t know of any odd systems.
I know boys do things like this too, but I still find that boys have a considerably better grasp of self perseveration than most girls.
You almost think fate should take its course with the people. If you are like that ages 16-17 here is no hope for you.
Although this is written with children in mind, given the right attitude it can be used on any age group and any levels of the social hierarchy.
Keep instructions short and simple:
The purpose of shouting is to get stress the importance of the instruction being given. Any instruction that requires adherence also requires transparency. For example, “Go away” does not set a boundary for how far “away” is. A clearer instruction would be “Go to the hall”.
Although short instructions are best, avoid single word instructions, especial single word shouts. For example, “Sit” may be met with laughter from many children between about 6 and 10. If a single word instruction is to be used, it is important to follow it up promptly with some further instruction or threat. For example “Sit, or you shall now be allowed to play out this evening”.
The shout must come from low down:
I deep voice can carry a very long way which is excellent for controlling vast numbers of children over a large area. When I say “deep” I do mean this in moderation. Too deep and the shout will loose its ability to project any great distance. This level comes around the tone sergeant major style “bark”. Equality, a voice that is too high will loose authority almost instantly.
Obviously for many people the depth of the shout will need to be forced, this can have effects on how long you can last before you start to loose your voice to a comical croak. Its important to take into account that at the end of an event more shouting is normally required than at the start. Therefore it is important to “save yourself”.
Maintain eye contact:
When shouting (especially at a single child) you must maintain eye contact. This has several benefits. First it ensures you know they are listening. Even young children have an ability to cut out shouting. Next it forces on them the seriousness of their predicament by making it more “personal” to them. The final effect is it scares the shit out of them. This is always good for impressing on them why they should not do whatever they have done again.
Be swift to reprimand:
If a child has done something worthy of being shouted at such as run across a road without looking then they should be shouted at immediately, irrelevant of onlookers etc. The speed at which they are dealt with relates to how they then misbehave in the future. If you wait a considerable length of time it works in effect as a dog lead. They discover they can get away with a lot before something happens. This is then serves s an incentive for them to push that mark. If they are dealt with immediately then in future they understand that there is no point “pushing the boundaries” because they don’t move, they are the same each time.
Those of you who know me will know why this makes sense coming from me.
– Craig (Holder of 3 CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) forms…)
I’m conscious that all I have been talking about is computers. Ok, to be fair I do now work in IT so stuff like that happens.
What I have been neglecting more is that I also work in an office, now that is an odd place.
During today I had notepad open and I just typed a few things that I noticed around me:
- Those who think they are busy are running around, those who are busy are sitting at their desks.
- The guy with the most feature filled phone finds making a simple call hard enough.
- Every time I feel I want a break, in the back of my mind there is this niggling little feeling reminding me that I’m being paid a fair bit to work. The really strange part is that quite often I know full well that getting up and wandering around (i.e taking a break from the screen) will help me to think a great deal, but still it doesn’t seem to move me (maybe it’s the chair).
- Office work is all about image and impression. Today a work experience kid came in for a bit. He would have seen me sitting at my huge desk, on my fully adjusted chair, sitting in front of a very impressive looking computer with more screens than I expect he has seen before. My desk is covered in papers, lines of code and expensive looking pens. On my screen is yet more lines of the most complicated SQL he could ever have seen (he probably doesn’t even know what SQL is). How is he to know that I don’t know what I’m doing?
Ok, now for the more IT stuff….
I now know what it means to deal with other peoples code. Today’s task was to take a block of about 350 lines of SQL and fix two bugs in it. One being that the results weren’t ordered as they should have been, and the other being that some percentages went past 100.
Now the most SQL I have even tacked it about 30 lines, and that was quite bad enough. This however was written in India by a man who really didn’t know much about what he was doing (although annoyingly, enough to make people think he did). This man has since been sacked if that gives you an idea of the code. It was slow, inefficient, wrongly formatted and more insightful comments could have been written by deaf monkey in a darkened room with nothing more than litmus paper and a cows anus to write with.
The worst was to come. I spent about 2 hours on the servers picking my way through it, going through the 7 or so (unnecessary) temporary tables it created, reverse engineering it as best I could. It just didn’t make sense, I could not get the number to add up, I could not get thing to be recognised that should have been.
After a while I started to realise that there was something that was more than just wrong. I went of to my college who gave it to me and we poured over it for about 40mins.
We came to the conclusion that there was a lot more wrong with it than people had first thought. Not only did the things I mentioned above not work, but almost all the numbers were wrong.
Now for something to be used as a report, that’s not a good way to go about getting ahead of the competition.
I have now been given the task of rewriting it. We think it can be done in under 100 lines, not 350….
Ok, some of you will be somewhat surprised to head that I don’t live inside a computer> nor do I spend my who day sitting in front of one.
On Sunday I went to a little “party” for a charity I have been helping with since July 2004. They are called PAGEANT (Projects Aiding Gambian Education And Natural Talent). Now I normally help them by packing lots of heavy items into truck, lorries and even 40ft shipping containers. This was a party for one of the Gambian school headmasters who had been flown over and was attending all sorts of courses etc.
As this party I was surrounded by loads of supports of the charity, many of whom had been to the Gambia on trips etc.
I am now toying with the idea of joining their ranks by making a visit myself. You see I got on very well with this Gambian headmaster, he runs a scout troop out there so we instantly had something in common. I am considering making a trip next summer (nice and hot) so I have a week when the schools are still open s o I can visit a few of them, and then a further few weeks so I can go camping with their scout group as they go after school finishes.
The idea is very much in the “tentative” stage, but thoughts are gathering pace in my head. I think it would be a really excellent learning experience for me, and a good opportunity to teach a few Gambian scouts some new tricks.
The idea of going alone is a little bit much for me, but I have a few people in mind I’m thinking of suggesting it to to see if they what to join me.
Watch this space…….
(no, the other one)
Ok, so I have now been working in London for 4 days now. It was just this morning I found another way to adjust my chair. My chair is the coolest thing known to man (bar maybe the slinky). I can change just about anything on it. In fact, here is a list of the things I can change (note, I list both armrests because I have them set very differently):
Seat height
Seat angle (tip forward of back)
Seat back – lower back hardness
Seat back – maximum back angle
Seat back – how easily the back reclines (so speed it reclines at)
Left arm rest – height
Left arm rest – angle
Left arm rest – position to the side
Right arm rest – height
Right arm rest – angle
Right arm rest – position to the side
Obviously it has wheels and spins too.
I think I might swap it for one of the even nicer ones we have going spare actually.
Well, today I spent my time finishing off the flash based documentation/help screens I have been working on for a couple of days. It’s to support a web based application that goes live in a few weeks time. Next I move onto debugging some SQL I’m told. Something about some percentages going over 100….should be cool
I also spent some time dealing with my system account. I was setup on the wrong domain by mistake when I started (well, I did move departments, so I will let them off for that one). I put in to change domains and what they did was make me a new account on the correct domain (with all the access I need) and migrate my settings. It all went through today and worked for the most part. Only issue now is that because I had an external e-mail address when my new account was made, I now need to have that e-mail address relinquished by the old account and amended on my new account. So for the next few days I will only get internal e-mail, but I get quite enough of those as it is.
I have come to realise that e-mail is used for EVERYTHING. I have maybe had 70 e-mails in the last few days, and I’m not even in the directory yet! It turns out that the reason it is used so much is because all emails are logged for 7 years, so everything that is said or asked of people is logged. It’s a way of being more accurate than word of mouth. I can see the reasons why, but I don’t get why I have to do all the rules for my outlook configuration myself, why can’t they have a few default ones. I mean, is it really crucial that “the servers in Berlin will be down for Sunday next week” goes to the top of my main box and not some hidden place by default?
Anyway, enough of that.
I need a T-shirt that says “IT Service on call”. I seem to get phone calls and text messages at any time day or night asking for help with computers. I’m on my third this week already! I guess it has given me yet more ammo in my war against Belikn 54g routers…..
Oh, actually, to go back to the subject of work for a moment. I feel the need to boast about the fairly standard machine I’m using there as a developer. Its has a 2GHz Xeon processor (so dual core), 2GB of RAM and a Matrox card running a pair of very thin 19inch TFT’s. Installed it has almost anything I could want (all of the MS dev stuff, all of Macromedia and Adobe stuff too) and we are allowed to install what we like on them. So as soon as I have mine I will pop Firefox 1.0.7 on it. I say as soon “as I have mine” because I haven’t got one yet, but they have a spare, we just need to do the basic image first and then patch it up. I have been using the desk of one of those in Singapore at the moment for a new product roll out.
This world has its ups to go with all the downs I get. It nice to see a little justice for once.
Edit: Oh, and I just remembered something else I need to be saying…
My side hurts. It hurts rather a lot. It hurting is a tribute to how scared of spiders I am. I jumped up so quickly I pulled a muscle in my chest. Anyone who knows me well will know how fast I can move when near them, but this is just silly.
I think women should have big ears. One that stick out a fair bit, although quite thin still, not huge ones in all directions. The idea being they don’t have to constantly put their hair behind them because it keeps getting in their way. If they were larger (or even just a bit hooked) then it would stay behind them through the roughest of circumstances.
When I said women then I wasn’t actually 100% sure that was right, should I be saying girls. Hmm, actually, girls seems a big young and women seems a bit old (well, in my mind at least). I guess the interim is teenager, but that’s just odd. Why is it during the part of your life when you learn about/explorer sexuality is the one time you are not distinguished from the other. Strange.
Right, well today was my first day at Merrill Lynch and while I’m on firsts it was my first day in a “real” working environment. I feel as most of the people who read this are very much in the thrust of education (and holiday) I shall enlighten you on this deep dark world.
We in the IT industry think we use a lot of what we call TLA’s (Three Letter Acronym’s). We are correct, we do use a lot of them. What we don’t often realise is that the business word uses an awful lot of them too. Now in your head combine a business (think big) and IT (on a large scale). What you have left is a new language. I say language because it is beyond a code or even a dialect.
I think an example would be MLFC. This stands for Merrill Lynch Financial Centre. Now that’s very simple, its just a building. Now say it fast (something like EMMILLEFFSEE). What happens is it goes together to almost form some strange new word. Or an even more annoying one. FX mean for Foreign Exchange. Noe what happens when you say FX quickly, you get “effects”. So you might get “How are the current effects going”. That’s even worse than a new language, it’s buggering up the meanings off words we already know.
Ok, enough on that little rant, down to the day/cool stuff. My day started at 10am in London. This meant I was up at 6:50am here. I did this partly to get ready for Tuesday (tomorrow) when I have to come in at 9 and partly so I had time to wander around a bit before I started. I got up on the train dripping buckets of sweat (“nice warm day” would not being doing it justice) and had loads of time to walk to all the little stations round there and find the quick routes around. I then turned up at reception at 10am as instructed. Seems today was when a whole load of summer temp staff started because the queue for getting security passes took forever. I was waiting/being seen for about an hour and 20mins. Anyway, got that all done an dusted and went up to meet the rest of the team. After about half an hour of sorting out logins and chatting we all went down the pub for about an hour and a half. I’m told this is not how the normal working day goes, but I can dream. We chatted and just generally socialised over a few drinks (on the company card) before I was shifted onwards. You see, there is a change of plan, I’m not going to that department, I’m going to work at its sister department about 15mins walk down the road because they are short of staff. I’ve been told I’m being thrown in at the deep end, so that should be interesting.
Ok, the cool stuff about working in offices (well, this one). For one thing I look important as hell, and that always has to rate highly on the coolness meter. Next is a matter of coolness very close to my heart, air conditioning. This stuff (especially today) is a God send. Its single disadvantage is when you exit the building. You get hit by this wall of warm air and it’s nasty. Another very cool thing about where I work is us developers get dual 19inch TFT monitors with amazingly cool thin bezels and fun stands. Oh, and the chairs, they just rock, they must be like £300 each. It has the best part of 10 different things you can change, even the way the arm rest points!
Ok, I need to stop with the “school kid excitement” style entry, but trust me, they were cool.
The hours are exceptionally flexible and the environment is very relaxed. Its more, “You do your work to the standard we set and we don’t care after that” sort. Also, what you wear depends on how long you have been there, hence a manager of 20years service is in shorts and t-shit…in an office!
Ok, things that are not cool.
I am have been told that someone was fired for dropping a few tables by accident on the live system. Apparently they weren’t even very important tables but it caused about 30 people not to be able to do any work for a day, and that costs more than that persons salary. Myself I haven’t even added the Live environment database servers to my SQL sever list.
Another not co cool thing is the travelling. It could be worse, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it as it is. It’s an hour each way and it’s a very busy route. I didn’t sit for the journey up much really.
Hmm, I can’t think of that many bad things, well that’s a good start. I’m sure more will make themselves known in time though.
The problem with blogs (or journals) is that they are at their most interesting when you have something to say. When you have something to say you are normally doing something to give you cause. That something is normally making you busy hence you have no time to write about it.
Now we have the situation which is no end of trouble. It leads to shit, boring entries that go nowhere. I should have something to say but the moment I started to write this my mind went blank of all the things I have done recently that are journal worthy.
In recent weeks I have been tidying up loose ends and preparing myself for my new placement at Merrill Lynch.
This has meant more than just buying a few clothes, this has meant doing all the things that I wanted to get done soon now as I don’t know how much free time I shall have.
The first of these is the geeky one so I shall get it out of the way first.
I upgraded and reinstalled my computer. This meant going up to 2GB of RAM and 820GB of disk space (although only 520 can be used due to RAID). For this I had help from my glamour’s assistant. The task was simple. Make backups, wipe disk, add RAM and disks, partition disks, install Windows, install Fedora, put data back. Was it that simple? Was it hell…..
I’m not going to go into details but I had trouble with RAM, SATA drivers, audio connectors, boot loaders, pretty much the works. I installed XP maybe 8 times in 3 days.
I can report that it is mostly working and is now at the stage many of my projects stay at. It mostly done, just a few little odd bits here and there to sort out then I’m done. So I think we can call this the “1 year install” then, because I will just never find the time to finish it.
Ok, non computer people can start reading again now.
Of course one of the things that goes with starting a full time job is that you have to give up any part-time ones. For me this meant I had to stop working at the primary school where I’m their “technician”. As such I have done maybe 800% the hours I would normally do this week to leave their system in a state where it can manage until the end of term. My replacement doesn’t start until September.
I have finally sorted the school laptops (second hand) into good and bad piles. So the bad pile got ripped apart for spares to eek out the lives of the good pile. For this reason this photo exists.
On the Wednesday of this week I went shopping up in London with my friend George (sorry, no image for him online yet). I spent the grand total of £300 on 7 shirts, 5 ties, 2 pairs of trousers and a pair of cufflinks. I do at least feel like it was money well spent as it brings my wardrobe up to more the standard of my future colleges.
This rather neatly bring me onto tomorrow. Tomorrow (well, fast approaching today) is the big day on which I start. I have to be there at 10am which is a nice realistic number for their part, but it still means getting up at a time I have deemed only useful for emails, news and eating
What happens when you search “Firefox” on your computer. Well for me I find a few files, 103 in fact, but I got fed up of waiting for the search after 10mins).
I have the following:
Version 1.5 windows install
Version 1.0.6 beta windows install
Version 1.0.1 windows install
Something called portable firefox
Version 0.92 windows install
Version 1.0 windows install
Version 1.0.6 windows install
Version 0.9.2 windows install
Version 1.0PR windows install
Version 1.0.4 source
Version 1.0.4 Linux installer
Version 0.9.1 Linux installer
Version 0.9.3 Linux installer
Version 0.9.3 windows installer
Several exe’s without version numbers
I think I have been using Firefox for a while now
Do you know the urge to jump? You know that feeling when you are quite high (say 40 feet) and there is a little feeling in your head telling you to jump? Now I know its not just me (well, either that or all my friends are nuts too (hmm, ok, perhaps I am nuts)). There is this little part of me that wonders what it would be like, could I make it, how much would it hurt.
To me the sheer concept of such thoughts bother/confuse me. Anyone who has spent any great length of time with me or who has been camping with me will know I have two fears. One being heights and the other being spiders.
Now admittedly of these two fears, heights is the one I tackle head on with the likes of rocking climbing, abseiling and alike. If you see me going near a spider, call an ambulance, I must have gone nuts.
But even with my attitude to my fear of heights I find this feeling a somewhat strange one to contest with. Although my brain quite happily tells me to sit, stay and don’t do anything stupid there is still this part of my contradicting it. As by the fact I have not suffered massive trauma to my legs in the form of a break you may have guessed that my brain has won all battles as yet.
I have it on good authority that the current theory for why we have this urge to jump stems back from when we lives in the tree’s. It’s your subconscious weighing up if you can make the jump to the next branch.
It would be a good experiment one day to see if my estimates were right, although not until they have worked out how to restore broken legs to their full former glory, and invented really cool painkillers.
Nothing does battle like a man scored by the postal service. A parcel arrived for me today, well, it didn’t really, a little card telling me there was a parcel at the sorting office arrived for me today. The parcel was addressed to my dad (because I use his credit card to pay for it). If I had been standing at the front door when the postman came to deliver it he would have allowed me to sign for it. As it happened, I was not standing at the door, by some miracle I was out. When I went to the post office they informed me that I could not pick up the parcel, I needed my dad to pick it up or I needed him to sign the bit of card. At the moment I am fuming. I am just about to go onto their site to start a formal complaint because one way or another they are wrong.
If the person who the item is addressed to is not there and they allow me to sign for it then that is fine. However at the sorting office they contradict this. That means either the postman or the sorting office are wrong. I don’t give a shit which one it is, I want them to be consistent. I know for a fact that my 11 year old brother has signed for things that are addressed to me. Suddenly him standing on the doorstep makes him more a member of the family than me standing at the sorting office with the card only to be found in our house, with photo ID that proves my address to be the same.
I don’t need my parcel for just under a week, but I don’t give a shit, I don’t want it in their grubby hands any longer than necessary. It most certainly isn’t necessary for them to hold it now.
I hate Google
Well, I use Google all the time, but I really hate one of the things it did for software and the web.
My hate stems from one word, “beta”. Now last I looked beta software was that which was still in testing and therefore not really for a full public release. It could/will have bugs, it could make your machine crash, it could even cause loss of data. In fact, it could really mess things up.
Now a few years ago when Google starting playing around with all its little search ideas such as mail, videos, blogs etc they decided to re-define what beta should mean for the software industry. So to Google “beta” means “cool”, “up-to-date”, “fun”, “new”, “fresh” and even “unique”.
Now this little redefine wasn’t much of a problem when just Google used it because Google only develops stuff that is web based (with a few minor exceptions). All of its applications can’t really do much to the average home machine.
The problem really came because Google didn’t just define it for itself, it defined it for everyone wanting to release anything in the next few years, such as Microsoft. This means that MS has to release all of its software in beta first (making them very publicly known) just so people still think they are “fresh and “cool”.
Now we should really all know that MS beta’s should be kept to just those who actually test stuff, people on the MSDN who have a machine or two just for testing stuff. Testing should not be done by everyone, otherwise what’s the point of distinguishing it from release versions?
I myself got caught by this a little over a year ago when I installed a .NET 2 beta which buggered my COM+ (and is resulting in the reinstall next week (I haven’t had the time to do a full reinstall before next week)).
My current complaint is the “Windows Live” beta which it seems everyone is downloading and installing without a clue as to what beta really means (and it’s not like anyone reads the terms and conditions). In fact, even my 11year old brother downloaded and installed it on the main family machine after one of his friends told him about it. I Then removed it, put MSN back on and knocked his account back to user (he needed to be admin a while ago and I hadn’t changed him back).
I hate the system as it stands because people don’t know what’s to expect and so I (or some other person with a clue) ends up picking up the pieces and explaining what beta really is. I wish Google, MS and all the rest of them would grow up and stop trying to make the whole IT industry more approachable. There always have to be some bits which are a no-go area for everyone but those in the industry.
I think I have finally broken the ice with my Mac. It now understands that I am not just testing it, I really have bought it so there is no need to keep trying to impress me
How do I know this you may ask. Because it crashed. Not just any crash but a full system crash. A reboot sorted it, but the point remains that any OS can and will crash. That I present as a fairly firm two-fingered salute to all those who say Macs don’t crash. Wake up and smell the hard-drive.
When I bought my Mac I thought it would be a bit of fun to buy a Mac magazine from a newsagents. Firstly if you ever want proof that Mac’s are very much still a low market penetration product (at least in this country) all you need do it look at the price of their magazines. I have one word for you, extortionate. Well, all the same, I coughed up the cash for it and took it home to read. While flicking through the pages one thing because very clear very quickly. It isn’t any good. I have read article after article that simply praise the god like deity that is Apple for all the great products they produce, yet not one of said articles has really helped me much. It seemed to be a bit of a feel good magazine, something there just to make me feel like I’m a better person for owning one.
I get the feeling Apple have sat back in their little HQ convinced that they have made the worlds best OS, the worlds best hardware and the worlds best software. It seems therefore that they have been blinded by their euphoria.
If ever a group of people could be labelled as the eternal optimists, it would be the Mac users. Myself I like to consider myself a realist that whatever I do, it could always be better (bar 100% on an exam (which I have got before, but never been allowed under the notion that no exam is perfect. To this day I still protest this result of 99%)).
On a more positive note, I do feel like I’m really starting to grips with the OS. It’s starting to feel a bit more like mine as a machine instead of mine as a toy. I still retain that this is a gimmicky OS however. As a more general positive, this is also my first laptop, so whilst typing this on a cool summers evening in the garden I certainly feel that benefit. Wireless internet really was a blessing when it came down from above. Although in the next generation of OS’s I think we will start to see it in a more generally usable format, not just and add-on.
In other non-computer news, today I went for a little wander. A 15 mile sponsored wander with a friend round a local town (it was a circular route). I wasn’t the one that was being sponsored, I did it because he is a friend and I can read a map/tend to his wounds.
Let me assure you, starting a walk at 8am on a day like today, although it didn’t feel like it when I woke, was a really good idea. It was blisteringly hot by 10am and considering it took us until 1pm, the extra time in the cool did help.
My day started in a slightly odd way. I found myself in town at an hour which I do not feel is repeatable. I was there for a reason, and a bloody good one at that considering the time. I was there to get some cash out of the bank, how much cash…this much cash! It isn’t often that you have that much cash, normally I just use plastic, hence I had to take a picture
Today was different, today caused me to take that money to an obscure motorway lay-by on the M26. There I met a shady figure, greeted and handed over the cash. In return I was given a thin orange blob. We conversed for a while then departed back from whence we came.
Today I bought a second-hand Apple Powerbook G4.
I actually bought it from one of the people I shall be working with at Merrill Lynch this year (Weiran) as he wanted to raise funds for getting a MacBookPro soon. Now anyone who knows me well will know that I had always planned on getting a Mac this year. Those who know me better will know that I was planning on getting a Mac Mini and that this is a little sooner than planned. But with all things, you have to grasp such opportunities when they arise. I had always wanted an Apple laptop, just normally they cost far too much for a “toy”. I say toy because I have bought this to play with and learn. It seems important to me that I should be experimenting with all the OS’s I can, if not to at least to give me a greater understanding in the rest of the computing world.
I’m not even considering a huge great review/comparison etc, I just have a few things to say.
Overall it isn’t bad, interface is sleek (OSX 10.4), apps for the most part work well. Safari as a browser is a bit light (even with my FireFox tainted vision, god knows what an avid IE supporter would make of it) and does have some very odd ideas when it comes to rendering table widths. Installing apps on these is very very simple, this really is the system built for any idiot to just pick up and use (evidence by me not having any trouble yet). The only thing I could say about the interface is that it does go a bit too far down the minimalist route in places, leaving me hunting for buttons and what the hell they do. Talking of buttons, Apples biggest mistake by such a long way was not to include a right-click button (despite the OS supporting the functionality). It is mildly driving me mad, mainly because it would have been so simple for them to deal with. I guess they did it to be different, but the lost usability is a high price to pay for being different, esspcially when you are trying to attract more into your fold.
I have no doubt that I will have more to say on the software side of things over time.
Oh, and here is a screen shot…Clicky
The hardware is very sleek, very neat and very solid. All good things, especially for something so light. As with all things, there is always a downside and in the case of every laptop under the sun, that’s normally heat. The back-right where the power input is gets hot. I can feel my sperm count frying away as I type. On a plus side, remove the power adapter and it returns to a pleasant temperature.
All in all, I’m having fun with it, which is normally a good sign. Even if it will cause problems in later life.
Note to all joggers: If I walk passed you, it’s time to stop and go back inside.
Note to all cats: making yourself look 4 inches taller doesn’t scare me.
Note to the girl who just asked me if I wanted a burger: no, not if you cooked them dear.
Note to self: go to the toilet before the 3 hour exam.
Ok, rather momentous day. I have finally finished my exams, and with that my second year of my degree. As is always the case, I had the worst exam saved up until last. Oh how I looked forward to Systems analysis and design…..like hell.
That said, it actually wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I had convinced myself it was going to be, so things went as well as they could. Man I love making points in my blogs that mean nothing and help no-one.
I think a fair amount of my concern stemmed from a note written on (and well worn into) one of my exam tables during my databases exam. It read “I failed Systems analysis and design here 24/04/93”. And who says exams get easier over time….
In the general panic stricken revision sessions a group of us have been “putting on” prior to exams we managed a fair amount of revision, but we also came up with some good ideas. We thought about exam orientated t-shirt slogans. For example, for the marketing exam a t-shirt with a “porters 5 forces diagram” on it….what are they going to do…tell us to take it off 😛 (well, actually make us not sit the exam, so don’t point out my flawed logic).
My suggestion for today was one that read “I’m going to fail this exam” on the front, and then on the back “but I’m going to take you with me”. It strikes me as the suicide bomber special now that I think about it.
Now that I have nothing to do for a few weeks before I start at Merrill Lynch, I hope to be able to make a few more entries. I won’t, but I hope to and that’s what counts.