Golfy's Blog

Someone must know about blue balls from the sky

2012-01-28T08:50:00.001Z

It's a great story and puts me in mind of some of the cheesiest sci-fi movies that have graced our screens. Even as we speak those little blue balls are mutating in a Dorset refrigerator. Soon they'll be crawling across the kitchen floor and devouring the cat. ....

A man from Dorset reports a deluge of tiny blue balls falling from the sky over Bournemouth.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-16754531

I love it.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Not Burns Night...

2012-01-25T23:30:00.001Z

Not for me, the cock-a-leekie,
Nor Haggis, neeps & tatties,
For I am spared the Typsy Laird
I'm no Clootie Dumpling fatty.

It's not that I don't like the Baird,
An all his works and writings,
It's just we bought fish cakes instead,
Made from a lovely piece of whiting.

As you've no doubt deduced, Burns night isn't something that happens in our house. I'm sure it should, especially have we have a Scottish contingent to the family and as you can see from my thrown together rambling above - I do like good bit of poetry - well a good rhyme at least.

That said, the traditional menu really won't suit, as I just can't get on with the cock-a-leekie soup or the Haggis. I know how hard it is to catch those pesky haggis too - having been on a haggis hunt when we were last up in scot land.

They're an odd looking wee beastie, having different length legs on either side of their bodies. These have evolved in direct response to the mountainous habitat, with the short legs at the higher point of the hill and the long legs at the lower point, thus providing them with a horizontal view of the world from their highland vantage point.

There are two differing breeds of haggis - lefties and righties - which travel around the mountains in opposite directions. Various attempts have been made to crossbreed the two, but all have ended in disaster - either very tall (easily spotted high above the heather) or very short (and they tend to get stuck in soft earth or mud and meet a sticky end). There was an odd side effect on one occasion (and only one) which produced a haggis with opposing length corner legs. Needless to say it spent much of its short life, lying on it's back and kicking. I'm told as a result there was very little fat on the meat, so it did make for good eating, but to produce the same result twice was a futile exercise, due to the rarity of the odd-leg gene.

No, lefties should stick to lefties, and righties to righties - its the only way.

On the plus side, the fish cakes really were great.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Google in privacy policy changes

2012-01-25T08:32:00.001Z

Google changes its privacy policy, streamlining it across its multiple services including search, email, video and social networking sites.

The full story is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16713562

Now privacy policies and Social Networks go hand in hand of course, but they are not good friends with each other.
You only have to look at the mess that Facebook have made to know that. Google ran into all sorts of difficulties last year with its name policy whichever that users had to use their real name and not a pseudonym. This annoyed me no end, but so keen was I to become a G+'er that I put up with the change and now have a rather confused and split online personality.
I note this week, ahead of the above announcement that they're reversing that decision. Not sure if I will disappear in this form and return to my original self or not. I'm still kicking around in the rough - or in a bunker....

Stay safe

S (or G)... I think.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut is pure genius

2012-01-21T17:50:00.001Z

Some of the most creative work (if a bit rubbish in places depending on the level of production values) has meant that the whole of Episode IV has been remade in 15 second chunks and crowd-sourced to bring you this.
I haven't seen the whole two hours, but I've enjoyed what I've seen so far .... So enjoy a bit yourself....

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

A week end....

2012-01-21T11:23:00.001Z

It's the end of another slogging week and all in all it's worked out very well.

The work that the UK team of the guesswork I've been doing, all got their ducks in a row well in advance of the US team this time and so were mostly seen to be pretty smug about it.

The US team had to have a last minute change that caused them plenty of long hours and hard work, but the result was that we had everything ready in the nick of time to present to the client on Friday. The guess was received very well up that Laandon, and we're to be tasked with having one last big guess sometime during March. This could cause me some concern as Mrs G, Daughter and I have planned a week off in this timeframe - but let's wait and see what happens.

On reflection - while the last twelve months have been a roller coaster of emotions work-wise, I've ended the year on a positive note and find myself feeling that I have actually enjoyed it, which is something that hasn't been the case for a few years previous to this one.

Looking forward into this year, there's no knowing what might happen, but as long as it continues in the same way that the last six months have - then all will be well, although a little more cash in the pay packet would greatly help.

Mrs G's ex-workmate and good friend L (who is a proper lovely person) has come to stay this weekend, and so Friday night consisted of a couple of bottles of wine and a general catch up. Meanwhile, daughter spent the evening at Aunty S' doing similar, but I was very intrigued to see her 3D TV (active not passive) and managed to look like a complete buffoon in the glasses for two minutes when I dropped daughter off.

Back home, I sat and enjoyed the conversation and manage to catch most of "Jaws" (one of my favourites) that was quietly on the telly in the background.

Now Saturday has arrived and we three (sadly, daughter is at work) are off into Chelt to meet up with a few other ex-workmates for a leisurely lunch and yet more catching up. We've got a couple of little jobs to do in town too - so a swift shufty round the shops will be in order no doubt. I'm in no mood for spending money though - feeling a bit brassic as a result of Christmas and January always feels like a very long month between incomes.

On top of this, it's my birthday month and after much umming and ahhing I have finally invested in my birthday present to myself (that's usually the best present) a new TV - and it's a whopper. More on that when it finally arrives - suffice to say that Stan will be happy, because he's got first dibs on the current one.

Hope you have a great weekend and that your January is becoming more bearable with each day that comes.

Laters...

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Wikipedia Wednesday

2012-01-17T10:06:00.001Z

Don't know if you've been following this story or not, but this side of the pond the whole SOPA and PIPA story has been reported, just not in a particularly mainstream sort of way. I note, this morning however that it is starting to gather a head of steam and I suspect that due in part to good old Wikipedia.

Well, if you want to know the details, I wouldn't recommend trying to look either of them up on Wikipedia on Wednesday, because you won't find them. In fact, if you try and look anything up on Wikipedia on Wednesday, you won't find it.

The reason being is that they're "going dark" for the day in protest of both of the suggested bills. If you want to get into the details - and I suggest that you almost certainly do as you're clearly a user of teh Internet - then you can take a look at the following. I'm sure Wikipedia won't mind me reproducing thier descriptive paragraph, being as it's not available on thier site for 24 hours.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as House Bill 3261 or H.R. 3261, is a bill that was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011, by House Judiciary Committee Chair Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors. The bill, if made law, would expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.^[2] Presented to the House Judiciary Committee, it builds on the similar PRO-IP Act of 2008 and the corresponding Senate bill, the PROTECT IP Act.^[3]

The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators, such as PayPal, from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months. The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement, while making liable for damages any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is not dedicated to infringement.^[4]

Proponents of the bill allege that it protects the intellectual property market and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, especially against foreign websites.^[5] They cite examples such as Google's $500 million settlement with the Department of Justice for its role in a scheme to target U.S. consumers with ads to buy illegal prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies.^[6]

Opponents say that it violates the First Amendment,^[7] is Internet censorship,^[8] will cripple the Internet,^[9] and will threaten whistle-blowing and other free speech actions.^[7]^[10] Opponents have initiated a number of protest actions, including petition drives, boycotts of companies that support the legislation, and planned service blackouts by major Internet companies scheduled to coincide with the next Congressional hearing on the matter, such as the blackout of Wikipedia on January 18, 2012.

The House Judiciary Committee held hearings on November 16 and December 15, 2011. The Committee was scheduled to continue debate in January 2012

Puts me in mind of elements of the dreaded "Digital Economy Bill" - and we all know how well that ended - having come into force on the 8th of June 2010.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

IBM makes 12-atom magnetic memory

2012-01-13T19:34:00.001Z

IBM researchers test the limits of magnetic memory storage by creating a bit made of only 12 atoms.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16543497

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Hence why....

2012-01-08T23:47:00.001Z

It's not like me to get wound about about the use of the English language. After all, I'm a firm believer that English is an ever growing, every changing dialect and as such should be allowed to flex and change to suit the needs of the people it serves so well.

Take the most recent entries into the Oxford english dictionary, which as any fool who's ever read "The Surgeon of Crowthorne" will tell you, was mostly developed by an alleged lunatic held in the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum for the sake of his sanity and indeed ours...

traceur - A practitioner of the sport/art of parkour. A skilled runner and jumper.

gordita - A cute/pretty chubby girl. Used affectionately.

Va-jay-jay - a synonym for the word vagina which most people are unaware of.

posilutely - as in the phrase "Absotively Posilutely" coined in the 1988 Disney film "Oliver & Co"

Dodger: And once you got the beat, you can do anything.

Oliver: I can?

Dodger: Absotively Posilutely

To name but four examples of the language that have been readily adopted and are now considered normal. I digress... Significantly. (Oh and thanks to the Urban Dictionary for the above definitions - as I don't have access to the full OED because it costs 600 quid)

To return to my point. The word "Hence". Now to my mind this word is the equivalent of the three dotted triangle in maths used to represent "therefore"...

So as an example..

It was raining, therefore I used an umbrella... Or
It was raining, hence my use of an umbrella.

I'm sure you follow. As I said, the mangling the of the language doesn't often offend me, except for this particular case. For some reason it drives me a little batty to hear the phrase "hence why" employed in a sentence. It just doesn't fit. It seems to me that use of the word "why" in this context is spurious and as such un-required. In much the same way as the word "un-required" was irrelevant in the last sentence due to the use of the word "spurious"... Understood?

If you said "hence" (or therefore) then you surely don't need to say why. It's a bit like like people who mangle three letter acronyms such as "VIP People" - which as any fool knows means they've said the word "people" twice. It seems to me, that "hence why" is the same as saying "and that is why why".. Basically it makes no sense at all.

The trouble is, lately I hear this phrase being used more and more. Is it me? I'm certain it's wrong, but if you know otherwise, let me know in the comments.

In the mean time - you'll see me wince whenever I hear it, hence why I hate it so.... D'oh

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Sisters...

2012-01-06T20:12:00.001Z

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Decisions...

2012-01-06T00:20:00.001Z

Those of you that have been paying attention will be aware that it's that time of year when I celebrate surviving to another year older... (and to those of you that might be new here - its my birthday soon)

Given the fact that I have to work for a living (Like you, I'm still playing the lottery in the vane hope) and given the fact I have a loving family in the shape of Mrs G, Daughter and Son and given the fact that I manage to maintain a social life in the form of the Wednesday/Thursday club - This particular Thursday, left me in a bit of a quandary.

Having spent the last two days "up that London" due to employment responsibilities, my initial thoughts on what to do when getting off a late train on a Thursday night revolved around having a quiet night in with Mrs G. The members of the WTC of course had other ideas and as such this is where I found myself sat squarely on the horns of a dilemma.

At this point I need to mention, one of the reasons I'm very happily married to Mrs G is her un-erring level of understanding when it comes to having a social life alongside a family life.

Having explained to her how the WTC had arranged a birthday drink with an excellent attendance, on an evening when I really should just be going home and putting my feet up, she was completely accepting of collecting me from the station and depositing me at a local hostilely so that I could have the urine royally extracted to the delight of all those present. This fact alone, is the definition of true love.

While, to most people, ritual abuse from your peers may seem like an ugly and unfortunate way to spend an evening, to me (and in fact to the other members of the WTC) there really is no greater form of flattery and thus acceptance, to be had. Furthermore, after a couple of days of slogging at the grindstone, I can't recommend such frivolity highly enough.

In all honesty, I can't put into words how thankful I am to be associated with such a bunch of gits who treat each other with such admiration tinged with contempt and with the levels of disrespect that we each deserve.

I thank them all - firstly Mrs G, for her selfless understanding and then the buffoons that are my "so-called" mates for making all the other bits of life, that much more bearable.

Given the conundrum as was voiced by one of our number this evening "would you rather continue as you are or be given £10million and never see any of these reprobates ever again" of course I would gladly take the 10 mill' - but then I'd be lying and worse still, I'd have to try and find another bunch of reprobates that Mrs G and family would be equally a accepting of....

£10m can buy a lot of stuff (as my guessing skills often prove) but a life like the one I'm blessed with? No hope.

As the advert says - Priceless.

Take care
G

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

The Toy Trains at Paddington

2012-01-05T19:50:00.001Z

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Back with a bump..

2012-01-04T07:44:00.001Z

Only a four day week this week, which you'd think would be a blessing and would allow for a nice steady roll back into the cut and thrust of working for a living, but not a bit of it.

Instead, Tuesday saw me schlepping up country to the local-ish office to plan our two day review of the current piece of well honed guess work. Like any of the guess work we do, this one has been deftly calculated by some of the sharpest minds in the business. And me.

Naturally they'd all deny it, but not me. I know I'm awesome. Just not sure what it is that I'm awesome at. Guesswork most likely, and this theory is somewhat borne out by the fact that the sharp minds have heaved and hoe'd and squinted and thunk and basically have got us right back to the same place we were in two months ago. That's not to say they've not improved it, it's just not got any smaller.... Or bigger.

The day went well, ducks seem to be mostly in a row and while we can safely expect awkward questions during the review, we feel like we have the right answers to them and all should be well with the world (at least that's the theory).

In essence this is a re-run of the agonising week I had back in November, only this time we've had a bit more time to think about it.

In the meantime, the Badman, who I've yet to speak to in 2012, has got himself a new and interesting piece of guessing to do which is not at all dis-similar to the one that he and I successfully concluded last year. My current goal therefore (besides surviving to my next birthday - its only a week away, should be achievable) is to get this round of the fat job sorted so that I can escape and go and help him out with a far skinnier and dare I say bonier piece instead.

But before that can happen, I have to spend the next two days back in London. The alarm didn't go off at stupid o'clock this morning because I was already awake - most annoying - so now it's 7am and I'm hovering about 6 foot off the ground above some steel rails somewhere in the vacinity of Didcot Parkway, en-route to Paddington.

A proper winter's morning means its fresh and cold and a night in the city means I'm carry the "big coat" and lugging the "big bag". Luckily the train is reasonably empty and I'm rather hoping it stays that way.

There's Mr middle-aged-spread with headphones on his iPhone, grinning to himself (I hope he's listening to wittertainment). Mr waiting-for-retirement who was on his kindle before his energy level gave out and he had to go back to sleep (I only wish he wouldn't snore) and there's Ms Keen-to-get-on who immediately filled up her available space with her laptop and started beavering away. She works in banking judging by her spread of paperwork all over the cabin. I'll not go into details. It's not a criticism, and its not a life either.

Not much to report in the way of inane railway passenger conversation, which is a shame, but for a couple of snippets...

"She still had to interview us, I just don't think she was that worried. It's been such a struggle. And that bloody woman's come to get that stuff... Uggghh"

"Foundation, Mascara and a bottle of nail varnish"

Ah well, there's bound to be some excitement up that London, so we'll just have to wait and see what it is.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

The best day of the year...

2012-01-02T10:31:00.001Z

It's entirely possible that while yesterday was most definitely the best day of the year so far, that today might be even better.

Admittedly it won't involve getting up and having to rescue and hunt down the kids from various post-party locations, and I daresay I won't be cooking up a large breakfast and dashing off to catch the number 10 bus to Cheltenham. Incidentally - we didn't catch the number 10 bus yesterday as it happens, mainly because although the GCC/Stagecoach website makes no mention of the fact, it doesn't run on New Years Day. The 94 on the other hand, does.

I would suggest that it's also unlikely that we'll be attending any racing today with an enormous crowd or revellers - larger than I can remember seeing at a New Years Day meet. Festival week usually sees around 50,000 visitors, and I reckon there must have been at least 25,000 yesterday if not a few more.

See the full gallery on Posterous

I can also be fairly certain that there won't be any big financial wins today - which is a great shame. After a long dry spell with the bookies one of the on-course fella's pointed out to myself and daughter that we should feel free to consider using other bookmakers besides himself - after-all we should share the wealth - which he did, thank-you very much.

Don't be mistaken, we're not talking about any retirement plan or a new car or a big telly. But we are talking enough to have covered all the costs for the day out and to have bought us all a slap up steak dinner and a fair few glasses of various beverages, a bit of dancing and a taxi home.

All in all, an awesome start to the New Year with much fun and frivolity. Some quality time with the kids - who are actually adults now, so I should try and stop calling them that - something to be thankful for.

No, today won't be like that. Today will be nursing a sore head and sitting still on the sofa, in preparation for the "return to work" tomorrow. Now that's the definition of a fantastic day!!!

Isn't it?

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Happy New Year...

2011-12-31T09:22:00.002Z

The last month or so has seen a very lapse attendance to the blog on my part... So in the very best tradition of New Year resolutions, I'm resolving to fix that throughout the coming year.

We've got a lot to look forward to - not least the Olympic Games - and who can't wait to see us triumph over our assumed level of incompetence? While as Brits we might assume we're going to balls it up, we should remember that we're actually very good at this sort of thing, just a little bit out of practice. As long as we all pull together, we can accomplish anything.

With the thought of reaching the unattainable firmly planted in your mind - have a great New Year and see if you can keep your resolutions for just 30 days instead of a full year...

And then, If you manage that much, you might want to have a go at another 30 days afterwards...

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Flipboard for the iPhone

2011-12-07T08:37:00.001Z

Check out this application on the App Store:

Flipboard

Flipboard Inc.

Category: News

Updated: 06 Dec 2011

14589 Ratings

iTunes for Mac and Windows

Please note that you have not been added to any email lists.
Copyright © 2011 iTunes S.à r.l. All rights reserved

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Do Not Adjust Your Set...

2011-12-06T19:37:00.001Z

I'm far to fuming to write anything pleasant - it's very rare, but it has been known to happen. So instead here's some pictures of a trip to Paris a few years ago....

Normal service will be resumed - do not adjust your set.

Anyway - on with the show...

You can find out about the tower here: http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/ but this was my view from it....

See the full gallery on Posterous

And then theres a couple of other shots from "About town"...

See the full gallery on Posterous

This last one is hanging on the wall in my living room....

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

And ... Relax

2011-12-02T16:15:00.001Z

Yep - I've stolen the title... Blatantly, artlessly, brazenly, candidly, flagrantly, forthrightly, frankly, fully, in broad daylight, in full view, in public, in the open, publicly, readily, shamelessly, unabashedly, unashamedly, wantonly, without pretense and without reserve.

Do I care? Nope. Not one jot, or even a fig, do I give. And the reason I'm so unconcerned about this theft? Well it's Friday, and as those of you that have read Scobi's Blog will know that on Friday, his blog posts are entitled "And ... Relax" - except it seems, for today.

Imagine my shock and horror, when I hopped over to his site only to be greeted by a post with the insane (for a Friday) title of "Vannin"!! Holy mother!! The world is on it's head! Perhaps it's true and that as the doom laden futurologists claim, the end of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar will actually signify the end of the world - and this is the first sign of it actually happening. We'll find out for sure in 385 days time.

I have a reading list that's long and varied - if your interested in it you could always follow @TheGolfyFeed on twitter, which is where a lot of it gets shared - and it includes about 25 blogs by various authors that often make for an interesting read. One of the more entertaining reads comes from The Jaggy Thistle, which I'd recommend espcially if your either Scottish (which I'm not - although we do have some in the family - poor dears) or enjoy a good laugh. Consistently good stuff.

I just figured that being as it's Friday (and you really should be able to say "And ... Relax" instead of "Vannin" - whatever that is... I'm not old enough to know yet) that I should share a few other bits of comedy gold with you just to round of your week... so here you go.

First up - this YouTube video of "Fenton" which if you haven't seen yet you must, and now....

Secondly - you might like to be aware of the viral activity Fenton and his shouty master have inspired...

There are literally hundereds of these.... just go to youtube and type in Benton - even though the dog's name is Fenton...

Finally a few "Gems" from the world of 9gag.com - which I should remind you before you visit, is the sort of place that you could loose your entire lifetime if you're not careful... Don't say I didn't warn you.

"Even Siri Hates You"

...and...

Finally, finally... give yourself an ego boost by visiting *your name*.willbemighty.com (obviously replacing the phrase *your name* with your actual name.... So in Scobi's case that'll be here: http://Scobi.willbemighty.com

Have a great weekend - and keep out of the Van - whatever that is.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Of Password Resets....

2011-12-02T12:50:00.001Z

It's that time again when I have to cycle my passwords. That is to say, they all need changing because that's what we do around here. I have them all pretty much in sync, time wise, but not content wise, so within a few days of eachother their various systems start nagging me to change them.

In the past I've used a theme to try and help remember them all, but apparently our new rules suggest that even this is too weak a system.... In short, the rules are as follows:

8 positions in length (minimum)
A mix of alphabetic and non-alphabetic characters
Must not resemble the user-id
Muat not be reused for 8 iterations
Must not be shared
Must not contain keyboard patters (eg: "qwerty")
Must not contain dictionary words or letters substituted with numbers (eg: passw0rd)
Must not be first time or default passwords
Must not be common or trivial (eg: "password" or "user")

That narrows it down it bit doesn't it..... in fact if we go much further with the rules I reckon you'll be able to just guess what my password is on the basis that it can't be anything else!

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Rare Exports and other Christmas gifts....

2011-11-30T13:18:00.001Z

We're nearly out of the back end of November and so the Christmas rush can well and truly begin.

In truth, the Christmas rush began some time ago. The retail industry kicked Christmas into a mid range gear somewhen around the end of October, although to be fair this year hasn't been as bad as some years in recent history.

Those of you that were around here last year will know that we seem to have started a trend with the more distant (although not that distant) members of the clan whereby we have Christmas day early, to get it out of the way. This year it'll be on Sunday coming. There will be a slap up bit of lunch and some generous gift giving.

Mr Ball senior has acquired a MacBook Air this year - as a result of sister ball taking a business trip to the US and he as some associated bits and bobs to go with it. Even though Mac's are notoriously easy to set up, he is understandably a little nervous of what is to him "new" technology and so I'll be spending a large portion of the day helping him get it up and running. Quite looking forward to that to be fair.

I believe I have a new generation Apple TV on it's way thanks to Santa, but I'm dismayed to learn that Air Play mirroring isn't supported by my now ancient iPhone 4 and iPad 1... humph... A bit of a dig around shows that you can get the latest versions of these at a substantial discount if you go with refurbished kit - and apple refurbished basically means new with a brief previous owner. I'm sorely tempted, but funding will be the issue. Let's see what the South African Santa brings first...

And on the subject of Santa... Having recently(ish) signed up to LoveFilm the flow of movie rentals has been thick and fast through the Golfyball residence, but as yet I haven't found the time to right about my viewings, so let's try and fix that here.

First of all, let me share with you THE Christmas film of the year, recently released on DVD. "Rare Exports" is something I've spoken of before on here - a couple of years ago when the first teasers appeared and last year when it went on general release - although not to great acclaim. However, I think the lack of support is down to it being a non-english film in part - but that IMHO just adds to the believability factor.

It feels a little like the original version of "Let The Right One In", but without the vampires and with Santa, coupled with a european version of "The Thing" (which I read is also being re-made - totally unnecessarily). Anyway, it's great fun, but not for your young kids who might well still "believe". However, once you've seen it, you might believe again - and be scared... great stuff and here's the trailer.... 9/10

So to touch briefly on the other viewings I've had of late, here's a quick run down:

Cars 2
More great fun from the late Mr Jobs' film studio, Pixar. Your kids will watch this a thousand times probably and I don't blame them - it's great fun in the same vein as "Cars" but with the added benefit of the great Sir Michael Caine. 8/10

The Rite
This is a bit like "The Exorcist - Lite" It's not terrible, but it left me feeling a bit "Meh". Sir Anthony Hopkins should know better - not that he does a bad job, but his welsh/italian is a bit dodgy in places. 6/10

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
A cracker and with a couple of my favourite hollywood names in place. Clint Eastwood and Jeff (The Dude) Bridges. It's Michael (The Deer Hunter) Cimino's directorial debut. It's Well-written with strong performances and is about a complex caper in which Bridges plays a young drifter who teams up with an ex-con (Eastwood) and his former partners in crime to re-stage a difficult safecracking heist. It says here: "Conveyed in a tone that mixes dramatic and comic elements, the film is a rich blend of engaging characters and action" and very true that is. Quality 1970's movie making at it's best - 9/10

I should add - that the trailer doesn't really do it any justice at all...

Mr. Nice
Another favourite of mine is Rhys Ifans and once again he doesn't disappoint. This is a biopic of drug smuggler Howard Marks. Beautifully crafted, and quite believable if this sort of stuff is to be believed. There's been a successful book and a speaking tour by Mr Marks and it makes for entertaining viewing. One point - David Thewlis - as the man from the IRA - very nearly steals the show. 7/10

Inside Job
Narrated by Matt Damon, this is a documentary that tells the story of the banking collapse of 2007 and strives to suggest some of the reasons it happened. It provides a fascinating insight into the way government and banking works - or rather doesn't work and should be required viewing for anyone with any interest into what the hell the banks think they're playing at. 8/10

The Blind Side
Her out of "Speed" and a big fella we've never seen before (Quinton Aaron). He's a not-quite orphan, she's a christian hearted mom who takes him in - gives him opportunities to succeed and he ends up being a pro-american-footballer. That summary does it a massive dis-service. It's another biopic - of sorts - of the life story of Michael Lewis. A proper feel good weepy that the missus will love - if she likes that kind of thing. Sandra Bullock is still great to look at and I actually think she deserved the Oscar that she won for this role. 8/10

So that'll do you for now, but just so you know, still to come: a few words about, "Sucker Punch", "Freeway Killer" and the foreign films: "Point Blank", "Julia's Eyes" & "The Silent House"

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

In Sewer Ants...

2011-11-26T16:09:00.001Z

Perhaps I'm becoming cynical in my old age - well, older.... Not actually "old" - yet. You see, there's a story going around that I find basically patronising.

Now, we all know that insurance is the biggest scam going. You pay someone (now) so that they can then to pay you (or someone else) in the event that something might happen in the future. It's basically a form of gambling with the odds stacked in the favour of the person you're paying.

In the UK insurance is mandatory for vehicles on the roads. The insurance companies that you arrange a policy with are generally rubbish at predicting the future (surprise, surprise) and they're also a bit pants at figuring out when someone is trying to diddle them - so they've been paying out and that along with the global economic situation means they've been paying out a lot. As a result the premium you pay for this insurance has gone through the roof.

The cost of fuel and road tax has also become extortionate of late and as we're constantly reminded, we're all becoming victims of the obesity crisis. This in turn has led to a decrease in the use of cars for short journeys and an increase in the use of the bicycle.

Of course, if you're in the business of making money out of people insuring their cars against accidents and then they get rid of them, your income will drop. Furthermore if you then realise that these people are then all riding bicycles which are free from insurance, what would you do?

You'd release a story into the press.... Try and rattle a few cages... Make the natives restless... Start a new income stream...

And so it is that this has appeared:
** Cyclists 'urged to get insurance' **
Not having a comprehensive insurance policy could prove costly, cyclists are warned by the Association of British Insurers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15892074

I'm not buying it.. And I won't purchase any either!!

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Sharing....

2011-11-25T08:24:00.002Z

I know, that yet again I've gone through a quiet spell in terms of blogging. It's not that I haven't been here or that I've been ultra busy - I just haven't blogged.

I've still shared though, although I admit not necessarily with you. I've shared with various circles of friends, family and acquaintances. I hope you do to...

http://gplus.to/golfyball

Happy Black Friday.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Careful now: Black Friday iTunes malware alert

2011-11-25T08:04:00.001Z

Black Friday iTunes malware alert

Security experts warn that criminals are targeting shoppers with malware that claims to be from Apple's online store to coincide with the US http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15881034

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Insane Guitar Skills "Passionflower".

2011-11-22T22:08:00.001Z

To use the parlance of our times... Awesome!

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

One of the 99% isn't happy with his phone bill...

2011-11-18T15:29:00.007Z

By the, way.... It's not me.
This company "EverythingEverywhere" which is what Orange and T-Mobile have become are clearly trying to rip him off - and possibly you if you're with them.

Their website has the following blurb:

As one company, we now have almost 28 million customers, 15,000 employees and 720 stores nationwide. We run two of Britain’s most famous brands – Orange and T-Mobile – and we’re here to give our customers a better experience than they’ve ever had before – with the widest coverage, smartest support and best choice and value.

Olaf Swantee is the name of the Chief Executive Officer of Everything Everywhere, and so with a little digging my friend was able to find up his email address and sent him the following message which for the good of the general public he has asked me to share with you.

To: olaf.swantee.orange@everythingeverywhere.com
Subject: Orange Data Roaming Charges / Complaint
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011
Dear Sir,

I am writing to vehemently complain about your outrageous data roaming charges,
I am a long standing customer with Orange (about 13 years !), but have recently become disillusioned with the Brand and the way you operate your customer services, and appear for want of a better phrase "rip off" your customers, that's aside from the poor signal (especially the 3G signal !) that I appear to also be suffering with since the merger of T-Mobile and Orange (the signal "appears worse" despite the claims of me being able to use Orange or T-Mobile !) ..

I am used to having large phone bills (circa £200 - £300 + per month), having three Numbers on my account (and also 2 PAYG Phones !), but just by chance I happened to look at my soon to be due invoice (after advice from a friend who has also suffered the same "fate"), and was "somewhat" shocked to see that I am expected to pay £1246 for my next bill which is due on the 8/12. Of this £964 is just for Data Roaming on (Number Redacted) .. !

Let me put it to you that as I have previously been "caught" out on your outrageous Data Roaming charges and have complained about this before ( my invoice dated 7/7/11 .. although nothing was done on that occasion and I was "fobbed off" with some ridiculous excuses), that this time whilst travelling abroad I took all precautions to make sure I did not suffer the same fate !:

I telephoned Orange customer Services on the 8/10/11 and asked them what I needed to do, and as I had already purchased the Daily Data Roaming Bundle on their advice, I also ensured that my data roaming settings were set to "Off" and notifications off, on their advice , and only ever out this back on occasionally to check emails (probably once a day maximum) again on their advice , I also made sure I made use of any of the local FREE wifi hotspots where possible !

In fact I am struggling to see how the hell I can have used so much data when I took all these precautions to "avoid" the outrageous data roaming charges and avoid using the internet at all to make sure I avoided the outrageously large data roaming charges I had previously suffered (and as I mentioned my previous complaint fell on "deaf ears" and was never resolved ! ) ..

I notice that I am not the only person to complain about this, as I mentioned a friend of mine also suffered the same fate (although also had taken the same precautions as myself), and also I notice that this issue has been complained about by many people (e.g the recent Watchdog Article) and various complaints highlighted on the internet (highlighted in the links below) , so I am sure you probably don't want any more negative publicity.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?322768-Orange-Data-...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2011/09/data_roaming.html

I trust you will take the necessary action to resolve this issue for me, and that my bill is "substantially" reduced if not written off completely, and also that my previous data roaming charges complaint is properly looked into and I am offered some recompense for that as well. if I do not receive a satisfactory response within the next five days, I will cancel all my Direct Debits with Orange, and cancel all my accounts. If you want to lose my alleged valued custom and an average spend with you of £200 - £300 a month then that's fine, I can easily take my business elsewhere and you will lose a loyal and long standing customer. Otherwise I expect a satisfactory reply within that time.

Regards

Having had no response, he then followed up with this:

To: olaf.swantee.orange@everythingeverywhere.com
Subject: RE: Orange Data Roaming Charges / Complaint
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2011
Dear Sir,

I can only assume that either my previous email went straight to your spam folder, or the poor customer service of your organisation emminents straight from the top ?.

Whilst I didn't expect a resolution to my complaint yesterday, I would have thought I would have received at least a courtesy email acknowledging my complaint and informing me that you had actually asked someone to investigate it and would get back to me asap.

As I mentioned previously I will be cancelling all my accounts with Orange unless this issue is resolved within the next five days, although you would now appear to have one day less to resolve this issue as have heard nothing.

I hope to receive at least an acknowledgment to this email.

Please note I have also logged this complaint with Ofcom.

Regards

Yet again nothing and so to this morning with this:

To: olaf.swantee.orange@everythingeverywhere.com
Subject: RE: Orange Data Roaming Charges / Complaint
Date: 18 November 2011

Dear Sir,

Quite obviously judging by the lack of response to my emails, the customer service (or lack of ) does emminent directly from the top ?

However by now I hope you will have received a copy of my emails that I posted to you yesterday (unless this has also gone into the folder marked "customer spam") ? And I now hope you are taking some action or have at least asked someone from your "lack of" Customer Service area's to rectify my complaint ?

As I mentioned previously I will be cancelling all my accounts with Orange within the next five days unless this issue is resolved, today being Day 3 since I sent you my first email means that you would appear to have little time to resolve this issue, unless you are happy to lose one of you so called "valued" customers !

Regards

What on earth do they think they're playing at? They claim to have 28million customers - so I guess that's why they're happy to ignore them. You have been warned....

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

World Community Grid - GO Fight Against Malaria Launch

2011-11-16T22:21:00.003Z

In honor of World Community Grid's 7th birthday, we are pleased to announce that a new research project called GO Fight Against Malaria has been launched.

Malaria is one of the three deadliest infectious diseases on earth and is caused by parasites that infect both humans and animals. Half of the entire human population is at risk: in 2006, 247 million people became infected with malaria. Of the nearly one million deaths caused by malaria each year, 85% of those are children.

The researchers at The Scripps Research Institute are running the GO Fight Against Malaria project on World Community Grid to evaluate millions of candidate compounds to advance the search for new drugs that can cure patients who are infected with multi-drug-resistant mutant "superbugs" of malaria.

For more information about this important project, please view the press announcement on Citizen IBM.

GO Fight Against Malaria is the 10th project actively running on World Community Grid. To ensure that we continue to deliver results to the researchers as expeditiously as possible, we are challenging our members to help World Community Grid reach 2 million registered devices by December 31, 2011. We only need 100,000 additional devices to reach this goal. To help our community reach this goal, please read about our 7th Birthday Challenge to our Members.

Thank you for making World Community Grid an overwhelming success and allowing us to provide computing power to researchers working on pressing humanitarian issues for 7 years. Happy 7th Birthday World Community Grid!

Thank you,

The World Community Grid Team

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Must be "Performance Review" time of year....

2011-11-10T08:49:00.001Z

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

US vs Them...

2011-11-08T09:37:00.001Z

One of the things I'm doing this week is trying to understand the reason that doing a thing in the UK is so much more expensive than doing the (almost) same thing in the US.

Now, being a Brit and a fan of all things tech, I'm consistently jealous of the ultra low prices our US friends get to pay for their consumer electronics. Ive moaned about this fact here in the past, but just to go over old ground for clarity here's an example again:

Let's assume today's exchange rate of £1.00 = $1.60 or $1.00 = £0.62 if you prefer.

A 32Gb WiFi Apple iPad2
US Price = $599 (£373)
UK Price = $768 (£479)

See the full gallery on Posterous

So that's an additional $169 (£105) or 22%. I can speak from experience when I say "it's worth the air fare". But it's not just the iPad, and it's not just Apple.

Just to prove that here's a Canon Powershot G12
US Price = $499 (£310) - http://goo.gl/PHRxo
UK Price = $866 (£539) - http://goo.gl/aJqhV

A 42% increase!!

We're at a point where it's just about everything - and some things even more so.

One thing in particular that really riles me is to hear Americans complain about the price of gas - and when I say gas, I don't mean gas, I mean petrol - Gas, as any fool knows is not a liquid; moving on.

So choosing the nearest part of the US to the UK, the current price of regular petrol on the east coast (including taxes) is $3.45 per US gallon, just to make things that little bit more complicated (As listed here: http://38.96.246.204/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/wrgp/mogas_home_page... )

In the UK, we've been switched to Litres (so we think it's cheaper in some oil executives marketing brain) and we currently pay in the region of £1.40 per Litre of unleaded (including taxes). (As listed here: http://www.petrolprices.com/ )

Don't worry, I've worked it out for you:
1 US Gallon = 3.7854 Litres
So 1 US Gallon of petrol in the UK costs £5.29 and here comes the kicker - that's $8.49 or an extra $5.04 over the US price. That's an increase of 146%

I know huge chunks of this are down to import duty and VAT (Value Added Tax, which is currently 20%), but I'm certain there's also a level of greed going on because the increase is effectively hidden. Explaining this differential to our US cousins isn't fun, because it just reminds me of how expensive life in the UK really is.

Regular visitors will know who much I hate to say it, but IIWII.

Not fun times :-(

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

We aren't where we were....

2011-11-05T10:40:00.001Z

It would seem that 3 and half days of high level adrenalin production followed by an 8 hour sleep break and another day and a half of squeezing that gland is as much as I can do in a working week. When I arrived home at around 7 last night, I managed to eat a curry, sit on the sofa, and pass out. My work here is done. I dragged myself off to bed at around 11 and here we are at 11am of Saturday - feeling pretty good.
The job is done - all those that should have approved it have approved it, so it's in a satisfactory place. As for what the customer makes of it? Well that's up to the kids across the pond, but between me and the Navvy - we've given them our best shot at it.
Let's not have another week like that one for a while, eh?

No idea what the rest of the weekend will bring - probably more sleep.
Have fun.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

400m Hurdle Relay.... (or "almost there")

2011-11-04T08:45:00.001Z

....and here we are at Friday. Day 5 of Adrenal gland experiment No.1

As you'll have gathered, I'm not sure how I got here, but I am here. I probably has something to do with time passing and very litle to do with any impact I may have on the world around me. I should point out that I'm fully aware the world doesn't revolve around me - it revolves around you.... and the sun.

Where were we? So Wednesday saw a less eventful return journey from London - not quite the last train, but I still had "stuff to do" once I was back on-line. I hear that you can get WiFi on the East Midlands rail network now - that's rather annoying when the best that the Un-Great Western service can do is ittermittent 3G and my plan doesn't currently allow tethering. On the flip side, it forces me not to be online and to spend time thinking - or as was the case on Wednesday - talking (in the "quiet" carriage - how awful of me)

I was sat next to one our countries serving soldiers who couldn't speak about what he does and left his description of duties as "potato peeling". He was an interesting chap, clearly experienced in the art of the peeler and left me with a tip for a good book on the subject - "Sniper One - by Sgt Dan Mills". It's in my kindle app, I'll let you know how it pans out.

The last lumps of work from the Wednesday meeting meant I finally got finished around 12.30 and then to bed for a few hours before back on the road to my local-ish office.

As the badman has been off, I've been recieving some very able help from a hardworking irishman - digger of ditches and canals and layer of tarmac drives. He's a very experienced Navvy - far more so than I - in this field and without him around this week, I would have failed miserably. I'm very lucky to have him on board ready with his trusty spade and pick at a moments notice.

Thursday saw the two of us camped out in an office performing water-fowl alignment (or "getting our duck's in a row" for the less imaginative) and gaining a deeper knowledge of what the hell it is we're trying to do. A large contigent of accountants have agreed with the numbers we've suggested, and while we're doing things in the wrong order, the next phase is to get a large contigent of people that actually do this stuff to agree with what we're suggesting they do. And that is how I find myself back in the office again on a Friday preparing to "help" them make thier decision.

It feels like one last hurdle to jump over and I'll get my life back - that's NOT how it is. No clearing the hurdle will create a pile of work so that I can take a few paces back and have another run at it. Clearing the hurdle will create a pile of work in passing the baton over the pond. I have a pile of work.

I'm hurting - but I'm not dead yet.

Happy days.

PS - I do hope Pooh (and anyone else for that matter) gets to see the Big Lebowski ... at least twice. It would make yesterday's post a little clearer.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Golfy Lebowski...

2011-11-03T08:23:00.001Z

Not the millionaire Lebowski, but me, the other Lebowski....

In the words of The Big Lebowski (the millionaire): "You don't go out looking for a job dressed like that? On a weekday?"

And in both the words of myself and The Dude: "Is this a... what day is this?"

Most apt. and to continue with this theme I'm happy to report that so far "the goddamned plane hasn't crashed into the mountain" but there is a lot of "new sh1t". There is still much to be done and "this is our concern dude". My concern is of course for my "Johnson", my beverage and most importantly, my rug which of course "really tied the room together, did it not? Am I wrong?"

So, I dropped off the money exactly as per... look, man, I've got certain information, all right? Certain things have come to light. And, you know, has it ever occurred to you, that, instead of, uh, you know, running around, uh, uh, blaming me, you know, given the nature of all this new sh1t, you know, I-I-I-I... this could be a-a-a-a lot more, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, complex, I mean, it's not just, it might not be just such a simple... uh, you know?

If you don't know what I'm blathering about, well...I'll tell you what I'm blathering about... I've got information man! New sh1t has come to light! And sh1t... man, she kidnapped herself. Well sure, man. Look at it... a young trophy wife, in the parlance of our times, you know, and she, uh, uh, owes money all over town, including to known pornographers, and that's cool... that's, that's cool, I'm, I'm saying, she needs money, man. And of course they're going to say that they didn't get it, because... she wants more, man! She's got to feed the monkey, I mean uh... hasn't that ever occurred to you, man? Sir?

Ask yourself "what makes a man?" and go and watch the Big Lebowski.

Is it being prepared to do the right thing, whatever the cost? Isn't that what makes a man?

Hmmm... Sure, that and a pair of testicles.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Experimentation

2011-11-02T17:11:00.001Z

I don't mind admitting that I found myself in a state of shock this morning when I realised it was Wednesday. It's day 3 of the experiment to see just how much my adrenal gland can produce before it simply gives up and allows me to be eaten by whatever my fight or flee system is so terrified of. It's going quite well.

Having not arrived home on Monday before midnight - thanks to the wondrous signalling system on the "Great" Western railway service, and then been off in the opposite direction until the wee small hours again on Tuesday - I've sort of lost track of where we are in the space-time continuum. So let's roll back to Monday night's return journey from "that London" and go from there.

As you'll have read (possibly), things went generally quite well. Some positive feedback and direction resulted in a plan for a way forward. I managed to grab a swift pint with Jack-the-lad on the way to the station by way of thanking him for his input and support - and as those of you that know him will know - a good laugh to boot. He has a sharp sense of humour and is a pleasure to work with.

I hopped aboard the tube to get across the city and then hung around in Paddington for the next available train (the 8:45) back to the countryshire. All was going swimmingly until we got to Didcot. Just out of Didcot we made an unscheduled stop. A problem with the signals. On a direct journey this would be of little concern, but I needed a change of train a Swindon. The timing of the signal problem could not have been better planned for anyone wishing to miss this connection and so it was that I finally arrived home at around midnight - just in time for bed.

Tuesday was an early start to drive up to the (hour away) Starfleet office, and then to put into action the plan that we'd crafted the day before. Again things went relatively well - some un-required assistance was given as well as some vital assistance and a notable let down. By 9pm we were getting very close to a completion point. One of our number had left things very late for completion but he came through in the end and by 10.30 I was on the road back home. A nice easy drive would mean back home and tucked up by 11.30.

Ahhh - but of course, things are never that simple. Luckily for the god of "making life difficult" there was an opportunity to really p!ss me off, and he'd taken it upon himself to have the motorway closed off so that some highways employees could stand around drinking tea and staring at holes in the ground. The back roads, got me home though and once again a midnight arrival meant I could have a slice of toast and pass out.

And so to Wednesday - which once again finds me on the train back down to "that London" for a further executive review and hopefully a decision that might put an end to this madness. But the jury's out.

What have I learned from this? Well a whole heap of things, many of which just aren't relevant to a blog post - which as the regular readers know is mostly a place for me to vent or just shoot the breeze. It does appear that the object of the exercise is to try and kill me off by not allowing me to eat or sleep or have any normal type of exercise - and then expect to perform herculean tasks of mental strength. I beginning to wonder if it's worth it, but I haven't given up yet.

We have had some extraordinarily good help in the form of technical wizards and geniuses - and if nothing else, it's great to know that these people exist and can help us make a difference. It's all part of an ongoing education and I've discovered plenty that I had no idea existed and have been unsurprised by some of the things that I've been hampered with before that cause us pain all too often.

I’m do hope that Pooh is having a wonderful time in his hollowed out tree and his paw stuck in one of his many jars of huni. I'm also sure he'd love to be here just to see how well his adrenal gland could hold up as well. Let’s hope he heals soon – although at this rate, when he gets back there won’t be a great deal (not that it ever was a great deal – see what I did there?) to be done.

Well - I'm afraid I have far too much to do to talk to you lot any further today. Must crack on.

Wish me and my adrenal gland luck

Ta ra.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Executive Stress-heads

2011-10-31T21:06:00.002Z

Monday.... Again! I shouldn't be surprised, it's a constant that regularly shows up just after Sunday and before Tuesday. It's also annoying because it interrupts the flow of the weekends - that beautiful time when work isn't entirely your master. However, this Monday is providing some new-ish ground for me.

I find myself sat on the London bound train scooting off to a Starfleet office based in the big city. Regular readers will know this isn't the first time - but I haven't been there since February this year. You'll also know that I've been summoned to receive "executive help" on, what should be called "the unwinable bid". The new ground for me, is meeting the aforementioned executives.

Now the thing about executives is thier title. I imagine it comes from "ex" as in "no longer" or "previous" and "ecutive" meaning "able to think like a rational human being"*. More often than not, when they aren't thinking about work related subjects, some of them are quite normal, sane and easy going people. Ultimately - and this is the key - they are just people. They could just as easily be sat outside a station playing a guitar as they could be sat behind a desk barking. Once you get "past the title" (and if my definition is correct, that's no biggy) then they're pussy cats.

I put in some hard working hours over the weekend, though not a stupid amount because frankly this particular piece is a damp squib, dead duck and a lame horse all rolled into one. If it were a house, you'd knock it down. If it were a ship, you'd call it Titanic. If it was a bid you'd no-bid it.... But let's see what the "previously able to think like rational humans" make of it first. I'm doing them a dis-service and for that I appologise. But as a Brit and as an employee we all moan about our senior members of an organisation. It's in our DNA.

In the meantime; the train. In previous episodes I've shared some of the excellent conversations that have been overheard but so far this morning - almost utter silence. Very disappointing. I thought that perhaps as we near the big L and a few more commuters appear there might be a titbit to enjoy, but alas no. In fact the train is more empty than I've ever seen it before. You'd think it was a bank holiday, but I'm guessing that the half term brigade are still at home to recover form the joy of spending time in the company of their little ones.

As for listening in to the few passengers that are aboard, little did I realise that it's more likely to be MY conversations being overheard for a change. Almost 8.30am, pulling into Swindon and I've already taken two calls from "Kanga" to whom the words 'arse' and 'elbow' appear to be exactly the same.

It's going to be a very very very long day. Even longer than that. I have but three rays of sunshine in it.

The first is the science of time. To all those people who say "you'll get through it" you should by now have realised that unless you drop dead in the middle of whatever "it" is, that it is impossible to do anything but get through it. This is because that no matter what the situation, time passes and this time tomorrow will be another day. Getting through it is the easy bit. Not kicking the bucket, that takes effort.

The second is a beer with Jack. Hopefully, once we've got through it, he and I will find a boozer for a quick pint before catching our respective trains home.

And the third... Well that's obvious. Walking in through my own front door to the smiling faces of Mrs G and Daughter, neither of whom are executives** and thank heavens for that.

Finally - just before disembarkation this snippet: "Hello? Where we're they? She OK? I'll catch you later."

Bugger that's boring. Time to alight and scurry down the rabbit hole into god knows what.

Adieu.

--------

An update.

Actually the executives in question were far from the ogres I'd been lead to believe they might have been. In fact they were both sane and very helpful in digging around and finding a direction for us to go in. Of course, it's only Monday and if we can't live up to the expectation they've set I might have an entirely different opinion, but for now - I take it all back and am counting my blessings to be part of a pragmatic and forward thinking bunch.

Time will be our tutor.

*This definition may not be 100% accurate - but it does kind of fit.

** The flip side to this is that by definition they are therefore still more than able of thinking like rational human beings, which naturally will mean I'm in trouble for not doing something that's on a list that I haven't seen but should have completed a week ago - probably. ;-)

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Birthday Lunch

2011-10-30T20:02:00.001Z

Saturday came and went and for the most part it went very well.

I can happily recommend "The Fleet at Twyning" as a truly splendid place to have lunch with all the family. Great food, great atmosphere, friendly staff, sensibly priced and in a cracking spot on the banks of the River Avon.

We had been here before a couple of years ago and at that time found it to be rather underwhelming. However, at the beginning of this year it was acquired by a small group who run a couple of well known (and very well regarded) pubs in our area and they have very successfully worked their magic on it.

See the full gallery on Posterous

I didn't have the steak after all, but I did enjoy a wonderful duck liver parfait (patè to the rest of us) and a gourmet burger from their special fixed price menu for £11. Three courses - if only I'd had the room for them - are £15, and at that quality you really cannot complain about the prices. Wander from the fixed prices and of course things go up dramatically, but the quality is a constant so the choice is yours. The sea-bass looked, and I'm told tasted, incredible. Without doubt, it was a delight and will most certainly be receiving a return visit.

There were tales of daring-do and stories of shaggy dogs and memoirs of recent events, all of which were most entertaining. Senior Ball received a couple of gifts in advance of his birthday and was suitably pleased with them.

Sister Ball has a new - I hesitate to use the word car - in fact, I hesitate to use the word Rollerskate. What is the word I'm looking for. Something very tiny with wheels.... It's a Smart car. You know, those ones that look like the were going to be a real car and the they got fed up after drawing the driver and passenger seats so just didn't draw any more. In fairness to describe it that way, while accurate is to do it a dis-service. In actuality it is a very cute and practical town car. There's no road tax to pay, has an automatic gearbox and a surprisingly large amount of storage for something that looks like it has none. At £10k for a brand new one with all the whistles and bells it seems like a very "sensible" acquisition. Whatever next!?

She was in fine form and is off to America for some work shortly. Senior Ball is in the market for a new laptop and after much discussion and contributions for his birthday, Christmas, next two birthdays and four Christmases after that it appears that he's going to invest in a MacBook Air. And thank god for that says I. Sister Ball has been tasked with picking one up while she's in the US, not least because the £850 that they cost here becomes £620 over there.

After lunch it was back to the ponderosa for a cuppa before they all headed off and Mrs G and I had half an hour to put our feet up and recover. It was short lived though an four or five hours later I was putting the finishing touches to a pack of materials that I've built in preparation for our Monday review. Still waiting from some input from our most recently re-assigned member of the team, so I'm entirely expecting to have more to do later today. I can't wait.

Was very glad of the extra hour in bed this morning, but body clocks don't adjust instantly, so I was Awake at 6am which is now 7. John Le Carrè meant I didn't actually get out of bed until 8.30 though. Daughter was equally glad of it because she and her friends had an extra hour clubbing last night - but then she's in need of the recovery time too I suspect. A difficult balance to find.

Today's plan involves visiting the brown's to help them understand the nuances (because it's certainly not complicated) of migrating from their trudging PC environment onto their newly arrived iMac. They're always fun to see and their two year old is a riot, so an entertaining time awaits.

So on that note, it's time I knocked up some breakfast and got my life in gear again. Depending on egg supplies I'm thinking "the full English" but I might have to play hunter-gatherer first.

Until next time. Stay safe.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Through the looking glass....

2011-10-29T09:37:00.001Z

Holy crud! (as we used to say back in the village) what an arse of a week that's been, and it's not over yet.

Actually, now I think about it, there's probably a whole blogpost about "what we used to say back in the village", but we'll have that on another day. Today being a Saturday should be a chance to relax and recharge somewhat, in preparation for another week of hell from Monday - but alas - not a bit of it.

Sadly the work that Pooh and I have been battling with is now getting some "help" from some members of the "executive" team and as we all know this will require treading very carefully through the minefield of the executive view of the 100 acre wood. Help is something that is always welcome, whereas on the other hand "help" is more often a hindrance that one could do without. It's also "offered" - which in non-executive english translates to, mandated. Oh what fun.

Pooh, while claiming to be a bear of little brain, is actually a darn sight cleverer than he lets on. He understands the stuff we're trying to do in a non-technical yet deeply understood sort of way. Or at least that's how it appears to outsiders - personally I think he's an expert bull-sh1tter, and that my friends means he's very VERY good at his job. I'm sure he'd agree. For my part, BS isn't something I'm particularly blessed with and sadly I'm a bit of a crap liar too, so if you want it straight without the bolotics, I'm your man.

Pooh also isn't one to "suffer fools gladly" as the saying goes and I believe that one of the execs may have read between the lines of deafening silence on a call on Friday and got that message loud and clear. It only takes 10 minutes of an SMI's time to wind him up - and some more "talented" SMI's can do it with the words "Hello Pooh". But I digress.

It's probably just as well, for the sake of his own sanity that he's not here for the coming week, so our offer of "help" therefore falls to me to accept. On the plus side, I have spent some rather large chunks of my career "managing" executives although I am a little out of practice. Pooh's advice - before he slipped out the back wearing Nike's and moving at a speed not dissimilar to that of a slightly older, shorter and more countrified version of Usain Bolt - was treat it as a training course or a test. Not a bad stab at taking the sting out of it I thought.

My approach will be to shut up and listen, nod sagely at appropriate moments and to politely ignore the sort of comments that would turn Pooh into a very Shouty bear with a pointy stick. I can assure you, that is not someone you would like to meet up a dark alley unless you were meeting him to team up and start a fight with an unruly mob of mobsters who considered themselves to be "tooled up and well hard".

So it's with these thoughts in mind that I have to do some bloody work on the weekend.

But first there are more important things to attend to. Lunch with Mr Ball senior and various other members of the Ball clan and extensions. After all executive buffoonery and the suchlike will come and go and come round again, but you only get one Dad.

Actually I think the saying goes something like "1000 dads but only one father" or is it "a 1000 mums but only one mummy"? Ah, whatever - you get my drift I'm sure.

In short, a fairly leisurely and drawn out pub lunch with much frivolity will see me and Mrs G through to the early evening by which time I'll be prepared to prepare for my visit up to "that London" first thing on Monday morning. I think I'll have the steak - famous for being the last meal of the condemend man.

Daughter's working overtime - which is a great shame because I know Mr Ball senior enjoys her stories of current police work having been in "the job" himself for many many moons, but with any luck they'll arrive just before she sets off so at least they'll get to say hello. Sister ball is also making a long overdue appearance. Always great to see her and hear about what she's been up to while in hiding since the last time she appeared.

Oh yes, and I mustn't forget to nip to the station to pick up my tickets. 170 of our British pounds just so that a bloke in a suit can rant about some other blokes in suits at a bloke without a tie (but I will be in a suit) about a guess that the othe blokes made that was "a bit short of the mark" and then end up deciding that it's a battle that will be list even though we're still in the war.

Ah well - its nice to have a day out. Such fun!

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Looking forward...

2011-10-27T08:05:00.001Z

I can feel the knot of the noose tightening. The pressure is ramping up a little now. We spent time in the company of senior exec’s yesterday, which can often be un-nerving (see Dilbert for further details on how this usually works) .

We’re still striving to fit 3 weeks worth of work into a week - and that’s not working out to well obviously. And of course we’re somewhat hampered by the fact that it’s half-bloody-term. It's annoying that it's occupying most of my waking hours, but it's what I do until I do something else.

Mrs G has a cold which has spoilt her plans for Friday. She was going to see our friend S who's battling with the big C. Unfortunately as I'm sure you're aware, chemotherapy messes with your immune system, making it weak, and the patient susceptible to viruses and diseases. The last thing S needs at this point of her treatment is a cold, and so it's with sad hearts that they're not going to get together on Mrs G's day off. Here's hoping the treatment pays off and S can get back to being the great gran, mum, wife and friend that she is.

Daughter is weary and tired. She's not had a day off for the best part of two weeks and it's starting to show. She needs a break the poor lamb, but she's got a few days at the weekend that she's looking forward to. I believe she's even got a night out with the girls planned. Bless her.

We've got a bit of a get together on Saturday planned too. It's that time of year again when it's Mr Ball senior's birthday, so we're all going for a bit of a lunchtime nosh up in a countryshire public house. Sister Ball is coming down from "that Manchester" and even the in-laws are going to join us. Should be a giggle and even if you can't chose your family - it's fair to say that we're very lucky to have family that aren't just bearable, but are actually fun to be with so it's something to look forward to. Still got to get the elder ball's birthday present yet though.

Well - no chance of me getting to 750 words today - far too much todo..

Pooh's on the phone, so I'd best get on with it. Stay safe.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Fire me into oblivion... please!

2011-10-26T11:08:00.001Z

It’s all kicking off....

Still no sign of the mythical beast of a deal that Pooh and I have been waiting for, but the current one that we’re wrestling with is much like a firework.

The blue touch paper has been lit and we should be standing well back - however “Kanga” is not only poking it with a stick (and not a pointy one I should add - as we all know the best weapon of choice of all woodland creatures is a pointy stick) but he’s picking it up and carrying it over to the gathered crowd as if to say “look at this, maybe we should try opening it and seeing how much gunpowder is in inside” - much to the terror of the rest of us. Didn’t he read the instructions (using a battery operated torch) before hand ?

Owl was fuming and there was some argy-bargy from Eeyore. In fact if Owl hadn’t been up a tree at that point, he’d have happily pulled Eeyore’s tail off (which is only held on by a drawing pin).

The dangers of messing with fireworks are ably demonstrated by Pooh, who has to go and have his hand fixed after many years of making his own fireworks in the privacy of his own home. The result of this means that he’ll be leaving me in charge of the box of unlit rockets and of course the finale “sky-bomb” which I’ll be setting off next week.

It should travel high enough into the stratosphere to come down somewhere over the far side of the atlantic ocean - but that rather depends on what the crowd think of it as it goes up. Our fireworks are “applause driven” so if there’s not a general feeling of approval from the watching audience it won’t make it and I’ll have to have another look in the “wooden” (not metal) box to see if there’s anything better we can set off.

However, before we get that far, we need the other woodland folk to take another look at the potential “sky-bomb” and make sure they’ve included all the right whistle’s and bangs in it so that it appears appropriately whizzy when it goes up. The problem here though, is that they’re currently working on a firework display for the village and not the 100-acre wood. Piglet's on the case.

Some of the other woodland creatures that we don't see much - the one's that hangout in parliament, are also getting twitchy. Tigger's are wonderful things (as we all know) - but a brave bear with a pointy stick and very little brain has a better outlook on those creatures than a tatty, bouncy tigger does.

Penny-for-the-guy anyone ?

Appreciate that’s all a bit abstract, but if you know what I’m jabbering about, then you’ll know what I’m jabbering about.

Away from the wood things are relatively quiet. A nice Chilli for dinner last night, some "Come Dine With Me" on the telly and I managed to keep my eyes open long enough to see the first half of "The Ghost" (Known as "The Ghost Writer" outside of the UK).

It's the story of a writer employed to ghost write the autobiography of an ex-british prime minister. A political thriller with the young Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan MacGregor) as the writer and James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) as the PM. So far, reasonably enjoyable, with lots of it set in Martha's Vineyard, the island just off the southern edge of Massachusetts, which looks like a great place to be in the summer - and a "windswept and interesting" place to be in the winter. I'll give you my final take on it once I've found an hour to cram the second half in.

Anything interesting in the news?? Well, there's The EU debt crisis, which is droning on and on. The Boeing Dreamliner has had it's first commercial flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong. Amazon's profits are seriously down due to production of the new Kindle Fire. IBM have named a new female chief executive (Virginia Rometty) to replace the current CEO (Sam Palmisano) in January next year. And "Nokia World" has begun where Nokia will announce a bunch of phones (including the Nokia Luma 800 Windows phone - available from November at $585) that won't be as good as the iPhone (probably). That's a little unfair, but having spent most of my career around windows and Microsoft, it's probably true.

And on the subject of Microsft, Happy Birthday to Windows XP yesterday. 10 Years old and still favoured by millions of PC users.

Finally, finally - if you feel like doing something dangerous - and let's face it on a Wednesday, who doesn't? - you could always try this:

Ta-ra for now.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Bleurr..ummphh! (Pirates, Mummies & Murderers)

2011-10-25T07:29:00.001Z

That’s the sound of Monday. All a bit of a flop this week. Things have not gone well for Pooh and I and interestingly this is through no fault of ours, but of some extremely unrealistic expectations of a few other members of the cast from elsewhere. Ultimately we’re on hiding to nothing with this job - unless some wakes up and smells the coffee.

Somehow, in the midst of all this I’ve managed to pick up two deals that I’m covering for someone else and another one that I have to run with. I’ve asked for further detail which as yet is not forthcoming, so in true broken record style-ee, IIWII. Enough already.

Daughter returned unscathed from her dealings with the British legal system. The accused plead guilty in the end so she didn't have to take the stand, but she did get to meet a few other rum sorts - including a murderer. She's always interested in the bizarre and darker side of life - not too interested mind you, just enough to want to know enough to satisfy her curiosity. I still worry of course, but she displays excellent judgement of character for the most part. I've learned to "let go" a fair bit now. You have to let them have their own space to grow - even if they do occasionally poke around in the darker corners of the world. There was a further example of this later in the evening.

Last night's dinner was tuna steak freshly caught from our local supermarket on my bike in the rain. What could be nicer? Hard to believe that just over a week ago I was sitting around in shorts and t-shirts and 28 degrees of sunshine. Now winter has arrived properly and it's cold, dark, wet and miserable. Halloween and fireworks just around the corner means that Christmas is only just behind them and at least there will be festive fun -somewhere amongst the misery.

The other highlight from last night - and of "dark" interest to daughter - was provided by Channel 4. Mummifying Alan - Egypt's Last Secret is a documentary following Dr. Stephen Buckley and Dr Joann Fletcher mummifying the body of Taxi driver, Alan Billis. (Torquay's Tutankhamun) Engaging, fascinating and at times disturbing. It was Alan's choice to donate his body to this experiment and his attitude towards it is best described by his own words:

"It's just a shame I won't be here to see the results. I love a good documentary".

I'm sorry he's missed it to, because it's really worth a watch. Amazing stuff.

Tuesday has landed and what’s to report?... not a lot really, so a hunt around the Internet might bring up something a little more intriguing, and here's some newsy type stuff....

According to The Next Web, Netflix, the video rental/streaming company that have all the latest and greatest movies available online is finally coming to the UK next year. Right now that's too late for me, I've recently signed up with LoveFilm (part of Amazon) which I'm glad to report is quite excellent so far. That said I might jump ship once Netflix lands just because in other parts of the globe - namely America - its supported by Apple TV. But let's just wait and see what the deal is first, after all they've just had a price hike in the US and customers had been voting with thier feet on it: Video rental firm Netflix loses customers over prices

As for LoveFilm, I've taken the 14 quid a month package which entitles you to an unlimited number of DVD or BlueRay rentals (but only two at a time) and streaming to PS3, iPad, iPhone, Mac or PC. You can actually stream up to 3 different titles simultaneously (to different devices obviously). Streaming the latest releases means paying an extra 3 or 4 quid, but the back catalogue is almost as good as mine, so it's impossible to be at a loss to watch anything in the Ball household now.

As a result I've caught up with few odds and ends of movies lately, most recent of which is "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides". This is the fourth in the series and quite possibly it's turned a corner - though not necessarily completely. The first film in the franchise was a ripper. Great fun for everyone and thoroughly enjoyable. Sadly from there, it slipped downhill and gradually got worse and worse. That last effort was almost unwatchable - however, for the most part I quite enjoyed this one and while Johnny Depp churns out the same "Captain Jack" as always, the material he has to work with does feel a darn sight more snappier and thought out than part 2 or 3 did. Good stuff if your kids are fans and you're looking for something for them to watch during half term.

That should cover my 750 words for today (838 to be precise). It seems that 750words.com really is helping me.

Until next time.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Jobs

2011-10-24T11:35:00.001Z

Yesterday was the 10th birthday of the iPod, and today is the launch of the official biography of the late Steve Jobs.

See the full gallery on Posterous

The story of the iPod and how it's allegedly killed the music industry is a well told and worn one - in my opinion it's just changed the music industry, not killed it, but what do I know? The story of it's creator (and I use that term in a fairly loose way on this occasion) is far less well known. He was renowned for being a very private and secretive man which is seemingly at odds with his presence and "fame" - for want of a better word - as a company director. There aren't many - if any CEO's (with the possible exception of Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook) - that are as well know as he was. I've heard loads of theories about the reasons for his popularity since his death, but I'm not sure I click with any of them.

He was, after all, just a man, like any other who happened to be in the right place at the right time and had a drive and passion for his business. I think he was more "well known", than popular although I think that his perceived "popularity" has a lot to do with his peer group. Bill Gates might have owned the PC - via the Microsoft behemoth, but I'm not sure he'd be a barrel of laughs at a party. Steve beat Bill by being a "cool geek" and you can see why other geeks would want to emulate him for that reason.

I don't really read biography's - some people swear by them - but in this case I might be tempted to make an exception. I suppose I'm following the heard of wannabe cool geeks, but equally I'd quite like to know what went on in his head. Even if it is from another person's perspective and not his own.

I'll leave the subject of Steve with two points - one, and most interestingly for me, the talk in the book of an Apple Television. Not Apple TV, which he claimed was just a hobby, but an actual Apple Television. Some people have said this already exists in the form of the iMac, but I think we all know what Steve's really getting at and I think it's probably the the last piece of his grand plan. The ownership of the living room would be complete - whether it'll ever see the light of day now that he's passed, only time will tell.

The second Steve story is my favourite - and is all about the shenanigans around the release of the iPhone 4. Some of you will probably recall that Gizmodo managed to acquire an iPhone 4 that an Apple sales rep left in a bar by mistake. Brian Lam tells of his take on Steve Jobs in this article (Steve Jobs was always kind to me (or, regrets of an asshole)), and what makes it for me is the line "Before he hung up, he asked me, "What do you think of it?"". Judge for yourself.

On the work front, IIWII and WAWWA, which for the regular readers means it's not great, but that's life. I am starting to get rather swamped though. The work I'm doing with pooh obviously takes priority, but I'm covering for one of our number who is on vacation, pooh is going to take some time out to have his honey-covered paws cleaned up and there's more work on the horizon. I'm perceiving a pressure that doesn't yet exist - not a good place for my brain to be.

Daughter's in court today. Not for something she did (thank heavens) but for something she saw. This is what happens when you patrol the mean streets in your spare time. She was a little nervous before she set off - but she'd never say so. I'm sure it'll be fine and they'll lock up the bad guys and let the good guys go.

Her companies attitude towards her having time off to attend court has been less than satisfactory though. She's performing a service for her local community, free, gratis and at no charge. This translates into not only a safer, happier place for all those that live on her patch - many of them work in the same company - but also a direct saving in each of their pockets by way of a lower level of council tax.

Clearly a forward thinking company would recognise that safe and happy staff are more hardworking and reliable staff and as such be supportive of her venture. Attending court as a witness / arresting officer isn't something you can choose not to do - it's a legal requirement. So, a day off without pay - rather than taking holiday (which let's face it, is supposed to be for your holidays) would seem to be the correct thing to do when these circumstances arise. Not a bit of it.

However... the police have been called, HR will be summonsed - they're surrounded and there's no escape.

There's also currently no documented policy within the business to deal with it - and so hopefully it will be resolved in a speedy and logical manner.

It seems the business just needs some edumacation in the way their community works.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Dilbert's on a roll....

2011-10-24T07:23:00.001Z

...or at least that how it appears to me having read this:

http://badmansjournal.blogspot.com/2011/10/smis.html

and then seen this:

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

I've had this conversation....

2011-10-23T07:37:00.001Z

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Barbara!! Barbara!!

2011-10-21T13:15:00.001Z

Yet again I’ve slipped into failing to blog. I think the only way I’m really going to break this on and off scribbling is to signup to 750words.com again and really get my writing muscle pumping.

The truth of it is that I’ve been distracted from my blogging duties. I made a bit of a stab at it a couple of weeks ago and then I foolishly went off on holiday to Spain on the weak and feeble premise of “playing golf with the lads”. There was some playing of golf - and in point of fact I even managed to play at least one very very good game by beating everyone else - but as is the case with such things this was most likely a fluke brought about by the amount of alcohol consumed paired with the lack of sleep that the “good” players had. I could blag it and say my game just improved dramatically - but we all know that would be a lie. It was merely fortuitous timing. All the same - I won - they lost!! Hahaha!

One of our number has laid some ground work towards becoming a minor celebrity. Actually, when I say minor that’s bigging him up quite a bit. In short he’s been filming “Come Dine With Me” - and if you don’t know what that is, you’re both very lucky and missing out on some popular culture that won’t change your life, but might make you smile.

It turns out that the filming of this show carries on until the wee small hours after each evenings dinner, and leaves the participants pretty much dead on their feet. In this individual’s case, he was the last one to host dinner and his night ran on until about 4am on the Saturday morning. Ordinarily this wouldn’t have mattered a jot, except that we had to be leaving for the airport to fly to spain at - you guessed it - 4am. He was late. He was drunk (ish) and he was still wearing his tuxedo from dinner. A cracking start to a crazy week.

Regardless - he made it - we all did, and by 11am on Saturday, 8 of us were ensconced in an 80’s styled villa in Puerto Banus ready for beer, food, golf and general shenanigans. Fun times.

I won’t bore you with it, but we bumped into Cilla Black, Stan Boardman and probably an unknown number of ex-Eastend blaggers and criminal underlings. We drank too much, slept too little and got sunburned and tired. Very relaxing.

See the full gallery on Posterous

I bought gifts for Mrs G and daughter - they wanted perfume - and very happy with the results they are. So what you need after a week like that is a nice gentle start back in the office. Not a bit of it.....

A conversation with the badman on Sunday, meant that I had to load up the roller-skate and whizz off to a local starfleet office because things had “kicked off” on another piece of work - not the one we’ve been waiting for, but one I’d “helped out on” just before my holiday. What I needed was a nice quite start to catch up on the email infestation - but instead it was “bloody hard work” followed by dinner with a bunch of people who didn’t really want dinner, but did want to be entertained.

The badman and I suffered it together - and I suppose it could have been much worse, but really no-one was in the the mood for a party - so there wasn’t one.

The rest of the week has limped along because of some poorly made assumptions elsewhere and because of the now infamous phrase “It Is What It Is”. I am thoroughly sick to death of hearing it and saying it, so for future reference anytime it may be mentioned I shall simply say “IIWII” - which looks a bit like an appendix to World War 2 in shorthand, and now you come mention feels a bit like it too.

The weekend is just around the corner (for most of us) although it appears I may have to do some work during mine just so that we can be “ahead of the game” on Monday. On this occasion I don’t really see the point of it, when our target seems to be way beyond our reach - but We Are Where We Are...... Arrrrrrrrrrrgggghh WAWWA!!!!

....I other news....

Got my iOS5 upgrades everywhere they need to be - and I like them a lot. Great stuff - everything working smoothly and seemlessly. All-in-all very pleased with what they’ve done there.

We have an infesation of in-laws and out-laws this weekend. It’s my favourite brother-in-laws birthday and he and the rest of his family are around our neck of the woods to celebrate. I’d hoped for some R&R after two hectic weeks, but then I don’t mind digging deep for some remaining energy reserves in this instance.

Afterall - IIWII and WAWWA.....

Barbara!! Fetch me the shotgun!

CDWM_Spain_Intro.mp3 Listen on Posterous

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Lion Eyes TV: CSO Manchester

2011-10-16T22:48:00.001Z

Come on BBC Comedy.... Where's the commissioning for such great work?

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

I've had better weeks....

2011-10-07T20:07:00.001Z

...well we all have.

Looking back at it, I'm glad it's over. It started off so well too. Monday wasn't too shabby for a Monday and Tuesday - as I've said elsewhere - made a trip to the office with bad man. And of course it was apple Tuesday which seemed to serve to wind a whole host of people up for no reason in particular.

The apple fan boys - who it seems are incapable of reading - felt they'd all been let down because the new iPhone isn't a 5 but a 4S. Clearly those that complained weren't paying attention when the iPhone 4 wasn't and iPhone 4 but a 3GS. Still, it takes all sorts.

The Android crew are also bitching about it - claiming "Androids already do that" when referring to the voice commands. iPhones already do that to... But as usual they're not comparing eggs with eggs. Both handsets have their merits and both have their drawbacks, but at the end of the day the iPhone works for everybody and not just those who want to tweak every conceivable setting under the misapprehension of control. I'm not a "fanboy" but I'm definitely a fan now - and those lads who "went cheap" and bought the android (you know who you are rodders) are constantly regretting it.

Wednesday saw Badman in the office, and after suggesting I didn't need to be I got proper lumbered with a new job and next to no information about it. By the end of the day what I had gleaned didn't look pretty and I needed a proper conversation with the bloke who knows.... He wasn't available though.

Thursday meant he was though and the upshot of the conversations I had with him provided some further detail and most disturbingly an unachievable deadline. As always with these type of requests the issues aren't easily fixed. Having enough of the right people is the kicker every single time. Still - there's a process to deal with it, and so off we go....

Just to top off the apple mess, Steve Jobs passed away on Thursday aswell. That's a terrible loss and it's amazing just how many people he's touched via the products that apple have made. He's one of the the very few CEO's that people who don't need to know, actually do know of. Even Mrs G (who hates technology) knew who he was. A sad day indeed.

Friday was more of the same. Bad man had wisely taken Thursday and Friday off, so I was covering for him. There was a small request for something that had already been done but required the calming of a stressed member of the team and then there was more flapping about the lack of people to get things done.

Mid afternoon I spoke with the bad man to "hand over" the disgusting can of worms. Poor bugger's got some evil virus as well - not at all what he needs when he's trying to have a couple of days off - and then on top of that I'm handing him a bag of sh1t to really spoil his week next week. I'm sure he'll make a decent stab of it while I'm away, and I'm also sure it will still be a bag of sh1t when I get back - Albeit a much small and less smelly bag - through no fault of his. As we know "it is what it is and we are where we are" (I'm really starting to loath that phrase)

Finally it's Friday night and time to get some packing done. I've got a 3am start (don't feel sorry for me - I've got a week in Spain) and I haven't done anything towards it yet.

So, with that in mind ... Moustache ... Must Dash ... Geddit? Sorry - unacceptable.

Until next time...

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it, and that is how it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

Steve Jobs, 2005

US computer engineer & industrialist (1955 - 2011)

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Why So Siri - ous ??

2011-10-05T15:43:00.001Z

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Apple Tuesday - Part 2

2011-10-04T18:42:00.001Z

So what happened?..... Just in case you haven’t heard it yet here’s the short(ish) version...

So they started off with Tim Cook taking the stage and talking about two new Chinese Apple Stores and the new one over in Hong Kong too. They like to big up the numbers first. He ran a video and got his first proper round of applause.

Then the new CEO went on to discuss their products. Starting with the desktop OS (OSX Lion) and comparing it to Windows 7. Lion has been downloaded 6 million times. It took Windows 7 20 weeks to reach the same point that Lion reached in 2 weeks.

Mac: The MacBook Air - the best macbook ever. Mac has outgrown the PC market by almost six times and Mac has outgrown the PC every quarter for the last 5 years.

iTunes and iPods: In 10 years the iPod has become the number one music player in the world. More than 70% of the US market belongs to the iPod and they’ve sold over 300 million iPods worldwide. Sony sold 230,000 walkman cassette players in 30 years. iTunes launched 8 years ago with 200,000 tracks available, and now it holds 20 million. It’s the number one music store in the world.

iPhone: The iPhone 4 accounts for 50% of the iPhones ever sold. The number 1 smartphone in the world. 93% of the Fortune 500 companies are deploying the iPhone in their businesses. The iPhone has 5% of the mobile phone market worldwide - not smartphones - but mobile phones. That is one hell of a lot of phones.

iPad: The iPad has a 95% customer satisfaction rating. They’re everywhere. Schools, Pilots and Medicine. 3 out of 4 tablets sold in the US are iPads. As AllThingsD said “People want iPads, not Tablets”, And this morning, the passed 250 million iOS devices sold.

iOS: iOS accounts for 43% of the mobile OS installed base. There are over 500,000 apps in the Apps Store and just over 140,000 of these are specifically designed for the iPad. There have been over 18billion apps downloaded - over a billion a month. There’s also now a “cards” app, in which you send your photo and it’s then delivered via the postal service.

iOS5: There’s over 200 new features as we already know. They include notifications and iMessage (like BlackBerry Messenger) which will run on all the iOS devices. There will also be Twitter integration (not Facebook) and ....

NewsStand: NewsStand will download new publications in the background so they’re ready and waiting for you when you want to read them.
Camera: My favourite feature - The volume buttons as a trigger for the camera, but there’s also autofocus and autoexposure along with grid line to align your shot.
Game Center: which is the place where iOS gamers get together. There’s 67 million users on there now.
Safari: has had a refresh, and includes the reader feature which exists on the desktop version already.

It’ll run on the iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad 1 & 2, iPod touch (3rd & 4th Gen) and will arrive on October the 12th... bit annoying because I wanted it before I jet off - but so be it.

“iCloud” obviously is the next big thing to be discussed. iCloud is all about syncronising your iOS devices. iTunes will be in the cloud, Photo Stream, puts your photos in the cloud. You can store your Pages & Numbers documents up there and your iOS device will be automatically backed up every day. It will finally be available to all on October the 12th.

“Family and Friends” is a new app to help keep track of your family and friends. There are location sharing blocks of time and simple privacy controls to enable switching the service on and off. Of course your family and friends will need to be carrying an iOS device.

“iTunes Match” will scan your library and match it to the tracks that exist in iTunes to save you uploading them onto iCloud. Not sure what happens if you haven’t bought your tracks (ie: They’re pirated) but I’m sure that’ll become clear. To sign up for it, you pay $25 per year but not until the end of October. And the rub here?? It’s only available in the US due to copyright law. Pah!

just going back to the iPods...

iPod Nano: new built in sensors for tracking your walking and running. 16 New clock faces for everyone who uses their iPod Nano as a watch. (8Gb = $129 and 16Gb = $149)

iPod Touch: Most popular iPod and the most popular gaming device. iMessage and GameCenter are both appearing here. There’s now going to be a white version. (8Gb = $199, 32Gb = $299 and 64Gb = $399)

And so... onto the iPhone....

The iPhone 4S!!! (I hate to say I told you so).

It’s the same externally as an iPhone 4, but internally there’s lots of changes. The A5 chip (Apple designed Dual Core ARM chip), 7x faster graphics (dual core graphics processor), Increased battery life, Improved antennas for call quality and download speeds up to almost 14.4Mbps and it’s a Worldphone!... The camera has been upgraded to an 8 megapixel sensor.

If you’re really into your camera gear - you’d be interested to know it has the following: “CMOS backside illuminated sensor — gets 73% more light than the iPhone 4 sensor, and 1/3rd faster. On top of that, we place a high-end IR filter for greater accuracy and uniformity.” - They’re complex gizmos and they’re very highly rated. HD 1080p video recording with real-time stabilisation and noise reduction.

And finally..... Voice. This is really the new innovation. Now you can talk to your device. It’s marketed as an “Intelligent Assistant” known as Siri.

So you say, “What’s the weather like today?” and it simply tells you..... now, I’m happy to look up at the sky, but I get where this is going. “What time is it in Paris?” for example is far more useful.

You can set your alarm by saying “Wake me up tomorrow at 6am” These are the sort of clever tricks your iPhone 4S will doing for you.

Wikipedia and Wolfram Alpha searches by voice.

Basically - you ask it and it speaks back the response. Good stuff if it works as well as the demos. Other wise, http://www.DamnYouAutoCorrect.com was the tip of the iceberg. Works in English, French and German.

And so a worldwide launch on October the 14th... with pre-orders from the 7th October in the US, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany and Japan. Oh, and the price ?

16Gb = $199

32Gb = $299

64Gb = $399

The iPhone 4 will drop to $99 and the remaining 3GS’ will be free on contract.

That’s it. What do you think?

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Apple Tuesday

2011-10-04T16:54:00.001Z

So in a departure from what has become the norm, today saw me making a trip up to the local office for a meeting with the bad man and a newly assigned PM who will be taking things forward from here for us.

Wednesday's have become the day for our weekly get togethers up there, but this week it's a Tuesday. Nothing especially different about it, other than the rest of the account team weren't there. As things have turned out, the day went well mostly - apart from having to pick up something new that wasn't on the original list of new things to be picking up. In the end, mid afternoon saw us finishing off at a sensible time.

Other facts we learned today*:

The Channel Islands are just off the coast of Poland.
Lawyer is spelt L-I-A-R

It's Apple day - so I'm looking forward to hearing what they have to say about the next round of iPhones. As I said yesterday, I'm fully expecting there NOT to be an iPhone 5 (but as with everything those guys do - anything could happen)

I reckon the best iOS5 function that's coming (aside from the voice assitant and the enhanced notifications system) is moving the camera shutter button onto the physical volume buttons on the side of the phone. That will actually make picture taking far more natural and one hell of a lot easier to do.

Next week I'm jetting off on the annual (or in my case bi-annual) golf trip to Spain. Normally I have to lug my proper camera around with me of an evening to capture the lads in various states of stupidity. Fingers crossed that the new OS lands in time so that this year I'll only be lugging my phone. I'm also going to get my "posting to Google+ via email" sorted out so that I can instantly share thier embaressing moments amongst the correct circles (although posting to a specific circle via email is something I have yet to figure out).

Something you may not be aware of that will help me along the path of automating such tasks it a website called http://ifttt.com (If This Then That). It's a place were you can join sites (referred to as channels) together in the form of "tasks". So for example if you use instagram to take pictures and have a dropbox account (for online storage), you could create a recipe that each time you take a picture with instagram, then copies that picture onto your dropbox storage.

Once you've created your "tasks" you can share them to the ifttt community as "recipes". There's a whole host of channels available to the tool, including such sites as Facebook, Foursquare, GoogleMail, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr and on and on the list goes. It's clever stuff and I'd recommend it if you're trying to manage your "external digital emminance" :D

Well then - 6pm is almost upon us and so I'm shooting off to keep track of the Apple announcement. Hopefully I can get iOS5 before my travels.

If you feel like following along, you can do so here: http://live.gdgt.com/live-apple-iphone-5-event-coverage/

*Some items proclaimed as fact may NOT actually be facts. True Story.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Catching up with the Tech - well Facebook, Twitter, G+ and Apple

2011-10-03T15:58:00.001Z

Onwards to my favourite subject, but one I’ve been a little neglectful of lately. All things technological. In particular, two subjects, that of the Social network and of Apple.

Facebook has become THE social network. It’s slowly grown into that position over a (relatively) long period of time, as you can see here:

[[posterous-content:pid___0]]

I’m sure you’d agree that’s some pretty rapid growth. But that’s nothing. Take a look at Twitter’s growth numbers.

[[posterous-content:pid___1]]

So Facebook went from zero to 800 million users (by far the most of any Social Network) in 7 years. You could average it at 114m users a year if you like.

However, Twitter went from zero to 200 million in 5 years, which again you could average to 40m a year. So that’s still very rapid growth, but not as fast as Facebook. So what about Google plus?

G+ went from zero to 10million users in 16 days..... and we can see from the trends of the other networks that growth starts off slow.... If that’s slow! then these are crazy numbers.. averaging out at 228m a year!!! Holy crud. Of course - these are just statistics and as we know 87.4% of statistics are made up on the spot. G+’s biggest problem is that to move people from Facebook onto G+, the Facebook crowd won’t budge until their friends are there, or until Facebook changes something major that they don’t like.

And guess what? One snippet of tech news that’s not just a statistic is that Facebook is changing. Their recent F8 conference announced a whole raft of changes which clearly show they feel threatened by the release of Google+ and that they’re running to catch up quick. One of the more interesting is the timeline, which I actually think looks very nice - but it's pretty creepy when stuff like this happens to what you thought was personal - and then suddenly isn't.

And of course, Facebook users - who are traditionally a fairly conservative bunch - won’t like the change. At least for about three weeks and then they’ll just resort to their usual level of bland chitter-chatter.

Here’s what timeline looks like from Facebook’s perspective...

Now, from socialising, onto the fruit stuff... Apple.....

If you didn’t know already, there’s an Apple announcement tomorrow and this has served to whip the IT press into a frenzy. Here’s what I’ve heard that seems pretty solid...

Steve Jobs probably won’t be there, because Tim Cook will be, now that Steve has officially retired. It would be great for him to appear to handover to Tim, but he’s probably too unwell, which is a great shame. He’s clearly been one of the most innovative CEO’s in the tech industry over the last 10 years and turned Apple around when they needed it most. He will be greatly missed by the tech world as a whole.

As for the announcement, the expectation is the iPhone 5 will land - and I have to say after all I’ve seen and read - I don’t think it will. I think the iPhone 5 (which might have a curved back a bit like the iPhone 3 - or it might not) isn’t going to show up until next year at the earliest.

Furthermore, the location for the announcement (Apple’s HQ) is a very small venue - too small for an iPhone launch - and this time of year is traditionally reserved for iPod announcements. Having said that, the invite for the event looks like this:

[[posterous-content:pid___2]]

Now - lots of people have tried to analyse this image - and have drawn the conclusion that - it’s clearly an iPhone event (and not an iPod event), It’s on Tuesday the 4th at 10am in Cupertino, CA and it’s about voice recognition on the iPhone. That seems to fir with all the other rumors pretty nicely.

iPhone stuff

There’s going to be a cheaper 8G iPhone 4 (model N90A)
There’s going to be an iPhone 4S (model N94) will have CDMA GSMA HSPA+ (in other words 4G capabilities)
Really good speech recognition. Probably not on the iPhone 3Gs or earlier.

Non iPhone stuff

The iPod classic will no longer be available.
A new iPod touch possibly

Other random guesstimate....

There really might be an Apple HDTV - but it’s really dodgy ground. I’d love to think this was true, but who knows. We’ll just have to wait until tomorrow....

The far more interesting part of the announcement will be the arrival of iOS 5.

iOS 5 has loads of great new features - and as I’ve said elsewhere, since Amazon have announce the Kindle Fire - hardware isn’t where the fight is anymore. It’s moved on to content. Once more, content is king again.

If you count an OS as content, then Apple are going to do something awesome in this space. You can read about the advertised changes here: http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/

But one last minute feature that I hadn’t heard about until this week is iOS5’s new locking features - including shapes. Drag your finger in a shape to unlock the screen. Android does this already - so it’s a welcome addition.

So - 10am PST is 6pm UK time. The only absolute certainly is the tech press will still be talking about it and wondering what Apple will do next.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Catching up.....

2011-09-29T16:27:00.001Z

That’s been the summer then - although looking out the window this morning, it’s not going anywhere in a hurry. A proper Indian summer is with us in the UK but it’s a rubbish excuse for not blogging. I have no-one to blame but myself. So what’s been going on ?....

Well - workwise, Pooh and I have got to the end of our run with the Big American company that needed Starfleet’s help. We think we’ve helped and everyone (including the Big American company) seem to be quite happy with what we’ve done. We haven’t really p!ssed anyone off and signatures are on the relevant pieces of paper to prove it.

Talking of signatures on paper - I’ve collected three in the last month that I’m particularly pleased about. One is (to be fair a digital one) from my UK departmental lead, who agree’s that I’m a good guy really and anyone who said otherwise was wrong in the past - so actually I’m worth hanging on to. That’s nice to know.

The second is from my UK bosses, bosses, boss which says thanks very much for your help, and the third one is from the overall commander of Starfleet (Mr very very important - and extremely influential - although not quite so well known as Steve Jobs) who says congratulations on being here still after 25 years! 25 YEARS!??!?! REALLY!??

In reality - I haven’t been here for 25 years - although I have been here for 10 - and I find that scary enough. The way employment law works in europe, means that should you transfer from one company to another as part of a take-over or outsourcing agreement, your service up until that point all counts as service with your new employer.

I’ve had three interviews for jobs in my whole career - but only the first one was as an unknown. The other two were internal interviews. That's how good I am. They all want to keep me really. :-) I’ve worked for five different companies in that time (so that’s an average of one every 5 years) and they’ve all been related to each other in one way or another. Basically, it went like this: a take-over, a promotion, a promotion, a merger, an outsource which all adds up to 25 years.

I got a great pen. :-)

Now - armed with my new pen - Pooh and I are all set to run off a new adventure, which is just around the corner. We’re just fending off the remnants of the old one, but there’s really not a lot left now. Who knows what delights await us - but I’m sure some of them won’t be too delightful.

Outside of the work-o-sphere, I’ve had a couple of weeks off (one of the other benefits of being around for so long, is that for this year only I get 35 days vacation - so I have to crowbar it in where I can).

Me and Mrs G went down to Swanage for a week to stay in a lovely little cottage by the sea. Swanage is a quaint old seaside town - rather stuck somewhere in the end of the 50’s and 60’s in places, while a few businesses are trying to drag it into the new century. To be honest, I wish, they’d mostly leave it be. The old pubs and fish and chip shops, hark back to a time when summer holidays meant sandcastles and fish and chips and not airplanes and overcrowded hotels. Proper english in a traditional way. Sticks of rock and “kiss me quick” hats - all that sort of stuff. Lovely.

[[posterous-content:pid___4]]

We had great weather for a week so late in the year and had a great time too. I’d particularly recommend the Globe pub as one of the most traditional I’ve been into in a while.

[[posterous-content:pid___0]]

Daughter also had a holiday - and jetted off with her mates to the Canary Islands for a week, only to come back with a georgous looking tan. Pah!

The second week was spent at home in the rain. Not quite so much fun, but I did get a few little jobs done that needed doing, including the reframing of a few photos that I’d been meaning to sort out for ages. Very happy with the result.

Then we’ve had a trip to the Rugby to see good old Gloucester kick it out of Bath. That was fun - if a little too much imbibing.

[[posterous-content:pid___3]]

My next big trip is only a week or so away now too. This time it’s golf - with the lads in sunny Spain. I’m sure Mrs G isn’t over the moon on one hand, because we’ve not been abroad for any proper sunshine this year, but on the other hand, she’ll be glad to have some space to herself for a week without me - and we are planning on doing something a bit more special in the new year. Not decided exactly what yet - but it’s on the cards.

SO there we go - a bit caught up. I don’t want this to be huge - so I’ll limit my tech news comment - which is vast - to another post. If you’re interested I’ll be blathering about Facebook, Google+, the iPhone 5 (or lack thereof) and the Kindle Fire (and others). But that’s for the next post.

Glad to be back - stay safe - and keep calm and carry on.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

More truths.... (Tag: Dilbert)

2011-09-25T07:24:00.001Z

This seems in line with my experience.... Apart from the raise of course. No such thing at Starfleet.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

The trouble is, it's a known truth...

2011-09-10T07:36:00.001Z

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Diaspora is coming.....

2011-09-08T20:03:00.001Z

Dear Stuart Allen -
Thanks for your interest in being part of the Diaspora* community. You may not have heard from us in a while, but we’ve been working hard, head-down. We’ve built the first stage of a new social web, one better than what’s out there today: a place where each of us owns our own information, where each person controls his or her own privacy, where no-one is a product, and where we all control our own destinies.
We’re sending out alpha invitations now, as quickly as we can. If you haven’t gotten yours yet, you will receive it by the end of October.
There's been big news in the social networking world recently, and we can't help but be pleased with the impact our work has had on two of the biggest developments. We're proud that Google+ imitated one of our core features, aspects, with their circles. And now Facebook is at last moving in the right direction with user control over privacy, a move spurred not just by Google+, but more fundamentally by you and thousands of other donors, as well as hundreds of thousands of people who've lined up to try Diaspora* -- that is, by all of us who've stood up to say "there has to be a better way." We're making a difference already.
And aspects is just one of the many ways we're pioneering the future of the social web.
Here's a quick preview of some of the other ways:

We'll make the social web more fun than it is today.

Our distributed design gives you the security of owning your own identity and data.

This also gives you the freedom to do what you want online.

Our ecosystem provides the commons, the connective tissue for an evolving social web.

We're not gatekeepers, so our ecosystem will always support the latest apps.

We’ll tell you a little more about each of these points in the weeks ahead.
And we’ll keep working to get your alpha invitation to you just as quickly as we can.
Until then, thanks again for your interest in Diaspora*.
Sincerely,
- Maxwell, Daniel, Ilya, Sarah, Yosem and Peter
The Diaspora* team
Thursday, September 8th, 2011

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

The most dangerous website in the world...

2011-09-06T08:24:00.001Z

Now, I've warned you. This place could suck up a lot of your free time.... look away now... no, honestly - don't go near it!.. it's a TRAP!

http://9gag.com/

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

The ultimate video of pure data visualization

2011-09-05T20:30:00.001Z

Awesome..um..ness

The ultimate video of pure data visualization

While everyone is jumping with excitement over data visualization these days, here’s one video of Pure Data Visualization that will only have the geekiest of geeks on the edge of their seats. This pure data is an audio visual trip through the back of the binary code, and its hidden qualities: structure, logic, rhythm, redundancy and composition.

As an installation, the following video project functions like a machine to scratch the hard drives’s data content of the computer used for the installation. Artist and data geek Nicolas Maigret put the video together in Pd version 0.42.5 extended (Mac OS X Intel release). He writes:

In this video version, as a tautological process, the content of the Pure Data application is read as pure data, directly displayed as sounds and pixels. A direct immersion in the heart of data flows.

Check out the body of his work here and watch the 12 minute ultimate data vis video below:

Love data visuals? Check out voyurl and vizualize.me.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

On Set With The Avengers....

2011-09-03T22:10:00.001Z

It's been very quiet on here of late. Normal service WILL be resumed shortly. However, in the meantime, this is cool.....

On Set With The Avengers [Gallery]

Check out Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey, Jr., Jeremy Renner, Stellan Skarsgard, Mark Ruffalo, and Tom Hiddleston on the set of Joss Whedon’s upcoming The Avengers. The group were filming in New York near the city’s Bethesda Fountain in Central Park.

[G.TDW]

Related posts:

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

There and Back again....

2011-08-17T07:38:00.001Z

Not really posted much in the last week. Not that I have had the connectivity to do so, but more that I have had the available cycles of time to get to it.

It's been a very long, tough and enjoyable week. Setting off at the crack of dawn last Sunday for Newark, then on to Boston, Massachusetts. Being five hours behind your body clock is hard your well being, does nothing for your concentration, or your sleep patterns and digestive system. Throw into that tasty, fatty food and you've got a recipe for a tired fat bloke in no time at all.

2.30pm local time was 7.30pm in my head so by 9pm (2am real time) I was crashing fast. The problem with that though is my body clock is all to ready to wake me up at 7am (real time), 2am (local). Not where you want to be when you have an 8am (local) meeting coming up. It's not a new problem, but it's still a painful one that lasts for about 3 days. Just in time to be travelling back home again.

You'd hope on the return leg you might get some sleep on a shortend overnight flight - but that's all down to who you're sat next to. Needless to say, that wasn't my luck and it resulted in me spending the best part of 24 hours asleep once I finally arrived back in blighty. Bye bye weekend.

In short - Jet Lag sucks.... That said, it's worth it for the broadened horizons that the travel itself brings.

If you're going to the Boston area in the not too distant future, here's a few things I'd point you at to keep things interesting. The Hotel Marlowe in Cambridge, is not your regular hotel. It's pet friendly, so you can take your dog along, but if you've arrived without "pet" you can ask for a Goldfish to accompany you on your stay. Now I know the Badman has mentioned this, but it really is quite a sight to behold and even if they're all "with guest" when you arrive, it's worth reserving one just for the enjoyment of an indepth discussion on "Fishbowl Adventures"

Worth a visit, is the "Top of the Hub". This is a restaurant on the 59th floor of the Prutential Tower in downtown Boston. While the food and drink are both excellent, it's the view that really makes this spot outstanding. Highly recommended if you want to get your bearings and understand some of the layout of the place.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Also, Quincy Market & Fenuiel Hall. A great spot for breakfast before the obligatory shopping. Walking distance from downtown Boston and right by the docks. I had half an hour here on my way out to the airport, just wish I'd had more time. Some beautifully restored buildngs and unusually for America, some actual history. Buildings made of Brick?? Whatever next?

See the full gallery on Posterous

Finally, no visit to Boston is complete without a bottle of "Sam Adams", locally brewed beer named after local hero and founder of the revolution Mr Samuel Adams himself.

It's a beautiful city. Very green and fit & healthy with running being the defacto sport. Not filled with the characature "fat" Americans, but a lot more students and the like. Surprising given the size and range of portions of food on offer - which is the same all over the US.

In summary a hard working and fun week both at the same time.

So now it's back to the grindstone in good old blighty. I'm over the lag and helping sort out such fun subjects as LEA's, Global Rate cards, and disengaging from an engagement that's got it's claws in me. Clearly I should have taken a leaf out of Pooh's book and gone on holiday. ;-)

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Lit-Fest lineup

2011-08-10T10:16:00.001Z

Just while I'm away (and not on the subject of "pre-organised" riots), I saw this story on the BBC News And wanted to share....

** Lit-Fest reveals ambitious lineup **
Stars including Christopher Lee, Joanna Lumley and Johnny Vegas are to appear at this year's Cheltenham Literature Festival.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

6ix times Se7en

2011-08-07T20:28:00.001Z

It's becoming a strange and interesting and generally very enjoyable year. It started badly mind you.

I've been working in this job for almost 10 years. I've been working in this field since I left school, so that'll be 25 years this year (showing my age - more on that in a moment). My career is 5 years longer in the tooth than Uncle Tim's world wide web, and almost the same age as the Internet itself. In this time, I have firmly come to believe in what I refer to as "the rule of 7's". What this seems to mean is that my life is tied to a 7-year cycle. Let me explain....

I don't recall what the major events in my life at the age of 7 and at 14 were, but I have no doubt that they existed.

Perhaps if I believed in re-incarnation, 7 years might be the point that the memories from my previous lifespan are finally blanked from this one. After-all, historically there have been many examples of children reportedly having knowledge of events before their birth that they could only know if they'd experienced them first hand. I do remember at some point seeing a documentary about a young boy, possibly around 4 or 5 years old, living in India I think, who had very vivid visions (or you might say memories) of his life as a young adult and even how he had died - a road accident if I remember correctly.

Perhaps 7 years is just where we get to make our choices... To take a path.. I don't know. I'm merely surmising and I can see how it maps to my life thus far. There may be nothing in it, or it might be the meaning of life.

Douglas Adams had the meaning of life defined as "42". That is the answer. Interesting that he should choose a number directly devisable by 7, but let's not get carried away - probably just a coincidence - if you believe in that kind of thing.

Where was I? So 7 and 14 or 1976 and 1983, just to really give it away. I don't know what the "thing" was there, but at 21 (1990) I was promoted - well I was noticed - and I made the rash decision to get married. So began a new chapter. Time passed and all was relatively well in my world.

And then, 7 years later at 28 (1997), I got divorced and began my fourth chapter. Once again it involved a change of job (although not career) and I travelled the northern hemisphere until settling (mostly) for London.

At 35 it was all change again for chapter 5. An "agreement" meant that I joined the company I now work for and I had been in the same role since day one - a period of, you guessed it, 7 years. 2004 was also the year that I met the beautiful Mrs G. We got married in 2005 and I really am as happy as I could ever hope to be. I'm sure I annoy her intensely at times, but this is the way of things. I don't doubt her and she doesn't doubt me, even if I don't always remember to put the washing on the line. :D

Now, those of you that can add up will be aware that this year - 2011 - marks my 42nd year on board spaceship mother earth and so, if there's anything to my theory, the beginning of chapter 6.

Sure enough a change if job is where it's all been at so far this year. I've not travelled outside of the country with work since 35 And here I am 36,000 feet up in the air in a tin can on my way to the good ole' U S of A on a business trip. If you'd told me this was going to happen 12 months ago, I'd have said you were mad.

At the end of last year I was really not enjoying where my career was. It was ugly work. Work that didn't inspire me or make me want to get out of bed in the morning. Not a happy place to be. I started looking around for something new. I had a couple of "irons in the fire" as the saying goes and this opportunity came up internally. A generally similar role - but a different department.

I threw caution to the wind and applied and was accepted. Just to really finish me off in the previous role, a nameless sole really stuck the boot in on my way out of the door. I'm over it, and it taught me a lesson in trust.

More importantly I've started chapter 6 and so far it is without doubt - in the parlance of our times - awesome. Who knows what will happen when I turn 49 (2018) assuming I get that far, but it's bound to be fun finding out. For the time being I have 9 years of not being on the cemetery side of semi century, which will happen in chapter 7 and there's bound to be more velocity and less verbosity, from here on in.

Just to round off this rather self indulgent and pretentious post... I'm in Boston for a week. I have much to listen to and some to do. A presentation in front of 180 folks. I'm daunted and excited at the same time. I've done it before, back in chapter 4 so I'm sure I can do it again. I've also got a shopping list from daughter, Mrs G might miss me :D, and Pooh and his clan are on a well deserved holiday - so everything must be right with the world....

Until next time. Stay safe, have fun.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Keeping up with the kids..

2011-08-03T07:35:00.001Z

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Lion Streaming and a name by any other name....

2011-08-02T14:35:00.001Z

First of all, streaming TV & Movies from OSX Lion to Apple TV (or apparently a Mac Mini, and probably anything else)….

I have an iMac which hosts my iTunes library on my home WiFi LAN. This has an external HDD that contains all the media files and usually streams quite happily across the LAN to my first generation Apple TV in the living room. This setup has worked flawlessly for the past 3 or 4 years and all well and good.

Since I’ve upgraded to OS X Lion, this hasn’t been quite so smooth. In fact, any video streamed to the Apple TV seems to stutter and requires re-buffering every minute or so, making watching it almost impossible. In short – it’s become a useless brick.

Now, after some digging, reading of log files and testing of suggestions it appears I’ve found the culprit, who is none other than our good old desktop search friend “Spotlight”. It appears that the spotlight indexing process is constantly mounting and unmounting the external HDD. This in turn means that the content is unavailable to iTunes and thus un-streamable to the Apple TV. Apple TV attempts to re-read the data which forces a mount of the HDD and all is well again until spotlight unmounts it again – about 30 seconds later.

The solution (for now) seems to be to switch of indexing of the external HDD. This can be done via System Preferences -> Spotlight -> Privacy and specifically excluding the drive (or drives). Once that’s done, a quick reboot and everything is working as it should do. I’m sure this is a short term fix until the wizards at Apple fix the problem with spotlight – but at least my ATV isn’t just a brick anymore.

I’m also considering an upgrade to a second generation Apple TV during my forthcoming US trip – but time will tell.

Now, on to my second point today…. A name… Finally I’ve been suspended from Google+ for using my very well know nickname instead of my real name. Seriously quite annoying. This means the only way for me to continue using G+ is to come clean. Very disappointing, but such is the way of things….. What I can’t understand is why this is so important to Google? As I’ve said before, outside of work, everyone but everyone knows me as Golfy (or Golfyball if you’re not into the whole brevity thing).

I’m sure that one day, when G+ is truly opened to the masses I’ll be able to go back to my more well known name – but for now – I am who I am who am I ?

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

The Countryside in View.....

2011-08-01T12:35:00.001Z

A most enjoyable weekend has brought me back round to Monday. Sure enough, on Saturday Mrs G, Daughter and I hopped on the bus (Gus) into Chelter's.

Now, I'm all for a bit of enterprise, but this particular scheme is starting to niggle at me a little. What I'm referring to is something that happened back in the mid nineties. There was an art installation that travelled the world called the "Cow Parade". The idea is that these cows would appear in your local city and local artists would then decorate them, to express themsleves in whatever way they felt like doing. All good stuff, and I do love a clever piece of art, which this most certainly was when it was called "Land in Sicht"* and it was original.

However, since then it's spawned all sorts of copies. There has been at least Pig, Donkey and Lion Parade's. Bristol currently has a Gorilla Parade, and now Cheltenham Town council have joined the bandwagon - or should that be parade? The thing is - I'm all for the art - that's great, but when they're auctioned off at the end - two things occur to me... 1) Who in thier right mind would want a fibreglass pig / donkey / lion / gorilla / horse etc... and 2) Who's getting the money ? I mean I know it says "for Charity" but that's a rather generic all encompassing way of saying "for good stuff", just not what good stuff.

Anyway - there's 10 of them in Cheltenham (Horses, obviously) and they're around until October. They actually look great, but I wonder what they'll achieve, if anything...

See the full gallery on Posterous

Cheltenham is a grand place to spend a Saturday (or any day for that matter) and it was a beautiful warm summer's day with greenery and finery in equal amounts. We took advantage of the outdoor dining climate and bought everything we needed over the space of a couple of hours.

See the full gallery on Posterous

We also had to nip across to Gloucester though (thanks to the 94 - beautifully equipped public transport) because the O2 shop had run out of micro-SIM cards for Mrs G's new iPhone. I chewed my arm over the decision to buy it for a while. Obviously the iPhone 5 will land within the next two months, so I was very much on the fence about the whole thing. In the end, it was just easier to get her upgraded for free now, rather than have to fork out (which is bound to be the situation) in a couple of months time for a phone that I'll want more than she will.... probably.... enough! I'm starting to sound like a fan-boy now... LoL.

Sunday saw us back in the saddle - and this time for seven and a half miles up and down the river to get to the "far away" Sainsbury's. There was no need to cycle that far, other than "it's good for us" and so it is. It was also a fun way to spend an hour, so all good. It did mean we were dead on our feet yesterday afternoon though - and swing bridges aside - sleep beckoned.

This week holds all sorts of fun in advance of my trip over the atlantic.

Take care.

* "Land in Sicht" started in Switzerland and roughly translates to "Countryside in View"

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Legs of lead

2011-07-30T08:39:00.001Z

Last night saw Daughter and I take a ride out to Tesco's. (other supermarkets are available)

That in itself is nothing to really make a noise about, but we didn't take the most direct route. She didn't go to the Gym yesterday and so needed the exercise. I, on the other hand, never go to the gym and always need the exercise. I'm out of practice and it really showed. I thought I was going to die on two separate occasions. I didn't and I know it was actually very good for me, but it hurts at the time. So what would normally have been a gentle 2 miles of flat cycling was actually more like 10 miles up hill and down dale. It also served to remind me how badly I need to get a proper bike and not one made of bambooicite.

After 20 minutes of recovery time, I cooked up a spledid quorn based chilli, caught up with corrie (its the law) and finally got to finish watching "Battle: LA" which is a guilty pleasure of a movie. It's not clever, but it is big and dumb and enjoyable. If you want to know what its about, you just need to see the cover art on the DVD and that pretty much tells it all.

Great in a really bad way - 7/10.

This morning, I'm not sure if I can feel my legs. So rather than rest and recover, naturally I need to trapse around town in search of odds and sods for the American trip. Mrs G, daughter and I have decided on a ride on the bus (public transport is always entertaining) into Chelter's. I'm after updating the 'business casual' look and Mrs G is hopefully going to get an iPhone upgrade to a White 4. But we'll see. I'm not a huge fan of retail opportunities but for once I'm actually looking forward to it.

There's a take-out coffee with my name on it.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

US Finance + LoL CaTz made me make this...

2011-07-29T12:53:00.001Z

Base photo credit should read "JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images"

Not sure where the Cat came from - but thank you whoever you are…..

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Expired...

2011-07-28T10:50:00.001Z

We appear to have arrived at what can only be described as ... Thursday.

Not quite true I suppose. It could be described as many many different things. The New Friday, for example, or perhaps "Just past the middle of the week". This particular Thursday could also be considered "Flaming Hot!" for that is what it is. Being a Brit of course the weather is at the forefront of my mind and is the beginnings of most conversation. While this might sound like a myth, or perhaps a nostalgic view of the english, surprisingly it is also true and a fact to boot.

In short it is a Thursday in the summer which would normaly mean cold and wet, but is in fact unusually and correctly both hot and dry. Nice.

Yesterday included a trip to a Starfleet office to spend some time with the Badman and prepare for our various handovers. The first of these will be taking place next Tuesday somewhere in the Southern part of England. The other's will be happening the following week somewhere in the Eastern part of America. So that's that stuff....

In preparation for the US piece I had to renew my US Travel Authorisation which nowadays is all done online (ETSA: https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/ ). Gone are the days of filling in a green card on the plane just before you land, and gone are the days of it being free. You pay 14 dollars (some of that money goes to promote US travel) to be permitted to enter the US and it's valid for two years. Interestingly, none of that happens the other way around. In the UK we derive no revenue from visitors at the border in this way. I note the Welsh do though ( http://www.severnbridge.co.uk/toll_prices.shtml ) ... :-)

What's more interesting though is the fact that the ETSA is only valid for two years and without a reminder you could easily show up at a US airport, only to have to fly home again. Be warned.

But hang about - it seems that everything relating to travel now has much short expiration dates attached to it, so if you're planning on leaving the front door of your house anytime soon - check these three just in case:

Passport: Only valid for 10 years now. A "One day" renewal is about £130 quid.
EHIC Card: Only valid for 5 years. The "European Health Insurance Card" covers EU citizens anywhere in the EU for state-managed hospital treatment. ( https://www.ehic.org.uk/ )
Driving Licence: Only valid for 10 years. Since it changed to a photo card, you have to renew them every 10 years, or you can pay a £1000 fine. Your choice. It'll cost you 20 quid to update it.

It's all abit of a con. A nice way for government departments to make just a bit more money out of us - as if they didn't get enough already, but this is the world we live in. Feel free to write to your MP and see where that gets you. Let me know how it works out.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

I met this guy...

2011-07-26T07:40:00.001Z

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Stuffed & Mounted

2011-07-24T11:45:00.001Z

Of course with a title such as the one above, the regular reader might think I was about to refer to the neliphunt that Pooh and I have caught. Read on...

Oh, Em and might I even venture, Gee - to use the vernacular. I was doing fine wandering between the various stalls, laden with delights from all across the country. The odd dipp of an oil, or the snippet of some cheese. A square of chocolate, a snifter of vodka and so on and so forth. And then we espied the Cider and the Sausages.....

See the full gallery on Posterous

Actually, in truth we skipped the cider. We were after all "on our bikes" and thus in charge of a vehicle on her majesty's highway - and besides, we'd already been at the vodka.... and the brandy... But the sausages in a bap - I should have walked away. I should have mustered up the strength to say "No thankyou" but it wasn't to be.

"Two of those tasty looking things please!" I was heard to say. A nice perch on the fake lawn and 30 minutes later I was quite literally "Stuffed". All that remained to be done was clamber aboard our trusty steeds and cycle home - thus "Mounted".

See what I did there?

...and on the way we had to pass Gloucester's latest piece of Street Sculpture, which appears to be some sort of tower, not too dissimilar to the rusty needle that they've already built, but this time without rust... and a bit fatter... I wonder what it "means" ?

Happy Days.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Lions & Tigers & Bears, Oh My.....

2011-07-23T10:03:00.001Z

Those of you with a keen ear, will recognise the line from the Wizard of Oz, and one thing is for certain, this most definetly isn't Kansas anymore, by which I mean, things have changed.....

If you've been paying attention, you'll know that Winnie-the-Pooh and I have been on a great adventure. High up the hill above the village, we've seen woodland creatures of all shapes and sizes and we've run-off from the hedgerow in search of that mystic and majestic beast - the neliphunt. For our (sort of) first expedition, you'd expect this to be a ramshackle mess of a journey with nothing going right and everything going wrong. In truth, this hasn't quite been the case. There have been moments of danger, but generally speaking all has gone very well. So it comes as a great surprise to all and sundry about, that we have actually caught us an neliphunt which is as I speak locked up in Pooh's cellar while we decide what to do with it. I may have said too much already - although anyone with half a brain and a google search box might be able to figure it out.

We both need a bit of a rest ofter all the excitement, (Pooh probably more than I as he's had to patiently ignore my obvious observations and listen to my less obvious one's with apparant interest) so he will be off to the New World for a break, while I have the "Change is as good as a rest" option, to cover for him while he's gone. Luckily for me, the cover means I too, will get to see the New World by way of a handover. I think this means I'll have to be sharing the tusks with our cousins, but so far that's not being made very clear. It's been 4 years since I've been across the pond. I'm both daunted (Not sure how I'll get on with tusks in customs) and very much looking forward to it. While I'm not in love with it, I do realy quite like America.... a lot.... But that's in the future....

Our friends of the fruit - Mr Jobs & co, have unleashed Lion upon us. Now, me being a tigger (and tigger's are wonderful things) I'm not in the least bit daunted.

Many apple folks of old have warned that being an early adopter can cause pain - and having been an early adopter of technology for many years, I am all to aware of that fact. I only have to think of the agony of a failed recording of Coronation Street thanks to Microsoft's Media Center glitches to bring it all flooding back. Personally, I wasn't the least bit worried about a missed episode - but hell hath no fury... as the saying goes.

Still, unpreturbed - or perhaps that should be unhindered by hindsight - I was amongst the first to hand over my 20quid to download the latest offering for the App Store. A very interesting move by Apple to have walked away from traditional methods of software distribution. This is a first for such a major OS, and not something I could imagine MS doing (given their control freakery). Besides, MS probably want to justify the extortionate prices they charge - but what do I know?

So how did it go? Is my mac now a quivering jumled up mess of bits all over the floor, failing to boot up and awaiting new drivers for some piece of hardware I've owned for 5 years without any problems ??? (See MS Upgrades elsewhere for more on that). Of course not. It's awesome. And it's encouraged me to spend a further sixty quid with them on a magic touchpad. Now that my firends, is some darn clever marketing.

My interation with the OS is now all swipes and hand gestures (no, not that one) - and it really does feel surprsingly natural. Pinching and zooming (just like the iPad, iPhon and iPod) is great, and a two fingured swipe to the right while web browsing is the most natural back button in the world. I'm suitably impressed. On top of that, the full screen apps make great use of my desktop real estate and the whole system feels snappy and smart.

So - no pain at all??? Well, one thing - and it's a tiny one. Internally on my home network, I run a web server to share various things - and after upgrade - I wasn't able to get this working again. At this precise moment I still haven't figured it out - but that's due entirely to having to work for a living and not being able to procrastinate all day long. I'm sure I'll have it sorted on Sunday. I am tempted to take the "clean install" approach, just because upgrades are known for doing the unexpected. I'll give it some thought.

Google+ is also with us, and I've prattled about it here already. The iOS app arrived this week, which you can pick up here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google/id447119634?mt=8 . If you haven't got on it yet - it's up to 20million users now (in about 3 weeks - it took Facebook three years to do that) and I'd highly recommend that you become one of them: http://plus.google.com. Feel free to add http://gplus.to/golfyball to one of your circles.

Mrs G and I have had our Wedding anniversary as well - all good... Choclate and Iron. I didn't buy her an Iron as violence often hurts, and I would have been subjected to some if I had. Today however, will see us off to a food festival. and I'm starving just at the thought of it. http://www.gloucesterquaysfoodfestival.co.uk/

Toodle-pip old bean!

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Hacked off

2011-07-17T23:58:00.001Z

Ironic that tabloid newspaper journalists are known as "Hacks" (someone who is paid to write low quality, quickly put-together articles) given what's been happening of late.

With today's news of the resignation of Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14180043 )' it's all starting to get rather murky and messy. In fact given the stories of the amount of time our current prime minister has been spending in these people's company, it seems almost inevitable that he's going to have to go next...

If I was a conspiracy theorist, I might hypothesise that the appointment of Andy Coulson, followed by his resignation from the employment of number 10 some months before this all exploded again could indicate that his employer knew such revelations were coming.

Is there any other evidence to suggest that the current British government might "have it in" for the Murdoch machine?... Well there was that short lived debacle with Vince Cable and a reporter on the Daily Telegraph back in December last year. While Our Dave was cosying up to the Murdoch's it seems the other half of the coalition didn't feel quite the same way.

At first this looks like Dave has a very poor lack of judgement and Vince doesn't. But what if this was Dave's plan all along and the LibDems were his "patsy's" just in-case a paper like the telegraph might have asked the right question?

It's possible that he could have been using the media for his own ends (really?.. A prime minister? Never!) and having achieved power - albeit via a very inconclusive route - and then had to put up with News International sucking up to the coalition (they really want to own BSkyB outright) decided it's time to take it apart. I'm sure he'd hate to see another headline that read "It was the Sun what won it" unless it was a conservative win.

In short that would make him corrupt and therefore unfit for office, and a decent PM would have to go. Of course, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, and I have no evidence beyond what's in the public domain so it's all about as likely as JFK's magic bullet, or man not landing on the moon. Beyond that, I've seen Fox News... so I'm actually with Vince and in a true coalition that would mean I'm with Dave too. Hmmmmm.

One further irony here is that a person that devotes him or herself to party-political machinations is known as (you guessed it) a "Political Hack".

I can't wait for the movie, they've already done a great job on the casting....

Take care

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Cheap Flights.... 50p

2011-07-17T13:35:00.001Z

It's not ad advert, I just had to share...
Thanks Sis.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

When seals snore on the sea shore...and the Cambrian Explosion

2011-07-16T08:46:00.001Z

So it's been a little while since I posted any interesting video type stuff. In fact it's been a while since I posted any interesting stuff at all, but such is the way of things. To make up for it, here's not one, but two pieces to tickle your eyeballs and lugholes (and if you don't know what a lug hole is, you really should stay in and read more - or get out and talk to people that know)

First up.. Seals...snoring... I snorted and giggled...

And then for your musical delectation, a group by the name of "Brighter Lights, Thicker Glasses" (clever stuff) one of whom is an ex-music teacher turned science teacher. Naturally he'd write a song about the Cambrian Explosion.... Who wouldn't. And even if you're not into the science, it's a catchy tune.

Have a great weekend.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Exactly...

2011-07-15T08:18:00.010Z

Golfyball is a Blogger, Geek, Nerd & Thinker at golfyball.com and of course at Google+

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Torn and bloodied from the fight....

2011-07-12T05:53:00.001Z

....I find myself absolutely shattered. I've spent all afternoon wrestling and scrapping with the dreaded beast but to no avail. I've been unable to best it alone. In the end I needed a helping hand from pooh to finally put it to rest. It seems that my laptop just isn't powerful enough to import the final element into such a large cost case. Bloody software.

By the end of the day the weather was turning too and rather than a nice bright evening that we've been experiencing of late, it became dark and over cast and made any further painting in the kitchen impossible. You can't paint in electric light - Essex fact.

Daughter was baby sitting for Auntie S, Mrs G had corrie's to catch up with. I had a wealth of reading list to work through. As a special treat we availed burger star of a take away for dinner. It's not right, but I can justify it with the inordinate amount of cycling we've been doing of late, the condition of the kitchen and the overwhelming evidence that it is 'not McDonald's' and is made from very fresh ingredients. It was lush in a very naughty way.

Today sees me having to make a trip to the dentists. A filling. Nothing serious, just my contribution to his yacht fund I'm sure.

I'm hoping for a quieter day today, and if time permits I may try and jot down my thoughts on Google+. I'm particularly surprised at the number of tech heads who are leaving Facebook and twitter in their droves it would seem. I'm already hearing reports of several million new users to G+ in this week alone... And it's only Tuesday!

Have a great day.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Painting the town red

2011-07-11T07:44:00.001Z

A busy weekend has been had, so to fail to summarise...

A brief mention of Thursday evening, saw four of the WTC visiting Frank Whittle's pub. Cycling in the rain was worth it though, just to catch up with the lads who are consistently entertaining no matter what the circumstances.

Friday saw me landed with reviewing some work that our US cousins have been putting together. All very interesting and generally not bad. They did have (in fact still do at the moment I'm sure) a small piece missing which could cost them quite a bit of cash, so I helpfully pointed that out to them. We have a follow up meeting today (Monday), and we'll see where they've got to with it, but I suspect they'll be mostly fine for now.

This sort of work fits in just fine around the Nelefunt hunt that Pooh and I have been conducting and have nearly caught. It's a bit of a moving feast of a beast mind you, and right now we're waiting patiently for the drugs to take effect so that it might fall asleep and accidentally wake up caught. Trouble is, it's a big beasty and not sure how much of the drugs it needs to knock it out. I always vote for giving it loads, but sometimes nelefunts can sense it and will only go for smaller amounts. It's a numbers game. And a waiting game. And just for good measure, it is what it is.

We also have a new prefect at Starfleet academy. Interesting sort. Seems to go for the rule book with a vengeance. This approach is all well and good when your terraforming, or mining, not so helpful when you're exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilisations, in short, boldly going.... etc etc.... On the plus side it does provide us with ample oppertunitys to play "MBS Bingo" (the M stands for middle management).

I'm not having a pop. He's just doing his job. It's just that it's a job I could never see any appeal-to or need-of, for that matter.

Friday night brought daughter's new "fella" to dinner and what a fine upstanding chap he is. Just as long as he doesn't think he's "in". This is something that dad's with daughters have to deal with, and I am getting better at it. To be fair, this one passed the "mate" test instantly, and he does seem to be at least half sensible. Did I mention what a fine upstanding chap he is? I'd hate to have to set the bunnies or Helga on him.

Saturday. My favourite day of the week... Along with Thursday (the new Friday), oh and Friday and Sunday.... Wednesday's are alright as they're the halfway point of the working week, so I suppose that just leaves Monday and Tuesday. Can't be doing with either of them. Subject sorted. Now where was I?

Ah yes, so Saturday. First job, the return of the car. Well over a week to get the brake calliper replaced, but worth every minute of the wait. The lack of motor only really caused me any pain on Friday when I was unable to meet up with pooh, but he was very understanding about it and claimed he'd save me some huny. (I know what bears are like though.) Both Mrs G and I have done a lot of cycling this week, and thats good for everyone. As for Mickey and the motor, when it came to the bill, it was a pleasure to pay. Sometimes it really is all about "who" and not "what". With that job out of the way, reliably, Mrs G hopped on her bike to get her hair done, daughter was off to work, so I got to try out Google+ and some of it's features.

Got to tell you, I'm loving it. Finally a social networking application with some proper management built into it. It's still got a way to go, but it kicks the be-jesus out of Facebook in my humble opinion. Check it out here: http://plus.google.com

There was also some qualifying for the British GP, and then at the last minute Mrs G suggested a trip to that massive blue building with the yellow writing on it that's always jammed full of people buying furniture. Eye-Key-Ah. I have a love hate relationship with the place. Too many times have I found it over crowded, over priced and under performing. I often have to make a second trip to return something, or get another one, or a different one, so I'm not a massive fan. Having said that, on this occasion it all went swimingly. In fact rather too well. The place was practically empty and we bought a new lamp to replace the one that wasn't big enough. This one's simply perfect. Quite a shock I can tell you. Curry for dinner, fun times.
Now Sunday rolled around and with it yet more cycling. This is becoming something of a habit (albeit not a bad one, unlike the others). Last night after the Ikea trip and plenty of umping and ahhing we went and made a rash decision (something of a discomfort for a Capricorn* - us mountain goats think about it and pick a safe path). It's finally time to paint the kitchen!! Duh-duh-Daaaaaaaa!

And what colour would us safe path treading mountain goat types choose? Blue? White? Some sort of Beige possibly? .... Not a bit of it.... Classic Red (just like the pillar boxes). Was I nervous about applying loaded brush to wall? Oh yes. And am I happy with the result.... Mostly, very. One thing I've learned about red paint, unlike White, if you apply even the tiniest drop to the wrong place it looks like a murder has taken place. Smudged red is messy. Bloody messy (pardon the pun).

So the short version of Sunday is like this: Bikes to B&Q, Buy Paint, Home, Empty kitchen, Prep Walls, sanding etc. Cup of tea, lunch, Watch the Grand Prix...

Which reminds me, what an awesome new camera angle that was. 400m cables suspend the "flying" camera over the track and provided some stunning pictures. http://thumbsnap.com/tLWZ8lwd It's not a new technology, being deployed in football, swimming, Indy car racing to name but three, but it's a first in F1.

Back to the schedule.... Another cup of tea, finally build up enough courage to apply paint to walls, nip out and buy more masking tape, apply tape, apply more paint, dinner (slow cooked sausage casserole) and then more paint. Finally round the evening off with a Crabbie's alcoholic ginger beer and "Sleeping with the Enemy" on Film 4 from back in 1990.

There is more painting to be done still. A second coat is required and there's a few right diddly bits, but a good 8 hours of drying is required first so I think I know what will be happening on Monday night.

All-in-all, a fine, full weekend. The near future brings more work with Americans, painting, a visitation from Wiltshire and planning for our 6th Wedding Anniversary, so for a start I need to figure out what sixth is (probably brick or something) before Mrs G tells me it's diamonds, or gold... ;-) Bless her for trying. Take care.

* actually, I'm not a Capricorn, I'm a Pyrex... That's right I was a test-tube baby.. Boom-boom.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Google+ has arrived

2011-07-09T08:06:00.001Z

Already loving circles. That one feature alone, is a vast, seriously huge, improvement over Facebook. Today I'll figure out the rest of it.... :-)

http://plus.google.com/102182856404931683867

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Google -

2011-07-07T14:10:00.001Z

Feels like a long wait when you've got a lot to do.....

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Throttling G+

2011-07-07T06:21:00.001Z

In a Google+ post, real actual Google employee Dave Besbris, engineering director of the social network, explains the throttling approach:

First, we want to make sure our infrastructure scales so the service remains fast and reliable. Second, we want to ensure that bugs are fixed while there are still a relatively few people in the field trial.
Things are going well with the systems right now so we feel comfortable enough to open up invites for a brief period. Our goal is to double the user base in the field trial. (Sorry, we're not giving details about how many folks are in the field trial yet).
So, in a few minutes, we'll open up invites again.
We continue to throttle invites, so please don't mass invite folks as it won't work. If you invite a handful of your most important friends and family you're much more likely to get these folks into our system.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Define "Frustration" in terms of Google+

2011-07-04T06:22:00.001Z

Google+ Help

Someone is sharing with me on Google+ but I can’t join. What gives?

That’s great that someone wants to share with you! And while you can check out what they wanted you to see, you can’t quite yet join Google+. Google+ is in limited Field Trial. During this time, when something is shared with you by someone on Google+, you'll receive it via email but won't be able to comment or engage with the content like other Google+ users. You'll be able to join Google+ as we let more users in over time.

In the meantime, you can poke around hereto see all the cool things that you’ll be able to do with Google+.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Toasted Wheels

2011-07-03T19:09:00.001Z

That was unexpected. Not at all part of the plan.

Saturday rolled around and Mrs G and I cycled to town to do a couple of little jobs. It was a beautifully warm day and no sign of any rain. By lunch time we were both starving and so took a trip out the far side of the city to a new-ish place in the docks... "On Toast". You'll never guess what their main food line is of course, but it is the only one of it's kind in the country and is the home of the "Mars Bar on Toast".

I briefly considered it and then plumped for the "Hawaiian" which is actually a Ham & Pineapple toasted sandwich. Mrs G had the Canadian which is Brie & Cranberry by mistake. The owner misheard the order and graciously replaced it with Brie & Bacon on his second attempt. Free refills on the coffee and a great seat looking over the docks makes this the perfect little snack shack and I have no doubt when they launch it as a franchise it'll crop up everywhere and be gratefully received.

On the way home I suggested a quick look in "Go Outdoors" which is like B&Q for out-doorsy people. Tents, Boots, coats, rucksacks, fishing gear, climbing gear and bikes to name just a handful of their offerings. What I wasn't expecting to do was buy another bike, but that's what happened.

You may recall that I bought a couple of bikes a few months ago, one for Mrs G and one for myself. Now somehow or other daughter has pretty much commandeered Mrs G's wheels and so Mrs G often either takes mine or ends up walking. Well, this just won't do really, so now she has her own - or will do once it's ready - and very pleased about that she is too.

Sunday has seen a visitation from cousin P with G, K and little A (or Boo as she's referred to). Daughter has become her new best friend, which was very funny and very cute, unlike Barney who is clearly no longer a child friendly cat. He is "of an age" and doesn't enjoy being prodded or poked any more.

Granny and W joined us all for lunch and Granny had planned to be home in time for the Wimbledon Men's Final. She likes a good natter, almost as much as she likes tennis (although there is nothing, and I mean nothing that she loves as much as tennis). He nattering resulted in her not leaving in time and having to suffer the glory of the Final in Full HD. She was very comfortable with it and we were all (except Mrs G - who physically detests the game) happy with the result. Well done Djokovic. Nice job.

There were a couple of emails but nothing too demanding, so the work situation is definitely on the wain. Monday sees me handing back the tennis related job (which I'd barely started, but this is the way of resource management) and trying - and failing - to reduce our costs for Pooh and I's big adventure.

Fun times.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

A Social Invitation to Google Plus

2011-07-02T09:12:00.001Z

If ever there was a way to put the kiss of death on a new Social Network site, then surely it must be for me to blog about it. So I apologise in advance to Google. I didn't want to kill your shiny new social network, but you made me do it.

What am I blathering about? Well if you haven't heard yet, Google are in the process of launching Google+ (http://plus.google.com). By my reckoning this will be their third crack at the social network Market, or fourth if you include the 'never-saw-the-light-of-day', GoogleMe. They tried with Buzz and they tried with Wave both of which were...OK.... But neither of which killed Facebook.

When they launched GoogleMail back in 2004, those of us that were lucky enough to get an invite (and that meant a gmail.com address - as opposed to a googlemail.co.uk address) were able to invite our friends to join. These invites became so sought after that people started selling them on eBay, such was the demand for a new email service. It appears that a similar situation might be arising with Google+. Sure enough, invites to what will surely become known as G+, are available on eBay for around 75USD. This is the very strange world that we live in.

The problem with trying to kick Facebook where it hurts is gaining momentum in the first place. Giving access to a select few is fine for Beta testing, but when you add in invites, you open yourself to a whole other level of trouble. Your invited early adopter will sign up and login and find no-one else in there to socialise with. A few of them might even write reviews sharing how underwhelmed they are by it all, and before you know it, G+ will have gone the way of Wave. Sort of defeats the whole idea of a Social Network.

From my perspective I hope they open it up to the rest of us as quickly as possible. I want to see it do well. As I've said many times before, I'm sick of the lack of control within Facebook, both for the end user and from it's apparent developers. The sooner a viable alternative is available the better.

Back in the real world.... Today will see cycling (still no car) and possibly the purchase of a magic touch pad for my mac in preparation for OSX Lion which will land in the next couple of weeks. Lion with include a whole load of hand gestures to it's revamped, iOS like interface, and so a touchpad will be the perfect compliment. Having worked all the hour god sends lately, I think I can justify a new bit of kit.

Daughter has recovered from her tonsillitis, and that means she's speaking again, or more realistically she's demanding again. I wouldn't want her any other way.

One final rant, and this one is for the Post Office. What a bunch of thieving @&£)(:/:£)@&;/'s

Mrs G bought a lamp (25 quid and a fiver postage and packing). Sadly when it arrived, it was just that little bit too small, and didn't look right. Fair enough. A return. Re-boxed in it's original packaging and off to the post office.

"The cheapest recorded delivery please" says I, to the nice lady behind the counter.
"That'll be £9.72, please" says she, with a perfectly straight face.
"Surely you jest" says I, "9 and three quarters of our best English pounds just to send a lamp that I received for half that cost? There must be sum (sic) mistake?"
"I'm sorry sir, but first class recorded delivery for 2.15kilograms is £9.72"
The penny dropped and I replied, "ah ha. I see your mistake. You've selected first class, when for the purposes of a return parcel, second class will more than suffice. A simple change I'm sure, my good lady"
But to my horror she went on to declare "because your parcel weighs more than 1kilogram, it cannot be sent by second class"

Now, I'm a fairly simple man, but pray do tell me, what the FECK! has the weight of the parcel got to do with what class it can be sent as? I don't care if you stick on the back of a donkey, or in a wheel barrow or strap it to the shells of a heard of snails, as long as it gets there. There's no rush, and it doesn't need to be presented on a red velvet cushion with gold braiding. I was of a mind to break the dam thing in two as you can imagine. I'd almost be better off keeping it and selling it at a car boot sale for a tenner. In the end we've given the post office 15 quid and have nothing to show for it. Mugged.

With that, I'm off to open an account with DHL in my local staples. It's got to be cheaper, but what pains me is it's stories like this that will be the death of the once great Royal Mail. Greedy fudge-wits.

Have a great weekend.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

New Balls Please...

2011-06-30T12:32:00.002Z

Thursday and what needs to get done?

The car is still at Mickey's (he's not a mouse for those of you wondering) awaiting a brake calliper. Experience tells me it may be there for the weekend as this particular type of calliper is manufactured by the same people that make hen's teeth and rocking horse sh!t, but as we've recently learned - whatever (or 'It is what it is' if you're not into the whole brevity thing) As much as it's in theory a hindrance not to have the car at my beck and call, it's also very enlightening. The weather is warm so Mrs G doesn't object to cycling to work and of course it is good for her.

On the work front, Pooh and I are nearing the end of the heavy phase of our adventure with the baseball player (see: This book, not that it will clarify anything for most of you). This means we have time to reflect you would think, but not a bit of it. There's another piece of work involving tennis that urgently needs attention and I'm allegedly the man to attend to it.

It's a piece that has to be priced, approved and with the customer in 5 working days, and that is the first problem. Ironically it's being led not by anyone in the UK or US but by a bunch of cowboys for whom the word 'communication' doesn't have a passport, so there's our second problem. The third problem is that everything that is known about the story so far is held in the head of a person who is off sick and a database that I don't currently have access to.

That's about the size of it. I'm squarely in the frame for the unachievable. To quote Detective Inspector Derek Grim of Gasforth Police station "My arse is on the line and I don't want a cock up!"

I may exaggerate slightly. After all, we're all aware that "You can only do what you can with information available" and "Whatever" (see above re: brevity). Ultimately I know I'll have support from the other members of my team should it be required - if only the cowboys would stop with the re-fried beans and get on with the cattle rustling.

An early morning call with our antipodean cousins confirms all this frustration. All is not well, but "we are where we are" :-)

Next job is a haircut, so with no car that means 10 minutes on the bike to get it sorted. Normally this would be 20 minutes in and trim and out, but I hadn't taken into account the lazy, slovenly, over-holidaying teachers who are up in arms because their loosing some of their pensions. I'm sympathetic to most cases of the little guy being screwed over by "the man" but not this time. Public sector: Welcome to my world. I had this pain last year and no-one in public service gave a flying-fig. I think there was a question in parliament that got generally ignored so why should I care now you're suffering the same fate? In fact I celebrate the fact that we're all on a more even keel (apart from the stinking rich who are far to busy not paying taxes to be interested).

To return to my point. I'm now sat in the barbers waiting room with half a dozen screaming kids who aren't getting the education this country so badly needs them to get so that we can increase our lead in innovation and invention which will fix our economic issues such that we wont need to cut pensions in the future. As it is, the teachers are helping us breed a bunch of kids who's lack of qualifications will make them perfect to work in manufacturing, just not in this country - more likely here: http://www.shanghai-tennis.com/

In summary, I suspect the future of teaching in this country is heading in a similar direction to the miners and the steelworkers, so at some point we'll have outsourced edu-macation to foreign climes as well. In the mean time, you might like to encourage your uneducated kids to learn chinese while you still can.
Back home post hair cut and cycling (chinese manufactured bike, by the way) and I see from the email on my (chinese manufactured) laptop that chief sh!tting bull is no nearer answering any question of import and that I am basically faced with a crock of cack to try and fix. My predecessor to this job, as it transpires, has done a sterling job up to now, but the current demands are unreasonable. God knows what CSB has been smoking in that peace pipe.
This is a scary moment for me, being the first deal of any size that I'm sort-of running on my own.... It's OK. This year has taught me to embrace fear, laugh in the face of adversity and tweak the nose of death. In short, I have new balls thankyou. Might need new trousers (preferably not from China) at the moment though. ;-)

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

For Pooh... Part 2

2011-06-30T07:24:00.001Z

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

I just love whiteboards....

2011-06-29T22:10:00.001Z

They're remarkable.

Sorry.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

For Pooh...

2011-06-29T07:14:00.001Z

BTW: It seems the dropped call thing happens to iPhones in the US. (Must be an AT&T thing)

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Stuff wot I was teached and dun...

2011-06-27T08:00:00.002Z

Finally, Pooh and I have turned a corner (there may of been a house on it) and from here on in, setting aside the constant drip of workload that will still exist, it should be bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.

At some point there will be a session of "Lessons Learned" where we'll have the opportunity to record for posterity some of the interesting things that have happened to us along our journey. Our adventures have been many and varied with all sorts of twists and turns and ditches and hedgerows and brooks and briers and even the odd coppice on the edge of the 100 acre wood. Pooh got to see the O-shun from a very great hight. I'm told the O-shun is like the widest part of the stream but much much wider. Pooh's great adventure above it meant he was far higher than he ever reached while dangling from a balloon. I counted a lot of beans... Not just some, but a lot. It's been eventful.

With all this in mind I've decided to note down a few of our more enigmatic learnings whilst on our big adventure for Ee-ore to read, once Owl has taught him how. Here they are in no particular order....

"What Pooh Said" "Tigger told me to say that"
"If you turn the telescope around, the Nelifunt looks like a small squirrel"
"It is what it is" "We are where we are"
"Apart from the chocolates, the bier, the mannequin de pis, the Atomium and the homeland of Hercule Poirot, what have the Belgians ever done for us?"
"I must just go out to the garage to collect some 'equipment' "
"Are we on a hiding to nothing up a blind alley chasing wild geese?"
"Give us a stroke of your lucky po-tay-toe"
Special thanks should go to the wheel brothers, Alloys and Wooden, for turning around so quickly.

...enough... those lessons are really only any good for a very small minority audience. And when I say small, I mean under 5'5" ;-)

In other news... The weekend came and went in a long, sultry, hot and sweaty sort of way, and very nice it was to. Let's just rewind to Thursday, which was the last day anything appeared here.

Thursday night was a game of twilight golf - 15quid for 18 holes, but that does mean you have to get a shift on to get all 18 in before you loose the daylight. Four of us tried (Sniffer, Stan, Bampy & me), and we failed, due mostly to the fact that we couldn't start until gone 5.30 because we all have jobs that require attention, but we did manage a good 12, or near enough and then a quick bite to eat and a couple of beers to wash it down in a local hostelry. All of which meant it was a Thursday that felt like a Saturday.

Friday was as Friday does - but I did spend part of the wet and damp evening deliberately not watching U2 at Glastonbury on the telly, because as much as I have enjoyed their music in the past, I'm a bit fed of them to tell the truth. That said, Coldplay, on Saturday, which I did see, were awesome. Satur-DAY involved cycling to the city, helping Son locate he best Pound to Euro exchange rate, ordering a new window blind and giggling and pointing at daughter in her "Where's Wally" outfit for her fancy dress night out. Fun times.

Then finally on Sunday it was wall-to-wall summertime with heat and sunshine like we haven't had since April. (I know!! April... What was all that about?). Sunday's heat was far more intense than April's though. So much so, that Mrs G managed to pop the heat detection system on her iPhone. Not sure it's made a full recovery yet, so be warned. Don't leave them sitting in direct sunlight for more than 10 minutes...

And what do you need on the hottest day of the year? A slap up roast beef dinner. It was well worth the sweating and toiling, although my gravy making skills need practice, and my usually perfect roasters, weren't quite right. Ah well... next time.

So here we are again at a Monday. And what does the week have in store?? It appears that the car has to have an MOT and as part of that job I usually get it serviced to, so the first job once 9am rolls around will be to call Mickey to see when he can do it. No, stupidly, I looked at the paperwork proper on Saturday, and have discovered it needs to be completed by Wednesday, This might present me with a problem or two, but let's see what happens.

I pray for the day that manufactures make vehicles so reliable that the MOT becomes obsolete. It does my nut in. Not least because it's a legal requirement that doesn't have auto-reminding documentation unlike insurance and road tax, both of which badger you plenty of time in advance of their deadlines. I've lost count of the number of times I've gone.. "hmmm, I'm sure the car MOT must be due soon?? Oh tomorrow??? really??? Oh bugger!". I realise that I should just be more organised and write it in a diary or an automatic email notification, but there it is. For some mental-block reason, I don't....

Tuesday should be a trip to the Starfleet offices (MOT dependant). I dare not try and look any further into the future than that. I might see something I like.
Have fun.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

It occurs to me that...

2011-06-23T08:58:00.001Z

Statistics is a mean subject.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Helga and Section J

2011-06-21T08:32:00.004Z

You might recall that in an earlier post I described the layout of Golfy's Office and how it's cunningly disgused as a roundabout when it is, in point of fact a hollowed out volcano.

Those of you that read the details will also be aware it's policed by a crack team of rabbits (sometimes flabbits) known as Section B (Bunnies). Those that have visited the base will also have encountered Helga and the team of Section J.

Now, this is a tip top secret undercover lair-cum-base that no-one but no-one is aware of. It's existence is consistently denied by all in a position to do so, and it appears as a completely non-descript roundabout even on Google maps!

See here:

View Larger Map

The volcano is long extinct and as it's so small (on the surface) attracts little or no attention from geologists. We did have a couple try to have a nose around a few years ago. They make fine statues in the throne room since they've been frozen in carbonite. Most fitting for geology students I thought.
To all intents and purposes and to the outsider looking in - it is nothing more than a bland roundabout with a couple of rabbits on it. Nothing to see here. Move along please....

So, you can imagine my disappointment when I hear from Number 3 that Helga has a new sideline going. It turns out that she and the other members of Section J (Juicy) have started making and selling orange juice using my old schmelting verks!! Such treachory is unknown......

but I might let it pass....

I mean really!? What's an evil egotist to do with his plans for world domination when faced with such tasty beverages.

This post originally appeared here.

Herding Cats...

2011-06-21T07:30:00.001Z

It never fails to disturb me at just how accurate Dilbert can be...

This post originally appeared here.

Dog Day Afternoon

2011-06-19T22:37:00.001Z

It seems I've done a great job of failing to write anything at all on here since Wednesday. As tomorrow is Monday (again) that's pretty damn poor on my part and I can only but appologise to you dear reader.

The reason is simple. Haven't had spare brain cycles to even think about it - let alone do it. Even with the weekend here, it's just been non-stop and itisstill quite a shock to me that monday is literally 30 minutes away.

So Badman and I have been really hard at it. In point of fact, I'm not sure I can rememebr the last time I worked as hard as I have this year. But it's been strangely satisfying and while it's not over, it's changing tack and I find myself still looking forward to whatever the next challenge we have will be. We've sent a package to our cousins in the New World which they seem to be broadly pleased with. We have some more europeans to satisfy in a final round of "Is this alright then, or what?" which will be taking place on Tuesday and then it's all down to the New World and no doubt yet more european agreement - which seems to be the thing that we have to collect most often.

While all that's been going on, back in the real world Mrs G and I took a trip down to sunny Wiltshire to visit with Mr Ball senior and wish him a happy father's day. No sign of sister ball, so I'll be trying to track her down this week, but granny ball - "Oh I'm fine! I have to be. I don't have much choice!" was in fine form, as was auntie M ball.

We journeyed with the in-laws, both of whom were also in high spirits which was most enjoyable after the last 6 months. W's treatment has finished and he seems to be recovering well and of course with next week being Wimbledon, Mrs G senior is in her element. Such a major fan, that Mrs G swears that she and her sister used to go unfed in their youth for two weeks every summer.

The Senior ball's were also looking after "Mutley" (a close friends dog) who really is a lovely hound. Sadly Mrs G isn't a doggy person - we are a cat houshold - and to be fair dogs are far more of a tie than cats are, but when you spend time with a dog like Mutley, it's hard not to think it would be nice to have a fella like that around.

I had a Bassett Hound in my younger days, and I still miss him. But then Barney and Boo keep us busy enough, and if I can't get my schedule organised well enough to write in my blog, I could hardly be trusted with a dog.

Having said that, daughter is house and dog sitting for Auntie S - and I think she's angling for a hound to join the cats....

It'll never happen.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Too much...

2011-06-15T06:10:00.001Z

...coffee and brain function, not enough switching off and relaxing results in screwed up sleep pattern. Screwed up sleep pattern will in theory result in poor performance just when high performance is needed most....

Something may be wrong with this business model.

Having said that, I'm an unusual individual in that I often perform well when you wouldn't necessarily expect it. On this occasion I am pretty knackered though - so let's see what happens. Wish me luck. Once more into the breach dear friends, once more.... Oh, and stay away from the caffeine today I think.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

The Longest Day

2011-06-14T08:01:00.002Z

What a great movie that was. The last great WWII movie until Saving Private Ryan some say. It features some of hollywood's (and Ealing's) biggest names as well, with the likes of John Wayne, Richard Burton, Henry Fonda, Roddy McDowall, Robert Mitchum, Kenneth Moore, Leslie Philips, George Seagal, Rod Steiger, Richard Todd, Robert Wagner and not forgetting Sean Connery.

It tells the story of the D-Day landings and the allies re-taking mainland europe from the Germans at the end of the second world war. It's extremeley ambitious and an all round great piece of work. If you like a classic war movie, and if you've got a wet Sunday afternoon to spare - I can't think of many better ways of spending it, than watching this. But that's not the reason for this post's title.

The 21st of June is the summer soltice, or the Longest Day of the year. In London, sunrise will be around 4.42am and sunset around 9.20pm. It says here:

On this day, the earth's "circle of illumination" will be from the Arctic Circle on the far side of the earth (in relation to the sun) to the Antarctic Circle on the near side of the earth. The equator receives twelve hours of daylight, there's 24 hours of daylight at the North Pole and areas north of 66°30' N, and there's 24 hours of darkness at the South Pole and areas south of 66°30' S.
June 20-21 is start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere but simultaneously the start of winter in the Southern Hemisphere. It's also the longest day of sunlight for places in the Northern Hemisphere and the shortest day for cities south of the equator.
However, June 20-21 is not the day when the sun rises earliest in the morning nor when it sets latest at night. The date of earliest sunrise or sunset varies from location to location.

All very interesting is a geographical and physicistical sort of way, but again this is not the reason for this post's title.

So, to put you out of your misery... well, at least to get to the point via a round about sort of educational mess.... The longest day in this context is referring to the work that the Winnie (the badman) and I have been putting in over the last few days. Neither of us have had what you might consider a day off in the usual sense of the word and infact we both have been working some extraordeinary hours in the pursuit of completion of the task we have at hand.

On Friday we made what we both felt was significant progress by getting the monster approved for european consumption. No mean feat when you consider the trouble the EU have been having with cucumbers of late, let alone the sort of fare that we're peddaling. Sadly though, this is no time to be sitting back on our laurels of achievement and eating peeled grapes. Far from it. There is still much to do.

We need our cousins from the New World to agree to our terms, we need to scrub and polish and shine our product, we need to try out some, what-if, what-buts and what-wherefors, as well as some this, that and the others. And then, after all that's done (assuming it can be done of course), we'll have to go round all our European friends again and collect their autographs.

But before any of that - our most pressing problem is a gap. It's a rather large gap too. It's not the sort of gap that Winnie and I might have created by not bolting somethig together properly. It's more the sort of gap you might get between say England and Australia.... well, perhaps England and Belgium might be nearer the (deutsch-)mark / Euro / Pound / Dollar etc etc....

Whatever happens, it's going to be yet another long, long day....

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Sleep statistics for Monday

2011-06-14T05:27:00.002Z

Went to bed / woke up: 23:00 / 06:20
Total time: 7h 20m. Basically, what feels like not enough.

This analysis was made by the fascinating Sleep Cycle iPhone app. I'm not sure being well informed about my poor sleep pattern will make me a better sleeper but it does make me well informed about my tiredness.

Here's my sleep graph for the entire night:

A sad state of affairs... But there it is. Up and at 'em and on the road to a Starfleet office again. Those of you wondering why it's been so quiet here of late, rest assured all will be revealed in good time. Busy busy busy...

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Lullabye

2011-06-10T17:26:00.001Z

Cold mailman - Time is of the essence from André Chocron on Vimeo.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Zzz.. Zzz..

2011-06-09T07:11:00.001Z

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

iOS Apps

2011-06-05T21:23:00.000Z

I only have two things to say on the subject of current work at Starfleet....
Firstly this:

And secondly, this:

"When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it."

Now, to more geekery.
Tomorrow (Monday) is WWDC day!! WooHoo! Rumour has it, we're going to hear about iOS5, OSX Lion, iCloud and all sorts of other fun stuff.
Recently I was asked for a list of iPhone apps by a friend of mine for his newly acquired gadget. Whats good and has longevity? At least, that was the question I answered, even if wasn't quite worded that way. In the end, the list is actually quite useful, so here for you delectation(and with apologies in advance to the non apple fans) is Golfy's list of really quite good apps for the iPhone (and an additional few for the iPad)... Enjoy...
Base Apps
This is the stuff that currently lives on my home screen and gets all the usage. That space is some very valuable real-estate..

BBC News News stories by geographical region. News by category including business, technology, entertainment and sport. News in other languages including Spanish, Russian and Arabic Video including one minute news summaries to keep you informed on the go. You can also personalise the app to suit your interests and download content for offline browsing
TomTom TomTom’s patented mapping and routing intelligence is at the core of the TomTom App. TomTom is known the world over for the accuracy and extensive coverage of its maps. TomTom maps have been rated highest in terms of quality and reliability. No mobile signal or data plan is required to browse your map and navigate to your destination. And, only TomTom offers IQ Routes, which evaluates routes based on actual traffic speeds rather than posted speed limits, and recommends the fastest route based on the time of the day.
TV Guide TVguide.co.uk, the UK’s number one TV listings website, brings you a FREE smart and sexy application that allows you to see what’s on now and next, at one glance. If you prefer, there’s also the option of a full day’s listings on one screen. Check out programmes for all channels on Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat. Not only that, TVGuide.co.uk comes with its own special features, including alerts, catch-up and options to share your favourites TV shows with friends
Wikipanion (although to be fair, I pretty much just Google for wiki entries now). Accessing Wikipedia has never been faster and easier than with Wikipanion, designed for easy, search, navigation and display of Wikipedia entries. Streamline your browsing with history grouped by visit date, and bookmarking that not only bookmarks individual entries, but individual sections within an entry.
Tweetbot Tweetbot is a full-featured iPhone (and iPod touch) Twitter client with a lot of personality. Whether it’s the meticulously-crafted interface, sounds & animation, or features like multiple timelines & smart gestures, there’s a lot to love about Tweetbot.
Instagram 3.75 Million users love Instagram! It's a free, fun, and simple way to make and share gorgeous photos on your iPhone. Pick from one of several gorgeous filtered effects or tilt-shift blur to breathe a new life into your mobile photos. Transform everyday moments into works of art you'll want to share with friends and family. Share your photos in a simple photo stream with friends to see - and follow your friends' photos with the click of a single button. Every day you open up Instagram, you'll see new photos from your closest friends, and creative people from around the world.

The Best of the Rest.....
Blogging BlogPress, Posterous, Pages
Checkin Foursquare, Gowalla
News Sky News, NewsRack
Weather Outside, Met Office
TV&Movies TVCatchup URL: http://www.tvcatchup.com, BBC iPlayer, IMDb Flixster
Music Shazam, TuneIn Radio, Last.fm
Sport Sky Sports News, Sky Sports Football, PremRugby, ECB Cricket, Racing Post, Golfshot GPS
Shopping Shopper, VoucherCloud, Tesco Finder, eBay, Groupon
Travel MiPermit, PetrolPrices, TravelNews, London Tube, thetrainline, Priority Club, Trip Advisor
Phone Skype, Yell.com
Photo iMovie, PS Express, Diptic, Flickr, Photo synth, PhotoSync
Money Natwest, PayPal, Numbers
GPS Tools AroundMe, Glympse, Latitude
Books Kindle, iBooks
Geekery BTFon, WiFi Track, Speed Test, VNC, i-nigma, LinkedIn
and finally for MobileMe users - who are about to join the iCloud (allegedly)....
Apple Geekery iDisk Gallery Remote Find iPhone

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Curiouser and curiouser

2011-06-02T12:56:00.001Z

Odd sort of day today. I seem to be developing some sort of late 19th century childern's author theme in here... if it's not A.A.Milne it's J.M.Barrie or C.L.Dodgson (Lewis Carroll by any other name), but it all makes sense somewhere...

First of all, Winnie (The Badman) and Me had planned on having a bit of a picnic at a local Starfleet office. A couple of the woodland folk would be there and we need to deal with two main tasks (although in truth there are about 40 tasks that need fixing). I digress.

These two tasks are in the form of planning for next week - which is only a couple of days away already and writing. Specifically writing "Document of Understanding" which is a very grand way of saying "List of demands". Things along the lines of "We'll do this, but if we need some stuff to do it, that you haven't told us about, then you'll have to pay for said stuff" and so and so forth. It's all very entertaining in a non-entertaining way.

The other thing we were going for - apart from moral support for eachother in our hour of need - is to wave a fond farewell to Al. Al has been inspirational in a very unasuming sort of way, and he's been hereabouts for a good number of years. So many years in fact, that he's decided the time has come* to pack it all up as a bad job and go and live his life rather than work it. Good call if you ask me, and I'm sure we all wish we could do the same.

Still, like the best laid plans of mice and men, all of that's gone to pot. Turns out that there's been a turn of events at the office that have rendered it closed to all but the essential woodlanders, and me and Pooh are apparently not that. I'm not slightly bothered about not being there to do the planning and writing - we can do that from pretty much anywhere. I am however, most upset about not being able to thank Al for the influence he's had on me in the last 6-8 months. I'm acutely aware that I owe him a debt, and I hope I get to thank him properly in-person in the future.

In the end, what had started off as a rough day with a sad but delightful lunch break just turned into a very rough day with a constant battering of conference calls interjected with requests for help with this, that and the other, as well as who's, why's, what's and wherefors... Fun times.

*
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Horrible Hairy Hardships

2011-06-01T15:29:00.002Z

It's getting rough now. Me and Pooh have been expecting it, but it's always worse than you think it's going to be.

We have compressed timelines, which create stressed out employees trying to make things happen in a very short space of time.

We also have far less information that we'd like at this stage which also creates stressed out employees who aren't certain of the thing that they're trying to make happen in a very short space of time.

Furthermore we have lots of people that need to agree and approve the work that the other woodland creatures and myself and Pooh are putting forward. This leads to (surprise surprise) stressed out employees who are trying to pursuade their leaders to trust and believe in the thing they're not certain of, but are trying to make happen in a very short space of time.

Finally we have people working on this from all four (really only four??) corners of the globe and probably all seven of the seas, so we end up working all the hours that are physically available in a day just so that we can fully understand what we're doing and then try and pursuade our leaders to trust and believe in the thing that we're not certain of, but are trying to make happen in a very short space of time.

Needless to say, as two small stuffed animals, we're taking a pasting. But we have a theory that actually what we're paid for - is to take a pasting, and the rest of it is just window dressing.

We live in a very very strange wibbly wobbly world, that has long days and short nights. Here we go then... Second star to the right, and straight on till morning.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous

Hard Cheese

2011-05-31T07:15:00.000Z

A look out the window at 8am and it was immediately obvious that unless there was going to be some major change in the weather, we wouldn't be trudging up Cooper's Hill to witness the Cheee Rolling.

Some of you will be aware that it wasn't actually supposed to be happening anyway. Officially it had been cancelled for various admistrative reasons most of which are clouded and confused by rumour and conjecture to such a point that no-one really knows what's going on at all. In all honesty, that's probably for the best. (I mean that no-one knows what's going on, not that it's cancelled - that's a travesty)

It's an example of an event that is a victim of it's own success and it's own geography. 8 or 9 years ago it might have attracted 2000 visitors to the hill and all was well with that. A local tradition for local people. The year before last there were an estimated 15,000 that invaded the place and it was utter chaos as well as downright dangerous. The space that is Cooper's Hill just simply isn't large enough to cope with those numbers. Worse still are the numbers of people that show up in cars looking for a car park, which there simply is not.

All in all, given the weather conditions and the hoo-ha, we decided to give it a miss. It was that nasty out there that you'd have to be really hardcore to stick with it... more of a Parmesan roll, than a Double Gloucester. No doubt, when we have a really warm year, it'll be a Brie. However, in the mean time here's a few photos from recent years of the chaos which might help you understand some of the problem.

See the full gallery on Posterous

And just to round things off nicely - a couple of video's so you can see the pain inflicted on others that you've missed.

Cheese_Rolling_2008_02.AVI Watch on Posterous

Cheese_Rolling_2009.AVI Watch on Posterous

It saddens me greatly, not to have been there, as I am a real fan of the event and the traditionalism of it, but I guess this will make it all the more enjoyable next year. There is a report and some decent photos of the 2011 version which you can read here: anorak.co.uk Congratulations again to the living legend that is Chris Anderson. Incidentally, his sister works in the same office as Mrs G. Small world.

This post originally appeared here: Posterous