Secret Life of Cats

Sometimes you get just a hint of what they get up to when you are not around...

Boxing Day at the relatives...

Really must try and see them more than once a year...

Internet Security...

Now it is a tricky issue, keeping all your details secure online. There are passwords, numbers, memorable details and other things to remember.

Take the Abbey credit card as an example. To log onto the Internet based service, the user must provide: their 16 digit card number; an 8 digit security number (with no two numbers repeated sequentially); an 8 digit Internet ID; and just to make sure important transactions are safe, there is an additional 8 digit personal password to remember.

Now, one of the basic rules of passwords is to not write them down. But how is anyone supposed to remember all these without writing down at least some of them!

It must be up to the service provide to find the balance between data items that are knowable only to the person using the service, and data items that it is impossible of impractical to memorise.

And it is great to compare this with their telephone service, where to carry out the same transactions, all you need is your name, address, card number and date of birth...!

Separated at Birth...

I just happen to think that Mr Dermot 'X-Factor' O'Leary whilst being one of the best DJs on Radio at the moment looks just a little bit like Mr. Benn without his hat on...

Drives and Linux...

Note to self... to mount a floppy drive:

su
mkdir /mnt/floppy
mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
umount /mnt/floppy

Political Honeymoon (Part II)...

In the end, we got home exactly as planned: a flight from Krabi to Bangkok, a couple of hours at the airport there, and an onward flight to Heathrow, bags checked all the way there.

So was it worth all the unease, a couple of 20 minute conversations with Eva Air in Taiwan and the contingency plans B, C, D and E that we came up with but never put into play?

Well, we were extremely lucky: there was a huge queue at Bangkok of people hoping to get onto flights home, who we really felt for. We were fortunate that everything was back in operation that day: ours was the first morning flight out from Krabi to Bangkok and if we would have been travelling the day before, we'd have been on the overnight bus. And it was fantastic that the Suvarnabhumi Airport authorities managed to get things back to normal operation so quickly after they gained control of the airport, especially as there had been fears that this could take weeks.

So for us, it all ended well, and we were so glad we managed the complete stay at the last hotel as planned, as it was by far the best of an excellent holiday/ honeymoon...

Political Honeymoon...

We missed getting stuck at Bangkok airport by a matter of hours when the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) overtook it on Tuesday 25th November. Since then we have had an interesting wait whilst we try and find out how and when we could get home.

First all flights were cancelled indefinitely; then some were going from U-Tapeo, a military airbase 150km outside of Bangkok, although we weren't sure if this included ours and thus when we would be able to get home. Now we know our flight is going from Bangkok as planned, but instead of the easy transfer flight from Krabi on the day, we are not sure if we will need to leave a night early and get an overnight bus so that we can make the check-in that is currently taking place at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC) rather than at the airport.

Theoretically it is great: you get to stay in Thailand indefinitely, a wonderful and beautiful place with huge amounts to see and do. But we have a real life we need to get back to, and not knowing how things will work out means we have had trouble creating alternate plans and working out the when and wheres. This hasn't led to stress exactly, but more to an uneasiness over the last week or so.

We get to make our final decisions on what to do tomorrow morning: a one hour flight or a twelv hour bus ride. It has been an interesting honeymoon at least...

Cycling in the Rain...

The worst thing about cycling in the rain isn't the wet hair, wet shoes or wet trouser hems where they stick from my waterproof trousers. It isn't even the appalling waterproof fashions I have to wear.

For me, it is having to cycle without my glasses: it's either not see as they are covered in rain, or not see as they are safely tucked away in my pocket...

At least it is only a short cycle ride...

ipod #2 (ipod Ginger)...

 

My old, but trusty ipod has finally given up with what looks like a  hard drive fault; there is a lot of noise, but not much going on. So I have decided that a new machine is in order.

My 20Gb machine was full but given that I only listen to a fraction of it, I have decided to be selective and get a sleek new 8Gb solid state ipod Nano which so far, looks superb. The whole 'shake to shuffle' function looks like a bit of a gimmick, but it looks good, sounds good, and I'm looking forward to taking it on holiday...!

A Wash Out...

Interesting coverage of this year's OMM (Original Mountain Marathon) in the press, including the usual finger-pointing exercise to blame someone as the weather in Borrowdale turned truly atrocious.

But there have equally been some excellent retorts. The BBC 'everyone is a journalist so send us your stories' pages contain almost unanimous support of the organisers and and excellent article here argues eloquently that risk is the whole point of the sport. The best quote is this:

'I have yet to speak to a single competitor who felt that he or she had been the victim of an emergency. "You'd have loved it, Richard," one of them told me. "Incredibly violent conditions – but a true test of mountaincraft."'

Just Deserts...

I didn't get round to it at the time, but it was fantastic to see Elbow win the Mercury Music Prize. They are obviously a firm favourite of mine, and of course the jealous music snob wishes they would return to obscurity where I can claim to have known of them forever...

But it was fantastic to see them, drunk, absolutely over the moon and in complete disarray, amazed that they had won. They deserved it.  It is great to see such fantastic songwriting and musicianship rewarded and it is even better to see it appreciated by those it is awarded to. Long may they continue...

0.31831mm ...

Is the change in diameter of my Wedding Ring, which has gone from a 55mm inside circumference to 54mm: not a huge change, but one which has made it much more comfortable to wear. I missed it for three weeks, but it was worth the wait...

Back to the '80s...

Apparently Keane went to Berlin to record their new album, and it feels like they may have accidentally travelled through time to get there, as their new album feels stuck very definitely in the '80s.

But that said, it is growing on me, especially track 3 (which also has a nice hint of banjo unless I am very much mistaken). In the olden days I would have known the song name from the LP sleeve, but with the advent of the CD, I only know the track numbers...

Never Believe the Newspapers...

Doctor Who producer calls Prince of Wales a 'miserable swine'

I was there, and this is factually correct, he did. But in a humorous offhand way, not in a serious straightforward quotable way. In no way did we take him to mean it seriously as in the way it was reported.

It's funny, but when journalists report on something you know about, be it an event you were at, or something technical like engineering, they so often get it wrong that you have to wonder about everything else you read in the press...

What's in a Name...

Just been to en excellent talk with Russell T.Davies and John Barrowman as part of the Cheltenham Literature festival. An excellent and entertaining talk by two really engaging characters, which did get camp at some points (as it was bound to), prompting W to point out that there were going to be some interesting parental discussions going on tonight...

The last question was from a little girl who asked if we would ever get to know the real name of Dr. Who, to which Russell replied...

"Yes, It's Keith..."

Sound Investments (part 2)...

Well I wasn't the only one to be drawn in by good Icelandic savings rates: turns out that a lot of local councils were too. My measly amount doesn't sound too bad when you compare it to their £1billion+. Interesting times...

Sound Investments...

I am beginning to regret putting my cash into an ISA from a new Icelandic bank that offered a very good rate of interest...

"We are not currently processing any deposits or any withdrawal requests through our Icesave internet accounts. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our customers. We hope to provide you with more information shortly."

Just a Ring...

I really miss my wedding ring! It's been gone 10 days n0w to be resized, as it felt too loose and uncomfortable. But now I'd rather have it uncomfortable than not at all: I've only been wearing it a couple of weeks, but I can really feel it missing at the moment. Hopefully, only a couple of days to go...

In praise of the Ekranoplan...

There has just been an article by James May on TV about the Ekranoplan, which as an engineer I find fascinating. The whole ground effect aerodynamics is interesting enough, but add to that the secrecy with which it was developed in the closed city of Nizhny Novgorod, and for how long the secrecy was maintained, and it is an amazing story.

This image is taken from Google Earth   just outside of Kaspiysk.

Linux Frustrations...

Now I like it, don't get me wrong, and I've used it quite a lot over the years. But configuring Linux can be a real nightmare. I have been trying for days to switch XDMCP on in Fedora 9. The most useful documentation I have found is the GNOME Display Manager Reference Manual because looking at the task list I can tell that it is GDM that is running by default, even when I try and switch to KDE.

But despite amending loads of files, trying various combinations of settings, switching firewalls on and off, that is it. I admit defeat! I just wanted a nice remote desktop to run my machine with. But I will have to make do with a Putty connection through Xming. Not as pretty, but at least it works reliably...!

GSV Lasting Damage...

One of the great things about the Culture novels by Iain Banks is the names given to the enormously powerful ships.

And the web being as it is, has a full list on fount of all knowledge Wikipedia.

Two of my favourites is the General Systems Vehicle 'Of Course I Still Love You' and the GSV 'No More Mr Nice Guy'. Great names...

Blue Screen of Death...

Just found a bizarre little screensaver, downloadable from Microsoft itself which mimics the feared blue screen followed by a restart. Not sure I want it on my PC, but it can be found here...

But a really great clock screensaver can be found here, created  by a guy called Simon Heys. Simple, stylish and currently my new screen saver...

Generosity...

The stuff from our wedding gift list came yesterday. People have been incredibly generous, it is really absolutely superb! The only thing is that we probably now need a bigger house to fit it all in...

We owe an awful lot of thank you's ...

Installing Fedora...

Thought I'd give it a go. So here are the instructions, just for when I cock it all up and have to repeat...

• Make a boot disk, downloading an image from: ftp://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/9/Fedora/i386/os/images/boot.iso
• Boot the PC from CD and when asked, state that you'll download the files from a mirror site URL. Two that appear to be suitable are: ftp://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/distributions/fedora/linux/releases/9/Fedora/i386/os/ and ftp://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/9/Fedora/i386/os/
• Wait until Stage2 downloads... ... ... ...

From there on in, it is pretty straightforward (being careful of the partitioning choices of course). It does take a while to download and install, so it is probably worth kicking it off, getting a pizza and watching a film... but I now have Fedora 9 installed, which is good...!

Storms Over the Ardèche...

If I ever write a thriller, a Mills and Boon, or a made for TV movie, this is what it will be called. Lovely place, very easy to get lost though, so if you go walking around the gorges, make sure you take a map...!

Relationships...

I can't remember who said it yesterday, but these days you are not officially married until you change your Facebook profile...

The Little Things...

• Getting a card from your beloved on the morning of your wedding: so thoughtful of her.
• Turning round at the front of the ceremony hall, and seeing so many smiling familiar faces.
• Seeing your beautiful bride for the first time and trying really hard not to cry.
• The surreal quality of sitting at the top table for your own wedding.

I am very tired, but incredibly happy...!

Mix Tapes...

She told me that now I needed to get rid of all those mix tapes from other, earlier women... I said yes.

Passage of Time...

My brother came up with some fantastic photos of my Mum and Dad getting married. They are great. They look so young, but they were: Dad 24, Mum 22. And there is a superb one of my Grandma and Grandad, I could only guess at the year. I don't want to post them here, but here is a photo of the church in Philadelphia that my Grandma used to go to back in the 1930's when she worked over there. I ended up visiting the place 70 years later on a business trip. I wonder how it had changed...

Helvetica...

A really interesting documentary about the impact the (according to the experts) of the near perfect font on the world of design. The font of corporate America, the ubiquitous boring font of too many designs, or a clear clean font that doesn't colour or the message as other fonts can: take your pick.

Not available on Windows though: we only have Arial, which (according to the experts) is simply and inferior clone ...!

Chrome...

A rather interesting comic talking about how to develop a browser can be found here. Especially when they start talking about unit testing, automated UI testing, threading, garbage collection, sandboxing, compilation vs interpretation and all sorts of fun stuff. Must have a look at the new browser...

Stags and Headaches...

Fantastic night last night, some pub food, a few beers, a dodgy club and some excellent company. What a great bunch of guys: Ant, Paul, Matthew, John, Gary, Andy, Andy, Craig, Fabien, Dave, Simon and John. And only two weeks to go now...

I Want to Ride My...

Shiny new bike. I really like it a lot (though this may wear off when I have to cycle to work in the rain)...!

Anti-Sociable...

I really am more of a party guest than a host: good at chat, banter, not getting off with the host's girlfriend (though I have been known to spill the odd drink). But being responsible for creating an atmosphere for guests and friends to enjoy, just leads to endless worry...

And hosting a wedding and stag type event just magnifies that in a big way. Stupid given the fact that people attend because they really want to, and even more stupid given the fact that I absolutely love the company of friends I don't get to see them as often as I would like. But who said these things were ever logical...

However, at this point, with only three weeks to go, I am now really looking forward to the day, and one of the reasons is because of all these people who are coming along. It is really fantastic and I am really more happy than I would care to let on ...

Photographic Memory...

I haven't got one, as such... it's just I seem to be good at remembering photographs and images. I sometimes struggle to remember the place, the people, the time; but I can almost instantly recall a photograph was taken at that instant.

And yes, we see the same image more times than we see the real life event, but I can remember an image after seeing it just once. Having never discussed this with anyone, I don't know if this is common or just me... ... ...

A gratuitous (and easily memorised) image:

Who You Gonna Call...

Not exactly babysitting, but I ended up looking after my 10 year old nephew-in-law unsupervised (me not him) for the first time on Tuesday. We watched Ghostbusters, a film, as a child of the '80's I loved and he did too!

So that forms the excuse for a host of new and (more importantly) old PG rated films to look out for and watch. This list will be updated, but your starter for 10 is...

• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
• War Games
• Tron
• The Black Hole
• Flight of the Navigator
• Time Bandits
• The Dark Crystal
• Gremlins
• Condorman
• One of our Dinosaurs is Missing
• Digby the Biggest Dog in the World

He may yet be too young for The Breakfast Club, but keep it in the Back Pocket ready...

"When an Unstoppable Force Meets an Immoveable Object..."

An excellent film...! It presented some really interesting moral dilemmas and the downhill spiral that The Joker's philosophy presented was intense. Half way through I thought 'but this isn't as good as the first one', but in the end I think I shall have to think again...

 

 

And of course,  the unstoppable force, immoveable object question as posed by the joker is also posed in the Iain Banks novel Walking on Glass which is a very fine book. I'm not sure I really understood what was going on in the end, but sometimes that isn't always necessary: it is enjoying what is going on whilst you get there...

Poetry please...

My new favourite book of poems (although I admit I've not had many). Hovis Presley passed away in 2005 only aged 44, but has left a fantastic book of inspired poetry that deserves reading.

"Grounds for Divorce..." ?

Is is wrong to want to play this thumping great song by Elbow at the disco of your wedding?

Thinking about it, it's probably not really appropriate...

Eureka...

This is one of the few albums I have owned first on cassette (remember them?), then vinyl, and now CD. It is the album I have probably listened to the most number of times in my life, and listening to it again today it is still every bit as good. I remember all the subtleties, can hum the guitar breaks, everything. And the lyrics are great:

And then you turned to me on the big wheel
and said marry me
I closed my eyes threw my head back and said
what comes next?

I remember listening to it almost daily at the age of 18 on my way to work; periodically through University as new music got in the way; and now occasionally, just to remember just how great it is.

It is fantastic to see Boo is still around (and to see Neil playing recently with David Gray), and now I have found someone else who appreciates this fantastic music, I'm looking forward to seeing him live again soon...

"Lets go to Brighton for the Weekend..."

A top weekend with friends: too many for the Frenchman's one bedroomed flat, so camping in a field with the facilities consisting of a tap was the accommodation. It did mean that an excellent fire could be built though...

And then extending the weekend with a tour of the area was cut a short due to rain, but we stayed at Ye Olde Smugglers Inne on Sunday night in the very pleasant little village of Alfriston which was great: especially good was waking on a monday morning knowing you don't have to go to work...

ps. the title is of course a quote from the excellent Bloc Party track Waiting for the 7.18, which I couldn't stop singing in my head all weekend...

Recovery...

A very good reason for splashing out for SanDisk Extreme III memory cards for your camera is the RescuePRO software that you get free with it. It does (very efficiently) exactly what it says on the tin, and professionally rescues all those files that you have accidentally deleted... Great stuff!

When Laminators go Bad...

Biscuits...

"My Dog Needs New Ears..."

Goldfrapp were excellent last night: her voice amazing; the songs as fine as always;the sound quality was fantastic...

Birmingham Symphony Hall is a great venue acoustically, it is just a shame that everyone is sat down. I think the bands themselves need a response from the crowd which comes easier when everyone is on there feet.

Still, sonically and especially at volume, it was hard to fault...

Viva La Vida...

Despite what some lazy journalists think, I really like the new Coldplay album, and am looking forward to seeing them live. It is funny how people get riled about music: it is only music, and generally everyone does have very different tastes. I like Coldplay, I don't like Oasis, and am not hugely keen on Blur (although I do like their later stuff). I don't like critics' favourites The White Stripes: popular but not populist maybe? And some of my favourite bands are nowhere near as successful as they should be (ref The Bible, Elbow etc). Still, in common with everyone else I can sit back and say with confidence than when it comes to music, I am right and everyone else is so very wrong...!

Protest Songs...

An excellent video for the new Coldplay single Violet Hill can be found here; an interesting montage of dancing politicians and soldiers, with the odd disconcerting image of violence thrown in.

One of the harshest songs I've come across recently is from perennial favourites Elbow and the song Snowball from the 'Help- A Day in the Life' album:

...When the pills you take
No longer help you
You're fading in your chair
And would've met him
We see the lightning
You hear the birdsong
You hear the voices you've been holding off for so long
Words around you
And then a hurricane
A hundred thousand souls
And everyone in pain
We'll come and visit you
We'll come and visit you

This is on the day that David Davis the Shadow Home Secretary resigned his seat in protest to the 42 days detention law passed by the House of Commons. It looks to be a very honourable thing to do: a show of conviction so often lacking in modern politicians, and it should be applauded. But I do have the nagging feeling it is going to perhaps backfire a little...

Trymendous...

Just spent an excellent warm summers day paddling on the River Tryweryn; a fantastic river of quality grade III/IV water that thanks to the Environment agency gets turned on at 8.00am and off at 6.30pm during the summer (though releases vary of course).

One of its advantages is the ease of multiple runs: the first to sort out any confidence issues (I always seem to go after not paddling for six months or more), and from then on, as many runs as you can until the energy runs out, hitting (or missing) as many eddies, stoppers and waves as possible.

And travelling down the night before, we camped next to a river at Ty Islaf campsite, a cheap, very basic campsite, but one that allows you to while the night away in front of a good old-fashioned campfire.

Camping and paddling: two of my favourite things...

Mathematical Commentary...

I used to enjoy reading the Comments section of newspapers. Now with the Internet, I much prefer reading the comments written by people commenting on the commentators: they generally make a lot more sense.

One such article is this by Simon Jenkins (in the Guardian), who argues that mathematics is a waste of time, whereas we need more economists and designers (who no doubt don't know any maths). He is quite rightly ridiculed, and you have to wonder why and how columnists get paid to write such rubbish.

In contrast, the always excellent Ben Goldacre in his Bad Science column (also in the Guardian) writes here amusingly about the dodgy mathematics used in a report publicising the decline in the quality of maths in Britain.

Jenkins states that Latin and Greek were more useful than his studies in Maths, and as a journalist perhaps they were, though it surely means he should never report on a story with technical, statistical or economic content. Whereas Goldacre, as a practicing doctor and a scientist, applies scientific rigour to debunk some of the reporting of science and maths by people like Jenkins, which can only be a good think in the search for more reasoned and balanced reporting...

On 'Holiday'...

For posterity, this is the note that was on the doctor's prescription for malaria tablets from when we went to Vietnam. I just love the punctuation that says so much...

Life in a Northern Town...

I do miss the place and it is great to go back there. The location is great; the scenery beautiful; and most importantly, the people are absolutely fantastic.

No regrets really about leaving: things change and sometimes it is time to move on. And I am happier with what is going on in my life these days (for obvious reasons). But mostly I miss the people. They are a fantastic bunch and I should make the effort to traverse the 160 miles more often...

Statistics...

• Rover 25 iS 16v 1.6 litres
• Owned 7 Years 5 Months 12 Days
• 130,442 miles (less the 9 or so it started with)
• Cost new £9,390
• Cost for part exchange £350(!)
• Excellent Car, liked it a lot!

UML Overload...

Recently attended a course on UML, Objected Orientated Design and Design Patterns given by John Meaney, a very nice and very knowledgeable techie guy who also happens to be a rather successful science fiction author.

So, the course was excellent and I learnt a lot, especially as the implementation is always much harder than the dry descriptions of the diagrams in text books makes out. But anyway, I think last night I dreamed of UML, which I think is taking things just a little to far...

Steve McQueen...

There is a song by the fantastic Elbow that goes:

So I'm there
Charging around with a juggernaut brow
Overdraft, speeches and deadlines to make
Cramming commitments like cats in a sack
Telephone burn and a purposeful gait
When out of a doorway the tentacles stretch
Of a song that I know
And the world moves in slow-mo

And it captures beautifully the way that music can spark a memory. Like it did today when I listened for the first time in years to Steve McQueen by Prefab Sprout. It took me straight back to the very early nineties when I first got hold of the album, a time when although as Paddy himself sings 'some things hurt more much more than cars and girls', sometimes it doesn't feel like it. The music reminded me how I felt then: not the details but the generality of the time. And it is really quite scary to think that it was nearly eighteen years ago. I still feel very young, but sometimes the figures don't reflect that...

Heated Seats...

After seven and a half years and 130,000 miles of trusty service, my good old Rover 25 1.6 iS is being retired, to be replaced with a Golf, with heated seats (and wing mirrors), climate control, leather seats... it's fantastic!

After all these years and miles, I get a grand total of £350 for it, but it has done me well...

Now where is this shiny new one...!

Word of the Week...

A very fine word... and must use behemothian more often (check the Oxford English Dictionary): if only as it confuses the spell checker.

RSS Feeds...

...are great: like them a lot. And interestingly, they can be found here:

C:\Users\Me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Feeds

Which means they can be synchronised between two computers with the rather nice Sync Toy v1.4 (though don't use v2.0 for reasons I can't remember). Must get round to setting it up one day...

Models...

Nice article about 'The computer model that once explained the British economy'. It's not a computer model really, more a collection of pipes and coloured water. But it worked, and shows (in a good engineering fashion) how models and simulations don't always have to involve a computer...

Summer...

Should be spent sitting outside bars, drinking cold beer and talking to girls. Not a bad start for a Sunday afternoon...

Pen...

Using a mouse is so old school these days...

Age...

Is a funny thing. Some numbers are more comfortable than others. This one feels just a little too big...!

35mm...

I saw these a few years ago, and had forgotten about them, until W found them on the Internet again yesterday.

Now I have my EOS 40D, I have most definitely moved to digital, but there is still a place in my heart (and more importantly my cupboards) for good old 35mm slides. And this is a fantastic way to display them.

To be fair, I haven't really had a good enough wall to put them on before now, but they are great, and maybe I shall have to look at them again...

London...

Once a year, it is great to go down to London for a weekend and sample some of what it has to offer. This year, the weekend consisted of the Tower of London (fantastic history lesson); Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre (excellent show, superbly staged); the welcome chance to catch up with some friends; and the really superb Wildlife Photographer of the year exhibition at the Natural History Museum.

We caught this at the same time last year and it is full of absolutely superb photographs from around the world. There are some really talented entrants who have spent days and weeks getting these photos in adverse conditions. But there are also fantastic photos from the UK, for me a highlight being of a bird nesting in a traffic light in Glasgow. There is also the really annoying younger age groups where ten year olds get fantastic photos of game on safari with their E0S-1D cameras, but I shall skip over this...

The inner geek in me is also delighted that most photos have the camera, lens and settings stated next to the photo, which helps to explain how the photo was obtained. But most importantly, there is a little paragraph explaining the situation in which the photo was taken. I really enjoy looking at photographs, but to me, the context in which the photo was taken is also important and can add greatly to the enjoyment of the photo: a picture of a beautiful mountain landscape is one thing, but if it is also explained that it was at the end of a tiring 3 day walk, then that adds context as to what you see.

Anyway, for me the best context was for this photo by Paul Nicklen of a seal underwater with a penguin in it's mouth. The context reads:

'From the first time I got in the water with this massive female leopard seal in Antarctica, it seemed to attempt to communicate with me. Every day, it would offer me penguins, dead and alive, like this chinstrap. When I kept refusing to eat the offerings, it looked agitated before going to get me another penguin.’

It is a weird and wonderful world out there...

Doug Walker...

Must keep up with posts, if I'm going to make them: always seem to be just a little later than is polite...

Anyway, in the middle of April I saw Doug Walker playing at a gig in town: he is a friend of a friend (though I've never met him before) and he appears to be on the verge of fame having had his record played on Radios 1 and 2 and as a result getting a fancy record contract for his troubles.

And as well as being a very nice guy (based on a 2 minute chat and the say so of aforementioned friend), his music is excellent.

It would be very nice to see him go far, sounds like he deserves it...

Tour T-Shirts...

You know you are getting just that little bit older when after a gig instead of buying a t-shirt that you would proudly wear out for the next few weeks, you end up with a very nice golfing umbrella...

At some point, it will be tour cardigans...

Holidays...

It was only a couple of months ago that we were in New Zealand. It was summer, the weather was fantastic: warm, sunny, dry. The scenery was amazing and the highlights for me included the Rob Roy glacier and the West Matukituki Valley, Mount Tongariro, the Routeburn Valley and Lake Pukaki approaching Aoraki, Mount Cook.

A couple of months back into the world of work and it is tempting to complain that we need a holiday. We don't of course, not really. It is a shame that it seems like a long time ago, like a distant memory. But, the real world beckons. And although we are home in the usual humdrum routine, it has to be said, the photos are there, the memories are great, and overall life is good...

Incompatibilities

Obviously I understand the need to ensure that different software versions are compatible, which is why it is frustrating to have spent the last three days finding out about incompatibilities with MySQL 6.0 Community Version. That is 3 days overall, having also eaten, drank, gone to work and watched Doctor Who in between you understand, not 72 hours of solid annoyance time. Still...

Having installed MySQL6.0 on localhost and installed WordPress2.5 to work with it, I noticed that some of the WordPress features weren't working as they should: you couldn't display draft posts for example. I put this down to possible WordPress issues and moved on to getting WordPress to work with the Simple Machines Forum (SMF) 1.1.4 forum using the same database (to mirror the operation of our server). It was here that I discovered that I simply couldn't get the forum to work with any MySQL database, which was odd, as I had managed to install it a while ago on my laptop. So I started to debug the PHP, and it was then that it clicked: it all worked with MySQL 5.0, but not with MySQL 6.0. Couldn't find anything on the Internet to confirm this, but a quick uninstall of 6.0 and install of 5.0 and it all works swimmingly. And both WordPress and SMF use the same database. Brilliant!! But so much hassle ...

On a related note, to install MySQL 5.0, it is necessary to install it at C:\MySQL\ rather than the path the installer suggests. Otherwise there is a whole load of pain to go through to configure it. Instead, go to C:\MySQL\bin and type 'mysqld-nt.exe --install', then 'net start mysql' and it is all up and running. That simple... And only three days work (obvious caveats apply) to get it working....!

Windows Live Writer

So you write your post here on your PC, publish it, and it gets sent to the Internet. But surely you could do all this from your browser (where you will have to check your post afterwards after all)? Yes, you don't have to sign in and out every time, and there is a very handy spell checker...

Seems quite a nice idea, whether it gets used or not is a different matter...

Possibly the Best Beer in the World...

Available only in summer in New Zealand. A good reason to visit...