Posts

bang the (ear) drum

[ Working title: Torture on a shoestring ]

A couple of weeks ago on a normal, routine Tuesday morning, I did what I do every morning; showered, prepared for work and cleaned my ears out with a cotton wool bud. As I went to leave the bathroom, I swung my arms up and around to put my dressing gown back on for the short trip down the upstairs landing.

[ This requirement to be modestly covered up follows an unfortunate incident in April 2009 when my teenage daughter had a sleepover with three friends staying over. Apparently, one poor girl can not even look at a Chipolata sausage ever again. Needless to say, I conducted my own defence and was acquitted. Again. ]

turbulence ahead

I am about to embark on migrating this blog from WordPress to Django-Mingus because I simply can’t stand the WordPress ‘Compose Post’ interface (if you can call it that).

This exciting move comes less than two weeks after I spontaneously decided to ditch Habari after the lack of a functional ‘Auto-Save’ plugin caused me to lose 17 minutes work.

You may say ‘I’m reading this in my preferred RSS reader so please don’t bother me with such minutiae’.

the one where I raped a man

Accidentally.

For the last two weeks, I have been savouring the joys of commuting into the City on South West Trains and the London underground network.

Like most large, densely populated cities, Transport for London has introduced a Smart Card system, known as Oyster, which allows ticketless travel on trains, tubes and buses.

Most modern cities in the developed world have similar smart card technology resulting in a faster, more efficient transport system with cheaper fares for passengers and reduced staffing costs at railway stations.

Wayne Rooney's World Cup diary

Tuesday 1 June

Mr. Capello announces the final squad of 23 players for the World Cup. There was the odd surprise and some devastated players as we say a tearful farewell to Huddza, Johnno, the Scott-Meister, Les (Dawson), Dazza The Bender, Walcottza and the quiet one (I think his name was Leighton Baines).

Saturday 5 June

Rio and Heskey have a argument over Wii Tennis that carries over into a training match. After winning a defensive header, Rio tells Heskey ‘Dunno why you’re still here. I’ve scored more international goals than you.’ Heskey retaliates by sliding in by the corner flag and sitting on Rio’s left knee.

securing a job on LinkedIn

Hi Norman. You and I haven’t spoken before so please excuse the intrusion. However Sandstone Search & Selection are a specialist recruitment consultancy, focused on the Enterprise Software and Consulting markets. I’m keen to find out if you’re open minded about your career please let me know. Rupert Smithers-Jones

Hi Rupert. Yes - I am pretty open minded about my career and would consider anything apart from pole dancing. Norman.

The National - Royal Albert Hall

After weeks of anticipation, the day finally dawned - Thursday 6 May and The National’s concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

I’ve been to the Albert Hall once before when I went to see Cirque de Soleil. On that occasion, I was wearing a jacket and tie (family birthday) and was perched precariously in the upper circle which gave me vertigo.

I had some reservations about seeing a proper concert here and had disconcerting images of posh people in dinner jackets, sitting down, politely applauding an acoustic set. Anyway, I got the tube to High St. Kensington, stopped off at the Goat Tavern for a quick drink en route.and then made my way to the famous venue next to Imperial College.

thoughts on browser usability

Jake Kuramoto from Oracle Apps Lab has a great post about common search terms for the three main search engines and notes that ‘facebook.com’ (and variants thereof) appear in the lists of most frequently used keywords.

Recently, I have been observing my wife who is a non-technical (Firefox) user although I must admit to a vested interest here. I am keen to understand any areas where Linux Mint is ‘worse then Windows’. Over the last few weeks, I have noted the following:

why Susan Kramer didn't vote on Digital Economy Bill

Short answer - She was in a meeting. I sent a polite email asking why my MP Susan Kramer failed to vote last night on the third reading of the Digital Economy Bill.

Dear Mrs Kramer

Many thanks for taking the time to send me a long and detailed letter is response to my email inquiry about your stance on the Digital Economy Bill.

You’re right - it’s a very complex issue and may yet be subject to refinements before it finally becomes law.

Read more

end of a love affair

One attraction of my glamorous life as an IT consultant travelling all over Europe is the opportunity to conduct illicit affairs with beautiful lap dancers from Prague (who are definitely not transvestites). For the last three years, I have been secretly engaged in such a liaison with a beautiful young lady called Iris.

Unfortunately, due to Iris’ work commitments, our meetings are limited to brief, breathless, stolen trysts in the arrivals and departure halls at the various terminals at London Heathrow.

when ethernet cables go bad

Idea for a new TV series - ‘When Ethernet cables go bad’ - A fascinating 60 minute documentary into the wide range of issues people have with wireless networks. The program would also include some ‘C’ list celebrities and a phone/text in competition to win something.

I have had a wireless network in my house for at least four years. Perusing the annals of this blog reveals that while I have experienced various, sporadic issues over this period, by and large, the wireless network has been pretty reliable with three PC’s, a laptop and an iTouch device using it without problems.