My cold come flu is still hanging around, like the remnants of some nightmare christmas turkey, that come new year everyone is growing to detest.
What with being flu of the cold, and the recent spate of public holidays, things have not been moving terribly rapidly at work, so I'm keen to knuckle down and shove things on apace. Of course if this cold does ever actually go away, then that would be a start in the right direction.
Clocks went forward last night, so I have adjusted
one watch - the battery on the other one needs replaced
one battery powered alarm clock that is so basic that I can work it
my pendulum clock
my wind up mantlepiece clock
I do also have one of those remote control clocks that has the benefit of coping with the clocks going fore and back, but the disbenefit of completely beyond me, so that if ever I needed to set an alarm clock to wake me up, that I could rely on (usually a good feature) it certainly would not be this one.
I ordered some cables last week, and they arrived during the week.
One ethernet cable, which I'm running upto the girl's bedroom to give them internet in their room, and a midi usb cable.
The ethernet cable works fine, and I'll just have to figure out the least obtrusive route to run it from the living room to the upstairs bedroom. I suppose someone bolder than me would rely on powertools and just drill some holes, but I'm routing it round the skirting instead. Compared to the high cost, and periodic moodiness of wireless, simply running a cable is not that bad an option.
The usb-midi cable seems fine, but there don't seem to be any drivers available for the Bontempi organ, so that is one fine idea, that has not gone far. I'm sure that the cable will come in handy in due course.
Nothing much else doing, I'm still taking it pretty easy, hoping to finally shift this cold, rather than trying to get lots done and then collapse.
Sunday 30 March 2008
Friday 21 March 2008
Topsy Turvey, Man Flu
It is the long awaited Easter Weekend, and in typical fashion, when you wait a long time for something, it never quite turns out the way you expect it to.
Expecting a busy, but not unpleasantly so week, woke up on Tuesday feeling like my ribs had had a good kicking from the inside out. One of those days when you don't so much worry that you might not survive, but worry that you will. When I'm ill, I feel like all the times I have ever been ill are joined up together, so in effect I'm eight, sick and miserable.
Managed to make it back to work for Thursday, though not exactly feeling sparkling. Woke on on Friday feeling as if I had eaten half my tongue!
My wife has been suffering through this bug for the last fortnight, and I have been doing my best to avoid her, so now that it has finally caught up with me, it probably won't be going any time soon. One of my daughters had a friend over for a sleepover, but she too is coming down with the bug, and she too was fading out by the end of what should have been a wonderful time.
The weather too has been similarly afflicted. Our dog had been missing out on the odd walk, so I was keen to take him out for a decent walk yesterday. However the sky was that threatening grey that means it is full of snow. The wind whipped along behind us, and then the snow started up. All of this of no consequence as long as it followed us, but of course you need to come back from your walk, so the second half inevitably meant walking back, into a face-full of skin cutting hail. I was pretty miserable with my hat pulled down over my face, the poor dog, it must have been abject for him.
Now waking up, the ground outside is covered in snow!! Easter and the place is covered in snow.
In view of the whole general not wellness sort of thing, and the miscellaneous feeling sorry for self type issues, I'm not aiming too high at the moment. Satisfied to just plod on, rather than trying to change the world.
Although there are still further enhancements possible to my family IT set up, I think that I will probably more of less wind up the expansion of our IT facility at the moment. I could probably manage to run a thirty metre ethernet cable upto the girls room to provide them with the internet. There are other things that would be nice, wifi, more hard drives, a USB hub, more fonts, but there is always an endless list of such things, and the bulk of my objectives have now been met.
Anyway, with the good weather [note irony mode] I will need to get out into the garden, and there is a housefull of DIY to contend with as well.
Elsewhere, pleased to see that Throw Me The Statue have now appeared on iTunes, I downloaded a handfull of their tracks a while ago, and have been listening to them a lot. So I was keen to get the full Moonbeams album, and it looked like I would need to actually buy a CD from Amazon. It was their track Conquering Kids that first struck me, it sounds like one of those classic tracks that has always been there. The others that I've been listening to are Lolita and Yucatan, which did not grab me so immediately, but have become gradually more compelling. A first listen through to the album did not grab me too much, but it is probably one that grows insidiously on you.
Anyway, the upshot of this is that I would recommend that you simply do a quick google on Throw Me The Statue, and download Conquering Kids, you won't be dissappointed.
Also on the web, John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats has had to cancel his tour of Australia, citing health issues, though not clear whether it is him or close family. On the one hand there is the tabloid urge to hear the dirt, but these are real people with real lives too, and the only humane option is to wish him all the best. My thoughts are with him and his family. Probably worth noting, that if it had not been for the Mountain Goats, I probably would not have written a lot of the poetry that I have been writing recently. Like the very best of art, not only is the work of the Mountain Goats inspiring, it is also empowering.
Also in my browsing of the internet, struck by the short summary of the life of Italo Svevo, the author of Confessions of Zeno. He wrote a couple of self published novels, but never enjoyed much success. His novels are early stream of consciousness works, but like Tristam Shandy or the Sarragossa Manuscripts, it is literary inventiveness put to the service of splendidly entertaining tales.
His most famous work is about a rather unsatisfactory person, who lies to his therapist, and never has the courage to actually give up smoking, forever obsessing on his last cigarette. The author himself smoked all his life, and on his deathbed, joked that he would like a cigaratte, promising that it would be his last, but was refused.
Also looking at the rather haphazard lives of the people that write and draw for 2000AD, which I have been reading since around prog 350. I wrote a short strip for them years ago, and if I had been more conscientious/talented, might have written more. Maybe there is an alternate universe out there, where there is an alternate me, writing comic strips rather than working for the government. The beauty of writing, is that you can live anywhere to do it. So the usual monetary conditions don't apply, as long as you don't starve, you could live well on a relatively modest income.
Finally, very upset to hear that one of the members of the community group I'm on, lost his wife last week. I could not make the funeral, but my thoughts are certainly with him. You always think that the future will be incident free, but the challenges you face are never the ones you are prepared for, we should prize each moment we have together, there is nothing more finite.
Expecting a busy, but not unpleasantly so week, woke up on Tuesday feeling like my ribs had had a good kicking from the inside out. One of those days when you don't so much worry that you might not survive, but worry that you will. When I'm ill, I feel like all the times I have ever been ill are joined up together, so in effect I'm eight, sick and miserable.
Managed to make it back to work for Thursday, though not exactly feeling sparkling. Woke on on Friday feeling as if I had eaten half my tongue!
My wife has been suffering through this bug for the last fortnight, and I have been doing my best to avoid her, so now that it has finally caught up with me, it probably won't be going any time soon. One of my daughters had a friend over for a sleepover, but she too is coming down with the bug, and she too was fading out by the end of what should have been a wonderful time.
The weather too has been similarly afflicted. Our dog had been missing out on the odd walk, so I was keen to take him out for a decent walk yesterday. However the sky was that threatening grey that means it is full of snow. The wind whipped along behind us, and then the snow started up. All of this of no consequence as long as it followed us, but of course you need to come back from your walk, so the second half inevitably meant walking back, into a face-full of skin cutting hail. I was pretty miserable with my hat pulled down over my face, the poor dog, it must have been abject for him.
Now waking up, the ground outside is covered in snow!! Easter and the place is covered in snow.
In view of the whole general not wellness sort of thing, and the miscellaneous feeling sorry for self type issues, I'm not aiming too high at the moment. Satisfied to just plod on, rather than trying to change the world.
Although there are still further enhancements possible to my family IT set up, I think that I will probably more of less wind up the expansion of our IT facility at the moment. I could probably manage to run a thirty metre ethernet cable upto the girls room to provide them with the internet. There are other things that would be nice, wifi, more hard drives, a USB hub, more fonts, but there is always an endless list of such things, and the bulk of my objectives have now been met.
Anyway, with the good weather [note irony mode] I will need to get out into the garden, and there is a housefull of DIY to contend with as well.
Elsewhere, pleased to see that Throw Me The Statue have now appeared on iTunes, I downloaded a handfull of their tracks a while ago, and have been listening to them a lot. So I was keen to get the full Moonbeams album, and it looked like I would need to actually buy a CD from Amazon. It was their track Conquering Kids that first struck me, it sounds like one of those classic tracks that has always been there. The others that I've been listening to are Lolita and Yucatan, which did not grab me so immediately, but have become gradually more compelling. A first listen through to the album did not grab me too much, but it is probably one that grows insidiously on you.
Anyway, the upshot of this is that I would recommend that you simply do a quick google on Throw Me The Statue, and download Conquering Kids, you won't be dissappointed.
Also on the web, John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats has had to cancel his tour of Australia, citing health issues, though not clear whether it is him or close family. On the one hand there is the tabloid urge to hear the dirt, but these are real people with real lives too, and the only humane option is to wish him all the best. My thoughts are with him and his family. Probably worth noting, that if it had not been for the Mountain Goats, I probably would not have written a lot of the poetry that I have been writing recently. Like the very best of art, not only is the work of the Mountain Goats inspiring, it is also empowering.
Also in my browsing of the internet, struck by the short summary of the life of Italo Svevo, the author of Confessions of Zeno. He wrote a couple of self published novels, but never enjoyed much success. His novels are early stream of consciousness works, but like Tristam Shandy or the Sarragossa Manuscripts, it is literary inventiveness put to the service of splendidly entertaining tales.
His most famous work is about a rather unsatisfactory person, who lies to his therapist, and never has the courage to actually give up smoking, forever obsessing on his last cigarette. The author himself smoked all his life, and on his deathbed, joked that he would like a cigaratte, promising that it would be his last, but was refused.
Also looking at the rather haphazard lives of the people that write and draw for 2000AD, which I have been reading since around prog 350. I wrote a short strip for them years ago, and if I had been more conscientious/talented, might have written more. Maybe there is an alternate universe out there, where there is an alternate me, writing comic strips rather than working for the government. The beauty of writing, is that you can live anywhere to do it. So the usual monetary conditions don't apply, as long as you don't starve, you could live well on a relatively modest income.
Finally, very upset to hear that one of the members of the community group I'm on, lost his wife last week. I could not make the funeral, but my thoughts are certainly with him. You always think that the future will be incident free, but the challenges you face are never the ones you are prepared for, we should prize each moment we have together, there is nothing more finite.
Sunday 16 March 2008
Still thawing out
Still thawing out.
This weekend has really breezed by. I missed a monthly meeting, of the local group for which I am secretary, so I am currently working through what feels like three months of paperwork. Thanks to a local councillor and the locality manager, we seem to be making some progress on the area regeneration, so it will be good to get our teeth into something substantive.
The reason for my frozen demeanour is that I was helping out with the local Scout Troop replacing a wall to their hut. Of course I was helping out in the sense that I came along, and did what I was told, with no useful skills to speak of. My wife also helped out, doing the teas, coffees, and sandwiches for lunch, which I am sure was vastly more useful than what I managed. Still hopefully with these things it is as much as case of showing willing, as what you actually manage to achieve.
Otherwise, the usual catching up with odds and ends, and playing with my computer. I've done quite a bit of refreshing of my website, with a lot of the old stuff being deleted. With RapidWeaver it is so easy to put up a load of content, that I am constantly knocking against the size limit for what I can upload with my demon account. I suppose I could upgrade my account and get some more webspace, but it does not feel like a major priority at the moment, and I always hate to commit to regular monthly/annual outgoings. While a lot of the subsidiary pages have been deleted from the website, the look and feel has been standardised with the same Kwix bouncy menu being applied to the main pages.
Things are all very turbulent in global matters financial. Reading through the financial stuff in the papers, they seem very gloomy on the future for some of the banks. Accordingly I have changed my mind about buying some more shares in Bradford and Bingley, and will instead start putting money into a European Investment Trust.
On the usual musings,
I wonder if we should be redesigning our housing to get rid of the gardens. Housebuilders are generally pretty canny about what people want, and nowadays the ones round here are giving people a small back garden, a large monoblocked front garden, with what is not monoblocked, covered in membrane, with fancy gravel, and a few exotic shrubs poking through. Net result, you look out your front garden to see an exotic combination between a jungle and a car park. Maybe local authorities should take some initiative in tarting up these sad looking council estates, with the same combination of monoblock and strategically positioned shrubs.
Also on council housing, instead of large estates, break it down into more but smaller units of housing. That would help prevent people being too isolated, lost within big developments. I don't think that poverty is really the problem for many people nowadays, it is more a case of being distanced from the jobs and lifestyle that others take for granted. I suppose that is the thinking behind the terms social exclusion, and social inclusion.
On the subject of project management, I suspect that recently I have been focussing to much on listing and completing individual tasks, such that I am losing sight of the actual project goals that they are contributing towards. I will therefore try and apply the higher level goals to the tasks that I am doing. The famous study of civil servants that talks about the degree of control that they have having a major impact on their health, might be capable of being subverted by applying more focus on the project goals than the individual tasks.
Just a thought.
And tomorrow is Monday.
This weekend has really breezed by. I missed a monthly meeting, of the local group for which I am secretary, so I am currently working through what feels like three months of paperwork. Thanks to a local councillor and the locality manager, we seem to be making some progress on the area regeneration, so it will be good to get our teeth into something substantive.
The reason for my frozen demeanour is that I was helping out with the local Scout Troop replacing a wall to their hut. Of course I was helping out in the sense that I came along, and did what I was told, with no useful skills to speak of. My wife also helped out, doing the teas, coffees, and sandwiches for lunch, which I am sure was vastly more useful than what I managed. Still hopefully with these things it is as much as case of showing willing, as what you actually manage to achieve.
Otherwise, the usual catching up with odds and ends, and playing with my computer. I've done quite a bit of refreshing of my website, with a lot of the old stuff being deleted. With RapidWeaver it is so easy to put up a load of content, that I am constantly knocking against the size limit for what I can upload with my demon account. I suppose I could upgrade my account and get some more webspace, but it does not feel like a major priority at the moment, and I always hate to commit to regular monthly/annual outgoings. While a lot of the subsidiary pages have been deleted from the website, the look and feel has been standardised with the same Kwix bouncy menu being applied to the main pages.
Things are all very turbulent in global matters financial. Reading through the financial stuff in the papers, they seem very gloomy on the future for some of the banks. Accordingly I have changed my mind about buying some more shares in Bradford and Bingley, and will instead start putting money into a European Investment Trust.
On the usual musings,
I wonder if we should be redesigning our housing to get rid of the gardens. Housebuilders are generally pretty canny about what people want, and nowadays the ones round here are giving people a small back garden, a large monoblocked front garden, with what is not monoblocked, covered in membrane, with fancy gravel, and a few exotic shrubs poking through. Net result, you look out your front garden to see an exotic combination between a jungle and a car park. Maybe local authorities should take some initiative in tarting up these sad looking council estates, with the same combination of monoblock and strategically positioned shrubs.
Also on council housing, instead of large estates, break it down into more but smaller units of housing. That would help prevent people being too isolated, lost within big developments. I don't think that poverty is really the problem for many people nowadays, it is more a case of being distanced from the jobs and lifestyle that others take for granted. I suppose that is the thinking behind the terms social exclusion, and social inclusion.
On the subject of project management, I suspect that recently I have been focussing to much on listing and completing individual tasks, such that I am losing sight of the actual project goals that they are contributing towards. I will therefore try and apply the higher level goals to the tasks that I am doing. The famous study of civil servants that talks about the degree of control that they have having a major impact on their health, might be capable of being subverted by applying more focus on the project goals than the individual tasks.
Just a thought.
And tomorrow is Monday.
Saturday 8 March 2008
a curious week
A curious week.
I ordered a new re-furbished iMac from the AppleStore last weekend, and sure enough it arrived during the week. It actually arrived on Thursday, I had a day off then anyway. So I had the dining room table set up with three different computers, running migration assistant to transfer over everyone's files to the new iMac.
The new iMac, is one of the twenty inch aluminium jobs.
Impressions ?
• the screen is very glossy - plus point it looks stunning, minus point, it is way too distracting if you have light behind you.
• the aluminium looks okay, but in a tactile way, it is wonderful. Oddly they seem to have used the aluminium on the keyboard to give it more heft. This combined with the shallow keys, make it a wonderful thing to use. Easily my favourite keyboard now.
• the mouse looks out of context, against all this aluminium splendour, a new mouse must be on the way
• the screen is big, but not unpleasantly so. It is getting towards that tennis watching scenario, where you turn your head to see the other side of the screen. I suppose you could simply work in one corner, and use the other for less frequently consulted stuff, as you would with two screens.
• it has that lovely new computer smell,
• it seems a little bit faster than you would expect
And with a new computer, new housekeeping to do. I'll need to order some extra memory, (Dimms?), from Crucial. I'll need to set up a proper backup regime. I currently have three LaCie external hard drives of varying sizes. There is a troublesome one, drive number three, which seems to stall when doing backups using SuperDuper or TimeMachine, and accordingly is not much use. I've brought this up with TechSupport at LaCie, and they asked whether it worked okay connecting up via USB, rather than FireWire, and indeed it does. I'll see what they come back with next.
Anyway, I'll also need to think a bit more about how I am using my dot mac account. I must confess that I have yet to get my head round how it all works. My free trial was just about to expire, so with rather ill grace I upgraded to a paid for dot mac account, but really I do feel that it is very poor value, for what is a rather indifferent product. However I do really need the ability to sync between different computers.
As ever these days, everything seems back to front in money terms. Things that would have made good expensive wedding presents, like a set of cutlery, are now cheap as chips, and all the bills, seem to be on the up escalator.
Computer hardware is all phenominal value and getting cheaper, but you are paying out for the associated services. Broadband, dot mac, software, iTunes downloads, in my case.
My share portfolio is taking a tumble, a big screen full of red for the stockbrokers. I track the average purchase cost of my shares, so when the average price dips below that, I simply view it as a buying opportunity. I'm in it for the long term, and intend to have these shares for years, if not decades. All very Warren Buffet-ish. Currently spoilt for choice on what I could buy, and there is always the possibility that my best bet would be to just sell the lot, and repurchase them all cheaper in a few months.
Pretty quiet at work, currently readying ourselves for the next batch of work. The office is reorganising at the weekend, so we all got kicked out at lunchtime on Friday. IT staff coming in to roll up all our keyboards and phones, wrapping the cables round them. I've moved about every six months for the past year or two, so I'm getting quite used to it. For the first time, I had only a very modest amount to pack and move.
Met up with an old colleague for lunch, something that I really ought to be doing more often, as I really look forward to it, enjoy it, and look back on it as something valuable. Anyway, said colleague, has not been doing so well. No adverse comment on her abilities, thinking back to when I worked with her, she was running the most fun, most worthwhile, most brave, most innovative, place that I have ever worked at. This was not just my impression either, we all of us, felt that there was a real buzz about the place, that it was something different and something special. I think that we were all given the opportunity to try out new things, and develop ourselves enormously. That said, it was not without its frustrations, but with hindsight, these were pretty trivial, and when you care deeply about things, then the disagreements have a bit more bite to them.
Her current unfortunate situation is more a reflection of the vagaries of working in the very very real world of the voluntary sector, where you are at the end of a very long chain, and dependent on the grace and favour of a great many people for funding. Falling out of favour is no reflection on what you have done, or not done, it just seems to be a fact of life sometimes.
Anyway, I hope that she finds something that suits her talents, strangely many of the people that have impressed me most recently, are struggling to find work commensurate to their abilities. However that certainly does not diminish my view of them.
I ordered a new re-furbished iMac from the AppleStore last weekend, and sure enough it arrived during the week. It actually arrived on Thursday, I had a day off then anyway. So I had the dining room table set up with three different computers, running migration assistant to transfer over everyone's files to the new iMac.
The new iMac, is one of the twenty inch aluminium jobs.
Impressions ?
• the screen is very glossy - plus point it looks stunning, minus point, it is way too distracting if you have light behind you.
• the aluminium looks okay, but in a tactile way, it is wonderful. Oddly they seem to have used the aluminium on the keyboard to give it more heft. This combined with the shallow keys, make it a wonderful thing to use. Easily my favourite keyboard now.
• the mouse looks out of context, against all this aluminium splendour, a new mouse must be on the way
• the screen is big, but not unpleasantly so. It is getting towards that tennis watching scenario, where you turn your head to see the other side of the screen. I suppose you could simply work in one corner, and use the other for less frequently consulted stuff, as you would with two screens.
• it has that lovely new computer smell,
• it seems a little bit faster than you would expect
And with a new computer, new housekeeping to do. I'll need to order some extra memory, (Dimms?), from Crucial. I'll need to set up a proper backup regime. I currently have three LaCie external hard drives of varying sizes. There is a troublesome one, drive number three, which seems to stall when doing backups using SuperDuper or TimeMachine, and accordingly is not much use. I've brought this up with TechSupport at LaCie, and they asked whether it worked okay connecting up via USB, rather than FireWire, and indeed it does. I'll see what they come back with next.
Anyway, I'll also need to think a bit more about how I am using my dot mac account. I must confess that I have yet to get my head round how it all works. My free trial was just about to expire, so with rather ill grace I upgraded to a paid for dot mac account, but really I do feel that it is very poor value, for what is a rather indifferent product. However I do really need the ability to sync between different computers.
As ever these days, everything seems back to front in money terms. Things that would have made good expensive wedding presents, like a set of cutlery, are now cheap as chips, and all the bills, seem to be on the up escalator.
Computer hardware is all phenominal value and getting cheaper, but you are paying out for the associated services. Broadband, dot mac, software, iTunes downloads, in my case.
My share portfolio is taking a tumble, a big screen full of red for the stockbrokers. I track the average purchase cost of my shares, so when the average price dips below that, I simply view it as a buying opportunity. I'm in it for the long term, and intend to have these shares for years, if not decades. All very Warren Buffet-ish. Currently spoilt for choice on what I could buy, and there is always the possibility that my best bet would be to just sell the lot, and repurchase them all cheaper in a few months.
Pretty quiet at work, currently readying ourselves for the next batch of work. The office is reorganising at the weekend, so we all got kicked out at lunchtime on Friday. IT staff coming in to roll up all our keyboards and phones, wrapping the cables round them. I've moved about every six months for the past year or two, so I'm getting quite used to it. For the first time, I had only a very modest amount to pack and move.
Met up with an old colleague for lunch, something that I really ought to be doing more often, as I really look forward to it, enjoy it, and look back on it as something valuable. Anyway, said colleague, has not been doing so well. No adverse comment on her abilities, thinking back to when I worked with her, she was running the most fun, most worthwhile, most brave, most innovative, place that I have ever worked at. This was not just my impression either, we all of us, felt that there was a real buzz about the place, that it was something different and something special. I think that we were all given the opportunity to try out new things, and develop ourselves enormously. That said, it was not without its frustrations, but with hindsight, these were pretty trivial, and when you care deeply about things, then the disagreements have a bit more bite to them.
Her current unfortunate situation is more a reflection of the vagaries of working in the very very real world of the voluntary sector, where you are at the end of a very long chain, and dependent on the grace and favour of a great many people for funding. Falling out of favour is no reflection on what you have done, or not done, it just seems to be a fact of life sometimes.
Anyway, I hope that she finds something that suits her talents, strangely many of the people that have impressed me most recently, are struggling to find work commensurate to their abilities. However that certainly does not diminish my view of them.
Sunday 2 March 2008
Busy week, all done.
Busy week, all done.
After blogging the other week about the potential for home IT support, there was an article this week in the Times about the growing multi billion pound market for such services in the UK. Obviously I am ahead of the curve for journalism, but not far enough ahead for venture capitalism.
I know that Macintosh is marketted as the computer for people that don't want to get bogged down with the technology, just plug in and play, but being honest I don't think that is terribly realistic. If we just wanted a machine that did a few basic things, without any new sexy features, then of course we could buy a rock stable machine, and still be using bakelite phones, but we don't. We want all the sexy new bells and whistles, and things that we don't even understand, but heck we want them anyway. Hence new operating systems, that look zingy, but are hardly rock steady. Leopard, I'm talking about you now, you are one mean kitty.
A related point, if you want to use computers seriously, you are just going to have to knuckle down and learn how stuff runs, how to do backups, partition your drives, and the like. It really is not a serious option to just muddle through, unless you want to lose all your data, or miss out on most of the potential that is on offer. When you live in a world that runs on magic, you need to start learning a few spells.
Something else that occured to me, we tend to rate homely architecture and settings, the village square surrounded by cottages, settings that suggest we are an integral part of a small cozy world. We tend to dislike settings that suggest we are a nearly insignificant and meaningless element of a large impersonal world. No one loves the high rise, and motorways with chronic gigantism. But the latter is the reality, the former an affectation that only the rich can afford to pretend to. Maybe we are struggling for a new set of symbols and understanding that let us feel at home in our own brave new world, rather than just hiding behind the mock tudor facade in the suburbs , while sleeping through the mindless commute with thousands of people just like us.
Interesting conference at the tail end of the week, all went well, and I was impressed by the very solutions focussed approach that a lot of the people there had. I always like pragmatism, but this was not some gloomy pragmatism, to which I am prone, but a very upbeat version. Interesting and inspiring.
Also reading in the papers an article about someone that helps people establish their own personal brand. I suppose that if I was pressed, my core values would be
thoughtfulness
creativity
making a difference
On other topics, there were some refurbished Macintosh computers going cheaply on the Apple Store yesterday, so I have bitten the bullet and ordered one. I've not told my daughters yet, but it will mean that they can get the old iMac running Tiger for their room, and we will get the new 20" iMac for the main computer. I'll look at setting up wifi in due course. However keen to avoid my previous mistake of having far too many new things on the go at once.
And the weekend is about done, back to reality again tomorrow.
After blogging the other week about the potential for home IT support, there was an article this week in the Times about the growing multi billion pound market for such services in the UK. Obviously I am ahead of the curve for journalism, but not far enough ahead for venture capitalism.
I know that Macintosh is marketted as the computer for people that don't want to get bogged down with the technology, just plug in and play, but being honest I don't think that is terribly realistic. If we just wanted a machine that did a few basic things, without any new sexy features, then of course we could buy a rock stable machine, and still be using bakelite phones, but we don't. We want all the sexy new bells and whistles, and things that we don't even understand, but heck we want them anyway. Hence new operating systems, that look zingy, but are hardly rock steady. Leopard, I'm talking about you now, you are one mean kitty.
A related point, if you want to use computers seriously, you are just going to have to knuckle down and learn how stuff runs, how to do backups, partition your drives, and the like. It really is not a serious option to just muddle through, unless you want to lose all your data, or miss out on most of the potential that is on offer. When you live in a world that runs on magic, you need to start learning a few spells.
Something else that occured to me, we tend to rate homely architecture and settings, the village square surrounded by cottages, settings that suggest we are an integral part of a small cozy world. We tend to dislike settings that suggest we are a nearly insignificant and meaningless element of a large impersonal world. No one loves the high rise, and motorways with chronic gigantism. But the latter is the reality, the former an affectation that only the rich can afford to pretend to. Maybe we are struggling for a new set of symbols and understanding that let us feel at home in our own brave new world, rather than just hiding behind the mock tudor facade in the suburbs , while sleeping through the mindless commute with thousands of people just like us.
Interesting conference at the tail end of the week, all went well, and I was impressed by the very solutions focussed approach that a lot of the people there had. I always like pragmatism, but this was not some gloomy pragmatism, to which I am prone, but a very upbeat version. Interesting and inspiring.
Also reading in the papers an article about someone that helps people establish their own personal brand. I suppose that if I was pressed, my core values would be
thoughtfulness
creativity
making a difference
On other topics, there were some refurbished Macintosh computers going cheaply on the Apple Store yesterday, so I have bitten the bullet and ordered one. I've not told my daughters yet, but it will mean that they can get the old iMac running Tiger for their room, and we will get the new 20" iMac for the main computer. I'll look at setting up wifi in due course. However keen to avoid my previous mistake of having far too many new things on the go at once.
And the weekend is about done, back to reality again tomorrow.
Saturday 1 March 2008
Almost Spring
I really don't take enough of my annual leave, I carried forward an excess amount, so I have been taking the odd day off here and there to whittle it down.
Unfortunately so full of the cold, that it has generally been a lazy day off rather than a productive one. However it is nice to find the time for pottering, rather than just chasing round doing things all the time.
I devised a spreadsheet for tracking my investment portfolio, which is a rather modest selection of shares supplemented by £100 each month. Clearly I am not about to rival Warren Buffet any time soon, but I suppose that it has the same appeal as horse racing, having some money on one of the runners does increase your interest quite dramatically. Trading with this kind of sum of money is a bit tricky as the risk is that transaction costs will easily exceed any potential earnings. So my aim is to build up around £1000 book value in a small number of shares, and add an extra share occassionally. Now upto five shares, with a total book value nearing £4k, but in the current market, actually having a valuation below that.
However ever the shares optimist I am viewing it as a buyers market, though I am not expecting it to bounce back any time soon.
I'll probably go for an investment trust next, as it would be prudent to diversify beyond these shores, but buying individual foreign shares won't be cost effective at the volumes I am trading at.
Anyway, currently transcribing details to a spreadsheet, so that I can track my portfolio better. All very colourful and scientific!
Also very keen to get an Airport BaseStation which would let me set up a wifi network in my house. I am steadily building up the IT infrastructure in the house, I suppose a computer for each of us eventually!
Other news, I have had the latest Mountain Goats album for the past week. Slowly getting into it. Initially a little disappointed, but with repeated listens I am getting into, and the hooks really do get into you. Worth checking out the reviews and the pages of comic art which supplement the songs, as they are a more thematically disparate selection than usual. Written from a variety of points of view, with no particular theme, though a clear propensity for horror hokum.
Another foible of the modern age is that there were various permutations of bonus tracks. I think there was an option to pre-order and get a couple of bonus tracks. I bought on iTunes, and a few days later an extra track appeared. At present there are two versions of the album on iTunes - both for the same price, one with 13 tracks, one with 14 tracks. I contacted iTunes support and got a credit for the extra track, which was pretty sporting of them. According to the forums there was another bonus track available through Amazon US, as the anoraks all know, Amazon US does do music downloads. Amazon UK does not currently. I suspect that Amazon US would identify my credit card as UK and get iffy about me buying the bonus track from them. I did however manage to track it down on the 4AD website, which let me buy it. I also bought a few other rarities that had appeared on the b-sides of Mountain Goats singles, and were available to download. Had a quick listen, and barring one which did not grab me, they seem a pretty strong bunch.
I have finally gone digital with my bank account, so profitable swapping around of funds awaits me. What could be more exciting than online banking. Well more exciting than standing in a queue to pay in money during my lunch hour anyway.
I would like to point out that my geek credentials are now complete! I actually get a mention on in the credits for the new version of SuperDuper (macintosh back up utility). This follows on from some correspondence with the developer on how I was confused with partitions, and I suppose part of the origin for their decision to create a version of SuperDuper that worked with TimeMachine without the requirement to operate on different partitions. Of course my query is completely inconsequential in comparison to the amount of work required in actually doing the coding and making it work, but it is incredibly gratifying to get some sort of acknowledgement. I have probably mentioned it before, but this is the sort of area where small software developers really score. Their support and customer focus is just incredible, and puts the major developers to shame. You certainly would not get the same sort of service from Microsoft, nor Apple.
One notable exception that I would like to note though it Bento, the new database from Filemaker, which not only is incredible, but comes with enthusiastic support. Someone has clearly learned from the fantastic service that the smaller developers offer.
Final Shoutout for SuperDuper, it remains totally essential, even with TimeMachine, being able to create a bootable backup remains vital. I certainly would not be without SuperDuper, and would recommend it to anyone.
Finally, we are at the tail end of winter, nothing much growing, just marking time till the seasons start up again. The bulbs are popping up, my snowdrops have appeared in the front lawn, and those muddy fields I pass on the train have somehow been carpetted in green. Very windy, angry crows bobbing on the wind like corks in the waves, while stubborn pigeons fly lower, making steady progress. As ever, the birds seem indifferent to us.
Unfortunately so full of the cold, that it has generally been a lazy day off rather than a productive one. However it is nice to find the time for pottering, rather than just chasing round doing things all the time.
I devised a spreadsheet for tracking my investment portfolio, which is a rather modest selection of shares supplemented by £100 each month. Clearly I am not about to rival Warren Buffet any time soon, but I suppose that it has the same appeal as horse racing, having some money on one of the runners does increase your interest quite dramatically. Trading with this kind of sum of money is a bit tricky as the risk is that transaction costs will easily exceed any potential earnings. So my aim is to build up around £1000 book value in a small number of shares, and add an extra share occassionally. Now upto five shares, with a total book value nearing £4k, but in the current market, actually having a valuation below that.
However ever the shares optimist I am viewing it as a buyers market, though I am not expecting it to bounce back any time soon.
I'll probably go for an investment trust next, as it would be prudent to diversify beyond these shores, but buying individual foreign shares won't be cost effective at the volumes I am trading at.
Anyway, currently transcribing details to a spreadsheet, so that I can track my portfolio better. All very colourful and scientific!
Also very keen to get an Airport BaseStation which would let me set up a wifi network in my house. I am steadily building up the IT infrastructure in the house, I suppose a computer for each of us eventually!
Other news, I have had the latest Mountain Goats album for the past week. Slowly getting into it. Initially a little disappointed, but with repeated listens I am getting into, and the hooks really do get into you. Worth checking out the reviews and the pages of comic art which supplement the songs, as they are a more thematically disparate selection than usual. Written from a variety of points of view, with no particular theme, though a clear propensity for horror hokum.
Another foible of the modern age is that there were various permutations of bonus tracks. I think there was an option to pre-order and get a couple of bonus tracks. I bought on iTunes, and a few days later an extra track appeared. At present there are two versions of the album on iTunes - both for the same price, one with 13 tracks, one with 14 tracks. I contacted iTunes support and got a credit for the extra track, which was pretty sporting of them. According to the forums there was another bonus track available through Amazon US, as the anoraks all know, Amazon US does do music downloads. Amazon UK does not currently. I suspect that Amazon US would identify my credit card as UK and get iffy about me buying the bonus track from them. I did however manage to track it down on the 4AD website, which let me buy it. I also bought a few other rarities that had appeared on the b-sides of Mountain Goats singles, and were available to download. Had a quick listen, and barring one which did not grab me, they seem a pretty strong bunch.
I have finally gone digital with my bank account, so profitable swapping around of funds awaits me. What could be more exciting than online banking. Well more exciting than standing in a queue to pay in money during my lunch hour anyway.
I would like to point out that my geek credentials are now complete! I actually get a mention on in the credits for the new version of SuperDuper (macintosh back up utility). This follows on from some correspondence with the developer on how I was confused with partitions, and I suppose part of the origin for their decision to create a version of SuperDuper that worked with TimeMachine without the requirement to operate on different partitions. Of course my query is completely inconsequential in comparison to the amount of work required in actually doing the coding and making it work, but it is incredibly gratifying to get some sort of acknowledgement. I have probably mentioned it before, but this is the sort of area where small software developers really score. Their support and customer focus is just incredible, and puts the major developers to shame. You certainly would not get the same sort of service from Microsoft, nor Apple.
One notable exception that I would like to note though it Bento, the new database from Filemaker, which not only is incredible, but comes with enthusiastic support. Someone has clearly learned from the fantastic service that the smaller developers offer.
Final Shoutout for SuperDuper, it remains totally essential, even with TimeMachine, being able to create a bootable backup remains vital. I certainly would not be without SuperDuper, and would recommend it to anyone.
Finally, we are at the tail end of winter, nothing much growing, just marking time till the seasons start up again. The bulbs are popping up, my snowdrops have appeared in the front lawn, and those muddy fields I pass on the train have somehow been carpetted in green. Very windy, angry crows bobbing on the wind like corks in the waves, while stubborn pigeons fly lower, making steady progress. As ever, the birds seem indifferent to us.
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