Archive for November, 2008

Mandatory election post

Posted on in My Life, The World.

Once upon a time I was sitting in a bar with some work colleagues and one of them told me I don’t vote. I leave it up to people like you who know about these things. At the time I was completely speechless but I’ve subsequently thought a lot about that statement and even though I’m not an American and hence have no vote, today is as good a day as any to mention this story.

I was flattered that I was seen as someone that other people trusted to decide the shape of their government. I was intrigued that someone was apathetic, not because they felt ignored and alienated by politics, but because they felt under qualified to particpate. Mostly, however, I was shocked that someone would so easily throw away their democratic rights.

When you have the opportunity to vote, vote. Vote because one candidate has better policies, or because the other candidate has dreadful policies, or because one candidate is a smarter, better person, or because the other candidate isn’t. You don’t have to justify why you vote the way you do to anyone other than yourself, so whatever criteria satisfies your conscience is good enough.

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Page 56 Meme

Posted on in Books, Memes.

Via [info]sharikkamur

  1. Grab the nearest book.
  2. Open the book to page 56.
  3. Find the fifth sentence.
  4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
  5. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST

The usurer studied Miguel.

Well, that was short. It’s from The Coffee Trader by David Liss.

Very True Mood: (chipper) chipper

The fat lady sings?

Posted on in Browsers, Computer Games, Computers, My Life, WWW.

This wasn’t the post I was going to write tonight, but whilst double checking my facts (What? Come on, no on fact checks these days!) I discovered that the problem I wanted to write about was in fact limited to the one browser that I had been using to at the time – Opera.

I’ve been using Opera as my primary browser for a long time, since version 3 in early 1998. Back then it was like a breathe of fresh air compared to Netscape and Internet Explorer – so much faster, so more more secure, so many customisations possible. Subsequent releases added features that have gone on to be adopted by almost every other browser.

But in the last year or so, something has gone a bit wrong. I now find myself using Firefox to read Gmail at home (but, oddly, not at work) because neither of the two ajax powered interfaces work reliably in Opera. Likewise I post to this blog using Firefox because the plugin I use for crossposting to Live Journal breaks the ‘write post’ page interface in Opera. If I’m trying to geocode a batch of photos in Flickr then Opera will often hang or refuse to display the maps.

The problems are not consistent (as I said, I can use Gmail at work but not at home) and can’t really be pinned down to a fault with either the browser itself, the coding on the sites or my set up. It’s just a combination of all three which is making Opera increasingly unreliable when it comes to Rich Internet Applications (RIAs).

Look at the release notes for recent versions of every major and you’ll see that performance, especially RIA performance, is a major goal at the moment. Opera is rightly famed for its overall performance and speed on normal web pages but it seems to me that the performance with ajax requests is lagging behind other browsers.

Will I switch to Firefox anytime soon? I doubt it. I have ten years worth of experience with Opera – I know its quirks and secrets and it has so much that I need available straight out of the box – how many Firefox addons would I need to do the same? Is there even an addon that replicates something as simple as Opera’s “paste and go” function?

The fat lady isn’t singing yet; but she is warming up, just in case.

Very True Mood: (frustrated) frustrated
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Deadpool, dead web sites

Posted on in Blogs, WWW.

The death of Studs Terkel on Friday means that Paul moves up to joint second place in this year’s deadpool game.

Annoyingly, I can’t update the web site, or upload some changes I’ve made to the templates for this blog because FTP to both servers is broken. One reports an authentication error and the other a timeout error. :-(

Very True Mood: (annoyed) annoyed
Very True Music: Arctic Monkeys
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Kew

Posted on in My Life.

Yesterday, I visited Kew Gardens [1] with a group of friends, in particular to see the new Treetop Walkway. We picked a very cold and wet day for this trip which meant that there were fewer crowds around, but also that the conditions were less than ideal for photography.

The staircase up to the walkway Even difference engines have bugs - the very steampunk design ethos of the rhizotron you pass through before climbing up to the walkway The Palm House as seen from the walkway Lettice examines something prehistoric in the Evolution House

More photos on Flickr

After the Gardens shut we attempted to dry out and warm up in Newens where we admired photographs of John Major and a pony[2] and sampled the historic delicacy that is Maids of Honour. Apparently, the location of the gents is also historic but, on a still very wet day, less of a delicacy.

[1] I believe this was the first time I’ve visted Kew – I may have been as a child but one big garden looks much like another to a small boy. This means that it joins the Globe Theatre and the Royal Albert Hall as major London attractions that I’ve visited for the first time in 2008.

[2] Separate photographs. I can’t imagine John Major and a pony in the same photograph. Anyone thinking of making an Edwina Currie joke: -10 points for obviousness.

Very True Mood: (relaxed) relaxed
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Talk (a lot) like a Judoon

Posted on in Blogs, Doctor Who, Memes, My Life.
Judoon

It’s November so some brave souls are embarking upon this year’s NoNoWriMo. Good luck to you if you’re one of them.

I’m in no way dedicated enough to try an entire novel in one month, but I do want to write more so I’m declaring November to be my NaBloPoMo – I will be endeavouring to post at least once a day for the next 30 days.

“Na No Wri Mo Na Blo Po Mo” – I think I know how RTD comes up with Judoon dialogue.

Very True Mood: (cold) cold
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Counting the Cost of War(games) – October ’08

Posted on in Dinosaurs, Games, RPGs.

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs RPG, via eBay @ £6.20

Renegade Legion games Leviathan and Centurion, via eBay @ £19.00

[Update] – seller sent me Interceptor instead of Centurion, then had to go to hospital, then moved house. Refunded me £5.00, let me keep the copy of Interceptor and says that she will send Centurion if it turns up when unpacking.

Total £25.20 £20.20

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