The only really important thing to remember is that the entire audience wants you to succeed. They’ll giggle at your bad jokes, and laugh uproariously at anything remotely competent.
February 28, 2006
February 17, 2006
RIP Ray Barretto
Ray Barretto died this morning. I missed a chance to see him when he was in London a few months ago, and now that opportunity has gone for good. His tracks “Acid” and “El Watusi” have some recognition beyond salsa fans, and on the dancefloor his high-energy recordings have been popular for decades.
I guess I need to go to New York to catch some of the remaining greats while I still can.
February 13, 2006
Building a Home Fileserver pt III: Networking and Applications
So – the new machine boots, but it doesn’t do much more. Time for some applications.
February 9, 2006
BritSalsaFest part II: It’s All Over
In short, teh roXorz (pretty darned good). In depth – (more…)
February 8, 2006
A Programmer Should Know Better
I disappointed myself immensely last night while putting together my new bed.
Natwest “Actionline” Telephone Banking
The automated menu took me through to somebody with whom I could talk about my existing borrowing. This person could neither close an account with a balance of zero (and no activity for about a year), nor even tell me how much it would cost to fully repay a graduate loan. She suggested I talk to the loans people, who won’t be in until eight a.m.
Just as I was about to get off the phone, she noticed that I have a personal banking manager (you know, because I’m so incredibly wealthy), and that all of these questions would therefore have to be routed through that person. I’m so special, it seems, that I can only be helped by one person. Marvellous.
Where’s my HSBC credit card?
Apparently, “We’ll send it to your branch.” means “We’ll send it to your home address”. I love it when a company can’t tell me the truth about something really simple.
February 7, 2006
Building a Home Fileserver part II(c): SATA & RAID
The last OS-level problem I was having concerned the RAID array: it wouldn’t start, despite all the individual drives functioning.
February 1, 2006
Global Warming Bad News
Within a span of a couple of days, I read about a new UK government report on climate change (BBC News article – Slashdot discussion), and heard James Lovelock talk about his new book on Radio Four (Bruce Sterling’s comments). It’s all very depressing.
