Nuclear Power

My previous post on power got a reaction about my inclusion of nuclear so far up the list. I'm not the only one who thinks nuclear isn't such a bad idea, but nuclear power is in the headlines for another reason right now: it's the twentieth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.

Design Debt

I've just been reading some of James Shore's articles, and was very impressed. The article on Design Debt is a good attempt to explain why a particular approach is a long-term disaster.

Small Mercies

In the early hours of Thursday morning, my bus broke down. Fortunately, I'd just alighted for the thirty metre walk from the bus stop to my front door. It didn't occur to me to take a picture until the impressive smoke was pretty much gone, replaced by the smell of burning oil.

I was already home, but the rest of the passengers had to get off, and presumably wait for the next one in fifteen minutes. What was the small mercy for them? Well, it could have broken down in Acton instead.

Utter Stupidity

If you pass Oracle's to_date function a four-digit year in the format mask, but a two-digit year in the date string, the result is a date about two thousand years ago. This obvious fact evaded me for many hours.

And this is why I shouldn't do any programming at the end of a sixty-hour week.

Power

Those who know me will often have heard me spouting off on one environmental topic or another. I thought it would be unfair on them not to inflict the same on my loyal reader. So I’ll start with the subject of power.

Happy browsing…

I see that WordPress disapproves of Internet Explorer.

Open Source Licence Misconceptions

Everyone seems to think that if they take use a GPL'd product, they have to give away their future work. They are almost always wrong.

Training

I'm off for a full week's training. Normally this would be a great thing, but this time my commute will be longer, and I'm still going to have to pop in to work for an hour or two after the training has finished. On the other hand, it's still better than real work, and I don't have to foot the bill.

Mistakes when Dancing

I read a thread on Dance Forums about how often people make mistakes when dancing, and it gave me pause to consider. The short answer, of course, is all the time, in practically every dance.The long answer though, is 'get over it'.