"If you want fish, go to the Caribbean"
We went to Alcudia on a family holiday this year, and spent a lot of the time around the pool watching Aimee enjoy her swimming. One day, we decided we would take a boat trip from the ones at the harbour. There was only one that appealed - which was essentially a glass bottom boat. […]
In O'Hare Airport? Bring entertainment...
I'm back from Chicago for a while now. On the last day (which was a Sunday (13th June)) I walked with some colleagues from our hotel to the Magnificent Mile where, underneath the John Hancock building, we had brunch at the Cheesecake Factory; food was good but the service was quite slow and consequently two […]
Trip to Chicago
Yesterday I set off from Banbridge around 9 am to get the aircoach to Dublin airport, since I'd been advised to arrive 3.5 hours before departure at 2:30 pm. I went through security pretty quickly, and shortly therafter I cleared US immigration in the airport, which was great, and I must say more friendly than […]
Debian GNU/Linux on Toshiba Portege R500
This week I got my hands on a Toshiba Portege R500 for work. It's brilliant to have a laptop with a decent battery once again. Here are some thoughts on the hardware, and installing Linux. The first thing I did was cut through the label on the box that makes it clear that no refund […]
Leaked EU code
/** * attempt to ratify treaty * @param input the treaty to put before the "people" * @return boolean true on success, false otherwise */ boolean ratify_treaty(treaty input) { treaty treaty_to_present = hash(input); while(!popular_vote(treaty_to_present)) { sleep(BIG_NUMBER); treaty_to_present = cosmetic_rehash(treaty_to_present); } // Treaty accepted! Never ask again! return(true); } I am neither particularly strongly "pro" or […]
Catching up with old friends
Speaking of catching up with old friends, I went to see Mark Kerr in Belfast last Saturday night. Mark and I know each other well from the old fidonet days, and I guess we haven't had much contact since I moved to Banbridge, but it was great to see him and his family again. Part […]
Email Latency
Like lots of people who are too hooked into technology for their own good, I tend to receive loads of emails a day, even after the huge quantity of spam is removed. Sometimes it's easy, and fast to respond to a given email. Once in a while I get an email from someone that I […]
Runs on mailing lists
Today I spent the day at the chemistry department in Edinburgh University demonstrating (at their invitation) OPUS with Ron Laird. I frequently receive these sorts of invitations, and that's nice, but it's a whole day to go there and back again. I got home and checked my email, and saw dozens of emails about a […]
Interview with Alan Ruddock and Henry Kono
I spent a pleasant weekend last week in Dublin at Fiona's Dojo. It was good to see lots of people, including Aureli, who has started up a new dojo in the north west. The course was being given by Alan Ruddock and Henry Kono, and Alan heads the Aiki No Michi, the organisation to which […]