I’m involved in the GLLUG user group. One of the ideas that came up recently (it was actually discussed on a non- GLLUG list!) was about starting a “Planet”. A Planet is a collection of posts from different blogs (pulled together from different feeds) and put on a single page (also available via different feed formats…). And now we have one; behold Planet GLLUG. The initial release is a trial in a number of ways. Read on →

Over the last week or so I’ve been suffering from a cold that just won’t shake loose. It started with headaches, which stopped me from reading or using a monitor, and has reduced back to the point where I sound funny (yes, more than usual…) and have a sore throat. The weird thing is that it seems to have screwed up my sleep patterns. I’m going to bed early, waking up for a couple of hours and then drifting back off. Read on →

I used to be a big fan of C.S.I, the original, not the spin-offs, but as the series continued to come it moved away from the science and quirks and more in to the weekly “soap opera” I lost my interest in it. Fortunately there’s now a new contender for it’s place in my very limited TV schedule. House, M.D. The title character, Dr. Gregory House, is played damn well by Hugh Laurie, a British actor best known in the UK for his comedy work. Read on →

I’ve been a Stargate fan since the first series (the ninth series is a ‘little’ flat but that’s a different post) and I dutifully watched Atlantis when it started, and was pretty much disappointed. The plots are mostly from the early Stargate episodes and the characters are too similar to the old SG1 team. Except McKay, who I really liked. Arrogant, cowardly, selfish, brilliant and with a dry, sarcastic wit he was the reason I managed to hang on for half a series. Read on →

I’ve just watched The Butterfly Effect - Directors Cut and I have to say it’s not as bad as I was expecting. The plot outline, from IMDB, is pretty snappy: “A young man (Ashton Kutcher) blacks out harmful memories of significant events of his life. As he grows up he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life.” What made the film interesting was its pretty bleak view of changing the past. Read on →

I’ve been a member of the UKUUG for a couple of years know and I’m a great fan of their conferences. They always manage to get a good venue, a decent crowd and a lot of top notch speakers. I, on the other hand, have just about managed to get two GLLUGs up and running and almost had a coronary at each one. In an attempt to learn more about how the big boys plan and organise these kinds of events I’ve applied for a seat on the UKUUG council. Read on →

Traditionally there has always been two easily identifiable people in a tech start-up, the beard and the suit. I’m a beard, well a shaven one… which I guess makes me a chin… But I’m digressing. One of the great things about the ‘net is that it’s so easy to stroll in to someone else’s world. With people like Seth Godin and Hugh Macleod posting their thoughts (and a decent RSS aggregator) I can get an insight in to the marketing world. Read on →

When it comes to presenting information on the ‘Net PDF files do little but annoy me, fortunately I’m not alone in thinking PDFs in websites suck. I understand that you might need to have a very controlled form that people can print off. Fine, but take me to a HTML page with a link explaining what the PDF is for. And don’t even think about giving me important information in PDF format by default; HTML with a link to a higher quality version maybe. Read on →

I try to get to a lot of technical conferences, you meet cool people, you learn lots and (this is going to sound bad…) it gives you a chance to measure yourself against your peers who actually care about what they do. Not just the 9-5 people that don’t even own a home PC. In the next couple of months there’s a small torrent of events coming up and I’m going to see how many I can get to. Read on →

I always seem to have a huge pile of books to read and an inability to actually read them in any order. This months pile includes: Behind Closed Doors. I’m a big fan of the Pragmatic Programmers books and this one is no different. It covers the things that we’re thankful good managers already know and gives us something to throw at^Wto the bad ones. I’m most of the way through it and it’s a 7/10. Read on →