Tom Fotherby
Progress upstairs (Nov+Dec 2006)
We’ve been gutting upstairs, stripping all the wallpaper off the walls and removing the skirting boards and coving: We laid co-axial cable and shopped for some funky light fittings. We got in the electricians to install 7 new double sockets, an attic & cellar light, new bedroom lights and a new extractor fan & light […]
Eating out with a vegetarian
Vegetarians get a lot of stick. People like to try to make vegetarians justify their decision in a full and rational manner. It’s not really fair that this conversation comes up every time that they go out to diner. One reason for being vegetarian is because it’s a lot less wasteful in terms of natural […]
Kinder Egg Caveman
This is my favourite kinder egg surprise ever! Very philosophical! I keep him on my computer at work to help me think.
Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson)
Historical Thriller, 8/10 – November 2006 After reading Snow Crash, I was initially disappointed in this not being in the same genre. But I needn’t have worried – It managed to be an exciting thriller as well as a history book and a science book on computers and cryptography. I really enjoyed the math characters […]
Why I have a phobia of Frogs
Frogs are disgusting because their proportions are all wrong like something from a twisted nightmare. Their legs are fat and heavy but possess some horrible power that allow the creature to leap alarmingly quickly. They have evil bulbous eyes which sit watching everything and waiting so they can flick their disgusting tongue at a passing […]
Ubuntu Linux distribution codenames
I love the wonderful Ubuntu codenames. The new one is called the “Feisty Fawn”. Odd and memorable. Version Release date Code name 4.10 20 October 2004 Warty Warthog 5.04 8 April 2005 Hoary Hedgehog 5.10 13 October 2005 Breezy Badger 6.06 LTS 1 June 2006 Dapper Drake 6.10 planned for 26 October 2006 Edgy Eft […]
The outrageous nerve of Apple
I can’t believe apple put this on their website (http://www.apple.com/support/windowsvirus/): We recently discovered that a small number – less than 1% – of the Video iPods available for purchase after September 12, 2006, left our contract manufacturer carrying the Windows RavMonE.exe virus. This known virus affects only Windows computers, and up to date anti-virus software […]
Misty Eyes
You know how a mirror in the bathroom mists up when you have a shower. I have just discovered that I can do the same with my eyeballs. I got a big mug of tea and as I was about to take a sip I let out a breath and the warm steamy air misted […]
History Matters (17th/October/2006)
The BBC are getting as many people as possible to submit a blog entry for today so it can be used as a historical record in the future. This is my entry: Tuesday’s are the worst day of the week for me because I’m no longer rested from the weekend yet I still have 4 […]
Digital Fortress (Dan Brown)
Thriller, 5/10 – September 2006 The notion that all codes are breakable (the make believe “Bergofsky’s Principle”) caused me to laugh out loud and continue to laugh the whole way through the book. What if the thing TRANSLTR is trying to decrypt is a random piece of junk? The fictitious scalability of TRANSLTR (i.e. can […]
Kitchen wall tiles and Hood (August 2006)
After a long break from DIY (to arrange our wedding) we have made some effort to do the finishing touches to our kitchen. We tiled the wall and window sill and fitted the plinth, edging tape, filler and cornice. The hood was tricky to put up because it had to be supported by our cavity […]
Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson)
Sci-fi, 8/10 – June&July&August 2006 What makes this book great is that despite it being interesting and exciting and thoughtful, is that it’s damn silly. All the characters are ridiculous and over-the-top, and that’s great. Two small examples are the nuclear powered machine gun and the cyborg guard-dogs but the biggest laugh is the method […]
Squeezebox3 – 22th Aug 2006 (Ebuyer purchase, £195)
We bought the updated model because we thought Fred would enjoy our current squeezebox as a house-warning present. The new model is almost exactly the same with a few improvements: It can now access internet radio without having your PC on. (Connects to “SqueezeNetwork”). It can now act as a network bridge It now has […]
Netgear DG834G Modem & Wireless Router – 17th August 2006 (Ebay purchase, £36)
Our old ADSL modem was getting a bit unreliable and kept rebooting randomly. It was also messy having a separate wireless router when all-in-one boxes are not expensive anymore. The DG834G is nice and small with a easy web-based admin interface. I particularly like the simple firewall setup. The wireless range is disappointing though (it […]
300GB NAS Hard Drive – 8th July 2006 (Ebay purchase, £120)
Backups are important, my files are worth a lot of money to me so we decided to invest in a piece of hardware to help with backing up our data. Rather than just getting an external hard disk we wanted a networked hard disk (NAS) so Kix and me could share it independent of which […]
