Rontflaihhjbbbat (Rolls on the floor laughing as if he had just been bitten by a tarantula)
Lox
Thu Nov 30 23:53:56 2006

LOL!!!! :)
Nigel
Thu Nov 30 23:21:20 2006

idea!
kev
Thu Nov 30 23:16:22 2006

a brilliant
kev
Thu Nov 30 23:15:48 2006

could be
kev
Thu Nov 30 23:15:21 2006

that
kev
Thu Nov 30 23:14:40 2006

Lox
kev
Thu Nov 30 23:14:15 2006

Well, I'm about to post a really "boring" blog entry! It's needlessly techie and it waffles a lot... What do you mean, that's normal!?!?!?!? ;))) Let's see in SBM is up to it..
Nigel
Thu Nov 30 23:12:26 2006

OI! JHON!! Is that thing with the "most commented post" ready yet?!? If not, I think that we should also have a "collective" list where the top 10 of all the masoneers are shown, not just the single bits... Although now that I think of it it might end up badly with people posting a comment of 1 line in 10 different posts (any names spring into mind?) just to climb the ladder.... :P
Lox
Thu Nov 30 23:04:33 2006

Sheri: Si si tutto a posto!! :) Incidentally you make me think that there is a quite dirty business in porn dvds in the place where I work, quite interesting the fact that they are given away as if it was cocaine!
Lox
Thu Nov 30 22:59:35 2006

Ah.... Not good!!
Nigel
Thu Nov 30 22:37:07 2006

Alora, Lox. Non mi hai risposto?! La sega, ce l'hai fatta, si o no! Come ti senti?
Sheri
Thu Nov 30 22:36:29 2006

Nigel: Nope... Hungover AND jetlag, deadly stuff..... :( Tonight I SWEAR I will come back home early...
Lox
Thu Nov 30 22:16:09 2006

Sheri: The fact that I was writing about having met a beautiful woman means that I wasn't quite there shagging her!!! :D So the answer to the question is NOT YET! :)
Lox
Thu Nov 30 22:14:40 2006

You up and about early, Lox? Jet-Lag still a pain?
Nigel
Thu Nov 30 22:13:05 2006

Travis: Yes, I suppose I can see that. I remember well a woman I used to work with discovering I'd watched a particular Star Trek film she'd also seen. She loved it and told me so. I then asked: "So, do like Sci-Fi then?" To which she replied: "Oh no!!! I can't stand Science fiction! I love Star Trek." ... which I guess is a valid point, though I doubt she knew she was making it! With all the big-budgets thrown at Star Trek and it's spin-offs, I suppose finding free money for other projects was always going to be hard...
Nigel
Thu Nov 30 21:53:21 2006

One more thing, Nigel. Often, the rights to a series are simply sold. It may be that the people behind the series know the climate, knew that it wouldn't last too long, in all likelihood, and so sold the rights outright for a flat fee.
Travis
Thu Nov 30 17:28:30 2006

John: I've heard of all of those that you've mentioned. I'm going to try to look in to one or two at most. Ideally, I could get a small sampling of several, but that remains to be seen. Do you have thoughts on Glenmorangie? A friend suggested it, and I did some research. Sounds quite intriguing.
Travis
Thu Nov 30 17:25:45 2006

Nigel: if it's a sci-fi series like Babylon 5, then it joins a laundry list of similar casualties. I do not really watch television anymore; I just watch films. I can tell you, however, that my uncle is a huge sci-fi fan who keeps me abreast of the situations like this. He falls in love with a series and it is quickly cancelled. It's probably not JUST scheduling problems. Sci-fi series require unusually high budgets, so even if successful compared to other series, they could be losing money.
Travis
Thu Nov 30 17:24:38 2006

Travis: I'd appreciate your opinion on something I just read... It was about a follow-up series to Babylon 5 called Crusade. I was reading how the plug was pulled by TNT and the rights were not allowed to be sold on so the show couldn't continue elsewhere. Now I have never seen this show (though perhaps I would have been interested) but it seems appalling that a good show is cut down in its prime purely for scheduling reasons etc. How can all the creativity, the efforts, of so many people be treated so poorly? I know it happens, and perhaps the show was rightly a flop. Still, producing purely for a given schedule must truely stifle real creativity... I am confused!
Nigel
Thu Nov 30 17:14:20 2006

Ah, I missed the talk of booze!! Sorry Travis!! I'm only relatively experienced in one field - most of you know which!! ;)) However I love talk of other types! Sheri/Lox's knowledge of Wine is always worth listening too, and of course John's advice on Whisky! When being adventurous I tend to try "odd" stuff - hence the Aquavit I mention on my blog. But for mixing, a cheap whisky (sorry John!) like Bells or Grants does it for me! Dry Ginger being my favourite... Does that make sense? Hmmm, I've been drinking too...! :)
Nigel
Thu Nov 30 16:42:50 2006

Oh goodness!!! Her name wasn't Petrushka, was it?!?!?! :))
Nigel
Thu Nov 30 16:35:04 2006

MESSAGE
Petrushka
Thu Nov 30 16:28:06 2006

Bad, bad Sheri.
Sheri
Thu Nov 30 15:24:07 2006

Did you fuck her? Did you? Hu? Hu?
Sheri
Thu Nov 30 15:23:18 2006

I am totally drunk, but tonight I met one of the most beautiful Japanese women I have ever had the chance to have a dinner with... Tonight I wish I lived here! Nuff said...
Lox
Thu Nov 30 15:15:45 2006

Travis: narrowing it down a bit, if I'm just going to recommend one, I'm going to plunge for Highland Park. It's a tad more interesting than Macallan, but not quite as out-on-a-limb as Laphroaig or Lagavulin. It's a great all rounder - liked by whisky snobs and newcomers alike.
John
Thu Nov 30 15:06:08 2006

Glenlivet seemed to be the most commonly available in the Seattle area. Nothing wrong with it, but it's not the most interesting of malts, to my tastes at least.
John
Thu Nov 30 15:02:16 2006

...and then I had a problem with the word prob(ab)lem. I've been drinking you know.
John
Thu Nov 30 15:00:31 2006

Travis: sorry I had a probablem with wandering quotation marks in that last post - it was meant to read just "admixtures".
John
Thu Nov 30 15:00:02 2006

Travis: I'm not sure what "admixtures is to be honest"... Is this just liquors which go well in cocktails? I'm not really so up on my cocktails any more - the closest I get these days is the occasional bloody mary or gin and tonic. My main area of knowledge in this respect is of course whisky (Scotch), and I'm not personally a fan of any cocktails with whisky in - I generally don't like to mix whisky with anything else at all (apart from the occasional splash of water). If you're asking for a good generally available whisky, I would suggest Macallan, Laphroaig (pronounced La-froyg), Lagavulin or Highland Park. I'm not sure of the typical prices per bottle of these in the states, but in each case the "default bottling" at the youngest age is of a consistently good quality. I think I noticed all of these in bars on my last trip to Seattle.
John
Thu Nov 30 14:59:01 2006

I mean, I forgive you!
Sheri, Ze Snotty Frog
Thu Nov 30 14:47:07 2006

Why should you apologize, Travis?
Sheri
Thu Nov 30 14:42:44 2006

Sheri: Hmm. You're right. My apologies(es).
Travis
Thu Nov 30 14:26:33 2006

Kev: you're banned from la Maison!
Sheri
Thu Nov 30 14:21:21 2006

Travis: I'm no good at liquors. But if it's a wine you're interested in, I would suggest you a Château Lafite-Rothschild (or a Château Latour for the matter). It's a sexy little bordeaux which is available everywhere and remains affordable.
Sheri
Thu Nov 30 14:20:32 2006

Kev: hmmmm.... no I don't think ASP works like that does it? Even if you don't hang around to look at the response, it still tries to run the full script - at least that is my understanding. I think this problem was just the standard timeout issue - sometimes the server is busy or whatever and it just takes longer than usual to run the script. I think it is a pretty primitive measurement for when it times out - just if the overall time from start to finish is more than x seconds it gets killed - even if during that time the server was so busy doing other stuff that it didn't barely get a look-in.
John
Thu Nov 30 14:04:18 2006

Phew!!! :)))))
Nigel
Thu Nov 30 14:01:19 2006

I think it was me wot broke it! I made a post then, quit Firefox before it has shown me the "you have posted" page. I will be more careful in future.
Kev
Thu Nov 30 13:39:54 2006

Ladies and gentlemen, I have just returned home and fixed the massage board in approximately 1.5 minutes. I'm sorry for the inconvenience - it appears I cannot FTP any more from work, and after work I went out for dinner.
John
Thu Nov 30 13:30:00 2006

John (or anyone, but I address John because of his beautiful article in the past on a related subject): can anyone turn me on to a delightful liquor that walks a fine line between affordability and quality, and preferably one that is tasty either in admixtures or on its own (the end goal of my experiment)? I'd be most appreciative. And it should be available in the US.
Travis
Wed Nov 29 15:02:35 2006

John, if you read this, I am one again sorry for not having called. I have been given the mobile phone that I had before, maybe you still have the number, unfortunately I have NO MONEY to call anybody... :( Sorry they are really bursting my ass in these days, and I an netting a record in terms of hours slept, yesterday I went to bed at 1 am to wake at 3,30... nuff said... :(
Lox
Wed Nov 29 12:03:47 2006

Kev: GIVE UP DRINKING?!?! With what else do you propose I fill my meaningless existence?
John
Wed Nov 29 11:32:22 2006

Kev: glad to hear you're enjoying it, that's what it's all about after all.
John
Wed Nov 29 10:43:23 2006

Maybe you should take this opputunity to give up the the falling down water once and for all? Actually thats not a very good idea at all!!!
Kev
Wed Nov 29 10:42:18 2006

I think I may be back to normal today following my illness. Appetite has returned, as has my thirst for beer (almost a week since my last drink!). Tonight methinks a slapup meal and mild inebriation are in order!
John
Wed Nov 29 10:40:31 2006

Very busy. working 12 hour days but I am enjoying it lots.
Kev
Wed Nov 29 10:38:58 2006

Kev! How's tricks?
John
Wed Nov 29 10:34:54 2006

morning
Kev
Wed Nov 29 10:12:18 2006

Morning all!! :))
Nigel
Wed Nov 29 06:56:39 2006

Travis. So what ? I wrote "one of your little spermatozoa". What's wrong with that?
Sheri
Wed Nov 29 06:27:46 2006

Sheri: Spermatozoon is singular. -zoa is the plural form. Je m'en fous.
Travis
Wed Nov 29 05:49:24 2006

Nigel: It must be because of the shoulder!
Lox
Wed Nov 29 04:22:56 2006

Ah!! Of course!! How did I miss that?!?!? :)))
Nigel
Tue Nov 28 22:08:21 2006

Nigel: I can say that the second character means baby infact!
Lox
Tue Nov 28 22:03:02 2006

Evening all! Yep, Travis is right!! What a horrible word!! I was hoping the French version might be a bit more "romantic" but it turns out to be just as bad - spermatozoïde! I tried the translation for Japanese but my Unicodeless browser came up with "精子" which, I suppose, could be somehow symbolic...
Nigel
Tue Nov 28 21:27:04 2006

Travis. What the heck are you talking about ???
Sheri
Tue Nov 28 21:09:49 2006

Sheri: Spermatozoon is singular. Classics is l33t.
Travis
Tue Nov 28 16:01:25 2006

How about dyslexic, too? :D Anyways the most commented posts are a feature that I think should be featured, a nice idea Dsp!
Lox
Tue Nov 28 15:14:21 2006

;-)
Sheri
Tue Nov 28 14:27:12 2006

Or even dazzlingly.
John
Tue Nov 28 14:22:04 2006

You seemed to omit dazzingly intelligent from the list there Sheri, but otherwise I agree.
John
Tue Nov 28 14:21:20 2006

Sorry. Witty, I should have said. (not witted)
Sheri
Tue Nov 28 14:09:01 2006

I'm totally envious.
Sheri
Tue Nov 28 14:08:04 2006

There, there, John! No, you're not insignificant! Your life is absolutly thrilling and greatly inspiring. You're couragious, bold, even reckless. You laugh at danger. You're smooth, smart, witted. A sound, sagacious person. And you're just great in bed! A sex god, in fact.
Sheri
Tue Nov 28 14:07:00 2006

Sheri: no I've just been getting sidetracked reading back through old blog entries. Its interesting (to me at least) that during the times I went back to the UK in the last 18 months the number of comments on my blog always dropped. If Tim is indeed correct that this is a measure of popularity, then I fear my blog is about to nose dive at the end of this year! Not that it has been hugely interesting of late anyway...
John
Tue Nov 28 13:29:10 2006

oh God, I believe I shocked him! damn frog!
Sheri
Tue Nov 28 13:25:08 2006

Yes, John, why don't you do that?! Could be interesting. If not for the public at large, at least for a hypothetical John Hawkins Junior. Now that you're married, I'm sure one of your little spermatozoa wants to distinguish himself from the others and march on the Great Ovum of the Rising Sun.
Sheri
Tue Nov 28 11:39:39 2006

John: One metric you may able to easily use is the number of comments. You could aggregate by month, and also generate a reverse sorted list of most commented posts ever. This should be quick to do, and deadly effective!
dsp
Tue Nov 28 11:33:37 2006

Sorry "by drivellings" should read "my drivellings".
John
Tue Nov 28 11:26:32 2006

Sheri: I doubt by drivellings are really worthy of publishing, but it might be interesting to put together an abridged version at some point - highlights and lowlights from the 18 months (or whatever it comes to) I'll have spent in Japan. I guess this also relates to Tim's point about trying to some how pick out the more eventful entries from the stream of "I got up and went to work and came home later and had dinner and went to bed" type entries.
John
Tue Nov 28 11:26:02 2006

Sorry for the JohAn...
Sheri
Tue Nov 28 11:13:53 2006

Or: "Me, I, Myself", by John Hawkins
Sheri
Tue Nov 28 11:11:09 2006

Or "A history of my Life", by John Hawkins
Sheri
Tue Nov 28 11:09:36 2006

No problems John!! Thanks! I'll try another entry later tonight and see how it goes. I'm sure it'll be fine!! :))
Way to go Jimmy!!!
Nigel
Tue Nov 28 11:04:55 2006

John. I wonder. Do you print your stuff? I mean, your entries? Do you intend to publish them, once famous: "Johan Hawkins, my life"
Sheri
Tue Nov 28 11:04:26 2006

Hi everyone! I've just come back from a 4-day weekend. Also, I've got every Friday for the rest of the year off, so it's just a 3-day week for me. Yay!
Jimmy
Tue Nov 28 10:34:00 2006

Nigel: I hope you don't mind, I randomly selected your bit of the site for a trial run of the rebuild everything feature - I'm pleased to report it worked rather well. So now all your entries are imported from Greymatter, not that it really makes much difference, the HTML files look more or less the same whether Greymatter built them or SBM built them... but, errr, anyway, all in the name of progress!
John
Tue Nov 28 10:02:01 2006

Tim: maybe that's actually a good idea - it could be driven by some sort of user feedback for each entry ranging from "Yea, it was OK I suppose" down to "I wish my hand had fallen off before I clicked the link that brought me to this dreary bloody page".
John
Tue Nov 28 09:51:23 2006

John: To save lots of time and bandwidth could you modify your archive page to indicate if anything interesting happened in a particular month?
dsp
Tue Nov 28 09:33:09 2006

I've done a first trial run of the "rebuild absolutely bloody everything" button in SBM and it seems to more or less work - now all 1000 or so of my blog entries are imported across from Greymatter, there are archive indexes for every month I've posted in over the last four years, and not a CGI timeout in sight!
John
Tue Nov 28 09:24:39 2006

John: CHAPEAU!!! :) I am laughing like a demented in an office full of Japanese people all intent in pretending to do important work!!
Sheri: Nope, there were other 3 Japanese guys though... :(
Lox
Tue Nov 28 08:31:50 2006

Sheri: Trust you!! ;)))) John: LOL!!! :)))
Nigel
Tue Nov 28 07:30:43 2006

Without wanting to cast aspersions I have a feeling if there was a native here capable of drinking 5+ pints, she wouldn't be all that beautiful.
John
Tue Nov 28 07:23:01 2006

Morning. So, Lox, those five (or six) pints, have you been drinking them on your own, or with a beautiful native?
Sheri
Tue Nov 28 07:03:55 2006

Morning all!! :)
Travis: Don't know much about the subject, sadly. Is there a "separate" film industry for Eire?
Lox: How's the head? Recovered?
John: Ahh... Shoulders... A subject dear to my heart.. ! :)
Nigel
Tue Nov 28 06:49:54 2006

Lox: Yes I have recently been reading "The Evil Genius's Guide to Cruel User Interface Design". Seriously though, it won't really do anything at the moment - I only got half way into writing that last night when I became side tracked into a futile quest to try and find a decent flight back to the UK. As a result of that I became very agitated indeed (refer to yesterday's ranting), and possibly as a consequence I seemed to develop a sort of trapped nerve in my shoulder. This became particularly accute around 2:30AM this morning, and kindly woke me up in agony. So to cut a long story short, you can blame the airlines for the fact it doesn't work.
John
Tue Nov 28 04:37:30 2006

Travis: no sorry I've hardly ever seen any Irish films. I vaguely remember one involving a horse and that bloke off of Star Trek a few years ago, but I don't remember the name.
John
Tue Nov 28 04:31:03 2006

I have a question for you good Brits. Are any of you fans of Irish cinema? They seem to be quite good at making sentimental films about struggling families. I'm only posting now because I'm watching "Intermission", which I think is one of the better ones I've seen.
Travis
Tue Nov 28 03:57:11 2006

John: But the question stands, is it safe to push that button? PLEASE TELL ME!!
Lox
Tue Nov 28 00:49:20 2006

John: I HATE YOU!!!!! Did you really have to put that "Rebuild absolutely bloody everything" button with that comment!?!??! (Whatever you do don't push this button!). Now (of course) I have been staring at SBM page for a good 5 minutes, trembling in indecision, sweating, with watery eyes, trying to decide if it is the case to take the plunge or not...!!!
Lox
Tue Nov 28 00:36:04 2006

Good Morning Asia! John you're up by any chance?
Lox
Tue Nov 28 00:25:33 2006

Evening Maisoneers!! :) Happy to let you know I am enjoying a Guinness. Lox, you should know better than to drink Lager!!
Nigel
Mon Nov 27 17:42:13 2006

John: Sorry for not calling, it has been a dreadful day, I will try to contact you on your mobile tomorrow, hoping that they'll let me fart this time!!
Lox
Mon Nov 27 15:49:47 2006

I have no time for games, but I will in, say, two weeks. The semester will be through, and I'll be able to relax for a whole three weeks!
Travis
Mon Nov 27 15:39:54 2006

Good work Lox - sounds like you've got the business trip formula all wrapped up there mate!
John
Mon Nov 27 15:39:25 2006

Dsp: I am up for the Alliance how do we do it though?
Lox
Mon Nov 27 15:20:44 2006

I am hideously drunk (5 pints of larger), and it's soo late I can't bear the thought that I have to wake up tomorrow....
Lox
Mon Nov 27 15:17:04 2006

Instead of preparing my lesson for today, I've spent the last ten minutes reading through Chinese, French, and English jokes about the rectum. Good stuff.
Travis
Mon Nov 27 15:10:28 2006

...oh and all those bloody air miles I accumulated on all those sodding business trips are so weighed down with terms and conditions that they end up being pretty much bloody useless.
John
Mon Nov 27 14:17:01 2006

Has anyone else seen this game? Its like civilization online. I'm playing. We could have a Maison-De-Stuff alliance. http://www.cybernations.net/ Oh and don't forget the standard joke we make about Lox on matters like this.
dsp
Mon Nov 27 13:51:01 2006

Yea there are similar things with train tickets too. You know, I am a great advocate of public transport, but they really need to get their fucking act together! If I want to go from place A to place B it should be a standard cost, regardless of whether or not I want a return ticket, what time of day it is, how close it is to Christmas, how far ahead I book, which country I book in, which website I use, which agent I go through, or what bloody phase the moon is in. For christ's fucking sake airlines, ferry companies and train companies get it bloody well sorted! Rant over.
John
Mon Nov 27 13:40:31 2006

Not only airlines, John. When I was in England, they did it too with ferry tickets. Utter nonsense!
Sheri
Mon Nov 27 13:35:22 2006

Airlines are without a doubt the absolute twattiest of all companies, I am delighted so many of them have gone bankrupt.
John
Mon Nov 27 13:18:10 2006

Oh and if I go to the Air France UK site (previously was on the Air France Japan site) and ask for the same journey from there I get completely different prices.... AAAGAGAGGHAHAHGAGAGAHHHHH!!!!
John
Mon Nov 27 13:17:28 2006

I mean honestly, who in their right mind is actually going to pay for that one way ticket at three times the cost, rather than just getting a round trip ticket and throwing the return portion away? It's a totally stupid practice, and completely takes away my confidence in an airline to run any kind of sensible business.
John
Mon Nov 27 13:14:33 2006

(incidentally this is no particular complaint at Air France - it was just a case in point, and all other airlines operating Europe - Japan routes seem to do similar).
John
Mon Nov 27 13:12:26 2006

At the risk of not talking about arses for a moment, can anyone explain to me why airlines charge more for one way tickets than round trips? Is that not bloody stupid? For example, at the Air France website just now, I got two quotes for flights from Tokyo to Paris. The return flight came to about 600 quid, whilst the one way flight (on the same bloody plane) was a bloody rediculous 1800 quid. To add insult to injury, when you book a return flight, they actually tell you the individual costs of the outward and return flight - but you can't buy one separately at that price can you? AAAAAGGGHHHH!
John
Mon Nov 27 13:11:41 2006

Errrr.... does that mean the Chinese word for Audi is Sphincter...??!?
John
Mon Nov 27 13:01:22 2006

Which, oddly, when reverse translated back into English, comes out as: Audi said, "What?"
dsp
Mon Nov 27 12:38:17 2006

That joke works best in Chinese: 奥迪说了"什么"?
dsp
Mon Nov 27 12:37:06 2006

Sheri: Veuillez pour l'élasticité je, mon Français n'est pas ma compétence plus forte.
dsp
Mon Nov 27 12:35:09 2006

DSP. I think you meant to say: un sphincter dit 'quoi' ? And I know the joke...!
Sheri
Mon Nov 27 12:23:24 2006

John: Right! I got it!
Sheri
Mon Nov 27 12:20:53 2006

Trust the Maison to sink to the bottom... ;)))
Nigel
Mon Nov 27 11:17:55 2006

Un sphincter indique ce qui ?
dsp
Mon Nov 27 11:14:06 2006

Somehow it seems less dirty in French.
John
Mon Nov 27 11:11:12 2006

Sheri: En Angleterre nous avons beacoup de mots pour le derriere, et un de ces mots est "ring". Alors, il y a un double entrendre celui la!
John
Mon Nov 27 11:10:42 2006

Lox. You'd better squeeze your buttocks, I'm just behind you...
Sheri
Mon Nov 27 11:09:15 2006

Dsp, John: what pun??
Slow minded Sheri
Mon Nov 27 11:07:00 2006

Sheri: If you weren't married I'd mark you as "Gaylord" :D
Lox
Mon Nov 27 10:08:43 2006

dsp: oh and I've just noticed the pun in your last message - was that intentional?
John
Mon Nov 27 10:08:07 2006

dsp: it wasn't clear to me whether said radishes were naturally poisonous, or were just your average common-or-garden radishes coated with some form of toxin. Also are we talking the little round red radishes you get in the UK, or the longer and larger white varieties found in Japan and elsewhere?
John
Mon Nov 27 10:05:05 2006

Sheri - nice words. 'rectorum' does have a nice ring to it!
dsp
Mon Nov 27 09:31:59 2006

Or was it 'rectis, rectis' instead of 'rectibus, rectibus' ?
Sheri
Mon Nov 27 08:34:36 2006

I luuuve Latin. sg: Rectum, rectum, rectum, recti, recto, recto / pl: Recta, recta, recta, rectorum, rectibus, rectibus.
Sheri
Mon Nov 27 08:33:33 2006

First, if I were you, John, during the 'exit interview' I would complain about the unbearable bad breath of your boss. And I would add that his face looks like a congested rectum...
Sheri
Mon Nov 27 08:31:00 2006

Yes, what's all that fuss about poisonous radish? John, I didn't know a word such as 'rectal' was part of you vocabulary! You never cease to astonish me...
Sheri
Mon Nov 27 08:26:23 2006

I am worried to learn that there is poisonous variety of radish. Previously I have eaten them on trust. Now I must treat them with suspicion. Travis: you've robbed me of my innocence.
dsp
Mon Nov 27 07:46:52 2006

Morning all!! :)))
Poisonous radishes, eh? I wonder who discovered that was a useful trick? !!
A bit like "Bungee Jumping". I mean, who was it sat down and thought:" Hey, I wonder if that would work?"
Funny old world....
Nigel
Mon Nov 27 07:14:06 2006

Lox: yes, surely you of all people do not need a scheduled meeting in order to complain. :)
John
Mon Nov 27 05:26:54 2006

Travis: I'm not sure if I should be reassured or worried by the fact that a topic which (apparently) includes rectal insertion of toxic vegetables initially struck you as boring.
John
Mon Nov 27 05:24:06 2006

Yea well predictably it wasn't the all out whingefest I would have hoped for - I hadn't ever met that HR guy before, and he didn't really know much of the context in which I work in (which arguably is a problem in itself!) but anyway, I ended up delivering a fairly toned down version of the rant. This is always the way, the day you decide to resign you're filled with fire and anger, but somehow between then and your actual last day it oddly seems to sort of fizzle out.
John
Mon Nov 27 05:21:28 2006

John: Was it absolutely crap? I've never had a formal exit interview, thankfully. In fact, I recall once giving two weeks notice to my boss. He never looked at me, just said, "We'll be getting Jamie back around that time." I was hardly heartbroken.
Travis
Mon Nov 27 04:43:09 2006

Eexit Interview"... That ought to be a very American thing, I never got the chance to tell my employers how crap they were (officially), though I did do it without being asked... :D
Lox
Mon Nov 27 04:00:13 2006

I like it, John. I'm trying to find useful info about these poisonous radishes that were inserted into the rectum. Great stuff!
Travis
Mon Nov 27 01:25:26 2006

So I'm still not feeling 100%, but am going into the office today anyway, spurred on by the fact I have an "exit interview" today, where hopefully I will get an hour sitting in a room with some HR guy to tell him just how crap it has been working for this company over the last year and a bit. That ought to be quite gratifying.
John
Mon Nov 27 00:23:10 2006

By the way Lox, did you get any sleep last night? I'm guessing from the time of your last post not a great deal!
John
Sun Nov 26 23:57:39 2006

...or some sort of contraption which repeatedly bashes the victim's elbow on the corner of a desk... that always smarts.
John
Sun Nov 26 23:56:44 2006

Travis: can't you spice up your presentation on Athenian punishment a bit, by adding in a few methods of torture of your own? For example - the human fondue - where they'd dip the unfortunate victim into a giant vat of molten cheese? The type of cheese used could have been varied to suit the severity of the crime. If it's really bad, then you're going to get dunked in liquid Babybel. Ewww.
John
Sun Nov 26 23:54:58 2006

Travis: You might want to read my last blog entry it's about classics, I am sure you'll find it interesting. :D
Lox
Sun Nov 26 21:29:55 2006

Thanks, Lox. I initially figured that it meant "what" or "which", but I can't remember the rest of the quote, and it didn't seem to mean "what" later on in the quote. I'll try to get it, but it's in a restaurant that I do not frequent. I'll send along the paper when ready; I'm currently reading Aristotle's work on the Athenian Constitution. So much unlike his other work!
Travis
Sun Nov 26 21:23:56 2006

Travis: I'd be interested in reading the paper too... If you don't mind send it along. as for "che" as Sheri pointed out, it is a conjunction normally used to say "what", said by itself has that meaning... If you put it into context it's going to be easier for me to give you a right answer..
Lox
Sun Nov 26 20:58:33 2006

Sheri: Boring to me. I don't care about the history of events. I care about ideas. They're always relevant. My presentation is Thursday; let me finish the paper first :) Then I'll send you what I have.
Travis
Sun Nov 26 20:15:29 2006

Che: depends of the context. Ma che coglione! What a moron!
Sheri
Sun Nov 26 16:59:49 2006

Punishment? Boring?! Send me your stuff!
Sheri
Sun Nov 26 16:55:41 2006

Ello, ello. (Not to be confused with Ellis, Ellis, Where the Hell is Ellis?). I'm attempting to slack off some more before doing a ton of work this week; I present a paper on punishment in ancient Athens on Thursday, which will be dreadfully boring to me in all likelihood. In the the meantime, I ask any Italian speakers among us: what does "che" mean? I hope I'm remembering it correctly, but I saw it almost a month ago on a poster, and I can't recall enough of the rest of it to explain better.
Travis
Sun Nov 26 16:03:49 2006

That trick is achieved with the following kind of tag in the results page: <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1;URL=http://www.site.com/rebuild.asp?start=1&end=10" />

...then in the next page:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1;URL=http://www.site.com/rebuild.asp?start=11&end=20" />

...and the next page...

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5;URL=http://www.site.com/rebuild.asp?start=21&end=30" />

...and so on.
John
Sun Nov 26 14:19:46 2006

John: I see I'll give it a go later! Now it's Ofuro time!
Lox
Sun Nov 26 14:13:44 2006

Eventually I'll try to put a feature in to rebuild everything with a single click - in Greymatter there was this slightly hacky thing whereby the results page for each HTTP post would automatically kick off another HTTP post. Maybe I can do something similar.
John
Sun Nov 26 14:11:34 2006

No it's not a single click at the moment - you have to do it month by month. Please feel free to have a go at clicking one of the new buttons - if anything goes wrong you shouldn't lose any of your entries or anything. You'll see when you click any of these three new buttons that you're asked for a year/month, and it'll then just rebuild/list/edit/whatever entries for that month. It seems the script can happily deal with 30 or so entries in one go without any timeout problems, but I fear if I tried to do more than that it would crap out just like it used to with Greymatter.
John
Sun Nov 26 14:08:40 2006

John: Wow so we can export all the fles from GM to SBM in one click and have them as Xtml instead than cgi, correct? Does it work by the way? Before I delete my entire blog entries... you know... :D
Lox
Sun Nov 26 13:59:26 2006

Lox: thanks for the number - will give you a call tomorrow then if I don't hear from you first! As for the message in the SBM menu, yes I had you in mind specifically when writing that :) Those new features let you manage "archived entries" - so basically I've used similar ideas to Greymatter - you have a set of "recent entries" (the newest 20) and these appear on your main page. Older entries are indexed in monthly archives (for example see here). Entries are imported across from Greymatter as and when needed - so for example, the first time you rebuild the archived index / entry files for, say, March 2006, then all the relevant Greymatter .cgi files representing the entries in that range would be read and corresponding .xml files would be saved.
John
Sun Nov 26 13:43:05 2006

John: What does it mean "use the following menus if you are not going to complain"?!?! :) I mean what do they actually do, import all of the previous entries and rebuild the archive html file? Quite nifty!
Lox
Sun Nov 26 13:04:06 2006

Jhon: I am in Jutenji - Meguro Tokuy Stay. number is 03-5721-1108 room number 314... I'd call but I have no money to buy the phone card (strange hotel thins one), if you can call me, otherwise I'll call you in the morning tomorrow!
Lox
Sun Nov 26 13:02:25 2006

Lox: Whereabouts in Tokyo is your hotel?
John
Sun Nov 26 12:32:28 2006

Yep, I find every time I do a long haul flight I discover a whole new way to fail to cope with the jetlag properly!
John
Sun Nov 26 12:27:09 2006

Ciao John, yes you are quite right, I will try to see where the jet lag takes me. I am going to eat some shite (Macdonad maybe) then a lonnnngggg Ofuro, then we'll see. There is football on the radio today so I might listen to that as well... :) As for caffeine, in the morning I usually get a lot of that here in Japan, after so many years of jet lags (on either side of Europe) I have my little series of "must do" that in my mind prevent the jetlag from striking (a big fat lie of course!!)
Lox
Sun Nov 26 12:18:45 2006

...and remember to ply yourself with caffeine Monday morning! One of the good things about working at (the well known software company)'s US HQ is that they've got big fridges full of free canned drinks. They're always very well stocked and typically about 30 or so varieties to choose from, many of them with a fair bit of caffeine in (Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, etc). Of course, after a day of going overboard with those, my teeth hurt and my stomach feels a bit dodgy, but at least my eyes stay open!
John
Sun Nov 26 12:05:35 2006

Lox: I think I did a similar thing when I went to Seattle last time - arrived at something like 11AM on Sunday morning, went to bed just after lunch for a "short nap", didn't wake up until 9PM and then couldn't sleep all night after that. I went and did a full day's work on Monday too. My advice is if you can't sleep tonight, don't try to force it, you'll only end up spending hours lying awake in bed and getting very frustrated. I think you'd be much better off just getting up and trying to use the time constructively - it sounds like you've got your laptop with you and your hotel room has internet access. I did most of the groundwork for the new blog engine during that Sunday night in Seattle.
John
Sun Nov 26 12:00:51 2006

Sheri: there's no way to do disable comments for a specific entry at the moment, but hopefully you shouldn't get any new spam of that sort since I put in the filtering on incoming comments.
John
Sun Nov 26 11:55:02 2006

YAAAWWWNNNNN I just woke up.. Very bad sleeping on Sunday afternoon, tonight I will not sleep at all,... CRAP!
Lox
Sun Nov 26 11:16:16 2006

Morning Maisoneers!!! :)))
Nigel
Sun Nov 26 08:49:01 2006

John. I can suppress comments. But how can I close an entry to any comment? I keep getting (Italian!) spams on my entry entitled 'taking part in the vendanges'.
Sheri
Sun Nov 26 08:04:26 2006

OK Lox, hope you can sleep OK.
John
Sun Nov 26 05:07:21 2006

I am in Japan now!! And I am about to go to bed because I am totally knackered! John will give you a call tomorrow! Ciaocaio
Lox
Sun Nov 26 04:16:25 2006

dsp: it's basically just posts with HTML or URLs isn't it? I am veering towards the same approach as the message board - for anything but short plain text comments you'll need a password. Plus this has to be coupled with an easy mechanism for deleting for any that slip through the net. I think trying to do anything more intelligent than this is just going to devolve into an endless game of cat and mouse.
John
Sun Nov 26 00:01:49 2006

Hi Tom: Sorry to hear your woes!! Maybe Ubuntu would be a better bet? (http://www.vmware.com/support/server/doc/releasenotes_server.html) They mention Red Hat Enterprize and Solaris, but not Fedora...
Though please note I've never used VMWre before, though I might like to try!!! I have recently installed Virtual PC and tested some VMs - including Linux's. I can see it's pretty slow, but I'm only doing it for fun!! :))

Travis: A plot?!?!?! Surely not!!! ;))))))))
Nigel
Sat Nov 25 22:35:35 2006

Evenin' all... Have rebuilt the house server twice today. Trying to build a VMware server. Have had ALL sorts of fun issues. The last straw for Fedora was that it won't build a kernel module for VMWare. I'm going hardcore and trying Gentoo!
tom
Sat Nov 25 21:29:42 2006

Hi guys. Good work John. The spam stuff is a problem on my blog too. I have written an ASP IsSpam function which I have to modify occasionally to keep up with the spammers. They've adapted to my strategy of keep renaming my update page. I'm just going to have to open up a can of Bayesian on their ass! That'll learn 'em!
dsp
Sat Nov 25 17:32:20 2006

Will be back at my home in less than 12 hours; I'll read through all you've sent me. Thanks, John! Nigel: I don't think you'll be disappointed. There's actually a plot in this film. A plot! In a Bond film! Couldn't say that about the Brosnan films.
Travis
Sat Nov 25 16:34:32 2006

...actually by the time you read this again "Welcome to Japan" will be more appropriate...!
John
Sat Nov 25 12:31:02 2006

Sorry Lox, I don't think anyone was checking the board during that 15 minute interval...! Anyway, bon voyage!
John
Sat Nov 25 12:30:32 2006

Ok it was fun now it´s time to board the plane! Ciaooooooo!
Lox
Sat Nov 25 11:48:01 2006

I suggest that we store the backup in a place where noone lives, so that we cannot be traced. Then we send bits of the keys to all the members, and of course we use Mona Lisa to hide the secret code to reunite the keys and all.. Lovely, I could write a book about it!!
Lox
Sat Nov 25 11:47:37 2006

The comment enditing bit is great, my best compliments to you John. Now I think the time has come to ask for another implementation on the blog engine. I´d find it particularly useful if you could put something that returns correct Lottey draws one or two days before they actually happen. I don´t think it should be all that hard to make... :D
Lox
Sat Nov 25 11:45:40 2006

John: Removing HTML does it means that will block us from using tags such as "BOLD" and "ITALIC"?
Lox
Sat Nov 25 11:33:43 2006

Ciao everyone, I am in Frankfurt at the moment, ready to go to Tokyo next. Apparently I am going to be sitting next to a KID, which means that I might actually end up in jail at the end of the trip or win my place in the Zen heaven for putting up with the pest (assuming that the kid misbehaves)...
Lox
Sat Nov 25 11:33:11 2006

LOL!! :))))))))))))) Good point!!
Nigel
Sat Nov 25 09:07:09 2006

Yes I too was rather entertained by that same line of thinking Nigel. The first time I did the backup it basically took about three days to download everything. Assuming uploading is as slow, it may well actually be quicker to fly half way round the world and retrieve a DVD to restore the site after a failure than to try and upload it all over again.
John
Sat Nov 25 08:47:16 2006

... although, of course, we do have Maisoneers in France and the US!!! (Still, anything to get out of going to Tescos!!!)
Nigel
Sat Nov 25 08:43:10 2006

I like the worldwide DVD distribution idea! Given I think you mentioned liking coin-lockers in a blog entry John, I rather like the idea of keeping copies of the Maison at various points in left-luggage lockers. Then, should anything catastrophic happen, one of us could go to, say, Charles de Gaulle airport and retrieve a copy. Wearing dark glasses with out coat collar turned up of course!!! ;))))) I could say to Joc: "Sorry darling, I must fly out to LAX today and retrieve some important documents. It's vital. Tescos can wait..."
Nigel
Sat Nov 25 08:36:59 2006

You're welcome Nigel. By the way, on the subject of backing up, I'm still doing semi-regular backups of the entire site - roughly speaking once a week. I also burn the whole lot onto a DVD now and again. So should you ever find you accidentally delete a file or something, just let me know, I've probably got a backup of it. Oh and if anyone would like one of the DVDs for any reason, let me know, I'd be more than happy to stick one in the post - besides anything else it is a good backup principle to keep copies in geographically distinct locations. :)
John
Sat Nov 25 08:24:21 2006

Thanks John!! :))
I think I've now completely backed up my area of the site - took a while but was worth the effort. The only thing I didn't save was other people's comments. Which with hindsight maybe I should have...
What I now have is a piece of note-organising software (Treepad) and each entry is just a "node" of the blog "tree". In fact though I registered this software, I'm using the free "Lite" version for the job. The photos are under the watchful eye of PhotoStudio. So all-in-all a nice, compact and easy to maintain local copy of my blog!
(Just thought I'd mention this!!! :)))))
Nigel
Sat Nov 25 08:16:52 2006

OK I think that's the worst of it scrubbed off Nigel. As I say, hopefully this will be less of a problem in the future - with any luck the filtering I added today will stop these kinds of spam ridden comments ever getting on there in the first place.
John
Sat Nov 25 08:08:56 2006

It would be my pleasure Nigel. Hopefully from now on there should be less of this sort of thing, what with the new measures I've put in place today.
John
Sat Nov 25 08:01:33 2006

Hi John. Good grief, so there is! Hadn't noticed it. Please could you remove it John? I'd rather try my hand on a smaller sample when I have a go...!
Nigel
Sat Nov 25 07:58:14 2006

Nigel - I think there's some spam on one of your entries (this one) - shall I delete it for you, or would you like the gratification of doing it yourself?
John
Sat Nov 25 07:52:40 2006

Morning all!! :)
Thanks for the hard work John!! :)
Travis: If you recommend Casino Royale then it must be ok. I'll consider changing my views then!!! ;)))))
Well, it's still pouring with rain here, "Still" in the sense that it rained most of yesterday and was raining when I retired for the evening!
Nigel
Sat Nov 25 07:47:49 2006

Travis - I've done the upgrade now, and mailed you the details. As I've said to everyone else, it is a completely new system so no doubt there are still some bugs to iron out, but it seems to be more or less working for the basics at least.
John
Sat Nov 25 06:52:36 2006

Travis: I am currently "upgrading" you to the new blog engine - will email you the details when it is up and running.
John
Sat Nov 25 06:19:30 2006

OK so I've made my comment posting improvements now. On the first front, I've put in some simple checks for incoming comments. It seems most of the spam we get includes a big list of URLs. I didn't want to disable URL posting altogether, as occasionally genuine comments include a URL. So instead I've put something in which looks for URLs and rejects comments with more than one in. I've also got it rejecting comments with HTML in. I've also improved the comment deleting feature to make it a bit easier to delete multiple comments at a time, although for the time being it is still on a per entry basis. Ideally it would be nice to have something which let you delete comments across multiple entries at a time, although I think that could involve quite a lot of work.
John
Sat Nov 25 06:07:14 2006

Lox: actually I think there's some spam on Sheri's and maybe even Nigel's blog too. They're pretty indiscriminate these spammers! More to the point though, why are you awake at this ungodly hour? Are you flying to Japan today?
John
Sat Nov 25 05:54:56 2006

John: The thing that I don't understand is the fact that they don't seem to attack other blogs. I guess yours has been around for longer meaning that the spiders might find it more interesting... Oh well as long as they are out of the way!
Lox
Sat Nov 25 05:39:41 2006

Still posting from the in-laws' place. All is well. I recommend Casino Royale. See it today.
Travis
Sat Nov 25 04:21:58 2006

Lox: yes they never give up do they? Quite irritating. Anyway, I'm going to do a two pronged attack on this. First off I'm going to add some checking for incoming comments. Secondly I'm going to try and improve the comment deleting feature to make it easier to delete comments en masse.
John
Sat Nov 25 03:20:38 2006

Have a good weekend everyone.
Mad Mumsie
Fri Nov 24 17:05:04 2006

John: For some strange reason you have been targeted by a spammer on your first post about Ize Peninsula.... I think that the comment editing feature is going to be next!
Lox
Fri Nov 24 13:59:39 2006

Isn't it amazing how many different ways there are to say "Hello"
Mad Mumsie
Fri Nov 24 12:54:23 2006

Orwight?
Tim's mum
Fri Nov 24 12:21:00 2006

MM. *Hairlair* ? (for a posh, snobby *hello*? )
Sheri
Fri Nov 24 10:33:58 2006

Well a brisk morning so far.. Dropped Tim off at school, into the bank to talk "big subjects", prescriptions, Post Office.... Guess what? Time for a cup of ...
Nigel
Fri Nov 24 10:27:23 2006

Hairlair everyone.
Mad Mumsie
Fri Nov 24 08:56:08 2006

Ciao Nigel, good morning!
Lox
Fri Nov 24 07:47:25 2006

Bonjour mes amis!! :))))
Nigel
Fri Nov 24 07:00:47 2006

John: It seems that the little camera that appears next to the links on the mainpage, needs a space of distance from the title... It's all stuck to the characters.... :P
Lox
Thu Nov 23 20:51:35 2006

TM: Wow.... Let's hope she's right then! :D
Lox
Thu Nov 23 13:50:31 2006

Jimmy: I'll give it a look, and I'll get back to you. All: I'm now about to head off to the in-laws' place for Thanksgiving dinner. Wish me luck. And although you don't celebrate the holiday, have a great day, everyone.
Travis
Thu Nov 23 13:47:09 2006

Lox: from someone's blog I visit. She said when Mercury was going retrograde that computers and machinery would play up and it was about the time that things went wrong on here! (your fridge door fell off too!) So it figures that after 24th all will be well! Lets see huh?! :o)
Tim's mum
Thu Nov 23 12:56:46 2006

TM - thank God for that! :)
Mad Mumsie
Thu Nov 23 12:56:38 2006

Er... Makes perfect sense... :(
Well that was nice - a rare treat. Joc and I headed for the local Costa Coffee had nice Danishes and Capuccino / Mochas! Isobel at nursery, Tim in school. I could get used to this. Hope I don't have to wait until retirement though ..!! :)
MM/Sheri: Yes we've had lashings of rain. wind and glorious sun... Hopefully it doesn't make it to London or Vienne!!!
Nigel
Thu Nov 23 12:21:27 2006

Before I delete it I wanted to make you aware that the message below was reciting the following message (from Chinese):

Newspaper extravagant 謌 near code � 褌 qiong " 鱚 � runs over with a vehicle spicily 褌 � - 鴈, � kneels Guangdong � marrow daimei tortoiseshell Zhan 鉐鰰 the ju � 28.8 vast domain � spicy � � near fragrant-flowered garlic fa 鸙 pliers 驫 to dig 鉐 鴾 � � � 釶 鱚 satirizes spicily �� 艢 辷 reddish brown 鴾. � ge 矼 yang lizard � � 韲 � 竡 Guan Jun珸 Guangdong 鞐. Stabs the fine jade spicily 葹 � 艢 鞐 �.

Nuff said...
Lox
Thu Nov 23 12:12:36 2006

TM: Where did you get that piece of info by the way?
Lox
Thu Nov 23 12:10:03 2006

'Mercury comes out of retrograde on the 24th November, so our computers should be working better, our travelling should be smoother and hopefully some of our heavy feelings should lighten' - thought you might like to know that!
Tim's mum
Thu Nov 23 12:03:16 2006

MM: I just guessed actually, and it might be more towards 3000 Kilometers, not miles... Oh well... :P
Lox
Thu Nov 23 10:56:27 2006

Lox, are you sure it's 3,000 miles (or is that kilometres) cos I though Rome was 1,000 miles from London.
Mad Mumsie
Thu Nov 23 10:54:55 2006

Lox, Nigel, MM: And I'm in between! Sunny and cloudy.
Sheri
Thu Nov 23 10:45:30 2006

Nigel: you don't have to go as far south as Florence - not a clioud in the sky in London. I suspect you are going to send us whatever it is you have for a little later in the day! :)
Mad Mumsie
Thu Nov 23 10:18:17 2006

Travis: do you mean the option to have a tab shown, even if there's only one? Toggle with: Tools -> Options -> Tabs -> "Always show the tab bar"
Jimmy
Thu Nov 23 09:14:12 2006

I think I'd rather be in Florence this morning!! :)
Nigel
Thu Nov 23 07:46:08 2006

On the contrary 3000 miles south it's sunny but quite brisk...
Lox
Thu Nov 23 07:33:15 2006

Morning!! :)) And a cold, damp and misty one it is too!!
Nigel
Thu Nov 23 07:24:19 2006

Morning all!
Lox
Thu Nov 23 07:14:21 2006

Also, when I open a new window, a new blank tab always opens on the original browse window. Maybe I should just uninstall and reinstall it.
Travis
Wed Nov 22 22:50:19 2006

Hmmmm... Odd, travis. You are talking very basic functionality. I mean Ctrl+F does a search within a page, but that's rudimentary Windows stuff... Baffling.... :|
Nigel
Wed Nov 22 17:35:51 2006

Travis: Strange... I have used FF2.0 since it came out and I am totally happy. I used an hack to move the close button of the tabs in its old position, but for the rest it is brilliant!
Lox
Wed Nov 22 17:10:54 2006

"Can't do searches within a page"??? What do you mean?
Jimmy
Wed Nov 22 16:10:59 2006

I've just downloaded Opera. I loved Firefox, but I downloaded the new version (2.0) about three weeks ago, and I've had nothing but problems. I can't do searches within the page, I can't click in my history box and highlight a URL and then go there just by clicking it. Any recommendations? Is Opera the way to go? Is there a fix for FF2.0?
Travis
Wed Nov 22 15:20:12 2006

MM: Cinemax (I think), one of our cable channels, showed all of the Star Wars films last week, the whole cycle more than once, I believe. I had to tune in for some of it, but couldn't watch it all. In other news, my Ancient City class watched a video pertaining to the port city of Ostia. There was a professor from Reading in the film. I'll find her name. Perhaps some of you know her.
Travis
Wed Nov 22 15:13:28 2006

Lox: Rob is intending to hold a Star Wars bonanza. Showing all six in one day. Absolutely barking!!!
Mad Mumsie
Wed Nov 22 13:21:01 2006

MM: Time has come to start teaching her about Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings, I am sure that Rob is already working at it! :)
Lox
Wed Nov 22 10:58:09 2006

Finger Trouble 3 years OLD. :)
Mad Mumsie
Wed Nov 22 10:55:02 2006

Bethan (3 years olf) will sit and watch The Curse of the Were Rabbit almost without moving. One of the few things that will hold her attention for that length of time. Go for it!!
Mad Mumsie
Wed Nov 22 10:54:20 2006

Hi MM. Quite right. We've not watched the latest film yet - that's the one we need to sit together etc. We did sit and watch The Wrong trousers some time back but it scared him for some reason! I blame the rubber glove! :(
Nigel
Wed Nov 22 09:58:22 2006

Morning all: Talking of Wallace and Gromit, Nigel have you watched it yet. If I remember correctly you had to wait to watch it with your son. Believe me, as with all W and G stuff its what's going on in the background that you miss first time round, that makes each viewing a new experience.
Mad Mumsie
Wed Nov 22 09:53:30 2006

True :))) But with a better fashion-sense when it comes to trousers!!! ;)
Nigel
Wed Nov 22 09:27:37 2006

In my wild imagery, Nigel is like Wallace (of Wallace and Gromit) but instead of cheese he loves tea! :)
Lox
Wed Nov 22 09:19:30 2006

Ah... Cup of tea! Sounds a good idea!! :)))
Nigel
Wed Nov 22 09:14:58 2006

First cup of tea in the new house!!! :) Rejoicing!
Lox
Wed Nov 22 09:07:52 2006

Bonjour!
Sheri
Wed Nov 22 08:32:22 2006

morning
Kev
Wed Nov 22 08:10:01 2006

Yawn!!! Morning Maisoneers!! :)
Nigel
Wed Nov 22 07:05:38 2006

Morning...
Lox
Wed Nov 22 07:05:31 2006

Ok. I'll try first thing tomorrow. Off to my classes.
Sheri
Tue Nov 21 16:14:25 2006

Ha!! Never!! :)))) What you need to do Sheri is post a blog entry. As happened to Lox and me your main page menu will disappear and then John will fix it (he's a good sort!!) Ta-da!! Magic!! ;)))))))
Nigel
Tue Nov 21 15:11:05 2006

On strike (for being overlooked)
Sheri
Tue Nov 21 15:03:16 2006

Morning All!!! :)))
I'm sure you'll find it a splendid machine, Lox!! And dual-booting to XP when you need to is really easy and surprisingly good!
Nigel
Tue Nov 21 07:49:38 2006

Morning.... Nigel: I think it's going to be a normal Mac Book, the pro version is too expensive...
Lox
Tue Nov 21 07:17:53 2006

Sheri: I'm going to be away from my computer for a day or too, so I can't upgrade you until later this week - why not just try posting with the existing system, it'll either work or it won't, and I don't think anything that might break will delete any of your existing entries (just you might lose your main page temporarily, but the content is all stored safely away in separate files).
John
Tue Nov 21 01:32:16 2006

Mac Book, or Mac Book Pro, Lox? Yes, I know what you mean though. Themes personalise an O/S or App and make it feel more "comfortable" I guess!
Nigel
Mon Nov 20 23:27:39 2006

I have been recently downloading themes for FFox and TBird. The notion that when I will buy my Mac Laptop I'll be able to simply copy it all onto the new system makes the effort seem so rewarding! :D
Lox
Mon Nov 20 22:30:33 2006

Sheri: Little tip on IT people. If the system works, even if it is sinking, they will never touch it. If it breaks horribly and "users" complain, then they will react much quicker. Ah, and remember to tell him how great he is and all of that, so that later we can ask him to put additional features like DELETING ENTRIES (which I can understand it's quite difficult to make) or some other useless stuff :D:D:D:D
Lox
Mon Nov 20 21:34:39 2006

Love captain picard! I bet he'd look funny with hair.
Tim's mum
Mon Nov 20 21:25:37 2006

Thanks Kev! Lox: I don't want to court disaster (or tempt the devil as they say in French). I'll wait for Super John's consent.
Sheri
Mon Nov 20 21:11:40 2006

Crazy stuff.... :D
Lox
Mon Nov 20 21:06:19 2006

Check out Captain Picard
dsp
Mon Nov 20 19:46:13 2006

Very good point Lox! You'd think they'd realise they weren't going to get a sale and move on. Sadly (some) people in the UK these days think bullying will get results. 'Cos that's what it is...
Nigel
Mon Nov 20 17:35:59 2006

Well but if you say that you are not interested, WHAT IS THE POINT IN INSISTING??!? Beats me...
Lox
Mon Nov 20 17:24:53 2006

Yeah, I could pretent to be the owner's son.... Well, maybe not!!
Lox: They plague us here in the UK. These salemen are organised and do an area each day. They get quite rude if you dare to challenge them (not all, to be fair, but some) I just stonewalled this guy. I told him what I pay for my phone service is none of his business! He didn't like it though and I could sense him "bristling".
Double glazing ones - as Jimmy mentions - can be pretty snotty. As we are the only house in our street with wooden windows, they head straight for us!
Nigel
Mon Nov 20 17:06:45 2006

Excellent idea! I'll claim to be the cleaner in future :)
Jimmy
Mon Nov 20 17:00:28 2006

tell them you are not the house owner. I pretend to be the cleaner.
Tim's mum
Mon Nov 20 16:46:28 2006

Jimmy: I don't get it, what's the point in getting the person angry? I really don't understand... Salesman here in Italy very rarely come door to door, nobody trust them so they probably wouldn't even get the door opened in the first instance...
Lox
Mon Nov 20 16:43:45 2006

That's dreadful, Nigel. I really hate poeple like that- I had a double-glazing salesman who wouldn't go, so I had to call the police. But the bastards didn't turn-up so things got pretty nasty. Door-to-door salesman are scum.
Jimmy
Mon Nov 20 16:38:15 2006

Nigel: Define: TalkTalk... .:P
Lox
Mon Nov 20 16:25:51 2006

Just had a guy knocking on the door from TalkTalk wanting to know if I'd had my phone bill lowered recently, as it should have been. I told him it was none of his business as I don't use TalkTalk... He was NOT pleased at all and took some shifting... What is it with these people.They think they have carte blanche to enter my property and start asking impertinent questions!!! And if I have the temerity to object I'm some kind of misfit... Grrrr!!!! (Ok, maybe I am...)
Nigel
Mon Nov 20 15:14:44 2006

Sheri: Try, save the piece in a .txt file so that you don't loose it. The worst that can happen is that it just doesn't work...
Lox
Mon Nov 20 14:56:10 2006

Sheri, I think you bit of the maison looks like its not yet been upgraded ( the fonts and stylesheets seem different from Nigels and Loxs bit ) I think if you post it might well break! You need Super John to work his asp magic I think!!!!
kev
Mon Nov 20 14:25:18 2006

I mean, I woudn't want a computer crash...(with me, you never know)
Sheri
Mon Nov 20 13:39:33 2006

So, can I post, yes or no?!!!!
Sheri
Mon Nov 20 13:38:08 2006

A-ha! This piece of software has clearly come-on in leaps and bounds since I looked at it last (about 2 years ago). It loads the latest documents, and correctly displays all the tables and graphics. I'll have to give it a bit more of a hammering to convince myself it's man-enough for the job, but it does look extremely promising ...
Jimmy
Mon Nov 20 13:37:38 2006

John: Well not exactly, let's say that I get MSO for free as well, so money didn't play a part in the choice. Nigel is correct though there are bits where OO doesn't behave as MSO taught us to expect, but all in all I see little differences and I consider myself quite a power user as I do play around a lot with macros, tables and graphs...
Lox
Mon Nov 20 13:07:08 2006

Yes, OO is fine, though I still find it a bit "clunky". However they have made real strides in closing the gaps between them and MSO. As I understand it (John might be able to verify :)) weren't MS talking about migrating to an XML format for documents? I might have misunderstood this bit. In a way I think we should buy StarOffice, which is what funds OpenOffice to some extent (through SUN). WordPerfect (my personal favourite for many years) is now much too bloated, like it's rival. At least Corel flirted with "Online Apps" and then realised it wasn't so solid an idea...
Nigel
Mon Nov 20 12:39:34 2006

Lox: "I wanted something light but fully functional"...

As though your main reason for choosing Open Office was anything other than the fact it was free! (not that there's anything wrong with that of course...)
John
Mon Nov 20 12:12:42 2006

Lox- that's very interesting. I think I may download it & have a play. If it really does what I need, then it answers my web-app gripes at a stroke!
Jimmy
Mon Nov 20 11:01:30 2006

Jimmy: I have been using OO solid for the last year and I cannot think about going back to MSO, it has the same functions but it's not a system hog as the MS counterpart. I wanted something light but fully functional, and I am quite happy with what I have got. As for MS changing standards I see it very difficult because of backward compatibility, they must ensure that even Office 0.5 will work on new systems, so they must stick to a certain canvas. This is my opinion of course, but the OpenSource community has been quite quick to adjust to all the novelties that get thrown at them every now and then...
Lox
Mon Nov 20 10:39:29 2006

Lox- very true. I think it has an image problem, though- but (if that can be overcome) it might *well* become the alternative we've all been looking for. It used to have only limited compatibility, which effectively made it useless from an interop perspective. It might well have 100% compatibility today (does it??) but what's to stop MS changing the format of word-docs in the future, just to scupper the whole thing? There may well be answers to these questions, but I don't know what they are ... which must imply that millions of others don't know either ... hence the image problem. Do you know the answers? I'm actually very keen to know if OpenOffice is really any good.
Jimmy
Mon Nov 20 10:27:37 2006

Jimmy: Sorry but Open Office? I have it on all my computers, light, fast and completely compatible with MS applications (as far as my experience tells me)... It's already out there! The apps on the net might be good, but I feel that they are not inventing anything new there, it's just another way to get as many people as possible in their user base to boast impressions when they do their milk round for adverts...
Lox
Mon Nov 20 10:16:51 2006

Hmmm. Very good points guys. I think another angle has to be the necessity of a broadband connection. True it's now more of a "utility" than a "luxury", but having software systems that rely completely on connectivity gives way too much power to potential terrorists or anarchists... A constant data stream is much easier to trace and attack than a quick burst of data.
Nigel
Mon Nov 20 10:16:24 2006

Jimmy. No, no crime mystery. I'm busy writing the synopsis of a decadent 'love' story.
Sheri
Mon Nov 20 10:16:01 2006

John- I'm sure it's very useful for people who like to use the same low spec laptop to control heavy duty tasks concurrently all over the globe. Also for those who need to effortlessly flip between XP, Vista and Mac OS X without changing keyboard or display and without rebooting, I'm sure it's an absolute God-send. But most people don't, and they just want a word-processor or spreadsheet. The whole problem has come about (imho) because office software is far too expensive, and so un-interoperable that it's essential to buy the MS version, otherwise you can't read 90% of the world's documents. The correct solution to the problem is high interoperability between office products, which will increase competition and drive prices down. Web-software as money-saving is nonsense- it is wholly unnecessary and has only come about because the existing software is unrealistically expensive (and exceedingly poor value for money).
Jimmy
Mon Nov 20 10:09:28 2006

I'm not wholly against the idea of online apps, I've made a lot of use of remote desktop and VNC over the last year and it gets round lots of issues to do with compatability, install burden, and even network bandwidth. I've really liked being able to use the same low spec laptop to control heavy duty tasks concurrently all over the globe. Plus it's nice to have the OS transparency - I can effortlessly flip between XP, Vista and Mac OS X without changing keyboard or display and without rebooting.
John
Mon Nov 20 09:58:47 2006

Online Office eh? It will live or die by its price point. If it's pay-as-you-go and cheap it may succeed. They will have to have a 'free' limited version to get people to try it, but I expect they will be targeting corporates, so individuals may get a completely free ride as a way to propagate it amongst companies. If they attempt to charge the earth for it, Google will start to give their away for free.
dsp
Mon Nov 20 09:39:15 2006

Jimmy - yeah, up and about before the family stirs!! Peace and quiet....!!! :)))
Nigel
Mon Nov 20 09:12:58 2006

Sheri- you're going to write a crime mystery? I like it! But what sort?
Jimmy
Mon Nov 20 08:26:38 2006

I say, Nigel- you're up-and-about very early! Web-based office? Yeah ... I think the idea of having the applicaiton run on a remote computer is never really gonna work ... no matter how much *they'd* love it to.
Jimmy
Mon Nov 20 08:24:23 2006

Dark clouds over in Florence, I am not moving from the house today!! I still have so much to do!! :(
Lox
Mon Nov 20 07:38:19 2006

Hi Sheri.... Get writing then!!! Sounds like an ideal environment for another "Maltese Falcon" !!! ;)))))
Nigel
Mon Nov 20 07:21:13 2006

Just been browsing... Anyone got any views on the new Office Online strategy by Microsoft? Google are doing something similar. Funny thing is WordPerfect tried something similar a few years back and it flopped. I'm not convinced the idea is sound. From a customer point of view, if I pay out serious money I want something tangible to keep. It's bad enough paying a couple of hundred and just getting a CD, but I can see some value to that. Forkng-out and basically just getting an online service designed merely to stop piracy, is rather annoying... In my view :)
Nigel
Mon Nov 20 07:20:09 2006

Morning! Foggy here. Ideal for a mysterious crime.
Sheri
Mon Nov 20 07:18:56 2006

Morning all!! :) Another lovely Monday!! :))
Nigel
Mon Nov 20 07:03:56 2006

Sheri: Well to cut long things short, I really miss her more than I have ever realized in the past 5 years. I think it's because we used to spend every waking moment together (same house + same job). I'll write something about it soon! :P
Lox
Sun Nov 19 20:36:23 2006

Lox. So it's much more serious than I thought, you and Marta...!
Sheri
Sun Nov 19 18:49:35 2006

Hi Kev! Nope, no heating, just a mug of coffee and a thick jacket... Been soldering the connections for a ribbon cable to a replacement LCD screen on one of my old relics... Fiddly!! :))
Nigel
Sun Nov 19 12:53:01 2006

Nigel, do you have heating in your garage? it must have been a bit parky otherwise !!
Kev
Sun Nov 19 12:31:01 2006

Ah! Hi Lox! I went off and worked in my garage for a while - repairing, generally pottering... etc... You been busy!!??
Nigel
Sun Nov 19 12:27:54 2006

Me!
Lox
Sun Nov 19 08:42:19 2006

No? Ok then, I'm off for a cup of tea.. :)
Nigel
Sun Nov 19 08:41:53 2006

Morning all!! :) Anyone else up early on a Sunday?!?!?
Nigel
Sun Nov 19 07:57:42 2006

Thanks guys! She accepted, though there are several things that need to be ironed out. Let's see what we get from here, but it's a step forward. I really want her to be with me and build up something together, but let's see.... Time will tell! :)
Lox
Sat Nov 18 22:36:52 2006

Splendid news, Lox! I *really* hope things work out!!!!! Remember though, she's a lady and ladies don't think like us chaps!!! ;))))
Nigel
Sat Nov 18 22:25:17 2006

So I'm looking forward to going to sleep at some point in the near future