Last day of Japan about to start, I am totally dead tired before beginning and needless to say I really do not feel like going to this bloody exhibition today... Oh well, last hurdle before flying back!
Lox
Tue Jul 31 23:39:04 2007
Well done Travis - no easy task. Take a break and breath out slooowwwlllyy!! :D
Nigel
Tue Jul 31 17:00:14 2007
Poor old Travis! Yes I think taking a break and doing something completely different for a while is probably a really good idea. When we moved out of our flat in Japan we had the whole weekend to pack up, but Saturday night we ended up going out for dinner and having a few drinks because the chore of packing was just too hateful!
John
Tue Jul 31 16:30:19 2007
Hello, Siriuslek. Welcome to the maison.
Travis
Tue Jul 31 16:10:13 2007
Bleah. Wasn't until 11 pm that we left our former residence. We arrived at my in-laws' place at 3:30 a.m. I've just gotten out of bed. Pretty miserable. We're contemplating taking an extra day here just because we're probably too exhausted to continue. Packing and hauling took too much out of us.
Travis
Tue Jul 31 16:09:50 2007
Shut you all up I have.
Yoda
Tue Jul 31 15:53:19 2007
Watching you I am!
Yoda
Tue Jul 31 15:44:15 2007
Yeah, but I've noticed that about aliens... they all seem (well, those I've met) to have this inate inability to make a good go of our supposedly "primitive" languages - despite all that whizzo alien technology they have for translating etc...
Nigel
Tue Jul 31 15:15:39 2007
Well it's not a very advanced alien civilisation, judging by their grasp of grammar.
John
Tue Jul 31 13:42:36 2007
Maybe an alien, John? Trying to make contact.. You know... "My name's Lek, I'm from Sirius. Take me to your leader..." Prepare to be invaded!!!!!!
Nigel
Tue Jul 31 13:21:22 2007
Well siriuslek, I've known you for a whole hour now, and already I feel like a close personal friend. You're the best!
John
Tue Jul 31 13:14:25 2007
Hey siriuslek, I did a search for you and you don't half seem to post on a lot of forums! And you seem to post exactly the same message every time. You must be one busy guy!
John
Tue Jul 31 12:46:52 2007
Incidentally siriuslek, as a friendly tip, if you've read yesterday's messages you'll quickly learn that here is not a good place to be posting with such a wanton disregard for English grammar and proper sentence structure.
John
Tue Jul 31 12:41:56 2007
(Ok I'm lying)
John
Tue Jul 31 12:21:51 2007
siriuslek: If you reply to this message within the next 24 hours I will personally give you a huge cash prize.
John
Tue Jul 31 12:19:12 2007
siriuslek: Hello! Are you a real person?
John
Tue Jul 31 12:13:30 2007
Hi here how are you? I am newbie in www.maison-de-stuff.net so i hope i will get some friends here :)
siriuslek
Tue Jul 31 12:12:59 2007
Sorry MM I have been distracted by work so far this morning, so haven't been able to check the board until now. An awful state of affairs!
John
Tue Jul 31 11:58:52 2007
Morning all!! Morning MM! :D
Busy here so far... Need tea...
Nigel
Tue Jul 31 09:51:02 2007
Helloooooohoooooooo is anyone there?
Mad Mumsie
Tue Jul 31 09:47:22 2007
Oh Good - the gibberish has gone. Lots of room now for more.
Mad Mumsie
Tue Jul 31 09:27:21 2007
Where are my manners. Good morning all.
Mad Mumsie
Tue Jul 31 08:44:13 2007
Unfortunately finished the Pimms on Monday night, so until I hit the shops again I shall have to have perhaps a chilled glass of Vouvray, or even an interesting Fleurie :)
Mad Mumsie
Tue Jul 31 08:43:40 2007
Dear me, we shall all have to more careful about the language we use here.
tom
Mon Jul 30 21:15:54 2007
You're right Kev, I should have clarified that - does the weather warrant a G&T or a Pimm's outside is what I probably meant to say.
John
Mon Jul 30 19:50:23 2007
John, surely the weather is irrelevant?
Kev
Mon Jul 30 18:55:58 2007
Good idea MM! I wonder if it is nice enough weather to warrant a G&T or a Pimm's perhaps?
John
Mon Jul 30 17:29:53 2007
Off home now, may get to sit in the garden for a bit.
Mad Mumsie
Mon Jul 30 16:59:16 2007
Come on John, you know typos are always picked up on, its the only bit of fun I have left in life.
Mad Mumsie
Mon Jul 30 16:57:29 2007
It was a typo - I noticed it myself just after posting, but had hoped everyone would turn a blind eye... Alas that was not to be the case!
John
Mon Jul 30 16:39:02 2007
John: regarding "yea, yea, I know..." If you know why did you spell it wrongly. Ah, I know, you just wanted to give John's Mum and me a chance to be PICKY.
Mad Mumsie
Mon Jul 30 16:34:55 2007
ROBERT LANG - just whose side do you think you are on? This is a trick question.
Mad Mumsie
Mon Jul 30 16:33:06 2007
This is what happens when you let your parents onto your website. Hoisted.
Rob Lang
Mon Jul 30 16:21:24 2007
Also Mum the ellipsis are inconsistent (four dots in one instance, and five in another - convention suggests three). Furthermore, I do not believe it is grammatically acceptable to commence a sentence with "But".
John
Mon Jul 30 16:18:49 2007
Right...
JM: Rather than "He's even got" it is better to use "He even has".
MM: There are some issues with sentence structure in several of your recent messages. It would be more readable to break out some of the clauses into individual sentences and insert appropriate punctuation to clearly distinguish the questions from the statements.
Overall: 7/10, could do better.
John
Mon Jul 30 16:10:32 2007
John's Mum: well as I say about mine - someone has to love 'em, so I suppose it has to be us doesn't it. :)
Mad Mumsie
Mon Jul 30 15:54:14 2007
He's even got "in vein" on his front page about putting his email address on.... I can assure you that this parent did TRY to teach him English grammar and spelling..... But he shouts me down every time.
Luv 'im reely.
John's Mum
Mon Jul 30 15:36:12 2007
John: I know you will allow me to be a bit picky.
Mad Mumsie
Mon Jul 30 14:43:51 2007
Yea yea, I know...
John
Mon Jul 30 14:30:01 2007
John, which vein were you attempting to open, after all these attempts at getting off the hook - or perhaps you meant vain - what a wonderful language English is.
Mad Mumsie
Mon Jul 30 14:22:45 2007
Tom: a fine example - 9/10 (although I believe it is customary to complain of scratch marks on one's forearms where you attempted in vein to offend the little winged critters off).
John
Mon Jul 30 13:59:17 2007
John: And yet, you've not thrown it away yet? Or has it crawled out of the bin?
tom
Mon Jul 30 13:40:32 2007
Sorry that I've not been onto the board over the weekend to help! On Saturday, this flock of starlings few down and carried off my laptop. I've only just got it back!
tom
Mon Jul 30 13:39:51 2007
Lox: very probably. I believe that block of cheese is now so ripe that it has evolved into some kind of primitive life form. The evil taste and smell are self defence mechanisms.
John
Mon Jul 30 13:39:48 2007
Ah Nigel, I should be careful about how you address the starlings - they could get you out of a tight spot one day!
John
Mon Jul 30 13:38:44 2007
... or those pesky Starlings of Kev's ...
Nigel
Mon Jul 30 12:25:13 2007
John: I believe that it was the cheese fiddling with your work things over the weekend...
Lox
Mon Jul 30 10:27:45 2007
Morning all! No I'm not dead yet! Would have posted earlier but have come into work to find a small flurry of panic (via email) about stuff which broke over the weekend. Ho, hum.
John
Mon Jul 30 10:06:00 2007
I am actually wondering if John is still alive or not... he hasn`t posted yet, the cheese incident might have been underestimated yesterday....
Lox
Mon Jul 30 09:35:37 2007
Well if I can surf instead of working, I'm happy Lox!!! :D :D
Nigel
Mon Jul 30 09:01:14 2007
Nigel: Maybe it`s only the "very essential to your job" services that are down, the rest appears to be ok as you rightly say...
Lox
Mon Jul 30 08:59:44 2007
Morning all!! :)
Well rumour has it our network is down - odd that I can surf the Internet then. I just get that small tingle of satisfaction knowing my every keypress might be causing someone to swear somewhere! :)
Nigel
Mon Jul 30 08:48:56 2007
Ah... still noone on the board... Tomorrow and Wednesday I will be at the last exhibition of this trip then back home... I really cannot wait to for Thursday to arrive...
Lox
Mon Jul 30 07:24:20 2007
After a brief spell of business this morning (and a rather heavy rain that we managed just to catch when going to lunch, earlier than usual to avoid the "others" going), I am back to my previous obligations to BOREDOM... the positive news is that it`s almost 7 in Italy and 6 in the UK so the news sites will start updating soon. The negative is that I am bored of course.. Oh well it could be worse!
Lox
Mon Jul 30 05:50:38 2007
John: Good morning (when you read it), good way to end that one up, I mean you could have let her try some if she wanted... 5 quid is not a huge amount so I think that she can live with that... As for the uncultured about cheese story, well I would have tried it the same, even if it smelled evil, on that one I am exactly like you! :D
Lox
Mon Jul 30 03:13:46 2007
It would have been great if I had gone to the cheese shop to complain, and the guy there had said "well, this flock of starlings flew in, and...".
John
Sun Jul 29 23:00:25 2007
Well done, John. Honesty is the best policy provided you can't get away with it.
Travis
Sun Jul 29 21:11:57 2007
You see john, you don't really get this telling stories thing at all do you ( i don't like to call it lying ) - you could have used the poison cheese to gain sympathy,"oh look i ate poison cheese and am feeling ill, look after me, it wasn't my fault" Also you could have gotten 1 or 2 days off work sick, at least- and I haven't even started on the compensation from the cheese shop plan yet!
Kev
Sun Jul 29 21:11:25 2007
(sorry the "I approached" in that last sentence is superfluous)
John
Sun Jul 29 20:14:29 2007
Thanks for the suggestions chaps - I particularly enjoyed the flock of starlings plan, which I shall save for future use as I think it can be adapted to fix almost any situation (broken crockery, lost wallet, forgotten birthday, suspicious marks on neck...). In the end I approached I just threw myself on Chie's mercy and told her the whole story (which in hindsight I didn't have a lot of choice about, having already discussed it on this very public forum). As yet I haven't been stabbed to death with the cheese knife so I guess that worked. I also have as yet showed no signs of food poisoning, so it is beginning to look like a crisis may have been avoided.
John
Sun Jul 29 20:13:47 2007
Ah... Good point Kev. Never though of that one... OK then, let's go with the cheese-press and muslin... :)
Nigel
Sun Jul 29 19:38:52 2007
No,No thats only going to end with John getting dragged back to the shop to complain, and we know how that one ends.... the Flock of Starlings story has much more chance of working.
Kev
Sun Jul 29 19:05:41 2007
Hmmm, I go half-way with Kev here. Just plop a block of any old Cheddar, dabbed with a relevant bit of food colouring if needed, into that wrapper. Then come out with: "Oh no! This expensive cheese tastes just like Tesco Basics. I feel wronged! What do you think? Yes! We've been duped!" etc.. etc..
Nigel
Sun Jul 29 18:46:44 2007
Or and this is where is get really cunning. Get Some hot milk in a pan, add some plain yogurt, stir and wait for it to separate in curds and whey, strain off watery bit in some muslin( or whatever ), wash thoroughly, leave to cool for 30 mins until its sets. Then fish out the old packaging from the bin and wash it. Put your new cheese in the wrapping. Sorted. Watch out for the "this tastes really bad I am taking back to the shop problem". If this happens I will no doubt be able to come up with a further cunning plan.
Kev
Sun Jul 29 17:34:23 2007
Go with the "I ate it all because it was so tasty" plan. Then just pray she doesn't go and buy another five quids worth from the same shop !
Alternatively go with the "I left it on the window sill with the window open and a flock of starlings swooped down and stole it plan". Make some convincing scratches on your arm to show where you tried to fight them off but failed.
Kev
Sun Jul 29 17:29:48 2007
(BTW Hi Travis - yes moving sucks!)
John
Sun Jul 29 17:06:12 2007
Guys, come on please help me out here. Chie will be back in an hour or so, and she is going to be so pissed off that I spent five quid (which I even borrowed off her as I had no cash on me) to buy a block of pretentious cheese that we're now going to throw away. What can I do?
John
Sun Jul 29 17:05:54 2007
Lox: yes it was a pretty evil smell. However I was compelled to eat it, I had visions of being called an uncultured slob if I didn't at least try it. The guild of cheesemakers would have found out somehow, and at some point in the future I'd order the cheese plate in a posh restaurant, and they'd bring out a selection of Babybel and Dairylea slices "because I was too common to appreciate real cheese".
John
Sun Jul 29 17:03:36 2007
Two (or so) days until I leave Texas. This is a pretty crazy time, as I'm sure all of you who have moved know. Bleah. Just stopping by to see what's new.
Travis
Sun Jul 29 17:01:24 2007
...at the other extreme, should I just throw all of the cheese away, and pretend I've eaten it all, Chie would then be angry with me for not letting her try it.
John
Sun Jul 29 16:57:33 2007
John: So you are trying to tell us that is smelled of PISS and you still ate it!? Lovely, I can go to bed now! :D
Lox
Sun Jul 29 16:56:29 2007
...of course I'm also too afraid to take it back to the shop and try to get a refund, because the shopkeeper looked of the snobby persuasion, and would make some snidey remark along the lines of "better stick to cheddar in future then"... or similar.
John
Sun Jul 29 16:55:59 2007
It's not a blue cheese, it's a kind of brie... There's no visible mould on it, but according to the interweb you can tell an overripe brie or camembert because the rind starts to go brown and there's a smell of ammonia to it. I think ammonia is probably that evil whiff I detected. Unfortunately it was wrapped so there was no way to tell this in the shop. I am no longer so afraid of the chance of a slow and painful death from the pathogen I may have just ingested, but what really worried me now is how I'm going to explain to Chie that the five quid's worth of cheese we bought yesterday is destined for the bin. It was one of those situations where we were the only customers in the shop, and having more or less woken the shopkeeper up on our way in, I felt a compulsion to buy something.
John
Sun Jul 29 16:53:52 2007
I thought you didn't eat blue cheese though John, due to your allergy to penicillin? Or are you now typing these messages with a home-made tracheotomy kit in place ( a drinking draw sticking out of your throat? )
Kev
Sun Jul 29 16:45:40 2007
Thanks for the medical insight there Lox. On reflection I think it was probably just very ripe - I'm used to buying cheese from supermarkets where they're always young and therefore fairly mellow. I don't think I've ever head a very "ripe" brie before, and it's an experience I am not keen to repeat in a hurry either. I just really couldn't see what there was to like in that evil bit of fermented curd. It is the lapsang souchong of cheeses.
John
Sun Jul 29 16:36:27 2007
John: Was it a breen or blue mould? I am asking because normally GREEN mould is linked to ANTRAX while BLUE is generally bearer of FLU and EBOLA.
Lox
Sun Jul 29 16:29:52 2007
Thanks for the compassionate response there guys. I've tried to take my mind off it by reading some light hearted literature, such as this page:
Contaminated cheese has been responsible for outbreaks of food poisoning by several types of bacteria and sporadic cases of illness associated with contaminated cheeses have also been reported... Some of these bacteria can cause severe illness with long-term consequences and death.
...and a bit further down...
In mold-ripened cheeses the pH falls during the fermentation by lactic acid bacteria then rises due to the activity of the mold; in soft mold-ripened cheeses this rise can allow the multiplication of bacteria, including pathogens, to very high numbers.
(it was a mould ripened cheese)
John
Sun Jul 29 16:17:44 2007
John: i am afraid to tell you that the only way of cleansing your body is to eat a MEGA MAC (tm) at Macdonalds... I know it's hard for you but it cannot be worse than eating those little furry animals (Quorn (tm)), or those blood sucking plants such as SOYA... YOU ARE SO LUCKY that you know me!!
Lox
Sun Jul 29 16:15:04 2007
Well, it was nice knowing you John. Maybe you should write up a last blog post just in case. You can leave your browser open with the "Add Message" button visible as the final moment approaches. Then with your last ounce of strength you can creep your fingers over your desk using the keyboard for purchase, inching towards the mouse button, futilely trying to click it... fumbling.. fingers going numb, just as the power runs out on your laptop... you forgot to plug in the power cable... bugger!
Kev
Sun Jul 29 16:05:32 2007
Guys, I have a feeling of an impending disaster. I bought some unusual cheese yesterday (called St. Keverne Square) and tried it for the first time just now. I simply couldn't bring myself to eat more than two small chunks of it - it had such a pungent and unpleasant flavour. I have just taken a look around on the web for it and have seen reviews describing it as "pleasant but unremarkable". This worries me somewhat - although it is still well within its best before date, I suspect now it has been stored badly or something and has completely gone off. And I've eaten two chunks of it. There may be trouble ahead...
John
Sun Jul 29 15:52:06 2007
Hi guys...
John: Nothing worthy - been to the refuse tip to offload the weeks cardboard and bottles etc. Kids are tidying bedrooms at the moment - I'm being LAZY!!!!!! Marvellous! :D
Nigel
Sun Jul 29 13:50:38 2007
What do you mean "How was your day" Lox? Here in Europe it is only just starting!
John
Sun Jul 29 12:28:10 2007
Hearing about croissants after dinner makes me feel a bit iffy!! How was your day? Mine was ok I went for some more shopping but I haven't yet bought that external HD that I want, mostly because it is sunday and I cannot change money at the bank.. :P
Lox
Sun Jul 29 12:16:34 2007
Yes the chocolatey things were probably overkill in retrospect... Any plans for today Nigel?
John
Sun Jul 29 12:07:57 2007
Morning all!! :)
Funnily enough we had croissants here too - and coffee, but no chocolate-bread.
Nigel
Sun Jul 29 11:21:44 2007
Morning all! Coffee, croissants and pain au chocolat for breakfast methinks.
John
Sun Jul 29 10:06:56 2007
Evening all!!
Finally did some gardening and tidying-up out there this morning, then we had visitors pm. Just doing a spot of Ebay selling at the mo' while burning CD's with iTunes!! So, it's kept me busy today then... :)
Nigel
Sat Jul 28 21:58:50 2007
Glad to hear it Lox! Look forward to reading the blog later...
John
Sat Jul 28 19:36:57 2007
Great day at Enoshima, really a top place. The beer was great, lovely seaside I really enjoyed the day out! Now it's time to bed, it's almost 2 am...
Lox
Sat Jul 28 17:46:57 2007
Well I guess I'm the only one here today then...!
John
Sat Jul 28 14:12:20 2007
So Lox, how was Enoshima...? Perhaps you're still there?
John
Sat Jul 28 11:10:10 2007
Tom: Got all the discography already :D But thanks anyway, the little that I listened to is great!
John: I see... I didn't now that I was going to this type of place! Oh well I might as well buy a costume there...
Lox
Sat Jul 28 00:32:22 2007
...honestly, I cannot recommend Enoshima spa enough - sitting in that lovely hot water and looking out over the rocks across the sea (maybe as the sun is setting?) is an absolutely fabulous experience!
John
Fri Jul 27 23:00:49 2007
...the spa is unusal in that the bathing areas are mixed (which is why you need your swimming costumes!), but they also have more traditional men's and women's separated onsen. I used to like it because me and Chie would go and enjoy the mixed bit first, then when she went off to the traditional onsen bit, I would just go to the bar on the top floor and drink Enoshima beer. Lovely.
John
Fri Jul 27 22:59:58 2007
Lox: excellent work - I am proud of you! I'm rather a fan of Enoshima - maybe it's too late to suggest any alteration to your plans, but if you and this young lady take your swimming costumes, you could go and enjoy the spa complex there, which was always a favourite of mine and Chie's - there are hot baths where you can sit and look out to sea - I strongly recommend it. Other than that a walk across to the other side of the island is also nice (see here), but I really really strongly recommend the spa - actually I think you could hire a swimming costume even if you don't have one (although I think you might be better of just buying one in that case).
John
Fri Jul 27 22:57:46 2007
Oh, Lox: I can send you some Diana Krall if you like? (or at least put it somewhere you can get it!)
tom
Fri Jul 27 22:51:25 2007
Yawn! Night night all!
tom
Fri Jul 27 22:50:51 2007
I use AVG quite a bit too...
tom
Fri Jul 27 22:34:35 2007
... oh and, yes, AVG looked good, installed quickly, updated quickly and seems to be running well...
Nigel
Fri Jul 27 22:21:27 2007
Thanks Tom!! :) Yes, it is an ugly little beast (only a 3000 C200) but it's solid. I found a PCWorld review on the main contenders, AV-wise, and it glowed re Kasperski, but I was checking the performance-hit % as well - aware the laptop isn't the most powerful! Kas and Nort were at 10%, Panda and AVG were at 4%. There were a couple at 2% I think but didn't seem well-rated for anything else.
Nigel
Fri Jul 27 22:20:01 2007
I have a brand new Lenevo/IBM Thinkpad T60 (works). Centrino Core Duo thing... it's very nice but UGLY next to the MBP!
tom
Fri Jul 27 22:00:31 2007
No. That's a YES YES. Norton is poorly written and slow. AVG is much quicker. If you're going to buy AV, you pretty much can't beat Kaspersky these days.
tom
Fri Jul 27 21:59:25 2007
So then, I'm sitting here writing this on a Lenovo laptop... Hmmm... Rather good actually. It seems it's still an IBM Thinkpad at heart - the support web-site is IBMs too. Nicely built machine - lovely solid keyboard. I've dumped Norton AV and gone with AVG instead - someone tell me if this is a no-no as it's only a trial version.
Nigel
Fri Jul 27 21:45:25 2007
MESSAGE
FifthStreetGirl
Fri Jul 27 21:12:31 2007
:D
Nigel
Fri Jul 27 16:20:33 2007
I have been out with the drinking buddy Enzaki san and two girls, one of which is coming out with me tomorrow to Enoshima... If I was living in Japan or if I was still single I wouldn't hesitate to ask her out, but given that none of the above conditions are met I have to cool off and just enjoy the day out.... Oh well... sometimes I wish I wasn't so "serious"... Ah by the way I am completely drunk!
Lox
Fri Jul 27 16:00:04 2007
Hmmm... it seems pretty much everyone I know at the office is either on holiday or not going to the party thing this afternoon. So I'm left with the option of either attempting to latch on to some other group (and being "that weirdo from the little room at the end there") or just not going until the evening when Chie will be able to come and join me. Hmmm...
John
Fri Jul 27 13:40:07 2007
I wonder what Lox is up to - Friday night in Tokyo - so many bars, so little time...
John
Fri Jul 27 13:30:17 2007
...that I don't have a car, or that I'm not working this afternoon?
John
Fri Jul 27 13:29:54 2007
It's safer for us all that way. ;-)
tom
Fri Jul 27 13:08:01 2007
Well, it's sort of a half day for me today - we have a company summer party this afternoon, starting at 2, which means I'll be 'awf pretty soon...
John
Fri Jul 27 13:06:52 2007
John, the message could be you didn't and don't have a car :)
Mad Mumsie
Fri Jul 27 12:23:02 2007
Mum: yes indeed! On my mixi page (Japanese blog) I actually have three pictures of me lined up together - that Dart vallley one, the one you mentioned with the beer can, and another similar one - all of them feature me looking out of train windows. I'm sure there's a message in there somewhere.
John
Fri Jul 27 12:04:32 2007
Lox: I just recently bought Amy Winehouse's back in black. I know she is now pretty mainstream, but I'm still going to use the excuse of having been in Japan while she was becoming popular, and the fact that I don't have a TV, so I am generally quite ignorant of these things!
John
Fri Jul 27 12:02:09 2007
Tom: Nope didn`t know her will look for some mp3 thanks! :D
Lox
Fri Jul 27 09:30:33 2007
John- Quite pleased you chose that particular picture as it is my favourite as well and is now hanging in the Rogue's Gallery on our landing, next to the one of you at age 3 hanging out of the window on the Dart Valley railway train, looking remarkably like the one on the Maison, but without the beer can.
John's Mum
Fri Jul 27 09:22:03 2007
Diana Krall (perhaps a bit well known?)
tom
Fri Jul 27 09:12:32 2007
MAISON POOL:
Please name ONE and only ONE singer or group that you would advise me to listen to because is great. Please avoid all the mainstream suggestions I am really looking for things like John`s "Liane Carrol"...
Lox
Fri Jul 27 08:48:42 2007
Today the weather in Japan is bordering HELL CONDITIONS mixed with VIETNAMESE JUNGLE after the napalm bombing during monsoons....
Lox
Fri Jul 27 08:01:25 2007
Ciao Giovanni come stai? (Hi John how are ya?)
Lox
Fri Jul 27 08:00:35 2007
Morning all (apart from Lox -good afternoon)!
John
Fri Jul 27 07:44:17 2007
I missed that! :D
Lox
Fri Jul 27 07:30:07 2007
...then drink copious amounts of Highland Park single Malt so when the Bobbies arrive you can experience being drunken and disorderly and spend the night in the cells. Boredom alleviated!
Kev
Thu Jul 26 22:47:46 2007
lols, start yourself a small localised fire, in your shared stairwell, that should relieve the boredom immanently :)
Kev
Thu Jul 26 22:44:49 2007
...and now I'm really quite bored!
John
Thu Jul 26 21:37:49 2007
I say!! Well done, old chap!! :D
Nigel
Thu Jul 26 20:42:45 2007
Well, I've hung up the picture then. It has completely transformed the lounge - from a room which looks weird because there's nothing hung up on the walls, to a room which looks weird because there's only one thing hung up on the walls. The effect is quite breathtaking.
John
Thu Jul 26 19:42:56 2007
You know what, I think I might leave work on time tonight. I've got a picture to hang up!
John
Thu Jul 26 17:20:55 2007
Johnny Depp? Where? I'm leaving now!!
Mad Mumsie
Thu Jul 26 16:39:55 2007
Ah, but there's probably some archaic law about piracy and crime on the high-seas. Walking-the-plank... Salvage even!! (Image of Johnny Depp standing avast - or something!) :D
Nigel
Thu Jul 26 16:37:41 2007
Even "under"
Mad Mumsie
Thu Jul 26 16:25:05 2007
And where would you suggest they went. The lock keeper is keeping an eye on it, as he rightly says, he has nothing else to do. The locks are all shut, and the river is running at such a pace tc. etc. It is safe to say that he "jumped ship" - literally - as the piece of hard land between him and the bank was undeeer water, and would have come over the top of his walking boots, wish I'd been there.............................
Mad Mumsie
Thu Jul 26 16:24:37 2007
Is he not worried someone might steal the Grubby Rose and sail off with her...?
John
Thu Jul 26 15:24:14 2007
I'm sure you will also be delighted to know that Cyberdad has braved public transport, has left Grubby Rose in Sonning and come home for a few days.
Mad Mumsie
Thu Jul 26 14:46:02 2007
LOL!!!! I most definitely prefer the first version!! If only more people would talk like that, I for one would be happy!! :)
Also, you need to wear the correct suit for DIY stores - I'm sure Wodehouse/Jeeves could advise... What a brilliant image, turning up in a particularly fine, but necessarily rugged, worcester...
Nigel
Thu Jul 26 14:30:13 2007
So I popped out to visit a DIY shop at lunchtime. Does anyone else find when entering this type of establishment they feel a compulsion to be more blokey. The usual "Why thank you my good man" I use to address shop stewards devolves into a more familiar working class-esque "yea, cheers mate".... and instead of:
"My wife and I discovered this simply delightful little impressionist piece whilst holidaying in Tuscany earlier this year, of course normally I'd get the odd job man we use to hang it for me, but alas he's busily replastering the ceiling in Mrs Fortesque's drawing room, so for once I thought dash it, I'll bally well do it myself... so to cut a long story short I would like to enquire as to which type of hammer one might deem suitable for such a task..."
Becomes: "I'm bangin' some nails in, they're about 2 'mil, wall's mainly plasterboard, need a new hammer, what d'y reckon?"
John
Thu Jul 26 14:12:37 2007
Good work Lox! Would be great if we could see a picture of the finished product...!
John
Thu Jul 26 12:10:43 2007
John: I am working on the Gucci scene, if I don?t manage to pull it off I can always go for seppuku (or hara kiri)! :D The fact is that I can imagine the scene so vividly that I REALLY want to do it now...
Lox
Thu Jul 26 11:35:22 2007
I can picture the scene now, with the Japanese policeman saying "Whatto you mean, shaaa-betto dib-u dab-u?"
John
Thu Jul 26 11:17:29 2007
:D :D :D :D !!! LOL!!! I love the paperclips and string ideas. And as it's the fashion industry I'd personally buy some of those Sherbert Dips - or better the Bassetts ones with a liquorice stick in them, then lick the white powder off the back of my hand - sneakily! Totally safe, legal, but more to the point it completes the image!! :D
Nigel
Thu Jul 26 11:06:31 2007
Lox: In fact generally I would advocate that you act extremely camp and throw frequent tantrums from now on. I believe this sort of thing is expected in your industry.
John
Thu Jul 26 10:19:45 2007
Lox: I suggest you try to make your hanger re-arranging job more exciting, by attaching small subversive (and/or downright rude) messages onto the underside of some of the hangers. Oh, and hang some unexpected objects from a couple of them, like a chain of paperclips or some bits of string. If anyone tries to remove them say "OH MY GOD WHAT ARE YOU DOING, THAT'S THE NEW GUCCI COLLECTION!".
John
Thu Jul 26 09:09:00 2007
Lox: sorry to hear that, but did you really expect it to be anything other than a disappointment - you know what big old Japanese companies are like! They could be attacked by barbarians, and have half the workforce slaughtered in an afternoon, and if you're lucky within six weeks of that the committee might have started to draft a proposal to call the police.
John
Thu Jul 26 09:05:52 2007
That is possibly the most banal post I have ever written on the message board - in hindsight I wish I'd pretended to be someone else. :)
John
Thu Jul 26 09:02:40 2007
Nigel: at the risk of sounding like an insurance salesman, or just a generally very boring person, do you have any kind of dental cover plan? I think there are schemes where you pay x amount a month etc. Of course you'd have to get the calculator out to work out if it really would save you money in the end, but if nothing else at least it spreads out the pain of "Big Bill" a bit.
John
Thu Jul 26 09:02:13 2007
Morning.... or rather "afternoon".... My head is hurting I am in the office and yesterday`s "friendly talk" was almost a total disappointment.. If I am alive tonight I will write something more, as for now have a good day everyone I am going to put some plastic hangers in order by the looks of it...
Lox
Thu Jul 26 08:12:12 2007
Morning all!! :)
Thanks John, yes, "Big Bill" always comes with us to the dentist. We try hard to shake him off, but by the time we're finished he's always caught up with us... :(
Nigel
Thu Jul 26 07:20:18 2007
...mind you, I also live Wotsits and Quavers.
John
Wed Jul 25 23:53:00 2007
On an unrelated note, how embarrassed should I be for realising that I actually quite like Cheesestrings?
John
Wed Jul 25 23:52:03 2007
Sounds awful Nigel - I do hope the general misery of the experience was not compounded with a huge bill at the end!
John
Wed Jul 25 23:49:09 2007
Evening guys and gals!
Just back from a "Family Day at the Dentist" What fun! :(
Nigel
Wed Jul 25 18:34:41 2007
I know exactly what you mean Rob. Whilst I do get to play with some technologies here at work that I think are pretty cool, as is the way of software engineering a certain amount of it is also pretty mundane. I once heard an XML file format described as "awesome". It does seem to rather cheapen the word to have a collection of pointy brackets bunched in the same category as Mount Everest or the Great Pyramids.
John
Wed Jul 25 17:20:31 2007
Oh dear Rob, has someone upset you?
Mad Mumsie
Wed Jul 25 15:02:47 2007
The American's have clearly won Rob's heart and mind.
dsp
Wed Jul 25 14:06:00 2007
Someone annoyed you?!
tom
Wed Jul 25 13:14:33 2007
Dear Americans,
If you find yourself standing mouth agape and brain frozen in awe of something, that thing is awesome. Everything else is just 'good', 'excellent', 'brilliant' or a host of other expletives. If you do actually spend your days in awe, then you must be very naive indeed.
Thankyou.
Rob Lang
Wed Jul 25 13:11:50 2007
SOME people are extremely efficient, its everyone else who's rubbish.
Mad Mumsie
Wed Jul 25 10:25:42 2007
MM: Don`t you love the efficiency and dedication of the people working in IT? (mind you it`s a trick question this one)
Lox
Wed Jul 25 10:09:49 2007
Damn. Just as I was going to pack up and go home, they fixed it. :)
Mad Mumsie
Wed Jul 25 10:08:50 2007
MM: Good reason to call it a day off? :D
Lox
Wed Jul 25 09:47:02 2007
Thanks Lox, but I'll cope. The trouble we have is that you can never get hold of our Corporate Help Desk by phone, the only way is to email, but they, of course, won't receive it, so we can't even find out what is going on and how long it is likely to be down. Hey Ho.
Mad Mumsie
Wed Jul 25 09:45:15 2007
What?
Lox
Wed Jul 25 09:40:01 2007
I stand by Kev's insta-nuking, re-inforcing the well known fact that Lox is a few sandwiches short of a picnic is but a small price to pay for keeping up the bar on the high quality discourse for which the message board is famous.
John
Wed Jul 25 09:35:18 2007
MM: do you want me to set you a gmail account on the fly to operate?
Lox
Wed Jul 25 09:34:53 2007
HELP: Someone has just cut my right arm off - my work email is down, and Yahoo have have decided that they won't send any of my bt emails. Don't they realise I can't operate with an email. :(
Mad Mumsie
Wed Jul 25 09:26:41 2007
Kev: No worries, I am barking mad anyways! :D
Lox
Wed Jul 25 08:26:16 2007
Sorry that was me. It was too annoying to leave :) so I just insta nuked it without reading your comments. Now you just look barking mad :)
Kev
Wed Jul 25 08:19:49 2007
Sorry that was me. It was too annoying to leave :) so I just insta nuked it without reading your comments. Now you just look barking mad :)
Kev
Wed Jul 25 08:19:46 2007
Morning All. Lox if anyone mentions hara-kiri make your excuses to leave quickly. Perhaps something like "I think I left the Iron on..." alternatively, leaning on the fire alarm can work too.
Kev
Wed Jul 25 08:18:54 2007
Who cancelled the spam message below!? Now my great line doesn`t make sense anymore.... :( I AM BEING CENSORED!!
Lox
Wed Jul 25 08:18:34 2007
Morning Nigel! Today it has been a terribly boring 8 hours in front of the computer.... :( In the evening I will have the big meeting with the big cheese of the office to talk about my contract, I am slightly nervous but as a friend poitned out I have really nothing to loose...
Lox
Wed Jul 25 08:13:12 2007
Morning all!!
Yeah Lox, what are these spammers doing?!?!?! LOL - liked your comment too! Hmmm, we probably all know the historical social event being mentioned but what's the use in spamming it?!?!?!
Nigel
Wed Jul 25 06:48:40 2007
I see now that`s better!
Lox
Wed Jul 25 04:48:54 2007
What!?
Lox
Wed Jul 25 03:34:16 2007
KbB5An A number of universities have awarded her honorary degrees, and she earned a prestigious job on the staff of Detroit congressman John Conyers. In 1988 Roxanne Brown noted: "Thirty-two years after she attracted international attention for sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Mrs. Parks's ardent devotion to human rights still burns brightly, like a well-tended torch that ignites her spirit and calls her to service whenever she is needed."
Elizabeth Talor
Wed Jul 25 03:05:53 2007
MM: The name story is simply GREAT, and the name itself is quite great too! Shame for no internet access, but given the conditions that you are describing with the flooding and all, it`s hardly a priority I think...
Lox
Wed Jul 25 01:34:49 2007
I'd vote for the Muppets anytime. Them and the Scooby-Doo gang...
Nigel
Tue Jul 24 20:37:02 2007
...although I do rather like the idea of a botched coup attempt which results in quite literally a puppet government being installed. Perhaps a "muppetocracy". I suspect Kermit would be assigned to the position of a nominal executive officer... However, all the decisions of that officer would have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting, by a simple majority, in the case of purely internal affairs, or by a two thirds majority in the case of more major affairs...
John
Tue Jul 24 17:01:34 2007
Perhaps a word of explanation regarding the name Grubby Rose. Its actual name is White Rose, but the first time Alex (I think it was Alex) saw it, it was filthy - and the name has stuck!
Mad Mumsie
Tue Jul 24 17:01:09 2007
John. Absolutely not. At the moment he's having trouble getting a signal with his mobile phone.
Mad Mumsie
Tue Jul 24 16:58:11 2007
Does the Grubby Rose not have onboard Internet access?
John
Tue Jul 24 16:56:45 2007
And you're only putting that because you know there is no likelihood of him reading any of it.
Mad Mumsie
Tue Jul 24 16:55:44 2007
Rob if you are going to call your father an "old duffer" you might spell it correctly :)))))))))
Mad Mumsie
Tue Jul 24 16:54:52 2007
Dad was fine. At the time of photo, we didn't know what was going to happen - we just popped off for food, shops, a cup of tea and did some of his washing. I'll be meeting up with the old dufffer tomorrow night.
Rob Lang
Tue Jul 24 16:42:00 2007
Spoilsport
Mad Mumsie
Tue Jul 24 16:41:45 2007
I'm not sure how literally the "puppet" in puppet government is meant to be interpreted.
John
Tue Jul 24 16:38:48 2007
John: If we're talking puppets, I know just the man to put in charge :)
Mad Mumsie
Tue Jul 24 16:25:34 2007
Kev: I find the idea rather nice, I am going to adopt it as well I think!
Lox
Tue Jul 24 14:59:54 2007
Kev: no I hadn't heard of the actual site but I had heard that notion that a black version of Google would save electricity before (maybe you told me that actually?). Anyway, a nice application of Google custom search!
John
Tue Jul 24 14:02:03 2007
has anyone (John) heard of blackle . com? I have it as my homepage now :)
Kev
Tue Jul 24 12:26:22 2007
:D :D :D :D :D :D LOL!! Brilliant! "I'm just going for a 'Jimmy'" certainly does seem rather appropriate then!!
Nigel
Tue Jul 24 12:22:21 2007
Superbly according to wikipedia (so it must be true) Chocolate Sprinkles are called "Jimmies" in the US.
John
Tue Jul 24 12:01:39 2007
Interestingly enough, Chie's office, near Liverpool Street (i.e. central London, but nowhere near the Thames) is closed today due to flooding. I think though it's just a coincidental plumbing problem which is not related to the wider flooding problems in England.
John
Tue Jul 24 11:57:49 2007
I agree MM, it will not be an easy task given our overstretched resource. I suggest we sabotage the "choco sprinkles" factories in Holland. This will cause rioting in the streets, and during this period of turmoul we can effect a coup, install a puppet government, and then flood the country.
John
Tue Jul 24 11:56:10 2007
What with John. All the Forces are tied up keeping the water at bay. Are you going to lead, with a rallying cry of up tulips and at 'em boys.
Mad Mumsie
Tue Jul 24 11:26:12 2007
Personally I blame the Dutch. As we all know, if rivers didn't flow out into the sea, then the sea would just dry up and disappear. Conversely then, when too much river water flows into the sea, the sea level rises. Given that it rains more in the UK than all the rest of Europe put together, we are actually responsible for feeding all of the seas around the continent with the outlets from our rivers. For years now the Dutch have been engaged in an under cover operation to prevent river water from England and Wales getting into the sea, because of their obvious concerns about their very flat (and largely below sea level country) being reclaimed by the sea. So whilst the Dutch are dancing merrily around their windmill and tulip strewn landscape in their bone dry clogs, we're all trudging about in our wellies and spending weeks on boats stranded in locks.
So, to conclude, the only solution is to invade Holland.
John
Tue Jul 24 11:02:28 2007
I hope you gave him full use of your bath Rob! he's been on that boat a while.....
Alex (big sis!)
Tue Jul 24 10:21:04 2007
John: I think his expression says, why am I standing here having my photo taken, when there's a perfectly good bottle of Fleurie waiting to be opened. I have spoken to him this morning and the river has risen another inch or so. Apparently this evening is the expected high point (!) then it should start to go down, but with more rain forecast, who knows.
Mad Mumsie
Tue Jul 24 10:03:51 2007
I have been trying to assess CyberDad's current mental condition from his facial expression in that photograph... how is he holding up Rob?
John
Tue Jul 24 09:28:21 2007
The Grubby Rose last night about 8pm
Rob Lang
Tue Jul 24 09:04:40 2007
John, nice!
Rob Lang
Tue Jul 24 09:03:55 2007
Lox: I like my boats a bit bigger, with white coated stewards asking me what I would like to drink.
Mad Mumsie
Tue Jul 24 08:32:18 2007
That's UDF as in Universal Disk Format. I have a feeling when I used drutil the first time I didn't specify this so ended up with an HFS format DVD, which is of use to man nor beast.
John
Tue Jul 24 08:25:08 2007
Do a "man drutil" or "drutil help burn" for more info - but don't forget the -udf flag!
John
Tue Jul 24 08:23:41 2007
Lox: I'm mildly hardcore, so I use drutil on the command line for burning DVDs. The important flag to remember is -udf, so I normally do something like:
drutil -drive ... burn -udf path
John
Tue Jul 24 08:22:01 2007
Rob: and you thought you took a long time to finish your PhD: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6912307.stm
John
Tue Jul 24 08:18:48 2007
Data, so I create the folder and then? Drag it to the DVD unit?
Lox
Tue Jul 24 07:18:58 2007
Morning all!!
Data or Video or Music, Lox?
If it's a data DVD/CD you want, create a "Burn Folder" with Finder.
Nigel
Tue Jul 24 07:15:05 2007
How do you burn a dvd on the mac?
Lox
Tue Jul 24 05:29:51 2007
that was "struck" not stuck....
Lox
Tue Jul 24 03:29:00 2007
I am now stuck by the terrible Hawkins` syndrome, of being bored in JAPAN, while everyone else is sleeping on the other side of the world. Maybe DSP thanks to the newcomer Ryan might not be sleeping so well, but surely he`s not going to check the board between a change of diaper and stuff.... DOH!
Lox
Tue Jul 24 03:24:07 2007
Goodmorning everyone! I see that the night has been quite hectic! I hope that cyberdad is ok with the flood and everything! Why isn`t MadMumsie there on the boat with Cyberdad? I guess she`s working maybe... I am here at the office, the rainy season seems over and today is gloriously sunny and generally great.
Lox
Tue Jul 24 03:01:56 2007
Nigel: yes there are bottles of whisky for sale on ebay, and given that you're not technically allowed to sell alcohol on there, they are literally selling you the bottle, and the contents are considered a free gift. So assuming people are really buying it for the bottle itself, then presumably empty bottles must also be worth trying!
John
Mon Jul 23 23:17:04 2007
Ahhh! Yes!! That's because I posted that last message from my Psion PDA!!! I'm back on the Mac now, so this should be OK!! :)
Nigel
Mon Jul 23 22:20:29 2007
Nigel, why do we keep getting interesting shapes between your words?
Mad Mumsie
Mon Jul 23 21:19:06 2007
Ah John!Sounds very pleasant!
MM:ILike the Piratey images!!
John:I discovered an old Glenmorangie bottle "tin"in the garage. It's unmarked (sadly empty)with an embossed decoration of the "16-men of Tain" all around. Images of distillery etc. Probably over ten years old - or more. Question:Are these things of value to anyone?A collector perhaps?Just wondering whether to tin-bank it of pass it on to someone, or even Ebay is... Any thoughts?
Nigel
Mon Jul 23 20:56:56 2007
Grubby Rose has been over-run by a ginger pirate and Cyberdad has been carried off and taken to Tescos! He will be returned unharmed, providing the river hasn't risen too much, later this evening. Hey Ho me hearties, yo ho ho and a bottle (or three) of Fleurie.
Mad Mumsie
Mon Jul 23 20:15:24 2007
Hey everyone, it's raining outside! I mean, can you conceive of it? My walk back from work was a particularly cold and wet one this evening, and so on my return home, to "buck myself up" (as my grandmother would put it), I'm having a wee dram. It is very nice indeed.
John
Mon Jul 23 19:35:55 2007
more than two people in that bathtub would probably sink it.....give him my love Rob, off home now...
Alex (big sis!)
Mon Jul 23 16:58:53 2007
Rob: if your flat floods, we'll all join Dad on the boat.
Mad Mumsie
Mon Jul 23 16:57:03 2007
The Barrier is for tidal surges and the like.
Mad Mumsie
Mon Jul 23 16:56:06 2007
That would make sense.....
Alex (big sis!)
Mon Jul 23 16:48:20 2007
I thought the barrier protected London from tidal floods, which is why it's on the east of london.
Rob Lang
Mon Jul 23 16:47:26 2007
Presumably London is at some risk though or they would never have built that barrier thing.
Alex (big sis!)
Mon Jul 23 16:39:12 2007
All of this is actually a bit scary, isn't it? I mean... JULY!!!
Nigel
Mon Jul 23 16:37:27 2007
I think that the Severn and upper reaches of the Thames have copped it pretty badly, and they are opening flood gates and stuff which is why Oxford is now in trouble - a wall of water is supposed to hit the Thames in Reading tomorrow I think. By the time you get to London the Thames is huge and tidal so the flooding must have less of an effect.
Alex (big sis!)
Mon Jul 23 16:29:33 2007
LOL John, yeah. At least it used to be... most of it is built on now so the smaller places cop it.
Rob Lang
Mon Jul 23 16:26:02 2007
Note to self - charge dad's phone too.
Rob Lang
Mon Jul 23 16:25:12 2007
I think London's flood protection scheme is called Berkshire.
John
Mon Jul 23 16:25:04 2007
I somehow feel phrases like "Idyllic riverside location" may be used a little more sparingly by estate agents in future.
John
Mon Jul 23 16:24:38 2007
Perhaps, John. I think London's flood protection is actually pretty good. There are enormous sewers and flood control systems that go under the centre of the city. I'd be very surprised if you noticed much there.
Rob Lang
Mon Jul 23 16:23:33 2007
Rob - that's good news. He sounded quite upbeat over the phone at the weekend but I'm sure that an evening in the warm with a decent hot meal will help the Dunkirk spirit no end! And if your flat floods I think we are all in trouble....
Alex (big sis!)
Mon Jul 23 16:23:04 2007
Still, on the plus side, maybe the hideously unaffordable houses in places like Pangbourne might come down in price a bit as a result...?
John
Mon Jul 23 16:21:13 2007
Alex, I will be kidnapping Dad tonight - taking his washing and anything else and then I'm going to look after him for a bit. We'll go to a nice supermarket so he can stock up on whatever, put a wash on for him and do him some dinner before returning to the boat. Chances are, we'll keep doing that if he's there for the week. We've had flood warnings (office near Thames), so I think he might be. My flat is, of course, 300 feet above the Thames so if we get flooded, the UK is buggered.
Rob Lang
Mon Jul 23 16:21:05 2007
Blimey! Is this one of those situations where places up river are "taking one for the team" to prevent flooding of more heavily populated places down river...? I live very close to the Thames in London, although don't feel in any imminent danger of flooding here (although who knows, maybe I'll be eating my hat in a week's time!).
John
Mon Jul 23 16:17:29 2007
Hey Rob, are you going on a mercy mission to take Dad more wine tonight?
Alex (big sis!)
Mon Jul 23 16:14:54 2007
Pangbourne is now under water, aparently. Rivermead (Festival Site) is (aparently) slowly disappearing.
Rob Lang
Mon Jul 23 16:02:16 2007
Or you could use John's program to convert them to ASCII art and then type them out.
dsp
Mon Jul 23 15:30:59 2007
Get them printed and keep them in the wallets that they come in.
dsp
Mon Jul 23 15:30:27 2007
Dsp: Yes but how do I store pictures?
Lox
Mon Jul 23 15:20:45 2007
Lox: Perhaps you'd be more suited to paper and an old-fashioned typewriter.
dsp
Mon Jul 23 15:00:53 2007
Tim/John: Stop wasting time, already one day has passed and you clearly haven't sort out the mess of having several partitions standards. Being the only computer scientists that I know I assume it's all your fault, hence, find a solution quickly. Paper storing will not be good because I cannot write properly and therefore I might have troubles reading. :D
Lox
Mon Jul 23 14:29:59 2007
John: So too is paper production.
dsp
Mon Jul 23 14:12:42 2007
Tim: I'm not convinced about the scalability of that solution. I believe Lorenzo may actually be trying to store a backup of the Internet, and as we all now, the storage capacity of that is infinite...
John
Mon Jul 23 12:29:56 2007
Lox: May I suggest you just give up and print things out instead.
dsp
Mon Jul 23 12:18:31 2007
John: I just hope that the utility will see the network drive allright... :P
Lox
Mon Jul 23 09:39:31 2007
Yea, I was about to say using some sort of networking magic as a layer of abstraction, but it seems like you've thought of that already.
John
Mon Jul 23 09:36:22 2007
Nigel: Good idea... could solve the problem as a matter of fact, but the real issue is that the airport extreme doesn not recognize NTFS so the drive won`t even show up as a network drive... Having said that I have found some utilities that grant compatibility between HFS and Windows...
Lox
Mon Jul 23 08:56:57 2007
Morning all!!
Yeah, great, isn't it Lox? My external drive has two partitions to cope. However one trick I learned is to use Parallels Desktop with XP - you can then access your files without problem. Use the "Shared Folders" feature and you're fine - works perfectly - especially the latest version of Parallels. :)
(That was too technical for first thing on a Monday, but anything to help the Maison...!)
Nigel
Mon Jul 23 08:52:58 2007
After scrounging the net and having lost sleep on the gazzillion types of partitions that exists I have concluded that it`s all JOHN and ROB`s fault (helped by TIM as well), so guys now you have to sort out the mess and create a file system that works on everything, that doesn`t screw up the HD, that is reliable and fast and that can store at least files 5 Petabyte big (better look into the future you know)... Thanks, I need that by when I get back to Italy on the 2nd of August, of course as I gave you the idea I will take 51% of the profits, if any, while you can share the cost among yourselves as it is clearly your fault for inventing too many file systems.
Lox
Mon Jul 23 08:23:17 2007
I really hate all this proprietary stuff, couldn`t just they make a partition that was good for everyone!? I mean how stupid is that!?
Lox
Mon Jul 23 08:03:26 2007
ARG bloody Fat32... been trying to unpack a file 4.6gigs to a fat32 drive... imagine what happened... :( Is any of you aware of a compatible partition that is not FAT32 between PC and MAC? NTFS can be read but cannot be written by Mac OS...
Lox
Mon Jul 23 07:42:32 2007
John: could you send me the password for the spam filter again I cannot seem to kill spam any more because I do not remember it... :)
Lox
Mon Jul 23 03:11:22 2007
What do you guys think of this chap? HERE
Lox
Sun Jul 22 23:47:43 2007
Sheri: Have a great trip!!!
The week is about to start again for me. What a DRAG... Of Wendsday I will "meet" the general director to speak about the whole work situation, while the rest of the week I should be busy working on preparing the next show which is on the 31st and 1st of August... Let's hope that I will be busy, being bored here is terrible!
Lox
Sun Jul 22 23:22:33 2007
Have a great trip Sheri! I look forward to seeing your holiday snaps on your return...
John
Sun Jul 22 19:24:43 2007
Going to Corsica tomorrow. Won't "see" you for a fortnight. God bless you all !!!
Sheri
Sun Jul 22 18:22:17 2007
Right, well time to start cooking dinner I suppose! Chie bought a set of scales today, so for the first time ever I can actually weigh the ingredients for Yorkshire puddings, rather than just guessing at random!
John
Sun Jul 22 17:25:27 2007
...and now I'm off to the supermarket to buy some bits and pieces for a good old Sunday roast.
John
Sun Jul 22 14:22:54 2007
I'm back in London now, and have just had a beer-via-Skype with my old drinking chum Tanaka-san. It was quite fantastic to be able to do "kanpai" having not seen him for seven months or so. Isn't technology fantastic?
John
Sun Jul 22 14:21:29 2007
MM: blimey - I hadn't really thought of all the knock-on effects of all this rain we've been having! Still, on the plus side, it is quite a convenient area to be stranded in - not too far from Rob!
John
Sun Jul 22 14:19:29 2007
He tells me that the lock mooring is quite high, and although the river is expected to rise further, he should be able to get to the pub and Tescos. The lock keeper has told him it will probably be at least Thursday before he can safely go down river.
Mad Mumsie
Sun Jul 22 13:10:58 2007
Hi all, I'm in WB for the weekend, left London at 12.15 on Friday, took me 5 hours to get to WB (80 miles) The M4 was like a giant car park. Still plenty of petrol and the radio, and at least it didn't rain again until Hungerford. Nice weekend, I shall be heading off soon, and hope the journey home is not so horrendous. Cyberdad is stuck on the Thames in his boat. He was below Sonning lock, but the mooring disappeared under water, so he moved up river and is now moored above Sonning lock.
Mad Mumsie
Sun Jul 22 13:09:27 2007
Afternoon all!!Hey is that the sun out here?... Nah!Can't be...
Nigel
Sun Jul 22 13:05:31 2007
Oh and the party was ok, but I really feel I'm getting too old and boring for that sort of thing now! Will upload some pictures later on today probably.
John
Sun Jul 22 10:53:44 2007
On the way back from Canterbury (where the party was) now. Yes that was quite early for a Sunday - we stayed at my friend's house and I woke up before everyone else so used my mobile to check the board, as I had nothing else to do. These days I seem to wake up around 8 no matter what - I guess it's a sign of getting old!
John
Sun Jul 22 10:48:18 2007
I just noticed that you are up VERY EARLY for a Sunday!
Lox
Sun Jul 22 08:08:33 2007
Ciao John how was the party? Pictures?
Lox
Sun Jul 22 08:08:04 2007
Morning all.
John
Sun Jul 22 08:03:49 2007
John: Is your dress featuring alien-like fingers?
Lox
Sat Jul 21 09:40:42 2007
Morning all! We're off to Canterbury for 24 hours or so, going to a fancy dress party, have to admit a slight apprehension about it though - I'm getting too old for this sort of thing!
John
Sat Jul 21 09:20:01 2007
Just been watching the floods in Berkshire on the news, I hope you guys in Reading and Theale aren't flooded out or trapped up a tree or anything ! ( Of course if you are up a tree you probably wont read this unless you have the ability to get connected to an unsecured wifi from your pda ). Seriously though, seems like a bit of a nightmare what with people not able to get home because of closed roads and apparently the Stations are all closed too.
Kev
Fri Jul 20 22:23:00 2007
JM: I'd like to but it's too expensive from Japan! :D (I feel that a lame excuse fest is about to begin!)...
Lox
Fri Jul 20 18:11:00 2007
Can I suggest you all phone your mothers? As lovely and lively as this message board is, we do occasionally like to hear your real voices!
John's Mum
Fri Jul 20 18:07:11 2007
Anyway chaps, it's Friday night! Anyone got any plans? I am still in the office, and probably will be for some time yet... although on the plus side I do at least have a nice cold beer to keep my company!
John
Fri Jul 20 17:38:34 2007
Presumably Ferrari don't win that often, as they spend the first half of the race going one way round the track, and then the second half going the other way.
John
Fri Jul 20 17:34:29 2007
Jimmy: You mean that it's normal for Ferrari and the likes to find "ways" around the rules in order to perform better? Wow, I thought that they would do something like that...
Lox
Fri Jul 20 17:09:55 2007
Lox- any documents from Ferrari are likely to be nothing more than detailed instructions on how to cheat. That's how they operate.
Jimmy
Fri Jul 20 16:45:15 2007
Naaaah ... It'll be out of action for a couple of weeks buy -hey- I'm on holiday for a fortnight. I can avoid all the smelly cleaning-up! Yay! In the meantime, we'll use it as a powerboat simulator. Or fit it with a set of full-wets ;)
Jimmy
Fri Jul 20 16:43:40 2007
Jimmy: I hope you didn't have anything to do with the Ferrari-McLaren case!
Lox
Fri Jul 20 16:42:46 2007
Though I like the concept of a "swimulator" I hope your work hasn't been ruined, Jimmy :(
Nigel
Fri Jul 20 16:32:20 2007
We're the first F1 team to have a swimulator! Being housed in the basement, it's kind-of flooded. A bit. Well, rather a lot, really.
Jimmy
Fri Jul 20 16:28:29 2007
Any anyway, I'm up to my knees in water. Oh well, as long as I'm not planning a holiday in Cornwall for the next fortnight I'll be OK. ... ... ... ... D'oh!
Jimmy
Fri Jul 20 14:49:48 2007
I've not seen it, but I believe the super-computer is a collection of "Standard" boxes, all networked pretty-much as John describes. That's *not* what we use in the simulator, because we need low latency, not just high throughput.
Jimmy
Fri Jul 20 14:48:51 2007
LOL!! Yes, John. I was thinking of SETI just before I read your words!! So true too...! Reading back over the comments yesterday, Rob's turned on a switch somewhere - if you really want to know when something will occur you probably need to resort to Machine Code / Assembler (Shock-Horror!). Otherwise any OS has overheads that are hard to turn off.... UNLESS - Ha-Ha!! - you use a Sinclair ZX80/81 in FAST mode. In this config these prehistoric machines actually turned off the display and other peripherals while a program was being run!!!!! (In "slow" mode those little critters updated screens and beeped and did all the other stuff too...) So may I suggest buying around 300,000 ZX81s? No? Tuh! There's no pleasing some folk... ;)
Nigel
Fri Jul 20 10:15:20 2007
Jimmy: I bet your office has lots of PCs that are 99% idle most of the time, a lot of them probably only used for email. My advice would be to start a secret underground R&D project, Softel style, to write a SETI-esque client (called the Badger collective?) which runs on all the PCs in your office, and uses their idle time to do all these calculations relating to aerodynamics etc. I bet the sum of idle time of all those PCs would outweigh the computing power of the new supercomputer, you'll have saved the company hundreds of thousands of pounds, and before you know it you'll be having brandy and cigars with Frank on his yacht every weekend.
John
Fri Jul 20 10:07:25 2007
Nigel: yes it is a bit sad! However this is the reality for a lot of office workers (mainly male, but also to some extent female) in Japan, who work such long hours that they have no time to cultivate a natural social life. So instead they go to clubs where they are effectively pay people to pay attention to them. It's a natural supply and demand thing. People need food, so there are restaurants. People crave attention, so there are places like that. Given my current total lack of a social life I can entirely sympathize with these people!
John
Fri Jul 20 10:03:31 2007
Jimmy/Kev: I'm not sure if this is the right way to go (the supercomputer route) unless things need to be done in real time. I would recommend lots of cheap off-the-shelf PCs networked together. Most people (apart from supercomputer manufacturers) agree nowadays it is the only cost-effective way to achieve high performance computing - and better still it is a scalable solution - when you need more oomph, you just bung in a few more PCs, rather than having to go out and buy a whole new supercomputer.
John
Fri Jul 20 09:59:54 2007
Morning... That sounded a bit sad John - "People will always talk to you if you pay them..." :(
Jimmy: As Kev points out with the linky... Maybe now is a good time to ask for a pay rise?!?! :))
Nigel
Fri Jul 20 09:38:15 2007
So Jimmy, whats it called then link . I think Jemima is a good name.
Kev
Fri Jul 20 08:33:12 2007
Alternatively, following the hostess bar / sunaku route, people will talk to you if you pay them!
John
Fri Jul 20 08:30:08 2007
Hmmm, I was never really that keen on Shibuya, I never found anywhere I really liked there... but anyway going out by yourself in Japan can be surprisingly fun! If you find the right place that is - people will talk to you just because you're different.
John
Fri Jul 20 08:28:20 2007
John: Yes there are a lot of things to do, I do not deny it, but I am by myself and I rarely meddle with the locals during business trips, that is unless someone if with me! :D What are you doing at the weekend? I'll see, surely Saturday I'll go out somewhere in the evening, maybe Shibuya...
Lox
Fri Jul 20 00:37:29 2007
...or go over to Asakusa for the excellent Kamiya bar - very close to sensoji and really easy to find. I think it might have been closed that time we went to Asakusa last August, but it is really worth a visit - it is quite an experience.
John
Fri Jul 20 00:15:40 2007
Or blow a load of cash on cocktails at the New York Bar at the Park Hyatt?
John
Fri Jul 20 00:13:29 2007
In fact even Sasazuka, one of the stations near where I used to live, had a really nice bar and a couple of really good izakayas, all of which seem to open into the wee small hours of the morning.
John
Fri Jul 20 00:12:46 2007
...or go to that karaoke bar in Shinjuku - I think it was a bit dead that time I took you there, but later on at night it can be really fun. Lots of gaijins there, and friendly non-gaijins who want to meet gaijins.
John
Fri Jul 20 00:11:48 2007
What - you actually get two days off? You should go and visit Watanabe-san in Ikebukuro. It's quite an experience in Japan to stay out until 5AM, and then get the first train in the morning, along with all the other drunkards.
John
Fri Jul 20 00:10:04 2007
John: Nope... this time I won a 16 day trip.... :( Well weekend is at the door, so I really have to give it a good go today and then it will be two days of total laziness and shopping... :D
Lox
Thu Jul 19 23:56:15 2007
Poor old Lox! It can't last more than a couple of days though surely? Although maybe by the time the jetlag effect has worn off you'll be heading back to Europe again...?
John
Thu Jul 19 23:40:30 2007
good morning it'5,47 of course 5 am up even if I had a sleeping pill... this is starting to annoy me!
Lox
Thu Jul 19 21:55:11 2007
Pity about the RTOS. I'm using RTX (a bolt-on to Windows that gets in at the kernel level and gives you hard-real-time scheduling), but it can only use one processor. And I want 8 processors! Argh!
Jimmy
Thu Jul 19 17:16:04 2007
(oh and as for the RTOS I've never actually used one...)
John
Thu Jul 19 16:47:41 2007
Jimmy: that 's a strong contester for the worst taste joke we've ever had on the message board... and yet I found it difficult to prevent myself from laughing.
John
Thu Jul 19 16:47:03 2007
Oh God - Give me strength to recover from very bad jokes :)
Mad Mumsie
Thu Jul 19 16:43:23 2007
Oh yeah ... I also heard a joke that made me chuckle: When asked whether he was going to do a panto this Christmas, Michael Barrymore replied that it was extremely unlikely ... he'd done Aladdin a few years back and still not heard the end of it.
Jimmy
Thu Jul 19 16:08:23 2007
OK ... anyone care to name a realtime OS they've used or can recommend?
Jimmy
Thu Jul 19 16:06:43 2007
The only time dependent coding I've done is on microprocessors.
Rob Lang
Thu Jul 19 15:58:50 2007
Yeah that's true.
Couldn't you run a UNIX OS in single user mode maybe though?
tom
Thu Jul 19 14:37:54 2007
All the parallelism at work I do is very coarse grain - the goal is to get through huge volumes of data in reasonable time, rather than trying to make an individual operation work in a tiny fraction of a second... I'm not really sure what you're trying to achieve, but if that sort of precision of execution time is required you need a real time OS rather than any of the common user oriented operating systems we use today. My understanding is that it's basically impossible with Windows (or Linux or Mac OS X for that matter) to guarantee "this operation will complete in 1/nth of a second", because you never know when exactly your process is going to be scheduled.
John
Thu Jul 19 14:32:52 2007
I am totally dead, 10 hours standing in the exhibition hall have taken a rather steep toll on me! Oh well.. goodnight!
Lox
Thu Jul 19 14:31:16 2007
That monster pod is a bit odd...
tom
Thu Jul 19 13:32:22 2007
Tom- indeed. But what's the alternative? Do you know of an OS that *can* actually handle this sort of problem? Really? Really really? You've actually done it? I'm afer low latency here, not just high throughput.
Jimmy
Thu Jul 19 13:25:30 2007
A new gadget! www monster-pod dot com
Fancy having one of these babies in your pocket!
I can think of a thousand and one uses, but i'm not sure i'd trust it with my camera!
How about pushing one into the face of your boss Lox whilst saying 'ere, 'old this!' (is that too northern?) :o)
Tim's mum
Thu Jul 19 13:19:40 2007
"On a Windows box"....
tom
Thu Jul 19 12:56:35 2007
John- parallel algorithms, eh? I've been having trouble with those. Specifically, I have a problem that splits into 4, but needs to complete in about 300 microseconds. On a Windows box, the overhead of splitting up the problem and handing it out to different threads (and indeed glue-ing the results back together again) is greater than the computation time itself! Any thoughts?
Jimmy
Thu Jul 19 12:55:33 2007
Today, I am working through my massive todo list at quite a lick. It's very satisfying.
tom
Thu Jul 19 12:16:47 2007
Agreed: I can fly an aircraft.... (maybe not rotary wing). But I'd struggle to land anything much bigger than a vigilant!
tom
Thu Jul 19 12:16:09 2007
Rob: Its not so much the flying bit, but can anyone land the plane that matters :)
Mad Mumsie
Thu Jul 19 11:55:02 2007
Lox. News from Chiara, if you