I don’t believe it! We were burgled last night.
When I came down the stairs this morning it was to discover that we had been burgled in the night. Luckily (sort of) they were disturbed, probably by the dog, and ‘only’ got away with Jan’s bag (with her purse, driver’s license, and passport in it) two mobile phones, and the digital camera. They didn’t get the computer, microfiche reader, keys, my bag and wallet, CD’s or DVD’s all of which were in the same room. And they didn’t go in any other rooms.
The most distressing part is the personal items from Jan’s bag including photo’s, mementos, her Filofax and so on. The other stuff can be replaced.
The police came quite quickly and took all the details. The officer told me that another house down the road had also been burgled last night. The fingerprint guy came later but got nothing.
First Day Back
It was my first day back at work today. My train was late, no surprise there then. Thankfully I didn’t have a couple of hundred emails to deal with, I’d been dealing with them on and off from home. Well actually I did have more than 200, but most of those were auto-generated bugzilla posts, and various reminders. I did, however get stuck back straight away, a new release of the code, and a merge to be done today.
About half way through the day, when I turned around to talk to someone, I realised that half the people in my part of the office had moved desks! Very confusing. In the end it wasn’t too hard a day.
On the way home, my train was very late, then cancelled, then the next one was late! And when I got to Stockport, they’ve boarded up my bus stop for refurbishment! I had to go and find the new place to catch my bus.
When I got home, I also realised that my neck ache was back. This is the first time in three weeks! There must be something wrong with my setup at work. I think I’m going to have to lower my monitor position.
Holiday Nearly Over
Well, my holiday is nearly over. I have to go back to work tomorrow. It will be the first time in the office since the 13th of December!
It’s been quite good fun. I’ve not got as much done as I would have liked and I’ve done some things I wasn’t expecting, but that seems to always be the case. I’ve enjoyed this holiday, although like anything it has had its ups and downs.
Jamie is back in school tomorrow too. I’m not sure whether she is looking forward to it or not. I think Jan will be glad to see the back of us both for a few hours a day.
The Diary of Samuel Pepys
Here’s an exciting idea! Phil Gyford has decided to turn Samuel Pepys diary into a weblog. Quite literally there will be a new entry from the original diary every day for the next 10 years. He’s based it on the public domain version from Project Gutenburg, but points out
Although the diary text came with footnotes, these assume a level of knowledge about British history, geography and language that few have in the 21st Century.
This is where the ability to post comments on the site has proved crucial. Entries and footnotes are already being annotated by readers who provide explanations and additional information, creating a more communal experience than conventional publishing allows. So rather than simply publishing a dead – albeit fascinating – text, I now find myself in charge of a far more exciting living read.
Quote above from the BBC story about the project.
Orignal link from slashdot
It’s in my blogroll! Recommended.
In Praise (or not) of B2
Reverend Jim has written a pretty critical review of B2 entitled cafelog: a look at bad code. You get the feel for the article from the title. I think he could have done a little more research to be a little fairer, which would have answered a couple of his points. Whilst in essence I agree with a lot of his comments about the code design and quality, I think he neglects to mention the fact that the thing works, and works well (performance notwithstanding) for a lot of people.
Edit: 02:22 Jim has posted a second article about Cafelog/B2 cafelog: a few more thoughts. There is also a continuing comment dialog in the original story.
The Lord Of The Rings: The Making Of The Trilogy – Finished
I’ve finished reading The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the trilogy. It was a very good book. It didn’t just concentrate on the facts and figures, although there are plenty of them, but also tried to convey some of the personalities involved.
Recommended.
My next book is Crypto: Secrecy and Privacy in the New Code War by Steven Levy, which I’ve already started. This is already turning out to be an excellent book! Very exciting (to me at least!)
Out With The Old, In With The New
A new colour scheme and a minor modification to the layout. This is my ‘Winter’ colour scheme. Comments welcome.
Back to the old theme
Aagh! I’ve had enough of the new year theme. Too bright. It’s gone (unless you use Mozilla in which case, it is available under View -> Use Style).
