Branch On Maybe

The Wicker Man

2007-02-04T11:11:00.000-05:00

We watched the Nicholas Cage movie "The Wicker Man" last night. His movies are usually good but this was a total let down. Not only was it a bad (really bad) remake of the the original 1973 British film of the same name but it I'm still trying to figure out how bits of it relate to anything in the main plot. however I won't be wasting too much time on it.

Sorry Nick mate, zero points for that one....

Groundhog Day.

2007-02-03T09:07:00.000-05:00

Is groundhog like ground beef?

No Matter How Hard I Try...

2007-01-31T21:53:00.000-05:00

I just can't imagine George W. Bush ever being a pretty baby.

Insincerity is ok...

2007-01-29T13:00:00.000-05:00

I'd rather be wished "have a nice day" by someone who didn't mean it than the opposite by someone who did !!

Real Life "Creature Comforts"...

2007-01-28T22:22:00.000-05:00

Watch the chicken in the background. Just like something from the Creature Comforts claymation series...

Mmmmmmmmm.....

2007-01-27T16:11:00.000-05:00

My wife sent me this. Think she's trying to tell me something?

When I was married 25 years, I took a look at my wife one day and said, "Honey, 25 years ago we had a cheap apartment, a cheap car, slept on a sofa bed and watched a 10-inch black and white TV, but I got to sleep every night with a hot 25-year-old blonde.

"Now we have a nice house, nice car, big bed and plasma screen TV, but I'm sleeping with a 50-year-old woman. It seems to me that you are not holding up your side of things."

My wife is a very reasonable woman. She told me to go out and find a hot 25-year-old blonde and she would make sure that I would once again be living in a cheap apartment, driving a cheap car, sleeping on a sofa bed and watching a 10-inch black and white TV."

Aren't older women great? They really know how to solve your mid life crisis.

My home town

2007-01-25T22:16:00.000-05:00

My wife sent me this link to a web site about my home town back in the UK.

iDunno...

2007-01-24T10:10:00.000-05:00

New from Apple (or maybe not), the iDunno.

I don't know what it does.
I don't know what it costs.
I don't know if I want one.

Could be useful for teenagers though when asked questions since the answer always seems to be "Idunno" !

Scammers

2007-01-23T23:07:00.001-05:00

This is joke web site I set up some time ago in response to those Nigerian scam emails I get from time to time. Some of them actually fell for it for a time.

XSLT Woes Sorted (sorta...)

2007-01-23T23:07:00.000-05:00

I managed to come up with a solution to the problem I was having with Firefox not supporting xsl:namespace-alias using xsl:element entries that works for Firefox and IE (but not Opera so far, darn it) . It's messy and the resultant XSL transform stylesheet is NOT easy to read but it does seem to work, at least on my test data. Just got to make it work with real data now (ha ha!!).

Baby Changing Stations

2007-01-22T18:37:00.000-05:00

You know, those things in rest rooms (men's too these days). I kept putting my kid on those things but I always got the same one back.

Beats me how they work.

Argghhh....

2007-01-19T09:07:00.000-05:00

Because of yesterday's school closure the kids are in today instead of being off, so our trip to the beach gets delayed even more. So much for a relaxing long week-end away. Looks like it's turning into the usual mad frenzied, stress ridden event that most of our trips end up being :(

Yeash...

2007-01-18T08:58:00.000-05:00

We get a 'light' dusting of snow and the schools close !

Missing the point.

2007-01-16T19:53:00.000-05:00

So we are fighting a war (of sorts) in Iraq because we are the 'good guys' following our Christian beliefs in equality and freedom as handed down to Moses et al in the dim and distant past.

The other lot (the 'bad guys') are fighting a war based on their religious beliefs as handed down to Mohammed some time later.

So 'we' are fighting because god is on our side and 'they' are fighting because god is on their side.

Doesn't it make you think that maybe someone, somewhere missed the whole bloody point.

I Hate Plumbing...

2007-01-15T09:15:00.000-05:00

Five (yes, FIVE) hours to install a new garbage disposal !

It's all god's fault...

2007-01-15T09:12:00.000-05:00

If a virus changes and I get a cold as a result, is that evolution or divine intervention?

I am not Happy....

2007-01-12T23:01:00.000-05:00

It seems that Gecko (the engine behind the Firefox browser) does not support the XSL namespace-alias function of style sheets (but IE does).

This NOT good. FF has finally let me down and I am not happy :(

Back in the day....

2007-01-12T18:00:00.000-05:00

I used to quite literally hang out with this bunch of hoodlums...

http://www.scfhgc.org/

Mind you, it was a long time ago. My son is still amused by the tale of the time I landed in a tree. That may be my only claim to fame!!

iPhone = i ('ve got no money left)...

2007-01-11T15:10:00.000-05:00

Who in their right mind is going to pay nearly $500 for a bloody phone.

On The Technology front....

2007-01-11T12:16:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been playing with SOAP and XML. As a by product of that I came across XSL for transforming XML documents to other forms like HTML (yes, I know this stuff has been around for years but some of us just take time to get going!).

Anyway the latest fun thing I have been experimenting with is the idea of generating XSL from XSL.

Basically, using an XML document and an XSL style sheet to generate a second XSL style sheet that is then applied to a second XSL document.

If that doesn't confuse you, nothing will !

By the way...

2007-01-11T08:16:00.000-05:00

The Raleigh Ringers were great. Thoroughly enjoyed the show.

It Occurs to me...

2007-01-09T18:57:00.000-05:00

That the penalty system for driving infractions is totally unfair. I mean, you don't get credit for all the good driving you do, do you. But put one foot (or wheel) wrong and it's "hello officer" time.

Just doesn't seem fair to me. They should pull you over from time to time and say, excellent driving sir/madam, keep up the good work, then send you on your way with a smile and a wave.

And NO, I didn't get a ticket, just thinking about this stuff (slow day !!).

Ah...New Year....

2007-01-08T18:34:00.000-05:00

And the joy of getting the credit card bill and going OMG!!!!!

My very first computer...

2007-01-05T10:47:00.000-05:00

Was an Acorn Atom.

You can't call it a pc since it was before the IBM PC came along but it was a computer non the less. I built and interfaced a musical keyboard to it along with a console game sound chip to generate a variety of sounds and buzzes that passed for musical notes. All the software was done using the built in 6502 assembler. I even wrote a sequencer for it.

You can read about it here: http://old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=80

Is anything...

2007-01-05T10:01:00.000-05:00

Is Anything at Wal Mart actually made in the USA?

I'm back....

2007-01-04T22:36:00.000-05:00

So much for quiting this, just shows I've no willpower :(
If nothing else it's an outlet for all the crap in my life and hey, maybe someone even finds it useful/interesting and/or amusing although really I doubt it.
Still, a new year, yet another diet (sigh), and off we go...

Bye...

2006-12-11T06:47:00.000-05:00

I'm done, not coming back here.

Sugar

2006-12-09T20:42:00.000-05:00

Why do we (well me anyway) say the word 'sugar' with an 'sh' sound at the start when there is no 'H' in there?

This Town 'Ain't Big Enough - Doh!

2006-12-06T11:46:00.000-05:00

Ad from a mexican newspaper:

You Gotta Love Those Europeans...

2006-12-06T08:45:00.000-05:00

This just in from the BBC

A Norwegian appeals court has ruled that striptease is an art form and should therefore be exempt from value-added tax (VAT).

Just going to study some art dear, be back in a while !!!

Why...

2006-12-06T08:26:00.000-05:00

Arn't paper clips made of paper or photo frames made of photos or thumb tack made of thumbs?

Mmmmm. ok, maybe I can understand the thumb tacks one !

When TV Ads Go Bad....

2006-12-04T13:23:00.000-05:00

So, I'm watching this ad on TV the other day, well not really watching it but it's on the TV and I'm in the room so close enough, for the Bisell (is that how you spell it?) Hotspot or some such thing. Basically a little automated carpet cleaner for VERY small carpets from what I can see. No really it's supposed to get spots out of carpets.
Anway, the add drones on, then they tell you how to use it "Just switch it on and walk away" and I thought, why do I need to walk away? Is it shy? What happens if I hang around, will it not work?
And if I go away (at any speed) how do I know when its done? If it's smart enough to know I've gone away (seems like it is from the ad) then will it come looking for me when its done shouting"I'm all done!" like a small kid, fresh from potty training !!

Then I though, ok, sillyness aside, lets say you use this think to clean a spot from your carpet. If your carpet is anything like ours, after a year or two it fades a little. So you clean the spot with this thing and lo! You have this six inch clean spot right in the middle of your otherwise dull carpet ! Cool, so now you get to clean the WHOLE carpet 6 inches at a time using this little doo hickey, or you go get the regular carpet cleaner and do the whole thing like you should have done in the first place !

Great idea chaps, better luck next time....

Bah Humbug

2006-12-03T16:29:00.000-05:00

How to erode any sense of Christmas Sprit that you may have...

Go shopping at Wal Mart. TWENTY minutes to get though the checkout line...

Summer Time Fun...

2006-12-01T10:34:00.000-05:00

Ah, memories of warmer days (the one on the left is mine, sigh!)...

Brilliant...

2006-12-01T10:26:00.000-05:00

Posted on the internal blog at work (well it is Friday after all):

Fun with Languages

2006-11-30T15:49:00.000-05:00

A post on another blog got me thinking about how well or not automated language translation services work.

So I tried translating "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" from English to German then German to French and finally back to English.

This is what I ended up with:

The fast brown fox jumped on the putrefied dog.

Poor old dog!

Part of a Japanese post on the original post that got me started on this translated to this :

While drinking the coffee with the living, while working, it was pushed down the cup in the next woman.

It doesn't make sense, even in context of the rest of the translation, and no, I can't read Japanese so I really have little idea what it was all about anyway!

If you live on a boat...

2006-11-29T18:55:00.000-05:00

Do you need flood insurance?

We're off to see...

2006-11-27T09:50:00.000-05:00

The Raleigh Ringers, a handbell choir based in Raleigh, North Carolina. We went last Christmas and really enjoyed it.

Here's their rendition of "Christmas Eve, Sarajevo 12/24":

The world has ended....

2006-11-27T07:24:00.000-05:00

The dishwasher gave up the ghost the other day so we are having to wash the dishes by hand until the new one arrives.
My son thinks the world has ended !!

Life sure is tough, huh!

More Terrifying than Getting Married...

2006-11-27T07:13:00.000-05:00

My son has just received his permit so guess who gets to go with him for driving practice?

Life...

2006-11-26T19:25:00.000-05:00

A journey, not a destination.

That Sinking Feeling - IV

2006-11-22T23:25:00.000-05:00

They dropped it and it broke! Sink unit number FOUR is now on order. Sigh !

In case you missed it before...

2006-11-22T11:02:00.000-05:00

This video just gives me that "Feel Good" feeling.

It's a Celebration...

2006-11-22T10:50:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder since based on the TV ads alone, most of the US seems to have forgotten that Thanksgiving is a celebration of the countries past. Christmas is a celebration of the birth of some guy who lived 2000 years ago.

Regardless of your beliefs or country of origin, neither is supposed to be an excuse to go on a rampant shopping spree.

I'd also like to point out that the Christmas season does NOT start at the beginning of bloody NOVEMBER !!

Bloc not Blog?

2006-11-21T08:24:00.000-05:00

You'd think that something like blogger would recognize the words 'blog' and 'blogger' but apparently not. If you create a new post (like this one) then do a spell check on it, it wants to replace 'blogger' with 'blocker' and 'blog' with 'bloc'.

Wierd!

Javascript, AJAX and IE Woes...

2006-11-20T21:57:00.000-05:00

I've been playing around with the so called AJAX technology using javascript lately which is pretty good fun, when it works that is!

I do most of my development in Firefox because it has a pretty good javascript console and debugging environment. All usually goes well and then I try my code in Internet Exploder and BAM! Flat on it's bloody face.

It wouldn't be so bad if I knew what the hell I was doing but my language of choice is IBM mainframe assembler so to say I'm out of my depth here is understating it just a bit!

Beats me how any of this stuff ever works.

Blogger and Yahoo.

2006-11-20T13:29:00.000-05:00

I see that blogger wants me to switch my blog over to the new format, but to do that I have to sign up for a Yahoo account. Ok, so it's free but it's just another excuse to gather yet another email address and flood me with advertising. Plus I don't like Yahoo so much, the main web page is just too cluttered. Give me the basic (empty) Google page anyday.

No thanks chaps! I guess at some point the 'old' format will no longer work and it will be a choice of either switch or bye. In which case it will be a case of "so long chaps, been fun".

Only my wife can tell me what to do! Oh, and my child,....and the dog, ...and my boss, and....

Flash...

2006-11-20T13:25:00.000-05:00

No, not the software, nor the "Gordon" kind either, but USB removable flash drives.

I received one recently as a gift and I must say it is the most convenient little gizzmo I've found in a long time. So much easier than emailing files all over the place to myself.

I really, really, really...

2006-11-20T13:20:00.000-05:00

Hate my job right now :(

There... now I feel better :)

My Computer...

2006-11-17T12:09:00.000-05:00

It Did...

2006-11-16T15:34:00.000-05:00

Rain, Rain...

2006-11-16T13:06:00.000-05:00

Go Away ...............

Torn

2006-11-11T12:33:00.000-05:00

This guy is great. Natalie Imbruglia 'ain't all that bad either...

POETS Day..

2006-11-10T10:07:00.000-05:00

As in "Piss Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday" .

That's why I LOVE Fridays.

Let the Law Suites Begin...

2006-11-07T09:55:00.000-05:00

My prediction - This time tomorrow the voting hooha will be over and the law suits will be in full fling no doubt. Maybe in about six months or so we will actually know who got the various seats.
What a way to run anything!

So Far...

2006-11-07T09:53:00.000-05:00

Today we have received two automated phone calls from polly ticians seeking our vote. Apart from being extremely annoying it wouldn't be so bad if we were actually eligible to bloody well vote!

Polly Ticks & Polly Ticians....

2006-11-05T17:09:00.000-05:00

With the voting season upon us I must say I have yet to see anything that would make me want to vote for ANY of these jokers. All I've seen so far are load of adverts saying why you shouldn't vote for the other guy.

I've yet to see anything that indicates any of these so calld candidates:-

Could identify a problem, even if they were staring down the barrel of the bloody gun.
Could come up with any sort of realistic solution, other than 'pass more laws'.
Are actually capable of independent thought, outside of the official party lines.

'Ain't democracy great....

Fall Colors

2006-11-03T12:55:00.000-05:00

The colors on the trees this fall are absolutely beautiful. Far more vibrant than the last few years. Such a shame it does not last for long.

All Washed Up...

2006-11-03T09:55:00.000-05:00

I've been playing around with SOAP lately. No, not the stuff you wash yourself with but the internet protocol. I'm still tring to get my head around name spaces and XSLT or whatever it's called to transform the XML docs ito other forms (web pages for now).
Throw some AJAX in there and this could get interesting.

With all my other interests I need more hours in the day, or I need to give up work. Unfortunately I need the money (sigh!).

Your Vote for Sale

2006-11-02T07:12:00.000-05:00

Anyone who believes that politicians have the voters best interests at heart only has to look at how much money the major parties spend during an election to realize that politics is all about the almighty dollar, and has nothing to do with democracy.

Another trip around the sun...

2006-10-30T22:26:00.000-05:00

Comes to a close. Yes, tomorrow is Halloween and it's also my birthday (sigh). Interestingly that comes to 584,412,000 miles, give or take a few. And to think they said I'd never travel!

That Sinking Feeling - III

2006-10-26T07:50:00.000-05:00

After wasting another hour going to and from the shop it turns out that no, they had not lost the measurements after all. This fiasco doesn't inspire confidence though, does it!

And from Dan Quayle...

2006-10-24T15:30:00.000-05:00

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change.

The above quote (amongst others) is often used to make fun of Mr. Quayle, but how true they have turned out to be.

John F. Kenedy (1917-1963)

2006-10-24T15:23:00.000-05:00

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.

John F. Kenedy (1917-1963)

That Sinking Feeling - II

2006-10-24T13:30:00.000-05:00

Now they've gone and lost the dimensions I gave them. Can I go in (again) and tell them what I want (again).
I am pretty sure that someone does not want us to have a new sink unit.

That Sinking Feeling

2006-10-23T07:15:00.000-05:00

My wife wants a new sink unit in the master bathroom but it's an odd size so it has to be special order.
So far the first one was wrong (non-drip edge only on TWO edges, not the three requested) and we opened the second one yesterday to find it was broken big time.
So now we are on order number three. Ah the joys of home maintenace!

The world needs more people like this...

2006-10-19T08:22:00.000-05:00

Seen on kellypuffs

Mastermindless

2006-10-19T08:10:00.000-05:00

From the BBC (for those who do not know, Mastermind is a UK televised quiz program).

Quiz fan Simon Curtis has achieved the dubious honour of getting the lowest ever score on Mastermind. He chose the films of Jim Carrey as his specialist subject but only got one question right.

How embarrassing is that, and on national TV to boot.

Jesus Christ Sold Separately

2006-10-17T06:16:00.000-05:00

That was the comment from my son about a nativity scene my wife had bought from the Dollar Store (don't ask!).

Only My Kid ...

2006-10-16T08:39:00.000-05:00

In an argument with my wife over having a shower (he is almost 15 after all).

Her. Did you use soap?
Him. Yes but it didn't work...

Why I Love Beer.....

2006-10-15T20:32:00.000-05:00

One afternoon at Cheers, Cliff Clavin was explaining the " BuffaloTheory" to his buddy Norm.
Here's how it went:

"Well ya see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first . This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

Look out George Lucas...

2006-10-12T14:50:00.000-05:00

My son's fiend called me last night. He wanted to buy some stuff on e-Bay but didn't have an account. Half a dozen (near enough anyway) pairs of assorted spectacles and sun glasses and a wooly beret!
Seems he's making a spoof movie and needed them for props. I always wanted to go to Hollywood too!!

Walking on egg shells

2006-10-11T06:31:00.000-05:00

N. Korea threatens another nuc test if the US does not play nice. Muslims throw petrol bombs at the Danish embassy over the religious cartoon debacle. Afghanistan and Iraq are a bloody joke. Seems to me like the western world is having to walk on egg shells (without cracking them) all the time in order to avoid upsetting everyone else in the world.
Pretty soon the west is going to say enough is enough. If someone insults my religion (whatever it may be), does it really matter to me? Does it affect me overall? I think not. As for N. Korea, what are they going to do, launch a bloody nuc? It would be the last thing they did.

It almost makes me want to make me join the NRA.

I Hate Spammers

2006-10-06T21:28:00.000-05:00

You want to know what's worse than being the target of spam. Being the target of some ***** spammer that has hijacked your domain name and is using it as the 'reply to' address in spam emails.
Why is it bad? Because you keep getting gazillions of 'your email was blocked' email messages from the spammers victims.

Faster than a speeding bullet....or not!

2006-10-05T07:33:00.000-05:00

If I put two stamps on a letter , will it get there twice as fast?

Living in a Vacuum...

2006-10-04T07:57:00.000-05:00

I have developed a tendancy to say that things 'suck' when they go bad. This seems to be a fairly common phrase. Unfortunately for me, my wife does not like the term at all.

Note to self, Engage brain before mouth when wife is around...

Life Expectancy...Low

2006-09-29T12:09:00.000-05:00

Seen today on the freeway. Guy on a Harleyesque motorcycle, riding with his feet up on top of the turn indicators. There's laid back and then there's dead!

Shooting for the stars

2006-09-27T07:52:00.000-05:00

How is that that America can put a man on the moon but seems incapable of making a paper towel dispenser that actually works?

Read All About it.

2006-09-25T11:26:00.000-05:00

Is there a school for newspaper headline writers? I mean, who comes up with some of these things...

House passes gas tax on to senate.
Police begin campaign to run down jaywalkers.
William Kelly was fed secretary.
Deaf mute gets new hearing in killing.

And I was just drinking the stuff...

2006-09-22T05:49:00.000-05:00

Vodka...

To remove a bandage painlessly, saturate the bandage with vodka. The solvent dissolves adhesive.
To clean the caulking around bathtubs and showers, fill a trigger-spray bottle with vodka, spray the caulking, let set five minutes and wash clean. The alcohol in the vodka kills mold and mildew.
To clean your eyeglasses, simply wipe the lenses with a soft, clean cloth dampened with vodka. The alcohol in the vodka cleans the glass and kills germs.
Prolong the life of razors by filling a cup with vodka and letting your safety razor blade soak in the alcohol after shaving. The vodka disinfects the blade and prevents rusting.
Spray vodka on vomit stains, scrub with a brush, and then blot dry.
Using a cotton ball, apply vodka to your face as an astringent to cleanse the skin and tighten pores.
Add a jigger of vodka to a 12-ounce bottle of shampoo. The alcohol cleanses the scalp, removes toxins from hair, and stimulates the growth of healthy hair.
Fill a sixteen-ounce trigger-spray bottle and spray bees or wasps to kill them.
Pour one-half cup vodka and one-half cup water in a Ziploc freezer bag. Freeze for a slushy, refreshable ice pack for aches, pain or black eyes.
Fill a clean, used mayonnaise jar with freshly packed lavender flowers, fill the jar with vodka, seal the lid tightly and set in the sun for three days. Strain liquid through a coffee filter, then apply the tincture to aches and pains.
To relieve a fever, use a washcloth to rub vodka on your chest and back as a liniment.
To cure foot odor, wash your feet with vodka.
Vodka will disinfect and alleviate a jellyfish sting.
Pour vodka over an area affected with poison ivy to remove the urushiol oil from your skin.
Swish a shot of vodka over an aching tooth Allow your gums to absorb some of the alcohol to numb the pain.

Opposable Thumbs...

2006-09-20T07:34:00.000-05:00

Makes you wonder who (or what) would be in charge if we didn't have them...

Pythago..who?

2006-09-19T07:30:00.000-05:00

Seen on kellypuffs:

Finger trouble...

2006-09-19T07:26:00.000-05:00

I'm always hitting the ; key instead of the ' key. Do you think that if I pried the keys of the keyboard and swapped them over, that it would solve my problem?

Nah, probably not...

Standards...Ha, don't make me laugh....

2006-09-19T07:22:00.000-05:00

My car broke down yesterday, brake line broke (scary!!) so I need to make a new one (old car, cannot just go buy a new part). Welcome to the wonderful world of automotive no- standards. There's metric sizes, imperial sizes, bubble this, flare that, double bubble mushroom flare, but a standard, ha, don't make me laugh.

Beats me how Henry Ford ever got a car out the door.

My patience wears thin...

2006-09-16T08:11:00.000-05:00

In my life I have lived and worked in muslim countries and I am proud to have called muslims from many nations my friends. I am not particulary religious, I have my beliefs but they are mine, no one elses and I don't try to ram them down anyone elses throat.

However I must say that even I am getting sick and tired of the way the muslim world seems to errupt in demonstrations, riots and outright attacks on non muslims every time anyone even so much as hints at critisizing their religion or any aspect of it.

As a westerner the only way I have found to understand it is to relate it to life in the western world about six hundred years ago. That's were Islam is today. Unfortunately someone gave them guns, bonbs and the bloody internet.

Since no one ever reads this, except may be the Dept. of Homeland Security I'm probably pretty safe from any immediate attack on my person. Still you can't hide for ever can you?

Be Prepared....Or not..

2006-09-15T07:04:00.000-05:00

To get onto our site at work you need to show your badge as you drive in through the gate. So when setting out from home to come to work you would expect that most people would think, "Hey, I'm going to work, I'll need to show my badge at the gate, better put it somewhere handy for when I get there.".

Well, that's what you'd think, but it seems that in many cases the act of arriving at work comes as some sort of a surprise to many of the people who turn up at the gate and then spend two minutes fumbling around looking for their badge.

Baden Powell (founder of the Boy Scouts) must surely be turning over in his grave.

Dress code...

2006-09-15T06:14:00.000-05:00

It occurs to me the Christian religion seems to be the only one (that I know of) that does not require its followers to follow a certain dress code or adopt cetain grooming habits. Many other faiths seem to require that their followers adopt certain dress or grooming styles such as Muslim women, Jewish skull caps, Beards, Sikh Hair etc.
I am sure there are many other examples as well but possibly such dress and grooming codes are simply a variation on a form of uniform that force its adopters to identify with one group or another. The result is that, instead of seeing themselves as one family with common aims, they see themselves as different and distinct groups.

Crayons...

2006-09-14T07:40:00.000-05:00

I don't know where this came from but I liked it:-

We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

When is a forum not a forum?

2006-09-13T07:24:00.000-05:00

When it's called Fordboldmoves.com. No comments by individuals get published until they are 'reviewed'. So whilst it has the appearance of a 'free speech' forum, it is in fact little more than a carefully guarded marketing strategy.

Ok, I'll admit I sent in a comment and it was not published, but it won't be the first time I've had a submission to a publication turned down. Just don't pretend that this is an open forum when it clearly is not.

1,636,800,000

2006-09-12T11:08:00.000-05:00

Following on from my earlier comment about the length of a Football Field being used as a measure of distance, for your convenience I have made the following calculations:

Distance to the sun - 1,636,800,000 FFs
65 MPH = 1,144 FFs per hour (FFPH?)
Distance From London (UK) to New York (3471 miles) - 61,089 FFs

See how much easier that is to understand......

Should you wish to do your own calculations you can use this formulae:

Distance in FFs = Distance in (old, outdated) miles times 17.6

How far was that again?

2006-09-11T05:24:00.000-05:00

Apparently the US is now using a new standard measurement, known as the "Football field". Ships, trains and many other large object are described as being x "Football fields" long. Things are described as being so many "Football fields" away.

I suspect that soon the US will introduce the FF as a new standard international measure to replace that stupid metric system. Speed limit signs will be converted to FFs/hour. Stars will be so many light FFs away. Areas will be described in square FFs (but can you square something that is essentially an oblong shape to begin with).

Smaller units of measurement will of course use the ten yard line, the twenty yard line and so on. Anything smaller than that will cease to exist, except for those pesky yard things which will be consolidated into units of ten to make things easy.

It might help though if anyone outside of the US actually knew how long a "Football field" actually was.

Appreciate what you have...

2006-09-10T19:11:00.000-05:00

If the population of the earth were reduced to 100 people, it would look something like this:

Container Passenger Aircraft

2006-09-08T11:32:00.000-05:00

Let's face it, passenger aircraft are little more than big containers with doors and windows. Now I know an aircraft, even a big one can be turned around in 40 minutes to an hour maybe but I bet if you asked the airlines if they would be interested if it could be done in say 15 minutes, they'd say "hell yes".

So, instead of everyone boarding the plane and all their luggage being loaded and then the reverse happening at the other end, then a cleaning crew etc goes on, have all the passengers, their baggage, the galley equipment, meals etc; pre loaded into a container like fuselage section that takes the place of the traditional fuselage in an aircraft.

When the plane arrives at the 'gate', the old fuselage section is swapped out, the new one swapped in, flight crew board, the plane is gassed up and away it goes. The old 'fuselage' can be disembark, unloaded and cleaned whilst the aircraft itself is on it's way with a new load of passengers.

High speed trains

2006-09-08T07:28:00.000-05:00

It always amazes me that there seems to be so little interest in really high speed trains in the US, given the size of the country and the increasing cost of fuel. I'd love to see a maglev type train running across the US.
Sure speeds are not at aircraft levels (yet!) but they are exceeding 300 mph.

Imagine LA to San Francisco in an hour with none of the aggravation or delays that airline passengers have to endure today.

7:47

2006-09-05T18:53:00.000-05:00

Not the aircraft, the time. I don't know what it is about that time but it seems that I see it on clocks far more than any other time, or at least I notice it more. Almost as though it haunting me.

Now I know that can't be true (can it?) but it sure does seem that way at times.

Labor Day...

2006-09-04T07:43:00.000-05:00

It's Labor Day. A day when we celebrate the American worker. What do we all do? We go shopping in all those shops that are staffed by workers that for some reason, don't get the day off.

So don't kid yourself, it's really just an excuse for the retail industry to have another sale...

1984, Here we come...

2006-09-01T09:04:00.000-05:00

You thought it would never happen but this is from the UK in a recent interview with Tony Blair, the UK's Prime Minister.

During an interview with the BBC, Mr Blair tried to give the impression of business as usual by unveiling plans for the state to target "problem children" before they are born.

"If we are not prepared to predict and intervene far more early, then there are children that are going to grow up in families that we know perfectly well are completely dysfunctional and the kids, a few years down the line, are going to be a menace to society and actually a threat to themselves," he said. Teenage mothers and problem families could be forced to take help to head off difficulties, he said. The Government had to intervene much earlier to prevent problems developing when children were older.

There could be sanctions for parents who refused to take advice to prevent children becoming a "menace to society". Action could even be taken "pre-birth" if necessary and defended the need for state intervention.

And it that does not send a chill down your spine, nothing will.

Mars here we come...

2006-08-31T19:25:00.000-05:00

Heard on the radio today as part of the response to a question to Barbara Boxer:-

'...Every other country on the face of the earth...'

My thought:-

As opposed to every other country where exactly?

Ah, the joy of computers...

2006-08-31T08:02:00.000-05:00

After a week of late nights I have finally gotten my web site moved over to a new Linux server, and for the most part working too.

The box I used had been sitting doing nothing for a couple of years so I decided to upgrade to Suse Linux 10.1 since I quite like the Suse distro. I did try Redhat once way back but was not impressed.
Anyway I digress, first issue was old (8.0) Linux kept crashing, well apps did anyway. New Linux would not even get through initial boot. After some investigation I ran the memory test that came with the new Linux. Yup, bad memory. A new Dim fixed that but scratch one weekend.

Next, I had a bigger hard drive I had taken from my sons old PC. I know, I'll swap the drives. It wouldn't read it, wouldn't even try to boot from it so in back in went the old drive, which is plenty big enough for this machine anyway but more is always better, right? Anyway, scratch another couple of hours.

So I get Linux installed and updated. Scratch another day.

Now onto getting the web server running. Of course there's a 'new' version of apache and the files are all in different places. Scratch another day finding them all.

The Suse Linux YasT config tool has a little http admin applet. After much frustration I decided it's not worth a hill of beans and just edited the config files manually. Scratch another day or so.

And of course many of the config options have changed so I had to go through them all, plus my htaccess files, tweaking them. Scratch another day (at least).

Still in the end it is all done and apart from a couple of niggles it is back to where it was. Now I can get back to what I was doing originally which is writing a little automated photo album app.

Is this the end of newsgroups?

2006-08-30T07:59:00.000-05:00

I noticed recently that Google has moved the "Groups"(as in newsgroups) search off to the "more" item on the search options menu.

Could this indicate the end of newsgroups?