https://minimal.org.uk/categories/personal/ Recent content in personal on minimal.org.uk Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb ian Fri, 01 Apr 2016 17:54:36 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2016/04/01/new-obsession-nik-clouds/ Fri, 01 Apr 2016 17:54:36 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2016/04/01/new-obsession-nik-clouds/ Earlier this year I had been considering buying Nik just for the Silver Efex Pro 2 editor, but as usual I couldn’t decide if my rework would be that much improved by new toys compared to just learning to use what I already have, and so didn’t go shopping. For some reason, Google rewarded me (and a few others besides) by making the Nik Collection free to download and I’ve since spent a large number of hours just clicking through the presets and seeing what comes up. https://minimal.org.uk/2014/08/04/green-flag-worlds-worst-retentions-policy/ Mon, 04 Aug 2014 17:12:18 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2014/08/04/green-flag-worlds-worst-retentions-policy/ So I’ve used Green Flag as a breakdown service for the last 5 years, with multiple call outs for one horrid vehicle (but hey it’s my fault, it was American built: never again !) and had managed (finally) to get 3 years of no claims on my account. Renewal request: £90 after no claims has been applied Enter my details on their new customer site: £59 with ‘online signup discount applied’ https://minimal.org.uk/2014/07/10/another-day-another-marketing-rant/ Thu, 10 Jul 2014 20:05:11 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2014/07/10/another-day-another-marketing-rant/ Ok, so this is bound to get me some name calling from colleagues but I’m talking about the amorphous and wide-ranging ‘act of Marketing’ rather than a department or individuals… Why ? Well I’ve just worked out (after getting annoyed by an email from Google for their totally pointless AdWords service †) what the root cause of my recent outburst about SEO fluff articles was all about, and it’s nicely represented by the shill article on Wikipedia describing the ‘Call To Action’: https://minimal.org.uk/2014/07/04/i-am-not-a-fan-of-but/ Fri, 04 Jul 2014 07:21:27 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2014/07/04/i-am-not-a-fan-of-but/ Ok, the secret to blogging more ? Reading Twitter, it seems… This morning’s gem (from the amazing-in-everything Mark Gatiss): “@xxgoingdown: @Markgatiss do you like doctor who? If yes, what’s your fav doctor?” Sheesh. What does one have to do, eh? — Mark Gatiss (@Markgatiss) July 3, 2014 For me this strikes me as part of the same problem highlighted by the also-excellent Charlie Brooker: …The first face was Bob Hoskins, prompting a wave of respectful applause through the auditorium. https://minimal.org.uk/2014/06/23/everything-thats-wrong-with-the-modern-web-in-140-characters-or-less/ Mon, 23 Jun 2014 20:37:16 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2014/06/23/everything-thats-wrong-with-the-modern-web-in-140-characters-or-less/ Ok, so I’m old. Curmudgeonly. Fixed in my ways. And feeling older every time I venture out of my comfort zone and attempt to embrace new ideals – I’m sure every generation feels this, but stuff it – the web used to be for geeks, and now look at it… I don’t blog as much as I used to, but that’s for a hugely complex number of reasons, not least of which is that there is so much out there to _do_ it’s hard to stop learning and tell others – plus my day job is now decidedly non-commercial when compared to my previous companies, and so a lot of what I do, investigate or experiment with day-to-day is no longer anything I can share publicly. https://minimal.org.uk/2013/04/22/national-space-centre/ Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:54:25 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2013/04/22/national-space-centre/ A fascinating day out at the National Space Centre for the kids, and a lot of interesting exhibits for those of us who spent far too long reading about this sort of thing 30 years ago. Even though the facts were well known, actually seeing physical which had only been pictured in books was quite something: like finding myself face-to-face with a real SR71 Blackbird at Duxford, seeing a Blue Streak and Soyuz craft at just an arm’s length really brought home the fragility of the craft, not to mention the exceedingly friendly terms you need to be on with your fellow astronauts when cooped up in the main Soyuz pod. https://minimal.org.uk/2013/03/27/peeko-computer/ Wed, 27 Mar 2013 21:37:50 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2013/03/27/peeko-computer/ Back in 1982, AcornSoft released a program designed to be a gentle introduction to understanding the internals of computer operation and 6502 assembly language. I found the original tape and manual a little over a year ago and it struck me that the sort of simplicity and clarity that the program brought to a fairly complex topic could still have a use today. A couple of weeks ago I finally sat down and spent 8 hours or so on the task, and have come up with an HTML/JavaScript version, complete with a clone of the stunning 1980’s UI design (pictured above…) which not only executes the first two problems in the manual correctly, but has an extensible instruction set which allow experimentation and expansion of the original concept. https://minimal.org.uk/2009/04/15/good-enough-for-amazon-good-enough-for-me/ Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:08:23 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2009/04/15/good-enough-for-amazon-good-enough-for-me/ Amazon blocks Phorm adverts scan: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7999635.stm I hadn’t previously bothered to do this, as it seemed to be too early to say how Phorm would turn out and the implementation of the opt-out is so braindead and full of marketing BS that it just made me angry. Yeah, I want to ban all search engines so Phorm doesn’t scan me – right… What about all the other User-Agent strings that <a href="http://www. https://minimal.org.uk/2008/12/29/dvd-is-the-new-cd-or-gb-are-the-new-mb/ Mon, 29 Dec 2008 09:29:41 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2008/12/29/dvd-is-the-new-cd-or-gb-are-the-new-mb/ It’s a purely personal milestone, but today marks the first time I’ve ripped a DVD (store bought) to a video file without watching the film itself. I’ve been slowly going through my film collection and encoding them so I can put the bulky boxes into a crate and store them out of the way – just as CD’s were a revelation in ease of use compared to having to clean and carefully place the stylus on vinyl, and just as DVD’s (in the early days) allowed direct access to the film without tedious rewinding of the tape, media files finally free me from needing to take up a portion of my living space with boxes that are rarely used. https://minimal.org.uk/2008/12/02/halfords-how-not-to-run-an-online-reservation-system/ Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:33:15 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2008/12/02/halfords-how-not-to-run-an-online-reservation-system/ I’m probably a little naive given that I work in computing, but after the number of years that Argos have managed to run a nice and simple online reservation/order system I’d have thought it was a simple thing to copy. It’s not. Having reserved a bike for my eldest at Halfords one Sunday morning last month, we all went down to collect it with the idea of building it together. The actual reservation was pretty straightforward, and I was quite impressed with the SMS reservation code they texted me within 2 minutes – the bike was in stock and available that day and the next and all I had to do was turn up and pay. https://minimal.org.uk/2008/11/03/pitching-in-apple-retail-store-field-trips/ Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:10:51 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2008/11/03/pitching-in-apple-retail-store-field-trips/ This is slightly out of character for me but I think there’s an obvious point being missed here: Apple Retail Store Field Trip: http://speirs.org/2008/11/01/apple-retail-store-field-trip/ Whilst at first glance this does make it seem as though “Media Awareness” should now become a pre-school activity, take a step back and ask what passes for ICT in the majority of UK primary schools right now. I freely admit that without children of my own in such a situation I might not know, but unsurprisingly it’s pretty much a Microsoft shop – there are some glimmers of hope (some variants of free software have finally been approved for ‘purchase’) but basically you will be taught the MS way of working. https://minimal.org.uk/2008/06/30/coffee-me-and-my-desk/ Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:22:50 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2008/06/30/coffee-me-and-my-desk/ My desk smells of coffee My leg smells of coffee My bin smells of coffee The floor is damp My mouse drips My heart falls My cup is empty Oh. https://minimal.org.uk/2008/06/22/once-youve-been-a-sysadmin-it-doesnt-leave-you/ Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:04:20 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2008/06/22/once-youve-been-a-sysadmin-it-doesnt-leave-you/ Despite falling into the role years ago, it never left me behind (despite what my current job title may say) as I’ve just discovered. There’s a power outage right now and I found myself myself: Unscrewing cabinets to get access to cables laid years ago Moving the DECT base station onto a UPS (something I never got around to doing in the last 12 months) Rerouting the WiFi power cable to come off a newer UPS with spare capacity Patching the WiFi through onto a spare switch Blogging about it …and then realising I’m at home. https://minimal.org.uk/2008/04/21/bookmooch-exchange-books-and-trade-them-like-a-book-swap-or-book-barter/ Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:36:37 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2008/04/21/bookmooch-exchange-books-and-trade-them-like-a-book-swap-or-book-barter/ BookMooch: exchange books and trade them, like a book swap or book barter: http://www.bookmooch.com/ Something to add to the list of sites I never knew existed, but wholeheartedly approve of. So much so that 10 minutes after signing up I’ve got 11 books available without even digging hard into the various piles scattered around the house. https://minimal.org.uk/2008/02/13/need-a-low-level-software-engineer/ Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:28:23 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2008/02/13/need-a-low-level-software-engineer/ Are you in need of a low-level software engineer with over 12 years of commercial experience ? One that is happy to play around with JTAG probes and softcore CPU designs debugging unproven bitfiles ? One that can utilise logic analysers, oscilloscopes, multimeter’s, GPIO/LED’s and serial ports on first spin hardware when there’s no debug port available ? Has programmed in many types of assembly language (MIPS, SPARC, ARM, 6502, Z80), as well as the ‘usual’ Unix stuff (C/awk/sed/perl/sh) and has backend web programming (perl/PHP/MySQL) and performance tuning experience ? https://minimal.org.uk/2008/01/13/was-small-sayings/ Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:18:46 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2008/01/13/was-small-sayings/ This is the full version: N: “What’s the next number in this sequence…” E (interrupting): “7” N: “…” N: “Err, yes.” The best bit is that she was, indeed, absolutely right… https://minimal.org.uk/2007/10/19/on-being-accurate/ Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:56:36 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2007/10/19/on-being-accurate/ A quote from a meeting at work earlier today: P: So, will this be a complete audio/visual presentation ? S: Yes. It’ll be me, talking. Geeks – pfft. I’m not even working in an English department… https://minimal.org.uk/2007/07/18/messing-with-purchase-prediction-software/ Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:02:31 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2007/07/18/messing-with-purchase-prediction-software/ A few years ago Tesco caused a stir with their loyalty card and the use of purchase histories to offer targeted coupons to users of the cards, which caused some privacy worries (IIRC about the same time Scott McNealy said “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.”) and that made me start wondering about the software used to predict buying habits, and what it made of my purchases. Am I statistically average ? https://minimal.org.uk/2007/05/21/lastfm-widget/ Mon, 21 May 2007 12:04:59 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2007/05/21/lastfm-widget/ The ‘local noise’ entry in the sidebar is now active with last.fm‘s Flash based widget and shows the most recent tracks I’ve been listening too. Not that exciting, really (especially with my current addition to OK Computer – just shy of 10 years late to this party…) apart from the fact that the little arrows in circles on the right of the track will play a 30s clip of the track just in case you’re curious, whilst mouseover the track name shows the album art (but in a thumbnail that’s too small to make out properly – hey ho). https://minimal.org.uk/2007/03/20/no-suprise-to-anyone-that-knows-me-then/ Tue, 20 Mar 2007 07:15:30 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2007/03/20/no-suprise-to-anyone-that-knows-me-then/ Well, hubert put his score up, so I decided to have a go: Oh dear – and the more worrying thing is that I know I could have scored more, if my science history had been better ! https://minimal.org.uk/2006/03/26/things-i-have-learnt-today/ Sun, 26 Mar 2006 16:15:44 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2006/03/26/things-i-have-learnt-today/ In no particular order: Although OmniGraffle 2.2 is very outdated, it makes short shrift of flow charts, especially when using Lucida Grande 9pt text and frequent use of the Align Center to Grid button You need to have at least a 1280 x 1024 display to do sane flow charts on A4 in Omnigraffle, as there’s enough room on the screen to have the Font, Palette and Inspector windows open too Adding the Font to the Favourites list in the Font Inspector makes it very fast to change a page once it’s been roughed out: Option+A and then a single click Our children will gaze at us with wonder[1]when we descibe how disc filing systems used to erase the previous contents of the file when saving data with the same name, assuming we can get the concept of a ‘Save’ across to them. https://minimal.org.uk/2006/02/04/all-time-is-relative-lunch-time-doubly-so/ Sat, 04 Feb 2006 19:34:53 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2006/02/04/all-time-is-relative-lunch-time-doubly-so/ The eldest is having her first sleepover, and an argument was in full swing that needed some intercession: R: Nicci, how many hours are there in a day ? Nicci: 24 R: See ! I told you ! Hahahahahahaha! C: No. But. You. But… R: You said there were 30 ! C: Yes, but I was including the night Hmm, maybe Ray Bradbury was right, and we do have Martians amongst us already… https://minimal.org.uk/2005/12/12/touting-for-work/ Mon, 12 Dec 2005 18:04:50 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2005/12/12/touting-for-work/ I’ve been a bit remiss in terms of keeping my CV (or resumé, if you prefer) up-to-date, but it’s now on-line in all it’s hacked up CSS glory. I would prefer that initial contact be via email, and if the content doesn’t suit a normal or HTML/Rich Text message, I absolutely, positively and categorically prefer PDF for documents. https://minimal.org.uk/2005/12/12/i-love-photoshop-i-hate-photoshop/ Mon, 12 Dec 2005 07:31:08 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2005/12/12/i-love-photoshop-i-hate-photoshop/ How to Add a Border to a Picture in Photoshop – eHow.com: http://www.ehow.com/how_6395_add-border-picture.html Ok, so I’m only talking about Photoshop Elements 3 (or 2) here, and without it I doubt I’d have been so happy to give up my 35mm film camera, but boy does it make some simple things hard. For some reason, with PSE3 Adobe have put in loads of ‘Wizard’ style helper boxes for colour shifts and the like, despite the very easy and obvious colour space tools (like Hue/Sat layers). https://minimal.org.uk/2005/11/10/risking-it-all/ Thu, 10 Nov 2005 07:38:16 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2005/11/10/risking-it-all/ This morning I found an email waiting for me from some friends who have been setting up an on-line store: Childrens toys, clothes, gifts and accessories, For Fun and Funky Children: http://funkymoose.co.uk/ What I wasn’t expecting was the line: “We are ‘risking it all’ as we have given up our jobs to do this”. Wow. I’ve not put that much trust in anything computer related even though it has been very tempting at times, so if you have a need for clothes/toys for kids then I know an order would be most welcome – I’ll vouch for the quality of the customer service in advance 🙂 https://minimal.org.uk/2005/09/15/updated-gallery/ Thu, 15 Sep 2005 22:11:06 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2005/09/15/updated-gallery/ 3 years and it’s still not quite right… Still, it’s better than before, and even has some more recent stuff but none of it has been retouched in quite the manner I want (no colour balancing, no careful cropping, no RAW highlight checking, no careful smoothing/sharpening, etc.), not to mention I’m falling out of love with the whole geographical nature of the albums. However, the colours match those of this site a little better and I’ve got the hang of how the whole thing is set up (thanks to RapidWeaver) so it ought to be so little effort to keep it up-to-date when I do finally get some edits I’m happy with that they’ll actually make it off my drive and online. https://minimal.org.uk/2005/09/12/art-parodying-life-imitating-art/ Mon, 12 Sep 2005 21:08:45 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2005/09/12/art-parodying-life-imitating-art/ It’s difficult to describe what it is, exactly, I find so annoying and slightly more than a little distateful about any sort of reunion but most especially school reuinions. I know that I often wonder what it is I’m obviously missing, as Friends Reunited may sound like a morning-after dot.com brainstorm, but there’s no denying that it’s anything but a dot.com site (and to be fair to the original designers, it was never intended to be quite this big and wasn’t built on the back of a dodgy business plan). https://minimal.org.uk/2004/09/05/maybe-i-shouldnt-bother-with-that-pilot-training/ Sun, 05 Sep 2004 20:41:03 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2004/09/05/maybe-i-shouldnt-bother-with-that-pilot-training/ UserFriendly Strip 04sep04: http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20040904&mode=classic Oh dear. That is so me… Perhaps it’s a good idea that I’m not going to start learning anytime soon. https://minimal.org.uk/2004/07/12/possibly-poetry/ Mon, 12 Jul 2004 11:20:23 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2004/07/12/possibly-poetry/ I originally wrote this a few years ago as an email to describe the joys of my day at work and was accused of poetry. I’m not sure, but thought I’d give it an airing anyway: https://minimal.org.uk/2004/07/08/things-i-really-must-get-around-to-doing-no-71835/ Thu, 08 Jul 2004 10:06:19 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2004/07/08/things-i-really-must-get-around-to-doing-no-71835/ Vietnamese Iced Coffee: http://coffeefaq.com/coffaq7.htm#VietIcedCoffee and: http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/asia/vietnamese/00/rec0005.html I’ve only had it once on a trip to Cupertino, and it was the first (and only) time that iced coffee has not only been pleasant, but so nice that I felt saddened when it was finished. Not that sad mind you, as it also felt like I’d just finished a dozen expresso… https://minimal.org.uk/2003/01/08/its-a-girl/ Wed, 08 Jan 2003 12:04:33 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2003/01/08/its-a-girl/ At 9:57am this morning, Nicci gave birth to our second daughter, Abi, weighing 8lb 13oz (just as it started to snow). Both mother and daughter are doing fine, although Abi has yet to open her eyes ! https://minimal.org.uk/2002/10/04/socks-washing-and-airmiles/ Fri, 04 Oct 2002 14:12:41 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2002/10/04/socks-washing-and-airmiles/ Looking in my sock drawer this morning, a few things came to mind – the first was why do I keep getting different pairs of odd socks ? I swear that the ones left at the end change every few weeks… The second was that three pairs of airline socks is three too many, and that I should have signed up for air miles way sooner than I did. The last thought, as I pulled on a matching pair (of airline socks) , is that I really, really should have put a load of washing on a couple of days sooner, even if that meant missing a bit of the Odyssey 5 pilot. https://minimal.org.uk/2002/08/27/hard-drive-sadness/ Tue, 27 Aug 2002 12:39:46 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2002/08/27/hard-drive-sadness/ My Mac decided to play games with me, and so far it seems to have morphed into a PC 🙁 I had decided that I needed to clear out some space for some video capture (friends wanted a DVD produced for them) but after failing to free up much, I decided to swap out my capture hard drive and chuck in one that was going to be an upgrade for my Qube. https://minimal.org.uk/2002/08/09/new-pootle-image/ Fri, 09 Aug 2002 13:46:27 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2002/08/09/new-pootle-image/ Pootle’s 20 week scan is now on-line (taken yesterday), and all of the pages now have correct WIDTH and HEIGHT entries in the IMG tags so that page loading should feel faster (the page will render, and then wait for the image, rather than the other way around). https://minimal.org.uk/2002/07/15/not-many-changes-recently/ Mon, 15 Jul 2002 20:39:38 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2002/07/15/not-many-changes-recently/ I knew I wasn’t a blogger at heart ! There’ve been too many things to do recently, and so talking to myself has been pushed down the list somewhat. I do have some new piccies from California in the gallery, though. Nicci is pregnant again, and has been suffering from the same extreme morning sickness (Hyperemesis [sp?]) as with Emma. This has left little time for things like getting b2 sorted, and since GM has no archives on my system it didn’t seem worth adding anything. https://minimal.org.uk/2002/05/31/strange-uptime-recordssite-downtime/ Fri, 31 May 2002 13:05:15 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2002/05/31/strange-uptime-recordssite-downtime/ If you look at the uptime records in the stats section, you might see a few very short runs. There might also be some times when the sites on this system are unavailable. I’m basically fed up with the 2.0.24 kernel that Cobalt have for the Qube. Yes, it’s an old product, and I don’t expect company support, but it really annoys me that some software simply refuses to run (like Jabber), and other things are, well, odd (pauses in tar unpacking when the CPU load is waaay down). https://minimal.org.uk/2002/05/21/20000-logs-under-the-sql/ Tue, 21 May 2002 22:35:42 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2002/05/21/20000-logs-under-the-sql/ Over 20,000 lines of logs added from the old data on this system. None of the previous web server info is available, but then who wants to see 2,000+ CodeRed hits ? Most of the data is in – there were over 26,000 entries at one point, but I’ve pulled a lot of the rubbish. I’ll be trimming the stuff in there from time to time anyway, and just keeping some of the more interesting stats. https://minimal.org.uk/2002/05/10/day-off/ Fri, 10 May 2002 09:21:11 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2002/05/10/day-off/ Yay – time to myself. Well, not quite, but it’s made a nice 3 day week 🙂 Nicci’s not feeling too great, so I will need to look after her a bit. We were supposed to both take today off to tidy the loft, but I’ll be doing that myself now. Not that I mind too much, as I really want to sort out my desk so that the Mac and it’s monitors are ready for capture, rather than just having a jumble of wires and keyboards that sort of works. https://minimal.org.uk/1999/02/05/5th-february-1999/ Fri, 05 Feb 1999 16:35:55 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/1999/02/05/5th-february-1999/ First pictures of Emma go up, and I start to wonder how much more the site can grow with the exponential amount of work required to keep the left hand menu structure up-to-date. https://minimal.org.uk/1999/01/27/27th-january-1999/ Wed, 27 Jan 1999 16:35:17 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/1999/01/27/27th-january-1999/ Still waiting for Pob, so I finished the initial layout of the site, and created a logo for the top of Pob’s images. This new site grew out of a very basic one which was just to showcase the ultrasound images. With a nice new domain name and some silly frame controls to keep from having to pay for fully featured site hosting 🙂