armb

"This": http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/11/imbeciles.html

Ending felt a bit like the writers were trying to have their cake and eat it. I'm suspicious that it's a lead up to "actually, he can bring the rest of Time Lords back after all, he just needed to realise that". I must get around to writing up my theory about the Doctor and altering history - I don't think this totally destroys it.

In other news , Michael Moorcock to write Doctor Who - http://io9.com/5404048/moorcock-to-write-doctor-who

I've been thinking about getting a new phone, because the sync connector on my PDA has become dodgy.
I think xkcd may have just made up my mind for me: http://xkcd.com/662/

Later edit:
(In terms of platform, I wasn't likely to get new top end models like the Droid.)

Current plan is still to use older non-smart phone, and PDA that still syncs so long as you wiggle the USB lead about a bit, because when it finally fails there will be more options.
( Read more... )

We have working radiators. All over the first floor[1]. They get hot. I'm not going to be killed for putting the family through a third Christmas with no heating upstairs. Hurrah.

There's room for a lot of improvement, and I need to fix a couple of small drips, but still - working radiators in the bedroom.

Coming soon much later, plans for adding solar heating. We had calls from http://www.britannicpower.com/ recently. I'm reasonably impressed by their kit (thermal store with multiple heat exchanger coils), much less so by their salesmen. Better than the last lot (whose name I forget) though. The existing use of a thermal store and requirement that the (remaining) underfloor heating be a separate circuit is what rules out most simple solutions. But I'm currently thinking maybe one of the existing stores could be converted to a preheat store.

Also, a newer more efficient boiler. MicroCHP would be fun.
http://www.eonenergy.com/At-Home/Products/Technology-And-Initiatives/WhisperGen.htm

But better controls, and not running the pump off a timeswitch on the landing with a flex across the floor into the airing cupboard is probably the first thing (after fixing the drips).

[1] Except the one in the guest bathroom. Picky. Between the wall of the airing cupboard and the pipes to the radiator in the hall not being insulated yet, the bathroom is fairly warm anyway.

Is "The Nutt Sack Affair" the finest name ever for a political embarrassment?

And why do I have a sudden urge to look for Man From UNCLE slash about their fight against thrush THRUSH? (I don't really. But I bet it exists.)

(P.S. I wouldn't much mind politicians saying "other considerations result in our following a different policy from the one our science advisors recommend". But they should be honest that that is what they are doing, and the advisors should be free to say that their advice was different.)

Tom Tomorrow sums up Obama's Nobel prize - it was actually won by the idea of Obama:
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2009/10/13/tomo/index.html

Meanwhile, why are the Conservatives so far ahead in UK opinion polls? Does anyone really think they would have kept us out of recession by putting stricter controls on the banking industry? Kept us out of Iraq? I'm starting to think they might be a slight improvement on civil rights and privacy issues, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Human powered flapping wing flight: http://www.hpoproject.ca/?q=content/technical-info
Via http://www.bikeforest.com/?p=116

I thought muninnhuginn would appreciate this: http://www.twolumps.net/d/20091009.html

I'm looking for bike recommendations for my nephew:
http://community.livejournal.com/cantabrigiensis/197646.html

"No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick."

(Things are a bit more complicated than that - there will always be deaths can be postponed only at vast expense, and finite resources. But I agree with the basic principle that some reasonable level of healthcare should be available to everyone.)

[EDIT: On the other hand I'm not overkeen on memes that imply that failing to copy something means you don't support the views expressed, and I don't expect doing so here to change anyone's mind about the level of popular support for whatever it is.]

Having two monitors at work is definitely useful, but I do find my shoulder aching more often.
Must learn to use keyboard shortcuts more often, and/or try the "vertical mouse" a colleague has, or a trackball.
I suspect there's something that could be done to improve desk layout/chair position too, but I'm not sure what.
(I'm running Windows, at least for the main desktop and some VMs.)

Perl Cannot Be Parsed: A Formal Proof

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/apollo11_radio/
http://wechoosethemoon.org/
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/07/16/nasas-new-restored-f.html

(I did watch it, but I can't tell the memories of doing so from from memories of watching repeats.)

The developers who demolished the factory next door say that they plan to resume work on the site in a few weeks.
(They want to know if they can rent the small patch of land behind our sheds for their "site accomodation". Any idea how we might find out what the going rate for that sort of thing might be? Given that we rarely use it, and no-one else is going to want it, I suspect "take whatever they offer".)

http://www.gizmag.com/metal-muscled-robo-bat/12188/

Did Batman ever use flying robotic bat shaped surveillance devices? If not, why not?

On the whole, I think Google mean their "don't be evil" slogan. But handing over management of health records to them? WTF? (As for "or Microsoft"...)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/06/tory_nhs_googlization/

Every now and again iTunes tells me that it has assumed that since I hadn't listened to a podcast for a while, it's stopped subscribing to it.
i) Why can't it notice that I have been copying the podcasts to an iPod where they have been listened to?
ii) Is there a preference to say "just keep downloading them until I tell you to stop, don't guess"?

A new Haynes Manual is out:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/10/apollo_owners_manual/

http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2009/06/09/how-privacy-fails-the-facebook-applications-debacle/

Want: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/05/monkeylectrics-full.html