previous bloggings :: blog

Update Fail
Yes I've failed almost entirely to put anything new on my website for almost two months. Or more. Strike that 'almost'.

I am alive. I am well, apart from an increased rate of headaches & migraine. Damn. Ordered two MigraCaps, cool. Wife in much pain with sciatica - ultra bad.

Have now moved away from Southampton after exactly 10 years and 11 months. Now live in Cambridge, very nice. Looking for house to buy, difficult. Permanent internet solution still not achieved.

Autumn is here yet again. More to say on that. More to say on lots, keep forgetting to write things down. Very busy. Working 8:30 - 5:30 :(

New phone - HTC Android - cross training in progress, not going well. HTC software = BAD, Android = confusing, iPhone = missed (wife now owns - pleased for wife).

Frozen Planet, Grand Designs, Origins Of Us all incredible. Felt compelled to open Twitter account: @DrNickBailey

Now past bedtime, up at 7:30. Winter darkness has descended, not yet SAD. Weekends so precious.

Speak soon...
[02-11-2011]

Why I like Ray Mears rather than Bear Grills
In a survival situation Bear is desperate to get out of it - eating scorpions whole, drinking water from a cow pat and slogging over miles of teratory to find some civilisation and hope of rescue.

Ray on the other hand simply sets up home. Makes a shelter, sets up a fire and constructs a billy can from some beech bark. Then heads out to collect some local delacaies, carves his own cutlery and crockery, meets the local wildlife and generally sets up home. Awesome.
[22-09-2011]

Ten Years On
I'm nearly thirty. Ten years ago I was nearly twenty. Where was I when the twin towers were hit? On holiday from university and sitting down to watch the afternoon Neighbours. When I turned the TV on I was slightly annoyed to find some disaster film had seemed to replaced Neighbours, but I quickly realised it was a special news bulletin and as I watched the second tower was hit. But I'm not here to reminisce about that disaster, but rather the decade that it marks the passing of. And sitting here in my new flat in my new city with a new job and new wife (not that I had an old one) I really feel the passing of an old chapter in my life and the beginnings of a new fresh chapter.
[11-09-2011]

The New Hell - Visio
Damn you Microsoft. I mean really, may the fruits of your coding loins all die the horrible virus-riddled death that they deserve. How dare you sell, for actual cash, products which are such utter crap.

Visio is my new torment. I've downloaded the trial version from the web. This is a fully functional time-limited trial and I can't wait for the time to expire as it is such utter useless rubbish that it's making me angry just by the numerous pathetic ways in which it doesn't do what you want. Some people (my Brother perhaps) might say that I just have to learn it's ways. But no, not when even it's own inbuilt ways don't work. I can't explain how it fails without boring you all to tears (though I am half tempted to just so you can feel part of my torment) but if you'd like an hours frustration, just download the Visio free trial and see if you can construct a moderatly interconnected UML diagram without lines that don't connect, text that overlaps with no means to stop it, text boxes that can't be re-edited, boxes which don't snap to grids. Just pitiful.

Excel spreadsheets are composed of a number of separate sheets (default is three) displayed as tabs at the bottom of the window. This is EXACTLY the same in Visio, but can you drag or copy one sheet to another document? Of course not, don't be so stupid, why would anyone ever want to move sheets to different documents. Brain smashing incompetence.

HA! Just found the trick of how to re-edit a connector tag - select it (which doesn't produce an editing cursor, and don't click it a second time as you'd expect from every other program, that just re-selects the connector as a whole), then type some random letter, then hit Ctrl-Z to undo the letter you typed, then low and behold you have the previous tag text now selected with an edit cursor.
And you're telling me this is just a 'feature'?
[11-08-2011]