External Examining Fun

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We had the exam board this morning and then I wandered off for a walk around the city before I went to get my train home. I really like Dundee. I'm going to have to make some time for a proper visit. 

I also like the fact that I wrote a chunk of chapter six of "Begin to Code with Python" sitting at platform 1 waiting for my train. I'll be able to read my description of the while construction and how to use it properly and think "I wrote that in Dundee".

Evil Croquet

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The Incredible Hulk used to say "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." For me it's "You wouldn't like me when I'm playing croquet". We got the croquet set out today for the first time in many years and had a go. I seem to have lost a bit of my accuracy. But none of my nastiness. 

Sorry folks. 

You would think that by now I'd have learned the dangers inherent in giving other people large, heavy, mallets and then doing things that would seriously annoy them. But no....

Actually, croquet is a really great game. We used to have a lot of fun with the students when we had things like staff-student cricket matches. After they'd given us a serious drubbing on the cricket pitch we could always say "Well done. Now, how about a nice relaxing game of croquet?". The students, thinking that their superior motor skills and reflexes would serve them well in just another ball game would readily sign up. And we would win every time. 

Croquet is intensely strategic. A bit of skill helps, but at the end of the day it is all about striking a balance between your urge to complete the course and win the game, and your urge to send your opponent's balls into the flower beds. I think it's a good game for programmers, because it is all about sequence and planning. And I rather enjoy it. Frequently a lot more than the people I'm playing against......

I Hate the word Easy

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If there's one word that the English language could really do without, I reckon it's the word easy. It's one of those words that you shouldn't ever use because it never helps the situation. 

If I'm trying to do something and you tell me that it's easy that doesn't help. It just makes me even more concerned because I can't do it. And if I finally manage to do that thing, the knowledge that it was considered easy completely devalues the achievement. 

Don't say "It's easy". Say "You can do this". 

SatNav and NavSat

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We went from Hull to Harrogate on Sunday. And then, because we wanted to get home, we went from Harrogate to Hull. On the way back the sat. nav. tried to send us a different way from the one it used for the outbound journey.

I hate this. It happens most of the times that I go somewhere and then, surprise, surprise, come home again. It reminds me of one of my favourite railway station jokes:

Customer: "I'd like to buy a return ticket please."
Ticket seller: "Where to?"
Customer: "Back here of course...."

Anyhoo, for any navigation software writers out there, here are a couple of tips for your next version. 

  1. If I try to plot a route that seems to be the direct reverse of the one I've just driven, just reverse the route and give it straight back to me. 
  2. If you're planning a route from A to B, plan it from B to A as well and compare them. Then pick the best one. 

Feed the birds

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I think the name was carefully chosen to inspire confidence

We're embarking on a bit of garden renovation. I'm not a fan of gardening. It seems to me that you do it and then, after a year or so, you have to do it all over again.

Anyhoo, one thing that we seem to need is a bit of grass where there is presently just tundra. We've put down a bunch of seeds with a really impressive box (see above). I don't think SMART actually means that the seed has a Bluetooth interface, but it wouldn't it be awesome if it did.

Goldilocks Gas Struts

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I think I'm the first person ever to write a blog post with the title "Goldilocks Gas Struts". Not that it's a first I really want. I've been improving the guinea pig cage to give it a "lift off roof". The problem with a cage that has doors at the front is that if your pigs have a sprightly nature (and ours do) then you can open the door and then find that the hairy monsters have made a break for freedom.

They quite enjoy the process of being caught. We don't enjoy the process of catching them.

I've fitted the hinges and the cage lid now opens rather nicely. That way we can do stuff in the cage without any risk of escaping pigs. And I quite like the god like aspect of removing their sky.

Anyhoo, next I need to find something to hold it open. It turns out that you can buy gas struts to do this thing, and they are very reasonably priced. They are calibrated in Newton's, which is interesting, but not particularly useful to me. I bought a couple of 120 Newton ones, figuring that the lid of the cage is quite heavy.

Not that heavy. I couldn't get the darned thing to shut. So I bought a pair of 60 Newton ones.

Which of course are not heavy enough. The lid won't stay open. What I need is the "Goldilocks" ones, which I think will come in at around 80 or so.....

Ziggy Stardust Live

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Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is one of the best albums ever made. Fact. It says "Play Loud" on the album sleeve. Good advice.

Tonight we saw it played live by Holy Holy, a band containing the original drummer, "Woody" Woodmansey and long time Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti. Singing duties were taken up by Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17 fame.

It. Was. Awesome.

The band were "really tight" (to coin a phrase), with Woody's rock steady drumming underpinning some brilliant musicianship. Glenn Gregory is not David Bowie, and didn't try to pretend to be, but sounded great as himself. There was no messing with the material, no added flourishes or frills, and the rendition was all the better for that.

They played the whole album, in order, and then moved on to other classics, including a fantastic version of "Life on Mars".

There's a strong Hull connection to this work, several of the original Spiders from Mars, including Woody, were from the city. Not surprisingly the venue was packed, the music was well loud and we left with our ears ringing.

Fantastic stuff. If you get the chance to hear these folks, just go.

Working on it....

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Windows 10 is lovely. But there are some things that it does that drive me a bit nuts. Like, when I've downloaded a file, and then want to find it in my downloads folder.

Not a particularly strange request you might think.

But Windows 10 acts as if I've just asked for the cure for cancer and the ten millionth digit of pi. Along with next week's lottery numbers. My powerful machine with it's ultra-fast hard disk (at least that's what the salesman said) grinds to a halt while the operating system "works on" finding the files in a folder.

Why?

Rip Off Britain

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Apparently household insurance is important. I'm not keen on living in a box, although the single is awesome, (out of date pop culture reference alert) and so every year I've been paying a chunk of money to Legal and General so that if anything terrible happens they'll come round and sympathise with me whilst explaining why they can't pay me any money.

This year I took a proper look at the renewal price and it seemed a bit high. So I did a bit of digging and discovered that I could get equivalent cover for around a quarter of what I've been paying.

I rang up the company, was told that mine was a special "Rainbow" policy that was not arranged directly by the Legal and General. I think it's called Rainbow because I'm the crock of gold at the end of it.

Anyhoo, after 25 minutes on hold and being cut off, I finally manage to find a person to talk to. He asks if I'd like to cancel the policy. I ask him what he would do in my situation. We both agree to cancel the policy.

I'm not saying which company I used to sort out my new insurance, but apparently I can now take a cuddly toy to the movies with me for free.  I'm pleased that I've saved some money, and cross that I've been paying so much over the odds for all these years. I'm now going to carefully examine all my other policies and whatnot to see if I'm being ripped off by any of them too.

It seems that the phrase "valued customer" is now as outdated as ones like "liars don't prosper" and "manners maketh man". Life eh? 

Ramshacke Rock is back in Groove

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Some time back I was bemoaning the way that the "Ramshackle Rock" playlist had vanished from Groove. Well, it's back.

I've now got a mental picture of boffins at Microsoft nervously scanning my blog and then rushing down the corridors to their machines so that they can put right any wrongs that I've noticed. But then again, that's probably not how it works.

But I do like the curated playlists in Groove. Unfortunately, owing to the vagaries of Bayesian logic (which is how I think these things work - you can find a nice description here), I'm not getting exactly the same tracks as last time. But they are all suitable ramshackle.

And, as a major plus, you now have the option to save the playlist for future use. Excellent.