Tuesday, July 31, 2007
The Walton brothers have released Jedi - get your head round it, it's a fantastic java tool.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Litle Bro gets Married
My little brothers wedding was on 12th aug 2006 to the lovely Sophie.
I was best man and it was excellent :-)
Again, making sure I had a post about that too :-)
I was best man and it was excellent :-)
Again, making sure I had a post about that too :-)
My Beautiful Wife goes 30
On 11 Aug 2006. So this post is a bit late. But I've been neglecting the site recently coz I've been happy and learning lots at work and had very little to b1tch about :-)
One of the things I bought her was Logans Run, the old classic 70's movie.
I'd forgotten that the "ascending" (euthanasia) age in it was 30 ;-)
..just wanted to make sure I'd posted about this :-)
One of the things I bought her was Logans Run, the old classic 70's movie.
I'd forgotten that the "ascending" (euthanasia) age in it was 30 ;-)
..just wanted to make sure I'd posted about this :-)
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Amnesty accuses US on rendition
From the BBC;
Three Yemeni men allegedly abducted and mistreated by the US were probably held in eastern Europe, human rights group Amnesty International has said.
Three Yemeni men allegedly abducted and mistreated by the US were probably held in eastern Europe, human rights group Amnesty International has said.
The report, based on interviews with former detainees, also links the US practice of "rendition" to the torture or ill-treatment of terror suspects.
Washington has insisted it would never send detainees to places where they would be at risk of torture.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Shiny New Job
Well, here I am posting on my new job before Simon does. Humph.
I'm at BNPP (Banco National de Paris - Paribas), doing shiny new Agile Java stuff with JMock, FIT, Hibernate..... totally shiny.
..but having to use Lotus Notes for my email. Eugggh.
I'm at BNPP (Banco National de Paris - Paribas), doing shiny new Agile Java stuff with JMock, FIT, Hibernate..... totally shiny.
..but having to use Lotus Notes for my email. Eugggh.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Our House
Guilty of the worst website abuse [of our World Of Warcraft guild website], you can now see the piccies I have of our house, and a few details, at
http://www.symbad.co.uk/elf/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=2282#2282
...I tried to add the pictures into this Blog but the damn thing just wont work and won't tell me where the damn pictures uploaded to or what they are called :-(
http://www.symbad.co.uk/elf
...I tried to add the pictures into this Blog but the damn thing just wont work and won't tell me where the damn pictures uploaded to or what they are called :-(
Friday, March 10, 2006
Dark Star?
Three cosmic enigmas, one audacious answer
No not the movie, but an idea I quite like - that dark matter and energy could exists as dark stars - that look to us like black holes - and even, that this is what black holes really are; the classical description of a quantum dark star.
...have a look here, see what you think.
No not the movie, but an idea I quite like - that dark matter and energy could exists as dark stars - that look to us like black holes - and even, that this is what black holes really are; the classical description of a quantum dark star.
...have a look here, see what you think.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Firefly-Serenity Chinese Pinyinary
Gorram Shiny
...well, that's not chinese, but lots of the speach in Firefly and Serenity is, and my mate Steve has pointed me at this excellent site of translations. 99% Mandarin, FYI.
...well, that's not chinese, but lots of the speach in Firefly and Serenity is, and my mate Steve has pointed me at this excellent site of translations. 99% Mandarin, FYI.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Recycle old computers
Via this article By Drew Cullen on The Register, here's a link for Computer Aid International, a good way to recycle old PCs and have them put to good use.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Top ten reasons Geeks make good fathers
Again from My Beautiful Wife, a great post I very much liked...
Top ten reasons Geeks make good fathers
Top ten reasons Geeks make good fathers
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Serenity makes more money from DVD than from box office
Via Digg.com - like slashdot and the register.
http://digg.com/movies/Serenity_makes_more_money_from_DVD_than_from_box_office
...well I always thought that would happen, just like the series did.
...lets keep it going huh? Must order a copy myself, of what leg do I have to stand on?
http://digg.com/movies/Serenity_makes_more_money_from_DVD_than_from_box_office
...well I always thought that would happen, just like the series did.
...lets keep it going huh? Must order a copy myself, of what leg do I have to stand on?
Monday, February 20, 2006
Guantanamo Film Stars Detained in Luton
Again M.B.W puts me onto the staggering behavior of the government here -
Guantanamo Film Stars Detained in Luton
...One step more worried about democracy every day....
Guantanamo Film Stars Detained in Luton
...One step more worried about democracy every day....
This much I now know
Thanks to My Beautiful Wife , I know understand a bit more about the mechanics of what is happening under UK law at the moment - the gradual erosion and decline, slowly, of civil liberties, as one side fails to play by the rules (how British of us to have it so).
To claw back some of my own polemic, we haven't lost our civil liberties yet - but as a bastion of Democracy, supposedly, every loss is a vital one and the slippery slope we are on has already gone on too long and must be both stopped and reversed.
Lets hope so eh?
To claw back some of my own polemic, we haven't lost our civil liberties yet - but as a bastion of Democracy, supposedly, every loss is a vital one and the slippery slope we are on has already gone on too long and must be both stopped and reversed.
Lets hope so eh?
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Even less free speech
MPs back ban on glorifying terror.
Not that we had any free speech, but there is goes, up in a puff of smoke even more. etc etc.
There is one key test for any legislation: the Nelson Mandela Test.
I didn't come up with this, someone on radio 4 one morning did. It runs like this:
Any law that would have prevented us calling Nelson Mandela a Freedom Fighter is a bad law.
He is, but the state he was in at the time branded him a Terrorist.
Under these laws in this country, I could be locked up for saying so, were that regime still in power.
These laws suck - we are already in a police state, and it is getting worse and worse.
Not that we had any free speech, but there is goes, up in a puff of smoke even more. etc etc.
There is one key test for any legislation: the Nelson Mandela Test.
I didn't come up with this, someone on radio 4 one morning did. It runs like this:
Any law that would have prevented us calling Nelson Mandela a Freedom Fighter is a bad law.
He is, but the state he was in at the time branded him a Terrorist.
Under these laws in this country, I could be locked up for saying so, were that regime still in power.
These laws suck - we are already in a police state, and it is getting worse and worse.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Fantastic
we'll be dancin in the streets...
Well My Beautiful Wife has finally left her stressful job.... now begins a three month countdown to freedom and much less stress and more happiness.
On a day like today, having that happen yesterday is just totally fantastically brilliant.
Well My Beautiful Wife has finally left her stressful job.... now begins a three month countdown to freedom and much less stress and more happiness.
On a day like today, having that happen yesterday is just totally fantastically brilliant.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
4 Things Blog Tag
Simon has tagged me for this, so I'll have a go...
And damn but he's tagged some of the people I would, so I'll do my favourite Buddhist blog, lotusinthemud, and Steve over at neveratoss.
Four jobs I've had
Paper Boy.
Shelf Stacker (during my year off).
Technical trainer.
Developer/Programmer/Whatever you call it these days.
Four films I can watch over and over again
Contact.
Shaun of the Dead.
Buffy, the musical episode. Counts in my world.
Alien.
Four places I've lived
Lee Green (London).
Keele (Stoke On Trent).
Streatham Hill (London).
Winchmore Hill (London).
Four TV programmes I love
Firefly.
Stargate.
Scrubs.
Life On Mars.
Four places I've been on holiday
Indonesia & Bali.
Australia (East Coast).
Pisa, Italy.
At home, just chilling out.
Four of my favourite dishes
A good satay stir-fry.
Lasagne. With chips.
Fajhitas.
Marmite on toast.
Four websites I visit daily
E.L.F. (World Of Warcraft guild website).
Life and The World.
Small Values Of Cool.
GMail.
Four places I'd rather be right now
In bed with my babe and no book.
Kicking ass with my guild homies, inc my babe.
Out with my mates, at their houses or a pub, inc. my babe.
In the new house my babe and I are trying to buy, with my babe and a good book/episode of the programmes above.
And damn but he's tagged some of the people I would, so I'll do my favourite Buddhist blog, lotusinthemud, and Steve over at neveratoss.
Four jobs I've had
Paper Boy.
Shelf Stacker (during my year off).
Technical trainer.
Developer/Programmer/Whatever you call it these days.
Four films I can watch over and over again
Contact.
Shaun of the Dead.
Buffy, the musical episode. Counts in my world.
Alien.
Four places I've lived
Lee Green (London).
Keele (Stoke On Trent).
Streatham Hill (London).
Winchmore Hill (London).
Four TV programmes I love
Firefly.
Stargate.
Scrubs.
Life On Mars.
Four places I've been on holiday
Indonesia & Bali.
Australia (East Coast).
Pisa, Italy.
At home, just chilling out.
Four of my favourite dishes
A good satay stir-fry.
Lasagne. With chips.
Fajhitas.
Marmite on toast.
Four websites I visit daily
E.L.F. (World Of Warcraft guild website).
Life and The World.
Small Values Of Cool.
GMail.
Four places I'd rather be right now
In bed with my babe and no book.
Kicking ass with my guild homies, inc my babe.
Out with my mates, at their houses or a pub, inc. my babe.
In the new house my babe and I are trying to buy, with my babe and a good book/episode of the programmes above.
Homework Project
I've done a homework project recently - the best way I've found to revise/learn toolsets and APIs is to have a project to put them into.
So I've done a simple Noughts-and-Crosses game (tic-tac-toe.... War Game anyone?), and Simon has kindly agreed to host my zip file for me here.
This version uses Swing GUI components to make both an Application and an Applet to run the main game frame. Theres a stab at using MVC patterns in it, and JUnit for everything. It was coded in Eclipse IDE and there's javadocs and, of course, and Ant build file for everything.
So I've done a simple Noughts-and-Crosses game (tic-tac-toe.... War Game anyone?), and Simon has kindly agreed to host my zip file for me here.
This version uses Swing GUI components to make both an Application and an Applet to run the main game frame. Theres a stab at using MVC patterns in it, and JUnit for everything. It was coded in Eclipse IDE and there's javadocs and, of course, and Ant build file for everything.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
More on Hibernate
...hmmm... maybe I should be using del.ic.ios...
The Hibernate Core descriptions.
The Eclipse and Ant tools - invaluable - the page on setting these up is here.
A handy "beginners roadmap" page.
The downloads page, for all of the above.
The Hibernate Core descriptions.
The Eclipse and Ant tools - invaluable - the page on setting these up is here.
A handy "beginners roadmap" page.
The downloads page, for all of the above.
More on JMock...
The online JavaDocs .
The getting started page, with the basic code outline.
Further tutorials, including Constraints and Expectations.
The getting started page, with the basic code outline.
Further tutorials, including Constraints and Expectations.
The geeks will inherit the world....
Transformers...robots in disguise
From my mate Glen at work, a video of a boffin project to make a real ransformer...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dut6jxCiakg
From my mate Glen at work, a video of a boffin project to make a real ransformer...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dut6jxCiakg