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Programming, gadgets and life as a lecturer in a UK university.
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July 2004 - Posts
Irrational Love
Saturday, July 31, 2004 7:05 PM
It is over priced. The sound quality is not the best. The supplied headphones are poor quality and uncomfortable. The battery life is short. It crashes. It is very easy to scratch/damage. It locks you in to a proprietary format. If it goes wrong
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Demob Happy
Friday, July 30, 2004 8:47 PM
Holiday. Yay! Today is my last day at work for a fortnight (except for an exam board at Doncaster on Wed. next week). I hope I've left things on an even keel, and I will be checking my email and writing my blog as usual (but only because I'd feel bad
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Thunderbirds are Go
Wednesday, July 28, 2004 8:18 PM
Geoff said there was a lot of cheese. An OK film he reckoned. But a lot of cheese. However, it just so happens that I like cheese. And I reckon that the Thunderbirds movie was great. People have moaned about the fact that it has ended up a kids film.
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MOT Celebrations
Tuesday, July 27, 2004 9:57 PM
Every year in the UK you have to take your car for a test to make sure that it is still roadworthy, has a wheel at each corner etc etc. These have always been traumatic for me, ever since I had that Mini where you could see the road through the floor.
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Back On Track
Monday, July 26, 2004 6:58 PM
After the wild ramblings of yesterday I'm back at work on Smartphone programming with cheese. I've been playing around with reflection so that objects in the Compact Framework can be made to save and restore the important parts of themselves. I reckon
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About Time
Sunday, July 25, 2004 10:22 PM
I like Sundays. I get to let the mind wander and think about random stuff. Like time.In the olden days you got up when it was light, worked until it was dark and went to bed. The precise time at which things happened was not important to you. Then, when
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Digby Pix
Wednesday, July 21, 2004 8:09 PM
Firstly, apologies. Someone (take a bow DaveDowns) had posted as near a perfect answer as could be to the steering wheel problem I was berating you all about. Around five days ago. Basically you can bend the tyre tread on the road a little bit. After
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It's a Dogs Life For Me
Tuesday, July 20, 2004 7:04 PM
Oh well. After a brief foray onto Amazon and Ebay I've now got myself a pink Aibo memory stick and a Sony writer. And so I can put different personalities into my mutt. We had a go with a Bender one, which is quite fun, and now we are running "A Dogs
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Digby Lives!
Monday, July 19, 2004 7:24 PM
Digby the dog is alive and well and growing up nicely. Whilst I was waiting for his soul to be sent back from Belgium I managed to track down (thanks Vicky) a second hand copy of Life 2 from Amazon (neat idea that) which is an alternative soul on a memory
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Everything Must Go
Sunday, July 18, 2004 1:50 PM
Well, I've made my first foray onto ebay as a seller. Surprisingly easy to do, and quite adictive. I'm now wandering around the house looking for things to sell.The only thing worrying me is that I've also signed up for Paypal. This means that if my customers
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Sent Packing
Saturday, July 17, 2004 10:30 PM
I've spent some of today finding and packing all the bits and bobs I'm planning to sell on ebay as part of my "dog sinking fund". I've never sold anything in this way before and it seems a bit scary. However, needs must and all that. I've found a few
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Surreal Degrees
Friday, July 16, 2004 9:40 PM
I officiated at the last degree ceremony of the season today, at our Scarborough campus. There was one vey surreal moment. The university was presenting an honorary degree to a very famous british actor called Timothy West. He has played a number of roles
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Family Degrees
Thursday, July 15, 2004 8:29 PM
I did the degree stuff again today. The interesting thing is that one of the students was my wife! All went well. Just one more ceremony to do at Scarborough and I am clear. Oh, and the man came and took away the brain of the dog. The story continues....
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The Strange Ways of DHL
Wednesday, July 14, 2004 7:06 PM
A man from DHL came today to pick up our broken dogs memory. But instead he left us an envelope and ran off. We've had to ring DHL to arrange for another man to come and pick up the envelope. Apparently he couldn't wait to take the item because he wanted
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Dead Dog Blues
Tuesday, July 13, 2004 5:13 PM
I thought I'd been pretty stupid yesterday, what with buying this cheap Sony Aibo before I've sold all the trinkets to pay for it (ah, the dangers of credit cards). I've been after getting one for ages and they had one in a Sony shop with loads of money
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Degree Ceremony Heat
Monday, July 12, 2004 9:42 PM
The start of five days of degree ceremony fun today. This means that I've been doing 10 minutes of stand up in front of around 500 graduands and their families in City Hall. I quite like doing it, but it is a bit stressful. The best ceremony is on Wednesday,
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Party Fun
Sunday, July 11, 2004 8:29 PM
Had the family round today to celebrate the upcoming birthday of number one daughter. Was going to be a BBQ but it rained. So, not for the first time this year, I was sitting out in the garden in the rain flipping burgers. Then we went in and I put the
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Bluetooth. Wah!
Saturday, July 10, 2004 6:43 PM
Imagine that you have invented a super new technology which lets devices communicate without wires. Imagine that you had solved the problems of bandwidth sharing, electrical noise, power consumption and cost and managed to create a wonderful new
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Congratulations Guys
Friday, July 09, 2004 9:29 AM
Just thought I would say a hearty congratulations to the UK team in the Imagine Cup. Well done dudes. I know they always say that "it is not the winning but the taking part which is important". Well, with the cup that is most definitely the case (and
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I Hate This Kind Of Puzzle
Thursday, July 08, 2004 9:39 PM
One of the kinds of puzzles that I hate most is the "What is the next number in this sequence one".So, with that in mind:What is the next number in the sequence 4, 2, 3, 4, 6, 2, ?I will be awarding prizes for the correct answer, and the most interesting
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Dark Coins Solution
Wednesday, July 07, 2004 8:02 PM
OK. Now it can be told. This is the solution to the puzzle that I set out last Thursday. Thanks to the people at sabratec who posed the original problem. The problem is that you are in a dark room with 500 coins on a table. Each coin is red on one side
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Bags of Fun
Tuesday, July 06, 2004 10:29 AM
I'm getting a lot of flack from people because I like my TechEd bag. Apparently it is large, tasteless and a funny colour. At least, I think they were talking about my bag. But I don't care. I really do find it useful. So there.
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Good Things in Doncaster
Monday, July 05, 2004 6:54 PM
I was external examining again at Doncaster today. I got to read their projects. I love reading student project reports. Such good stuff. This time they had a crop of super items of work. One student, through a proper investigation of a problem related
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Getting Rid Of Your Kids
Sunday, July 04, 2004 5:00 PM
Took number one son away today for a camping trip. I'm not going. I offered to share his experience by standing fully clothed under a cold shower for an hour this evening, but he wasn't impressed. And now I've got all the bandwidth at home that I can
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Thursday Puzzle (late)
Saturday, July 03, 2004 5:48 PM
Sorry about the lateness of the puzzle. But I promise it is a good one. It came from a stand at the exhibition (I'll find out which one and post a link). You are in a dark room. On a table in front of you are 500 coins. Each coin is red on one side and
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TechEd Gadgets
Thursday, July 01, 2004 8:53 AM
TechEd has a shop. All kinds of cute toys. And I am rather weak in this respect. So I have invested in (I never say bought – always invested in) a cute little computer lock. It plugs in the USB port and is bonded with a receiver around the size of a wristwatch.
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