// August 29th, 2005 // No Comments » // General
I’ve installed an improved searching mechanism using the steps outlined by Fernando. It uses the latest technology trend to hit the web: AJAX. I intend to have a play with it soon.
I think that this is it for my bank holiday skylarking. Back to work tomorrow, and hopefully get my websites up and running this week.
// August 29th, 2005 // No Comments » // General
Had a quick moment to play around with googles new instant messaging service. It seems really nice and clean, with none of the “fluff” other Instant Messaging programs have. I’ve not tried the actual calling of people yet as my mic isn’t working properly :/ but then it’s easier to type anyway.
One thing missing that I can imagine it being ignored by most of the IMing population is the lack of smileys (or emoticons, whatever you call them). Although that never stopped email.
The other issue of course is critical mass, when everyone you know is already on MSN, people are reluctant to move and lose contact with people, which is not helped by the fact that to access Google Talk you need to have a gmail invite. I’m running both MSN and Google Talk (GT?) for the moment, and using GAIM in linux both in one client 
There’s already been people investigating it and talking about some cool tweaks. I quite like the text markup myself.
If anyone wants a gmail invite in order to try out the service then let me know, I have about 100 to give away…
// August 16th, 2005 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
Watching channel 4 news earlier, I was slightly gobsmacked to hear about the details and photographs that they have had leaked from the enquiry into this.
They reveal several things that was thought differently of, due to previous eyewitness and police reports.
The police did let him board a bus too and enter the station, despite specific instructions not too.
Also the CCTV cameras in Stockwell Station apparently weren’t working, despite the fact that there’d been bombings eight days before, and also the day before the shooting.
All in all, it seems quite damning for both the Police and the Transport Police. Though I’ll wait till the final report is released before making my mind up too strongly about their ineptness.
P.S. Interestingly enough the beeb haven’t picked up on this yet.
// August 16th, 2005 // No Comments » // General
Sara, Conner (Saras kid brother) and I returned to Desford. It was busier than it was last time, mainly due to the school holidays, however it wasn’t too busy. It was still a peaceful stroll around, the bird garden was a little more manic though.
Anyway these are the pictures we didn’t take last time.
{ gallery [Desford] }
// August 11th, 2005 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
This is the third Dan Brown book I’ve read, the others being Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code. It is also the worst. After reading the other two books I was left expecting something similar (fast action, loosely fact based) but set in the worlds of maths and computers. What I actually got was the same book but set in the worlds of maths and computers.
It seems like Brown has got a writers block somewhere along the line. Not to give too much away but this book, like the other two features a shadowy assasin, a strong male college professor lead, a beautiful and intelligant female lead and a seemingly trustworthy old man who turns out to be not as expected.
There were a fair few flaws from the technical side of things too – some of them big, some not, here’s a few from the top of my head.
The weakness of the NSAs operating system (presumably custom wrote to be fine tuned for brute forcing encrypted files) was also staggering, as soon as the “multi level firewall” was down people were in.
The idea that the case on TRANSLTR (the NSAs supercomputer) was “welded shut” wasn’t too clever either, NSA or not, they’re going to get a hardware failure somewhere at some time or another…Especially as they seemingly used off-the-shelf components – the Digital Fortress file never needed recompiling.
Also the idea that TRANSLTR didn’t need to know an encrypted files algorithm in order to unencrypt it. Uhm, it surely does need the algorithm for decrypting it, else how would it decrypt it?
A couple of another annoying things was that Brown apparently doesn’t appreciate the difference between bit and byte, and the constant referring of X11 as x-eleven.
I know that it’s fiction but at least getting the book proof read would’ve cleared up some of the more glaring errors.
Basically the book was ok-ish, if you’re not into computers and haven’t read any of Browns other books. Otherwise you’re probably best off leaving alone, the other books were better written.
// August 11th, 2005 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
I notice in the Derbyshire Times, that Natascha Engels (MP for N.E. Derbyshire) is looking for an “experienced consituency caseworker” to tackle her “busy caseload”.
Which has probably grown so high as she’s barely done any work since May…
For some reason she’s felt the need to put her picture inside the job ad as well, that’s the first time I’ve saw that done.
// August 4th, 2005 // 4 Comments » // General
I’ve been off of work this week, and pretty much been off of the web, so apologies to any who noticed my absence 
,
Had some lovely days out in the Peak District and other places. I have some photos to follow shortly. And maybe some more meaningful content next week. I have lots of email to catch up on. Enjoying the time off though…
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