Month: February 2004

bookmark_border…….

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In other words, very good night, very hungover, going back to bed

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bookmark_borderFoppin Friday

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In what is fast becoming a monthly tradition (well every tradition has to start somewhere) I took myself to FOPP at lunchtime. I managed to stay within my self-allotted 30 minutes/£30 limit as well. The following purchases were made:

  • Busta Rhymes – Turn it up! The very best of.
  • The Legendary songs of Cole Porter – Various Artists (Peggy Lee, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and the like).
  • R.E.M. – Dead Letter Office.
  • Sheryl Crow – C’mon C’mon.
  • Retrospective: Best of Suzanne Vega.

Hmm quite a musical day really.

Tonight it’s off to the pub to meet up with my mates. Not seen them since December so plenty of catching up to do, and no doubt plenty of Guinness as well. Probably just as well that Louise is staying at her sister’s tonight as the ‘morning after’ a night on the Guinness is… well, let’s just say ‘fragrant’.

So if anyone is out and about in Merchant City (Glasgow) tonight, let me know – we are starting in BlackFriars at 5ish.

bookmark_borderMorning meme

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The last 20 tracks broadcast forth from my Harman/Kardon speakers (from iTunes Library on shuffle) were:

  • Gil Scott-Heron – Did you hear what they said
  • Billy Joel – It’s still Rock and Roll to me
  • Ike & Tina Turner – Nutbush City Limits
  • Kylie vs Moloko – Bring it back in your eyes
  • Broken Social Scene – KC Accidental
  • The Chemical Brothers – In Dust We Trust
  • Gary Moore – Jumpin’ at shadows
  • Suede – Trash
  • Morcheeba – Can’t stand it
  • Bob Dylan – Oh, sister
  • Dannii Minogue – Put the needle on it
  • The Drifters – Kissin’ in the back row of the movies
  • White Stripes – Let’s build a home
  • Madonna – Intervention
  • The Beatles – Yesterday
  • Deltron 3030 – Battlesong
  • Sly Stone – Stand!
  • Jackson 5 – Blame it on the boogie
  • Blur – Mellow song
  • Tom Petty – Free Falling

Hmmm surprisingly free of rock music really, considering about 70% of my MP3s are of that genre.

And for the record: I disagree with people limiting this meme to a playlist (e.g. limited choice) it should be your entire library – all or nothing people, all or nothing!

bookmark_borderTroubled? Diva!

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He may be on his way back… yes the rumours are true.

But before we can, weepingly, embrace him back into the fold we need to convince him that we have been reading his archives religiously in his absence (er… well I’ve read a little…). 120 questions to be answered by 120 different bloggers – just need to search his archives and plonk in an answer.

Go there now – for the love of all things blog-goodyness! go now! – and take part in: The Great Troubled Diva Shall I Or Shan’t I Start Blogging Again? Potential Act Of Monumental Hubris Comprehension Test

bookmark_borderGladly? Why!

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I mentioned a while back that I’d been invited to become a moderator on the Haloscan forum. I’m pretty comfortable with HTML, CSS, Javascript and the way the commenting system works, so I thought it would be a good chance to ‘give back’.

But I forgot that people are morons. No not everyone, and I guess, really, they aren’t morons … let me start over.

I’m not a patient kind of guy. In my line of work the only person I really need to explain things to is me or my team. Now as I hired everyone in my team (yeah yeah it’s a team of one at the moment, but it did get all the way up to 5 at one point!) I know that I can expect a certain level of knowledge and go from there.

I should also remember that back in 1997 I was the one asking silly questions in the ADV-HTML mailing list.

I also realise that there is no such thing as a stupid question, that everyone’s knowledge levels are different etc etc etc this is all stuff I think about during my working day (will x know this or do I need to explain it?)

Moderating a forum is pretty straightforward really. Trouble is I’d forgotten that people are morons. Ohh I wasn’t going to say that was I… OK SOME people are just downright lazy. The instant they get a little problem – off to the forums they go, posting merrily. Now the Haloscan FAQ could be better (and yes I’m compiling one at the moment) but the forum has a SEARCH option… how difficult is it?? Obviously too difficult for some.

But of course this is human nature, again something I study for professional purposes. Everyone is the same. If you have a problem with something what do you do? You ask someone for help. You don’t consult the documentation, you don’t check and see if someone has asked a similar question before. There are a myriad of reasons why people don’t use documentation as often as they should, the main one being that in their experience it’s badly written (incomplete, inaccurate or not context-sensitive enough).

However this lack of using a search function is a new one for me. Maybe it is the case the some people are just so new to the whole thing (a lot of people in the forum have ‘just setup their blog and can’t get x to work’), but even then it’s slightly galling that they can’t even be bothered to search the forum first to see if anyone has had a similar problem (and considering 75% of posts I reply to are “I can’t get the code to work” and are a result of people not following the TWO STEPS it takes…. no no, must stay calm…).

Suffer fools gladly.

Why!

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Where did that phrase come from anyway? Ohh the bible you say?

Related:

“Who, in the history of the world, ever did suffer fools gladly? Well, Shakespeare did, obviously. Since he gave them so many roles, he must have liked having them around. Others, less great, may enjoy fools as part of the human comedy, perhaps bearing in mind that all of us are fools sometimes, some of us fools often. In fact, I live in hope of reading someday an obituary that says: “He was wise and talented, greatly accomplished, and much admired, above all for his ability to suffer fools gladly.” “