Category: Life

For the stuff about my life

bookmark_borderI is for idiot

Posted on

Many moons ago I designed a simple template for a blog. It was a very popular blog back then, and it’s even more popular now with a book deal signed and on-sale, and many Bloggie Awards won (3 in a row!).

It’s a regular read of course, and this evening, as I clicked to view the latest post I was slightly taken aback to see a bug in the template! Ack!! How long had that been there and why hadn’t I spotted it before now!!

I quickly emailed Zoe to tell her and ask for her permission to go in and fix it… ohh ok, I was on the Mac and couldn’t be bothered going upstairs to get the log-in details I would need to edit her Blogger template. Thankfully she was online at the time and very promptly emailed me back with her login and password. Very trusting of her, it’s just as well I’m a nice guy…

Over to Blogger I headed and, having signed myself out (I still use it for Scottish Blogs), I logged into My Boyfriend is a Twat to make one quick change to the template.

Change made and republished, all was well, so I headed back to Google Mail to email Zoe to tell her I was done.

Now as this entire process, from my initial email to her response and on through to the fix to her template, had taken less than 10 minutes, I wasn’t surprised that her email was still at the top of my inbox. I clicked to open it and sent her a quick confirmation that the job was done and that I was looking forward to reading her book.

I clicked Send and was taken back to my inbox. I suddenly noticed that there was a green dot next to Zoe’s name in the list and the Google Talk listing had suddenly appeared in my sidebar as well… hey, hang on, I thought as I looked back at the list of emails in my inbox, I don’t recognise any of these emails either ……. OHHH FUCKITY FUCKSTICKS!!!

Yup, that’s right. I was looking at Zoe’s inbox (phnarr, phnarr).

In my haste to get the fix in place I’d forgotten that, these days, Google owns Blogger so, and this is crucial, WHEN YOU ARE LOGGED IN TO BLOGGER YOU ARE LOGGED INTO GOOGLE.

There, in plain view infront of me was an inbox full of juicy details and, probably, bank account details and sexual scandal. I’m guessing of course for, as soon as the realisation of what I’d done had sunk in, I quickly logged out and emailed Zoe from MY Google Mail account professing my embarassment and offer profound apologies and promises of copious amounts of wine (hey, if you are gonna apologise to someone properly, you’ve got to offer them something you know they like).

In fact, I think it’s the first time I’ve ever blushed with embarassment whilst online.

So, for the record: Zoe, sorry about that, I can’t help though, I is idiot.

bookmark_borderDown and out in Torrox

Posted on

Ola!

Visiting my father-in-law is sort of a home away from home and, as such, we tend to not do much preferring to just slot into his routine. Every day is similar, breakfast on the roof terrace, down for lunch, back to roof, out to pub around 4ish for a couple of drinks. Dinner, siesta, and back out at 9pm. Rinse, repeat. The main variations are deciding whether to eat in, or out, and deciding which pub to visit. As such, there isn’t really much to say about the past 10 days, so I’ll keep it brief.

Sunday 23rd Sept – Bleary eyed. Middle of night check-in. Snoozing on plane. Wave of heat. Tapas for lunch. Holiday mood arrives easily.

Monday 24th Sept – Market day, fresh juicy mango and nectarines, so cheap! Lazy day, finished reading Salmon Fishing in Yemen. Spend rest of afternoon reminiscing on autumn evenings on the River Leven.

Tuesday 25th Sept РHeaded inland to Embalse de Vi̱uela. Another market, serrano ham, cheese and bread for lunch, with a cheeky wee red to accompany.

Wednesday 26th Sept – A peaceful day followed a glorious sunset, burning clouds over pink water, photos to follow. Attended Pub Quiz. Won Pub Quiz.

Thursday 27th Sept – Another Pub Quiz, another victory.

Friday 28th Sept – Nothing of note, other than a booming thunderstorm just as we went to bed.

Saturday 29th Sept – Pool tournament, random couples, Louise won! (never live that down!) Also my Dad’s birthday, and the day my sister was going to jump out of a plane (alas the weather was against her).

Sunday 30th Sept – Nothing of note. Nada, nope, nowt.

Monday 1st Oct – Market day, delicious tapas for lunch, sumptuous steak for dinner.

Tuesday 2nd Oct – Heading home. Already?!!

And there endeth the holiday. The tan isn’t too bad, I also (finally) read The Long Tail, and almost romped through a James Patterson on the plane (damn tail wind, I’d have finished it if we hadn’t have landed 15 mins early!). We drank too much, ate well and it feels weird to have a watch round my wrist, and trousers flapping round my ankles.

Right, enough of this. I’ve a few thousand emails to get through…

bookmark_borderState of the Union

Posted on

Some council workers got sacked because they spent too much time on the internet (eBay in particular). Apparently this isn’t really their fault, with Union officials blaming bosses for “putting temptation in their way” – by allowing access to the internet.

Now, I’ve never had access to, or worked within an organisation that has, a Union but I thought they were supposed to help protect the workers? If so, how does this help?

And, without wanting to come across all curmudgeony, what is it with people these days? Can’t they just fess up and admit they were in the wrong?

There seems to be a feeling that if you make a mistake you no longer have to say sorry, you can just feign embarassment, mumble something about understanding that you made a mistake and then point the finger at someone else.

To those council workers who got sacked. I’m sorry you don’t have a job anymore, but IT IS YOUR OWN FAULT.

I say this whilst sitting in work, typing up a blog post but then again I don’t work in a prescriptive environment, I don’t have “tea breaks” or “lunch hours” I just have a contract and it’s down to me to be professional and thorough and get my work done. I can stop and start when I like. I’ve always worked in this kind of environment, and find anything else utterly bewildering.

There is a further thread to this, about the fall in moral values, work ethic and so on, part of which is aimed at the education system (kiboshed as it is by the people who, ultimately, run it) and an understanding the Unions are there to protect those who can’t protect themselves. But I’m going to leave it alone as, from this ivory tower in which I’m installed, EVERYTHING looks worse than it probably is…

bookmark_borderHow many?

Posted on

A sudden holiday is all well and good but the shift in time, and the fact that we don’t return until October, pushes timescales the wrong way. Admittedly said timescales are all of my own making but still, I don’t like rushing things.

Today is a typical example. I’m working at home as the car is in the garage to get an intermittent clunking noise investigated, and I’ve got the dental hygienist later on today. I’ve had to go to the post office to pick up my new oneman business cards, only to find they’d been ‘re-delivered’ (despite what the card through the door said!) and I got a letter in today reminding me that my household insurance runs out at the end of the month. You know, whilst we are in Spain.

The presentation I’m giving at the TICAD conference needs to be handed in by the 19th October, and a customer at work would like an early cut of the documentation I’m working on (that won’t be complete until December) next week. Typical.

I still have some CSS work to complete for someone, a new template for another, and thankfully the other two websites that are on the horizon are staying there, so at least I don’t need to worry about them whilst lying in the sun (yes, I would!).

In saying that, I wasted far too much time twittering like a pirate yesterday (with Lyle’s annoyance only spurring me on!) and flitted between sporadic bouts of work and the footie on TV last night.

Thankfully packing for the holiday isn’t a big deal, shouldn’t take me more than 15 mins. That’s the advantage of knowing where we’ll be eating and drinking when we get there, and knowing that I don’t even need to bother with a shirt. 9 days of shorts and t-shirts (maybe not at night though).

In other news I’ve just “discovered” Jeff Buckley’s album, Grace. I’ve no idea why it’s taken me so long.. actually I do, it’s the cover of the album, just used to put me off for some reason. What a voice that man has.

I’ve also installed, but have yet to play with, a little firmware update for my camera. Totally unsupported of course, but a friend with the same camera (Canon Powershot S3) reports it works well. Something to do whilst lying in the sun then! Which reminds me, I must get some new stuff on my iPod… ohh and books.. which books?! Eeeep, PANIC!!

bookmark_borderWe're taking the Costa Brava plane

Posted on

Stepping out the front door, greeted by pinched skin and the glisten of frost on the car, I realise that summer is truly over. Just as well, I thought, that we’re off to Spain next week. Still mid-20s there which will do very nicely thankeweverymuch. But no, it’s not a last minute description.

As well as being thoroughly hacked, nay fucked, off about the non-running-ness brought about by my knee injury (you’ll note how I’m trying to stay away from the d- word) there has also been the small issue of Louise packing her job in. That’s not the whole story though, never is, is it.

She worked for a small local company, the type of place where job titles don’t matter that much as everyone just pitches in as and where needed. Her official title was Customer Sales Support… summat, but she was also the Office Manager and had various other admin responsibilities. It’s the kind of role that suits my wife down to the ground as she’s at her best at the centre of things (her nickname there was “the Hub”, I’m not entirely sure that was all that kind) and for a long time she liked things there. Unfortunately the company took a downturn and the CEO started to display some less than wonderful ‘management techniques’. I struggle to understand the motivation behind the ethos he was aiming for, having spent all my working life in IT where working hours are flexible, tea breaks are whenever you want them, and ultimately you are treated like an adult and allowed to get on with things.

Suffice to say that she’d been looking to move for about 6 months, but a few ‘last straws’ had passed until, when she returned home crying for umpteenth time we decided she should tell him where to stick his job. Either that or I’d go up there and throttle him. Faced with a husband jailed for murder, Louise wrote her resignation later and handed it in a couple of weeks ago. We knew we’d be ok, money-wise, for a couple of months but it took us into the unknown.

I’m not very good with the unknown and I only realised at the weekend that my stress levels were through the roof, and that I needed to dial back a little less I head off down a road seldom travelled (blimey, it IS hard to obfuscate such things).

Knee-wise it’s still sore but feels a little better, and I’m going to use my time off running to build my upper body strength, tone up where I can, and improve my flexibility with some basic yoga stuff (whatever I can manage without stressing my knee of course).

Job-wise, Louise was offered, and accepted, a job yesterday! She went for the interview in the morning and they offered her the job that afternoon. She was positively beaming about the interview and the company, and is still a little stunned that they offered her the job so quickly. I keep telling her that she is more talented than she thinks (a long standing issue with my wife) but I think, now, she is starting to believe it!

Woo hooo, what a great day.

Where does this fit with flying to Spain? Well, we had already discussed that, presuming Louise got a job before November, that we would fly out and see her Dad before she started her new job, rather than try and get a week away as soon as she is in the door. As she starts on October the 7th, that left us with next week. It’s a hard life…

In other news, I neglected to wish my mate Keith a Happy Birthday yesterday but, as he was in hospital getting his appendix removed, I don’t think he’ll have noticed. Sorry mate.

bookmark_borderOn my Mac

Posted on

Well I’ve had it for a while now so here are some of the goodies I have installed on my MacBook. I’ve tried a lot of apps over the past few months, the following are the ones I’ve settled on.

One thing to note is that there does seem to be a different kind of software community built up around Macs, and I guess it is because the audience (whilst growing rapidly) is still small in comparison to the Windows community. There also seems to be more of an emphasis of home/fun usage, something Apple have concentrated on in the PC vs Mac adverts. I’m still not yet using the Mac as my main computer, largely because I can’t get my wife off the damn thing.

I am using a lot of the Apple supplied applications, Address Book, iCal and things like that, so most of the applications I have downloaded are either specialist or fit with the way I use a computer.

Anyway, at the moment, I am using:

  • Adium – instant messaging client that supports all the major IM channels.
  • AppDelete – which provides an easy way to delete installed applications. Installation on a Mac is, mostly, very simple. Removal less so, hence the thinking behind this application.
  • Aurora – an MP3/iTunes aware alarm clock. Ideal when travelling, can wake the Mac from its ‘sleep’.
  • Bean – for basic word processing requirements
  • Cyberduck – FTP client
  • FuzzyClock – rather than 13:45, displays “quarter to two”.
  • Growl – a wonderful little app which provides subtle (skinnable) notifications for various system events. Extendible using plugins, and feels like it is part of the OS
  • iConiCal – sets the dock icon for iCal to the correct date. Normally it’s a static icon until you open iCal, this app runs at login to change the icon. WHY this doesn’t happen this way within the OS I have no idea.
  • iStumbler – a better way to discover what wireless connections your MacBook can ‘see’. Includes Wifi, Bluetooth and Bonjour connections.
  • MagiCal – a replacement clock and drop-down calendar. Ideal for a quick check on a date.
  • MarcoPolo – automatically runs scripts to change settings when you change your wireless connection. Handy for me as I take my MacBook into work on occasion, when it picks up the wireless connection at work, it mutes the sound.
  • QuikSilver – at one level a keyboard application launcher, on another level (which I’m not at yet) a hugely powerful tool to help automate and quicken basic tasks and file manipulation.
  • Seashore – a handy graphics app, good for quick edits.
  • Skim – a PDF reader.
  • TextWrangler – handy text editor with support for most text based filetypes, good for quick code hacks.
  • VLC – an excellent video player with support for, well, every type of video I’ve tried.

All of the above are free, as in beer (where DID that phrase come from?). I have donated to some, and have bought other apps, most notably Adobe PhotoShop, but those are the ‘finds’, the none obvious stuff which I highly recommend you check out.

One type of app I’ve yet to settle on is which web browser to use. I immediately installed Firefox to give me something familiar, and coupled with my use of Google apps and Google sync, it doesn’t look like that will be changing anytime soon. Oddly though, I have far fewer extensions installed on my MacBook than I do on my PC.

There are three other items that I’ve purchased for my MacBook which I’d like to point out. One is a Radtech screen protector, a simple cloth would do to be honest, but this doubles up as a screen cloth for the shiny glass effect MacBook screen. The other is a set of Cool Feet, which sucker onto the base of the MacBook, helping circulation and cooling, and providing a nice typing elevation. Finally, my Wrapper, a customised sleeve for when my MacBook is fast asleep. Provides a little bit of protection and keeps it clean!

There are a myriad of other tweaks (check out the Kinkless Desktop and an application called ‘Hazel’ for a key part of my desktop workflow) but those are for another post. For now, the applications listed above should give you a good starting point, and none of them will cost you a penny.