WOKING

"java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: actualValueType" ?

"Throwable: null" ?

"The string "--" is not permitted within comments."

?????

..."java.pies.willNeverWorkOnTuesdays Exception" ????

..."java.xml.jvmOffOnHoldayLeftHamsterInChargeOfRunningYourProgram Exception" ??


400 wasted man hours later, it ALWAYS turns out that I have the wrong version of Xerces or XercesImpl, or a second version which has sneaked up and crawled into an obscure but nevertheless apparently overriding place...





Death to Xerces.

Wayward bus A real pageturner. A new entry at number 3 in my Steinbeck top 10 between East of Eden and The Pearl.

A font walks into a bar, pulls a gun on one of the customers, and demands his whisky.

The customer hands it over saying, "Fine, take it. I know how to deal with your type - barman, please fetch some law enforcement.."

But the barman says: "I'm sorry sir, but this bar is strictly sans sherif "

;)


font gags 1

The nice folks who ran the make a tile stall have fired them and put photos online. I think they are going to go up on a wall somewhere. It was really fun finding mine on this grim working monday morning.

http://www.launchoffshore.com. Cool!

Lesley Thomas writes:

"I live in Brixton, a world-famous drugs 'n' deprivation hotspot. ... But as so often with such areas in London, there exists a microclimate of middle-class liberalism.

You'll find similar enclaves in Hackney and Shepherd's Bush - a product of spiralling property prices and a sense of adventure from the youngish and upwardly mobile who want to live somewhere ''vibrant''. It's jolly cutting-edge to live cheek by jowl with crack whores...

...The strategies used to get a place at this school could put any office Machiavelli to shame. Renting or buying a second home close to the school entrance is fairly standard practice... more

Today I placed a bet with my mum on who will be the next Tory Prime Minister. (No time limit). Fiver.

I think it's Portillo. After a few years of becoming "that bloke on the telly", doing his history programs, the tory faithful will forgive him for being gay, and he'll be back.

Her money is on Ed Vaisey.

<barbara> Ed V. ws Michael Howard'as spech writer and a former journalist, so he can put words together - it helps in politics. He also has t.v. charisma (as long as he doesn't put on weight which he might). He doesn't look or sound like a man of the fifties which Osborne and others do. In fact he looks quite 2005'ish. Otherwise it's just my instinct that he's got what it takes.</barbara>

(updated)

This is my keystroke recognition network coming to the conclusion that the typist is dave:



The X axis is time - or actually, the number of keys that have been typed. It's an elman network which means it can encode temporal information.

I went to Campsfield removal centre in kidlington on saturday. I'd been meaning to find out what the close-campsfield group do each month for a while, and also thought i'd take the opportunity to show a meagre bit of support for the Zimbabwean hunger strikers.

I was quite impressed. Their project doesn't involve trying to get "media attention" by waving placards etc; instead, it's more meaningful, human, realistic: the plan is to make noise that the detainees will be able to hear, to shout friendly messages, clap, bang saucepans, play musical instruments etc, at the part of the fence which is closest to their yard. Sometimes they respond, and there is dialog.

I think the plan is 1. to let them know that we are here, and 2. to let them know that we know that they are there. - to demonstrate that they haven't been disappeared, they aren't in guantanamo, they're in kidlington. Being locked up in campsfield sounds shit, and a shouted conversation over the fence won't help them with their legal cases, but might help someone who is desperately lonely, frightened and feeling very unwanted, to get through.

I think this is a refreshingly achievable aim. It's not ambitious, maybe it's not enough, but at least it's not the usual hollow student crap. I am keen to go again, prob to the September one. Happy to offer lifts from east oxford.

Blair has been making very statesmanly speeches after the awful atrocity in london today. His popularity will rocket back up. I desparately hope he doesn't misuse either in 6 months time when he gets the call about Iran or whoever is next.

Truck 2005 Lineup. Hooray!