WOKING

Arkell v Pressdram

2006-05-27T20:31:00.000+01:00

Today, Dave Sant is revising for his Law finals. That means a lot of tapping and frowning.. but there was one bit of chuckling, over this:

"I respectfully refer you to the reply in Arkell v. Pressdram

Must try to drop it casually into conversation...

hehehe "Peak of Inflated Expectations" - "Trough of Disillusionment" - "Plateau of Productivity"

2006-04-24T12:07:00.000+01:00

Today, I read about Gartner's Hype Cycle for new technologies here.

I thought that was mighty funny.

This image from Gartner scares me a bit - but you get the idea.

2006-04-19T18:08:00.000+01:00

Tories are not that desperate..

2006-04-19T17:41:00.000+01:00

I followed the link from that article about class below to "renewal" magazine; in this article: 'Putting class back into British politics', I quite liked this point:

"Time will tell whether Cameron can get his bandwagon rolling in way that locks dissenting voices into lasting silence. What can’t yet be detected in the Tory Party is the utter desperation Labour had after 1992 to do anything to win again. The reasons for this are important. Thatcherism saw its task as the dismantling of the apparatus of social democracy. Trade unions were attacked along with local government. Nationalised industries were sold off along with council houses. Life for the left was painful. Where and how has New Labour made life uncomfortable for the real forces of Conservatism? The ban on fox hunting is probably as bad as its gets."

I think he means:
* The tories won't tolerate Cameron's 'triangulation' move to the left, in the way that labour tolerated Blair's move to the right.
* It's not analogous because the tories are not as desperate as labour was in the early 90s, because.....
* because life for a tory under new labour isn't bad, and nothing that worries them is happening.

I think this is an interesting point - one I hadn't heard before. I'd been thinking that labour party tolerated Blair because they were desperate for power, because they wanted power per se, rather than because they were watching terrifying things happening.

Class and stuff

2006-04-19T17:29:00.000+01:00

Dave sent me this link today:

This nation of shoppers needs to talk about class, Neal Lawson, The Guardian

I agree that crap jobs as contract cleaners and in call centres are on the rise - replacing traditional manufacturing. Ie , the bad jobs are getting worse. I agree that there's a new super rich elite of bankers spraying champaigne, who are immute to taxes and revolting. But, I'm not sure what the evicence is for his claim that the middle class is shrinking. Are mangement jobs and public sector etc shrinking ?

I agree that it is blindingly obvious that class does exist, and is a problem (or, lack of social mobility is a problem). But he also, I think, wants to say that class is somehow the solution; I found this statement intriguing but sadly totally opaque:

"The alternative is to recognise class as part of the answer to how we change our world together....The emerging hourglass economy creates not just a swelling lump of poorly-paid service workers, but also a shrinking and insecure middle class, the effective organisation of which demands the rebirth of a trade unionism... "

Does he mean that the shrinking middle class are going to realise that they're shrinking, start their own trade unions, and that this would stop the alleged shrinkage? Or, does he mean the middle class is going to suddenly ride to the rescue of the contract cleaners by joining their unions? I don't get this at all - I'm not saying I don't agree - I'm not yet at the agree or disagree point - still at the 'whasat?' point...

lookeylikey

2006-03-24T00:33:00.000Z

.. it's all in the mullet...

All star cast on question time

2006-03-23T23:53:00.000Z

What an all star cast! Boris Johnson doing his charming messy hair thing, Tony Benn in full flow, complete with "when I met Lloyd George...", and everyone having to admit defeat to the formiddably clever and sensible Shami Chakrabarti.

.. oh and then, Mr Toad from the CBI...

Originally, I thought that the proposal to stop Blair selling peerages by having the state fund political parties was quite sensible. But Shami pointed out that state funding of politics is just plain chilling - our big 3 weren't founded by 'the state', but by ideas. None of the other panelists could do anything but concede and nod and try to somehow make out that that's what they'd meant all along....

I also thought Boris was quite brave to admit he'd made a mistake voting for the war, and David Laws was quite brave to be un-liberal on jilbabs at school.

So, the BBC have finally got around to making the videos available - click on the little video button on the right. They don't seem to have quite got the editing right though - there's about 3 minutes of other stuff before the program.. which just happens to be a Tory party political.. which is probably against the BBC's charter.. but there we go, it's a good start..

Questions for the LibDem candidates for Oxford East

2006-03-22T16:23:00.000Z

In the Lib party in Oxford East, we're having an election to decide who will be our candidate to run in the real election.. (it's all very democratic you know...) I've been electronically canvassed by two of the candidates.

These are the questions I've sent them:

National things:
---------------

If elected to parliament:

1. How would you vote (were there to be a vote) on taking action in Iran?

2. What would you do to enforce the Equal Pay Act?

3. Would you join a coalition with Labour? If so, what would be your conditions?

4. Would you join a coalition with the Tories? If so, what would be your conditions?

(I know 3./4. have been "banned" by the party - but it's an important question - if not *the* important question - and we have a right to expect an answer.)

Oxford things:
--------------

If elected:

1. What would you do to help young people in Oxford's deprived estates?

2. What would you do about the University's new Animal Lab / the protesters?

Unit Tests should test Units... so.. abandon private or what?

2006-03-22T15:13:00.000Z

In Evil Unit Tests, Paul Wheaton says that you should be picking on little independent units - it's supposed to be "unit" testing isnt' it! Tests that involve lots of pieces of the puzzle are really 'functional' tests - JUnit or no JUnit.

He says that functional tests aren't really as useful - they have fingers in too many pies - they tend to break as a result of changes some distance away.

I think I'm writing tests at the whole range of granularities, but it hadn't occurred to me that coarse ones might really be "functional" rather than "unit".

I think the not-being-able-to-test-private-methods thing might encourage (force?) people to write overly coarse grained ones too.

See the bit at thevery bottom - "I took out the keyword 'private',. In order to achieve testability, he's had to promote a method to package access. I have been doing that too, but feeling guilty about it..

a bit nifty..

2006-03-21T00:04:00.000Z

So.. the Google Maps API turned out to be well nifty.

I'm not a big fan of JavaScript (I remember the full horror of coding for Netscape 4.7..) That said, I read the docs, got a key, pasted the thing, it worked, it took minutes - can't complain. No getting, no xml parsing, all happens by magic. Nifty.

Posting javascript in blogger is another matter..!

I'm mulling over a "where is my polling station" mashup for the May elections.

Bumper sticker

2006-01-03T11:52:00.000Z

..arrived this morning.

Judge rules against ID

2005-12-20T18:00:00.000Z

Intelligent Design NOT to be taught in Pennsylvania after all - federal judge overrules.

previous post

a chocolate orange would have done..

2005-12-01T12:57:00.000Z

Where do you draw the line between being phenomenally rude, ungrateful, antisocial and Scrooge-like and acknowledging that most of us don't really need anything at all?

I know families who have found solutions. These are some consolation but, ultimately, a pathetic avoidance of the issue. Set a £5 limit (then you risk ending up buying something even tattier and more plasticky that really, truly, no one wants...

...The latest attempt to solve the problem comes in the form of the saintly 'Good Gifts' charity donation, which means you can give a goat to someone in Somalia... More from Observer

I couldn't agree more. Christmas presents for grown ups suck - clearly I don't need anything, nor do my family now we're all over 18.

I too considered giving my mum a goat, but fell out with the plan. Agree with Viv Groskop that it's a bit cheeky to give someone else's present(money) to charity, rather than your own. But to be honest, the main reason was that I just didn't quite have the strength to pull it off on christmas day when everyone else produced things in wrapping paper..

30,000 women lose job due to pregnancy.

2005-11-20T21:44:00.000Z

Maternity pay will shortly be extended from 6 to 9 months, with the right to turn part of it into paternity pay.

This is great news for those working for large companies or with strong trade unions.

But many employers are not complying with their *existing* statutory duties.

The Equal Opportunities Commission / Citizens Advice Bureau found that:

..each year 30,000 women are dismissed, made redundant or treated so badly that they decide to leave their job as a result of their pregnancy.

New maternity rights are all very well, but the problem is enforcement. CAB says that employers can get away with non compliance:

..in the knowledge that the Employment Tribunal process – the only means of enforcing most employment rights, - is unduly legalistic and adversarial, and thus extremely daunting, especially to pregnant women, new and lone parents, very young and elderly workers... etc

Every year, about one-third of all Employment Tribunal claims are withdrawn by the claimant before the case reaches a hearing, and research by the Department of Trade and Industry has found that in 51 per cent of such cases this is because the claimant considers there to be too much stress, difficulty, fuss or expense involved in continuing.

More from CAB briefing

Junit on private methods

2005-11-10T17:48:00.000Z

Sometimes, I want to write JUnit tests for private methods. I think it's legitimate to want to do this - especially if I'm writing the test first.

The options according to Bill Venners are:

1. Promote them to protected.
No, I agree with Bill that this is definitely *dirty*.

2. Use that 'PrivateAccessor.invoke' thing from junit-addons.
I don't like this. For one, I can't remember the syntax, for two, I can't bare to look at it it's so ugly. Passing method names as strings - Urrrch.

3. Put my tests inside the classes they test
No, that will make them too big, and I don't like scrollbars either.

4. Deny that I want to test them after all.
This is my boss Leigh's view. But I am unconvinced....

Here are some arguments for it:

Argument 1: if something is interesting and complex enough to be worthy of testing, then it should be moved into a new class and become public. (This is the JUnit official line too.)

But what about this:


public class ISSN{

    public ISSN(String issn){
        validate(issn);
        // other stuff
    }

    private void validate (String issn) throws Exception{

        removeHyphen(issn);
        doChecksum(issn);
    }

    private void doChecksum(String issn) throws Exception{

        // tricky looping and chopping stuff here
        // only 8 lines though
    }
    ....

- doChecksum does not belong in its own class, and does not need to be more public. But I do really want to test it. Not testing it will make me worry.

Argument 2: A complete enough suite of tests on public/protected/package scoped methods will end up testing all paths through the code anyway.

- True, BUT:
1. It's harder work to set up the test.
What about this:


public class ISSN{
    public ISSN(String issn, SomethingInconvenientToCreate foo){
        validate(issn);
        // other stuff
    }
    ...

2. It's harder to understand the test later.
I am a simple creature - i want tests for foo() to be called testfoo...(), and in them, I want to see calls to foo().. What's wrong with that? Life is hard enough.

The solution: ?? Hmm..

1. Sun magically deal with it.
2. Put tests inside testee classes - but get IDE to hide them. Ie, eclipse & co. magically deal with it.
3. ???

Slashing and chopping and planting

2005-11-10T17:41:00.000Z

I've been doing some gardening in this churchyard restoration project in East Oxford recently.

I would highly recommend it to anyone wondering how to escape telly on Saturday afternoons. Hacking at ivy is a good option if you're feeling guilty about not going to the gym. Bulb planting is nice and calm if you're worn out with that.

2-4 pm every Saturday.

No long term commitment required. No God stuff. Spades provided.

I even got a piece of home made cake last time - rocking.

Women earn 17.2% less

2005-11-10T13:31:00.000Z

...in the year to April 2005, women working full-time earned on average 17.2% less than their male colleagues more

previous post

Our bugs are not so bad after all..

2005-11-03T09:33:00.000Z

powergen bill for £59,000. This kind of thing makes me feel so much better about all the embarassing bugs I've been responsible for...

freaky

2005-10-27T21:24:00.000+01:00

Suppose a 6-foot tall man is walking around the world. How much further does his head travel than his feet?

(reminder: circumference = 2 pi r)

The European Constitution, digested

2005-10-26T17:45:00.000+01:00

"...The Constitution and law adopted by the Union institutions in exercising Competence conferred upon it by the Constitution shall have Primacy over the law of the Member States, though Member States shall be free to ratify their own internment Procedures for Asylum Seekers..."

;)

more

boring loop counters #2

2005-10-24T17:34:00.000+01:00

I am now bored with the shipping forcast.

From now on, personalities will be based on lyrics from popular tunes of the 90s.. in the right order.

for(int hip=0; hip<hop.length; hip++){
        Something hooray = hop[hip];
 for(int ho=0; ho<...

hip hop hooray, naughty by nature - listen

There should be a numeracy test

2005-10-19T16:41:00.000+01:00

"There should be a numeracy test," said Ann Widdecombe crisply. "If you can read an opinion poll, why are you voting for anyone except Ken Clarke?" more

...it still is not clear who is taking part or when the winner will be declared or who will decide it....

2005-09-28T22:44:00.000+01:00

Rare comedy in grauniad leader: ;)

The Conservative party has spent six months getting itself into a tangle and yesterday, with a bit of tugging from MPs and activists, pulled the knots even tighter. After devoting itself to a contest about how to run a contest, the party has settled on the strangest outcome it could find.

MPs and activists have both voted for new rules but not in sufficient numbers to implement them, which means they are stuck with a system they do not want.

This simply adds to the sense of a race without logic, one in which it still is not clear who is taking part or when the winner will be declared or who will decide it.
more

Power to the people

2005-09-23T12:19:00.000+01:00

Today, the Globe's application for a 3am license extension was turned down, due to the case against it made by the local residents.

The best thing about the whole thing was meeting more of our neighbours and all having something in common. Community rocks.

for(int germanBight=0; germanBight
2005-09-16T15:01:00.000+01:00
Death to boring loop counters.

Henceforth all the unloved variables formely known as "i" and "n" shall be given personalities from the Shipping Forecast.

Catweazle has moved to East Oxford

2005-09-16T11:02:00.000+01:00

Catweazle has moved to the East Oxford Community Centre, and is now on Thursdays. Apparently the managers at the old venue, Northgate Hall, got in financial difficulties and gave catweazle no notice - lame. Anyway, I think the new venue is much nicer - the ceiling is lower and it's warm and cosy.

Matt Sage kicked off with a song that was so romantic it nearly made me cry.

I was also really impressed by the dude with some sort of "flute" which looked to me to be a pair of tweezers. He made a noise which was RolfHarris crossed with early trance.

And a bloke from somewhere in the carribean (grenada?) told a story about a snake prince. I want that dude to tell me a story every day.

There were also quite a few poets - some american, all funny.

The main thing was: a fantastic positive vibe - in a non-DOH/GROL way.

I really must learn to play an instrument so I can contribute something other than clapping and drinking... maybe the tweezers.

info

spiral binding..

2005-09-01T13:39:00.000+01:00

Dreaded dissertation has been handed over. Hooray.

PrettyAdventuresomeProgramming

2005-08-19T17:39:00.000+01:00

we don't have any design documentation, and we don't comment our code much! So in a sense, you're right, we're almost doing ExtremeProgramming ..more

hahaha

All 21-year-olds should get £50,000 from the government

2005-08-19T14:52:00.000+01:00

.. argued Bruce Ackerman on the radio yesterday.

... after that, it would be up to them to make what they can of it. It would be funced by hiking inheritance tax. It's called asset-based welfare.

It's argued that is the only way to achive real equality of opportunity.

Also that being a 'stakeholder' (property owner?) makes everyone behave better.

That's an interesting idea.

tiddly wiki

2005-08-18T10:09:00.000+01:00

Woah, an all-local no-webserver Tiddly Wiki !

Like a normal wiki, but all the JS functions, and the content, are stashed inside one HTML file.

Gaza

2005-08-17T10:43:00.000+01:00

I'm really excited that Israel is pulling out of Gaza today.

I agree with this guy that the settlements pissed off the palestinians and made israel look like colonial aggressor.

Maybe it's the beginning of a new era? A good first step at least?

Hamas are still making all the wrong noises though. And this guy thinks it's all a trick.

But I still think it's a really exciting and historic day.

T - E - N

2005-08-17T10:31:00.000+01:00

IT is TEN years since my memorable 17th birthday party..

TEN

T - E - N

TEN

!

(ten)

ARG.

Friday nights down at the Globe

2005-08-12T17:37:00.000+01:00

OK, so I quite enjoy watching the punchups outside the Globe on friday nights.. but really, it's not a good thing for the Cowley Road community. Just to test out the new Freedom of Information Act, we thought we'd find out the stats.

> Subject: RE: FOI Request - RFI2005000370
> Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 11:19:58 +0100
> From: "Hopgood Malcolm"
>
> To: "Dave Sant"
>
> Dear Mr Sant
>
> Reference No: RFI2005000370-2
>
> Thank you for your request for information dated
> 08/08/2005 concerning
> incident statistics relating to The Globe
> Restaurant, Cowley Road,
> Oxford.
>
> Your request for information has now been considered
> and our response is
> detailed below:
>
> Date Time Classification
> 06/08/2005 00:30 Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily
> Harm (Sec 47)
> 09/10/2004 22:31 Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily
> Harm (Sec 47)
> 19/09/2004 00:15 Assault (Common Assault)
> 16/07/2004 23:30 Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily
> Harm (Sec 47)
>
> 15/04/2005 23:00 Theft
> 19/02/2005 00:00 Theft
> 11/11/2004 23:30 Theft
> 22/10/2004 23:30 Theft
> 30/01/2004 23:30 Theft
> 24/01/2004 22:00 Theft
>

blimey. "restaurant" ?

A Grey Peace Corps

2005-08-09T14:18:00.000+01:00

We're stealing badly needed nurses from developing countries to prop up the NHS. Probably it should be stopped.

But then again, migrant workers send £44 bn to their home countries, which is more than development aid.

Jagdish Bhagwati proposes that instead we plug the skills gap in developing countries by sending our early-retired professionals over there. more

Then there is the stealing...

2005-08-09T14:04:00.000+01:00

"The essential idea was to give a monkey a dollar and see what it did with it. The currency Chen settled on was a silver disc, one inch in diameter, with a hole in the middle -- ''kind of like Chinese money,'' he says. It took several months of rudimentary repetition to teach the monkeys that these tokens were valuable as a means of exchange for a treat and would be similarly valuable the next day. Having gained that understanding, a capuchin would then be presented with 12 tokens on a tray and have to decide how many to surrender for, say, Jell-O cubes versus grapes. This first step allowed each capuchin to reveal its preferences and to grasp the concept of budgeting.

Then Chen introduced price shocks and wealth shocks. If, for instance, the price of Jell-O fell (two cubes instead of one per token), would the capuchin buy more Jell-O and fewer grapes? ..." Monkey Economics.

Ccreationism back in biology lessons in 20 states in the US.

2005-08-01T10:42:00.000+01:00

David Attenborough on the today program this morning, reminds "Intelligent Design" lobbyist that we solved the what-about-the-human-eye one in the 19th century.

IntelligentD dude's argument goes something like: dna is a program, programs have programmers -> qed. This is a special new kind of science called uniformitarianism. Interviewer appears to be giggling in background. Attenborough polite but firm.

(skip to 3 mins in if you don't want to hear the introduction)

Xerces.jar

2005-07-27T12:31:00.000+01:00

"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.

The Wayward Bus

2005-07-26T12:24:00.000+01:00

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

Font Gags 2.

2005-07-26T12:10:00.000+01:00

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

Glastonbury Mural Project

2005-07-25T09:48:00.000+01:00

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.

UK graduates being recruited to work in indian call centres

2005-07-13T09:29:00.000+01:00

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

"Oh, we don't believe in private education. We just sent Tarquin to the local state school."..

2005-07-12T14:41:00.000+01:00

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

Easy Money

2005-07-11T09:00:00.000+01:00

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)

Neural Net mulls it over..

2005-07-08T18:51:00.000+01:00

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.

saucepans and musical instruments

2005-07-07T23:14:00.000+01:00

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.

07/07

2005-07-07T22:35:00.000+01:00

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.

Raveonettes play Truck

2005-07-05T17:02:00.000+01:00

Truck 2005 Lineup. Hooray!

More liff

2005-06-28T12:53:00.000+01:00

STOKING (n.)

Stirring your bag, wondering what it was you were looking for.

Like woking but with a bag.

Liff

2005-06-28T12:47:00.000+01:00

TENTPLATE (n.)

Folding cardboard shape corresponding to base of your tent. Essential for squeezing in late at a crowded festival.

(Becky Rowe)

Liff

The Go Team

2005-06-28T12:37:00.000+01:00

A hip hop band with a piano. The Go Team are making the kind of tunes Belle and Sebastian would be making by now if they hadn't gone completely twee and forgotten that it's important to write music people can dance to.

Great Glastonbury gig despite the swamp at the John Peel Stage.

Death of Primal Scream

2005-06-28T12:29:00.000+01:00

Most disappointing glastonbury show.

Mani boasted to 50,000 people who'd been wearing wellies/plastic bags for 3 days about how he'd just arrived in a helicopter. Then he called his tired, muddy, happy, positive audience a "bunch of fucking hippies".

Talk about forgetting who bought the albums. Apparently he had to be removed from the stage by security people at the end of the gig - i didn't stay to see it. Time to retire dude.

New York is the new Woking...

2005-06-17T10:03:00.000+01:00

.. in the new Spielberg/Cruise version of The War of the Worlds.

EU agricultural subsidies

2005-06-15T11:44:00.000+01:00

46% of the 2005 EU budget, mostly goes to France.

Nice pie chart.

Seems unfair on the Polish to me.

wireless oxford

2005-06-15T11:28:00.000+01:00

Wireless access points in Oxford. .

Adrian tells me it's via the quiz machines.

I'm planning to take my laptop to the Elm Tree this weekend. Now accepting bets on how long it takes me to get mugged.

Equal Pay for women ... unpaid post...

2005-05-20T12:12:00.000+01:00

Women are still earning 18% less than men.

This is not just because they're traditionally doing less skilled or part time work, we're talking about women doing the same job..

Women graduatesare earning 15% less than men within five years of starting work.

Perhaps the new, unpaid, Minister for Women can work on this.

:-|

"Schoolboy howler"...

2005-05-18T09:31:00.000+01:00

Galloway at the senate Video.

I'm still not sure whether this man is a crook or a hero.

But.. either way, as far as I can grasp, it turns out that Senator Coleman's dossier used the same documents from the Telegraph libel case.. the ones that turned out to be fake. This was the embarassing howler.

Doh!

It probably does turn out that a major donor to his Miriam campaign was oil-for-food dodgy. But that got a bit lost.

Meanwhile, Galloway gets platform in Senate. Doh!

Religion on the rise?

2005-05-17T12:11:00.000+01:00

God is a quantum superposition and our divine free will a quantum effect...hmm.

The offending film about "physics".

Rock on Richard Dawkins.

Here's the interesting point as I see it: This is clearly a religious film. It's sponsored by some sort of cult.

... I think it's another piece of evidence that there's an increasingly alarming amount of religion going on in the world, especially in the US.

Some years ago, I think I felt strongly that religion was, overall, a bad thing.

Then I got older and decided it was, like many bad habbits, mainly harmless - except for the poor old shanty-town catholics with 15 children. In our country at least, all the evidence about church attendance suggested it seemed to be mostly going away of its own accord. So: harmless in the developed world at least.

Now I think I'm swinging back to my former position - I think it's a real worry.

--- Damon De Ionno --- wrote:
>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/science/story/0,12996,1484799,00.html
>
> I came across this in the Grauniad and thought that
> seeing as you are all intelligent adults whose
> opinions carry weight with your peers you should be
> aware of impending idiocy.
>
> Please warn anyone planning to see this film (for
> any
> reason other than research into America's ability to
> produce BLEEP on and industrial scale) or worse
> people
> telling others how great it was, that they have left
> the thinking human population.
>
> You were warned
>
> D.

Sleeping in Airports

2005-05-12T21:08:00.000+01:00

"...Not as good as Gatwick, but the best place land side that I have found is Terminal 2 in the seating area opposite the escalators on the first floor. ..."

http://www.sleepinginairports.net/

900 votes!

2005-05-06T12:02:00.000+01:00

Oxford East Result

Glasto lineup

2005-04-26T11:50:00.000+01:00

It seems glasto lineup rocks. Bloc Party, White Stripes, Dreadzone, Hooray.

theyworkforyou.com

2005-04-25T14:22:00.000+01:00

See exactly how Andrew Smith, Oxford East and Evan Harris, Oxford West and Abingdon voted on Iraq, ID cards, foundation hospitals, etc, what questions they asked, early day motions signed.. even their expenses claims!

TheyWorkForYou.com

Questions can be put to the candidates for Oxford East ...

2005-04-24T21:56:00.000+01:00

"Questions can be put to the candidates for Oxford East at Sacred Heart Church, Balfour Road, Blackbird Leys on Sun 24th April from 7-00 to 8-30 pm." Considerting how badly this was advertised, there was a really good turnout and a good debate.

I thought Steve Goddard was a classic Lib Dem - he answered questions thoughtfully, was moderate and reasonable and respected the electorate and everthing you'd want.. - but.. didn't completely come across as strong and leaderly and professional - at least, not in comparison to hugely more experienced ex cabinet minister Andrew Smith (Labour).

He, of course, weaseled out of the Iraq dodgy dossier thing somehow by repeating that Saddam is well rid of. Duh.

The UKIP guy Peter Gardner bloke very honest - he was happy to say things he knew would be unpopular with the audience and admit when he didn't have an answer - shame I can't agree with any of his policies or i'd vote for him.

The Virginia Morris (Tory) seemed sane and normal but was definitely evasive - managed to answer a question on social justice with something about "trust".

I liked the green guy Jacob Sanders - but he was taken apart by everyone on the issue of building affordable housing (on the greenbelt) in oxford.

Pat Mylvaganam (independent), won a lot of favour by saying the word "balderdash" a lot. He had campaigned on local issues (eg employee rights in the car plant, allowing Brookes to buy up Headington, etc) and was very up front. But maybe better as a local counsellor.

Maurice Leen (independent working class association) made some interesting points and obviously knew all his statistics, but was a bit nervous.

New Loony party were a no show.

I tbink i'll probably vote lib dem. But with a frown.

Feeble excuses for not voting...

2005-04-24T21:29:00.000+01:00

1. "All politicians are liars, I don't want any of them".

So.. we'll just go for anarchy starting May 6th then shall we? You'll just have to make the best of a bad bunch. Or if you really honestly do want to say they all suck, then go and spoil your paper. If you just don't turn up, politicians are not going to think it's because of your principled views on the state of politics today and reform their dishonest ways - they're just going to think you can't be arsed.

2. "I don't know anything about all that stuff".

So, find out, you lazy bugger! Spend the half an hour you were going to dedicate to hollyoaks. Or do it at work. If you live in oxford east, here's some links: results last time, labour bloke, tory woman, lib dem bloke.

3. "I don't feel I know enough about it, I don't understand all the economy stuff".

You don't have to know every statistic and every policy detail to claim your right to vote. I don't know anything about football, but I'll still fight for my chair in the pub during the world cup - be a tourist, have a go. It doesn't matter if you pick the wrong guy this time - you can always choose a different one in 4 years! Better to have a go, than pout on the sidelines.

Think of all the idiots out there who will vote - do you really want to leave it to them to choose?

grammar pedants anonymous

2005-01-11T10:57:00.000Z

eatsshootsandleaves.com/ESLquiz.html

John Peel's Festive 50..

2005-01-09T21:57:00.000Z

Festive 50 on last.fm. Ok, no Delgados or Ballboy, and we got bored before we added ALL of the "the fall" tracks :) but after a whole weekend of searching and tapping, we've got most of it from 1976 - 2000 - enjoy..

last.fm

2005-01-09T21:48:00.000Z

listen to: meanpeoplesuck radio.. you will find: Toots and the Maytals, Ride, ADF, Stone Roses, but NO Smiths and NO Coldplay...

Very cool - get your own radio station.

slammin..

2004-12-08T09:45:00.000Z

Last night I went to another Hammer and Tongue poetry slam at the zodiac.

Much recommended! Hugely entertaining, cultural, community, beer, all that!

I was a judge ( cool huh? ... ok, selected randomly from the audience.. )

Anyway, guest star Buddy Wakefield rocked, as a stand-up commedian as well as a poet. I particularly liked his one about the truck-stop-shop-woman. He asks her "is this it, for you?", and she says she's off any minute, but just might not get to drive. I thougt it was a bit like that chapter about the truck stop diner in the Grapes of Wrath.

Oxford's finest Steve Larkin also rocked. When I find a copy of his "Live in Leeds" online, i'll post it. (These poets don't seem very keen on posting their material online - maybe they worry it wouldn't work properly just printed?) Anyway, it's about students living in designer poverty in northern university towns, and being young and classless and free - and when they leave, getting jobs with the MOD. :)

"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"

2004-11-25T17:26:00.000Z

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Stoppit and Tidyup

2004-11-25T17:25:00.000Z

Annother day, in the land of do-as-you're-told..

2004-11-19T14:47:00.000Z

the beginning..

2004-11-19T14:36:00.000Z

A cup of tea without a biscuit is a missed opportunity..
book

John Peel

2004-10-27T15:33:00.000+01:00

...we took you completely for granted...

:(

sad news
Steve Lamaq's tribute from last night (is ace - eg Orbital at Peel Acres)
Festive 50
Teenage Kicks clip

.. not forgetting Home Truths

Quarterly report for Associate ID porkpamazon-21

2004-10-22T10:21:00.000+01:00

>Dear Amazon.co.uk Associate,
>
> September 30, 2004 marked the end of the 3rd calendar quarter of 2004, and
> it's time for payments to be calculated for that quarter's activity.

> Total shipped to customer this quarter: £55.12
> Total Referral fee: £3.36

PorkPamazon

£3.36.. pretty neat eh?.. nearly buys a pint at the Honey Pot.

Electronic Voting Machines

2004-10-22T10:13:00.000+01:00

You need sound to watch this VIDEO it's good.
(Boom Chicago.)

Harry vs. Prescott Celebrity Death Match..

2004-10-21T17:16:00.000+01:00

punch up
ole One Jab
death match

my money's on prescott every time.

Distress signal..

2004-10-19T21:35:00.000+01:00

2004-10-05T16:28:00.000+01:00

"I'm going to need a lot more money in order to live in the manner to which I
am hoping to become accustomed."

--Margaret Sant

sovreignty

2004-09-24T11:45:00.000+01:00

see

Baby Ella

2004-09-24T09:43:00.000+01:00

..lives in London with Tom and Nicole.

bigger pic

catweazle

2004-09-24T09:39:00.000+01:00

new site

Every wednesday,

Northgate Hall, Oxford.

Truly lovely.

(Wish I could play/sing.. may have to learn one day..)

nuke anything

2004-09-13T10:32:00.000+01:00

firefox extensions

philosophy LIFF

2004-09-11T21:55:00.000+01:00

hume, pron. To commit to the flames, bury, or otherwise destroy a philosophical position, as in "That theory was humed in the 1920s." Hence, exhume, v. to revive a position generally believed to humed.

kripke, adj. Not understood, but considered brilliant. "I hate to admit it, but I found his remarks quite kripke."

buber, v. To struggle in a morass of one's own making. "After I defined the self as a relation that relates to itself relatingly, I bubered around for three pages." Hence:
buber, n. one who bubers. "When my mistake was pointed out to me, I felt like a complete buber."

carnap, n. (1) A formally defined symbol, operator, special bit of notation. "His prose is peppered with carnaps" or "the argument will proceed more efficiently if we introduce a few carnaps".

The Philosophical Lexicon

Fuck it, let's go bowling.

2004-09-11T21:26:00.000+01:00

script

exit strategy...

2004-09-03T10:23:00.000+01:00

"Covering the world, one customer at a time"

2004-08-23T22:15:00.000+01:00

I tried to type "blogger.com" but accidentally went to blanket.com..

.. that snivelling wretch Tony Parsons...

2004-08-23T22:14:00.000+01:00

Burchill Recycler

workorspoon

2004-08-23T21:52:00.000+01:00

..The concept of Work or Spoon was invented by SpoonMan one day while preparing to grind another thin shard of his life away at "That Place"...

Work or spoon

Colonel Cathcart

2004-08-23T21:09:00.000+01:00

"...Dear Mrs., Mr., Miss, or Mr. and Mrs. Daneeka:

Words cannot express the deep personal grief I experienced when your husband, son, father or brother was killed, wounded or reported missing in action..."

Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen

2004-08-23T20:47:00.000+01:00

"...General Dreedle ... was incensed by General Peckem's recent directive requiring all tents in the Mediterranean theater of operations to be pitched along parallel lines with entrances facing back proudly toward the Washington Monnument. To General Dreedle, who ran a fighting outfit, it seemed a lot of crap. Furthermore, it was none of General Peckem's goddam business how the tents in General Dreedle's wing were pitched.

There then followed a hectic juridictional dispute between these overlords that was decided in General Dreedle's favor by ex-PFC Wintergreen, mail clerk at Twenty Seventh Air Force Headquarters. Wintergreen determined the outcome by throwing all communications from General Peckem into the wastebasket. He found them too prolix. General Dreedle's views, expressed in less pretentious literary style, pleased ex-PFC Wintergreen and were sped along by him in zealous observance of regulations. General Dreedle was victorious by default..."

"...Each time he went AWOL, he was caught and sentenced to dig and fill up holes 6 feet deep, wide and long, for a specified length of time. Each time he finished his sentence, he went AWOL again. Ex-P.F.C Wintergreen accepted his role of digging and filling up holes with all the uncomplaining dedication of a true patriot....since the holes were in no great demand, he could dig them and fill them up at a leisurely pace, and he was seldom overworked...."

"..."...Actually, Colonel Cathcart did not have a chance in hell of becoming a general. For one thing, there was ex- P.F.C. Wintergreen, who also wanted to be a general and who always distorted, destroyed, rejected, or mis- directed any correspondance by, for, or about Colonel Cathcart ...."

Baby Amin

2004-08-23T10:27:00.000+01:00

.. lives in Mexico DF with his mum Lorena and dad Ali.

bigger pic

Thanks for the backwards compatibility, AMAZON WS!

2004-08-23T08:36:00.000+01:00

.."AWS now requires that you explicitly set the page parameter to the number of the page you wish to retrieve. "..

=1 then?

Great.

Announcement, Aug 17th

brown bread and no telly

2004-08-19T22:53:00.000+01:00

.. for me from now on...

(OK, I've still got the telly but it's in a very un-prime position in the corner behind a plant..)

Free Trade = Fair Trade?

2004-08-19T22:02:00.000+01:00

"What's so special about agriculture? Subsidies were vital to cure the postwar food shortage but that was long ago. Their main function now is to prevent developing countries from exploiting one of the few activities where they have a natural advantage.

It is difficult to think of a single rational argument why US taxpayers should shell out $3bn to bribe farmers to grow cotton, a subsidy of 100% of the value of output.

As a result the US has captured 40% of the world cotton market, depriving labour-intensive developing countries of countless jobs.

Europe is worse. Oxfam claims the EU, scandalously, spends 3.3 euros for every euro of exports of sugar beet..."
( Guardian, 21 June)

"... under the rigged rules of international trade, North America and the European Union still protect their markets against developing-country exports, thereby reducing the industry’s contribution to poverty alleviation. A restrictive system of Multifibre Arrangement (MFA) import quotas, combined with high tariffs, has hurt economies in the developing world, costing them an estimated 27 million jobs and $40 billion each year in lost exports....... "
(Oxfam, May 2004)

KickAAS (Kick All Agricultural Subsidies)

How Much Would it Cost the UK to Cancel our Share of the Multilateral Debts of the 42 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries ?

2004-08-19T21:33:00.000+01:00

It would cost each person in the UK £2.85 per annum over the next ten years.

www.wdm.org.uk/cambriefs/debt/callforchange.doc

confusing.. but cool

2004-08-17T15:35:00.000+01:00

DemoGNG, a Java applet, implements several methods related to competitive learning...

Money money money

2004-08-13T09:56:00.000+01:00

Buy something from AMAZonnn via THIS and they'll send me 2p. (ok 1p). It's also Not Yellow and there are No Tabs.

"Idleness as a waste of time is a damaging notion put about by its spiritually vacant enemies."

2004-08-12T13:51:00.000+01:00

"But what happened then, of course, was that I would turn the volume right down, ignore the coffee and climb back to the snuggly, warm embrace of my duvet. Then I'd slowly come to my senses at around 10.30am, doze until noon, and finally stagger to my feet in a fit of self-loathing."
How To Be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson

Font Gags

2004-08-11T15:51:00.000+01:00

A font walks into a bar, slams down a package on the counter, and says to the barman: "oy, barman, sign this or else". And the barman says, "Well now, you're a bold courrier"...

Renee Zelwigger walks into a fonts-only bar, and the barman says, "why the typtface"...

A font walks into a bar and starts telling a ridiculous story to the bar staff, one of them asks "So what's your point?"

"A font walks into a bar. The bartender says 'I'm sorry, but we don't serve your type here.'"

(please add more...)

not difficult

2004-08-11T15:30:00.000+01:00

Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be half as good. Fortunately, this is not difficult.
Charlotte Whitton

The Great Steinbeck Pilgrimage Plan

2004-08-11T09:43:00.000+01:00

All the images above are from Steinbeck_Country
I really am going
I'll need this
Maybe I'll stay here.
If you don't know what I'm talking about start here... The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin Modern...