Yesterday I finally managed to finish the Big Project at work – it’s gone live, and while it needed some bugs to be fixed, it’s all happened.

It’s been the longest project I’ve done with the new job, and probably my longest Big Project since we moved here. It’s been challenging in lots of ways – not least the fact that the documentation we’ve been dealing with on the product that’s being integrated bears no resemblance whatsoever to the reality of the product. It all looks OK, but when you get to use it or rely on it then you’re doomed from the start.

It’s been a mammoth undertaking, and involved a lot more work than had been initially expected, but it’s in, done and live. There’s still a second phase, which starts on Monday – but I’m hoping (OK, Praying) that it will be a much easier (and faster) project.

I could look at some of the documentation for that phase this weekend. But I’m not going to. I’m going to take the weekend as a proper weekend, and not think about work stuff or what’s coming up. That’s the plan, and I intend to stick to it.

While I don’t look like I’ll be anywhere near completing the Script Frenzy project of 100 pages of script in April, I have at least started off an idea.

I’m not going to go into too much detail on it here, but even being able to have started it is (in some ways at least) more than I actually expected to happen.

I don’t know whether it’s related to the taking of the anti-depressants – I don’t think it has as they’re not really supposed to have built up to a usable/viable level til somewhere in the middle of next week – but equally they may have worked faster, or it may be a psychosomatic thingummywhatsit. Whatever though, I actually did sit down and write the first couple of pages.

It’s a start.

I do plan to continue with it, even once the Script Frenzy thing has closed up shop for another year. What I wanted was an excuse to start – no, not an excuse, a reason to start – writing something.  I don’t know yet whether I’ll complete it – the idea’s a good one, but it might fizzle out, I have to be honest. Still, we’ll see.

And I’d rather have something started than for it all to still be just in my head. So I’m measuring little successes along the way. And for now that’s enough, when combined with all the other stuff that’s going on.

Saw this today and loved it. Now if only we could get the Conservatives to use it…

The kind of thing Photoshop was meant to be used for (Click to embiggenify)

I have to say, O2 are very impressive when it comes to delivering upgrade phones.  I ordered the iPhone on Sunday afternoon, and on Monday it arrived at the office.

Of course, as I wasn’t in the office on Monday that made it a bit more awkward, but it was here on the desk when I came in on Tuesday, which meant that last night was spent setting it up, getting everything sorted and taking data etc. from old phone to new phone.

So far it’s all worked pretty well. Moving the contacts over is a piece of piss because I use Zyb, which is an online storage for contacts. Sync from old phone to Zyb, get the Zyb iPhone app and download from Zyb to new phone. That’s it. (And before any fanboys start piping up, that’s been easy because of Zyb, not because of the iPhone)

So yeah, it’s all OK so far. Set up the things I need, and I’m sure some other bits will get set up in the coming days.

But will I turn into an iPhone evangelist/obsessive? Somehow I doubt it. For a geek/techie I’m really not all that evangelical about technology in general. It’s a tool, not a belief system.

So following on from yesterday’s discovery of a flat tyre, I booked in (and paid in advance) through eTyres.co.uk to get it fixed at home. eTyres offer their service at home, which is ideal when you’ve got a flat.

However, the motto of this entire story is that if you’re going to have a puncture and use eTyres, don’t do it on a weekend. Despite being able to book and order online, for some fuckforsaken reason they can’t organise things ’til the Monday morning. And at that point they’ve also got to deal with all the people who’ve booked on the Saturday.

I did try to change the tyre myself so I could get down to the local tyre place, but the wheelnuts were on so tight I couldn’t even move the sodding things. Insurance-wise I was going to be lowest of the low priority calls, and they couldn’t even give me a time expectation. So all told that left me pretty much at the mercy of eTyres.

Having made the booking online yesterday evening, they finally arrived at 5.30. Yep, a whole day. So much for the speed of booking via the internet etc. etc.

In the end they’ve done a decent job, and for a fairly decent price. Not as great as they make out in their marketing, but not bad.

But if you need a swift service that’ll actually get the job done, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend eTyres to anyone.

via Twitter, I came across Withings scales – a set of scales that’s connected to t’Internet. (via wireless network)

I still can’t decide whether it’s a great idea or an incredibly bad one. I love the concept of being able to keep track of your weight, graph it out and monitor it. I hate the idea of it connecting to t’Internet rather than just recording the data on a card for uploading to your own computer. I get the idea of it, but yeah, that connection to t’Internet means I probably wouldn’t want one.

Interesting idea, though.