Posted: Sat 15 December, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Green |
Is it just me that ends up with a certain bemused cynicism to see that the UN Conference on Climate Change which is currently all over the news is in – um – Bali ?
So every attendee is going to have had to fly in to Bali. And OK, I realise that people would have to travel in order to get to the conference wherever it was held – although surely that would be where something virtual like Second Life should be able to come into its own? Or is it just me that thinks it would make more sense to have something like this use an on-line way of doing all this shit, rather than adding umpteen thousands of air/carbon miles for a conference about global warming?
Posted: Wed 12 December, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Driving, Festering Season, Thoughts, Travel |
While I’m not usually a great proponent of the entire “User-generated content” thing, sometimes it can be interesting and useful. One example is this BBC piece about drink-driving, and this year’s advertising campaign to make people think again about drinking and driving. After the piece, there’s a whole set of stories of personal experiences of drink-driving, and being banned, and it makes for interesting reading.
Personally, I don’t drink at all if I’m driving. It doesn’t bother me, and I don’t see the point of the entire “Oh, I’ll be OK if I just have the one” point of view. I could probably get away with one (or even two) because of my size, but to be honest, why risk it?
Posted: Wed 12 December, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Driving, Thoughts, Travel, Weirdness |
As the nights have drawn in, I’ve found myself repeatedly thinking about driving standards. In particular, with regard to the way people now use their headlights.
When I was younger, and also when I was taking (lots of) driving lessons, I always thought that before you used full (or even dipped) headlights, you first used sidelights only – kind of a “for being seen, not for seeing by” thing. They got used ’til you needed to turn on the headlights/dipped headlights in order to see.
Now though it seems like the majority of people just switch straight to full headlights, without ever really using the sidelights at all. The Highway Code suggests that it should still be done with the sidelights first, then headlights – but it just doesn’t seem to be the done thing any more.
Now when did that start happening Or is it just something I hadn’t noticed until recently?
Posted: Wed 5 December, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Festering Season |
Why is it that electric razors are only ever advertised in the run up to the Festering Season?
Is it that these men only ever shave in December/January ? It’s all very bizarre.
Posted: Tue 4 December, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Work-related |
There’s always one big problem with taking long weekends away from work – coming back.
Today, having been away for Friday and Monday I’ve come back to a whole bundle of stuff that either no-one else could be chuffed to do (90% of the stuff) or bits that no-one else here can do. (The other 10%)
Now, bearing in mind I’m supposed to be the techie, I have no problem with the stuff that other people can’t do – that’s where my specialism lies. But the other stuff? That narks me, to be honest. Especially when I’m doing a reduced number of days “because I’m not needed to do the run of the mill stuff”.
Ah well, best get on with it.
Posted: Mon 3 December, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related |
Many of my regular readers will remember the fun I had in 2005/6 with the company I was working for, particularly Arsehole Boss and the like. One of the main things that was always an issue with the company was that Arsehole Boss ran through the money that had been invested in the company like it was his own personal bank account, and that no-one seemed to care.
All told, that company had (it turns out) $9 milliondollars invested in them. And what’ve they got to show for it? Absolutely fuck all.
How do I know this? Because over the weekend I got an email and letter from the company, because I still own some stock in the bunch of twunts. Not that I ever expected it to be worth anything, but it was part of the job package.
And now they’re not getting any more funding, so they’re holding a fire-sale. They’re asking for offers on the various products and websites etc., basically “no offer not considered”. I’m really tempted to make a complete take the piss offer for one of the sections, just for fun.
As it turns out, looks like I got out of that company at just about the perfect time.
Posted: Wed 21 November, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Geeky, Work-related, Writing |
Funnily enough, for someone who generally likes writing stuff, (regardless of whether it’s webpage, letter, PHP functions, fiction, blog posts, etc.) I hate doing documentation for things I’ve already created. Going back over these things is (in my opinion) usually a pain in the bum, and it’s all- well- old. Been there, done that.
I know, I shouldn’t feel like that, but I do. I admit it. And of course this week I’ve been writing loads of bits of documentation for all the stuff I’ve been doing over the last year or so. In some ways it’s actually been quite useful because it’s reminded me of some of the groovier functions that I’ve created for the site, and some of the bits of arcane esoteric hackery without which the site wouldn’t even function. This is also useful for when I rewrite the client page on the business site, and also the “what I’ve been doing” bit on my CV.
But it’s still so dull. I can’t even really think of any way to brighten it up or lighten the work a little – it’s just dull. No two ways about it. Useful to people in the future, of course, and it’s all written in a way that should make sense to even the most numpty of newbies (I get to test that on some of my colleagues. Heh.) but still, dull.
Of course, on this occasion I’ve actually also been looking at older stuff and also suddenly clicked with a way to rewrite it that makes life lots easier all round, and removes the elusive point-of-failure that was lurking in there for the unwary. So in that case writing documentation had an added bonus which I wasn’t expecting.
It’s still piggin’ dull though. *sigh*