unixman_again

I still have one Lindt reindeer left; I had a herd of five before Christmas.

I wish that I could reach 60mph on the M6 around Birmingham...

Yes a happy new year to all and may all IT problems go away! Any bets on how long before Easter eggs appear in the shops.

I enjoyed the two ballets on BBC2 & 4. I would have enjoyed Lady Gaga Meets The Muppets more if C5 hadn't left a huge swag of it out (it ran for 90 mins when shown in the US back in November). I am enjoying Worlds Strongest Man on 5 and tucked away on Challenge has been Britain's Strongest Man and World Masters Strongest Man. It's interesting that most of the other countries manage to stage these events indoors, yet here the competitors freeze to death on the dockside in Belfast or in a football ground in Leeds. I thought Dr Who was tosh and did the usual trick of trying to cram too much story into too little time. They should bring back 4 to 6 part stories and they should also check continuity; the Doctor does not need the help of the Time Lords to regenerate as River Song gave him her remaining generations. They should bring back the Master too and handle the continuity by having the Doctor wake up from a bad dream. There have been some good films on, like Fantasia, The Red Shoes and Guys and Dolls.

An oldie but a goodie. Here's the version from my scrapbook, which comes from my first job in 1979.

I'm no packaging expert but it's a complicated net. How much cardboard is wasted in cutting from the flat sheet? More than a traditional box I suspect. Also, did you notice that he peeled off some backing paper to expose a sticky strip? More difficult to manufacture. Finally it's not a new idea. Here's a box that had a hard drive in. No fancy jig required for assembly, no backing paper to peel off, no tape required to hold it together, re-usable, and reversible.

Some moss blew off the roof onto my nice clean car.

In case you've missed it Lifesize, driveable AIR-POWERED LEGO CAR hits the road website: http://www.superawesomemicroproject.com/ Spot the quadcopter sneaking into the video at around 1:20

I've always thought the best thing you can do for a cup of tea is chuck it out and put something with taste in the cup, something like coffee. Still each to their own There are no variables in making a cup of tea if you follow ISO 3103.

Has anyone come across this Kingsoft office software ? It looks quite neat and opens M$ Office files just fine, although it didn't covert ppt to doc, which their website says it does (which is why I downloaded it in the first place - maybe I need the pro version). I'm going to bookmark the page for when a student comes in and we have the following conversation : student: "I need office on my laptop and the website says I can have it." me: "The website says staff can have office for free not students, you can download OpenOffice for free." student: "OpenOffice doesn't work...." or maybe I'll just suggest LibreOffice.

The tea making Robot is quite common.

As an ex-pat Aussie, allow me to comment. nephilim photos : The wild boar is a picture from Alabama. The large spider pix are very bad fakes as is the frog and the snake in the toilet, but I guess that you knew that. Yes there are things in the garden that will kill you, like the red back spider, the funnel web spider, various snakes but if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone. Yes there are things in the sea which will kill you, such as the blue ringed octopus or the white pointer but you either leave them alone or get out of the water when the spotter says so. Yes there are things in the north that will kill you, such as the salt water crocodile, but if there is a sign that says "no swimming", you stay out of the water. It usually tourists who get eaten, ignoring the signs. On the other hand, the sun always shines, there are miles and miles off beaches, they are great swags of desert if you fancy being alone and some the best walking country on the planet. There is more skiable snow than in Austria and a really relaxed way of life. Here is a road warning sign from my home town : http://joelynalexandra.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/adelaide085.jpg?w=538

A story from my home town in Oz. Yahoo News UK & Ireland - Latest World News & UK News Headlines (Strangely I couldn't find it in the local press.)

No! No! A duvet day is for when you are having "a mental health day" (aka sickie). If your off work with genuine illness, you should be working from home, which I'm doing today. This might sound crazy, but healthy days off should be for yourself (bit like a weekend).

Here is a recent thread about this topic - http://www.edugeek.net/forums/educational-software/127818-manage-email-parents.html

I've been off three days with it, although I will be back in tomorrow. This is the second bout this winter, the last one about a month ago, again three days off. Prior to this, I haven't had a day off in a couple of years. When I worked in my first school, I was always down with the dreaded lurgy. I left after 4 years and managed two winters in private enterprise without any time off. That first school really toughened me up. It was all those youngsters who didn't believe in hankies, preferring just to spray everyone (delightful!) I'm in a college now, so I shouldn't be in as much "danger", but as I said, I've been off twice in as many months. Flu jab methinks....

A book and you get a paper sticker with your name written on it. Longer term visitors get a printed name in a plastic lapel holder.

If you can find a Coopers Stout kit it comes out exactly that same as they make at the brewery. I know this to be true as I used to drink Coopers and tried the kit out once. In the end, I found it easier to go to the bottle-o and buy it. ("Bottle-o" - Aussie for drive through off licence. I wish they had them here in Blighty.)

I've found the easiest method to identify 500 errors on our Joomla, is stop IIS and use Apache, which display and/or logs more sensible error messages. Why aren't we just using Apache rather than IIS? You'll have to ask the boss...

Council bans use of word When I worked at an academy which was under the auspices of the Birmingham LEA we had some new email filtering software installed. One of the phrases on the banned list was "Dead Sea pedestrian". I can only assume the authors were Monty Python fans... who didn't listen as the joke should be Red Sea pedestrian.

I think silicon would be your friend. A blob around the rj45 plug should waterproof it.

This is why enforced compulsory preferential voting is the only fair system. (Currently 22 countries have compulsory voting, but only 10 enforce it. This is a concept that I don't understand.) Even fairer is to include a "None of the above" box which is counted along with the other votes. If this wins, then there is another election and the original candidates can't stand. No government has been brave enough to introduce this. I wonder why? Why do we need Westminster? Surely these days debates could all be done using teleconferencing and voting using Facebook?

At least one pollie has said he will be giving his pay rise away; I do hope we see proof of that.

I remember a long time ago there was a seemingly obvious question posted on a puzzle newsgroup: "What weighs more a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?" Here is the surprising answer rot13'ed Gur cbhaq vf fvkgrra nibveqhcbvf bhaprf (Serapu sbe "tbbqf bs jrvtug"). Ubjire tbyq vf qvivqrq vagb gebl (sebz Geblrf) bhaprf, naq gurer ner gjryir gebl bhaprf gb gur cbhaq. Gur nibveqhcbvf bhapr vf 437.5 tenvaf, juvyr gur gebl bhapr vf 480 tenvaf. Na nibveqhcbvf cbhaq vf 7000 tenvaf, juvyr gur gebl cbhaq vf 5760 tenvaf, fb n cbhaq bs srnguref vf fvtavsvpnagyl urnivre guna n cbhaq bs tbyq. Vs gur bevtvany dhrfgvba jnf "Jung jrvtuf zber n cbhaq bs srnguref be n cbhaq bs yrnq?", gura gurl obgu qb jrvtu gur fnzr.

Which I always thought was "The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" but apparently it's "Pad kid poured curd pulled cold".