Below are the 18 most recent journal entries recorded in benjohn's LiveJournal:

Thursday, March 31st, 2005
7:16 pm	Oh ... dargh. Just got a (really nice) turn down from ThoughtWorks. Oh well. They sounded jolly interesting though. Maybe in the future... I've _still_ not decided what to do about FixerLabs. Not being paid on time is annoying, but I think that's going to change. I am worried that FixerLabs could continue to scrape by, and never really get anywhere. I need to decide if I'm going to leave now, do a short contract, and possibly come back if funding arrives; or stay for n months, and then leave if no funding arrives. I've managed to get myself so geared up to the prospect of doing something else, that it's feeling like a real turn in the wrong direction not to leave FixerLabs at the moment. I am (a bit) worried that if I don't get on with doing something else, it's going to damage my career. I'm also a bit miffed that I'm not getting paid anything close to what I'm worth (having looked at http://www.jobstats.com). I don't know. :) Can someone give me guidance? Throw a coin for me and tell me what to do; I can't bring myself to make the decision. At the moment, I want to leave now, and maybe come back later. But that's the allure of change, and filthy stacks of cash. How will I feel in a few months time, I wonder? Time for home now though... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, March 28th, 2005
1:03 am	Wagner's Das Rhinegold Sunday night. Hooray - Me, Mum, Sam, and Tae have survived the BBC's screening of the first part of Wagner's Ring Cycle. This means that I get to have an opinion. Rock! And the opinion is: What a lot of toss. Story: Good. Lovely fairy tale stuff. On a par with Hansel and Gretel, or that one about the Ice Queen, or Mary Popins. Orchestral Music: Good. I liked it. Would make excellent background for many films, puppet shows, radio plays, dinner parties, or drives along seaside roads. Singing: Bloody, bloody awful. Two and a half hours of mindless, tuneless, rhythm-less band-saw like wailing. Terrible. Horrible. Painful. In places, it was just about possible to pick out a tune that actually matched with the orchestral part, and was lovely. But the singers rarely seemed to be close to performing this part. Is this normal for opera? Do they, as I've previously thought, wobble because they're incapable of hitting the note? Perhaps it's the acoustic set up of the opera hall. Maybe their monitors need adjusting or something. Acting: very ropey indeed. Adaptation: erm, not too sure about this; there was a Rocky Horror Picture Show section in the middle, which helped to lighten things a bit. Lighting: not a lot to do with the opera, but I liked the rainbow at the end. I can't stress enough how bad the singing was. It's hard to tell, but I suspect that if the singers hadn't vibrated their parts to pieces, the whole thing could have been a lot more pleasant. If they'd then, radically, adjusted their singing based on the emotions that their character would have been feeling, it could have been an involving story, and an enjoyable experience. Possibly, if the whole thing was cut to about half its length, and if interesting staging, and choreography were used, and some actors were hired, it would be fantastic. As it stands though, physically unpleasant to endure. (Comment on this)
1:03 am	Dr Who? I thought it was excellent. I'm really happy to see the BBC making something this good. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
1:03 am	Writing Scott and I were talking about building applications this morning. I've decided that I will write up the architecture that Steve and I developed for building SizeFixer (SF) for FixerLabs. We came up with something with its roots in the "Definative Programming" (DP) of Warwick's "Empirical Modelling" group, and somewhat influenced by the "Model, View, Controller" architecture / pattern. It's also related to "data flow" programming, the "bindings" of .Net and OS X, automatic update of spread sheets or views in data bases, the "make" utility, and probably a huge list of other examples. I want to write this up because: I think it's an extremely good architecture for GUI applications, and others that have a user interacting with data and seeing the results; it's sufficiently different from anything else I've seen described; other accounts of application architecture that I've read have sucked - they've not given me a feeling that I now know how to sit down and start designing or coding. A problem with me writing this up is that the architecture has only been used for one piece of software: SizeFixer. The ideas began before Steve and I started working on SF, and DP has been refined over many years at Warwick. Since finishing SF, I've refined the ideas, but have not yet had an opportunity to try them out on another application. They could really do with a few more iterations before being written up. However, if I put them down now, perhaps they'll be useful to someone, and maybe I'll even get some feedback that can be used to refine them further, and improve the document about them. So I'll be cracking on with chapter one any time now... (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 24th, 2005
10:57 am	I don't want to manage people Just had a phone interview, and it's made me realise that I don't want to manage people. I'd mistakenly thought that I did, because of some things that I really do enjoy... Being a problem solving resource I love helping other people sort out their problems. I love being a resource that people go to. I love teasing the problem out of them, understanding their mind set, getting in to their brain, and fusing my experience with theirs to overcome the problem. I really like doing this. I think part of the attraction is to pull out their partially digested knowledge :) It's like stealing information glucose :) (only you don't steal it, you just ... share it) Instead of having to collect information myself, and assimilate it and understand it, someone else is doing all that for me, and asking me to help them use what they've found! Oh, I'm excited just thinking about it. It's the joy of learning, with having a chat a a nice cup of tea, and also solving a problem, plus helping someone out too! What could be better!? Problem Analysis I quite like looking at a problem and analysing it; breaking it in to pieces; thinking about how a solution could be structured. I like doing this with other people, I suspect that I like this because it involves the same thing as above: quizzing people to find out about a domain, and then working with them to find a solution. Ivory Towers I occasionally like to really think about one thing, perhaps on my own, somewhere quite (fnar), or in a cafe, with lots of paper and a good fountain pen: How to find the order that the corners of a cube pass a plane, and how many orders there are. How to assign resolution levels to objects in a renderer and decide on the overall resolution. How to write an assembly height field renderer, or draw fractals fast. Crack Pot Ideas I have ideas. Not so many in the last year; maybe I'm drying up. Still, I have ideas. Crazy ideas perhaps, but they're ideas about what I think would be neat, and when I'm having an idea, I get passionate about it. I'm not sure where that fits in :) But not manage No. I don't think I do want to actually manage people. I don't want to decide that this is the important part of the project (although I'll have an opinion if someone asks). I don't want to check people are running on time. I don't want to make sure everyone has all the tools they need, and everyone understands the process. I don't want to delegate bits of something to people. I don't want to be the source of moral I'll take the money and the respect though :) I think the interview was generally good. Current Mood: Rather splendid (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005
11:05 am	Jobs jobs jobs jobs ... Feeling way more positive about job hunting now. I've got a phone interview lined up for Thursday with an interesting role... Unfortunately, it's more of the kind of things that I've done before, and I'd really love to have a change. It's also in Cambridge, which is good, but I'm still liking London. Still, it'll be interesting to talk to them, and perhaps they'll turn out to be really interesting. I'm getting excited about applying for ThoughtWorks :) Not sure that I've got a lot of chance of getting in, but I guess the only way to see is wait. It sounds like the sort of thing I'd enjoy; working with lots of clients; a casual atmosphere. Hopefully they'll see through my skill set to the true me :) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 21st, 2005
11:40 pm	Change Money. Gorn! :) So, as you'll know if you've met me recently, I've not been paid for nearly three months. I'm now looking for a new job full time, and not going in to the office any more. I'm pretty down about the whole thing really; FixerLabs is probably going under. It was fun, and I'm sorry it's not worked out. I feel bad about what's going to happen to Tim now, although he ought to be able to get something good. Really don't want this to happen to Steve at all; he doesn't want to start looking for a new job at all. :) Hopefully, a night of sleep will get me thinking of it as a positive change. So - anyone need: Benj: a shit hot c++, graphics, and image processing software imagineer? Steve: a get the job done and tidy up later, .Net, web, c++, java, and everything smith? Tim: Academic, mathmo, signal processing, lecturer? You know where to come if you do :) Current Mood: Varied (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, March 19th, 2005
9:59 am	Conflict Last Night Last night, on the tube, between Camden and my stop at Chalk Farm, a chap sitting opposite me sneezed or coughed in to his coat, I forget which, and I smiled. That was my first mistake. I don't remember how the next bit went very well, but it started with him asking why I'd smiled at him, and if I was gay. It had a lot of me saying, 'dude, relax, it's a beutifull day, let it go'. And quite a bit of him telling me not to dude with him, and to stop looking at him. It ended with him standing up and threatening to punch me, and me cowered, looking directly ahead, defeated by his threat of violence, saying 'I'm getting off at the next stop'. I was hugely angered by the whole thing. The bit that particularly pisses me off is that I wasn't passive by desire to avoid violence, I was passive out of complete cowardice. Seconds from getting out of the train, I wanted, more than anything, to beat the crap out of him. I spent a while after wondering what I could have done differently. Perhaps I could have been more assertive, or more aggressive. If only I had a quicker whit and tongue. Maybe I could have learnt some basic self defence and floored him. I almost wish he had got physical: now I'm afraid of what of something that I don't know. Once again I'm struck with not knowing what the hell I am supposed to do in the future? Not smile at people on the tube? That's not an option; I wouldn't be me then. Learn to fight like a man so that next time I can strike him down with my wrath, and put him back in his Neolithic place? Learn to fight like a man so that in future I can be cool and back it down with a sense of superiority? I'm also so angry that this is even the beginning of an option in our world. What claim can we possibly have to be civilised while this can happen? It's outrageous. The idea that two people can have a dispute, and one party can end it by a threat of physical domination of the other. It's foul, disgusting, horrifying, backward; it's the absolute opposite of the social world I yearn for and hope that we live in to a compromised degree. This Morning On The Tube As I was getting on to travel to Euston, there was something going on half way down the platform. Some people seemed to be threatening each other and violently arguing. Everyone tried to ignore them. The doors eventually closed and the train went on its way. It got me thinking; why do we, the huge majority of people, tolerate this? We have it in our power to trivially stop something like this happening. If four people are having a fight, fifty people can get off a train and stop it. Not a single bloke saying 'eeee, break it up, break it up.' but the crowd saying, 'if you want to fight, you can find another planet to do it on. Here, we're civilised'. Or perhaps, 'do you both want to fight'? And if they do, let them. But we ignore it. Where does that social pressure come from? This Morning On The Train They didn't put out the seat reservations. A lady got on and asked a woman who was sitting to move out of her reserved seat. The seated woman began grudgingly to do so. It all seemed a bit silly to me because there were loads of other free seats. I called out, 'I don't think they've done any reservations.' and the woman who had arrived said something like, 'fine, keep your seat, it hardly matters.' and came and sat at my table. We talked. She's pretty hot. I wondered if I could use it as a parallel; observe yesterday's conflict from the third person. Not managed to yet :) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 8th, 2005
10:22 pm	More Boarding I got back from a week of boarding in the French Alps on Sunday morning. It was fantastic :) Mojo I had a couple of days when I really seemed to "get" it. The difference in this state with all other boarding I've done before seemed to be profound. It was a fantastic, most wonderful feeling. It's very much like you're flying across the snow. It doesn't seem to matter what you do with your legs or body, it just knows what to do and gets on with everything for you. All you have to do is plan to avoid things, and look forward to swooping over bumps, dropping in to dips, and trying for some air over the next ridge. You can hear the wind rushing past your ears, faster and faster, and you're just a little terrified because you've no idea what the envelope of your new found ability is. I say "a little" terrified because really, the overwhelming feel of joy and excitement just blows away the fear to leave a little niggle at the back of your mind. Even in nasty conditions (big lumpy moguls, steep slope and some ice), when the mojo flows, the boarding seems to easy and stupidly fun. Quick sharp turns just happen. The demanding slope is a playground of joy rather than a chore of pain. Sadly, at the moment, my boarding mojo seems to come and go, beyond my control. It could be down to sleep, dehydration, expectation, snow condition, light condition, injury to myself, relaxation, or perhaps none of these things and several of many others. Whatever the causes, I'm still not able to drop in to the zone each time I bind in and jump towards a hill's tipping point. Flows (f l oooooo ws ) Flow bindings seem to mostly rock a lot. If possible, next time I'll try non flow, then compare them with flow a few days later. Being able to jump in and out is so cool, particularly being able to bind up as you start to slide at the top of a run. I've noticed that I do seem to have more ware on my feet than usual though, and I'm not sure if the bindings are as responsive as conventional ones. Flows definitely beat step-ins hands down. They feel way more secure, and I think they'll last longer (I noticed the step-ins at the Snow Done are completely shagged and loose after a year or so of use). They also seem quicker; step-ins have a tendency to ice up and need clearing. Sometimes, when you jump in to step-ins, they fail to lock correctly, so you need to faf about resetting them and trying again. Daffy? Quacky? Ducky? I seem to be pretty happy with: Regular. Front foot fairly forward. Feet closer to the toe edge. +15 on the front, -10 on the back A fairly stiff, 165cm board ???. Stance In my search for Mojo, I noticed a few things that didn't seem to help: Putting my weight at the back rather than central or forward. Twisting my body forward, rather than riding the board more centred. And some things that helped: Being amazingly relaxed. Bending my knees lots. Pivoting at the hip as well as the knees. (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 9th, 2005
1:35 pm	Pants Our application's crashing. It seems that the faster the computer it runs on, the more it crashes. Lovely :) So here I am, on a Sunday, having a go at working out what's up with it (bizarrely, out of choice, rather than having been asked). I was hoping it would be a lovely easy one, but it looks like the heap's getting trashed. The crash occurs when things are being allocated, so I guess that the damage is occurring well before then. Perhaps something is being de-allocated twice, or is writing outside its allocated memory, or is being written to after it's released. Best of all, I've just noticed, it doesn't happen (yet) in a debug build. Perhaps we should ship that then :) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 5th, 2005
3:19 pm	Snowboarding! On balance, snowboarding rocks :) My 'boarding history My history with 'boarding is still very small. I had a few lessons in Britain about a year ago courtesy of the Tamworth Snow Dome (Birmingham). In July last year, I boarded for a week in Lapland with a group of a dozen or so mates, and had a fantastic time. Last weekend I was 'boarding in the Czech Republic with some friends. Next year I'll be 'boarding again in ... erm, actually, not too sure :) Somewhere in Europe anyway, France or Italy I think. The point of this post is what I think about 'boarding. Some thoughts I have previously had about snowboarding are: It is the most frustrating thing I've ever done (on reflection after a day without much progress in Lapland). I don't want to fall over any more because it really hurts, and I'm tender now, and I think I'll just have a sauna, thanks (after falling over in a bad way on some ice while in a mood of "yes, something's clicked, I've moved on to the next level, I rock!"). Weeeeeee (Lots of times, but while bombing along in chase of buddy is a good example). Damn, yeah, I feel cool now (sauntering in to a bar, towards the bottom of successfully boarded slope, with good background music). Frustration Quite a few years ago I went on a school ski trip that was fun. I enjoyed skiing a lot. There was a wonderful moment, some time in the last two days, where I "got it" to some degree. I realised that I could go down a slope almost as fast as gravity would take me, and I'd be able to deal (I thought) with anything that happened. The feeling was awesome; in control enough, skimming over the snow. It was wonderful. I've still not quite had that feeling with snowboarding. I hope I'll get it with about another week of practice. In that respect, snowboarding seems to have a different learning curve to skiing. With the disclaimer that your milage will may from, and I think I'm pretty cack-handed at most things physical, 'boarding seems to be easier than skiing very early on, but it's easier to get to a point of basic competency in skiing. It's good having the 'board thing attached so it wont fall off. You cant cross your skis over accidentally. 'Boarding generally feels a bit safer to me (I say this having twisted my knee skiing, and not liking the effect), but furnishes you with many more minor bumps and bruises. I hope that I'll get to a state of basic 'boarding competency in my next week. After that, I don't know :) I've found that, for me, the period of being pretty incompetent has been frustrating, and nearly put me off completely. I (and I think this is pretty normal) had days of as many bruises on bruises as I could take, seemingly without any payoff of progress. There was one particular day in Lapland where I thought I was really getting somewhere, but then wiped out and landed my head on some ice. It started to seem that maybe 'boarding is a bit random, and even really good 'boarders wipe out in a bad way, due to a silly bump, or bit of ice. The reply to this is body armour. Screw pain. From now on I will be using: Helmet: because ice is about as hard as concrete, and when an edge digs in, your head has a habit of being propelled at the ground very fast. Crash pants: because when you fall, twist, and land on the side of your leg, there is an extra lump of padding there before you. Knee pads: because knees are knobbly, and very very complex. I've decided not to use wrist guards any more though. If you fall correctly, you shouldn't need them (not quite got the hang of that yet). I managed to bruise my hand splendidly last time I had them on. Progress When I left Lapland, I was finding boarding ok, but I'd fall down every now and then, and there were basic things I couldn't do (like turn smoothly and continuously, from heel edge to toe edge, and back). Between Lapland and the Czech Republic, I went to the the indoor snow place at Milton Keynes (a few weeks ago). Here, I had a huge realisation of two parts. Between being happy on my heel edge, and being happy on my toe edge, there will be a period where I'm pointing directly down the slope, accelerating, without any real control. This is ok, and normal, and doesn't need to last very long. Relax. A footnote to this finding is that by continuously switching between toe and heel edges, it's possible to maintain a sensible and controlled speed. The second finding was that to turn, I need to shift my weight forward somewhat, to my leading foot. I'd been told this before by people, but it hadn't quite sunk in. (If you are trying to learn to turn, my advice is to find a relatively shallow slope and go for it. There's a great exercise you can do: begin a turn (on heel edge say), go as far as you can towards pointing directly down the slope, then pull out of it and go back on to the original edge. Once you can do that smoothly on both edges, it isn't a big step to being able to do a complete edge to opposite edge turn.) During the last weekend in the Czech Republic, I wanted to get to a point where I could go almost directly down a slope, but be able to smoothly join from heel to toe edge and back, keeping my speed in check. I went through a period of realising I could do all sorts of exciting things with my weight distribution, and stance. It was nice feeling that I wasn't about to fall over, and could turn and experiment a bit, but it was annoying that I still couldn't link together a continuous series of turns. Almost at the end of the trip I had another realisation. I've hardly had a chance to test this, so it could be rubbish :) I realised that independent of my weight distribution on the board, I can vary where I position my feet relative to my body. I found that this has a big effect on how well my legs soak up bumps in the snow; whether they will be ready for another turn to follow the previous in a long sequence; and how easily I can swing my legs forward and backward as I change between heel to toe edge. What I think is that, rather than standing so that your hips are directly over your feet, you should stand such that your feet and head lead your hips in the direction of travel. This leaves your bum slightly trailing, in the direction of travel. If this sounds like complete rubbish to anyone who can actually board, then I'm very happy to take it all back :) It seemed to be working to me though. Czech trip We all spent quite a lot of time on a relatively shallow slope. Vera lead the way in trying to master the basics. Chris did lots of new exciting things. I lead the way in sitting at the top of the slope thinking "Lovely sky. I suppose I should get up and do some more 'boarding". By the end of the weekend, I was starting to get a feel for what the 'board ought to be able to do, what I could do well, and what I definitely had a problem with. I did try five jumps, something I never tried skiing. The results: 1x Wipe out with a prolonged and painful system check after; laying in the snow, feeling perhaps I was going to need someone to find me a surgeon. 2x Drops in to lovely, silly, deep, embracing, powder. Fun, but definitely not successful jumps. Maybe if I'd have been going faster I'd have rolled upright and continued, and that would have been a jump for sure! 1x Managing the jump, landing, and then wobbling down the slope trying to recover some semblance of a reasonable stance, while not falling over. 1x Absolutely perfect jump! Well, it felt good to me anyway. Oh yes. Looking damn cool and smooth (In My Mind!). My major current problem is with turning from heel edge to toe edge when traveling in the regular direction. The turn doesn't happen as quickly as I'd like it to. I seemed to be getting better towards the end though, greatly helped (I think) by this stance thing I talked about earlier. With a bit of luck, I'll get it next time :) I was really pleased to be able to travel "fakie" to some degree, even managing to do heel to toe to heel turns (although Chris reckoned I would have dug in and wiped out at any speed, so that probably needs some work). I'd like to try having my bindings set up more symmetrically, and see if I can get good at fakie. I practised pirouetting down the slope too, and found that I could do that, for the most part. My final observation from the Czech Republic trip: "kids are amazingly good at skiing and boarding". There are zygotes pulling off 720 spins on the slopes. They're cool and they're confident, and with good reason: they seem a much better size for skiing or 'boarding, and I think they're less able to hurt themselves (perhaps because they're closer to the ground). I'm sure that somewhere, there is a tribe of pigmies that, if they decamped from their jungle, and headed to the Alps, would be world class snowboarders. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 8th, 2004
8:44 am	Law and Coding Breakfast though: Are the practices of Law and Coding similar? Central to Law is a huge, solid library of Case History. In Coding, the Case History is pretty scant. Perhaps Design Patterns are an example. I suppose Case History is so important in Law because doing something without precedent is hard and time consuming. This certainly differs hugely from the current state in Coding where precedent probably isn't high on an architects list of interests. Hey, Dyson (of the vacuum cleaning apparatus) is doing the Dimbleby lecture this year. Sounds worth a listen. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
8:37 am	Breakfast though: noun Idea that seems great at about 8.30am, over tea and some honey toast, that doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense by about 3 in the afternoon. ...as this is a breakfast thought, it could be warping in to a paradox in about 7 and a half hours. (Comment on this)
12:13 am	Halo 2 Damn fine game! Just finished it with Chris, two player all the way through. The thing that impresses me most about it is the awesome feeling of scale of many of the levels. You'll be in a room, that's part of a huge building, that's in a city, that's on a planet, and all of it seems to be convincingly modelled. Favourite vehicle: definitely the human's tank thing. The cannon on it is sweet, and I love the physics: the way it climbs its way up and over obstacles. Favourite weapon: tricky. Up close, the shot gun (of course :). Up very close, the power sword. Long range? Any of the sniping weapons is good, they're all sweet for taking out the bad dudes before you get anywhere near them. Being able to slightly relax, and let the AI that's on your side take some of the load is very cool. You still feel like you're the key characters, but it also feels like you are part of something, rather than the lone super heroes. Roll on a decent VR headset! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 7th, 2004
10:19 pm	Good Code Today I wrote some good code, for the first time in too long. It feels great :) That's what it's about. The buzz I get from that is lovely. I need to remember that; remember why it is that I'm a programmer. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
9:45 am	BBC, Democracy, Metrics A brain dump - I'll tidy this up if comes together :) BBC: There has just been a discussion on Radio 4 about the BBC, and the licence fee (last slot of Today show today). I'm trying to put what they are talking about in to a bigger picture. There seems to be a feeling, that there are things of great value, that will not survive well as commercial entities. People often approach this emotively from an extreme, either rejecting it (capitalist), or accepting it unquestioned and refusing to argue why something that makes no money should be supported (hippy). I'd like to understand this and be able to think about it in some somewhat rigourous way (So that I stop loosing arguments with capitalists, and so that I can sound informed and perhaps get people to listen :). As another example, the Scots are currently thinking about scrapping their National Opera. Not enough people get anything out of it, and it costs the Scottish government a great deal in subsidy that could be supporting other things. Democracy: I'm not sure why, but my brain is trying to hook this up with a conversation I had with Zef and Scott a few days ago. We were talking about politics, democracy, mob rule, and vigilantly justice (I think it was all sparked off by 'make love not spam'). We were trying to think where democracy can go to next. Surely it's going to be easy for huge groups of people to (if they choose) discus something, look at each other's interests, and come to a wise decisions that most advantages everyone involved. I'm imagining "Getting to Yes" and "Six Thinking Hats" on a national or global scale here :) Not compromises. Not a single party's agenda wilfully forced through. Not control of the masses by media. I love the idea of this, it's something I'd like to think about more: can it work, would it be splendid, can we actually get there, and how? However, a feeling I got from the talk, is that while democracy is great, I am slightly uncomfortable with the idea that if everyone spontaneously decides to do something, then it will spontaneously be done. Metrics: Why do I think this? I suppose I think that there are things that have a great value, that cannot be measured well by an obvious metric. Box office takings and total listeners are obvious metrics. Perhaps part of something's value is that it inspires a child to become something that's very important in ten years. Maybe it makes enough people go home happier, or somewhat enlightened, or exposed to a different point of view. For example: I'm not at all convinced by the idea of an IQ metric. Of course you can make a test, ask people to take it, and give them a measure. There's nothing wrong with that. You can also measure the redness of a bottle of wine, or the pinkness of salmon, or the wavelength of waves on sea. None of this is likely to tell you how much joy you'll get from drinking that wine, eating that salmon, or watching that sea. The danger of a metric, such as IQ, is how it is applied, and the significance that's attached to it. Realistically, if someone gave you a single number and said "that's how good this wine is", would you accept it? What about your mood, the temperature of the day today, the long walk you've just been on, the meal you are eating, the fact that you are drinking with someone who likes a lighter drink, ... etc. My issue with applying metrics is what they miss out. I really need to go to work about an hour ago :) I'm trying to connect: What metrics miss. The non obvious value of things. Snap decisions in democracy. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, December 6th, 2004
11:16 am	Coffee and Words I bought some really good coffee a few days ago to leave here at work. I noticed this morning, that I'm looking forward to drinking it so much on my walk in, that it's making me look forward to getting to work. That's got to be a good thing here in the middle of winter. Word question (This comes from watching a program about pedantry last night): First, what the bloody hell is the difference between "who" and "whom"? I mean to get to the bottom of this. Secondly is there a word that sounds like "unculous"? :) I thought there was, and believed it meant behaving in an uncle like way. *cough* The dictionary doesn't agree with me, unless the spelling's very unexpected (not unlikely with my amazing spelling). And now, to work! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 2nd, 2004
2:17 am	:) Groovy. So this is cool. It's Scott's fault, it sounded neat, so I thought I'd give it a go. He got me started on crack too. And jumping of cliffs. I had this plan to put up pictures of things that I think look interesting. Probably events that are going to happen in London that I like the look of. Maybe that way, people will go, 'yeah, that does sound good, lets go'. Oh, and I'm also interested in live journal because I think it sounds a bit like the kind of distributed application that perhaps we're all going to be getting used to in a few years. I think (and hope) that the idea of having an application with its own data, that runs on a computer with its own data, will be so twentieth century. A few things will have to change for that to happen, but perhaps not that many really. So when it happens, I'll know that when I say, 'man, you've no idea how bad this mobile is that I got the other day', and someone is thinking about getting that mobile, they'll probably end up reading my comment, or it'll at least be part of a pool that they've got access to. If it happens for consumer fluff, perhaps it could happen for opinion, debate, politics, and good pubs and food. If that happened, who knows how Society could change? Perhaps we wouldn't need political parties, and parliament could be getting back to being by the people and for the people. Maybe, if we knew what everyone thought, we'd be able to agree on a sensible compromise. If we all wish hard enough... Or perhaps we'll decide to blow each other up anyway, but at least we'd be doing it in a state of full awareness :) Do I get a chance to follow up to this later on? Who knows! Wow. Wild :) Time to sleep now, and I've got a damnable sore throat. Perhaps it'll have finally gone by tomorrow!?!? Nigh night, Benj Current Mood: a bit sleepy Current Music: The Wasp (Texas Radio And The Big Beat) (Comment on this)