Infinity Limited

hehe - Newbie.

2008-11-14T03:32:18Z

I wonder if I can convince Lisa of this?

A taskbar applet that follows folder shortcuts....

2008-11-10T02:28:54Z

Finally.

Shortcuts in Windows XP are kinda broken.

The biggest problem I've found is that when you have a collection of shortcuts to folders, and you want to make that a custom taskbar menu, it doesn't work. You end up openeing an explorer window at the shortcut, instead of a cascading menu opening.

Queue: menuApp

Found via MakeUseOf

"The New Dawn of American Leadership is at Hand"

2008-11-05T05:17:17Z

A quote from Obama's acceptance speech.

Baby

2008-10-28T10:47:04Z

Just in case someone out there tries to accuse me later of not telling them anything (*cough* UK *cough*) I'll spell it out here.

We are expecting Baby v1 on or around Nov23rd this year.

We are keeping the gender a surprise, and have no idea.

We have names in mind, but are keeping these to ourselves.

There is a bump watch on Facebook.

Lotus Notes: Would you like to send or send?

2008-10-28T06:16:41Z

Got this dialog box today. I clicked on the "request information" button in a meeting invite, but then decided I didn't want to. the only button available is the "send" button, or the "close" button. I clicked on the "close" button, and got this:

So my choices are to send as is, continue editing or send without comments. Not even sure what "send without comments" means.

Previously, previously, previously.

Spring Cleaning

2008-10-27T02:02:40Z

FYI: Spring Cleaning = Preparation for Baby Cleaning.

This includes but is not limited to using a toothbrush to clean all the grout in the bathroom, and throwing away all your old computers to make room in the nursery.

Heh - not that it matters at all of course. I'm pretty excited/scared-shitless about Nov 23rd (the due date).

More Lotus Notes Gripes

2008-10-27T01:59:16Z

Cutting and pasting from excel into an email results in an image
It's as if you had done a little screen capture of the region selected in Excel. Even badly formatted text would be better than an image.
Can't delete an email if there is any text currently highlighted
For example:
- Open an email
- Select some text to cut and paste into another document
- Try to delete the email
- Nothing happens. No error box, no beep, nothing
- Simply clicking anywhere in the email, which deselects the text, allows you to delete the email. But it doesn't tell you that.
Can't delete an attachment from the preview window
You must first open the window, then delete the attachment. The only reason I'm doing this in the first place is that my mail file is restricted to 20 meg.
Can't delete an email in the full viewer, if it is also opened in the previewLets say your skimming through your inbox, with the preview pane on:
- You see a big email
- You double-click on it and bring it up in the full viewer
- You read the email, and decide to delete it
- You can't unless you exit from the full viewer and then delete it from within the inbox
NOTE: Notes has no problem deleting the email while you are viewing it in the preview pane.
The mouse wheel scrolls up slower than it scrolls down
So slow in fact, that it's pretty useless, and you end up reaching for the Page Up key.
In certain text fields, double-clicking on a word does not select the word
In almost all other applications, when you double click on the word, it selects the whole word. Instead Notes pops up a dialog box and tells you who can edit that field.

Previously

I fucking hate computers

2008-10-26T01:52:12Z

Srsly. What the fuck.

Installed SP3 on the XP machine at home, and now it wont boot. Sits there at the BIOS screen. A brief search on the interpipes and I discover its not an uncommon thing for people with AMD. But SP3 has been out for months! That's terrible!

And there is a KB article on removing SP3.

At least warn me when I am reviewing the pending change that this might brick your machine.

Luckily I had a Ubuntu laptop from work given to me. Ah but Ubuntu is shite isn't it. Yes, the networking never works after boot up, and when I try to configure the interfaces, the interface configuration tool tells me that the configuration name is invalid. WTF?! Not to mention that this IBM R60 seems incapable of resolutions higher that 1024x768. What is this, the 90's?

There is no wifi monitoring tool, out of the box for Ubuntu. C'mon guys, when I clicky-click on the little network icon in my toolbar, I expect to be able to select from a list of Wifi's, then to enter my details. And I also expect you to fucking remember that I've done that next time I reboot.

I fucking hate computers.

I'm going to go play in the big blue room today.

Reese

2008-10-16T01:15:22Z

High grade structures credit enhanced leverage fund

2008-10-09T02:00:59Z

unstable_geek @ 2008-10-01T08:41:00

2008-10-01T00:43:22Z

Harry Hutton has found the site of the day. BuyMyShitPile.

Through some great research, it appears that Harry has also discovered the Motto of the US Treasury.

SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

2008-09-29T15:22:39Z

DEAR AMERICAN:

I NEED TO ASK YOU TO SUPPORT AN URGENT SECRET BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH A TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF GREAT MAGNITUDE.

I AM MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA. MY COUNTRY HAS HAD CRISIS THAT HAS CAUSED THE NEED FOR LARGE TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF 800 BILLION DOLLARS US. IF YOU WOULD ASSIST ME IN THIS TRANSFER, IT WOULD BE MOST PROFITABLE TO YOU.

The rest is here.

Jeffery Rowland on Facebook

2008-09-19T10:00:10Z

Sagan vs. The Matrix

2008-09-15T18:52:05Z

Seriously Awesome mashup. Found on JWZ.

Here is a thought for all you climate change skeptics

2008-09-07T16:40:06Z

So, you don't believe that humans don't have an active part in climate change and global warming. Fine. Then don't focus on the CO2 emissions, focus on energy consumption reduction.

Do you think we can continue to maintain our current energy consumption?

Most skeptics say global warming is a natural cycle. So fine - when you start to need to run all the world's air conditioners 24x7, then lets talk about energy consumption reduction.

Climate change is more than just CO2 emissions.

It is energy efficiency. Technology and science that values energy consumption, and minimises it where possible.

It is renewable energy sources. Energy sources that will never run out, and you dont have to kill people for them.

It is smart architecture. No more stupid concrete-oven houses with massive sun-facing windows and air-conditioners in every room.

It is better modes of travel. More trains, less roads, better public transport and other related systems that make it easier to get around without a car.

So, Mr Skeptic don't let your narrow-mindedness and corporate greed blind you to the other aspects of what is going on around you. I don't care how much money your new mine₁ is going to make you - your IPO doesn't give you the right to be a vandal.

</rant>

8,000 suns

2008-09-07T14:30:35Z

The PS10 solucar install was amazing!
Some fun facts:

11MW of electricity at full power
4 MW/m² of thermal energy on the collector, at the top of a 100m tower.
Nuclear reactors only produce 400kW/m² of thermal energy, 10-times less.
The collector is made of 5 panels, 5m x 12m. Their construction is a closely guarded secret and we were very privileged to be taken all the way to the top of the tower directly under them!
The 624 heliostats have mirrors that are 120m² and are curved to focus a beam up to the collector. The closer heliostats have a greater curve than those further away.
The heliostats are not always all focused on the collector. Sometimes, they are pointed at a "standby" point, usually during system start up.
The heliostats are moved into the collector in stages so as not to destroy the tower in the process.
At full power, the thermal energy at the collector is equivalent to 8,000 suns.

We were near the outer edge of the heliostat field, and had our photo taken with the tower behind us at full power, and the bright spot was painfull to look at, it was almost as if we were looking into another sun.

Tomorrow: Off to see the PS10 solar power tower

2008-09-06T10:55:00Z

[Bigger File]

Posted from the blackberry via LJ2MESeville

2008-09-06T09:00:24Z

So far I still can't remember if I've been here before. I suppose I could search through me online life to find out, but I reckon it might be funner to try to find out by walking around some more.
Got in last night at 1:30 and had a few beers at the local Irish pub. Someone needs to tell those bartenders that some beers are served with mostly head, and that you let them settle.
These guys kept pouring out the head and refilling the glass, which of course produced more head which they continued to pour out and start again. Took 'em ages!

Posted from the blackberry via LJ2MEFirst post! (fr

2008-09-05T06:28:07Z

Just downloaded LJ2ME while having breakfast in a café in Switzerland. Gotta love technology.

Lotus Notes Gripes

2008-08-13T01:55:22Z

Further to my previous bitch-fests, here is my current list of Notes Gripes. I'll be adding to them.

Bugs in the current Form design:

Multiple "Illegal Function Code" and "Type Mismatch" errors when trying to set repeat information in a meeting
Inability to edit the repeat information in a meeting once initially set
My inbox is reporting 2 unread emails. There are none, and there is no way to resync the database. The IT solution was to reinstall Notes, which didn't work.

Drag and Drop
- Shift-LMB to select a list of items doesn't work, i.e. selecting a bunch of emails in a row by clicking the first and then shift-clicking the last.
- Multiple item selections are marked not with a change in background colour (like every single other windows app) but with a check mark to the left of the items.
- Then, when you drag one of the selected items, only 1 item "floats" as your drag it. You get no visual indication that you are indeed moving more than 1 item.
3 mouse click, involving 2 menus, to mark an email unread
To delete an appointment/meeting, non-intuitive steps are: Owner Actions button->Cancel
Not all commands are available in the same place. Some are via buttons in the form, some are through the menu bar.
All tasks seem to be "in progress". there is no way to change this to anything other than "complete"
When saving attachments, it doesn't understand a "shortcut to a folder". So I have to save it to the desktop, then move it later.
The shortcut it there so I don't have to navigate through 6 layers of subdirectory, and scroll 11 times to find the place I want to save. Naturally, one could flatten out the directory structure, but I think Notes should just follow the fucking shortcut.
Update: I just discovered that "Save All Attachments" does follow directory shortcuts. Jesus wept.
Dragging a contact into an email sends a link to my personal address book, which no-one except me can see. So if that is the case, why send a link you know no-one else can see? Expected behavior is to send some sort of attachment (v-card).
Email search results don't include the folder that the email was found in.
If the mouse is anywhere inside the email window, it will jump to the current curser position. This means, as your are typing, the mouse is jumping along right on top of the cursor, and if you editing a sentence, it is obscuring the next letter to the right of the cursor. Worse still, nudging the mouse is not enough, you have to move the mouse completely out of the mail window to get it to stop jumping around.
1 level of undo. A colleague laments about the number of times he has accidentally selected all (Cntl-A) and then typed 2 characters, and lost his whole email.

Lotus Notes

2008-08-07T06:28:44Z

I discovered today that I was able to edit the help text in Lotus Notes. How this could be usefull I'm not sure.

Anyway, I decided to add some useful knowledge. I draw your attention to the insertion between items 3 and 4.

Heh. Haven't come very far, have we there IBM. Still sucks pretty hard eh?!

I've taken it upon myself to log every single fault I find in Lotus Notes. Hopefully with enough evidence we'll get something done about it.

I have a text file on my desktop, and everytime Notes pisses me off, I add to it.

Must be time to clean out the registry....

2008-08-06T15:33:25Z

The Linux Hater has very good points, allot of the the time, and about allot of things. I was actually starting to get used to the idea of not running a linux desktop.
After the big computer rebuild, the ,machine was running better, but still had some slow areas.
I realised it had accumulated alot of cruft! Lots of badly un-installed software that you thought you had un-installed, there were a tonne of services starting up that just no longer required at all!
Well, that's no real difference to something LinuxHater accused linux of having to do: namely, get stuck in and maintain your distribution.

I actuality, I wonder if the LinuxHater really runs windows at all, something I've always assumed, and I bet I wasn't alone in doing so.

Because honestly, sometime I really hate computers. You know? Why can't they Just Work. This is usually when people tell me to try a Mac. I've thought about it so much, but I never quite get to the point of actually doing anything about it.

Frustration

2008-08-06T14:53:28Z

As usual, the joy is in the alt tag.

A certain no-talent ass-clown I know ....

2008-08-06T04:10:22Z

Further to my comments about my exit interview, that person also suggest a certain organisation that he thought I would benefit from. I struggled not to laugh out loud. Of course! Immediately, a lot of things about this guy started to make sense.

Needless to say, I wasn't interested. Not in the least.

Code Review

2008-08-05T10:25:55Z

I think I need to introduce code reviews at work.
Some links I've found so far, saving here for future reference:

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000495.html
After participating in code reviews for a while here at Vertigo, I believe that peer code reviews are the single biggest thing you can do to improve your code. If you're not doing code reviews right now with another developer, you're missing a lot of bugs in your code and cheating yourself out of some key professional development opportunities. As far as I'm concerned, my code isn't done until I've gone over it with a fellow developer.
http://www.developer.com/java/other/article.php/3579756
Code reviews, however, don't have to be painful.
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/puramu/tips-for-a-successful-code-review-12946
There are not many things a manager of developers can do that has the potential to go as spectacularly wrong as a code review.
There are not many things a manager of developers can do that has the potential to go as spectacularly wrong as a code review.
http://www.macadamian.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=31
Code Review Checklist
A book, Peer Reviews in Software: A Practical Guide, Karl E. Wiegers, first 2 chapters here.

any body else have an opinion?