And this time it seems like it’s been quite a while since the last one. Shelf space in our house is still at a premium, of course. We picked up lots of things for mini-Elbeno, including some really nice non-fiction stuff (a science encyclopedia and a book on weather). Mrs. Elbeno got some interesting novels… Continue reading Book sale time again
(Part of) what I do all day
Lately I’ve been asked what I do at work. What I really do. Well, if Great Biggary can frequently expound on his latest Maya scripts and python excursions, here goes with my explanations… Most of what I do all day is read code. Just like an author or poet will read many many more books… Continue reading (Part of) what I do all day
Tales of a full hard drive
In between watching the US Open finals this weekend, I had to fix up my PC. My hard drive (300GB) has been filling up with stuff and finally got full. My partitions looked like this: /dev/sda1 (NTFS): 40GB at 80% /dev/sda2 (ext2, /boot): 40MB at 50% /dev/sda3 (swap): 2GB /dev/sda4 (extended) /dev/sda5 (ext3, /): 40GB… Continue reading Tales of a full hard drive
I finally played Portal
It was actually among my professional objectives this year to play Portal. So last night I sat down with it for a few hours. It was enjoyable, and short (which was good); and original, which was also good. Well, the portal mechanic is certainly original (counting Portal as the true implementation of Narbacular Drop): the… Continue reading I finally played Portal
GB cyclists dominate the Beijing Olympics…
Adventures with GnuPG
For a couple of years now, I’ve been using GnuPG in my email. But I had a couple of keys out there that were old, and lost, and that I’d forgotten the passphrases for. A while back, I found my old secret keyring (from back in the day when I used PGP rather than GnuPG),… Continue reading Adventures with GnuPG
Quick music recc
Steadman are a UK band who spent some time in California a few years back. They’re the sort of underground band who occasionally pop up in the mainstream media, only recognised by the cognoscenti. They currently have a track (“Come Alive”) being used in a K Mart commercial in the US. And all of their… Continue reading Quick music recc
Periodic (Table) Videos
The University of Nottingham has this excellent page of videos about each element in the periodic table. Educational and fun. And Prof. Martyn Poliakoff has excellent scientist hair.
I moved house
I’ve been mostly offline for the last week as a result of moving house. A week ago Thursday the movers arrived and packed everything up and loaded up a big truck. We had previously packed a few dozen boxes, mainly books. Thursday night we slept on the floor (and various piled up duvets) at our… Continue reading I moved house
Earthquake!
This one (epicentre about 40 miles away) shook us pretty well for about 30 seconds. A few things fell off shelves, light fixtures and projector screens swung about with some violence, and my friend’s go board fell down. No damage or injuries though – thankfully it was fairly mild, although still the strongest and longest… Continue reading Earthquake!