I’ve just got the following in an Email from Andrew Guyton:
Ok, I’ve attached a photo of your guitar. Must admit it doesn’t look very green in the picture, but I can assure you it is.The certificate is coming this Friday, so all being well, I’ll get the guitar on a carrier to you by Tuesday or Wednesday.
And here is said photo:
Click Picture for larger view
OMG! It’s beautiful 🙂 Cancel all appointments next week…
Just bloody right too. Put the torches and pitchforks away folks.
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has responded to complaints that Google’s Street View doesn’t do enough to protect citizens’ privacy by stating that removing Street View would be disproportionate to the relatively small risk of privacy detriment.
More info at: UK rejects privacy group’s gripes about Google Street View – Ars Technica
Not to shabby 🙂
CUPERTINO, California—April 22, 2009—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 second quarter ended March 28, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.4 percent, up from 32.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
I’ve been neglecting my geek muscles way too much lately. It’s time to get back in the game and immerse myself in the new stuff that is hitting the market. Basically do stuff for The Plan minus the Open University stuff which I’ve dropped.
From a infrastructure technology point of view I plan to dive in deep and dirty with:
On the development front I will be reading the small mountain of books I have on:
On a personal front I will be finally studying some mathematics and reading through the huge pile of unread books I have bought over the last year.
Books to read. Click for larger view
This weeks events in Belfast (DevDays and BarCampBelfast) will be a good springboard to get back in the geek game…
This is a timed posting (I’m actually in bed asleep hopefully) to let the world know that I’ve just completed my 45th trip around the magnificent star we call Sol. Go me 🙂
It was 6 years ago today that I had an appointment with a Urologist in the Ulster Hospital to get a check-up for what looked like testicular cancer. It was. Now 6 years later I’m 50% deficient in the bollock department [the other one still works 😉 ] but still here to annoy people. Which is good.
Like most people I get a stupid amount of email in work. Most of it I don’t need (cc’ed to me) or it’s something that could have been addressed by someone coming to talk to me. In the past it was perceived that sending an email was better than going to talk to a person, as you wouldn’t be disturbing them. I think we’ve passed a tipping point. Email is now a burden. I’ve been as guilty in the opposite direction in the emails I’ve sent to people. I recently decided to make a change. This was another of these type of decisions.
I have decided to only send an email in work if I have to. If I need to communicate with someone then I will try to talk to them or use Yammer before emailing. The order of trying to get in touch with people will be:
It’s early days with Yammer use in work but it’s looking good so far. Now if I can get people to stop sending me emails…
I’m not sure Willpower is the correct title for this post. But it’ll do. I recently posted this tweet to my Twitter stream:
To which Bill Cooke replied:
This got me thinking. I tend to make what looks like snap decisions about some things I want to do and once I’ve made such a decision it doesn’t matter what happens. I stick to it. So last week after a few weeks thinking about it my brain just clicked and I decided that I had to start following a more healthy lifestyle. I recognised the feeling I got at the time. It was like a virtual line in the sand and I’ve had the same feelings with other decisions before. For example I stopped smoking in the 1980’s with a similar thought process. I thought about it for about a month then one day I smoked the last cigarette I had and decided that was it. I never smoked again. That was over 20 years ago. Another, more trivial example, comes from when I was playing cricket. I was always a bowler and a joke with the bat. One year I decided that I needed to improve my batting. That year I came 2nd in the 2nd XI batting averages and scored a couple of fifties. There are other examples as well.
It seems that when I make a decision of this type I stick to it. So even if Bill’s comment is true, and to be honest I have had periods of hunger between meals in the last week, it doesn’t matter as I’ll just ignore it. It’s a strange felling and thought process to describe to people. It’s like a binary switch in my brain is flicked when I make one of these decisions and that’s it. I do whatever it takes to bring about what I’ve decided. Does anyone else get this? Does anyone know what I’m describing here (badly describing)? Is this just a manifestation of willpower? I don’t know. I just know that I recognise this type of decision when it happens and can now say for sure that the goal will be achieved. That might sound big-headed. It’s not meant to be.
Interestingly I think there is another thing that I’ve been thinking about for a while that seems to be heading to another decision of this type. It’s quite a profound one as well. Maybe more details in future.
What would be good if I could decide that I want to be a shit hot iPhone developer using this process 🙂 Unfortunately it doesn’t feel the same when thinking about that topic so I don’t think it’s going to happen. I’ll have to just trudge along on that topic.
Happy days. Just upgraded to newer version of WordPress. All seems to be working okay. This post will test the Twitter integration is working as well.
I’ve documented my experience with testicular cancer on this site quite extensively over the last 6 years. Best to read this post first. You’ll need to read the posts from the bottom of the page up to get the right order. I consider myself completely cured of the cancer now. 6 years out 🙂
One aspect of the treatment that I alluded to but never wrote about were the visits to the Fertility clinic to bank sperm before radiotherapy, and the visits to the Ultrasound Department to get the testicles (or testicle after the surgery) scanned.
The fertility clinic visit was funny. In a Leslie Nielsen in “Naked Gun 33⅓” way. I went to the clinic in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. The first shocker during the initial visit was how crowded it was in the waiting room. Literally standing room only for a while. As far as I could see it was all couples undergoing fertility treatment. I’d turned up on my own 😮 It wasn’t even as simple as the changing room being full of couples. The way the reception and waiting room were arranged you couldn’t see the waiting room from the reception window. So I check in. Get told to take a seat in the (very quiet) waiting room. I walk round the curved wall that separated it from the reception, to find the room packed with people. All of them looking at me. I’m sure my face must have looked a picture!
Over time, as I waited couples were called for appointments. At least I got a seat after a while. During the time when the room was emptying I could almost hear the thoughts of the people in the room wondering what a single bloke was doing in the fertility clinic on their own 🙂
When I was called for my appointment I think there was just 5 people left in the room. It started out with about 25 or so. I had my consultation with a female doctor and she outlined how long the sperm would be retained for, how they were stored, what power backup systems they had and stuff. All very interesting. She then passed me over to a male technician. We had a chat and then he gave me a small plastic bottle and directions to The room. I must say that the small circumference of the opening of the bottle wasn’t very helpful for boosting my confidence 😉 The technician told me that there were magazines and videos in the room if I need some inspiration. Giggle.
Of course The Room was up at the end of the corridor. So I had to walk up the corridor carrying the sample bottle. The further up the corridor I got, which was quite busy with people it has to be said, the more obvious it was where I was heading. So I knew and all the others passing and those in side rooms with open doors knew, that I was going into The Room to, not to put to fine a point on it, have a wank into a small bottle!
So I got to The Room. I went in and locked the door behind me. It was a typical sized hospital consulting room with a sink, a hospital trolley bed, a cheap chair and a table with a TV and video player on it. Under the table on a shelf was a couple of storage files with videos and magazines in them. I had a quick look at them. Just to see what they had provided for inspiration 🙂 They were as tacky, both metaphorically and physically as you’d think. I decided I wouldn’t need them.
I won’t go into details (I’ll spare you gentle readers). Suffice it to say I deposited a sample in the bottle. Quite a good sample I thought, that thought would be dashed later, and returned, slightly flushed, to see the technician and give him the bottle. The walk from The Room was the opposite of getting there. This time everyone knew what I had just done! I handed the sample bottle over and after some more admin paperwork was told I was done. I got out of there as fast as possible.
I thought I was done. I was wrong. A few days late the Technician called me on my mobile and told me that the chaps in the sample were healthy and good quality (picture my chest swelling with pride) but (but? there’s a but?), but he was concerned that there wasn’t enough quantity for successful freezing and storage (picture my chest deflating). So he told me I have to come back and provide another sample to top up the previous one. The next day I did. And did the walk to The Room again. At least this time the waiting room was almost empty.
So there it is. My Leslie Nielsen moment. I still have the chaps on ice. Not sure if I’ll ever use them. I’ll write about the Ultrasound Clinic visits later.