WibblyTim's Wibble

2011-07-10T15:37:00.000Z

Photo Gallery online

At long last I am able to put my photos online again. Galleria-Lite is live and I am beginning to upload pictures. The problem I had with multiple uploads has been resolved. I had to limit the pixel and file sizes of photos to enable them.

Galleria-Lite is also available on my website as a download if you want to use it yourself. There are instructions included with the download, they are also available as a separate pdf file.

Enjoy!

Photo Gallery nearly complete

2011-06-25T16:20:00.001Z

I have been able to sort out the problems I had with uploading photos to my online gallery. It turns out that the file size and the physical pixel size was the problem. So I have been able after reducing the pixel size down to 800x600 and the file size down to around 500KBytes or smaller to upload and generate a thumbnail for each photo.

My next job is to use a multi file upload algorithm to choose and upload up to 5 photos at any one time to a gallery. This is in hand and although I have tested it on my local lamp server I haven't tried it yet 'live' on my web hosts server.

Fingers crossed.

Photo Update

2011-06-13T09:33:00.001Z

I have a little local difficulty with the photo gallery I'm writing. On my system it works great with Xampp. I can upload multiple photos and each photo automatically generates a thumbnail. When I upload the lot to my testing area on my web host it falls to pieces. I have adjusted the memory available to each file and for the total upload size available, but to no avail. It seems to be the thumbnail generation that is the problem.

The gallery displays the photos very well and I can create galleries and have them displayed without any problems, it's just the upload that is causing me to jump up and down.

Bugger!

Fotopic problem.

2011-03-21T11:47:00.002Z

Apparently Fotopic's servers are offline so my photo's are not available. As far as I can make out they are down for good.

This could be a problem if I didn't have a solution waiting in the wings. I have written a small photo gallery that I can use instead. It uses Sqlite as a back-end and is written in PHP. I will upload this onto my web space soon and begin to post photos.

Fingers crossed.

This is a Local Shop!

2011-02-04T09:53:00.002Z

Last night we went of to Helston to watch 'The Kings Speech'. Excellent movie by the way and superb performances all round.

The cinema in Helston is small, two screens seating no more than 80 people each. Cosy would be more the word I would use. I booked online at 5p.m. and we turned up at 8 p.m. for the showing. Into Thurleys first for some of their Fish and Chips (complete with mushy peas). Another gem in Helston and well recommended.

If you haven't seen 'The Kings Speech' I urge you to see it. If you have, then you know just what I am posting about.

A nice new suit.

2010-06-30T13:34:00.002Z

Well, there we are, I weakened and bought a new motherboard, CPU, Ram and Graphics card.
No excuses, I looked around and as the prices are coming down I snapped the kit up for a bargain price. An MSI motherboard with an Athlon 64 dual core chip (5000+), 2 GByte of ram and an Nvidia 9500GT card with 1GByte of graphics ram.

My 'old' kit now inhabits my spare (test) machine and is still giving sterling service. I'm still running XP Pro and Vector Linux 6, but as soon as Vector Linux 7 is released with 64 bit support I will install that. Not Windows 7 though, I still do not have more than a handfull of customers using it. No one has it as an upgrade, it's all new systems. The usual teething troubles with it, as usual Microsoft need to release a service pack to fix some of the problems.

Vector runs like a champ on this new system and XP has a noticeable speed increase too.

Yes, I am a happy bunny!

Obama's Rash Comments

2010-06-10T14:24:00.002Z

Once upon a time, not too long ago, a seemingly decent man was elected to "The Most Powerful Elected Office On Earth". After eight years of the planet putting up with "Mad King" George Bush everyone breathed a sigh of relief. "At last", we sighed, "some sanity and a return to good government for our friends across the pond".

How times have changed. In the U.K. we now realise that the President of the U.S.A. is simply an empty suit. Further, he is a bullying gobshite. Accusations of his anti-British bigotry have been around for some time, but over the last few weeks it has become manifest.

B.P. a multinational oil company, (aren't they all?), has found itself in the firing line for the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Quite rightly too. But, Obama's line appears to be that it is all B.P.'s fault, conveniently forgetting the other players directly involved in this drama, Haliburton, Transocean and Cameron. Indeed B.P. are part of a consortium that is paying for the deep water drilling in the G0M. The other two companies are Anardarko (25%) and Mitsui Oil Exploration (10%). Obama has concentrated on the B. in B.P. B as in British. In spite of the fact that the corporation is now only 40% British owned. American investors own 38% of the company. The rest is owned by a diverse number of investors from around the world.

B.P. is the result of the merger of British Petroleum, Amoco, ARCO and Burmah-Castrol, and is essentially no more "British" than Obama!

Lets also state that many pension funds in the U.S.A. and the U.K. have investments in B.P. Threatening the Company so that their share price is depressed, and demanding that they cancel dividend payments is hardly designed to make many of these funds thank Obama.

Obama's ranting about "British" Petroleum, and suggesting ludicrous actions, such as replacing Tony Hayward as CEO, (which he can't do) and demanding that they cancel dividend payments has put many backs up over here, especially when it coincides with the ruling from India about the Bhopal disaster. Union Carbide more or less walked away from Bhopal when at least 3600 people died as a result of their negligence. In the 26 years since a further 25000 people are estimated to have died due to complications from inhaling the toxic fumes.

Not one peep out of Obama about full recompense to the Indians affected by this, not even one suggestion that the Company concerned or their successors (Dow) be held legally responsible or having the executives responsible extradited to India to stand trial for their deadly accident. Is this what we call hypocrisy?

So, what are we to make of Obama now? Is he still the shining star that many people hoped he was. Or is he just another shyster lawyer looking for a way to bolster his popularity in the hope that he will gather enough votes to be re-elected after his so far lack-lustre Presidency? Just another in a long line of morons that seem to be elected by repeating a campaign slogan often enough for it to catch on?

Then we have Congressman Weiner (Hah!!) opening his mouth and putting both legs, never mind feet in it.

A typical Chicago lawyer and a penis, just more empty suits full of accusations, bluster and rhetoric then.

The Emperors New Clothes.

2009-09-07T11:01:00.002Z

The imminent release of Windows 7 (or Vista 7 as some have it) has made me look at my system with a cool eye. As it stands it runs Windows XP Professional well and Vector Linux flies.
I am using an Athlon XP 2.5Ghz CPU and 1GByte of ram, coupled with an NVidia 6200 256MByte graphics card.
Do I need Windows 7? Well, no, I don't.
Do I want it? Again, no, not really.

What I really want to do is buy a load of new hardware; quad core CPU, 8 GByte ram and a 1GByte graphics card!

As an I.T. Technician I should be using the same level of equipment as the majority of my customers. Most of them don't have systems as powerful as my main system, and to be honest most of them won't have Windows 7 any time soon either.

So, put it on hold then. There, that's settled.

Garden Open Day

2009-06-29T08:26:00.002Z

Yesterday in the village we had our garden open day, or rather open afternoon. A few light showers in the morning gave way to some warm and mostly bright weather and we had about 150 people round.

It's very strange having complete strangers look around your garden, it's rare for anyone else but us to poke around the various bits of it. The comments were very complimentary happily. It's nice to know that it is seen as a lovely place, it's what we have tried to create.

And the village raised about £1000 for Cornwall Hospice Care as well.

Well worth the effort, and the Pimms we had after it was all over went down very nicely as well!

On Euro elections and other stuff

2009-06-19T10:19:00.003Z

Aren't we all lucky that the scabrous BNP have gained 2 European Parliament seats after the recent elections. Who the hell votes for these scum?

I know that in a democracy you should respect the wishes of the voters, but when these voters make their mark against the name of a racist who denies that the Holocaust happened you have to ponder the judgement of these same voters. The political pundits and commentators are now claiming that in a General Election they could also gain seats in the Commons. Let's hope that this has just been a protest vote against the main political parties and the voters regain their good sense.

On a lighter note we have a garden open day in the village at the end of this month. Much fretting over plants has been the norm for the last few weeks, especially after the Winter killed most of our tender plants. So Management has been scouring the garden centres for replacements. Lots of replacements.

I'm in the middle of another Open University course at the moment. One module in the Web Applications Development certificate. This one concerns server side application development with vbscript and asp. Not my favourite platforms, however we get into php in a later module.

Throws hat into room. Waits...

2009-04-17T09:57:00.001Z

I am very remiss, all of my good intentions have flown out of the window. Bad Tim.

Since October we have been to Spain to see our good friends Maxine and Pete, Wonderful 10 days and the company just perfect! I have photo's and I will post them when I can get my arse in gear!

Before Easter we took a few days off and spent them in Plymouth. Lovely city and the surrounding moors and countryside brought forth some more photo's. Also, when I get time......

Breath in; Breath out!

2008-10-18T07:40:00.002Z

Yep, still here. Life gets in the way doesn't it?

After a wet summer here in Cornwall we are off in about a week to see our friends in Southern Spain for 10 days. They moved out there a year ago and this will be the first chance to meet up since.

Hopefully, when we get back I will have some decent photo's to post on my web site.

Apart from that the year has been work, work, work. We have also had the driveway at the front of the cottage block paved. That's all of the major work completed now, so we are going to concentrate on getting the garden ready for next year when the village will have an Open Gardens day. The lawn is the first to get 'The Treatment'. We have already scarified, ventilated and sown some new grass seed and the first shoots are coming along well. Next year it should look 100% better than it does now!

NZ South Island Photos

2008-02-13T16:45:00.002Z

Well, I have uploaded some photo's to my Fotopic gallery. I have had to make a very critical choice amongst the 2000 I took but I think they reflect a flavour of the parts of the Island that we visited.

Kitchen Update - The Last

Yes, the kitchen is finished. While we were away the tiles were fitted, shelves erected and the decorating completed. Hooray!

New Zealand Photo's

2008-01-29T16:47:00.001Z

I have uploaded the first batch of my NZ photo's onto my website. These are all of the North Island and are mostly of the area around Rororua, inside Tongariro National Park and down at the southern part of the island.

There will be more to come, including those I took of the South Island.

Mostly Awake, Mostly.

2008-01-21T15:43:00.000Z

After 5 weeks away it's back home to all of the usual crap about the Guv'ment and "The Race For The White House". Kenya is still disturbed and the weather is cold, damp and miserable.

Still, looking on the bright side, I have a lovely tan! And, I am over the jet lag!

I also have some 2000 photo's to sort through. My idea is to sift through and select about 50 representing the highlights of our trip and print them off. I will also put some of them up into my photo pages.

That will keep me busy.

New Zealand here we come!

2007-11-28T10:12:00.000Z

In less than two weeks we are off to NZ. This is a trip we have been planning for about three years now and our departure is beginning to loom large. We will be away for about five weeks and I cannot tell you how excited we are.

We will be travelling around in a motor home for most of the time, although we will be spending Christmas and New Year with Alison's brother Mike and his family in Christchurch. I have arranged to hire a car while we are in Christchurch so we can get out and about.

North Island highlights.

Rotorua, Tongariro, and the wine country.

South Island highlights.

Franz Josef glacier, Milford sound and the high mountains.

I'm sure there will be many more great things to write about when we get back!

I've bought a new camera for the trip, a Fuji FinePix S5700. This is to replace the Minolta Dimage S304 I already have. This Fuji is a lovely piece of kit, 7.1 mega pixels and 10x optical zoom. I have a 1GB XD card for it although it will also take SD cards. I have a 1GB and a couple of 256MB SD cards as well so I should be OK for taking large numbers of photos while we are away. I will also try to burn them onto a disc at Mikes while we are there just to free up space so I can take even more! I have a small USB card reader so that shouldn't be a problem.

Kitchen update.

We are still waiting for the tiles to be laid on the floor and fixed to the wall. We are not expecting this to happen until we return from NZ now. A weary sense of fatalism has descended. On the plus side the new cooker, a Stoves range cooks superbly well. Three ovens, two ceramic hobs and two induction hobs. A vision in Black!

Want to see a picture?

Lovely, eh?

Quote on the subject of travel.

The saying "Getting there is half the fun" became obsolete with the advent of commercial airlines.

Henry J. Tillman.

Let's hope that's not true of AirNewZealand!

Kitchen is GO!!

2007-10-05T17:22:00.000Z

Since my last entry (steady lad!), the kitchen has become operational. Lights, fridge, freezer, dishwasher and oven up and running and water plumbed in. I no longer have to barbecue in the rain or wash up in the bath. I wasn't in the bath at the same time you understand.

What is left to do?

Floor tiles to be laid and the wall tiles to be fixed to the wall. We actually have the wall tiles but they cannot be done until the extractor fan is up and running. Which is another story. We do not have the correct fitments and until we do the electrician cannot sort it out, so the tiles cannot be fixed.

Still, it will be lovely when it's finished. (This mantra is becoming very strained now).

Kitchen Update II

2007-09-04T20:09:00.000Z

We are now just about ready for the kitchen fitters tomorrow. It has been a close run thing as the electrician seems to be running his own timetable instead of ours and we have not seen the plumber that our builder claimed he was organising.

We had to contact the company that changed our boiler over to a combi. Bless them, they promised that one of their engineers would turn up this morning to sort out the pipework in the kitchen and fit the radiator. They were as good as their word, it was done today.

There is nothing in our 'kitchen' at the moment ans we have had to rough it for the last few days with the fridge, freezer, washing machine and microwave filling up the lounge. Along with the contents of much of the cupboards. I had a very satisfying time demolishing the old kitchen fittings and we delivered them to the recycling centre in Helston. Anyone need a flat pack kitchen? I know where you can get one going very cheap!

Screed has been laid on the floor ready for the new kitchen tiles that will be laid when the units have been fitted. The granite worktop will come in a week after the units as will the new range and white goods.

The cornish hedge running alongside the extended kitchen wall has been taken down and is being rebuilt without the concrete that was being used to hold it up.

"Won't be long now" we keep telling each other, fools that we are!

Kitchen Update

2007-08-13T08:26:00.000Z

Our new kitchen extension is coming on nicely. The walls and roof are on as is the stone facing that ensures that it blends in with the rest of the cottage. We wanted a velux window in the roof to give a bit more light and that has been installed as well. The new back door is being installed as I write this.

The new kitchen units are due to be installed on 4th September, so it's all go!

All Change?

2007-07-11T08:01:00.000Z

I was going to write extensively about Gods Prime Minister and his departure but, quite frankly who gives a toss! I mean, has anyone missed him, really?

Stolid Gordon is trying to distance himself from the last 10 years but, he has been Chancellor of the Exchequer all of that time and has always been at the centre of what has been going on in the Government. So as far as I can tell it's business as usual.

Another fine mess.

We have been planning an extension to the kitchen for over a year and this week it has started in earnest. The builders have arrived and footings dug and foundations laid they have started on the walls. To be honest it looks smaller in area than I expected. I suppose that will change once the walls are up and the roof is on. When I consider how much it is all costing what with the new fitted kitchen as well I start to shudder! Never mind, we will just have to keep working until we are 90 instead of 80!

That would be an Ecumenical question.

2007-06-06T19:31:00.000Z

God's Prime Minister is in the country. That makes a change.

Does 'Gay' Gordon seem more or less desirable when this happens?

Take me now Jesus.

Close the door quietly

2007-05-14T12:07:00.000Z

..on your way out.

I’ve held off from commenting on Gods’ Prime Ministers announced departure. I think I will wait until he finally (finally!!) goes in June.

Quick, Hide!

2007-04-06T14:24:00.000Z

Easter has arrived and so have the visiting hordes. Naturally, the standard of driving in Cornwall has plummeted as a result. I’m not sure but I don’t think they believe that we drive on the left as well as the rest of the country, and the speed signs are being completely ignored. You can almost hear the gears grinding slowly in the visitors heads as they try to figure out that driving at 60 mph around a tight bend in one of our lanes is not a good idea. Especially when there is a tractor and vegetable picker attached to it coming the other way. There can only be one winner in those circumstances and it’s not the visitors Audi.

It’s amazing just how many people can be packed into one county if you really try. Cafes, pubs and restaurants that a couple of weeks ago you could just walk into and get a table now need pre-booking, and the supermarkets have empty shelves because the stuff disappears off them faster than they can be restacked. Much of the county’s wealth will be generated between now and the end of September, but for those of us who are not directly dependent on it, it is a real pain in the arse.

Ubuntu Is Magic!

2007-03-28T11:32:00.000Z

I have been using Ubuntu Linux for about a year, dual-booting with MS Windows 2000 on my development computer. At first I used version 5.1 “Breezy Badger”, then moved on to 6.0.6 “Dapper Drake”. I am now using 6.10 “Edgy Eft”, and it is the best experience I have ever had from an operating system. I have Mandriva 2007 installed on my main system dual-booting with XP Pro and I really like that, but Ubuntu is perfect for anyone who would like an easy experience with Linux.

I rarely boot into Windows 2000 now on my development system there is just no need to. All of the development work I do with Object Pascal and Java I can do with Ubuntu. I have Lazarus installed for pascal and Eclipse for Java. Both excellent tools and they just work which is what you need isn’t it?

If you haven’t tried Ubuntu then perhaps you should. It is free, you can download the burnable image from their site or even order it and they will send it to you for free! www.ubuntu.com is where you can get it from. Give it a go.

I have it installed on my laptop as well. No problems, everything recognised on install. No drivers to install and configure, my wireless card worked from the start and I can connect to networks without any trouble. Simple.

One of the great things about it is that you do not have to pay for anything. You have a great range of software freely available to download and install from the repositories that cover almost everything you could want. I will admit that games coverage is a bit patchy at the moment but lets face it gamers are in the minority as far as the total number of computer users are concerned.

I have only paid for one software application for Linux. I have a Canon inkjet printer and Canons attitude towards Linux stinks. They seem to think that if they stick their head in the sand that it will go away. Wrong. So I downloaded a trial version of TurboPrint from www.turboprint.de/english.html because it promised to allow me to use all of the facilities of my i865. It works a treat, even the CD printing. It didn’t cost a great deal, about £20. If Canon would face up to the realities of life as HP have done then I could have saved the money and bought a couple of bottles of wine!

OpenOffice is included on the CD as is Evolution. Google for them to find out more, research is always recommended before you take the plunge. You won’t regret it I haven’t.

Welcome back Tim

2007-03-15T22:46:00.000Z

Welcome back Tim.

My first post since 11th December, how lax chappie.

So, what’s been happening? Work mostly; with Alison I have been helping to put together a teaching resource for very young children. We can’t claim all the credit however, small cogs in a big wheel so to speak. Our job was to find and collate all of the pictures. We also had to write up some of the resources as well. I also designed a parcel label and wrote a few letters from a late 19th century perspective. The things I do for money!

The launch was at the Eden Project here in Cornwall earlier this month and went really well. I can’t tell you how relieved we all were. The package consists of 6, yes count them, 6 CD’s. All of them packed full of teaching tasks and resources.

Well worth the effort.

Eyes Down.

My new course with the OU has started and the first assignment went in today. M360 Developing Internet Applications it is, using Java. Unfortunately, this means that my personal projects using Lazarus are on the back burner, again. Sigh.

I’ll try not to leave so long between posts from now on. No, that is not a resolution.

Bang 'em up.

2006-12-11T16:28:00.000Z

Stop Thief!

My credit card details have been stolen. I have one I use exclusively for my business. I only ever buy equipment with it and suddenly after buying a laptop for one of my customers there were three dodgy transactions on my statement. All of them appear to have been made overseas. Two of them for IT certification and one for an EasyJet flight.

One of the IT certification transactions was made in Singapore Dollars the other in Swiss Francs and the EasyJet flight made in Euros.

Now, I have no idea how my card details came to be misused. I do not let the card out of my sight and it has not been stolen. I only ever use it on secure sites and even when I use it in a retail shop it does not leave my sight.

I will not blame the company who supplied the laptop, after all that was the last transaction I made with it. I don’t think that they can be held responsible for this, even if it was one of their employees. All of my computers have been checked just in case there is a problem; a key logger or some-such nasty. Nothing. The routers firewall is in place and working, the spyware filters are up to date and my anti-virus is also up to date. I can only presume that my card details have been physically recorded by someone and passed on or sold by them.

So, what to do?

Well, the first thing I did was phone the card provider, VirginMoney, and inform them. As soon as I told the person at the end of the phone about transactions I didn’t recognise I was transferred straightaway to their security section. After another short conversation with security they transferred me to their card fraud section.

Another short explanation and my card is now blocked and any further transactions will be flagged as fraudulent. A different card is being issued and my card protection insurance covers everything else.

The thing that I found strange was that the transactions had been cancelled a day after they had been made. The VirginMoney rep told me that they (or whoever) was just making sure that the card was ‘live’ before they hit it for a large amount.

Excellent service from VirginMoney, it’s nice to know that the system works when you need it to.

I just wish I knew who stole my card details so I could wring their neck.

You're confusing me...

2006-12-05T14:38:00.000Z

....with somebody who gives a toss.

For some strange reason there is this twat in West Ham in London who keeps posting Microsoft Vista propaganda on the Mandrake newsgroup, alt.os.linux.Mandrake. Quite apart from the inappropriateness of it, his, (I’m assuming it’s a he), signature is obscene and racist and, if you point this out you are assaulted with the most asinine and brain-dead comments imaginable.

If you follow the link to his blog, (no, I will not print it), you are assaulted by the most sickeningly nationalist and racist views from what I can only suppose is a very ill educated mentally challenged arsehole.

Fortunately, I have added this pathetic wretch to my blocked sender list within the newsreader so I don’t have to put up with him anymore.

He joins one from the Windows XP newsgroup who specialises in belittling anyone who is not as ‘expert’ as this moron is. Another recent PLONK!

Not everyone on these newsgroups is like this fortunately, most of the contributors are happy to help out with advice when they can.

Blockers sender lists are very useful; I have started using mine more and more. It’s growing at a healthy rate!

I Know Cos I Was There

2006-11-22T12:22:00.000Z

Boyhood Memory #1

One of the favourite memories I have is of Mum, my younger brother Dave and me going blackberry picking in the woods that were fairly close to where we lived in Leigh Park outside of Portsmouth. I was around nine at the time and Dave was seven. We’d have a picnic with us and would set off to walk the mile or so. It always seemed a great adventure, setting off only Mum knew where armed with sticks to pull down the blackberry stems to get at the fruit...

The woods were full of great clumps of blackberry bushes. We’d start to pick the moment we arrived, filling the small containers we had again and again and seeing the basket that Mum carried starting to groan under the weight!

Like other small children our attention shifted after a while and we would find hidey holes and makeshift dens in the woods and pretend to be Pirates seeking treasure or Cowboys and Indians. But we always came back to the blackberries. After a while, it seemed at the time like hours but could only have been about one, we had lunch.
After lunch more picking and then home again. Then the transformation from fruit to jam. I cannot tell you how good it tasted, could that possibly be the haze of time passing? I don’t care if it is, but on toast it tasted like manna.

The woods aren’t there any more; they have been turned into a supermarket and car-park. So jam is still available, you just can’t make your own there.

I looked at Multimap for my old primary school and that’s not there any more either. More houses, more people.

It was Stockheath County Primary School if anyone’s interested and I was there from 1961 to 1968. I recall that the head teacher was Mr. White, but I can’t for the life of me remember who my teachers were!

Rant #1

2006-10-12T18:38:00.000Z

You Know.

Have you noticed how often the Blessed Tony says ‘you know’ answering questions and delivering speeches? This is one of the most irritating verbal affectations I can think of. No, I don’t know, that’s why I’m waiting for you to tell me, Tony. So, get on with it you moron.

Don’t fence me in

Mad ‘King’ George seems very keen on the fence that is being built on the border between the U.S.A and Mexico. That will keep all of those nasty terrorists out, won’t it George? How long will it be before America’s economy suffers as all of that fruit rots in the fields because the pickers are on the other side of the fence, or all of those families have to do their own laundry or cut their own grass. The Mexican labour force that constitutes America’s ‘grey labour market’ performs a valuable service that it seems that most Americans, in common with most Britons it must be said, will not do any more.

Here in Cornwall the farmers depend on East European workers coming here to pick the produce and flowers that the South West’s economy is partly dependent on. The other mainstay of course is tourism, which is again mostly low paid. Vegetable picking is paid at the minimum rate possible and of course most of us are far too important to stoop that low. Some of us would far rather claim the benefits that are our right. After all if you have paid in you should get some back, shouldn’t you? A problem emerges when the lazy tired bastards have never worked and still claim benefits as their right.

The only right I’d give them is the right to work or starve.

Half a Ton

2006-10-03T20:48:00.000Z

I am 16 going on 17…

I have now reached a point in life that my mother never thought I would. I am 50. Mind you, my mother insisted that I would never reach 8 if I didn’t start behaving myself!

It’s strange, I don’t really know what 50 is supposed to feel like, probably not how I do feel, not 50 anyway. More like 12, with a sense of responsibility. Shame really, but that’s how it is when you are the oldest sibling. Bugger.

So, what did you get for your birthday, Tim?

I’m so glad you asked me that. I got a 19inch TFT screen for my computer and the complete collectors edition of the ‘Sharpe’ DVD’s. If you don’t know ‘Sharpe’ shame on you. Bernard Cornwell, the author of the books has given programme makers a gem to work with and Sean Bean who plays Sharpe brings him to life. They are great rollicking adventures set during the Napoleonic Wars in Spain and France. I love ‘em.

Things seen written on Mugs.

‘I’m awake and dressed, what more do you want.’

Great sigh of relief.

2006-09-24T10:32:00.000Z

The Party’s Over.

After a struggle I have finally finished my O.U. course. The final part was to research and write a report on WiMAX. I will leave it to you, if you are interested of course, to find out what WiMAX is! Actually, that was just the first of three questions. The other two were allied to the first in as much as they were designed to find out how you had researched the material and organised yourself for the report.

I had to submit the end of course assignment it by noon on Friday 22nd September. Thursday evening I went through the last revision of the assignment and decided to wait until Friday morning before I sent it off over the Open University’s online submission web site. I thought that I would give it a final read through just to make sure it read properly.

I woke up Friday morning to a power cut!! SHIT!!! Thursday evening we had the tail end of hurricane Gordon whip through Cornwall, by then it was just a severe gale but still…

I was beginning to think that I would have to phone my tutor and tell him what was happening and ask for an extension when there was a glimmer of light. That’s all there was, we had power but it wasn’t full power. Fortunately, by nine thirty the power was back up to normal and I could submit the assignment. I forgot about the final read through and simply sent the thing, just in case the power went off again. Phew.

So that’s that, no more studying until next year when I will start another course. One more step towards the BSc I hope.

Empire Building

I have started a blog about Lazarus, the open source pascal based RAD. You can get to it either by viewing my profile and clicking on the link there, or just clicking here. There’s not much there at the moment, but I have plans!

Place head between your knees..

2006-08-10T17:04:00.000Z

…and kiss your arse goodbye!

It’s no wonder that the Blessed Tony has been looking fraught for the last few days, what with the discovery of a plot to destroy up to 10 transatlantic planes with liquid explosive. He, and unfortunately the rest of us, is paying the price of cosying up to Mad ‘King’ George and his coterie of oil liars. The idiot still seems to believe that there are large caches of WMD’s buried in the deserts of Iraq.

Or maybe they were spirited across the border into Iraq’s’ of friend and ally Iran. Yeah, right!

Sleep, perchance to dream…

I think that I am going to leave my programming project ‘The Cluster War’ in its present state of limbo. My attention is directed elsewhere for the foreseeable future, into the area of databases to be precise. I have been able to install the TDbf component into Lazarus and Delphi and it works really well in both RAD’s. So, ‘The Cluster War’ has to go. I will still leave it on my web site so that if anyone wants to they can download it and play around with it. It is completely Open Sourced. Maybe sometime in the future I will have another go.

Sleepers awake!

Meanwhile, I have started a project that is intended to be able to design Dbase III and IV databases. There are differences in Lazarus and Delphi in the implementation of TDbf, nothing major but it does entail a slightly different approach to the applications design.

More later.

Business as Usual

2006-08-08T11:21:00.000Z

Ignorance is Strength.

The B.B.C. news is reporting that a potential resolution in the U.N. could bring an end to the fighting in southern Lebanon. Not while the military is in charge in Israel and Hezbollah fighters run much of Lebanon it won’t. There is a weak government in Lebanon and a weak government in Israel. While this situation continues the bloodthirsty murderers on both sides will continue to kill innocent civilians.

The Blessed Tony, Gods Prime Minister whimpers ineffectively on the sidelines about how complicated the situation is and how an immediate ceasefire is not practical.

Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to send billions of dollars worth of weapons in ‘aid’ to Israel and Iran/Syria continues to send weapons ‘aid’ to Hezbollah.

Politics, the dirtiest game in town.

Makes you sick, doesn’t it?

Nosh.

In about a week we are going to be inundated with tomatoes. We are growing two varieties this year, Gardeners Delight and Alicante. The Gardeners Delight are ripening very quickly and the taste is superb. The Alicante are just starting to ripen and before too long I will have to start thinking about pasta sauce and chutney.

We are also growing Bell Peppers in the greenhouse. They are fairly small though the taste of the two we have been able to pick is very sweet.

Add to these are the French Beans, Runner Beans and the Courgettes we are harvesting now and it all looks bloomin’ marvellous!

Hello Scott!!!!

2006-08-07T13:27:00.000Z

Lemmings.

Every weekend in the summer it’s the same. At 10.00am the roads out of Cornwall fill up with visitors returning home after their holiday. They match the cars coming into Cornwall packed with visitors starting their holiday. They always join the madness at the same time, there appears to be no idea going through their heads that everyone else is doing exactly the same as they are.

Nine mile tailbacks on the county’s roads are not uncommon; a traffic report recently quoted a 13 mile tailback of traffic trying to get down here.

We always leave very early or late. I only got stuck once, that was enough. Alison left on Sunday to go to her parents at 5.00am. No traffic to speak of and a steady drive to Derbyshire.

The county’s visitors could leave later in the day; the queues disappear in the mid-afternoon. But where would the fun be in that. After all, they are on holiday. So the overheating cars, fractious children and arguing parents remain a feature of Cornwall, a lasting testament to the legacy of pasties, clotted cream and 2 weeks of basting under the sun.

Knucklehead.

I’ve annoyed someone with my comments about Cuba. Far too many people take the crap I write seriously. I don’t, which is why I vent off whenever I feel like it.

That’s most of the time!!!

Random Thoughts From Abroad

2006-08-06T19:24:00.000Z

Such Charming People.

Fidel Castro lies in a Hospital bed with internal bleeding and the so-call Cuban ‘exiles’ exult.

The Cuban ‘exiles’, isn’t that a lovely term. It makes you think of poor suffering people driven from their homeland by a bestial regime. Which isn’t the case. These ‘exiles’ made a conscious decision to leave a country with the worlds highest rate of child literacy and healthcare for ‘The Land Of The Free etc’. The Land that has devalued personal values and undermined Freedom and Democracy around the world to such an extent that the world looks with contempt upon America.

This is such a shame, America wants to be a bastion, a guarantor of Democracy and yet it cannot guarantee food and shelter for its own people.

So who has it right? Poor Cuba with its high level of literacy and healthcare, or the good old U.S of A. with its appalling record of human rights violations and flawed election results?

Discuss.

Thinking Time.

Alison is away at her parents for most of the week so I am getting on with my O.U. course. The next tutor marked assignment is due to be delivered in 9 days time so I had better get on with it!

Contacts News

2006-07-31T09:30:00.000Z

Contacts Database Update 2

After some advice I have uploaded a slimmed down version of Contacts Database for Windows. I have taken out the unnecessary compiled files and left the project files plus the binary executable and database and report template files. It has reduced the size down a bit. The whole thing fits on a floppy disk!

Whoops!!!

2006-07-28T13:52:00.000Z

Contact Database Update

After someone commented about a file not present in the Linux binary download I have uploaded the archive again. This time the missing file, the LazReport layout framework is there!

Sorry about that.

Disgusted of Cornwall

2006-07-27T17:16:00.000Z

Craven Coward

The Blessed Tony, Gods Prime Minister really is a gutless tosser. It appears that he cannot fart without ‘King’ Georges’ permission. He looks increasingly like a lapdog. If only we had a government that had the guts to tell that neo-fascist Bush where to get off. While the Israeli government attempts genocide in Lebanon our poodle of a Prime Minister dances to Bush’s tune.

WHAT A WANKER. WHY WON’T HE JUST FUCK OFF!

Software News.

I have uploaded on to my website www.wibblytim.co.uk a version of the Address Book application that is supplied with Lazarus. There are downloads for Windows and Linux. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think.

Mental Dribbling

2006-07-02T17:09:00.000Z

Misplaced Optimism.

There is far too much enjoyment going on in the Conservative Party these days. Why? Good question. The latest by-election results don’t show them as a really credible opposition and the Dear Leader, David Cameron, or DC as his claque call him comes across as a smug git. The Blessed Tony, God’s Prime Minister is on his way out, it’s just a matter of time before Dour Gordon receives the baton.

Won’t that be a Happy Day for us all? No!

The Real News.

I would like to report that I have made progress with my programming projects, but I haven’t. Not because I can’t see the way forward, but because the O.U. course I am on is taking up much of my spare time. It ends on September 22nd so then it’s full steam ahead towards the rocks!!

Playing Catchup

2006-06-04T19:07:00.000Z

Waiting is...

So after the rain comes blistering sunshine.. am I never happy?

NO! I am a grumpy old man and I like being full of shit!

We're looking at watering the garden now, after all that rain.

Cardiff.

We spent a few days in Cardiff recently, I haven't been there for about 6 years. What a difference. The city centre has been spruced up and the Cardiff bay area has been gentrified. Cafes, restaurants and parks everywhere instead of the quite frankly run down aspect there was before. I managed to take some half decent photos and will post them when I get some spare time.

It's still BLOODY RAINING!

2006-05-26T16:46:00.000Z

When will it ever stop. Bloody rain. This is supposed to be May.

I'm not going out there.

2006-05-19T11:04:00.000Z

Return the Compliment

Dell keep trying to sell me a computer. Up until now I have restrained myself from sending them my brochure offering to sell them a system. It will have a higher spec than theirs and will cost the same. So there!!

Drip, Drip, Deluge...

Just what is happening to May. We've had rain and gale force winds here in Cornwall for the last week. I'm trying to get out and BBQ but no chance. What the hell am I supposed to do with the kebabs sitting in the freezer. I ask you!

Just passing the time...

2006-05-16T19:22:00.000Z

No Thank You

For some reason there are companies in this country that think our cottage is for rent during the summer. It's NOT!!! We keep getting directed mail asking whether we are getting full value from it and offering to list it. These mailings go directly into the recycling bag. We live in our cottage, it is not a second/holiday home and it is not for rent.

Maybe it's because we live in Cornwall, maybe it's because we live in a traditional granite cottage, maybe it's because they are a bunch of brain-dead tossers.

Where do they think we will live? In a tent in the garden?

The Wanderer returns.

Alison comes home tomorrow, she's been 'up country' in the Midlands for the past 10 days. I suppose I shall have to tidy my papers up in the office now. sigh!

I don't really mean that, I have missed her a lot, I have been talking to myself even more than usual. Now I shall again have someone to bounce my moronic opinions off!

Summer is a'cummin in!

2006-05-01T13:05:00.000Z

Tis a’Maying Time!!

For a long time we’ve had to put up with Trades Unions kidnapping May day celebrations. It’s now time to take it back. May Day is and should be a time to celebrate life and for us to look forward to the long summer days.

Let’s do it!

Software News.

I have uploaded on to my web site www.wibblytim.co.uk the first Beta of a little war game, ‘The War of the Shires’. It’s playable but not complete by any stretch of the imagination. Written with Lazarus for both Windows and Linux you can get the binary’s and source for free. Try it if you want and let me know how it plays on your computer.

The other programme I have on the site, ‘The Cluster War’ is still being rewritten. I have abandoned trying to use SQLite, it just won’t do what I want it too. Perhaps it’s just me… I’m going back to a previous idea I had, hopefully it won’t be too long before the next beta version will be uploaded.

Quote of the Day.

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

Sir Winston Churchill.

Boing!!

2006-03-17T17:38:00.000Z

Spring has sprung.

Daffodils, Crocus, Hyacinth, Primroses, Camellias and Hellebores are in full flower in the garden. The Bluebells is starting to make a leafy appearance and there are amorous Toads and Newts in the pond. The local Blackbirds and Doves are nest building like crazy, and we can hear the colony of bats in our roof moving around.

Great, isn’t it?

Programme update

Yes I am still working on my programming projects; its just that time has been slipping through my fingers lately.

Quote of the day

The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, 'In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!'

John F. Kennedy

2006-02-15T14:07:00.000Z

Update

Yes, I know it's been two weeks but....

Programmes

The Cluster War is undergoing a major rewrite, and as a part of it I am experimenting with SQLite databases in Delphi. I am starting with a smaller project that will use a smaller number of tables within it. It is called The War of the Shires and the first fruits will be posted on my web site shortly. Well, as shortly as I can make it!

Apologies

This is only a short post, but I'm busy!

Hush, Hush, whisper who dares..

2006-02-01T18:24:00.000Z

Isn’t Democracy Great?!

Cindy Sheehan, the Mother of a killed American Serviceman in Iraq has been arrested and ejected from the U.S. Senate because she wore a tee shirt that pointed out that 2245 American Service personnel have been killed in Iraq since the start of the latest invasion and occupation of that sad country.

Apparently, it is now illegal to protest in the USA as well as Britain about this situation. If you do you (we) risk arrest and imprisonment as a dangerous fanatic, much like the Catholics were seen in the Elizabethan age. How long will it be before the Blessed Tony, Gods own Prime Minister organises his own army of informers that will spy on us and work with the gangs of thugs who will make the dissenters ‘disappear’.

In case you aren’t aware of it the death toll of British Service personnel in Iraq now stands at 100 and counting…

And still the carnage continues unabated.

Thought for Today.

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it and then misapplying the wrong remedies.

Groucho Marx.

Looks like a Pear

2006-01-16T00:40:00.000Z

New Balls Please!

The Cluster War, my programming project is having a major revamp. I have decided to change it around and use a SQLite database to save all of the game information. I will possibly use two SQLite databases, one for the structures and one for the game variables.

Onwards, ever onwards.

I can see clearly now.

The new Toshiba LCD digital TV has arrived and has been installed. What a difference it is to our previous set. Wide screen and stereo sound makes even the biggest pile of crap seem palatable, although I still can't watch The Blessed Tony, Gods Prime Minister withour retching!!

Ned Ludd had it right.

2006-01-12T02:31:00.000Z

Isn’t technology great?

The TV packed up yesterday. We have (had!) a TV/Video combo and while we were watching our The Mummy vid it decided to call it a day or lifetime rather!

Yes the Curse of the Mummy strikes again!!!!!

This is our excuse to buy an LCD TV. We have bought a 20inch Toshiba widescreen from Amazon.co.uk. Hopefully it will arrive soon so that I can get a further dose of mind numbing propaganda from the world’s media.

The Gauntanamo Bay shit hole.

If you want to know what exactly was and is going on inside Gauntanamo Bay detention centre then you need to read former Sgt. Eric Saar and Viveca Novak’s book ‘Inside the Wire’.

This startling expose rips the USA’s pretensions to civilised behaviour apart. Interrogators deliberately sexually taunted prisoners and made them believe that they were ‘unclean’ so that they would not be able to pray. Mind games and other disturbing practices were played on prisoners that turned out to be ineffective and even counter-productive.

The sooner this torture establishment is closed down the better, not simply for the prisoners but also for the USA itself. This place demeans America.

Strine Plonk!!

I’ll tell you this much, this Australian Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz wine is very good, even after one and a half bottles!

Breath Deep and Calm Down You Fool!!!

2006-01-08T18:39:00.000Z

Unrepentant!

I have calmed down a bit since I posted yesterday, but I am still annoyed about what they have done to Charlie Kennedy. So there!

Running to Stand Still

The first of the modules have arrived for my next Open University course have arrived so I have been looking at the start of the course with wide eyed curiousity. T209 starts at the end of January so I will have even less time to attempt to complete the next update to my game 'The Cluster war'. Sigh.

Best wishes Charlie Kennedy

2006-01-07T17:55:00.000Z

Scum

Well the scabrous, mealy-mouthed, back-stabbing vermin have succeeded in betraying Charlie Kennedy haven’t they? They must be really proud of themselves today, the scum. The Lib-Dem’s were the only party I felt that I could vote for and over the last few days they have destroyed any faith I had in them. I have not heard one voice from his MP ‘colleagues’ raised in support. What the party members must feel today I don’t know, but, if I were a LD MP I would be very anxious today.

Charles Kennedy always seemed to me to be the most honest and upfront person, if he liked a drink what of it. Winston Churchill led us through most of WWII ‘not fit to drive a car’ as I heard one reporter say on the radio today.

Good luck to you Charlie, many of us regard you as a decent man with human failings, as have we all, even the back-stabbing MP bastards.

Bah, Humbug

2005-12-22T16:41:00.000Z

Deck the Halls…..

At last the season of Peace and Goodwill is upon us and we are all thinking good thoughts towards our fellow Man, aren’t we?

Well no, not really, especially if the bastards in the supermarket queues keep trying to run their trolleys up my legs.

There I was idly attempting to fill our small trolley with stuff and other comestibles and somebody’s granny tries to kill me. I gave her the look and she backed off. Lucky her!

This was followed by the mother from Hell with attached demons who is trying to empty the shelves of every item of food with convenience printed on the packaging.

I just love the way they scream at their kids, I would have liked to believe that it was the stress of the rapidly approaching holiday but… I think that she can only communicate to them through contorted facial expressions and obscenities. What hope do these poor little kids have if all they receive at home are demands to ‘leave it’ and ‘come ‘ere you little bastard’.

I view Christmas with the same offhand attitude I have for Easter. They are Religious festivals and as I am an atheist I see no reason why I should make any effort. The Christians expropriated the old Anglo-Saxon Eastre fertility festival as well as Yuletide, the festival to celebrate the turning of the year. I prefer New Year, and this year we will be with friends in Dawlish, Devon to celebrate.

Have a cool Yule!!

Humour for Today

In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukkah' and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukkah!' or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall!'

Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"

Bits and Bytes

2005-12-13T18:10:00.000Z

Stand by for Blast Off!

I don’t seem to have made any progress with my programming project ‘The Cluster War’ for the last month. It’s because I’m stuck on the save game / load game routines.

I have figured out what needs to be saved, it’s just a question of how to get the data back in to the class instances in a suitably run-able form. The problem appears to be that I have to initialise instances of the classes all over again before the saved data can be loaded in.

Perhaps I should go back to first principles and force the whole program to behave as if it has just been executed. It’s worth a try anyway.

Watch this space.

Fiddle, Fiddle, Fiddle!!

I have overhauled my laptop in the last few days. I use it partly as a showcase for open-source and freeware programs to show my customers. It’s amazing how many of them are stuck in the ‘Must Buy Microsoft Products’ groove when there are so many free alternatives out there.

A good example is OpenOffice. Version 2 has been released and is a great advance over the previous versions. There is a great database program integrated in it as well. People are stunned when they see just how powerful the suite is.

Another example, in the word processor arena is Abiword. Everything you need is in there or is available as a downloadable plug-in from their site.

Ally these with Firefox browser and Thunderbird email programs and you have a powerful argument for the FLOSS movement.

I had decided to dual boot the laptop with a Linux distro so I wiped everything off the hard drive and started again from scratch. Quite a few of my clients are interested in Linux so I thought that I should be able to show them what it is capable of.

I repartitioned the drive in 2 and reinstalled Windows 2000 in the C partition and then installed Ubuntu Linux into the other half. This is the latest Ubuntu distro, 5.10 (Breezy Badger).

The Windows installation was as you would expect, everything in and drivers loaded, restart after restart!!

Ubuntu was much easier, I just confirmed the defaults for everything and it partitioned the allocated space for itself, formatted and installed. Once everything was in the laptop restarted and up came Ubuntu’s logo. Sound works well and it has no problems picking up my memory stick. After I connected the laptop to my network I told it to find the software repositories and download any updates that were available. No problem. No need for a restart either. Lovely.

Humour for Today

‘To Start Press Any Key’. Where’s the ANY key? I see Esk, Catarl, and Pig-Up. There doesn’t seem to be any ANY key. Woo! All this computer hacking is making me thirsty. I think I’ll order a TAB.

Homer Simpson.

Break out the Bubbly!!!

2005-12-05T17:44:00.000Z

Hypocrites!!

So now the Bush administration has decided to send terror suspects off-shore so that they can be ‘rendered’, politico-speak for tortured by specialists outside USA sovereign territory. Out of sight, out of mind!!
Golly, I’m so glad I’m not an American citizen; think how proud I would be right now.

Condoleezza Rice the freedom loving and morally self-righteous Secretary of State reckons that it is not illegal. Is it not? How about immoral and inhuman, that sounds about right. They will undoubtedly claim, correctly, that they did not come up with ‘rendition’, true enough that was the Clinton administration, but, was the original intention this perversion? I doubt it.

Apparently the war on terror justifies any action; descending through the floor of the sewer to the level of the Nazis is not justified. It smacks of a bunch of sociopath losers grasping at any straw to steal a march on their opponents.

The sooner the world is rid of Mad George and his gang of thugs and psychos the better.

Huge sigh of relief!!

At long last the renovation work in the cottage is finished. We bade farewell to the builder two Wednesdays ago; he was apologetic that it had taken longer than originally planned but, he has done a superb job. It’s turned out just how we pictured it when we approached him to do the job.
He ended up doing the decorating as well; neither Alison nor I had the time available to do it. The new carpet came in on the following Friday and the new easy chair and settee the Thursday after that. Of course some of our furniture doesn’t fit any more so we have to buy some more!! It’s a small price to pay for such a lovely room though, it’s amazing how much roomier the cottage feels now.

As I write this a new shed is being assembled at the top of the garden, I have had to stay in this afternoon instead of going out to promote myself around the district. Never mind it’s all in a good cause!

Quote for today

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

Abraham Lincoln

A Long View!

2005-11-29T20:58:00.000Z

A Load of Hot Air

Over the last few years it has become increasingly obvious that there will be a gap between the electricity we can generate and its demand level. By 2030 all but 1 of the current generation of coal and nuclear electricity generating stations will have to be decommissioned. Some people seem to think that renewable energy will fill this gap. I think that they are living in a fool’s paradise.

I would like to believe that wind and sea power could fill the energy gap we will have but, and this is a big but, I believe that the level of energy demand will grow rather than shrink. This will lead to a catastrophe if we do not bite the bullet and make a difficult decision. Nuclear power generation I believe is the way we must go. Not an easy decision for any one considering the connotations that go with the fuel. Deaths heads spring to mind as well as a spoiled landscape filled with diseased life-forms!!! However if we look at it sensibly the benefits should be obvious. Lower levels of carbon emissions and a cleaner environment are merely the tip of the iceberg.

The proponents of wind and tidal power generation ignore a major obstruction to their proposals; the environmental clutter that will be an inevitable consequence of their policy. People will oppose the positioning of wind farms and tidal barrages wherever they are sited. Environmental groups and residents of the communities affected will be up in arms and will organise major campaigns to oppose the siting of any of these ‘environmental benefits’ in their communities. As we have seen over the last few years there are few politicians with the guts to oppose these campaigns, especially as they could lose their lucrative commons seats!!

There are those that propose we build more gas fired power stations, I think that this will lead to a potential blackmail situation from foreign agencies as we become more and more dependant on imported gas. Then there are those who look at the financial cost of any new nuclear stations and claim that they will not be financially viable. These people forget that there factors that should ignore financial bottom lines, especially if climate change continues, as seems likely.

No, nuclear power generation is the way to go.

Humour for today

Q : Why are lawyers like nuclear weapons?
A : If one side has one, the other side has to get one. Once launched, they cannot be recalled. When they land, they screw up everything forever.

Relative Happiness

2005-11-17T22:55:00.000Z

Oooh, I haven’t posted in a week, shame on me.

I’ve been pretty busy over the last week, that’s why I haven’t posted. Work has been coming in and the cottage is in the painting stage. It’s nearly finished, happily. Oh, yes, I met my long lost Aunt for the first time!

My Dads family have always been pretty fragmented as I’ve explained in a previous post. In January of this year my brother Dave phoned me and told me that he had received a letter from Dads younger sister, Sheila. She felt that it was time she discovered more about her family. How she found Daves address I don’t know, however…

He gave me her phone number. I phoned her and we chatted for a while. A short while ago she announced that she and her husband Jim were coming down to Cornwall on a 5 day ‘Turkey and Tinsel’ coach trip. We arranged to meet.

Yesterday Alison and I went to Newquay to meet them. I can’t say that I was nervous; long lost relatives don’t come along that often, but I was more curious than nervous. We went to the Headland hotel for lunch.

Family photos were shown round and stories told to fill in the gaps of our lives. She has been over to Guernsey to see Dads younger brother Michael with her daughter Lisa. Jim is obviously concerned about all of this, natural I suppose, though he shouldn’t be; we are not about to take over their lives.

Sheila told me more about Grandma after the break-up of the marriage and I told her about Granddad’s life up until he died.

So, at about 3 o’clock I dropped them back at their hotel, we said our goodbyes and that was that. This reads as rather clinical I know, but I’m trying not to let emotion get in the way of explanation.

What will happen next, (if anything), I don’t know. Probably just the exchange of Christmas cards and the odd letter I expect. Fair enough. I can deal with that.

Quote for Today

True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

Humpty, Dumpty had a great fall

2005-11-10T23:39:00.000Z

A good stiff kick in the goolies!

I am really amused by the reaction of Government Ministers to their defeat over the 90 day detention vote in the Commons yesterday. Charles Clark on the BBC’s Today radio programme this morning wriggled and evaded about the decision to stick to the 90 days.

John Humphreys, who can focus on the trivial at times, pushed him to say whose decision it was, apparently it was Clark’s advice to the Blessed Tony that they should stay on course, not that he needed convincing of this. Clark did this after taking soundings from Labour back-benchers; they told him that they backed the Governments stance.

You don’t think they told him what he wanted to hear, do you? And then went off and voted according to their consciences.

My word, they have developed backbones!

Gordon ‘Smiler’ Brown rushed back from Israel where he is telling the Israeli’s and Palestinians how to cock up an economy, (as if they need help there!), finally, (grudgingly), come out as a Blairite and backed God’s Own Prime Ministers stance. We knew this anyway of course, but it’s always good to hear it from the horses’ mouth.

All Systems go.

My new motherboard is installed and everything is back up and running. I don’t know why people make such a fuss about opening the case and fiddling with the bits inside. Oh I don’t know though. I’m glad they don’t, it’s how I make my living!

Quote for Today

Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything.
Frank Dane

I've got my MoBo working, NOT!

2005-11-08T20:19:00.000Z

New Board Please.

The motherboard on my main system died last night. I have had it 2 years and it had been trouble free up to Sunday evening. I started to get random blocky patches on the screen and it locked up once or twice. Alarm bells sounded quite loudly. I put it down initially to a failing graphics card. I rebooted and it seemed to be OK. Fortunately I have a spare graphics card, a Geforce2 I’ve had for about 2 years. The system locked up completely last night and even after rebooting there was nothing, no POST even. So I took it apart and swapped the graphic card over, no joy. Then I tried the RAM. I swapped the 2 modules around (I have 1 gig in 2 modules), still no prize. I put the original graphics card back in and fired her up one last time just to be sure. Bugger me, if she didn’t start up and load the OS. I left it for 5 minutes and bang!! Lockup again. I rebooted and nothing!! New MoBo please!!

I’ll scream and scream until I’m sick!

Tony Blair really is just a spoilt, selfish, petulant brat. He says we are all soft on terrorism if we don’t bring in the 90 day interrogation period. No-one is soft on terrorism in Britain; we have had too much experience of terrorist attacks for that stupid allegation to stick. His own Home Secretary, Charles Clark seems to be prepared to accept a shorter period, but no, whiny Tony stamps his foot and starts name-calling. What a brain dead twat he is.

Just point the finger.

It rained for most of the day and didn’t get properly light. Then it got dark, or darker than it had been during the supposed daylight hours. For the couple of weeks we have had one gale after another come sweeping up the Western Approaches. I blame that fuckwit Bush and his loony non-environmental policies!

Quote for today.

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.

Groucho Marx.

Let's just throw away the keys!!

2005-11-07T23:16:00.000Z

Bring back the thumbscrews, they say!

For the Government, incarcerating anyone for 90 days without charge seems to be a natural way forward in ‘The War Against Terror’. You would think that our Prime Minister, the Blessed Tony would know better than this seeing as he is a lawyer. (Stop that hissing at the back!).

But no, apparently its fine to keep anyone locked up for this length of time just so that the police can root out any evidence against them. It’s no wonder that civil liberties groups and supporters of judicial jurisprudence are up in arms over this issue.

Now, I have no problem with locking up genuine terror suspects while they are being investigated, but wouldn’t it make more sense for a judge to review the evidence that is gathered in these cases and then grant an extension of custody after 30 days. This extension would last for another 30 days, and so on until either the evidence was sufficient to prosecute the suspect, or, there was no evidence to do so and the suspect would then be released. Though I write that last through gritted teeth, how long do you need to hold someone until you are sure there is no evidence against them?

For Tony Blair this appears to be another of his lines drawn in the sand. There seems to be no limit to his stupidity; this is just one more reason why I for one have had enough of this moronic Prime Minister.

It really is time for him to come down from his ivory tower in Cloud Cuckoo Land and go away. Hopefully he’ll take the rest of his motley crew with him!

Let’s Twist again.

Alison is in Indianapolis this week. She is part of a team inspecting a KIPP school. The Knowledge is Power Program is designed so that children in deprived areas of the USA can attain an education that will allow them to go to college. Anyway, it has been reported on the BBC web site that tornadoes have caused a great deal of damage to the southern parts of Indiana. Fortunately, Alison is some way to the north of there. She phoned me and said that they did have a lot of rain and it was very windy but there was nothing twisting in the breeze!

Just reach in and squeeze.

My back played up over the weekend, again. I wanted to get out and take photos of what is left of the autumn colour, but…

It does this when I least want it to. I was fine on Friday, but when I woke up on Saturday morning I crawled out of bed and felt crippled until the Ibuprofen started to take effect. Sunday was better, just.

I have been through this cycle for 4 years now. It started when I was in WestCountry Ambulance Services; a heavy patient (240 lbs) shifted her weight when my crew mate and I were lifting her out of our vehicle. I had 2 spells off work until August 2002. Then I went off sick and didn’t go back. It’s not much fun watching your wife doing all of the manual work around the house and garden, it leads to depression and anger.

I underwent a long course of physiotherapy at the local hospital, involving hot packs, cold packs, manipulation, ultrasound and acupuncture over the course of 16 months. It was the acupuncture that really got me back on the road to some kind of normality. If it is suggested to you that you try it, give it a go.

Happily, I’m back to my normal ‘glass half full’ sunny disposition, (You believe me, don’t you?), where everything the authorities say I believe, and every day is just another opportunity to work much harder so that I can pay more in taxes to fuel The Blessed Tony’s megalomaniac ambition.

Cluster war Update.

I’m working towards Beta release 0.1.0. a significant milestone. This will have changing systems when you control them and a simple save/load game procedure.

Quote for Today.

True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice.

Ben Jonson.

The Dizzy Heights

2005-11-03T21:31:00.000Z

Standing on the precipice looking down…

Much of what we take for granted is false; whether it is economic prosperity or our civil safety.

Our present prosperity is built on removing raw material from ‘The Third World’, transporting it to ‘The Developing World’ where it is processed and manufactured, and finally importing these goods into our domestic supply chain for us to consume and enjoy.

While we do this the citizens of ‘The Third World’ exist in the most excruciating poverty, millions of children in Bangladesh for example work seven days a week for the equivalent of 25 pence a day. They have no schooling, and no hope of a decent quality of life. Without the money they earn their families would starve. This desperate existence has been the lot of millions of people for decades. Read the worst nightmares that Charles Dickens described in his books and you begin to understand these peoples hopeless plight.

Now move onto ‘The Developing World’.

Here is an evolving scene. In order to dine at the top table these countries are sacrificing themselves in a mad dash for growth. This is the kind of growth that takes no prisoners. There is rampant capitalism red in tooth and claw, even in supposedly Socialist countries like the Peoples Republic of China. Everything else is subservient; environment, people and culture, all can go to the wall. Millions are sucked in to the factories that churn out shoes, clothes and electronic goods, and they do this in return of the promise of a better future. If only they knew what the future has in store for them.
For there will be another country along in a while that will offer the same or more but at a cheaper rate or with more incentives. So the circus will strike its tent and move on. Leaving what?

Then there is us, ‘The Developed World’.

For decades we have allowed our manufacturing to move to ‘more efficient’ countries. By ‘more efficient’ we really mean cheaper. Cost is all important, maximising margins are our standard. We are all supposed to care about the FTSE and Dow Jones indexes, exchange rates and interest levels. Meanwhile those who would have turned the raw materials we used to import into manufactured goods have been shoved increasingly to the margins. The skills they have or should be acquiring are regarded as unwanted, unneeded or unnecessary in this Modern World.

So what do the unwanted do? They behave like the unwanted and simply try to take what they can’t afford. They look at this world of expensive designer goods and say to themselves, “Why shouldn’t I have some of that too, why not just take it.” So they do. They used to be prized these people, after all their sweat built our past prosperity. They’re not Academics or Scientists; they are working men and women, ‘the salt of the earth’ where most of us come from. But now, if they are ‘lucky’ they man telephone call centres or stack shelves in the supermarket, otherwise they are on Benefit and are regarded as scroungers. The forgotten ones we don’t care about any more.

Is it any wonder they feel nothing for those of us who do feel part of this Brave New World.

Quote for Today

If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another. - Winston Churchill

Mindless Drivel I Call It

2005-11-02T23:28:00.000Z

A world of their own.

As I drive around Cornwall I come across all manner of stupidity. Drivers undertaking, driving up hedges, attempting to get other drivers to speed up by staying inches from their rear end, but the worst are the morons who don’t look at what is happening around them.
You know what I mean, the people who think that the road is permanently empty.
They drive around oblivious to everything; traffic, pedestrians, hard lumpy objects called trees, everything. These are the people who cause 90% of all accidents in my opinion.
They should be taken out and shot, as a precautionary measure.

Grumpy old man!

I haven’t watched much TV over the last 9 weeks or so. I can’t say that I’ve missed it. Most of what passes for ‘entertainment’ is crass, mindless shit. The rest is simply brain-dead pap. If I want to know the news I log on to the BBC web-site. I gave up on newspapers years ago; propaganda organs for their proprietors most of them and the rest are little more than soft porn rags.
Several years ago the BBC broadcast a programme called ‘Grumpy old men’. These are 40 – 60 year olds who are not happy with the world.
The first time I watched it I had to breathe a sigh of relief, ‘Oh good, it’s not just me then!!

Broaden your horizons.

I downloaded a new web browser a few days ago called Flock. It’s an open source project based on the Mozilla platform.
It works in a different way to any other browser. There is no favourites list; instead at the moment you store everything online with del.icio.us. Photo sharing and blogging are integrated into the browser already and more facilities are planned.
If you do not have broadband it may prove difficult for you to get the best out of it, but, give it a try. The developers at Flock are keen for everyone to report their experiences back to them.
As it is still in heavy development you are advised not to depend on it as your default browser, stick with Firefox/Mozilla/Opera for now (you do use one of these don’t you?).

Humour for today.

A gorgeous young redhead goes into the doctor's office and says that her Body hurts wherever she touches it.
"Impossible!" says the doctor. "Show me."
The redhead takes her finger, pushes on her left breast and screams, then she pushes on her elbow and screams in even more agony. She pushes on her knee and screams, likewise she pushes on her ankle and screams.
Everywhere she touches makes her scream.
The doctor says, "You're not really a redhead, are you?
"Well, no" she says "I'm actually a blonde."
"I thought so," the doctor says. "Your finger is broken."

Thumb twiddles

2005-10-30T11:13:00.000Z

If you go down to the Woods today…

If you spend time lurking on any of the many newsgroups that there are on the web you soon come across posts by ‘Trolls’. These are individuals with, I suspect, too much time on their hands and an over-inflated sense of the worth of their opinions. No matter what the thread subject there they are, banging on about how this poster or that knows nothing and should shove their desktop where the sun doesn’t shine. This in turn generates a further lot of superheated air and the whole thread degenerates into a ‘flame war’. Now I’m not saying that newsgroups are not worth the effort, I’ve learnt a whole lot from them. It’s just that too many people see them as simply a vehicle for their right to speak on any subject they like and to hell with anyone else. I just wish they wouldn’t!

Cottage update.

The cottage is almost finished. Just the carpenter to come in and put up the shelving and construct something for the TV, DVD player and digital TV box and it’s finished!!! Then it’s ‘just’ decorating, having the carpet laid and our new furniture delivered and we are set for Christmas. For 9 weeks we have been confined to the upstairs of the cottage and we have just about had enough.

Get out the duster!!

Alison comes back home tomorrow; she will arrive in the afternoon. She has been a member of a team inspecting a school in New Jersey. They were asked over to show how standards could be improved throughout the school. Aside from that they have been into New York doing the tourist bits, you know, pointing and saying WOW!!!

Quote for today

There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.- Oscar Wilde

My Dad. RIP

2005-10-28T22:25:00.000Z

Today would have been my Dads 75th birthday. Unfortunately, he died of lung cancer aged 48 in 1979. It feels quite strange to realise that he has been dead for the greater part of my life. I was 22 when he died; my brother Dave was only 20. It wasn’t a pleasant death. Watching someone you love writhe on a bed in agony until the morphine kicks in is heartbreaking. We decided that he should stay at home instead of go into hospital. It wasn’t a hard decision; there was no chance of his recovering.

He was an ordinary man, not one of those destined for greatness. Family came first with him; it was always us against the world. “What happens outside these four walls can stay out there” he’d say.

He was born in Liverpool in 1930, the oldest of 3 siblings. He had a younger brother and sister. His parents divorced a few years after their birth. For the next year or so they were farmed out to various foster families. Eventually his younger sister, Sheila was adopted by a family in Coventry and Dad ended up in North Wales. Luckily, he landed on his feet and he blossomed. He won prizes for speaking Welsh and won a scholarship to the local Grammar school. Money was tight however and he couldn’t go. The family he was with took him back to Liverpool, to Huyton. Gwen and Howell brought him up and put him through an apprenticeship with a local Bakery. Eventually he joined the Merchant Navy and sailed the world. That’s where he met Mum. She had also had a tough upbringing with a domineering Mother and became a Stewardess on the cruise liners to get away. Three months after meeting they were married. Nine months later I was born.

It’s difficult to explain how I feel now after all this time has passed since his death. I regret not knowing him more. I regret that I will never be able to ask him advice. But above all I am proud that he was my Dad.

I loved him while he was alive. I love him still.

Quote for the day.

‘Any club that would have me as a member, I wouldn’t want to join.’
Groucho Marx

The Pot calls the Kettle Black

2005-10-27T18:46:00.000Z

The new President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to see Israel ‘wiped off the map’ apparently. Whether this comment was for domestic consumption or for general release is a moot point, and irrelevant now. Up until now I was prepared to give Iran the benefit of the doubt as far as their nuclear programme is concerned. When a country says it wants to develop a peaceful nuclear energy programme shouldn’t we take them at face value? Or should we simply threaten to invade?

There have been the normal comments from the usual suspects throughout Europe and the USA, and the Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon has called for Iran to be kicked out of the U.N.

I am certainly no friend of Ariel Sharon, I remember he was Israel’s Defence Minister, he was the architect of the invasion of Southern Lebanon and, stood by while the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacres took place in 1982 by Israel’s allies the Phalangists. In some reports over 3000 people died, many of them women and children. The Israeli General in charge Amos Yaron could and should have stopped them but didn’t. Some would call this a war crime; people have been prosecuted for much less.

In fact, Sharon was found to bear ‘personal responsibility’ by an Israeli commission of inquiry. It also recommended that he shouldn’t hold public office again.

He has been Prime Minister of Israel since 2001. What does this tell us about politicians?

There is no moral high ground here. For the Israeli and Western governments to complain about an aggressive Iran is pure hypocrisy. Who invaded Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria? Who invaded Afghanistan and Iraq?

Let’s face it; we have nuclear weapons. To see ourselves as guardians of the moral high ground because we are reasonable and democratic is a specious argument. India is a democratic country with nuclear weapons and it was only recently that the Indian government pulled back from the brink of using them against Pakistan.

Humour for Today

“Are you a trained counsellor then?”
“No, but I’ve been camping with Methodists, you pick it up.”

Dinnerladies. British TV comedy.

Oi! Don't throw that bloody spear at me!

2005-10-26T08:42:00.000Z

My hair has always had a life of its own. As a teenager it spent most of its time being frizzy, since then it has decided to become wavy. It looks like Michael Caines’ hair now and seems to have decided to stay that way. I prefer it short but Alison likes to run her fingers through it. Ce la vie!

Pick a school, any school.

Our Dear Leader, the Beloved Tony Blair (the most wonderful person in the Universe), the grinning dickhead, has decided that our schools are being held back by their reliance on their pupil catchment area. This is in spite of successive Education Ministers claiming that they have constantly improving standards. His latest wheeze for our supposed failing schools is to free them all from Local Education Authority control and allow them to drag students in from wherever they can.

Parent power he calls it.

Most parents don’t give a tinkers cuss how their local school is run, very few of them ever turn up for meetings. It will only be the pushy big gobs who shout the odds who will tell all of those stupid teachers how things will improve if only they would do as they are told. The schools will end up with a very restricted curriculum designed to make them look good in the performance tables.

I thought that the point of education was to impart knowledge not to gain promotion to the Premier Division.

We should know by now how this will end; a lot of hot air by every backbench government MP that can be wheeled out, the Opposition expressing great reservations (Liberal Democrats) or claiming that these measures don’t go far enough (Conservatives) and finally it will be superseded by the next Great Thought by God’s own Prime Minister.

Remember Tony, our schools are what your government have made them over the past 8 years.

Why won’t the twat just piss off!!

Thought for today.

Lawyers and Accountants should never be put in charge of anything. They are and should remain mere advisors.

Now with added gore!!

2005-10-24T21:29:00.000Z

Slackware Linux really is a lovely distro. With a broadband connection it is a piece of cake to update. I use slapt-get with the Slapt-GUI front end to look for mirrors and it chunters through and picks up what’s available. Then it downloads and installs. It’s a really simple and elegant solution to keep your system current.

The Mandrake 10.1 distro on the main desktop is updated less often. In fact the distro has rarely needed to be updated. Everything I need is either on the DVD or easily available from third-party sites.

Example.
I use Lazarus, an open source IDE similar to Delphi. You need 3 packages for it. The main fpc RPM, the fpcsrc RPM and the latest lazarus RPM, currently version 0.9.10 . Download them and install in that order and you will have a fully working pascal environment. Most problems that you may have with it will have answers in the wiki or the forums. Try it out yourself; it’s a lot of fun.
There is also a version for Windows and Mac platforms.

I shall be phoning Alison in New Jersey at midnight. Her mobile (cell phone) is capable of being used in the USA but she cannot log onto a network over there. It’s an option on her phone but she can’t find it. Anyway, it’s cheaper for me to call her from our landline than for her to call me from her mobile. I’m looking at Skype with a view to using that, but I will wait until I see how its acquisition by eBay works out first.

I watched a DVD last night, ‘King Arthur, the directors cut’. Usual hokum, they really have no idea of history these film makers. No-one has any idea where Arthur came from, (if he really existed which many people doubt), and the Saxons certainly didn’t need to invade from the Pictish lands. They were already here; they were employed as mercenaries and revolted, then they invited their relatives to come and stay!! Still, it made for a diverting couple of hours watching people mutilate each other!

Thought for today.

The doctor told me that drinking would kill me, so now I take alcohol intravenously!

I'ts all gone dark! Could it be evening?

2005-10-23T17:16:00.000Z

I went down to Penzance this afternoon to Morrison's supermarket. It used to be a Safeways but they sold all their shops. The main railway line runs by it and then there is the sea wall and then the English Channel. The smell was amazing, that wonderful ozone/seaweed aroma that fills English hearts with thoughts of standing on a quarterdeck bellowing out orders for a full broadside and damn the consequences!!

Maybe its because I was born in Portsmouth and never far from the sea. My brother and I used to go down to the pier and fish until it was pitch dark. We never caught anything spectacular, Wrasse and Pollock mainly. Add to that it's the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar and, well you get the idea.

Should I put my photo up on this site? I don't want to frighten the children and horses! I know, I'll use a Hugh Grant picture. Not his LAPD mug shot though, one from 4 Weddings or Love Actually!!

I'm still getting used to my camera. I bought a Minolta Dimage 304 on eBay very cheaply. I've never used one with this many features before. I've always been a 'happy snapper', anything got the quick picture treatment. Now I've started to think about them. The macro feature is great too. Being able to zoom in very close to a subject is a luxury, so is taking lots of pictures of a subject and selecting just one or two and discarding the rest. Digital cameras have revolutionised photography in my opinion. Being able to post them on the Web as well so that everyone can see them is a treat. Though you can get carried away, some people post photos of themselves that I think they may well come to reget. Do I sound middle-aged, I hope not!!

It's now 6.30pm. ClassicFm radio is playing Beethoven and I should post this and go and get something to eat. I have had a day to think about all in all, I had two replies to a post I made on a different site earlier that have made me feel quite emotional. I'm supposed to be a rough, tough , burly 6 footer, my wife Alison knows differently though!!!

Idle jottings

2005-10-23T10:08:00.001Z

Over the last few weeks we have had the builders in. We live in an old stone cottage, it's possibly 150 years old we're not sure. We moved here in 1999 with a ten year plan to restore/alter it to our taste. Since then the bedrooms and bathroom have been transformed, and a room that had a mud floor (really!) has been turned into a small but comfortable office. The whole place has been rewired and a replacement woodburner has been installed.

Now the living room and dining area are almost finished. It has not been without drama. The two builders we engaged to carry out the work had a disagreement and one decamped. The one that was left, has carried on mostly alone except when he pulled in a plumber, carpenter and plasterer to do some of the more specialist and time consuming bits.

He has done a superb job. It's almost finished, just another week or so and we will be able to move back into the whole house instead of just upstairs. It's been like bedsitland for a while, we've coped but...

Are you close to your family?
The reason I ask is that I have been pulled up short this morning. One of the web sites I like to look at has a real family feel. I started to visit it because of the photographs on the site. Our families are some way away from us here in Cornwall and we don't see them as often as we would like. I am also not good with phoning and saying Hi!
Anyway, the mother of the site owner has discovered that she has a tumour in her breast. Fortunately it has been caught early, so a full recovery is very likely.
I thought of my Dad at that point. He died in 1979 of lung cancer, he was only 48. It's strange to think that I am now older than he was when he died.

Looking out of the window here in the office I can see a typical Autumn sky. Dull looking clouds with patches of Blue poking through. Not a good photography day. Never mind. I've taken quite a few of the building progress and they will be stored on a DVD when the work is finished.

Do you watch the TV comedy series 'Dinner Ladies' a few years ago. We bought the whole thing on DVD. It's hilarious. I've seen it so often that I can quote reams from the script! Individual bits are compulsively put into conversations.

'I read it in the Daily Mail', 'Are you nearly open?','I'm agrophobic, I fell off a diving board in Guernsey.'

I originally came into the office to update my work books. I suppose I'd better get on with it.

Extended Yawn!!

2005-10-21T14:32:00.000Z

Well I have made it through to 3.30pm. It has been touch and go though. Regular caffiene injections have helped.

I've been thinking about my website and how I want it to look in future, it's been put together with Frontpage 2000. It works quite well overall, it's the table of Contents and the Search pages that aren't working. That'll teach me to go for a package without Frontpage extentions enabled!!
And do I really need a hit counter?

The Cluster War program is coming along, I have almost planned the next additions to it. Enabling the Build ship dialog and routines and extending the SolarUnit.pas class to include ship building capacity is almost finished. I need to look at Save and Load game routines before too long.

Enough for now.

Yawn!!!

2005-10-21T05:45:00.000Z

Well I've just dropped my wife, Alison off at Penzance railway station. She's away up to London Heathrow and then a 'Big Bird' to Newark, New Jersey for the week. I thought I did quite well getting up at 4am and sounding at least vaguely human considering I'm not a morning person.

I've now got to keep myself awake long enough to get to work! Happily, I've got a new portable printer to play with until then so that's OK.

I could also have a shower. Yes, that's a good idea.

2005-10-20T15:43:00.000Z

Since this is the first post of mine here, you won't expect to see much.

Will you?