“…wouldn't it be nice to hear more than 20 of them?” So goes one of JACK FM's tags. I take issue: let's look at the facts. Assume a song is 3 minutes long on average. Assume that I listen to songs for 3 hours a day every day, never repeating a single song. Assume there… Continue reading "You probably know a million songs…"
The Da Vinci Code
(Warning: spoilers ahead) I read it. The plot was excellently contrived. The way it mixes fact and fiction is great. But as a whodunit, it's a bit rubbish. Dan Brown is continually treating both his characters and readers as simpletons. Now I realise it's not an easy thing to invent clues and a treasure hunt,… Continue reading The Da Vinci Code
SOE announce "Exchange Servers"
Sony are launching an escrow/auction service for Everquest 2, whereby players can sell in-game items, coinage and characters for real-life currency. They are applying it only to certain servers (to be decided via an in-game poll, and with the option for players to move servers). It’s a $200m-a-year industry, apparently, and 40% of their customer… Continue reading SOE announce "Exchange Servers"
"London, England"
Bill Bryson was right. The “London, England” effect is everywhere in the US; the media dumbs down everything to an absurd degree, hence “London, England” – as opposed to London, where exactly? To be fair there are plenty of other Londons, but I think it's pretty unambiguous in a story about the UK parliament. Case… Continue reading "London, England"
MySQL 5!
MySQL 5.0 almost ready, reports ZDNet. Stored procedures. Triggers. Views. Welcome to the world of real databases, MySQL!
Untitled
TRN Magazine reports that researchers from MIT have developed a tool (“Metafor”) for turning English into code. I am immediately reminded of the aphorism, “Make it possible for programmers to write in English and you will find the programmers cannot write in English.”
Jury duty
I got a jury summons. I'm not eligible. Whee!
Movies I have seen recently
Wimbledon. Not bad. An enjoyable 90 minutes. But a) I don't think that's the way to Brighton from London, and b) nobody runs 10 miles during a tournament, even less so while wearing Converse All Stars! Clueless. I'm a sucker for teen movies. Plus, it's got Alicia Silverstone in it; need I say more?
Easter weekend
Easter sort of crept up on me, but what the hell, I don't observe it anyway, and the US doesn't either (no 4-day weekend here)! So it was just a normal weekend, but a pretty good one. Visited Griffith Park on Saturday, but the zoo was, well, a zoo. Didn't think it was worth queueing… Continue reading Easter weekend
Hypnotic sort of game…
The grid game. Sort of like Conway’s Life: less of a game and more of a fascinating thing to watch, as the patterns die out, then suddenly start to spread again. My best “score” is 813.