I remember reading a marketing book once, I didn't own it, it belonged to a flat mate, so don't judge me. ;-)
The chapter I read related to adopters of technologies, you have innovators at one side of the graph and laggards at the other, it's a common graph , I'm sure you have seen it. I always like to think of myself as an innovator, but I'm beginning to question my sanity, I have only just installed the Web Developers Toolbar on Firefox. The real time css editing is fantastic, and combined with Aardvark, editing is a breeze. If you don't use it install it now.

Posted by jaffs at 12:38 PM | Permalink

But the scene of what many consider the best-ever engineering prank was that other academic Cambridge, in England, where, one morning in 1958, the town awoke to see an Austin Seven van on top of the Senate House building. After weeks of preparation, a group of mechanical-sciences undergraduates had pushed the van, wheelbarrow-like, minus its doors and back wheels, into place, then hoisted it using a derrick of five 24-foot scaffolding poles, 250 feet of steel wire, 200 feet of hemp rope, pulley blocks and hooks, planks, and even sacking to protect the building. Once the vehicle had been dragged to the top of the sloping roof, the doors and wheels were re-fitted.

The world's media rightly applauded the prank. It was breathtakingly ambitious, requiring both brains and brawn in prodigious quantities; the planning was meticulous (the dozen or so students involved were split into sub-teams, including one comprising two pretty females to distract curious passers-by); and it created a spectacularly surreal sight that could be seen across town. The perpetrators were particularly pleased that what took them under three hours to do took the Civil Defence Force four days to undo. The dean of the college from which the prank was launched sent the ringleader a case of champagne.

http://economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5323412&no_na_tran=1

Posted by jaffs at 10:54 AM | Permalink

I'll ressurect my usual christmas image. Happy Christmas one and all and Best Wishes for the New Year, I'm going to enjoy the break this year!!

Posted by jaffs at 09:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm not sure how true this memory is, as it happened before I turned four and could well be the result of rose tinted glasses after one or two mulled wines.
I had a pretty idyllic early childhood, my parents moved from Scotland to a two hundred year old whitewash cottage on a hillside overlooking Lough Foyle, in a place called Carnamuff outside Ballykelly. It was a a lovely location and a super playground for kids. There was an old walled garden down the road beside the wall was a well, where the Qwerpuddle lived. The Qwerpuddle was an imaginary monster who lived in the well. An evil drawing was produced to keep myself and my sister from investigating too far. Down the lane was Farmer Blair's sheds, we used to scamper over the potato piles and play round the machinery. Not too far away was Mrs Dallas and her rather grand home, complete with a beautiful rocking horse, we would be encouraged to play on it whilst Mrs Dallas and my mother would have coffee in the morning.
The Townley brothers owned the local shop, I can still remember the taste of my first quarter of brandy balls, walking over the wee bridge to vist the horses.
Anyway around this time of the year we would get wrapped up with hats and scarves and welly boots and set out across the fields to the holly bush with berries. Dad found this bush when he was out shooting and it became an annual pilgrimage to collect holly for the house. The route took us over the river that we would dam in the summer. Judy our dog would follow along running ahead and poking in rabbit holes.
It was a big walk for wee legs and we would return exhausted to steam dry in front of the Rayburn. Socks would be hung from the towel rail, boots would be lined up to dry and the kettle would whistle as it was boiled.
It's my Dad's birthday today, that's what got me thinking about this post..happy birthday.

Posted by jaffs at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Week one of my new job is now almost over. I left my previous job after 4 years and 8 months and it definitely gets more difficult to start a new job as you get older.
The new job is a big shift from what I was previously doing and it's going to take another few weeks before I feel like I am making any useful contribution to the project.
Working in the centre of Belfast is a bonus, and getting the train to work has been a delight. £7.50 for my weekly ticket, that's less than 2 days petrol in my old job. The new trains have been spot on time every day this week, and are clean,comfortable and I'm glad to say full of passengers.
My ex-colleagues when I left, got me kite flying lessons from c2skyonline.com, enough to get a good few lessons, looking forward to getting out with the kite in the Spring.
Anyway, blogging will be light for the next while, and probably not very interesting until I feel more settled.

Posted by jaffs at 10:00 AM | Permalink

I am spending the last few days working for my current employer wisely. If you were the bloke in front of me who was alerted to my presence behind him by the noise of the shutter on my phone activating, I'm sorry. It was all in the name of science.
I must congratulate Stephen on his christmas dinner feature, I am thoroughly enjoying it.
I have heard there are some reviewers working furiously to the copy deadline, I am particularly looking forward to one in particular. I think a little profanity filter may be needed though.

Posted by jaffs at 09:30 PM | Permalink

Recently, I have been given a few flash jobs to finish with a quick turnaround. Spent an hour trying to fix something yesterday, time which I didn't have to waste. So if it helps anyone in the future, if you have a movie clip that has a text field embedded in it and you duplicate this movie clip then rotate the clip, the text does not display.
You need to select the character button in the property inspector for the text field and embed the characters that you intend to use.
Sorry if this is a lesson in the obvious, it had me stumped.

Posted by jaffs at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In the 1840s attempts were made, as a Famine relief project, to dig a canal between Lough Corrib and Lough Mask. The river that links the two, though you can get to it at various points, including the Pigeon Hole, a mile or so north of Cong, runs underground through porous limestone for most of its length. This might have been an indication of what would happen to the canal: the porosity of the rock meant that the water just drained away, and Cong is left with a dry canal, complete with locks.

Delany was a little more subtle in his analysis of the project, giving two alternative reasons for it's abandonment, before citing the real reason.

According to Delany (A Celebration of 250 Years of Ireland's Inland Waterways - Appletree press 1992), the reasons for its abandonment were:
* The extension of railways into the West of Ireland
* Labour shortages, which increased the cost of hiring workers
* The geological makeup of the terrain through which the canal was built, which would make the canal difficult to staunch.

Posted by jaffs at 08:49 AM | Permalink