Greetings and Salutations
We here at the Ninja Temple would like to take a minute out of our day to wish you all a Happy Beltane.
Some of you would have started your celebrations last night, others will be starting them today, either way we wish you a great celebration, much drinking, much eating, much “Other activities inspired by the gods & goddesses” May your fires burn bright all night.
You cant beat a “good ole family barn raising“.
Well, technically there was No barn’s raised, Or any Barns at all really. And the closet thing to an Amish was a tall blond in skin-tight jodhpurs who walked past at one point. (What is it about boots, & Tight Jodhpurs? Sorry was distracted there….)
The other weekend there was Three generations of my family doing some work at my parents place. (Gen1) My Father (Gen2) Me (Gen3) Two of my Nephews. We were rebuilding some wooden parts of the garden that have started to rot from old age, and repaint the wooden fences, etc.. (This is Just Scene Setting)
While we were having a much needed Ten minute Coffee break, Nephew No1 was talking about a row of houses near where he lives where they all got a government grant to do work on the houses, apart from the end house in the terrace who’s door is on the other road so missed out. So it got mentioned that the grants been going round for ages now (Slowly) and that My Grandfather had it for his place, had the whole place gutted and rebuilt with the grant paying 70% of costs.
This led to the story of the rebuild. Which was such a touching story of Love & Romance that I thought I’d share it with you Dear Reader.
My Grandparents house then was built over an old mine shaft, meaning you could not get a mortgage on the building, and it was a bit unstable. This did mean they were able to buy it for very little money. So when they had the option of a 70% Government grant for building work, My Grandfather jumped at the chance.
After discussions with the builders it was decided to strip building, fill the mine shaft with a concrete plug & cap, rewire the house, re-plumb, Install new central heating, re-plaster, the works. This would involve the floors Upstairs, and down being removed, the walls stripped of existing plaster, and the electric/water being off. Basically the house would be unsuitable to live in for roughly a month.
Now my Grandfather being a practical man, he decided that was no problem. They would simply move into the garage for the month.
I should point out here, the garage was a large building, Brick walls on three sides. The roof was Tin sheeting, and the front wall was a full length wooden door, which only partially fitted with huge gaps. So all in all, a draughty cold room
To make it more liveable he put the carpets from the house down on the concrete floor, he put a bed, sofa and TV in there along with a kettle and cooker. Now, my Grandmother was not a plan of this idea. She was not living in a cold, spider infested garage. She wanted to go on holiday while the work was being done, or at least stay in a B&B or Hotel. So my Grandfather sat her down and explained that they could not go on holiday as someone needed to stay and keep an eye on the builders. Also if the builders saw “an old woman” living in such a bad place they would work harder and get the job done. He also pointed out that they had a daughter living next door, so they had access to a bath, toilet, and such. After much discussion she finally decided to do what he suggested. So she helped him make the garage more homely and comfortable. After all, they had lived through the War, what was a few weeks of discomfort, as long as they were together.
Two days before the builders were due to start, my Grandmother walked into her bedroom to check everything had been put away. There she saw my Grandfather packing a suitcase with some clothes. Confused she asked him what he was doing. “Didn’t I remind you? I’m off to Australia for a month tour with the choir. Its been booked for over a year.“
He’d never had any intention of living in the garage himself. He had made it as comfortable as he could for his wife of many many years, he was just not staying in it himself…
Who says chivalry is dead.
I should point out before anyone gets upset about my Grandmother. After a long monologue of mostly very bad words that would make a sailor blush, my grandfather was forced able to get a second plane ticket, and upgrade his hotel room to a double, so she could go on holiday with him.
It is an international day of blogging (videologging, podcasting, comic drawing etc.!) to draw attention to the achievements of women in technology and science.
Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines, whatever they do.
I decided to take part in helping to promote the achievements of women in fields they do not normally get the credit the deserve in. Deciding to take part was easy, its the actual doing something about it that’s hard. I have spent the last four hours trying to decide who to write about.
Its easy to say “I was not influenced or inspired by particular woman to the point I can post about it“, Yet the more I consider it, the more stupid that statement is. Part of my job entails writing Programs, Scripts, etc. And The first computer Programmer was a lady, and a Lady lady at that. Lady Ada Lovelace (Who today’s named after.)
So who to pick? I then considered maybe using a Character from TV/Film that’s a role model showing you can be cool, feminine, and geeky. Only I could not decide on one of them, either. I have decided to face the fact that I’m useless.
So Instead I will just Raise a pint, and tip my hat to a lost community. “Female Hackers”
Raven Alder, a network administrator at Maryland-based company Intermedia, was utterly boggled by an unexpected question at a hacker convention where she’d just presented a paper. “A reporter asked me how it felt to be the world’s first female hacker,” she recalled. “What the hell?” she spluttered in response. She knew of many other women hackers at the conference, and she was certainly not the first. But the reporter’s question revealed the dilemma facing most women hackers today.
EvilGrrl, a member of the notorious GhettoHackers crew (who won Capture the Flag three years running at Defcon), has noticed this “not existing” problem too. “At conferences, lots of people assume I’m somebody’s girlfriend,” she said, laughing. “I usually just reply that I’m a GhettoHacker and no, I’m not a girlfriend.”
So lets all the Men take a step back, and take today to acknowledge our Female counterparts.
Any in the North Wales area let me know, I’ll get you a pint (or drink of choice)
NOTE: The Title of the Post is a quote from the Character “Acid Burn” from the film Hackers. I’ve never really considered it before, But she really is a poor example of Women in Technology. Looking back on the film, she was the only female in the hacking community shown. I believe in the clips at the end, where the worlds hackers unite, there’s possibly a female hacker shown. Amongst the main group and extended community she is the only one, The other female characters are mothers, or Bimbos. So I appologise, its just that I like the Character, Like the Quote, and Like the Young Angelina Jolie.
I am taking a week off work for two reasons :-
So I am going to try and get as much stuff done in my week off as I can. To monitor my progress I have decided to keep this blog post open on my Desktop in “Draft” format, So I can see how I am doing. I will Hit “Publish” either late Friday, or at the weekend. So lets see if I can dampen my normal laziness and actually be productive.
I am making a list of things I want to do on my white-board, and crossing them off as I complete them. I’ll use this as a count of my productiveness [Tasks_Completed/Tasks_On_List]
Its now midday on the first day of my week long productivity. And I have so far spent the morning “Hacking” my Nintendo Wii. I should point out I only got the Wii Sunday, So I have owned it for less than 24 Hours. I will admit it has lots of possibilities. Only investigating them will prevent me doing the things I’ve already got planned for this week. So its time to leave it alone for now. (Adding several more tasks to White-Board list). I will do a separate post on hacking/tweaking the Nintendo Wii without compromising it. I will say the Wii does make a nice Media-Server. I will say this did not kill my day completely and I did manage to get some stuff done.
So I am very unlucky when it comes to trying to be organised. I woke up this morning, made myself breakfast and got half way through when I got a phone call off my mother. She wanted to take her dog to the Vet’s and since I was having a week off work, and the dogs too big for her to handle alone, Would I mind helping her. Being the Nice person I am, I agreed to go with her. That’s when I found out she was leaving at that second. Breakfast abandoned I help her get the dog in the car.
We arrive at the empty Veterinary surgery, Ten minutes early to find the place locked. So we ring the bell and wait. and wait. and wait. Several ring presses later, and almost half an hour I get fed up and phone the Vet’s myself. Turns out they moved twelve months ago. *Mutter* So struggle to get dog back in car, drive to the new location and repeat. Vet says dog’s either not liking its food (Grown an intolerance to it, and to try a different kind) or has an ulcer. So tablets procured and back home we go.
That’s my morning gone so far!
The afternoon went a bit better, I decided to wash my car. Or as I described it on Twitter “I am checking if there is a car under the dirty & mud I drive back and too in” I will admit it took more work than I expected, There was dirt on top of mud on top of dirt. I did discover that my car is a green colour, with silver bits, and even writing in bits. The only bad timing was that the sun decided to make an appearance for the first time in a very very long time. and after washing the car for what seemed like hours under a burning sun, I’m now sore and shattered.
I have noticed a worrying trend. The number on the right is growing much faster than the number on the left. I’m sure this is not right.
Today has started off a bit better so far, nothing has come along to distract me from my planned tasks. And my Car’s booked in for getting its new tires this afternoon, so Today should be productive. Especially since I may be God. You see I received an email this morning questioning my existence. To my knowledge the only ones who’s existence gets questioned by people is God, or Lucifer.
So far this morning has been more productive than the previous two days. Lets hope this continues into the afternoon. So that I can take a break to spend some time celebrating St Patrick’s day in the pub.
I went for new tyres finally. I wish places would let you make appointments, I spent almost an hour sitting about playing on my iPhone while I waited for my turn. I should not complain, since they messed up the order for my new tyres and the ones they had in stock were double the price of the ones I had ordered, so I got the more expensive ones for the price of the cheap ones. I also got a warranty with them for the lifetime of the tyres. If they break I get new ones for free. Sometimes things go well.
Ok. We are on a roll. The Right hand number is now increasing faster than the Left hand number. This week may turn out to be a success after all.
I’ve also managed to catch up on several movies I’ve had waiting for time to watch, among other things. So even with time set aside for TV, Films, Games, Etc. I have managed to be productive. “Go Me!”
OK. I admit it.
Today being the last day of my holiday I left the Productivity by the side of the road, and spent the biggest part of the day playing “Mass Effect” on the XBOX 360, and watching films. I know, its not what I had planned for the week, I just really needed a day off, before starting work again next week.
I did manage to get a few things sorted today, so it was not a total bust.
I may not have finished all the tasks on the list, but I did finish more tasks that I originally started with. (Five more). I should also point out that a further three of the tasks on the list have been started, and are just waiting for Monday morning before being finalised. So its a technical 28 completed tasks.
I think therefore that this week off I can safely say I was productive. I also seem to work better with a white-board full of jobs and the satisfaction of crossing them off as i complete them. I may have to try this again some time.
Well we are now in a new year, A new decade, lets hope this one is better than the previous few, and the state of the worlds economy improves.
So To you all I wish a Happy New Year!!
I am on holiday this week. A full week away from the Insane Asylum, work, customers or as I like to call them “The Bane of My Life“. So far I’m still full of the festive cheer, festive beer, and festive treats. I have been working my way through the DVD’s I got for Xmas, There is a nice layer of snow over everything making the world look a peaceful place. There is only one thorn in my festive happiness…… CUSTOMERS!
Monday the Governor of the Asylum threw a support ticket at my email marked urgent. It was from a customers developer. They had asked for a new hosting area with Joomla installed on it, and it was done on the last working day of the year (last job before we finished for the day)
Monday:
HI. You set up a Joomla hosting for us, and you set it up wrong. I can not get it to upload modules, I’ve checked the permissions via FTP and they are wrong. I need this installed correctly, fix the permissions and test it!
Hello? We installed it wrong? Have you ever installed Joomla? You ftp the files to your hosting, go to a webpage, answer a few basic questions and its installed! Idiot!. Ok, so he has a permission problem, so he’s decided to use the web server to upload the files instead of putting his FTP details into Joomla’s config to let Joomla handle it. OK. Now. the guy knows enough to check permissions with FTP. So why does he not change them with FTP to fix his problem? Its a rush job, we’re on holiday, be quicker to do it himself. Anyway, permissions changed, idiot informed it quicker to change them himself.
Tuesday:
Hi. Our developer is being a hero and working over his holiday to get our new website developed, He has a problem with you installing Joomla wrong, can you fix this urgently!
OK. Now I am mad. Firstly: -Your developer may be working over his holidays, That does not mean everyone else should be working over theirs. Secondly:- The Install was not done incorrectly, Your developer does not seem to have a clue. Thirdly:- I spoke to your developer yesterday, If he’s not informed you thats his problem not mine!
Do you get the feeling I’m not a people person?
Wednesday:
Hi. I changed the permissions on the folder and it still will not let me upload files. Can we restart and install Joomla correctly!
OK, maybe he has a point. Lets look. ok, he lists the directory he having trouble uploading into, he says he set permissions to 777. Oh, thats odd, permissions have not been changed. oh look, theres a directory of the same name one branch down, and that has 777 permissions, The idiots only changed the wrong directory. I would not mind but he sent me the path to the correct one, why couldn’t he have followed his own instructions.
If I get another set of emails from him, I may just stop being polite.
CN
