I realise that this doesn’t mean much but in the interest of enlightenment and world peace I would like to share with you this fine infographic in which I appear at the magnificent ranking of number 72 in the top 100 tech blogs to follow in 2013:) Fame at last. Other than using the Alexa […]
Category Archives: fun stuff
TalkTalk break records for downloads with 557GB per sec on New Year’s Day
TalkTalk is a highly successful provider of communications services – broadband, phone lines etc. I noted an entry in the Twitter stream this morning that showed they had seen record traffic levels on New Year’s Day – people upgrading firmware on new gadgets, using the gadgets etc. We know this because TalkTalk CTO Clive Dorsman […]
New British record set at DP World Southampton
I just happened to be flicking through (metaphorically) the DredgingToday.com website (as you do) when I noticed that Southampton docks have set a new British record for container moves. Well I gotta tell you, I woz there! Southampton docks are a joint venture between DP World and Timico customer Associated British Ports and I was […]
No post today, the muse has gone away
Posts on this blog are suspended today as a mark of respect to those who fell attempting to keep pace at #trefbash last night. Normal service will be resumed on Monday including early reports and examples of incriminating photographic evidence. Thanks to all who made it through the night.
Goooooood Morning – one Weetabix or two?
It’s Tuesday morning and you find me full of beans, enthusiasm and a thirst for life. Outside it is a nice minus two degrees Centigrade and there is a hard frost but the sun has risen above the horizon and is doing its utmost to drive the low lying mist from the Lincolnshire fields. V […]
Frosty Leaves
It’s a killer out there this afternoon. Minus two. Not a place to find yourself without serious levels of heavy duty protection from the cold. What happened to global warming? I can’t believe it is the last day of November. the year has flown by once again. Anyway no time to dwell. We are busy […]
I met the girl from Ipanema
You know what it’s like. You are in the lift heading down to check out from your hotel and a gorgeous blonde gets in on the third floor. You don’t want to stare too much at her so you focus on looking somewhere else. Nothing is said. She gets out at the ground floor, you […]
Alex Murphy is dead – long live Alex Murphy
A year ago last Saturday Alex Murphy died. This was no staged death of the line fluffed comedian, booed off by an unforgiving crowd or the fate of the failed gladiatorial actor staring up at the inverted thumbs of angry Roman citizenry in a modern Coliseum. Alex was playing rugby for the Commons and Lords […]
amusing anecdote – the Ivy restaurant beckoned briefly
Received an email out of the blue yesterday. It was one of those legitimate spam emails selling something but from a “respectable” company. For some reason I read it and found it was an offer to go to lunch at the Ivy restaurant in London. What’s more it was for a lunchtime meeting on BYOD […]
Alex and Andy Smile for the camera
I’ve just come up for air after having my head down in my PC all day. It’s getting dark out. It’s just started raining – I can hear it on the roof of the office – one of the downsides of having the penthouse suite. Welcome to winter. I hope you have your warm, waterproof […]
The Harrison H4 timepiece and other historical nautical memorabilia (the Cutty Sark)
Sometimes you get the opportunity to see something totally historic – like the Olympics for example. On Saturday I saw two things in the same afternoon that were in the same league. First of all the Cutty Sark was hugely impressive. Then we went to the Royal Observatory and saw the Harrison H4 timepiece. It […]
Facebook promoted posts – uh?
I linked to that last post on why I want my Samsung Galaxy S3 back from Facebook. I wanted to make sure that none of my friends missed the post otherwise no-one might read it:). For the first time ever I got this popup/toast/whatever they call it suggesting I might want to pay to promote […]
Call that an office? This is an office
You walk into some high flyer’s office, sink into the lush undergrowth that is the carpet, disappear into the soft leather interiors of the sofa at one end and gaze down on the worker ants swarming around the city, dozens of floors below. Size of the office, backed up with exclusive accessories = status. Its […]
letter from 1975
Just visiting my folks on the Isle of Man for the weekend and mam showed me a letter I’d written to dad dated 2nd March 1975. We were in the process of moving to the island from Caernarfon. Dad had gone on ahead whilst we finished the school term. The letter was written in formal […]
Amazing story from Hampton Court
Story for you. Years ago I worked on a bid to develop an analogue chip for a company in London. It was a very big contract and we had tried to get the Purchasing Director out for a beer or eight during the process (just to better get to know him-he was a nice guy). […]
A big thank you to Sam
Took the family to Zizzi in Lincoln last night to celebrate daughter’s last night at home before heading to University for the first time. Food was good though they seemed to be a little understaffed. Anyway in the multi-storey car park next to the restaurant, on the Brayford in Lincoln for those who know the […]
communications protocols for swimming pools
I was having a swim before work this morning, as you do – healthy body, healthy mind etc. I had a whole lane to myself which those of you who indulge in a bit of a splash before work will know is a real luxury. There are two types of communications scenarios used in the […]
School governors and giving something back to society
We are extremely fortunate with the school our kids go to. It has served the first two well and the next two are having a great time the youngest having just been elected as vice representative of his class. Starting a bit young I thought but hey… The school is a user of modern technology. […]
How to make steak tartare
Redwood Telecoms Director of pre-sales engineering Terry Bowers is very fond of steak tartare though he doesn’t like gherkins. This educational video shows you how to make it (without the gherkins of course).
Norwegian Wood part 2
I learned to play the guitar when I was a kid instead of swotting for my A Levels. My mam and dad almost certainly got fed up to listening to renditions from the “Beatles Songbook”. One of my early masterpieces was Norwegian Wood. Last night we had some friends round for a barbeque. Our bbq […]
Annual watersports & BBQ evening another splashing success
Last week we had the annual Timico watersports evening at the Activities Away lake on Lincoln bypass. As usual a great time was had by all. I’m going to let the pictures do the talking other than to say our team won by a country mile nautical league. This was mainly thanks to the raft building […]
Hold on a second
The leap second caught me a bit by surprise over the weekend. I guess I knew it was coming but had forgotten all about it. Some well known sites that rely on accurate time synchronisation were caught out by the change. These apparently include Reddit, FourSquare, Yelp, LinkedIn, Gawker and StumbleUpon. There is a bit of […]
Death of a rose
Life is such a wonderful journey but it is short and needs living to the full. If you need any affirmation of this take a look at this rose. It featured in a post a couple of weeks ago. In the picture on the left it is just about to come to its prime. Two very […]
Rain doesn’t have to stop play you know
It rained yesterday. It’s been in the news. Trains cancelled or stranded unable to move due to “water on the line” – millions of gallons of it. In Lincolnshire we saw 33mm of rain fall in one day in a month that has an average rainfall of 52mm – for the whole month that is. […]
photo mania madness must stop
It is only recently that I mentioned taking a Gig’s worth of photos at the Lincolnshire show using my Samsung Galaxy S3. Well this photo mania madness must stop. Last night I rattled off almost 2.5Gigs worth. Storage is cheap but not that cheap and I have to consider what on earth I will do […]
Tom Wood beer and wooden biros at the Lincolnshire Show
Just got back from the Lincolnshire Show. It’s a great day out with the family. I’ve got a lot to talk about but in the interest of getting a post out today I offer a short one with a wood based theme. The sticks in the header are actually biros – I thought it was […]
Fore
I may flatter myself in thinking that the readers of this blog are savvy intellectuals, sophisticates, oozers of erudition, people of the world – both real and ethereal. They appreciate the finer things in life. I can tell by the standard of comment. That being clearly and undeniably the case I am pleased to be […]
In the interest of balance – it is chucking it down
It was only yesterday that I waxed lyrical about the British summer, cricket, olympics et al. Well there are as we all know two aspects to our summer. One is as described yesterday. The other is the reality of today. This is the reality of rain stop play, of umbrellas and Cliff Richard singing on […]
Spring – the feelgood factor
Today is one of those absolutely stunning British spring mornings. You feel it everywhere. The smells, the gentle warmth of the lightest of breezes, the clear blue sky with just the faintest of clouds somewhere on the far horizon, the birds singing happily to themselves in the bushes. It’s the kind of day where I’ve […]
The black art of serving Guinness
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man on his way home from work on a Friday night must be in search of a decent pint of beer. We are indeed fortunate, on this scepter’d isle of ours, in having a wonderful brewing heritage that yields a terrific diversity of ciders, bitters, lagers, ales, […]