25 Nov
2006

Death of a Gadget

I commented on an article about music player technology, saying how much I liked my Packard Bell AudioKey and how simple it was.

Well its died, and the search is on for a replacement (no I can’t wait for Christmas!), So far I’m interested in the iriver players, and the main requirements are 512Mb or more, a USB connection and no drivers needed – since I dock it in all sorts of different places and different operating systems.

I’ll let you know what I choose but suggestions are greatfully received, any ideas?

23 Nov
2006

Survey Saga

The house1 survey has arrived – hurrah! Actually very good service and much quicker than I expected so thumbs up to the surveyor. But its bad news ….

They can’t value the house until its been structurally surveyed, properly looked at by a roofing contractor and had its electrics certified. It needs repointing and reroofing. Never mind the list of ‘significant matters’ which follow, including chimneys not capped, boilers incorrectly installed, guttering needing replacement, damp proof courses bridged and the garage in a pretty poor state of repair!

So, no idea where we go from here, certainly we can afford to walk away and that’s always going to be an option. Right now I feel like a clueless person who picks totally rubbish houses!

1 If you’re not following the story perhaps you would like to read the back issues

23 Nov
2006

How to get your best projects at work cancelled

Pretty much the worst thing that can happen to any geek is for a project they are working on to be cancelled. If its something they have already put a lot of work into and believe in, then it isn’t surprising that it hurts them. I think most of us have been there at one time or another … its canned, and you have an anger inside that is too big for what just happened.

This has happened to me on a number of ocassions, and each time I feel that I brought it on myself. I’m a great believer that if something is to be done, it should be done properly. Which means that when I get given a glimmer of hope that something can be improved or replaced, I push too hard to get too much changed. This makes my superiors (or their superiors, depending) uneasy and they pull the plug.

As I get older and gain wisdom (hopefully!) throughout my working life, I hope that one of two things will happen. Option one is that I’ll care a bit less, remember that this is my job and not my life, and keep it in perspective. The other is that I’ll get better at making my managers feel like they are in control at all times and that this is all their great idea. Ronald Regan is supposed to have said

it’s amazing what you can get done if you don’t care who takes the credit

And I think that’s true. Perhaps I need to fly further under the radar when I’m working on something interesting?

21 Nov
2006

Crochet Dialects

I love to crochet, and to collaborate with others about it. To see what others have made and to show my own creations and tell what I learned along the way. Knitting groups have been around forever I think, and it seems likely to me that people have always shared ideas in this way. The Information Age has brought this to a new level, there are literally thousands of crochet sites with tips and even free patterns, contributed from around the world; its a shared language.

Except that it’s not!

American English

As I’m from England, I consider British English to be English, as its the original, and American English to be something completely different. The rest of the world doesn’t always share this view however and this can be frustrating at times.

Its exactly the same for the language of crochet. The needle sizes have the same names but applied to different sizes – everywhere uses metric these days but older patterns may not. The yarn weights are very different in what is available and also how it is referred to. Worst of all, the stitches have the same names on both sides of the Atlantic, but they are used to refer to different stitches!

Lost in Translation

There are plenty of free crochet patterns on the internet and if you see a pattern, looks easy enough and the stitch names sound familiar, then you would probably try it out. Unless it clearly states or you are paying a lot of attention, you might not even realise that there is something wrong.

I deal with this problem by referring to the trust conversion chart from the KCG or by looking at the instructions in the first chapter of a book that I know is either British or American. I’m not sure what is used in the rest of the world (the Southern Hemisphere, for example), I hope its one of the two systems I already know!

Have you had any bad experiences with this naming-the-same-thing-the-same-name-but-meaning-different-things phenomenon? Add your comments here, I know it isn’t just crochet stitches that has this problem.

17 Nov
2006

House: The Sequel

This post is a few days overdue but we’ve bought a house! You can read the saga of the last time we had an offer accepted if you like.

The house has three bedrooms, a garage, and gardens back and front. Its a decent size, has original fireplaces in the bedrooms and has had its kitchen and dining room knocked into one which is great. Its been rewired and has central heating and double glazing.

Its early days yet though – the survey happens on Monday.

17 Nov
2006

Christmas Crochet

In case anyone didn’t follow the conversation, my friend fairyJo has learned to crochet from some instructions in my baby blanket post. Wondering what she might do next, here are some ideas for the season:

How about a crochet snowflake ? Actually I might have to try one of these out myself!

Another easy Christmas gift is a scarf. Personally I have had good success with a lacy stitch on a big hook as it grows quite quickly and can be finished in time! I’ll see if I can find a good pattern link to post!

08 Nov
2006

Coffee Politics

There are some coffee politics happening in my office right now1. I’m not going to write about that though, at least until it blows over. I thought I’d share a couple of previous coffee politics experiences though.

Spare-hand Drink

At one workplace where I had a temporary job one summer, the vending machines were paid for and the etiquette was this: When you decided you wanted to fetch a drink, you announced this fact and opened offers for the spare-hand drink. The person who shouted first (or loudest) would then get the hot drink that you could manage in the other hand from the hand you fetched yours in.

Silver Spoon

Another workplace had us all sat in a long, narrow office and facing outwards. Someone who sat a long way away used to rattle his spoon against his mug repeatedly until someone made him a cup of tea if he was thirsty and thought it wasn’t his turn. That got annoying after a while!

Speedy Operation

A co-worker of mine at a previous job managed to master the art of fetching the tray, offering a drink to each of twelve people in the office in turn and leaving the room with the cups – in the time it took me to visit the ladies! I did enjoy the times that people deliberated on whether they’d liike a drink or not and he didn’t quite make it. I was never quite sure what to think about him …

1 Unless you like warm water, room temperature long-life milk, instant coffee and sweetener added to your cup in that order, this is entertainment rather than deprivation

07 Nov
2006

Work Hygiene

Someone in my office moved desks today (someone left last week so there’s a little reshuffle going on as every takes another step along the hardware/seating improvement path). She1 took one look at her new seat last week and came in today with J-cloth and cleaning fluid and cleaned out the whole desk surface, window sills and inside all the drawers.

Just to clarify, we do have cleaners, its just that they trail down the middle of the office with a hoover each evening and if we’re lucky they also empty the bins, but that’s all. You can imagine that the rest of the office has got pretty dirty in the 15 years or so since the immovable furniture was fitted!

The opportunity was too good to miss borrowed the cleaning things and cleaned my own desk. I’ve been with the company nine months and I understand my desk was empty for some years before that. I wiped the worst off with some tissue when I started but today I moved everything and gave it a good clean. The grime was amazing but the difference it makes to me is astonishing. Visually there’s no change but in reality its a complete turnaround. My workspace is clean and safe, and I’m ready to get on with the task in hand with good humour. I guess this is what they mean when they talk about Hygiene Factors in the workplace!

1 Yes, there is another woman on my team.

07 Nov
2006

Another weekend, another netball match

Well its been a busy couple of weeks on the netball front, we’ve had friendly matches against a variety of teams midweek which have been fun, and since last week was half-term we have “club night” at training where everyone from all the teams plays at the same time, just taking turns playing games.

I always enjoy open club night; usually I’m playing for the first team so it can be pressurised at matches and we’re quite serious about training sessions too. The other teams in the club are more recreational – people do it because they get along with the other women, its fun and its exercise. Club night means I remember that netball is supposed to be fun!

Last weekend the second team were struggling for players as they’ve got a few out with injury at the moment – they’ve been quite unlucky – so I filled in. I played three quarters of the game (which they won – yay!) and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The only downside really was that I ended up covered in scratches as my opponent seemed to manage to avoid the umpires doing the nail check before the game. Scratches are one thing and they’re nearly mended but I’ve got a gouge missing out of the back of my hand – right across a knuckle – which is going to take ages to heal as every time I clench my fist I pop the wound open again – ick.

07 Nov
2006

The boat is out

Which is used in the same sense as “the jury’s out”, meaning the decision hasn’t been made yet, or the outcome is unknown.