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Gutterdamerung….
This morning at Pritchard Towers, I’d just sat down to breakfast in the smaller dining-room, and Jeeves was just bringing the starter course of three scrambled Ostrich eggs when there was a thunderous knock at the tradesman’s entrance, to which Jeeves noticeably grimaced… OK – I was half way through a chicken mayonnaise sandwich (Mayo expires
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Progress so far….
A few weeks ago I decided to try and get back in to regularly writing. This came after a conversation with my wife in which we recollected that in the 1980s I was able to earn about 50% of my income through writing – mainly technical journalism and technical books. There was one period where
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Unhappy the land that needs heroes….??
The line : “Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.” comes from Bertholt Brecht’s ‘Life of Gallileo’ and has stuck with me for many, many years. I can’t remember when I first heard it, but it still rattles around my head and so I thought to myself – time for a think. I don’t
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Today you, tomorrow me
The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is feed the cats, then make tea, then sit and allow some of my higher brain functions to come online, usually whilst browsing Facebook. There then comes a point where abstract thought is possible and then I like to write. The nice thing
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The JAMs
A new set of initials entered the language of British politics this week – JAM. They stand for ‘Just About Managing’ and refer to families or individuals who are just about getting by in the current financial climate, but who, by implication, might feel the pinch hard if the economic situation in the UK worsens.
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The Why of Spam…
Not the delicious and non-nutritious tinned pork product, but the unsolicited email. Spam has a long history: “On May 3, 1978, the Internet witnessed a glorious and not particularly welcome birth: The first ever spam email. Gary Thuerk, a marketer for the Digital Equipment Corporation, blasted out his message to 400 of the 2600 people
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Practicing thanksgiving
In a rare example of timeliness, I want to talk about thanksgiving. However, not just about the American holiday, but about the general idea of giving thanks for stuff. I know it sounds a bit Pollyanna-ish – if such a word exists – but I genuinely believe that to be thankful and to express those thanks
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It’s a dangerous world….
The Advertising Standards Authority managed to drag a wry smile out of me this morning as I read the news that they’d banned an advert for Heinz Baked Beans because it might encourage children to hurt themselves. The story is here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38073866 and the advert is based around playing the rhythm of a song on full
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The knees…a Friday afternoon design….
When I started coding, over 30 years ago, the backup and restore code in one version of Microsoft DOS was quite grim. In particular, it would allow you to backup your massive 10Mb hard disc (yes, 10 MEGAbyte) onto multiple floppies….and then fail when you tried to restore somewhere around disc 12 or 13. After