I'm sick of all the stiffs, I'm sick of all the dips.

[reddragdiva]

• Best airport security experience evar (courtesy orbasm).

• What to do when your bank won't pay back your charges. (Warning: Daily Mail.)

• Andre The Giant: greatest drunkard of all time.

• Microsoft spin on Gutmann's scathing analysis of Windows Vista.

I feel tired and cold and crappy, and there's a metric fuckton of stuff still to do at home. So I shall not be doing B-Movie tonight, I fear, even though there were a zillion people I wanted to see. Bah! NEXT MONTH!

Most of the big stuff is disassembled. There's only the glass-fronted shelf in the dining room that HAS to be taken to bits and another set of shelves that should be. The bedroom needs boxing as well. I've booked a hire car again (Roger, we may not need your car, but your lifting abilities may be useful on Sunday) and the movers are coming Saturday morning. We should be in the new house by Saturday evening and moving last bits over the coming week.

Next Wednesday we get new ISDN. w00t! I certainly hope we get DSL before I go on call next Sunday ...

Now I need to go do my judging on the Uncyclopedia Poo Lit Surprise ...

Comments

[miss-amethyst.livejournal.com]

Aww =(

Hope you're better soon!

[reddragdiva]

Any other weekend, I'd pump myself full of Sudafed and codeine and party on \m/ - this weekend I have to move house!

[barakta]

*giggles at airport fun*

I don't travel to the US as I fear they'd get horribly confused by my cyborg implants and I would probably be scathing, sarcastic and downright rude if they asked me to remove hearing aids (which does happen, often in front of the queue of people).

Someone I know recently travelled with Ryanair and was made to remove their bodyworn BAHA (hearing aid), and 'no' wasn't acceptable - she put it in the 'recepticle' for some numpty to put another recepticle on top of it and knock it towards the floor.

It is only cos her husband grabbed the falling BAHA that it didn't get smashed to bits - ones like mine 'might' have survived. She was unimpressed, and has since received an apology for the way she was treated from the airport security.

aww

[gothicat.livejournal.com]

shame, mom wanted to see you :P

[siani-hedgehog.livejournal.com]

edwards got a couple of grand in charges back from his bank by taking them to court. before the case was due, they paid up, so as to avoid the legal precedent.

[miss-amethyst.livejournal.com]

Eeek! Not a good idea to be ill as well as a bit delicate from drinking then =S

Hope it all goes well for you's and hopefully see you again soon!

[seahorsemystic.livejournal.com]

take care, and I hope the move goes well.

[ravenevermore.livejournal.com]

Andre is legendary. I've put my hand in a cast of his handprint...
scared the piss out of me. There are some stories involving him and female japanese wrestling groupies that defy belief. But they're so weird they have to be true.

[seahorsemystic.livejournal.com]

by the way, I would love to send all three of you a post card from my travels.

When you get settled, if you want to, please email me your address in the UK, to Wellville@gmail.com

[secretlondon.livejournal.com]

Fair enough.

Good luck with the move!

[velvet-wood.livejournal.com]

Great... now I'll be thinking of that huuuuuuge man with half a dozen tiny, lovely little Japanese girls scampering all over him like a playground _all day._ There goes my productivity.

Truly... I don't think there's anyone of an appropriate orientation who ever saw him who could help but wonder exactly what it would be like. I mean... when I hit 5'10" at 13, I knew for a fact that I wasn't likely to meet a guy who could casually pick me up like a toy... but he coulda done me and a couple of friends all at once. Niiiiiice. Not my to my normal tastes, but there's always that little primitive bit of you that says 'ooooh... gotta try me some of _that!_'

Gutmann has been widely-circulated

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

I would imagine that, by now, everyone has read Gutman's warning (http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html).

Vista isn't happening on Wall Street this year. It's that simple. We do not know what the DRM code is doing, it runs at a level of privelege way, way above our own security systems and we simply cannot cede that degree of control over our operations. Let's not even think about malicious code masquerading as the DRM components of a device driver, or as a revocation notice; the worst of it is that bad drivers cannot be backed-out to a minimum certified functionality (like the basic 640x480 video mode) unless we have a long train of certificates permitting us to do so - and that train only needs to be broken once to cost us millions. Nobody has done any of the thinking about system recovery before they started coding driver revocation, and it's simply too late to put it in now.

What happen's in five years time is another matter: hell, we're only just getting 'round to XP. We do innovate, despite the staid reputation, and we do spend money if there's a measurable gain - and all too often if there isn't one - but we are very, very cautious about system changeovers because very subtle changes in our calculations can cost megabucks and the regression-testing to prevent that costs an eye-watering amount of time and money.

And yes, we're under a regulatory obligation to do the testing. Everyone is taking some serious operation risks if they don't, so - as usual - our regulations are actually no more than sound business practice and a valuable protection. But I bet everyone else in 'the real world' just wings it on 'upgrading' to Vista and hopes it all works.

Unless, of course, there are horror stories. Or quite possibly, even if there are; and what's the betting that the features of Vista be imposed on us anyway, in service packs to XP? Microsoft are going to do some very intensive news management in the next two years; cynic that I am, I believe that the advertising spend on Vista is more to do with financial leverage over the media than any need to open up a communication channel with the customer base.

But, however clever and well-funded their PR people may be, we will know. Investment Banks see everything: it's our business to know about every business and we will buy in the talent from firms who have made the upgrade. And, more importantly, we will buy in the talent from firms who have failed to make the upgrade; brush up your CV's fellow-geeks, the lessons you will learn have a realisable monetary value.

Hmmm... another comment that has grown too big. I think I'll post this in its own right.

Re: aww

[reddragdiva]

Give her a big sloppy snog for me ;-p

Re: Gutmann has been widely-circulated

[reddragdiva]

"But I bet everyone else in 'the real world' just wings it on 'upgrading' to Vista and hopes it all works."

Business desktops will not go Vista any time soon.

But you know what will? Execs' laptops. Shiny shiny shiny. WHOOPS, THEY CAN'T WATCH THEIR PORN!

Muwahahahaha.

[ashbet]

You know, I'd love to hear that story in detail sometime . . . I'm fully expecting my former bank to take me to court for about $350 in charges to my account at some point (long-ish story, but they overdrew my account by making an unauthorized outgoing payment, then charged me $50 per item that came in after that, even though most of the charges were under $30 apiece -- I told them I wasn't paying it and closed the account, and they keep sending me nasty letters.)

Good luck with the move, everyone!!

-- A <3