XSet is the personal website of Rob Dudley, a 29 year old software and web developer who lives in the Channel Islands...
// September 28th, 2005 // No Comments » // Tech
Yeah I KNOW!!!
For some reason Wordpress has decided to muck up my comments … and everyone is appearing as an Annonymouse commenter. I’m working on it.
Update
Well that was fun. couldn’t work out what I had done to hose the install (but had been monkeying about in the DB) so did a clean install and restore. Everything seems ok. If you see anything odd then holler!
// September 27th, 2005 // No Comments » // Personal
What scintillating topic could rob have chosen for today’s post you ask yourselves?
Maybe an in depth study of the migratory patterns of Ibexes, perhaps a gentle debate of the implications rising from a Communist government, or maybe he’s going to talk about shoes …
Yeah – you read that right – Shoes. Or more specifically, boots.
I wear a lot of boots … always have. In school I was locked at the centre of a battle over my right to wear Dr Martens (polished and hidden under long trousers you understand) which nearly resulted in my suspension!
I’ve worn DMs Cats Sidi’s (and that’s a whole other post) genuine para-boots from my friend the royal engineer and any number of different styles of walking boot.
It’s tricky to explain to someone who doesn’t hike just how difficult and important it can be to get the right footwear. I have a lovely pair of Scarpa boots that I inherited from my dad when his feet grew too large for them (heh – middle-age-tastic) but they are a size 9 and I am an 8.5 so I have to wear BIG socks with them to get them to fit. Plus they really are too good to wear for day to day tronking around.
So I went shopping to our local outdoorsy shop (millets can go to hell as far as I’m concerned!) and began to look through their selection of boots. Unfortunately being an 8.5 puts me way down on the list of sizes these places carry lots of and the first pair I liked were only available in a 9. I tried them anyway and sure enough they were a revisitation of the Scarpa scenario. I then proceeded to work my way through almost every boot in the store. I thought I’d got it cracked at one point but they felt like they were going to break wrong (yes boots do break) so I decided not to risk it.
The thing about boots is that you know almost as soon as your foot is in them whether they work or not. The lacing up and padding around the store is almost superfluous. You stick your foot in the right one and it’s “hello”! After forty minutes I was down to a shortlist of two… the downside? They were both Berghaus. Berghaus kit is lovely but stupidly expensive. Fortunately the lesser pair on my shortlist were on offer. The downside? They were the lesser pair, only 2 season with a very light sole indeed and I had fallen in love with their big brother which was a 3-4 season boot, heavy duty sole, lovely finishing but was £40 more…
In the end it was a no brainer – they last me for years and will see me across fell and cliff, tarmac and festival and the extra pennies would be worth it if they remained as good as they felt today.
I’ll be going for a walk this weekend if anyone fancies joining me 
Just don’t expect it to be anything less than a crash test for new shoes.
// September 26th, 2005 // No Comments » // Personal
***Feminist disclaimer – before you jump up and down in the comments box please bear in mind that I’m joking! Got a problem with that? No? Then read on***
Some spunky young scientific types at Brunel University have taken a simple step to address a basic need in women’s lives – you can now get a handbag that illuminates itself.
Unfortunately, whilst the idea and implementation are ingenious the student in question has neglected to incorporate one key issue – women are incapable of being practical when it comes to shoes and handbags.
Just think of the number of times you have been invited to a posh do and the women arrive clad in gorgeous gowns with stupidly uncomfortable shoes and tiny handbags. Why do you think a suit has so many pockets? To carry whatever is left over once Ms. Stylee has filled her bag with … oh I don’t know … a pack of gum!
Now I know that I’m generalising here. There are some women who have very practical bags capable of holding all matter in the known universe but those bags are so massive and cavernous that the light would need to be about 1000 kilowatts to work.
So my commiseration’s to the students in question – it’s a great idea but it’s never going to fly
// September 26th, 2005 // No Comments » // Personal
Yesterday saw the little chores that denote the end of the happy warm, lengthy days of summer and herald the coming of the grey, squinting winter weeks.
The garden umbrella (a big green canvas and hardwood affair) was removed and stored in the garage. The swing was readied for storage with the cushions stripped and the cover tied down. No more white zinfandel evenings for us until next year.
I’ve noticed more and more that the summers seem to sprint past in a flurry of hazy mornings and cool evenings. I could put this down to global climate change but fear it is more a reflection of lifestyle change – we’re simply to busy to stop and appreciate the summer even knowing ow much we’ll miss it when it’s gone.
Winter on this little island is always difficult. Nowhere near as bad as Norway but still difficult. The homes become warm and insular with the weather turning nasty. So hears to the grey days of autumn and the damp and chill of winter – may they soon be passed.
// September 26th, 2005 // No Comments » // Personal
In fact I got my ass whupped.
I wish Ani the very best of luck in the next round … go get em girl!
// September 26th, 2005 // No Comments » // Personal
It seems that in a sneaky moment sometime this weekend Macromedia chose to release version 8 of possibly the world’s best web-site design and management tool – Dreamweaver 8.
At first glance it looks more than a little fantastic. Greatly improved CSS rendering being the main point of interest with PHP5 intellisense (or similar) included for the first time coming a close second. Looks like I’m going to be hitting the store in 30 days time!
// September 21st, 2005 // No Comments » // Personal
Benefits of flexitime!
I normally start at 09:30 which allows me to skip all that irksome traffic but does mean that I have to stay until 18:00 to make up the hours. Not a problem as it also means avoiding rush-hour on the way home as well.
so you can imagine my joy when I’m told, nay ordered, this morning to be out of the office at five! A while hour ahead of schedule… now the only question is what to do with my evening?
Unfortunately I can’t do anything too exciting as I am off to Guernsey tomorrow morning on the 08:00 flight – which means an 07:30 check-in which means an 06:00 start … yuck. So it looks like I’ll be heading home and going to bed nice and early to make sure I get up.
Ahh the glamour of an off-shore IT career
// September 21st, 2005 // No Comments » // Personal
Went hunting for an old post just now and realised – to my horror – that I was missing a load of stuff. I’ve re-run the import and thankfully it all appeared but now I have loads of the old categories back again… Time for another tidy up I think!
// September 21st, 2005 // No Comments » // Personal
Setting out for work this morning I ran through the usual pre-departure checklist – iPod, glasses*, bag, swipe card. Convinced that I was all set to begin my ride into work I pulled down my lid and hit the road.
And two minutes later was treated to an interesting sensation in my left ear. I listen to my Shuffle on the way into work. The music actually helps me keep my cool with the numpty drivers and adds colour to an otherwise pretty boring journey. To get the music into my ears I use a pair of Sony Fontopia ear buds (as discussed here). They sit good and snug and block a lot of the ambient noise you’d expect to encounter on a motorbike. And two minutes into my ride in the left one simply stopped working … nothing … no music, no crackle just the odd feeling of wearing one ear-plug on a motor bike.
This is particularly annoying as these are the second pair of this type of headphone I’ve bought and the first pair went the same way – the left can stopped working. But I will be buying yet another pair. Why? Because lack of longevity aside, I really like them. They’re small, light, great for listening loud without spraying sound all over the guy next to you and the sound quality is superb.
This time though I think I’ll go for them in white – see if that colour is any more reliable.
// September 21st, 2005 // No Comments » // Personal
Over the past few weeks there have been a number of occasions when I’ve been accused of counting down the days till I finish at MegaComp.
Let me set one thing straight once and for all – knowing exactly how many days (both calendar and working) I have until I finish is not a bad thing. The reason I have those numbers available for instant access at the fore front of my mind is imply because it tell some how much longer I have to get everything finished.
As it is I now have 17 working days left which seems a little less than I need to finish all my outstanding projects, hand over 3 years worth of work to various people, organise a leaving do (not sure why I have to organise my own but there you go) not to mention continuing along the day to day course that includes an average of 12 hour days (my longest so far has been 18 hours) and having, daily, to perform the very difficult task of completely switching focus.
I hadn’t intended this as a rant but can the people who criticise me for being organised for the first time in a good while do me one favour – shut the f#ck up!
