A school of thought exists in many database and system administrators that performance tuning is the highest of arts, the greatest of skills, and the loftiest of aims. Buy any system and tune it well - so goes the theory - and it will perform to a level unanticipated by your peers. You will receive […]
The Press release from Apple confirms it. Apple are moving over to use Intel chips. Probably the worst kept secret in mac fandom (well, it went from outside bet by most, to a dead certainty on Friday), but it makes a fair degree of sense if they’re not getting what they need and want out […]
I’m pleased to publish an article I have been working on for the last few weeks. It is, in essence, an overview of version control, but I start from the premise that it is badly misunderstood by a large number of technology practitioners. Because it is badly misunderstood, I strive to address the “justifications” I […]
I’m convinced that music is undergoing a massive change at the moment, and the BPI (equivalent of the RIAA in the US) are taking the fundamentally wrong approach in suing people who are downloading and sharing music. The reason they are distributing files “illegally” is no different from the practices of the past, when - […]
I’ve been getting fed up with /. for a while now, but today it officially “Jumped the Shark“. They posted a made up quote from Linus Torvalds that was used to illustrate a point in an article at The Register. A point that was deliberately provocative and hard to believe, to draw attention to some […]
I’d almost forgotten about this, until I stumbled on a mention of it. Back in 1998, I was nominated for the inaugural FSF award for the advancement of free software. Larry Wall pipped me to the post mind. But who uses perl anyway…?
Good news at last, as it appears Microsoft are facing a huge fine from the European Commission, at 10% of their global earnings ($3billion+ of $30billion earnings). I’m no fan of Microsoft, and it’s good to see a large governmental body somewhere hold Microsoft to account for it’s anti-competitive practices. I’m all for competition, but when […]
The BBC is carrying a report that Bloggers are visiting parliament to campaign for more MP’s to run weblogs. This is something I’ve been keen on for some time, as one of many ways in which politicians could better establish communication with their electorate, and go some way to mending the break down. Hopefully, some MP’s will […]
Apologies for the protracted silence. I’ve been working at a client site, and busy being sociable. I’ve simply not had time to update the site much in the last week or two, and the clients web filter has banned my domain I’m away on holiday next week, so the silence will continue for some […]
Bits and pieces
All go at the moment, so only time for a brief update: Wedding plans are proceeding well. We’re being cautioned by friends to stay calm as the day approaches, and I think we are managing that quite well. Got quite excited picking up the rings, as well as getting to see the finished product for something […]