Server upgrade notice

Posted 24 Jul 2008

Blog | 2 Comments 

Dear Gentle Readers:

Tomorrow morning, 25 July 2008, we will be conducting some upgrades to the server that hosts chickenmonkeydog . The upgrades are likely to take place between 8.00 am and 10.00 am Greenwich Mean Time, and should last only an hour or two. In all likelihood, you won’t even notice a difference in the performance of our website during the upgrade process, but on the chance that something falters along the way, we wanted to let you know in advance.

Thanks for your continued support of chickenmonkeydog.

What is your spell check name?

Posted 24 Jul 2008

Daily Life, People | 9 Comments 

Due to some rather unfortunate (but not terribly damaging) typos of late, I have changed the settings in Thunderbird, which I use to send and receive email. Now, Thunderbird automatically checks the spelling before sending an email. Better that way. Safer. Less embarrassing.

The other day, I was emailing an old friend for the first time with these new settings, when I was surprised by the suggested alternative spelling for my friend’s name:

Operandi! How James Bond is that, like Modus Operandi! Oh, now I wonder what my spell check name would be. My friend Kieran would be Operandi, but what would I be? I must have already added my name to the computer’s dictionary – since Thunderbird skips over my name without comment – and so I may never know.

All-around travel planner

Posted 23 Jul 2008

Events, Signs | 6 Comments 

About a week or so ago, I was driving into Oxford when I stopped for a traffic light. My eyes drifted to the row of shops that lined the London Road through Headington. I was struck by what I saw.

Now, there’s a full-service travel agent! Whether you’re travelling to the south of France or to the hereafter, they have you covered. Want a week-end break to do some hiking in the Lake District? Fallen off a rocky-outcrop and died? No worries! The good people are Co-op Travel and Funeral Care have you covered.

Random abuse

Posted 22 Jul 2008

Daily Life, The Little Things | 7 Comments 

Maybe this comes up more frequently for me than most of our readers, but I want to ask if it bothers any of you when people use the term "random" to describe the actions of a computer.

For example, in the office today I overheard someone bemoan the fact that the computer was "randomly" skipping over records that it was supposed to process.

I just prefer a more accurate description, along the lines of "I can’t figure out the pattern behind which records are being skipped" or even "the computer is occasionally skipping records".  There is always a reason that the computer if working in the way it does, and just because you can’t figure it out doesn’t make it random.

Mmmm … salty

Posted 21 Jul 2008

Daily Life | 3 Comments 

Sodium-chloride is the basic make up of common table salt. That little nugget of information got me wondering, if I am eating food that already has a high sodium content, can I just pour chlorine on top and take advantage of the sodium that’s already there?

Can any of our readers who know more about chemistry help me out on this one?