The Bristol Proms held a competition to write a fanfare that represents the spirit of Bristol. The requirements for the score were that it should be for three trumpets and 2-4 minutes long (which is quite long for a fanfare). The submission also had to include a 200 word statement on why it reflected the […]

So Egg got taken over by Barclaycard. I’m not entirely happy about that, but it’s why I ended up having to go through enrolment for online account management with Barclaycard. Let’s see what passwords, etc, they ask for: 1. The first thing Barclaycard wants is a “memorable word, for instance your favourite colour or the place you […]

Just kept an Ammyy scammer[*] on the phone for 30 mins. It was my civic duty. His faltering English meant most of my usual time-wasting techniques wouldn’t work. Here’s what I did in case you’ve got one on the phone right now and want some ideas (please add more in the comments): Keep thanking him […]

I have a theory. Everyone who uploads photos to instagram with some sort of special effect* should be tied to a chair in front of a 10 foot searingly bright screen showing their original photo while a voice speaks over a large PA saying “the photo you took was crap, why do you think making […]

So here’s an odd thing. On Monday, I cycled home as normal, and coming round the corner onto our road I saw our car parked outside our house (about 20m away). Immediately I thought “I’d better check if that’s locked.” Initially I had no idea where that thought came from. Now, looking back at it, […]

Just a quick place to post this reply from my MP (Kerry McCarthy) on 17th March about my concerns about DEB being rushed through. I hope she doesn’t mind me posting it here. As you will be aware, the Bill was introduced in the House of Lords, and has gone through all stages there, being […]

UPDATE: The Norwegian Newspaper VG (Verdens Gang – roughly translated as The Way of the World and apparently not usually the most cerebral of papers) has included a photo from Bristol in its coverage of the 10:23 events. I passed the link on to a Norwegian very close to me, and she said: “I reckon […]

This is a comment I received from Thomas Britton of thetrainline.com, which I thought was worth publishing in its own post. Nice that he’s noticed and taken the time to write, and I’m happy my frustrations with their support people has been noted. The original post this refers to is at http://www.hairysocialistsforcatlovers.com/2009/07/14/thetrainlinecom-screws-up/ Hi Oliver, My […]

thetrainline.com – what a horrible mess. If you want to compare two journeys, you might think it’s OK to look for Journey A, open a new window to look for Journey B, then return to the Journey A window and continue to book it. Oh no… if you do that, Journey B’s data is the […]

This has been written about elsewhere, but thought it worth sharing since I’ve not posted much recently, and I find it both hilarious and very annoying. The Cisco ASDM – Adaptive Security Device Manager – is  a Java client (which, utilising all that is best about Java, only runs on Windows) that gives you a […]