A Car Too Far

Things I have learnt about London

Matt — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 20:51:46 +0000

OK, I’ll start this with a bit of honesty, I don’t live in London. That’s not to say that I never will, I love the idea, even if there’s not that much call for over ambitious Systems Engineer in the heartland of this Nation, but to this day I have never lived in London. That having been said, I’ve still been battered, knocked, enthralled, enticed and ejected from a good proportion of the city’s attractions (and indeed atrocities).

I started this blog post sitting in Euston, writing it on my phone. The makes me two things.

A) A new age, trendy blogger and hip with the times and

B) A dickhead.

All the technology aside, I have found that since moving up north, my perspective on all these cool things has changed a little. It might well be unrelated to the distance, it might be just the fact that I’m getting old, but the things that once impressed and fascinated me have lost their shine. Take swanky London clubs for example.

On a recent visit to London, I was lucky enough to meet up with some people in the Mayfair bar. A nice enough place but you quickly get a feel for the place when you realise they don’t serve beer. A bar that doesn’t serve beer hey? That’s a bit like a prostitute that doesn’t have sex. All the things are still in the right places, but there’s kind of just no point to it. Anyhow, by the time I’d enjoyed a £10 “cocktail” or two, we moved on to (what is now known as) the worst club in London. Although we had called ahead and been told that they “didn’t have a guest list” (it was a Thursday night), we were stopped on the door to see if we had a reservation. (Kindly!) the door snob said she would “go and see if they could fit us in”. Three minutes later she returned and was generous enough to let our small (but perfectly formed) party in, to pay £15/person (which they were rather unhappy about giving any change from a £20) and we ventured into the almost completely empty room. I was then lucky enough to be able to pay £8.50 for a bottle of Tiger beer (yes, that’s not a typo) before being asked to move over because someone more important than us would like to use the table our drinks were on. The night had a wonderful conclusion when the birthday girl was invited to “get some air” (please be assured she was by no means “too drunk”, more than could be said for any of the other visitors!) with the promise that because she had her hand adorned with their stamp that coming back in wouldn’t be a problem. Of course they didn’t let her back in and we all made our way home, many hundreds of pounds worse off. The parting comment from the door snob? “So what exactly do you do for a job?” to the birthday girl. Well my dear, something a fair bit more worthwhile than robbing my customers. Besides, is it relevant? It would appear in London that yes, it is.

The whole episode was rather sad really and it reminded me of just how far into the pit some areas of our humanity have gone. The antidote? The next day we got up and spent a lovely day in the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. Attractions you don’t have to pay for and spend your hard earned cash funding some Londonite’s car fund. My big lesson here? Paying more certainly doesn’t buy you better service.

How many times have you promised yourself to backup?

Matt — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:30:56 +0000

I know some of the readers of this blog in person (and of those, a good deal of them I have fixed computers for) and I can honestly say that every single person that I have pulled out of the mud when their computer has crashed, has promised me that they will start backing up their data from now on. I’d wager that the most recent backup any of them have is the last time I did it for them (except for my parents that I now run a weekly backup on an external drive). Hmmm… external drive…. this leads me to my next point.

I’d be willing to wager that all of you who do backup, backup to an external drive, and store it somewhere near your computer. If you are doing this, well done, a good start BUT… ask yourself why you are running backups. I would suggest it is to protect against:

Accidental failure on your computer (hardware or software)
Viruses
Mishaps (water comes through your ceiling, fire, flood etc)
Theft (someone breaks in and takes your machine)
Deletions/lost files

Now consider, if your backup is next to your machine (or sometimes even in the same house), will your backups be lost too?

Accidental failure – Probably OK
Viruses – No, many viruses will be on your backups too (they sit around before dropping their payload)
Mishaps (water comes through your ceiling, fire, flood etc) – Backup probably lost too
Theft (someone breaks in and takes your machine) – Backup will be stolen too
Deletions/lost files – Probably safe

OK, so not so great so far! Don’t worry, there is a pretty simple solution and you CAN DO IT RIGHT NOW.

You’ve probably heard of “the cloud” in one way or another. The concept that things happen out there on the interweb and you don’t have to worry about how they happen you can just use them, well this is the perfect solution for backup.

If you want the details of HOW to backup to the cloud, ping me and I’ll write and article on the how, but essentially, it’s a hassle free way to make sure that not only are your files safe, but that you can access them anywhere.Being the tech head I am, I have gone one step further…

Many of you will know that I love my Windows Home Server (I have just increased it to 4Tb), but not many will know the INCREDIBLE WHS Add-inn I have been using. It’s called “CloudBerry Backup for Windows Home Server” and is a simple Snap in for WHS. Installation and setup is an absolute breeze and the real kicker is that IT BACKS UP TO AMAZON S3! Anyone that has used Amazon S3 will know just how many ways you can browse your files on it (I can connect to it from any desktop, as well as browse with my Andoroid Phone). One of the advantages of S3 is that once it’s been uploaded, you are not tied to any proprietary interface, you can use anyone you like (including the free S3 browser). I think the best way to show you how good CloudBerry is is to show you….

(Excuse the voice over!)

It will backup shares, you can make exclusions, schedule it, compress it, encrypt etc etc. It will do everything you like, including purge old backups, give file reversions etc etc.

I can’t recomend the WHS S3 version enough and I have read very good things about the desktop S3 version too.

Interested? Head over to Cloudberry Backup and have a look around. If you want to set it up, give me a shout and I’ll help you out.

Life Engineering – An introduction

Matt — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 17:04:11 +0000

Note: this post is a little bit “Tree Huggy” in that it talks about self development which I realise is not everybody’s cup of tea, so if it’s not your bag then just skip on and ignore it.

Over recent months I have done a considerable amount of thinking. A nice change, you might think, from my usual blind stumbling through life but believe it or not, when I put my mind (conscious and subconscious) to something I have some good ideas… or in this case a realisation…

For many years I have had an itch (no jokes please). I have had a niggling theory that there was some mileage in a particular article I once read. It was a piece by popular “self development guru” (?!) Steve Pavlina. It was on the subject of “How to get from a 7 to a 10“. In it, he addressed the idea that we regularly better ourselves in the areas of life we choose (define your own taxonomy for that; i.e. health, finance, relationships etc) but can’t seem to push past that “7 out of 10″ zone. Now there are many reasons for this; resistance to change, self imposed barriers, external barriers, motivation etc etc. but that’s not where I’m going with this. It’s a great read (as are many of his articles) which I might some day cover,

So, like I say, for a long time this has been buzzing around my head (see Inception) and I have spent quite a long time considering the consequences, solutions and possible strategies to this common problem. Being the person I am; fairly logical, digital (i.e I don’t like “grey areas”), methodical and holistic, I looked at how I go about solving problems in my day to day work. Being an Engineer, I have spent most of my life learning strategies, tools, approaches and techniques for problem solving. Indeed, Engineering as an approach could be exactly suited to this.

No I’m not saying that humans (especially the human mind) is mechanical, necessarily logical or suitable for the “Engineering Lifecycle”, I did, however, start wondering if it were possible to use some Engineering rigor to approach our lives and elicit a better “success” rate (whatever “success” might be defined as in each instance). It’s a line of thought that I’ve been following for a little while now and I have been surprised at the results. Not with me? Let me explain a little further….

A very basic four step problem solving process that we often use in Engineering is Deming’s “Plan, Do, Check, Act” (also known as PDCA or the “Deming cycle“). Take this process for example and consider how this might be a useful approach to developing an area of your life. You want more money? Well PLAN how you could achieve making more money. What next? Well don’t just plan it, DO IT. Don’t blindly continue on with your plans though, CHECK to see if it’s getting you your desired results. Is it? If it’s not, you better ACT upon what you have found to make sure you end up with more more. The PDCA cycle is an iterative process and as such, you go back to “PLAN” again and follow the cycle.

OK, so this might seem like common sense, “nothing special here” you might be muttering, but what about if we extend this a little further?

In 1906 Vilfredo Pareto observed the 80/20 rule. It states that for many events, roughly 80% of the results are caused by 20% of the inputs. Observing this rule of thumb can provide us with some powerful leverage when it comes to making changes to a system, especially to enhance performance. Turn this back on yourself and see what you find. Is 80% of your stress coming from 20% of your work? Is 80% of your commuting time taken up by 20% of the journey? Is 80% of your grief caused by 20% of your friends? Do you get 80% of your muscle gain from 20% of your exercises? Have a think about what is ACTUALLY going on in specific areas of your life and you might find some strong leverage to make changes that have big effects.

Again, nothing rocket science about any of this, these principles are not exclusive to Engineering anyway, but we can take this even further if we want to. For that though, you’ll have to wait until I get the chance to write the next blog post…

Understanding SQL Joins

Matt — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 12:53:24 +0000

Structured Query Language (SQL) is a beautiful, uniform language designed and used to provide a suitable way of accesing and manipulating data from a relational database. Correctly stored data can be quickly and efficiently created read, updated and deleted in a way that everyone understands. Well nearly eaveryone. Well sometimes nobody.

One of the most difficult things to get your head around in SQL is “joins” (essentially set theory) but really they’re pretty easy. I haven’t had call to use SQL for a while (note there are many forms of SQL (T-SQL for example)) but Coding Horror provides this beautiful explanation of joins.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/10/a-visual-explanation-of-sql-joins.html

Enjoy it everybody…. Ahhh, bask in the glow of enlightenment.

(p.s. SQL really is very good and it REALLY is pretty easy to understand)

Device drivers for OV511+ Webcam

Matt — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 17:04:25 +0000

This post wont mean much to regular readers (?! as if I was even a regular blogger!) but it serves as a page to help other who have been suffering from the same issue as me.

This Christmas the family was struggling with trying to make an old webcam work. Unfortunately it was a VERY old cam, with no marking that gave you a clue as to what it was or where it came from (memory tells me it was an old Safeway thing!) Anyway, the marking on it led me to http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids which persuaded me it was based on the OmniVision OV511+ chipsets. I FINALLY came across the following website http://www.downloadwindowsdrivers.info/usb/vid_05a9/pid_a511/ which provided me with the following files:

Drivres for OV511+ webcam

If you need some help, just post a comment.

Enjoy.

Never lose a game again…

Matt — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 16:56:27 +0000

This was sent to me by a geek / tech-friend of mine at work. It’s one of those things that takes a few moments to work out quite how it works but once you do, the genius cannot be denied. Such a simple way of both portraying a lot of information (all the permutations) as well as the demonstrating the solution set for the classic game of Tic-Tac-Toe.

This is taken from of the the many self indulgent sites I keep an eye on. If you know someone who is heavily into tech, they probably know about http://xkcd.com/832/

Mystery digital worm; hacking on crack

Matt — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 15:50:06 +0000

Having worked in a very interesting industry for a while now, I find it fascinating when I see very advanced technology that has been developed through collaboration. The story of Stuxnet is truly mesmerizing for a number of reasons, not least of all for the fact that it was developed by more than once person (or organisation) and THAT is amazing. It’s VERY difficult to successfully develop systems or software across company (or department) boundaries because very quickly the management overhead suffocates the ability of the individuals to perform at their best. I love the idea of a team being the “greater than the sum of the parts” but most often, when management “does its stuff”, more time is spent in overhead (reporting, restructuring, specifying etc) than on actually developing a good product.

Anyhow, and enjoy the link. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you you….. Stuxnet.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/26/secret-agent-crippled-irans-nuclear-ambitions/

Good Stuff to watch (Free Diving)

Matt — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 15:41:42 +0000

I think this is a lovely bit of footage and a fantastic soundtrack to boot. I don’t really know much about its origin I’m afraid, it’s just one of those things I came across and felt it was worth documenting with the world. Enjoy.

Your man should smell like a man

Matt — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:07:36 +0000

It’s a well known fact that I love being a man as much (or more than) the next….errrr man, but far be it from me to over extol the virtues of being macho. There are however some times when you just feel proud….

After watching this (and a string of similar videos) myself and Jim actually went out to go buy some. I am sad to report that ASDA do not stock it.

My advice for new house buyers

Matt — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:11:52 +0000

A friend of mine at work today announced that she’s now in the market for a new house and is looking around as a “first time buyer”. She asked a bunch of us if we had any advice. It got me thinking about it so I sent back my top tips when looking for a new house. In no particular order these are….

A House I'd like.... but can't afford

Understand that you can tailor your monthly repayments to exactly what you want by splitting your mortgage into “interest only” AND “capital repayment” in the proportions that fit you.
Come to peace with the fact that you will hate estate agents. When they ask what your MAXIMUM budget is and you tell the 150K, the first thing they’ll do is show you an AMAZING house for 160K. They will only return calls when it suites them and they are NEVER on your side (their commission is a percentage, thus the more you spend, the more they make. Of course they have to make a sale to cash in so they’ll push you to buy). Come to peace with their overpaid, immoral, egocentric ways and work out how much of it you’re willing to put up with.
Be aware that all your relatives and friends will use the opportunity to offload all the the crap that they can’t bring themselves to throw out and expect you to be thankful that they’re giving you their 1980s paisley curtains that have sat in the garage for 15 years. Politely decline and buy some crap from Ikea.
Ikea can be OK but mostly they wont have what you want when you want it. The staff will be clueless and less available than the yeti. You’ll come out late at night at the end of your tether and broke. You will have a cheap hotdog. 3 months later you will remember the hot dog and go back. You still wont fit the things you buy in your car.
Fixed fee solicitors are never fixed fee. They will always have “additional” fees that will take them (sometimes over double) their estimates. Often these are fees that they must pay directly on your behalf.
When someone says “don’t worry, you will probably remortgage after 2 years” calculate how much that extra “arrangement fee” will cost. It wont be worth it.
You will plan to “overpay” on your mortgage and will spend a long time asking difficult questions to the advisor about what the penalty will be and how much you can overpay per month. You will not overpay.
See if you can pay bi-weekly rather than monthly. Most companies wont let you do this now, but if you can, you’ll shave about 7 years off a 25 year mortgage whilst paying the same monthly amount.
Don’t be tempted to redecorate all rooms at once or your spend 6 years with a half finished flat/house. Do one room… move on… next room… move on etc. Otherwise you’ll get overwhelmed.
Don’t go for the cheapest workmen you can kind, if it’s too cheap to be true, it is. Go on personal recommendation and inspect work they have done for other people. This will save you money in the long run.
Simple things can change the appearance of an old flat more than furniture. New doors/handles, carpet, recessed lighting etc all look good. If not, get a pet and your house will look shit anyway.
Decide if it’s a house or a home. If it’s a house, do stuff that will help resale (make sure you have a bath, neutral colours etc). If it’s your home, don’t give a stuff about what anyone else says, go with what you like and deal with it when/if you ever sell.
Location is important but so is the feel you get when your inside your house.
Babies don’t like stairs. If you’re planning on having one, think about that before you by a 10th floor flat.
Use the opportunity of moving to throw out crap. Go in as empty as possible and build something you love.
Housewarming party BEFORE you decorate, housewarming dinner AFTER.
Minimalist is not the same as being tidy.
Dark colours make places smaller, mirrors make things appear bigger.
Chase cables into walls. It’s worth the effort.
Write a will.