We have a new young chancellor and it was his first budget this week. He made at least one schoolboy error. Did you spot it?
He forgot that profit = revenue – costs.
This is an important accounting concept often used when making accounts, financial plans, and budgets.
A while back I wrote to my MP. A few days ago, he wrote back. This is only the third time I have written to my MP and the first time I’ve had any reply whatsoever. It was negative but at least I got a response.
Many of my friends consider writing to their MP a waste of time. And they have statistically significant reasons for thinking that way. But is this a self fulfilling prophecy? I am coming around to the idea that in the system we pass off as a democracy many things stagnate through plain stupor.
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I’ve recently noticed that I frequently hold nonsensical ideas in my mind. Often these are pure contradictions. Merely attempting to describe these is enough to discover the problems. But there are also times where only the realisation of the ideas can break the illusion.
While playing Assassin’s Creed a couple of days ago, I realised that whenever I pick up a new game I first learn the limitations of my game character. In a way I get to relive childhood for a short time and truly experience what it is to know nothing.
After much searching I’m unable to find a simple reliable method to get video into a format that the PS3 can recognise and play. But I do have a recipe that works in the majority of cases.
For a long time I’ve wanted a better home office e-mail system and I finally had some free time to set it up. It took a while. The information and tools are all freely available. But they are distributed in many different places and it’s difficult to find stuff when you don’t know what to look for. So I’m documenting my set-up here for future reference.
I’ve recently been having some bandwidth problems. Although I have an “unmetered” account it appears I’m using too much. Actually it’s not all me, I’m in a flat share situation and it doesn’t make sense to have a dedicated Internet line each; at least it didn’t.
During the Blair wars I petitioned for impeachment of the PM on the grounds of lying to the house. And sure enough, 3 years and countless pointless deaths later, he voluntarily stood down to a standing ovation from his peers. (And let that be a lesson to you!)
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I found a link to an OSCON 2007 lecture on Haskell by one of its authors. It offers a good introduction to the language and an insight into its creation and development. The lecture also references a paper about the history of the language.
I finally saw Channel 4′s controversial Diana documentary. Normally I tend to avoid things like this. Our royal family holds little interest for me. But it was getting mentioned everywhere and I wanted to know what it was that had annoyed so many people. So when I noticed a repeat as I was channel hopping, I decided to check it out. I was glad I did.