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.
Facebook is the latest craze at work. It’s another social networking site. This one connects people by tagging faces in photos. I’ve been meaning to scan in some photos for a long time and this was as good an excuse as any. In filling out my profile, I was forced to choose my politics and religion. It’s not something I’ve put much thought into before.
On the day before Christmas Eve, my mother died. It was quite a shock.
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I’ve recently been watching the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs video lectures. These are a boon to the programming community. I wish my school had just used these videos rather than attempting to teach Lisp themselves.
If you experience sudden, otherwise inexplicable, Internet access problems, you might victim to a black hole router. This week, it happened to me for the third time in two years. This time, I’m writing the experience down so that I don’t have to hunt around for a solution with a crippled connection again.
A mere three and a half years after voting to invade Iraq, MPs got their first chance to debate the wisdom of their decision. It is also the first time I’ve watched a parliamentary debate since that vote. It is time to review my opinion of our form of government.
I wrote a while back about LinkedIn. In that short time I have connected with 60+ colleagues. I had lost touch with many of them years ago and it’s been great catching up. LinkedIn has worked well for me but for others the experience was not as good.
I’ve long favoured self-documenting code over code comments. But I’ve recently reconsidered the issue. After years of dealing with self-documenting code I’m beginning to see problems. With hindsight I’m less sure that self-documenting code is always the best way to go.
I recently read a paper on confirmation bias: the tendency to focus on information that corroborates theories and dismiss information that contradicts them. It explained a general problem that I’ve noticed with many scientific studies (particularly in the field of software development) but I hadn’t been able to identify.
When my Nan recently died, my parents got an education in the cost of dying. For example, if you want a cremation, you have to get forms signed by two doctors. Each signature will cost you about £60. My parents were told that this was due to the case of Doctor Shipman. A little research showed this to be a simplification.