Fountainatious Sunsets

Went out on our travels today. Not very far though, since there is a really interesting place called Whitley Court just down the road. With a fountain they turn on at lunchtime:

There is also a church with a very impressive ceiling:

..and of course another sunset..

Worcester Source

The morning was a bit misty, but there was promise of good things to come.

Misty Morning

Then we went off down to Worcester to do some exploring. We went to the Commandery, a very significant place if you are into the Civil War (this sounds like the soldiers were actually polite to each other � but this is not the case). The Commandery was where King Charles II hung out just before the final battle of the war, when his forces were crushed by Cromwell and his New Model Army.

After lunch we went on to the Pottery Museum. Worcester has been involved in the pottery trade for hundreds of years, with skilled craftsmen turning out high quality porcelain for kings and queens amongst other people. No more. There are a handful of artists producing beautiful, but very exclusive, painted things, but hardly anything else is going on.. Last time we came, a few years ago, there were people glazing, firing, finishing and whatever. Next time we come I expect to find a block of luxury flats and a �pottery experience� where we can marvel at the things that they used to make when we were still in the business of manufacturing things. I couldn�t help but wonder what happened to all the people who worked there.

The good news is that we did get a nice sunset.

Daring and Bravery and Rain

Number one daughter did her brave thing today. She has been gathering sponsors for her abseil from the Humber Bridge and today she had to actually do the deed. I think the worst bit is probably just as you go over the edge, but she managed it and Dove House Hospice is now a few hundred quid better off thanks to her efforts.

Just twenty feet or so to go...

Once we had seen the display of bravery we had to scoot off to our holiday cottage for a few days "Away From It All" (tm). We set off in sunshine, and arrived in a cloudburst. I hope this is not an omen...

Happy Birthday with dogs

Number one wife and I are having a few days away from home. Before that we have number one's birthday to deal with. Having a son who is not only old enough to answer back but starting to become right more often than not is rather disconcerting.

I've started being slightly nicer to him (but only slightly) because, as the saying goes, it is the your kids who get to pick your nursing home....

To start with, we got him a lovely cake:



Just right for a budding twenty year old.... There are some embarrasing pictures involving number one son and rubber gloves too, but I'm saving them for later to make sure that I get a really nice nursing home.....


The day was considerably enlivened by a visit from Jake, the best behaved dog I've ever seen.



Your friend for life, as long as you keep throwing that ball.....

"You can't save everyone Alan"

Been to an exam board today. And getting stuff sorted out for the start of next term.

At the end of the Thunderbirds movie Jeff Tracy turns to his son Alan and, as the music swells up in the background, imparts a very important message:

"You can't save everyone Alan"

I'm trying to get everything ready all at once becuase I'm going to be out of the office for a while. I've come to the conclusion that Jeff is right (as well he might be). I can't get everything done before I go. So I'm just making sure that the most improtant bits are in place and I'll deal with the rest when I get back.

Blreary Eyed, but it was worth it

A bit bleary eyed this morning. Mainly on account of being up until one am last night getting a Playstation Portable on day of release. I wonder if I am getting too old for such exploits, but then again I truly hope not.

The machine is very nice. It fulfills my two major criteria: it is shiny and not that many people in the UK have got one yet. I think that will change in the future though, as the marketing gathers pace and the appeal of the machine itself (which is considerable) starts to shine through.

I've bought some games as well. I'm not usually that good at video games. I play through all the easy, "learning", levels of a game and then give up when they get a bit taxing. At least with the PSP I can put a video on at that point....

Driving Miss Daisy (and all the other Dukes)

Went to see Dukes (or perhaps Doooks) of Hazard tonight (seem to be watching a lot of movies at the moment - which is nice). On the way to the cinema nature treated us to a very impressive special effects show of thunder, lightning and torrential rain. Once we had got there, waded through the car park and found our seats it turned out that the film was OK. I mean, nobody is going to go to a movie version of a TV series like Dukes of Hazard and expect anything that special, but it did the job.

Things have changed a bit though in Hazard county though. Bo Duke has turned into a raving loon and Luke Duke now looks old enough to be his dad. Daisy is much more agressive than I remember and Sheriff Hogg has slimmed down a lot. But the car remains the same, and the noise it makes when they rev that Dodge Charger is about worth the price of the tickets alone. They must have got through quite a few cars.

If you go and see the film, stick around for the end titles where they show what happened to an awfull lot of vehicles. Take-offs usually went OK. Landings usually made the car shatter into little bits, leap over the intersection or dive into the bushes. Or all three. But a happy ending and a bunch of car chases, how can it go wrong?

Would this work?

Proposed email to all academic staff:

The sergeant looked down at the clipboard in his hands. Ahead of him stretched a line of people, desparation showing in their eyes as they waited for their chance to plead for the last few places in the sole remaining star transporter that would soon be leaving forever the doomed planet earth.

"And why do you thing you should be allowed to escape certain death?" he asked the nervous figure in front of him.

"Er, well, when Rob Miles asked for my preference for lab. demonstrators for the new semester timetable I gave him the information straight away" came the trembling response.

"Good enough for me" replied the sergeant, standing aside and allowing one more person through to salvation.

So give me the information please folks, you never know when it might come in handy...

Product Placement

Went to see "The Island" tonight. It is a "wham bam" action adventure with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson as clones (the product) escaping from the laboratory where they were grown as walking spare part repositories for their "sponsors". It takes a little while to get really going, but once it is under way there is a whole lot happening, including a lot of chasing.

Now I'm not particularly against chasing. I spent a lot of time aged five and six enjoying games of tag. But watching other people being chased for long periods of time does get a little wearing, even with the special effects and jazzy camera moves. You start to think "either they get caught or they get away, can we please cut beyond the chase and find out what happens next..".

Anyhoo, a pretty good film. It doesn't make any great philosophical points, the thing that it brought home most strongly to me is that people with small, rimless, glasses who speak with an english accent are very likely to be baddies, and if they are played by Sean Bean the probability rises to 100%.

The most important question for me though was this; If you have invented a machine that can manufacture Scarlett Johanssons, why would you stop at just making one?

Progress Bar

Progress Bar
Originally uploaded by RobMiles.

I spent a big chunk of today installing software. The way I see it, watching progress bars is kind of like work (in that something is working at the time) but you don't actually have to do anything - which is nice.

Time for a New Camera

If all goes to plan I shall be going away in a couple of weeks to America. Of course this means that I need to buy a new camera. The old one is very nice, but rather old, and I feel I deserve better. I have a big, special camera too, but I don't want to lug that around the 'states.

So today I did more damage to the overdraft in the quest for the perfect picture. The one I've got is a gem though. It is small, shiny, silver and takes super pictures. I've been wandering round the house in search of things to photograph:


IKEA Orchids

There are some more pictures on my Flickr account.

How to Make Your Life Difficult

There are a number of "Robert's Laws" that I have formulated over the years. Most of them have to do with computers:

• Any Given Computer is Too Slow
• Thinking About Saving Makes Your Program Crash

..but I do have some more general purpose ones:

• Every now and then, for no reason that you can ever figure out, something really horrible will happen to you.
• Every now and then, for no reason that you can ever figure out, something really nice will happen to you.
• An infallible way to make your life more difficult is to try and do someone a favour.

The last one sprang to mind today. Some time back, in agreement with rule two above, number one wife allowed me to buy a nice big LCD screen for my guvvy room. So we thought we'd offer the TV it replaced to a worthy home. In accordance with rule number three I offered it to a friend of mine without checking what number one wife had done with it. Result, a chum who has had the prospect of 28 inches of telly goodness snatched from under his nose. To make matters worse, it is the same chum whom I offered a telly last year, only to have the telly in question to toes up before I could deliver it. I hope Ian will keep speaking to me....

The View up the stairs

I've been taking pictures around the place again. This is the view up the staircase to my office. With a lovely blue sky right at the top.

Burn Baby Burn

I've been burning things again. Nothing dangerous or fire based, just EPROMS to go to Japan for a certain brewery. An EPROM (Eraseable, Programmable Read Only Memory) is a memory chip used to hold data, in this case my wonderfully wraught program code. They have a window in the top where you shine UV light to erase them and you have to use a special programmer to put stuff into them. The ones I'm using hold about the same amount of data as a 10 pixel wide column on your video screen (i.e not a lot).

Just look at those bits..

EPROMS are hard to work with, difficult to put into the circuit boards and completely superceeded by EEPROM stuff which doesn't need the window (but at least you can look at the chips in these babies). But people will pay me to make them. And soon the code in them will be hard at work putting date stamps on bottles of beer. I love the thought that, even as I write this text there is are programs of mine running in breweries all over the world, putting datestamps on bottles of beer.

I've also written code that flushes toilets. But that is a different story...

Back on the job

I've only been away for a long weekend, but things were pretty busy today. Dealt with loads of students who are writing project reports; marked a whole bunch of practical work; wrote some code for our reachout project and answered a slew of emails and forum posts.

It is great to be here(and I'm not being ironic).

Back to the real world - via cheap plates

Had to come back to the real world today. Went via the IKEA store, who were having a celebration which involved selling things for 10 pence. Including plates, clocks, dishes and some things that we can't presently identify. But for less than the price of a mars bar, who cares. So we got two.

Spent the least amount we ever have, and brought back the most.

Bronte Country with Added Words

Today we trundled off to take a look at "Bronte Country"(tm). This is the birthplace of the great literature produced by the sisters Anne, Emma and Charlotte. I've not read much of it myself; apparently there are no car chases, alien abductions or plots involving Westminster Cathedral.

However, the trip itself was very enjoyable, unlike the lot of the Brontes themselves. Their lives were actually pretty tragic, and horribly short. A little while after they had all succumbed to various illnesses a government man was despatched to take a look at the state of the village. He reported that an open sewer running down the main street of the village, surrounded by rotting rubbish, was probably not condusive to healthy living and a long life. The upshot was proper drainage and a decent water supply, but it came too late for the writing sisters who professed such a strong love for the neighbourhood that probably killed them.

Haworth is a great place to visit. The little village main street is full of interesting shops and the vicarage where the Brontes lived was very well preserved and has a great atmosphere. I've put some pictures on Flickr if you are really interested..

Then back to the hotel for the night. In an attempt to prove my literary qualities I took on number one wife at Scrabble. And lost.

In Hot Water

Went up town today. In a record shop which cannot be named (but the girl who it is named after can't get out that much) they have a huge window full of Playstation Portable boxes in a rather attractive arrangement. "That would make a nice picture for both my blog readers" thinks I. So out comes the little camera and I dash off a couple of pictures. Then a man comes up to me and asks if I have permission to take pictures. Of course I haven't, but I say I have anyway, since number one son told me to do it. "Is it written permission?" comes the response. Well, number one son hasn't written anything down, and so probably not. "I only wanted the picture for my blog" I said piteously. Do you know, the fellow didn't know what a blog was. Young people today.

I wonder if I dare go back into that shop ever again?


(and I've just discovered that the Blogger spell checker doesn't know the word "blog". Now that is scary.)

Jack Attack

previously on 24......

CTU Expendable : "Jack, are you sure that this clock is right?"

[BANG...BANG...WHOOOSH...BANG]

CTU Expendable : "uuuuuurghhhh"

Jack : "If only I'd got here sooner..."

Scary Post

Today we were all scared of the postman. He came up the path, pushed a bunch of fat envelopes through the letterbox and then strolled next door. We just sat cowering in the living room. For today was results day. The day that number one daughter finds out if the last two years of solid effort have been in vain, and where she is spending the next three years of her life.

Finally we dared open up some of the envelopes to discover that all is well. Good grades all round and a chance to spend three years in York as the prize. In a few months number one wife and I will be a childless couple. Of course the places that the kids (as I still dare to call them occasionally) have gone to have around the shortest teaching periods ever which means that they will be back in a startling short time. But it will still be a bit strange to have the TV stay on the same channel for more than 20 seconds at a time, and to find that the biscuit barrel still has some chocolate digestives left in it.....