Matt Little's Blog

How not to translate Welsh.....

Matt Little — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:59:00 GMT

As reported on the BBC news website, a Welsh road sign written in both English and Welsh; the English version read:

"No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only"

the Welsh, when translated to English, read:

"I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated"

That's right, someone emailed the translator and got a reply and assumed that it was the translation - no, it was the out of office message!

Nicely done.

It has been a while....

Matt Little — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:47:00 GMT

Apologies for not having been around for a while.

What have I been up to in the last 6 weeks? Well, in no particular order....

I fell off my mountain bike whilst out with Alison practising for a 60 mile charity bike ride. It hurt. I mean it really hurt. I came off the bike and, after a few seconds of getting my bearings, stood up only for the world to go a lovely shade of purple accompanied by a wicked nauseas feeling. I assumed at the time that I had broken my collar bone (it hurt like hell cycling the 9 miles home) but it appears that I had separated the shoulder joint instead. Much better now.

I went on holiday to Cornwall with the family for some sun, relaxation and diving. The weather was fair - often warm, sometimes sunny with only occasional rain. I couldn't dive because of the shoulder injury noted above. Boo.

Didn't do the charity bike ride - see shoulder injury above.

Changed jobs. I left my job as Senior Developer and became Head of Development! I had realised over the past couple of years that while I still enjoyed developing computer systems, it was the managing of teams that really got me excited. I enjoyed planning projects and executing those plans, ensuring that the team was operating efficiently by using the right tools and process and developing strategy, not just code. My new role is great and I am loving it - stressful and busy, but loving it.

That is a brief update on my world - apart from that, all the usual stuff has been happening too, but I won't bore you with it now ;-)

Sholder Separation

Matt Little — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:22:00 GMT

It may not be a broken collarbone, but I can assure you, it HURTS.

Details here.

Windows Update Reboot Timeout

Matt Little — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 09:22:00 GMT

I might have posted this before, but if you want to change the amount of time that windows give you between suggsting that you reboot following the recent windows update, you can do the following (care of Microsoft):

1. Click on Start and then click on Run.

2. Type in 'GPEDIT.MSC' without the quotes and click on OK.

3. Within the Group Policy Editor, navigate to 'Local Computer Policy / Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update'

4. On the right hand pane, double click on the policy named 'Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations'.

5. If the automatic computer restart prompt needs to be completely disabled, select "Disabled" and click on OK.

6. If the default time interval needs to be changed from a value of 10 minutes to some other value, select "Enabled" and type in the desired time interval in minutes in the following box. Click on OK.

7. Restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

You can, if you wish, disable the reminder instead of changing the timeout.

Usual caveats apply - don't do this if you don't know what you are doing and remember that if you don't reboot, your machine is not properly protected.

Here be Dragons

Matt Little — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:33:00 GMT

I was using firefox 3 today and needed to add a site to the list that firefox will pass my windows credentials to. I have blogged about how-to before.

I typed about:config in the address bar today and got:

Very amusing!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Matt Little — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:59:00 GMT

I got out to watch the new Indy film at the cinema over the weekend. What was it like?

It was so predictable - you just knew what was going to happen next. You had seen it all before [when is he going to learn that when you have got the treasure and emerge from whatever cave/hole in which you found it, the bad guys will be waiting for you?] The characters were paper thin and the plot was almost non-existant. The fridge - the less said about that the better.

Was it any good? It was brilliant.

It was like being 10 again - just let yourself go and enjoy it - it is a real Indy film, not some modern remake of what has always been a bit corny and far-fetched.

The decision not to use too much CGI and instead concentraste on set-based effects really paid off - it looked like a film made 10-15 years ago and that just added to the warm feel that it gave you.

I can't remember when I last had so much fun watching such a rubbish film. I want to see it again :-)

BTW - spot the references to previous films throughout - recognise the hanger? See what was in the box? Why is the boy named Mutt? Where have you seen Marion before? Sankara Stones. And about 100 other things.

SQL 2008 Release candidate 0

Matt Little — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:47:00 GMT

The first release candidate for SQL 2008 can be downloaded here.

Some of the nice new features you can use are [taken from this website]:

Backup compression (25-35% at least) - huge cost savings and hey it's native! (note SQL 2005 encryption is not supported by product support but
Transparent Encryption - transparently encrypt the data without the application needing to be aware or know about it.
Database Mirroring Enhancements - compressed logs, more automatic fail over options
Policy Based Administration - manage policies across databases and even across instances and servers
Cluster enhancements - easier to configure and more scenarios that it supports including many in WS08 that provide more intelligence for failover
Resource Governor - limit wild database resources or control one database resources from another!
Easier to deploy - Easier to install, easier to configure, on and on
Reporting Services in SharePoint Mode (report builder rocks!) - easy reporting solutions built to leverage SharePoint mode with more flexibility and with ease.
Data compression - smaller databases with the same amount of data (compression will vary, but watch the overhead on enterprise environments or heavy used environments)
Powershell integration - super extensible and super scriptable

More in-depth details can be found here.

Call Data Analysis

Matt Little — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:43:00 GMT

I got a rubbish text message through from my mobile provider today offering my Travel Information at 75 pence per minute.

Although it might seem like an irresistible offer (not), I thought I could probably manage without any more 'useful' offers from them so replied with 'STOP'. Of course that didn't work (universal stop code? not that universal apparently).

So I called the mobile company and asked if they could possibly remove me from the wonderful offers that they keep sending me. They did so and told me that I had been removed from marketing via:

email
text
MMS
post
data call analysis

What was that last one? Monitoring my calls for, I am guessing, marketing reasons.

I don't ever remember that being clearly brought to my attention....

A Lot of Scovilles - feel the burn....

Matt Little — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:59:00 GMT

I was reading the Metro yesterday and discovered that the 'heat' of a chili actually has a measure. The units of this measure are scovilles. A 'normal' chili has a rating of about 3,000 scovilles; a Jalapeño pepper, which I think is quite hot, can rate up to 8,000.

The 'Naga' chili on the other hand has a measure of up to 1,000,000 scovilles.

It doesn't matter how the measure works, you aren't going to want too many Naga chillies on your pizza - that has to be one hot chili!

I've heard of thinking big, but this guy is an idiot....

Matt Little — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:17:00 GMT

Someone wants to cash a duff cheque to get some money. How much could you get away with without raising suspicion? $100, $1000, $10 000, maybe even $100 000?

No, think big. Think $360 billion big. Wally.

Story here.

James and Lou

Matt Little — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:23:00 GMT

Congratulations on your wedding and thank you for a wonderful weekend of celebrations.

Memories of spontaneous laughter breaking out during the service because of the actions of one of the flower girls and also being on the roof of the castle hosting the reception will last a long time.

I hope that you have a wonderful break in Brazil and look forward to catching up with you when you get back.

Bus Crash

Matt Little — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:21:00 GMT

Today was he second time in probably about 3 months that the bus I was on had an accident. Last time, the driver took a wing mirror off when he hit a lamppost, today a driver hit a parked car.

It was good to see that the standard approach to this is radio the details to control and then leave a note on the car (the owner was not present). At least they didn't run away without leaving a name.

The Olympic Torch and Airports

Matt Little — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:09:00 GMT

I can't even get on a plane with a small bottle of water or a nail file.

The olympic torch (flames, bang, boom, etc) gets on a plane no problem. That just isn't fair ;-)

Story here: "The flame arrived from Greece early on Monday, aboard a chartered Air China plane, and was greeted at Beijing airport by hundreds of flag-waving schoolchildren"

Sony Camera Drivers and XP Pro x64

Matt Little — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:30:00 GMT

If you have XP Pro 64 bit edition (x64) and can't get your Sony Digital Camera working, there is a (not so) good reason.

When you plug the camera in, it is recognised as a "Sony Digital Camera". Windows doesn't know what to do with this hardware. If you were running 32 bit XP, a driver file would explain that the device should be treated as a disk drive.

In x64, there is no such file to explain the link. Sony can't be bothered to produce drivers for x64, so you are in trouble. This nice forum here has written their own driver. To install, you'll have to switch off the 'signed driver check' though.

Now, why couldn't Sony do that?

Western Digital and eSATA

Matt Little — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:51:00 GMT

I got an external Hard Drive for backups last year and with the new computer, I could make use of its eSATA link (much faster than USB).

Only I couldn't. It just wasn't recognised by windows at all.

After much, much, much searching talking about altering BIOS settings and downloading firmware for the SATA controller, the answer was much more Heath Robinson.

It appears that the Western Digital drives need eSATA cables with a really long connector. As most companies put some plastic housing around the end of the cable, it tends not to go far enough into the WD drive. Answer? Get a knife and take some of the plastic off the end of the cable.

Thanks to this guy for having the answer and showing what to do.

The Scottish Government makes a real difference to our lives.

Matt Little — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:05:00 GMT

It is good to know that the Scottish Government is tackling the real issues in our modern lives. Teenage binge drinking, smoking, drugs, caring for cats,crime, the environment and other good causes.

!!! Caring for cats??? Yep, read the draft bill on 'Caring for Cats' here.

Good to know that out tax pounds are making a real difference to people.

They should have seen it coming

Matt Little — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:50:00 GMT

Remembering that Astrologists are often thought of as people able to see the future, you wonder why this webapge suggests that "unforeseen circumstances" caused the cessation of publication.

How amusing.

Not Every Switch/Maestro Card has an Issue Number

Matt Little — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:21:00 GMT

... when will websites start accepting that not every Switch/Maestro card has an issue numnber? I know for a fact that a couple of the largest banks in the UK issue cards without issue numbers on them.

So why make it a mandatory field when you try to buy something on a webiste? I'm looking at you FlyBe!

Free Range Chicken

Matt Little — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:17:00 GMT

There has been an interesting series of Channel 4 programmes recently covering the sale of Free-Range Chickens and Eggs whic goes under the banner of the "Big Food Fight".

Without getting into the right or wrongs of free-range (although I do buy only free range), I feel sorry for Jamie Oliver who is a co-presenter of the show extolling the virtues of free-range and explaining why battery production is wrong after this story came out.

In summary:

"Staff at the Cornwall branch of Oliver's Fifteen chain bought 360 eggs from battery-farmed chickens when a regular supplier was unable to meet demand. Last Friday a party of twelve farmers and battery egg producers were dining at the beachside restaurant when one of them discovered the eggs on a tour of the restaurant.

The news is a major embarrassment for Oliver, whose one-off programe Jamie's Fowl Dinners, which highlights the industrial methods used in chicken farming, was on air at the time. He immediately said that "heads would roll"."

Oops.

Snow On Cars

Matt Little — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 09:48:00 GMT

It has been snowing here over the past 24 hours. It was snowing last night, so people knew about it before they went to bed and yet, despite that, people don't bother to clear the snow from their cars before they leave the house.

A few things:

Driving with a car-roof-sized slab of snow 10 cm deep on top of the car is dangerous as it will come off at speed and 10 kg of snow hitting the road/car behind could cause a crash
Having lights on is useless unless you have removed the snow covering them
Having an A4-sized gap in the snow on your front screen or just clearing a football sized gap in the condensation on the window and leaving all other windows covered in snow is not enough to drive safely.
Doing normal speeds and leaving a couple nano-metres between you and the car in front is stupid
Approaching a turning at normal speeds when the road that you are turning into has 10 cm of snow on it is stupid
Trying to get up a snow-covered hill in first gear and wondering why you aren't moving and what that burning rubber smell is - stupid too.

Enough said. Thank you.

Christmas and New Year

Matt Little — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 09:41:00 GMT

We had a nice Christmas and New Year which was only slightly marred by the fact that we managed to pick up 2 separate gastric bugs over the holidays!

Back to work and welcome to 2008.

2 Weeks until Christmas

Matt Little — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 09:46:00 GMT

Actually, it is more importantly 10 days until I am on holiday - hooray :-)

The view from my office

Matt Little — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:18:00 GMT

I work near the port of Leith in Edinburgh and every so often a big ship will pass through the docks. Today we had the Grietje. It is huge.

Details here.

Picture courtesy of John McDowall:

Paper Free. Or maybe not.

Matt Little — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:57:00 GMT

I have opted to have all my bills from a certain company via e-mail. Doing my little bit for the environment and all that.

After having signed up for the scheme, I received an email confirming that my next bill would be via email.

Job Done... or so I thought.

They then contacted me to say that given the time in the month I had opted to receive my bill via e-mail, my last one had been printed and would come out by post - not to worry, they knew that I didn't want any more paper bills.

How did the tell me this information? In a posted letter, of course. So, I tell them no more paper please and the first thing they do after my email confirmation is write a letter to me!

Who said that big business doesn't have a sense of irony?

England Football and How to Flog Shirts

Matt Little — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 10:16:00 GMT

I don't follow football - I don't really like it at all.

Given that, it isn't a big deal to me that England are now not going to Euro 2008; actually, I now don't have to put up with months hearing about how "this is the year we'll win, we have the best team in the World, the best chance since '66" and then the amazement when we get knocked out in the first round, so maybe it isn't a bad thing at all!

I do love the optimism of KitBag [supplier of sports kit] for only reducing their "England Home Shirt 2007/09 with England v Croatia 21.11.07 Commemorative printing" by £10 to £29.99.

Do you think that there are going to be a lot of takers?

Edit: A colleague has suggested that Scot's fans may like to buy the shirts as a reminder when they next have to listen to "this is the year we'll win, we have the best team in the World, the best chance since '66"

:-)

Online Vouchers

Matt Little — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 09:46:00 GMT

Following on from the advice about using quidco, why not use some freely available voucher codes to reduce your purchase costs? www.myvouchercodes.co.uk lists some of the most popular vouchers available to use.

Have fun :-)

We are all doomed - it is official, the UK can't do maths

Matt Little — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:26:00 GMT

Which is lower: -10 or -20?

-20 of course, unless you are someone who buys lottery tickets - see this story for proof.

"The 23-year-old, who said she had left school without a maths GCSE, said: "On one of my cards it said I had to find temperatures lower than -8. The numbers I uncovered were -6 and -7 so I thought I had won, and so did the woman in the shop. But when she scanned the card the machine said I hadn't.

"I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it. "

"I'm not having it"? Having what? A clue about how to count?

Olympic Stadium - when do you start building?

Matt Little — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:02:00 GMT

I listened to the Today Programme on Radio 4 this morning when they interviewed someone from the 2012 Olympic Stadium building committee; he happily answered questions about costs and progress.

When questioned on the likelihood of starting building on schedule (about 3 months from now), the interviewee was pleased to announce that they would actually start work in less than one week. Apparently that had always been their target.

So you have a plan which suggests that you will start on date x but you always secretly knew that the actual build-start date was 3 months earlier.

What sort of plan is that? The sort of plan that means you aren't going to get any questions about why you are behind progress!

Lifetime warranty - for what exactly?

Matt Little — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:48:00 GMT

I bought some gloves today (well, it is cold) and they came with a 'Lifetime Warranty'. Cool. If you read the small print, it guarantees the materials and workmanship in normal use. OK, fair. It does not cover improper care (?) or accidents. Fair enough.

It also does not cover "natural breakdown of materials over extended time and use" What on earth does it cover then if it doesn't cover the materials falling to bits over time?

Can anyone help me with that one?

Spooks

Matt Little — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 10:58:00 GMT

How much like 24 has Spooks on the BBC become? The former has the count up to 24 hours (e.g. 00:00:01) to break up the show and keep the viewer on the edge of their seat and now Spooks has the counter of "Number of people infected" ominously rising as the show goes on.

Looks like it could be a really good series - only thing is that it is one episode in 10 parts. How annoyed am I going to be if (when?) I miss an episode?