All thriller – no filler
As part of our regular feature on new steam trains, I’m happy to announce that the second new oil-fired steam locomotive meant for the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) rolled out from the Golden Rock Railway Workshop on Monday.
You can read more at TheHindu.com.
Over the years my computer toolbar has established a small number of programs that I use all the time. I would like to use free* software every time, but there are some tools I use for work that I just can’t replicate with a free alternative. Some of the versions I use are ancient by today’s standards but do the job for me.
| Free* | Commercial |
|---|---|
| Thunderbird | SecureCRT (SSH client) |
| Firefox | WSPing ProPack |
| WinSCP | Navicat (MySQL management) |
| OpenOffice | MS RemoteDesktop |
| Dropbox | TextPad |
| Pidgin (instant messenger) | Fireworks |
*Free has two meanings in the world of computer software
Why not let me know what software you can’t live without, by filling in the comment box below.
I’m currently reading the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and very revealing it is too.
I’m quite a fan of biographies of people in the tech industry and this book is certainly one with the most in depth look at it’s subject’s personality. Perhaps that’s because Steve Job’s personality is more interesting than say Bill Gates!
I’m about half-way through the book at the moment and what strikes me is How did he do it? Almost everyone quoted in the book reminds us of Steve Job’s almost sociopathic personality. He bullied, berated and belittled almost everyone in his life. The fact that he achieved so much and that there is a cult of Steve Jobs amongst fans of Apple products is getting harder and harder to understand the more I read of the book.
I remember a teacher at school, Don Culver, always used to tell us “Hitler liked children and dogs but he was still evil”. The cult of personality seems to depend more on something built in to the person rather than their actions.
In the book I’ve not heard many quotes from people saying the liked Steve Jobs, or that they enjoyed working for him. But there’s no doubt he brought something out of those people that they might otherwise never have discovered.
A good read!
Bit different from my previous life…. 🙂
Are green buildings actually genuine or is it just lip service to get the planning?
I go past the Strata building in Elephant and Castle regularly and have never once seen the wind turbines going round.
The Telehouse West datacentre was hailed at “Green” during it’s construction but according to the press, the electricty from it’s solar panels only goes to provide charging facilities onsite for non-existent electric cars, and it’s heat exchange service ends at the site perimeter with no local housing within practical distance.
The Kinetica building I passed by on Sunday at Dalston’s Uprise festival and again no sign of the turbines moving despite the moderate wind.
The attacks on America 10 years ago today are being marked by many memorial events today. US President Obama is visiting all 4 sites and here in the UK there are many ceremonies and special religous services.
I was in Italy at the time of the attacks, on honeymoon with Jeanette. As often is the case when on holiday, daily news wasn’t part of the routine but on that particular day we’d turned on the television in our hotel room and watched in disbelief and then horror at the unfolding events.
The changes in American politics since has been dramatic and (to me) unfortunate – Guatanamo Bay, State approved torture, rendition. A survey into attitudes ten years after the 9/11 attacks has found over half thought that torture of suspected terrorists was OK, and a similar number favoured “harsh interrogation techniques.” It seems the USA has become desensitised to violence and I wonder if there is a way back to being the benign world policeman that has helped keep the globe largely at peace since World War II. On a more hopeful note, the survey also found that 46 per cent of people felt torture wasn’t justified. I wonder what a similar survey of UK citizens would reveal.
Why do students get a concessionary rate for renting a deck chair?
The text says:
Use hand and head — Training kid’s flexible for their proportion on the hands and eyes. Develop them imagination ability. Make a teaching fairyland.
Design munificent — It can be assemblaged detached over and over, and looks like vertiable. It needn’t any assist tools.
Perfect in workmanship — Materials are daintiness. Safety and slightly. Full of colour printing.
Regardless of the way it’s written it was actually great fun. Father and son had a good time putting it together. All for 100 Baht (=GBP£2) in Hat Yai.
Inspired by the best Edinburgh Fringe joke results, I came across these one-liners
A mate of mine recently admitted to being addicted to brake fluid. When II was at a cash point yesterday when a little old lady asked if I could
check her balance, so I pushed her over.
A new Middle East crisis erupted last night as Dubai Television was
refused permission to broadcast ‘The Flintstones’. A spokesman for the
channel said. “A claim was made that people in Dubai would not understand
the humour, but we know for a fact that people in Abu Dhabi Do.”
My daughter asked me for a pet spider for her birthday, so I went to our
local pet shop and they were £70!!! B******s to this, I thought, I can
get one cheaper off the web.
Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarves are not happy.
I start a new job in Seoul next week. I thought it was a good Korea move.I was driving this morning when I saw an RAC van parked up. The driver was
sobbing uncontrollably and looked very miserable. I thought to myself
‘that guy’s heading for a breakdown.’