Sunday, February 7th 2010
Twitter posts for Sunday February 7
  • Last night done, and it was fantastic! Now it's time for the aftershow party! (23:25:58)
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Friday, February 5th 2010
Twitter posts for Friday February 5
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Wednesday, February 3rd 2010
Twitter posts for Wednesday February 3
  • Sitting in the concourse like the intervening 22 years never happened. Can't reprogram this coffee machine, though. (16:51:54)
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Tuesday, February 2nd 2010

Jim Finnis
8:00PM

Tags: photo mobile
Twitter posts for Tuesday February 2
  • Well, that was weird. I've just been to a couple of first year lectures. (14:32:31)
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Monday, February 1st 2010
Twitter posts for Monday February 1
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Wednesday, January 27th 2010
Poor old Spirit

Stuck, at last, in the sand. Mind you, they've given it a good go trying to get it out for the past nine months or so. And what's really amazing is that it was supposed to last only 90 days, and has been going for six years. And it hasn't stopped yet - most of the kit on board is still working, it's just stuck. An amazing feat of engineering.

The last word, though, has to go to Warren Ellis on twitter: "Martian rover Spirit stuck in sand for good: which is of course what happens when you give a human's job to a skateboard."

Jim Finnis
1:05PM

Tags: science
Monday, January 25th 2010
Twitter posts for Monday January 25
  • Just saw student production of Lorca's 'Blood Wedding.' Great stuff. (22:04:27)
  • Ah, I love Casa Miguel. (00:30:58)
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Sunday, January 24th 2010

Jim Finnis
1:38PM

Tags: photo mobile

Jim Finnis
12:19AM

Tags: photo mobile
Saturday, January 23rd 2010
Twitter posts for Saturday January 23
  • Yay! Karmic installed and working well so far - seems quicker on this old and clunky laptop. Took nine hours, mind.. (22:59:13)
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Friday, January 22nd 2010

Jim Finnis
9:29PM

Tags: photo mobile
Monday, January 18th 2010
Why the iSlate is a big deal

Charlie Stross, in the comments on this post (on why he uses a Mac) explains:

the thing about the iSlate is ... we know Steve Jobs is just a little bit mad, right? I'm pretty sure Steve is chasing a vision. He's been chasing it since at least 1984, when he insisted on marketing the original Macintosh as a closed box -- perfect unto itself. He's polished this vision through successive products, and it gets a little bit more visible each time, culminating -- so far -- in the iPhone. What Steve wants is: a single, smooth, shiny device, like a sea-washed pebble. One control, and one only. You stroke it and it comes to life and light. It does what you want -- whatever you want -- smoothly and instantly, so intuitively it doesn't need a user manual, yet with incredible, unfolding, flexibility and power when you call for it.

This device does not exist. Arguably, it cannot exist. But Steve Jobs is trying to bring it into existence, because anything short of perfection irritates him to the point of throwing temper tantrums.

The iSlate is Steve's fifth attempt at giving birth to this Ur-device. #1 was the Macintosh. #2 was the iMac, or maybe the Titanium Macbook. #3 was the iPod. #4 was the iPhone. #5 ... will probably be the iSlate, and if it delivers even 10% of what Steve wants it to be, it'll be an eye-opener -- not because of any single thing, but because the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts.

See where the buzz is coming from?

Jim Finnis
11:35AM
Sunday, January 17th 2010

Jim Finnis
12:26AM

Tags: photo mobile
Friday, January 8th 2010
Twitter posts for Friday January 8
  • Attempting the walk down the hill. Maybe I should just slide down. (16:39:21)
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Thursday, January 7th 2010

Jim Finnis
9:09PM

Tags: photo mobile
In the Windows 7 kernel

Ooh, it looks messy in there. Some of the stuff about how they're resolving the DLL dependencies is interesting, although I suspect it'll make DLL Hell even more complicated.

I loved this particular gem, though:

Microsoft observed that 15 per cent of all user-mode crashes and 30 per cent of shutdown crashes were caused by heap corruption: applications that try to access freed memory, or memory beyond what is allocated. Its solution was a feature called the Fault Tolerant Heap (FTH).

If an application crashes a few times, Windows will automatically apply a shim that intercepts its memory operations. FTH will over-allocate memory, and keep a copy of freed memory so that attempts to re-read it will succeed. The user gets better reliability at the expense of performance, which suffers by up to 15 per cent or so, while buggy applications work better than you would expect.

Developers expressed some concern. Were their mistakes being disguised so that they would remain unfixed? It is a risk, though if Windows detects a debugger the feature turns itself off. You can also disable FTH, though not on a per-process basis.

Or you could write your operating system correctly the first time so that an application crash doesn't bring the whole bloody machine down.

Jim Finnis
3:47PM

Tags: computing windows
Twitter posts for Thursday January 7
  • In obligatory weather news, the slight hill into the close is now black ice. Any attempt on may leave the car in the marina. (17:22:55)
  • McVities' Chocolate Digestives, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. *nom nom nom* (17:22:10)
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Saturday, January 2nd 2010
Twitter posts for Saturday January 2
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Friday, January 1st 2010
Twitter posts for Friday January 1
  • Right, off out for our evening's entertainment. Happy New Year's partying! (19:27:53)
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Tuesday, December 29th 2009
Twitter posts for Tuesday December 29
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Saturday, December 26th 2009
Twitter posts for Saturday December 26
  • Doctor Who: Guh? (18:59:32)
  • Catrin says Merry Christmas too, or she would, but she's currently doing the heavy Christmas lifting. (10:53:15)
  • Merry Christmas one and all! Dolig llawen i chi gyd! (10:52:08)
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Friday, December 25th 2009
Twitter posts for Friday December 25
  • Safely arrived on Anglesey. Engaging Welsh circuits. Wedi cyrraedd yn saf yn Ynys Mon (15:11:59)
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Thursday, December 24th 2009
Twitter posts for Thursday December 24
  • Sitting in an empty pub waiting for the rest of the crew to turn up. Come on you sods... Good beer though. (13:03:45)
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Monday, December 21st 2009
Twitter posts for Monday December 21
  • I make the mince pies, Catrin sets fire to them! (13:53:40)
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Saturday, December 19th 2009
Twitter posts for Saturday December 19
  • Won 2-3, having been 2-0 down at half time! (21:23:29)
  • We're in time added on for petulance. (21:19:13)
  • At Park Avenue watching Aber Town FC. Bloody freezing, but very festive. (20:30:47)
  • Amanda Palmer, a webcam and a uke, making a point. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D9dxDREaCyjE&v=9dxDREaCyjE&gl=GB (19:00:16)
  • listening to a recording of the Piae Cantiones. Gorgeous. (14:54:07)
Jim Finnis
8:00AM

Tags: twitter
Friday, December 18th 2009
Bloody good for £2.75...

Jim Finnis
2:55PM

Tags: photo mobile

........... Older

Status

All very testy-testy at the moment. Please mail any problems to me at jim spot finnis monkey-with-tail gmail spot com. Hah, let's see the email scrapers decipher that.

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Gwir

Recent Comments

re 5465 Catrin wrote:

Look, explaining the finer points of Land Registration requires some visual aids ok.

25/01/10 10:53:36 AM

re Twitter posts for Friday January 8 Catrin wrote:

Going to Boganning.

13/01/10 05:22:25 PM

re Twitter posts for Saturday January 2 Catrin wrote:

Isn't that a hotel chain?

04/01/10 11:10:00 AM

re Twitter posts for Monday December 21 Catrin wrote:

Umph. I can explain....

21/12/09 10:29:18 AM

re 5443 Mel Rimmer wrote:

Mmm, purdy.

17/12/09 04:07:00 PM

re 5443 Catrin wrote:

Ooh, pretty picture. I couldn't work out for a while which side of the river it was.

17/12/09 01:14:57 PM

re Twitter posts for Monday December 14 Jim wrote:

Of course, but *read it again* They're not reserving the right to REFUSE to serve, they're reserving the right to SERVE.

15/12/09 10:08:53 AM

re Twitter posts for Monday December 14 Ben wrote:

That's completely legal. Any trading establishment can refuse to serve any customer without giving a reason. It's generally considered bad for the trader's reputation as a good place to do business, but they do have that option.

14/12/09 08:39:39 PM

re Getting festive in Shrewsbury Catrin wrote:

My God! I look like an advert for Werthers Original.

14/12/09 10:57:00 AM

re Twitter posts for Monday November 30 Catrin wrote:

You're not planning on dying of E Coli are you?

01/12/09 12:56:26 PM

re Twitter posts for Sunday November 22 Catrin wrote:

Muppet.

24/11/09 02:55:03 PM

re Twitter posts for Sunday November 22 Jim wrote:

Ah, but I don't think the installer could have reasonably foreseen that particular injury...

24/11/09 11:16:07 AM

re Twitter posts for Sunday November 22 Catrin wrote:

And clearly displaying better workmanship than the oaf who installed the thing in the first place - it needing to be replaced because it came apart in my hand. I could have been seriously injured...if the light pull had hit me in the eye, causing me to flail around blindly, then fall down the stairs and impale myself on a coathook.

23/11/09 11:09:52 AM

re Twitter posts for Tuesday November 17 Stephen Usher wrote:

Would you act in "The Wicker Man?" Edward Woodward would.

17/11/09 09:58:13 PM

re Irn-Bru Turkish Delight Jane M wrote:

I had the same petit four at that same restaurant in Edinburgh just yesterday - it was fantastic. We has the deep fried mars bars alongside. Superb.

11/11/09 10:35:53 PM

re Street Clippy Catrin wrote:

Er...I thought a clippy was a female bus conductor. I don't think they have them any more.

11/11/09 01:34:02 PM

re the secret to a happy marriage (for men) Catrin wrote:

I wonder whether the same thing from a different perspective is true - that happy marriages for women are more likely if your husband is five years older than you and less clever. Will Beyonce be as happy as Jay Zed is for example? Is that his real name. Mr Zed. Probably not - that's probably Mr Ed's brother...in a fez. I digress.

30/10/09 12:59:54 PM

re Things that wouldn't happen in Britain Ian Hatch wrote:

That is, indeed, awesome :V Also: http: // www.b3ta.com / challenge / britishamerica /

23/10/09 02:22:30 PM

re 5404 Jim wrote:

Hope she gets well soon

23/10/09 01:48:23 PM

re 5404 Nick Palmer wrote:

I've just picked up 45mg capsules for Alex today.

18/10/09 03:39:59 PM

re Irn-Bru Turkish Delight Jane wrote:

Ahh that explains it ... tho am tempted to try n make one up :)

16/09/09 10:51:11 PM

re geek/nerd/dweeb Will wrote:

"Scholasticism"?

16/09/09 11:54:22 AM

re Irn-Bru Turkish Delight Jim wrote:

Frayed knot - it was a petit four in a restaurant in Edinburgh. To be honest, I had to exercise my imagination a fair bit to taste the Irn-bru. Could have done with a bit more citric acid.

15/09/09 11:58:06 PM

re Irn-Bru Turkish Delight Jane wrote:

got a recipe?

15/09/09 09:49:05 PM

re It's not easy being small alec wrote:

look at the bright side - not braining yourself on door lintels every few weeks.

07/09/09 08:05:22 PM

re 5384 Nick Palmer wrote:

For some reason all I could think of was icanhascheezburger.com/2007/02/03/im-link/

07/09/09 10:37:06 AM

re Twitter posts for Sunday August 30 alecm wrote:

What, you mean like "ticking time-bomb" ?

01/09/09 12:03:43 PM

re cables Oz Sean wrote:

sweet dude - I've got a lumix lx3 at the moment and that rocks - but I really want a 5D MK 2 - $$$$ ouch!

01/09/09 12:55:06 AM

re cables Jim wrote:

Just a 400D - that and the Gimp :)

31/08/09 04:40:06 PM

re cables Oz Sean wrote:

that awesome dood - looks like some wicked SSAO and tone mapping! wot camera u using?

31/08/09 04:31:01 AM

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