Category: Opinion
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Learning MacOS
I’ve just taken a job where I get a Macbook, and here I’m going to keep track of some problems I hit and what their solutions are. Some have no solutions yet – I’m keen to hear them if you know them! This is not a flamey list of things that are awful about MacOS…
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Good Meetings
I’m holding a lot of meetings at the moment, for a bunch of different reasons, and with different people. I’ve settled on some principles that I think are pretty universally true: All meetings are optional If someone doesn’t want to be in a meeting then they probably won’t gain anything from being there, and nor…
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Fortnine videos
Fortnine has another video: And this is a great demonstration of the standard form of a Fortnine video. They are not a discussion of the various views and theories on a topic, they are his view, backed up by some points he’s found that support it. This one, too, skips a bunch of stuff to…
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Scotland!
I’d booked a few days off work for a trip to Germany that Mian was planning, but then he crashed and couldn’t afford to go. I’ve made a few attempts at getting to Scotland in the past, each scuppered by other plans being made, and I’ve been hankering to have a go at a trip…
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All Year Riding Gear
I’ve had another discussion on Reddit that went on long enough that I thought I ought to put it somewhere more concisely. It began with the question “What should I buy, and how much should I spend, on all-year riding gear?”. For ‘all year’ or even ‘winter’ riding kit, I’d buy a decent set…
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Riding in Southern Ireland
France has some wonderful scenery but an awful lot of French people. Belgians are much happier to speak English, but have very straight roads and not many hills. Ireland, apparently, has some fantastic scenery and is full of people who speak a pretty recognisable form of English. And they use holiday money, too! So, I…
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Keeping a ride together – The Cornerman System
The cornerman system (or ‘corner marker system’) works pretty well for larger groups, and those with some slow and some fast riders; it encourages overtaking. If there’s only three or four riders, or everyone rides at about the same pace, follow the leader is normally a better match. Most forums try to explain the cornerman…
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Keeping a ride together – follow the leader
Everyone loves the cornerman system, which is explained both in great depth and with much convolution on most motorbike forums. But I quite like playing follow the leader, and much as it’s probably how you ride anyway, sometimes people ask how a ride is going to work. Here’s what I call ‘follow the leader’ and…
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Why I won’t be mirroring Wikileaks
I have a fair amount of ‘spare’ server space, and some very understanding service providers, and so it makes sense for me to mirror things in general, which I do. So when Wikileaks went down, mirroring it seemed quite a natural response. They need mirrors, and I have a mirror. I’ve been looking for something…
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Android Issues
Some of this might well be rendered obsolete by the 1.6 update I’ve just received. GMail Client No bottom- or inline-posting, only top-posting. And, while you’re at it, there’s no way to read the quoted text while replying. You have to read to the bottom of the email to get to the reply button, which…
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Why I like plain text email
Firstly, this isn’t an attempt at conversion. It’s here becaue I keep getting asked why I tend to send and prefer to read mail in plain text. I don’t really mind what you send mail in, so long as you accept that I’m not near an html-capable mail reader very often and if there’s no…
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Why I use Linux
This is one of those things that’s always difficult to explain. The bits of Linux that I miss on other platforms are not things that you immediately see as being of particular importance. The best example of this is the freedom – why would I care that I’m free to do as I please with…