I was listening to an interview with Clive James today where he asserted that where you have gross inequalities in income, such that a single family can purchase a politician, you no longer have a true democracy. I was reminded of this idea again on reading this story of a Texan billionaire and major Bush donor who was at risk of losing some of his property to the proposed border fence. But don’t worry, the latest plans show the fence ending at his boundary. That’s handy.
Just got back from my first day at the new job. Much as I’d expected, there’s lots to learn; I’m testing a back-end kind of application (sorry, did I just get too technical?), which means that just about everything you’re doing is either totally invisible to the user, or is just part of the magic that happens that gets the data they’re interested in to display. That means that testing is harder because you can’t just press the buttons, and harder because the functionality is aimed at developers (one of which I am not).
On the upside I am now the proud carer for a top of the range black MacBook and a 23″ Cinema Display. I also have a Mighty Mouse, but one day with that was enough for me to run to ASDA for a Trust wireless ergonomic one (£6.50, and as good as the Microsoft version that I previously favoured).
Must rest now, brain hurts.
Top tip for plumbing: If you’re connecting two pieces of pipe together use push-in connectors (like this, for example). No soldering, you can take them apart when you make a mistake (not if), and they don’t leak.
By contrast if you need a mechanical piece, like a washing machine connector or valve, choose brass fittings (like this). Plastic is too fragile to keep working if you’re going to be fiddling with it, so the extra hassle of having to tighten up the connectors to the right level is worth it. And while you’re there pick up some extra olives to go inside the brass connector; you’ll thank me when you make a mistake (not if).
I upgraded to 10.5.2 on my Mac yesterday, and found that screen sharing no longer worked when trying to control a 10.5.1 machine. So upgrade all your machines if you’re upgrading any, and as it’s almost a third of a gig in size it’s worth downloading the install if you have more than one machine.
Beta 3 of Firefox is out, and seems to be working well on my Mac at least, so worth considering.
I’ve used DropCopy in the past to move files between different machines, but iChat in Leopard (and maybe before, I don’t know) lets you move files between Bonjour users very easily. Start up iChat on both machines, open the Bonjour users list, and you can move files the same as in a normal chat session, but faster.
Finally it appears that WordPress automatically backs up posts as you’re typing, so that if, for example, you accidentally pressed backspace outside of a text box, thereby moving back a page, you wouldn’t lose everything. Hypothetically.
I’m installing a kitchen, and have spent the last 4.5 days getting a single cupboard into (the wrong) position. No, it’s not (just) because I’m inept, it’s because the people who built this house had a joyful, carefree attitude to plumbing that I’m having to correct. And then re-correct when I find that the taps I bought are non-standard. And then correct again when a pipe turns out to be in exactly the wrong place for a cupboard. And then again when the dishwasher can’t move back far enough because of a central heating pipe.