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Tuesday November 08, 2005

Full steam ahead!

This weekend, I shall be driving one of these...

These are 1/3 scale model express trains on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in Kent. My wife, for christmas, has bought me a 'Steam Driving experience day'. It's going to be incredibly hard work, dirty, smelly and probably cold and wet, but it's one of those 'ambitions' I've always had...

...To drive a Great British Express Train.

Yes, I know the Americans had the biggest steam engines, but they were great ugly brutes. The british had the best steam trains, and we still have the 126 mph steam speed record. Our steam engines were the last word in speed, quality and sophistication. Third class travel in the 1930s was better than first class travel today. Steam trains ran faster, further and more frequently with longer trains that the dull electro multiple units we have now.

If you have any kind of engineering bent you will appreciate that one of these 4-6-2 trains are probably the most beautiful pieces of engineering man has ever made. I missed my generation here, as the last timetabled steam trains ran back in the late 1960s.

This is the next best thing. These little expresses are the real thing, just 1/3 the size. They run at 25mph, a scale speed of 75. It's going to be great, full report next week.

( Nov 08 2005, 02:21:09 PM GMT / Nov 08 2005, 02:19:38 PM GMT ) Permalink Comments [2]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/full_steam_ahead

Intelligent Design eh?

Robin already commented about this in his blogs, but since it was on the radio this morning and is one of my favourite areas of discussion I couldn't resist.

Ordinarily I don't give much credence to the creationism crowd, as I've found in the past that they play 'fast and loose' with science, taking what few documents support their point of view and disregarding copious amounts that contradict them.... not unlike the global warming brigade, and the politicians, and the prevaling scientific opinion...(cough, cough)... and thereby I've defined the problem, everyone has a blunt axe hanging around.

I guess the 'theory' of evolution (if it's true) implies there is no God and this gives the creatonists a problem. Interestingly though, I've spoken to a few creationists who also deny the theories of quantum mechanics, though oddly enough they are quite happy to enjoy using CD players and computers to churn out their material, funny that.

If you believe in God, then great, but you have to realise there is no way you can prove it. Faith is 'the continuing hope that a belief is true'. If you prove something you don't need faith anymore, unless your proof is wrong. If God exists it matters little whether he created the world in six days with the wave of an ephemeral hand or 4.6 billion years by instituting the laws of physics as we've discovered them. Religious types should look to their issues of bigotry, racism and sexism before they worry about such esoteric issues.

( Nov 08 2005, 02:11:28 PM GMT / Nov 08 2005, 02:11:28 PM GMT ) Permalink Comments [3]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/intelligent_design_eh

Welcome Sara to the blogosphere

Shouldering the responsibility for our IDM product line should produce some cool entries. Watch out for Sara's Blog.

http://blogs.sun.com/saragates

Welcome Sara!

( Nov 11 2005, 09:48:41 AM GMT / Nov 08 2005, 01:40:10 PM GMT ) Permalink Comments [0]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/welcome_sara_to_the_blogosphere

Thursday October 13, 2005

Do you suffer from constant tiredness?

Constantly tired, occasionally moody and irritable, generally a little bit unwell a lot of the time but with no obvious cause? Been to the doctor and testing for various things with nothing amiss? You might be suffering from the effects of this little monster:

Candida Albicans

It's basically a form of yeast which furs up your digestive system and gets all over your body, giving your immune system a constant unrelenting fight and draining your energy. It's a bit controversial, many doctors don't acknowledge it at all (ours hadn't even heard of it)

Check it out for yourself... Symptoms & Causes , and a simple (but a bit gross!) test you can do to find out if you've got it. I had it, and so did my wife - apparently about 80% of the population have it to one degree or another, and it's due to all the crappy processed food we eat.

So what can you do about it? Well, there is a diet which cuts out all yeast (no beer or wine!), all sugar (including fructose from fruit!). Which is a bit drastic.

On the Candida Society Website they do mention somne products which are supposed to help. I took an appropriately skeptical look at these, but my wife wanted to try it out (she's a long term tiredness sufferer) and we thought we'd give the most promising looking one a go - Threelac. I figured it might well be 'snake oil', but it was worth a try.

We both started taking it according to the instructions and to be honest, the first week was awful, the symptoms got a lot worse. This is apparently normal as the 'death' of the yeast dumps a whole bunch of toxins into your system (nice!). As you clear out though, I have to be honest and admit I've felt a lot more energetic. I can get up in the morning without a 'fuzzy' head and my concentration levels having noticeably increased. I passed the test the other morning with no problems. My wife had it worse than me but she is getting better too.

So it worked for us, it might work for you to. Worth checking out if you suffer from unexplained tiredness and generally not feeling 100% for no apparent reason.

( Oct 13 2005, 09:00:35 AM BST / Oct 13 2005, 08:36:54 AM BST ) Permalink Comments [1]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/do_you_suffer_from_constant

Wednesday July 20, 2005

He's been beamed up...

A sad day for trekkers and trekkies everywhere.

James Doohan, better known as 'Scotty' from the original series of Star Trek died today aged 85. Not a bad innings to be honest!

I've been a fan of the original series of Star Trek for as long as I can remember, boldly going where all the re-runs had been before. As a kid it was awesome and the theme tune and 'Space, the final frontier' still makes me twinge with excitement.

Thanks for some great lines Scotty.

My favourite was in the episode 'Trouble with Tribbles' where the Enterprise is infested with tiny but highly reproductive little furry creatures. Scotty manages to get rid of them, but when Captain Kirk asks him how he did it he looks a bit sheepish, before finally admitting that he beamed them all over to a nearby Klingon ship, where he assures the Captain they will be...

"No tribble at all." ;-)

Thanks a lot James, rest in peace.

( Jul 20 2005, 07:03:40 PM BST / Jul 20 2005, 06:54:22 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [1]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/he_s_been_beamed_up

Thursday July 14, 2005

London comes to a stand still again

But for a good reason this time.

Across the city thousands of people came out of their place of work and stood silent. Buses, Taxis and cars came to a halt.

I was standing outside our Sun Office at Monument tube and watched as the whole area became quiet at 12 o'clock. You could hear the bells of churches peeling across the city, a sound probably not heard like that for decades due to the presence of cars and buses.

Everyone was silent, facing into the roads, a clear message of uniformity and defiance against those who plan to wreck our way of life. You could have heard a pin drop, literally.

Then the moment was over and London was London again, normal, busy, traffic roaring, traders yelling and people scurrying for lunch, pigeons avoiding getting trampled on in the rush.

Exactly as it was before. Unchanged.

( Jul 14 2005, 12:59:59 PM BST / Jul 14 2005, 12:51:21 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [0]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/london_comes_to_a_stand

Tuesday July 12, 2005

London Bombings, thank God for paperwork.

Good to see that none of our employees were killed or injured in the bombings. Hats off to the emergency services and police. Even the politicians were to be commended and great to see a show of solidarity at the G8.

Particularly like this picture from a fellow blogger...

I was fortunate to have been delayed by paperwork on Thursday morning, otherwise I would have been in the thick of it around Aldgate. Never been so pleased that inefficiency caused a delay.

( Jul 12 2005, 09:42:45 AM BST / Jul 12 2005, 09:38:04 AM BST ) Permalink Comments [12]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/london_bombings_thank_god_for

Thursday February 03, 2005

Fight for your right to punctuate!

Call me old fashioned, but there was a time when even emails were written with atleast a reasonable amount of grammar, correct spelling and attention to form. Am I alone in making sure that the emails I send are written correctly; introduced; structured; and concluded with an appropriate sign off? It sometimes seems so.

My particular dislikes are as follows.

To many "!'s". A lot of people write emails as if they are suffering from some kind of exclaimation addiction!!!!!! Everything is terribly urgent or spectacular!!!!! You don't need to use more than one !, ok? !!!!!!

The 'Oxford' Comma. These are people who are trying to hard to punctuate correctly and add extra commas where they are not required. For example:

The car was red, powerful and fast. Is Correct
The car was red, powerful, and fast. Is just wrong!

Missing Commas and fullstops. This makes things impossible to understand.

Eg. King Charles walked and talked half an hour after his head was cut off.
>>> Kings Charles walked and talked. Half and hour after, his head was cut off.

"Soap/Friends" Speak. I assume this is trendy at the moment, but it drives me frantic. Come back Oscar Wilde, your country needs you.

Eg. She was like,"And?" and I was like,"No, cool", so she was like,"No way!" and I was like SO "Way!"

Nouns being turned into verbs, and the -ization effect These are mostly caused by Americans, so stop it!

"Let's whiteboard this." - Huh?
"She's gone all special forces on him." - What?
"We need to monitize this." - Shudder.
"I was burglarized at the weekend." - No, you weren't.

Misplaced apostrophes. Ye Gods!

"Its great being member's of the Hammond organ owners club." - Three howlers in one sentence.

Text Speak, or TXT SPK, to use the vernacular. F U N E T? C U L8R TTFN. Hmmmmm.

Management speak.

We need to marginalize our competition whilst proactively consolidating our highly leveraged position with respect to our customers. It makes you want to wash their mouths out with soap.

Missed opportunities. Where did all the semicolons and colons go? Nobody knows how to use them anymore; what a shame.

It's a shame really, but I guess that is the price of progress, but it doesn't have to be this way! Join me in starting a revival of punctuation, grammar and spelling! We're not alone in our pedantry!

( Feb 03 2005, 01:49:55 PM GMT / Feb 03 2005, 01:16:48 PM GMT ) Permalink Comments [8]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/fight_for_your_right_to

Wednesday December 22, 2004

Linux kernel, what no comments?

Hmmm...

Looks like somebody updated the blog s/w without telling us!

Don't know why you can't add comments on my previous article, but if you want to... add some here instead!

( Dec 22 2004, 05:49:47 PM GMT / Dec 22 2004, 05:48:23 PM GMT ) Permalink Comments [1]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/linux_kernel_what_no_comments

Friday December 17, 2004

It's just not cricket you know!

For various reasons I've had to restore my laptop (I run a dual boot JDS and Windows) and naturally I have to re-install various bits of software.

All goes well until I get to the 'Choose Language' bit, where I am presented with a list box of various choices. Living outside of the USA it's quite clear that we don't rank particularly highly on the lists of 'to dos', but with our country still being both currently and historically relevant (not to mention jolly handy in a tight spot in Iraq of late) you'd have thought that our language might have been higher up the priority list than Korean or Thai, but not it's not even listed.

I refer, not unreasonably, to the lack of support for 'English (British)' as a choice, it's nowhere to be seen!

There is something called 'English (United States)' which, as I'm sure you all know, is an oxymoron. I guess I'll have to settle for French, which is the closest language available.

It's either that or put up with all my vowels going absent without leave. Dear americans, missing 'u' as always... ;-)

( Dec 17 2004, 05:09:59 PM GMT / Dec 17 2004, 05:04:26 PM GMT ) Permalink Comments [5]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/it_s_just_not_cricket

Charles Dickins is probably turning in his grave...

I don't know how many of you have seen the Muppets take on Charles Dickins' classic Christmas story 'A Christmas Carol', but if you haven't it's well worth it, especially if you have kids.

Scrooge is played by Michael Caine and ably assisted by Kermit as Bob Cratchett, whilst Gonzo hams it up as the narrator himself, Mr. Dickins.

Anyway, since my eldest son is now 4 we thought it might be a good time to read him the suitably abridged version, with pictures, of the original story. This was well received by my son until we got to the chapter which introduces Bob Cratchett as 'Mr. Scrooges downtrodden book keeper'.

My son frowned, looked up and said, "No dad, that's wrong. He's supposed to be a frog."

Happy Christmas!

( Dec 17 2004, 04:48:41 PM GMT / Dec 17 2004, 04:48:41 PM GMT ) Permalink
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/charles_dickins_is_probably_turning

Thursday December 16, 2004

Welcome!

This is my first 'blog' and my first entry. I'll get around to adding some content soon.

Just to introduce myself, I am the UK Identity Management Community Leader, I've been with Sun for around 8 years, and have always worked in the infrastructure software space, most notably with Portals and WebServers. Identity Management is a fast growing and important technology space, so expect to see some more comment on that in the future.

Best wishes for the festive season and see you next year.

Cheers,

Drew.

( Dec 16 2004, 02:05:21 PM GMT / Dec 16 2004, 02:05:21 PM GMT ) Permalink
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/welcome

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