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December 31, 2005

Year in review

At the start of this year, I made some resolutions. I even reviewed my miserable progress with them back in July. So, the burning question, as the year end draws near... how did I do?

To get a bit fitter.
Oh well, there's always next year, eh? My indulgent, sedentary lifestyle continues to take its toll.
To drink less.
Working in a pub hasn't helped here. Still, now I have something to blame, in the form of our ongoing drink-sodden Armageddon. Ahem. Strictly the resolution was actually to drink less beer, mind, and I've achieved this by developing a taste for bacardi and coke...
Cook more often, and more interestingly.
Actually, since moving into my current shared house, I think I've done this, to some extent. Not as much as I planned, but a bit. I'm claiming this one as done.
To do more OpenGuides stuff.
The Open Guide to Nottingham now has around 600 pages, which is something. Still haven't unleashed my rusty perl-kludging skills on the code at all, though. Half a point.
Get out of (bad) debt.
Ha. Ahahahaha. Not as such.
Decide what to do with my life after university.
I'm pretty certain I want to run a pub, eventually, as many (read: all 5) of my readers already know. I don't think I'm ready to do it straight from uni, though, financially or personally, so I need an interim plan. It's vaguely there, but not concrete. Half a point again.
Work harder at uni, and get a reasonable degree.
Well, I'm pretty much on course for a 2:2 whatever happens now; not really what I wanted, but it's what I seem to be getting. Given I averaged a third last year I might be generous and take half a point on this one.
Blog more interesting stuff, not just tedious resolutions and progress reports.
I'm writing this aren't I? On the other hand I seem to be getting more hits now than I was before, so I think I'm going to arrogantly claim this one as achieved. I need all the marks I can get at this point...

2 done, and 3 half-done, out of 8. It's better than nothing, right?

This year I've started going to watch live bands on a semi-regular basis, as well as discovered a bunch of bands I like that I hadn't heard of, which I might get round to doing a separate entry on. I've been more political than ever before, leafletting for the Lib Dems during the election, and corresponding a few times with my local (Labour) MP. I've seen a record number of my friends (including the first of my school friends) get married, and some of my friends even went so far as to reproduce. And of course, I'm now just 6 months away from stopping being a student, and needing to join the real world. Eek!

Next year, I won't be doing "resolutions" as such, so don't worry, you won't have to slog through this drivel again. ;-) Here's wishing you all a happy and prosperous 2006!

Posted by James at 14:45 | Comments (1)
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December 24, 2005

My faintly humourous gift to you all

This blonde joke might be the best ever.

Posted by James at 11:40 | Comments (1)
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December 22, 2005

Forum software

Oh boy, am I going to regret asking this.

I'm looking for a web application. In particular, I'm looking for web forum software which:

  1. has a good security track record. I know no software is 100% secure (fuck off, DJB), but I don't want to use phpBB,
  2. is simple enough for a numpty like myself to configure and maintain,
  3. and finally, either offers some kind of gallery functionality, or ideally integrates with Gallery.

Geeklog looks promising, but I'm a bit confused as to whether I should be using version 1 or version 2. PHP-Nuke looks like it does what I want, but I'm not convinced about its security record particularly. Any other recommendations are welcome!

Clarifications:

Posted by James at 15:18 | Comments (5)
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Partial ban on blankets

It looks more and more like smoking in pubs (or at least some pubs) is going to be banned. Personally I'm in favour of a partial ban — dry-led pubs serving plated, sit-down meals would become non-smoking, and wet-led pubs, which are often "community" pubs, would continue to allow people to smoke1. This means non-smokers taking on bar jobs will be able to find pubs to work in without exposure to environmental smoke, pub food will taste better, and those pubs which would die under a smoking ban get a reprieve. Most of the sort of people who don't like smoking in pubs probably already mostly go to dry-lead pubs anyway. Everybody wins, or at least nobody loses all that badly, I think.

However, recent research from some economists at UCL, reported in the Observer, adds an interesting twist.

Children's health will be put at risk from passive smoking if the government bans smoking in all restaurants and bars, according to dramatic new research out today.

The study, which will provoke fresh controversy over whether a partial ban would be the better option, concluded that parents, particularly poorer ones, who are prevented from smoking in bars tend to smoke more in front of their children at home. Passive smoking has been linked to breathing difficulties and asthma among children.

Source: The Observer, 18/12/2005

Now, I think that these stereotypical poor parents prone to smoking in pubs tend to go to "community" type pubs most of all. Which in my experience tend to be wet-led. So would it be fair to say that, for the sake of the children, a partial ban is actually a better bet than a total, blanket ban on smoking in pubs? Then again, this all flies in the face of research showing that a ban on smoking in enclosed public places is likely to reduce the amount of smoking at home. It's all so confusing.

I guess that if the balance of research shows that public health is best served by a total ban, then I can live with it; I do worry that it marks the beginning of the end for community pubs, though. But then I work in one, I would worry about that kind of thing, wouldn't I?

1 Dry sales in pubs are food sales, generally excluding things like crisps and nuts. Wet sales are everything sold over the bar, roughly. Hence a wet-led pub is one where the focus is on drink, whereas a dry-led pub makes most of its money through meals.

[Update 1: I mean led, not lead, apparently.]
[Update 2: Looks like a blanket ban is now more likely ]

Posted by James at 03:07 | Comments (4)
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December 12, 2005

Token Phluid gig photo

Last night, I travelled 170 miles (round trip) to see a little-known band called the Yo-Yos, who it turned out had broken up some time last week. Bugger. In the end the bassist/vocalist, Danny McCormack, did a short version of their set with a little help from support bands Phluid and Any Given Day, and ended up staggering on stage to join headliners Antiproduct, who surprised me by not sucking as much as they looked like they would.

But none of this is the point, and this is where it gets slightly more complicated.

See, among the people I went to the gig with, was a guy who used to be in Phluid, generally known to their fans (apparently they have some!) as "Robbie G". A friend of ours had written "where is Robbie G?" on her t-shirt to show to the band during their set, ideally shortly before they realised he was in the crowd. And I (drunkenly) told her I'd try get a photo of the t-shirt to be a reasonably high result on a google search for the band's name...

So, check out the token Phluid gig photo, and if anyone fancies linking to it under the name "Phluid", I wouldn't be offended ;)

Posted by James at 12:43 | Comments (0)
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December 10, 2005

Yahoo tastes delicious

In a shocking-yet-inevitable move, Yahoo! have bought out my favourite multiplayer bookmark system. I still remember the initial excitement on IRC when Joshua set this up, and it feels quite odd to have been using the site through its whole growth, from fun idea to useful site to startup to web 2.0 phenomenon to Yahoo! acquisition.

On the one hand, it's nice to see that someone can still make money on the web by having a good idea and implementing it; on the other, the second the interface includes ads or requires me to have a Yahoo! ID, I'm out of there.

Flickr, I'm looking at you here.

Posted by James at 14:38 | Comments (0)
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