blog.jimbo.org.uk

Drink-sodden Armageddon, update

2006-07-21T17:44:01Z

Around 10 months ago, a number of people were predicting that the UK was about to descend into some kind of drink-sodden Armageddon. I mocked their use of this phrase at the time, thinking it unlikely. So imagine my glee when, in yesterday's newspaper, I found this:

24-hour pub laws fail to incite crime -- Independent, 20th July

The 24 hour drinking laws have not led to any more violence or vandalism after pub closing time, new figures show. [...] Their [the Home Office] report, Crime In England and Wales 2005-6, concluded: "The data show no indication of a rise in the overall level of offences as a result in the change in the opening hours."

Stick that up your Daily Mail and smoke it.

(Speaking of the Independent, their front-page infographic today is great.)

Social Notworking

2006-07-20T17:39:16Z

"Social networking" websites are all the rage these days. I think most people I know, particularly in my age group, have been a member of at least one at some point, even if they don't recognise them as such. The famous ones that actually went by that name were Orkut and Friendster, whose main basic premise was that you signed up, told the site who you knew, and it told you who they knew. You could search for other people based on various criteria, for reasons of employment, dating, or whatever. The principle was sound, but the whole thing seems kind of pointless to me.

MySpace is at least a little more directed — the site was originally a music promotion thing, where bands could showcase their tracks, maintain a blog, etc, as you'd hope they might on their conventional websites, but this way MySpace would provide all the technological wizardry and the artists or their promoters could concentrate on the content. Now, of course, it's degenerated into the same sordid evilness that chatrooms and web forums did before it, where naive young teenagers are courted by seedy middle-aged men pretending to be rockstars/teenagers/priests, kidnapped, abused and murdered, on an almost hourly basis [Source: Daily Mail statistics department] . Apparently bebo is very similar to MySpace, but I must admit I've not looked cllosely at it.

And then there's sites like last.fm, which have no reason to provide "friends lists" and "groups", except that people seem to want them. They add nothing to the value of the site, at least for me, but still I play along and add people I know on the site as friends. I dread to think what the people behind last.fm are doing with all this data about who my friends are, though.

On the positive side, Facebook doesn't seem to have succumbed to the usual social networking rot just yet; I suspect this is because they limit who can sign up, to people with university email addresses, or email addresses with specific employers. And signing up with such an address only gets you access to the profiles of people in the same "network", in general. These restrictions a) keep the annoying kids out, and b) stop people getting randomly stalked/harrassed quite so much, a win all round.

To be honest, I'm only really on Facebook so that, in 5 years time, I'll still have some chance of being in touch with the people I went to uni with. Experience of leaving university before tells me I'm unlikely to stay in touch with more than a couple of my contemporaries by conventional means. It's a bit like a pre-arranged version of Friends Reunited I suppose...

Are there any other social networking type sites out there of interest? Do they all suck as much as each other? Answers on a comment, usual address...

Enjoy responsibly

2006-07-16T03:19:50Z

Top tip for the day - if you're in charge of one of the world's largest breweries, and in a position where it's your responsibility to promote the responsible use of alcohol, it's probably best not to lose your licence for drink-driving.

And while you're there, Peter, what were you guys thinking with the lager slush-puppies?

Goodbye, Zizou

2006-07-10T01:01:25Z

I'm sure everyone knows this story by now, but I'm going to inflict it on you one last time. Once upon a time, there was a child born into an Algerian/French family, in a poor part of Marseille. He grew up to be a muslim, though he describes himself as "non-practising". He turned out to be pretty good at football, and after a few years in the French league, moved to Italian giants Juventus, then got bought for €66,000,000 by Real Madrid. For France, he played over 100 games, and scored two decisive goals in a World Cup final, against no lesser team than Brazil. 3 times he was elected as FIFA's world player of the year. But as he retires from football (his final game was today) he gave the world something much less impressive to remember him by.

It's a real tragedy, but this is now Zidane's legacy. What a terrible end to a great career. Football fans across the world will miss this great talent, I'm sure.

More valuable advice

2006-05-26T18:29:43Z

If you're going to be giving a computer to someone else, either for repair, or because you're selling it to them, it might be prudent not to have any personal or embarrassing data on the hard drive. See, for instance, the kiddie porn types who get caught when they take their machines to PC World for a checkup.

Or better yet, this guy who sold a broken laptop on ebay. What an interesting life he seems to lead...

Living together in harmony

2006-05-20T17:08:32Z

So, you're off to university next year, or perhaps you've been there a year and you're having to move out of halls. You're going to be sharing a house with a bunch of people you vaguely know, at best. You may well be a little anxious about how things will work out; no doubt you've had the same dire warnings I got about people falling out over who pays the phone bill and who buys more or less than their fair share of washing up liquid. Never fear, help is at hand! Follow these top tips, and you'll get on famously with everyone you ever live with...

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Don't buy more than you have to. Don't forget, you're an impoverished student. If other people in the house are willing to buy more than their fair share of bread, milk, cheese and loo roll, let them — more fool them, after all. If people start to question whether you're really pulling your weight, stay calm. Have some justification ready, and some "facts" (don't worry about them being genuine!) about just how little bread, milk and loo roll you eat, and they'll not only accept it, but probably feel quite embarrassed that they even asked. They may even buy you presents to make up for the offence caused. You deserve them, don't ever forget how great you are.

Your schedule should be their schedule. A lot of these damned layabout students like to laze about in the mornings, normally muttering something about having worked late the night before to get a coursework assignment done, or perhaps about not getting enough sleep because of the job they hold down to buy all that extra loo roll. Don't listen to them, they really are just lazy scrotes, and they're doing it on purpose. Singing loudly at 8am, or shouting to people 2 floors above you, is perfectly reasonable behaviour — think of it as doing them a favour! However, if they ever dare to make noise after your designated bed time (a very sensible 9:30pm, unless you've been allowed up specially to watch something on TV), you should be sure to let them know just how annoyed you are. Evil stares for a couple of days usually suffice, and once again they will realise your complete superiority, and practically beg you to be friends with them again.

Your degree is more important than chores. Never forget that doing that Business Studies and Basketweaving degree is your lifelong dream, and you need to spend every waking minute concentrating on it, or relaxing; you can't possibly be expected to spend time on silly little things like washing up, or cleaning the house. If you do end up washing up, be sure to do as bad a job as possible, hopefully they won't ask you again. If you're very lucky, one of them might even do some of your laundry for you! If you've managed all the steps so far, you're well on the way to being the most popular guy/girl around.

Your tastes are the only right options. You have way better taste than these guys. Take TV for instance. I mean, come on, they probably watch Countdown or something. Make sure you help them out by talking loudly over anything on TV they want to watch, but discourage them from talking over any of your favourite soaps — you've been working hard, harder than any of them, and you need that hour or so of escapism of an evening, before your cup of cocoa and bed. If they talk over the soaps, just be as disapproving as you can; don't worry, you are genuinely so much better than them, you'll be able to pull it off with ease.

Variety is the spice of life. So, just because you've bought the cheapest coffee Aldi could sell you, don't let this stop you using someone else's Nescafe whenever you fancy a brew. Just let them know they're welcome to try your Aldi stuff any time, and it tastes just the same anyway, so what's the difference? Don't forget, this applies to all food and drink, not just coffee!

Eww, rubbish! You're a cool dude, or dudette. Don't let anyone think you're the kind of person who would do stuff like empty the bin, or take the wheely bins to the street for collection. I mean, do they not have, like, maids for that? Bins are gross! (But, if you get any hostility on this one, just spend all day in your pyjamas/slippers — noone could possibly expect you to go outside then...)

Shower and shower alike. Don't you just hate it when you get into the shower, and find you've run out of shower gel or shampoo? Well, sharing a house means this need never happen again! Just borrow someone else's, they won't mind — in fact, they'll totally understand! While you're there, be sure to leave the sopping wet mat on the floor afterwards; no doubt since your housemates are such slackers they'll have plenty time to pick it up when they're cleaning the bathroom later on. (Don't ever be tempted to do this yourself — what would people think!?)

Going out. If you've been following all the advice so far, you'll be pretty damn popular. People are going to want you to go out and socialise with them all the time. But remember! If you give in to their demands too often, they might start to take your greatness for granted, and we can't have that. Try to limit yourself to going out with your housemates no more than once in a fortnight — that way they'll appreciate it all the more. If you have friends visiting from elsewhere, it might be convenient for you to make your rare trips out with your housemates coincide with seeing your other friends, too; think of it as making the best use of your incredibly valuable time and company! Don't worry about introducing any of your groups of friends to one another though, just get everyone together in one place and they'll get on fine — after all, if they're friends with someone as great as you, they must be great people too, right?

I hope you've enjoyed these top tips for student life! Good luck surviving the angry mob, around October or so.

"Football, innit, wot syndrome" syndrome

2006-04-19T00:34:22Z

I have very diverse social circles. But among some of my friends, there is this tendency to want to show disdain for something purely on the basis of popularity. The general MO is to see that something is popular, not make any effort to understand the thing in question, and at every opportunity criticise the thing, and all those who are interested in it. In particular, it is very popular to associate being a football fan with stupidity, racism, violence, or anything else bad, really.

Can someone explain to me why this is? JCM, I'm looking at you in particular, though you're far from alone. Just what the hell does football have to do with voting BNP?

Hunt for the H5N1.

2006-04-07T11:48:39Z

So the inevitable happened, the H5N1 strain of avian flu has been found in the UK. Quick, everybody panic!

Actually, I'm remarkably unworried by this. Attempts at developing a vaccine seem to be progressing, and the strain has still yet to make the leap to being human-human transmissible. Even when it does, the mutated strain may be relatively innocuous.

But none of this means video games companies shouldn't cash in. How long before we see a reinvented Duck Hunt for the H5N1 generation? Discuss.

Update

2006-04-04T13:37:49Z

It just occurred to me I've not posted since I talked about going abseiling — so this post is just to let people know that

I survived it,
I'm still collecting the sponsorship money, and retrospective sponsorship is welcome,
and if I collect everything pledged so far, I'll have raised £323.34 for Cancer Research UK

And now, back to writing a new website for my brother's pub.

Falling 190ft

2006-02-18T13:55:17Z

On March 12th 2006, I'll be falling 190ft off the tallest building on the University of Nottingham campus, held up only by a couple of piddly bits of rope. I believe this is normally called "abseiling". Cancer Research UK are organising the event, and, inevitably, I'm collecting sponsorship money for them. CRUK have asked that I try to raise at least £75, and I'm already over halfway to this target. If I raise £250, I'll get a voucher for a free helicopter ride, although to be honest I'm not keen to use it — if it's possible, I might auction off the voucher on ebay and give the proceeds of that to CRUK, or something.

No donation is too big or too small! If you'd like to sponsor me, (and assuming you won't see me in person at some point), the best thing to do at this point is to email me. I'll need to know your name, address, postcode, the amount you wish to sponsor me, and whether or not you are a UK taxpayer — if you are, CRUK can get a further 28% on top of what you sponsor me, courtesy of the government's Gift Aid scheme (assuming you're happy for them to do so).

My most generous sponsor so far has pledged over £30. Thanks, Carl!

Purely selfish point of view

2006-02-18T12:32:48Z

You should all go and sign the Petition for Public Access to Geographic Data in Europe. I won't even try explaining why, because Jo Walsh has done a better job of it already on the openstreetmap mailing list.

From a purely selfish point of view, of course, better access to free geodata in Europe would make running The Open Guide to Nottingham both easier and more useful, since at the moment three different types of data need to be entered independently for a given location, even though the data to calculate all 3 from just 1 is out there — the 3 types being postcode, address and co-ordinates.

Many ways to determine richness

2006-02-16T17:09:31Z

Everybody knows that Chelsea are the richest club in English football today, right?

Obviously there are many ways to determine richness, but according to this one, they're not.

Discover new bands

2006-02-16T16:08:10Z

Recommendation systems are all the rage these days. Last.fm has been particularly successful, and, at least in theory, lots of people use it to discover new bands they didn't know they'd like. Frankly, I've never really had much joy with it, perhaps because I'm not willing to splash out on a CD by a band some website thinks I might like. So what to do instead? Simple. Go to gigs, listen to the support acts, and observe what bands are mentioned on the t-shirts of other people around you.

Three bands I quite like, I would never have discovered except through this method, I'm sure -- the Wildhearts, the Yo-Yos and the Editors.

I don't have good alternatives to the Amazon or LOVEFiLM recommendations yet though. Suggestions welcome! :)

Four Things

2006-01-31T00:57:33Z

This meme seems not to want to lie down and die, so, given it now has some credibility after Anil posted it, I caved in.

Four jobs I've had

General shop assistant. That was fun.
Excel-tinkering-weenie for BNFL, then later for BT.
Barman.
Student. Is that cheating?

Four films I can watch over and over again

Four places I've lived
(Actually, I can only think of 3)

Four TV shows I love

Dark Angel
The West Wing
Have I Got News For You
Lost

Four highly regarded and recommended TV shows I've never seen more than a few minutes of

24
Little Britain
The Daily Show
The O.C.

Four places I've visited

California
Florida
Lausanne, Switzerland
Plymouth

Four of my favourite dishes

Chicken, topped with bacon, smothered in melted cheese
Anything from the Victoria
Thai red curry
Pizza, but not the authentic Italian stuff — the kind you get delivered at 2am because you're too drunk to cook.

Four sites I visit daily

My personalised Google homepage
BBC News
My Bloglines feeds page
Red Hot Pawn

Four places I would rather be right now
I'll ignore the fact it's nearly 1am, shall I?

At Rock City in Nottingham, for a gig.
Oxford.
Back in Ansdell with my parents.
Torquay. A prize for the first comment correctly guessing why!

Four more bloggers I'm tagging, even though I know some of them won't do it

Chris Chapman, precisely because I know he hates the idea of these things, but will still cave in and post it.
Carl Ebrey
TRJ
Rob Grant

Consider a spherical cow, covered in resistors

2006-01-17T22:59:01Z

(Anybody who didn't take an A-level in Physics may as well switch off now. Any readers who sat next to me throughout A-level Physics lessons may wish to consider that it might be their fault I wasn't paying enough attention to be able to work this out. ;-) )

This question's been bugging me for days. I did have an answer, but after a spot of googling showed me I was wrong, I realised I was talking rubbish.

Imagine, if you will, a flat square grid of points, such that every point is connected to the 4 adjacent points by a 1Ω resistor. The grid extends infinitely in all directions. What is the resistance between 2 points on the grid a knight's move apart? (e.g. 2 squares up and 1 across, WLOG) Or, for a simpler starter question, what about between 2 points diagonally adjacent? Or even just 2 adjacent points? (Is that as simple as just 1Ω? My hunch is no.)

Maybe I've missed something while googling for answers to this, but if anyone has a good solution I'd be very interested to hear it! Just to clarify, I have some numerical answers from googling, but I'm far more interested in how they're arrived at than what the actual numbers are.

[Update: Chris has considerably better google-fu than me, and found a solution for the diagonal case. It contains hard maths that I can't really justify spending the time to get my head around in the middle of exam season, alas. There's a paper with even more on this too. Eek!]