Recently in From Old Blog(s) Category

Well, it's been an interesting wee. I've been very productive in that the system I'm building for my final year project has come on in leaps and bounds. It's amazing how many user interface ideas from AOL and other various "all encompassing" systems are eminently borrowable for use in different systems. It's a shame that many of the features in their AOL implementations are irrevocably flawed. Take the AOL Companion for example, nice idea but, it doesn't actually add any value to my usage. And that fucking Paperclip from Office..... nuff said ;)

What does the phrase "small financial reward" mean? In the case I'm thinking about it means �500. Woohoo! Looks like I'll be able to afford to eat properly again ;) I know, I know, my obsession with Pastrami Pannini from Starbucks is hardly cost-effective and flies in the face of financial management, but, I find that one of those lasts me about 8 hours!

Oooh, random bits of humour from work......

(1) This one's anecdotal and from somebody who works for a rival company: A customer returned a bottle of wine they'd purchased and complained that it was several years out of date. I'm glad I didn't have to deal with the customer concerned and explain that a wines vintage indicates the year the grapes were harvested as opposed to a Sell By/Best Before date.

(2) A customer who came into the shop a few days wanted a chilled bottle of Chablis, which we didn't have. I suggested a fairly respectable bottle of chilled Chardonnay. Aforementioned customer turned their nose up at this. I didn't have the heart to explain to them that Chablis is actually made from Chardonnay grapes. Philistines.

(3) I purchased a bottle of Jacobs Creek Sparkling (made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes), which my dad saw and turned his nose up due to it containing Chardonnay. I asked him if he liked Champagne, to which he replied 'yes'. The fact of the matter is that -- which I was more than happy to explain to him -- champagne is made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes. Parents! :-D

Microsoft Access, the bane of my life at the moment. When you want to do something the way that Microsoft envisaged that you'd want to do it, it's a dream, an absolute dream. But, when it comes to doing something the way that will work best for the end-user, kaboom! Access goes to the dogs. All the work I've done developing this system, and it could probably be rebuilt in the space of a day if I chose to do so using VB6.

Microsoft, pah! They don't know their arses from their sodding elbows. Now, if I could be bothered to work out a way to get Nutscrape to start itself as a service so that it didn't take so damned long to load, (I know there's a pre-load option that gives it a tray icon, but that starts at login time, not at boot time) I'd be able to shift to that and ditch IE. Oh, and if the interface wasn't so damned cludgy. Now, where's that Netscape 6/7 skin I had that makes it look like IE......

Emma says:
and one afternoon one of my exs who I am still quite good friends with rang me as he had split up with his girlfriend and was quite upset
Emma says:
he was on his mobile and had a dodgy signal
Emma says:
and we got cut off....
Emma says:
so I hung up, and a minute or so later the phone rang again
Emma says:
I assumed it was him calling me back...
Emma says:
so I was just being silly and answered the phone "hello you're through to Emma's sex line what can I do for you"
Emma says:
AND IT WAS MY DAMN MOTHER ON THE PHONE