Category: General

A Noelinho.org Update...

Unfortunately, the pressures of life mean that Noelinho.org is currently taking a more back-seat role in my life than I would like right now. However, there are some developments that should soon be arriving on Noelinho.org and associated websites:

Ok, so maybe that last one needs a little explaining. I mean, the West Wing is a little old now, but it does still have a cult following. And you know what, if Lost can have Lostpedia, then the West Wing badly needs something to match. It gives me something to do.

Coming Soon On Noelinho.org...

There has, you may have noticed, been a distinct lack of activity on Noelinho.org over the past couple of months. Thus, I feel I should give a little taster of some of the things you can expect to find on Noelinho.org over the coming couple of months over the Christmas and New Year period:

Remember...good things come to those who wait.

Tablet

Tablet is a wonderfully Scottish way to die, and not to be confused with tablets, which are horrible medical things that are impossible to swallow.

I decided that since I can't buy tablet in Sheffield, and no-one seems to know what it is, that I would make some. I can tell you, since I am sitting next to it as I eat this, that the tablet I have made tastes wonderful.

Tablet gone wrong...

Unfortunately, the tablet doesn't look quite as good. In fact, it resembles a cat's litter tray. Of course, it still tastes good, but the appearance could do with a major upgrade...

So, a tip to all potential makers of Scottish tablet: firstly, use this recipe. It's a good'un. Secondly, don't make my mistake of either simmering the mixture for too long, or for letting the mixture set (and it sets very quickly!) in the pot. Otherwise, you'll get a cat's litter tray like me.

When I have consumed what is left of my kilo of sugar disguised as dessert, I may try again, having learnt from my experiences. And no, you can't have a bit. It's all mine - MINE!

Ok, maybe you can have a little bit. A smidgin, perhaps. I'll think about it.

Al Qa'eda: The French Connection

It has emerged that Al Qa'eda are struggling for support in Iraq because of some bad political decisions, such as banning women from buying cucumbers.

It sounds pretty funny really, but it transpires that cucumbers look like penises, so it is not appropriate for women to buy them. They can just stare at them in the market instead. But there is hope; they are allowed to buy tomatoes. Isn't that nice, eh?

The official reason is that cucumbers have been deemed a male vegetable, whereas tomatoes have been deemed a female fruit.

Quite clearly, there is a French connection. Think about it: il est le légume et la tomate. Given that the French have been accused in the Rwandan genocide (something I plan to come back to), I'm seeing a pattern here. We should be told.

Max Mosley And The Right To Privacy

I can't help but feel a (more than slight) unease about the way the case between Max Mosley and the News of the World has been played out over the last few weeks, but more so since the verdict in favour of Mosley this week. It was a slightly bizarre case, it must be said, but also, in my opinion, a completely unnecessary case, one that shows just how bad our media are.

I am glad that in the verdict this week, it was noted that Mosley, and others could expect privacy for consensual "sexual activities (albeit unconventional)". Now let me be clear about this: I am no fan of Max Mosley, and I am hardly comfortable with his choice of sexual activities, but at the end of the day, what does it matter? Why, just because people do not like what he is doing, is it ok to pay hookers to hide cameras in what is a private affair and make it public? I do not agree with his choices, but they are perfectly legal, and so, in that respect, his privacy should be respected. He has committed no crime. This is not something that really holds a wide public interest - it is nothing more than a snigger story.

The Daily Mail claimed that the verdict was a good day for the corrupt, and the Sun claims that what matters in your right to know. Why? Why is it so important that I should know about someone else's private life? Even the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has weighed in on the row, calling the decision a dangerous precedent that will needlessly shackle the press. Of course, he is writing in the News of the World, but I'm sure that doesn't make a difference at all. Nor does the fact that he comes from the Anglican denomination. No, that must be coincidence.

This is a real problem we seem to have. Our press are far too quick to try and assume some kinf of moral high ground, claiming to be exposing the indecent - though perfectly legal - behaviour of others - by using rather suspect means. They gladly moralise on one page about how our society has lost all morality, whilst on the opposing page, have almost completely naked women and have columns such as Dear Deirdre, which seem to be full of the very same things that they moralise about.

Quite why Lord Carey has decided to get involved, I have no idea. What's it to him? Are newspapers our only hope of upholding morality? Of course, he's coming from the viewpoint of "freedom of expression", but what's that? In my understanding, freedom of expression should be allowed without harassment.

We can disagree with what people do, but persecuting them isn't the right way forward. Isn't Britain meant to be known for being a fairly liberal country? There's not much evidence of it from here.

May I Incur The Wrath Of MrBen

I may get in trouble for this, but I think you'll agree, it's worth it. You may remember me referring to mrBen possibly needing to hide. Well, look below, and you'll perhaps see what I'm talking about!

mrBen wearing...very little!

Please note, mrBen warned he would kill anyone who shows this to his daughter in the year 2023...so I'm safe for a few years yet.

I just can't stop laughing. I was asked if I wanted to take mrBen's place last week. I'm glad I didn't. He looks so much better.

*Picture licensed by schwuk under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic Licence

LUGRadio Live 2008

I've just got back from LUGRadio Live 2008. I'm not going to give a review of the event right now, but instead, I'll leave you with a little ditty:

If you had gone down to LUGRadio Live,
You'd have been in for a big surprise;
A land full of geeks galore,
And for most, probably quite a bore.

Alas, there are some who like it so,
Debating how Linux can get the 'big mo';
Talking of robots and giving them rights,
Hoping they don't engage us in fights.

World domination, we talked about that,
Preparing to make the pyramid fat:
"It's the year of the Linux desktop", says Aq -
No change from his usual yack.

Then there's the Gong-a-Thong:
It's really quite wrong;
Not that it seemed to phase mrBen -
Though now he might have to hide in his den!

I'll leave mrBen to explain that one, because the pictures are interesting...

Noel's Latest Project Is Ready

Unfortunately, if you thought that meant Sassenach CMS is ready, you'll be disappointed. There are still some bugs that need fixing and there is some code that needs cleaning up. It is in a workable state, but not in a state that I want to release it in quite yet...

I do, however, have a project to show off to you. I have now made a Countdown Puzzle Page. It's not complete yet,  but you can at least try the quiz. Especially worth a mention is the algorithm that checks to see if your maths is up to scratch! Take a look and comment on it here. I will be adding some database functionality sometime soon, but I'll just let you get used to it for now. Have a crack at the problems and see how you do. I'm setting 28 points as a basemark on the challenge here, and in my personal opinion, the maths is hard. Anyone who can solve that in thirty seconds is doing well!

Have fun...and there's more in the pipeline. But I can't tell you that yet.

A Note Of Caution

I have a digital camera that hasn't worked very well for a while now. Basically, it doesn't work. With fully charged batteries, it would just about turn on. When plugged in to the mains, it turns on, then off again without hesitation. It doesn't really do the job of a digital camera.

So I decided to rry something. I put a couple of extra volts of power in to the camera - just to see what would happen, like. It killed the camera.

So, a note for everyone: don't put more volts through your digital camera than it's designed to take. In fact, maybe don't try it with anything else either (although sometimes it's useful with speakers; you can occasionally get a little more grunt out of them that way!).*

*I take no responsibility if you break your speakers doing this, but it's never broken mine. Throwing them against the wall and smashing them on the floor by mistake did, however.

Anyway, just a word of warning for you. It made no difference to me, though - the camera was already broken!

Fresh Priorities

Almost two years ago, I posted about priorities. I had spent the summer working for the Baptist Union of Scotland Youth, and as part of my review, I mentioned that I wanted to think about my priorities in life. Thus, I wrote about them in the hope that I might stick to them.

Well, not far off two years on, I can look back at them and say that I failed miserably - perhaps because I forgot all about them. I did not spend much more time on my degree, although I did start getting better marks; I never did start playing more cricket, let alone competitively; I didn't get involved in 5-a-side football; I started to get involved in the Live@215 music cafe, but then left the church I was involved in; and didn't really leave myself a whole lot of time to relax. I did, however, get involved in more societies, and joined the Societies Committee at Sheffield Union.

All in all, my priorities didn't get prioritised - or they changed. So, two years later, I've finished my degree. Maybe it's about time I looked at them again. So, just like last time, I should start with a list of what I already do:

So that's what I am doing at the moment. Of those things, there are few that are going to go away. Obviously, me degree is now out of the way, and there are a couple of websites for which I am no longer responsible. I have decided I want to continue to drive forward the Baptist Union's youth website as I have quite a few ideas for it. The Hoddesdon Baptist Church website will soon not be my responsibility, partly because I will no longer have any involvement in that church, but also partly because there seems to be little desire for that site to develop, and my aim is to develop websites rather than to maintain them. My church involvement will change very slightly, but will require just as much time as it does now, just in slightly different ways. My content management system is something I have really focused upon since the turn of the year, and I am aiming to polish off a release version very shortly and then take a much slower development approach.

So, that's what I do now and how that may change over the coming period. However, there are new challenges coming my way and new challenges  want to take up. So, what are they? Let's list them:

The last one is probably the most important, but also the hardest. Any suggestions for how to weave it in to the others?