fullgrad05

fullgrad05
Originally uploaded by RobMiles.

This is the best picture of the bunch. Hand held at 15th of a second rarely comes off I find....

Living in FAST Times

Did the Faculty of Science and Technology (FAST) degree day today. Went very well, but boy was it hot. I love doing this degree day because lots of the students are ones that I actually might have taught once upon a time.

I tried to take some fancy pictures with my fancy camera. They didn't quite come off, but you can pull down what did happen from my Flikr pages. Just follow the link to my Flickr pages on the right.

Old Poetry

I really must lose things more often. You find the most interesting stuff when you go looking. Today I found the text of a lecture I gave way back in 1996 to the Business Archives Council Conference. It was based on one of my famous lectures in rhyme. I thought I'd share a bit of it with you. So here, complete with footnoes, is the introduction in all its glory.

Remember this was written a long time ago....

What is the Internet?

It began with the people at DARPA
Who liked to ring doorbells and scarper[1] ,
And worry �bout things,
A Nuclear War brings,
Like if all the �phones would work after...

So they gathered a bunch of young hippies,
The folks who made UNIX so trippy,
And asked for a net,
Which would not get upset,
When the heat made the wires go all drippy.

The network they built up was smashing,
High performance and not prone to crashing,
And quite soon they found,
Lots of traffic around,
On it more and more data went flashing.

So the net was then split into two,
To manage the data going through,
MILNET for the forces,
Their network resources,
And the Internet for me and you.

The name of the game�s co-operation,
With the folks on the next network station,
When data comes in,
You pass it on with a grin,
And no thought of remuneration.

And soon people they started to see,
You could move about data for free,
Just get on to the wire,
And datagrams fire,
Save enough paper to make a tree

It became a hit with academics
They could publish their great big polemics,
And if pigeon post fails,
They could just send emails,
About �Elementary Callisthenics�

Another use that they could choose,
Was to plug themselves into the news,
Not the stuff in the paper,
But a different caper,
With much more individual views.

World Wide Web is the latest new trick,
Sounds and pictures and screens oh so slick.
It�s so easy to put on,
Just press on the button,
Even if you are thick as a brick[2]

So now using networks is hip,
And cool folks all like data to ship,
They go out on dates,
To compare their baud rates,
And the size of their latest equip - ment.

But I don't think that it�s very funny,
That the suits who�ve got all the money,
Look at the net in surprise,
Dollar signs in their eyes,
And make profit predictions all sunny..

And everyone's starting to ponder,
�bout the spell we are presently under,
Will the net just keep growing,
More and more data flowing,
Or is this just a marketing wonder?

[1] If there are any people from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency reading these notes I aplogise for this slur but the rhyme was too good to miss!
[2] ....or even an artist!

Treading the Boards

Back in front of a live audience today. The audience in question were there for their degrees at City Hall. Yes, I'm back in charge of the ceremonies again and the mercury is climbing towards 30 degrees....

The good news is that there are now two of us doing the job. James took his first ceremony today and did a sterling job. "That's good." I remarked as we strolled back to the car. "Now I can step under a bus without worrying about who's going to look after the degrees". I said this whilst walking out in front of an ambulance which could I suppose have been very painful - in a rather convenient kind of way.......

Real World Madness

The "Crazy World of Rob Miles" is intended as a little, inconsequential, backwater of the internet where I can put stuff that I enjoy writing. It is not supposed to keep track of the outside world particularly. But, having forced myself to read the paper today, I feel that I really ought to mention the events of last week. I feel a great sadness and sorrow for those that have suffered as a result of what happened last Thursday morning. I personally intend to travel to London the first chance I get to ride around on the tube and the buses as much as possible.