Doncaster Duty

We were at Doncaster today. That's two days in a row for exam boards there. We were a bit worried about flooding in the area (the college is very near the water) but it seems that they escaped, and their shiny new campus is just as shiny and new as it used to be.

The Doncaster folks do excellent work, with students delivering taught projects which are saving their employers literally thousands  of pounds. It is amazing how a little bit of the right knowledge applied in the right way can make a huge difference.

Pop Goes the Fuse

Got home today to find that half of the kitchen was without power. Since this was the half which contains the cooker it was into the bin with the chicken we were roasting and out to the takeaway for something in a cardboard box.

Turns out that a couple of fuses in mains plugs had blown for no reason. I found this out after I had shut down all the mains sockets in the house and power-cycled all the devices looking for failed power lines. Why this has happened is a mystery to me. Nothing else in the house has been affected, just the oven and the microwave.

It is a bit like one of those horror films, where they have lines like:

"Must be a power surge. I'll just go down into the basement/bilges/engineering and fix it". Cue ominous music followed by moving shadow followed by blood curdling screams.....

Update on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 at 09:15PM by Rob

Think it must be the microwave. Tried to do some jacket potatos and there was dull thud and the fuse went again. Oh well.

Colour of Danger

According to the radio this morning you are more likely to be involved in an accident if your car is coloured silver or black.

That is, the most popular color and the one that is hardest to see in the dark.

Do these people get paid extra money if their conclusions are extra obvious?

Alcatraz Life

So I got these "Alcatraz Rules and Regulations" playing cards. Each of the 54 cards contains a "Rule from America's Most Notorious Prison". I was hoping for something along the lines of "Transgressors who spit in public shall be hanged by the giblets from the North Tower until sorrye" kind of thing. So, what did I get:

Six of Spades : "You are required to work at whatever you are told to do"

Nine of Hearts: "At the wake up bell in the morning you must get out of bed and put on your clothes"

Queen of Diamonds: "You are not allowed to have money of any kind in your possession while in this institution"

Actually, it sounds remarkably like my life.....

XNA and C# For Fun and Profit

Writing books would seem to be quite moreish. As soon as you've finished one you want to do another. So I am doing. This time it is a fun packed programming book which teaches C# and XNA at the same time.

If you know nothing about programming but want to make your XBOX do cool things then this is the book for you. If you have a wobbly table and need something to put under one of the legs, then this is the book for you. If you want something with a lot of words to colour in, then this is the book for you.

I'm presently working on Chapter 4 (I'll put some sample chapters up once I've decided where to put them).

Ten lines of C# will get you this funky clock....