Kind: Articles
Traditional long form content: a post with an explicit title and body.
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Ruth & JTA's Stag/Hen Party Weekend, Part III
With their wedding just around the corner, Ruth and JTA had a combined stag/hen party weekend, a couple of weeks back. You've probably already seen part one and part two - here's the finale! Click on pictures if you want to see them larger.
Sunday
A Simpler Breakfast
Compared to the big fry-up of … -
Ruth & JTA's Stag/Hen Party Weekend, Part II
With their wedding just around the corner, Ruth and JTA had a combined stag/hen party weekend, a couple of weeks back. I wrote a little about it already - here's the second of the three parts. As usual, click on pictures to embiggen.
Saturday
A Mighty Fry Up
Matt, Paul and I kick-started everybody's … -
On This Day In 2009
Looking Back
On this day in 2009 I'd just announced that Claire and I had broken up after our seven year relationship. I attacked Virgil's omnia vincit amor (love conquers all), countering that our love for one another was not sufficient to prevent the difficulties we'd been having. That the breakup was among the most structured, … -
Ruth & JTA's Stag/Hen Party Weekend, Part I
With their wedding just around the corner, Ruth and JTA had a combined stag/hen party weekend, a couple of weeks back (yes, I know it's taken me a while to blog about it. Here's some of the highlights. As usual, click pictures for bigger versions.
Friday
Jordans
Most of the party was to take … -
Traveling In Time(zones)
Just when you think you've got them figured out (and the application you're working on is coping correctly with daylight saving time), something comes along and blows your little mind. Like this, for example:
Suppose you're chilling out in Hawaii on some lazy Sunday. Cocktail in hand, you check your watch - it's midday. Midday on … -
Parsing XML as JSON
This morning, I got an instant message from a programmer who's getting deeply into their Ajax recently. The conversation went something like this (I paraphrase and dramatise at least a little):
Morning! I need to manipulate a JSON feed so that [this JSON parser] will recognise it.
Here's what I get out of the JSON feed … -
On This Day In 1999
Looking Back
On this day in 1999 I sent out the fourth of my Cool Thing Of The Day To Do In Aberystwyth e-mails. I wasn't blogging at the time (although I did have a blog previously), but I felt that it would be nice to do something to help keep in touch with my friends and … -
Civilization V Release Day
For those of you in the USA, at least, today is the release day for the much-anticipated Sid Meier's Civilization V. With the promise that this will be the most groundbreaking Civ game since Civilization II, I've managed to acquire a leaked screenshot of the very first thing that players will see when they launch …
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The Modern Programmer's Dictionary
In the field of software development, there's always something new to learn. Whether it's a new language, framework, API or methodology, your need to study is never through - even if you're a FORTRAN developer. But one of the more esoteric areas of your education will come in the form of the language programmers use, …
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The L-Word
I just thought I'd put some feelers out not for the first time, but for the first time online, to see if my theory is true that I am only only man in the known universe who enjoys the (now-finished) Showtime drama series The L-Word. If I'm not, will somebody let me know!
I have an … -
Right Feature, Wrong Project
Since I've been working from home, things with my "day job" at SmartData have ticked along pretty much the same as they ever did before. But once in a while, something goes wrong. Like this.
I checked my instant messenger, and saw a bit of text from my boss, Simon:
also, have you implemenmted a … -
Troma Night Adventure
Because I promised you some Aber-nostalgia.
Do you remember the RockMonkey Wiki? Many years ago, Ruth bought the domain name rockmonkey.org.uk as a gift for Andy K, who'd been nicknamed "Rock Monkey" for longer than anybody could remember. He decided that what he wanted to host there was a wiki engine, and I helped him get … -
Nostalgia And The Aber Effect, According To Other People
Strokey Adam just realised, in only his fifth blog post in the last 12 months, that it's now ten years since he first moved to Aberystwyth. I remember when I came to the same point, last year, and sent a scary e-mail to the new student who adopted my University username. In Adam's blog post, …
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Facebook Annoyance Of The Day
(rambling, ranty; I saw something on Facebook that pissed me off, and ended up ranting about the whole social media scene - no offence meant, and I've deliberately picked no examples from anybody I know or care about)
It's not as bad as setting up a Facebook group to recover your friends' mobile numbers after losing … -
Murder At The Magic College
A week last Sunday - just a couple of day's after Paul's arrival - Earth hosted a housewarming event combined with our latest Murder Mystery, Murder at the Magic College. While we've had our fair share of Murder Mystery Nights before, this is only the third one I'd authored (after Murder in the Reign of …