Muddyfunkster: A Word to the Unwise

In computer news, I’ve converted to using Firefox – I tried to resist but to be honest it was inevitable, IE has slowly chipped away at me until I have no confidence in it whatsoever. I’m loving the tabbing in Firefox, as well as the extensions (a gadget geeks dream, plugin-toys to satisfy your gadget fix). I've already abandoned WMP 10 for Winamp 5 for the same general reason.

I’ve also bolstered my music collection thanks to a friend with a portable hard drive full of choons and videos (you didn’t see me, right). I now have around 60gig of music, so I have to get an IRiver H340 to listen to them on. After much deliberation I settled on that model - I'd get an Ipod but I'm not converting my entire collection to AAC, plus it has a built in FM radio which is very important for me.

Ok, I haven’t posted in over a month – mainly because I couldn’t be bothered writing about what I did over Xmas. So, I’ve decided to skip that and probably drip feed you tit-bits over the next few days. Needless to say I had a great time in Belfast catching up with old friends and the family.

Well, that was my first proper interview of the current spell of joblessness and I sucked. I was presented with a series of coding questions, most of which weren’t hard but all were designed to catch people out – and I stood in every man trap and steaming pile of poo laid in front of me. Of course, they were all C based questions, a language I haven’t done in earnest since Uni, and therefore there was the ubiquitous pointers/memory allocation question. I really should read up on pointers before going into these things, it’s a favorite question of anyone wishing to cause great stress and anxiety.

Anyway, I could see the results he was giving me and overall it wasn’t pretty. Ah well, I don’t think I would have enjoyed working there anyway. I think they were looking for a deep down dirty thick client coder and that’s just not me. In a Groucho Marx fashion, I wouldn’t want to work for a company who would employ me as a dirty coder!

I can’t tell you anymore, they made me sign a piece of paper………

In the latest stage of my job hunting hell I sat a psychometric test yesterday and it was bloody difficult. 3 separate multiple choice tests: verbal reasoning, diagrammatical reasoning and syntax reasoning. The verbal reasoning was pretty standard stuff, random passages and ambiguous questions – I might as well just pick all A’s. The diagrammatical reasoning was slightly more difficult. In fact it was the most difficult exam I've done since 3rd year Electromagnetics (where even the professor teaching the course didn't understand the answers).

Basically, it was transformations. A flow chart of symbols affected a stream of letters, so say ABCD goes through 2 symbols on the way down – each symbol transforms the letters in it’s own way – and DCB comes out at the end. So obviously one of the transformations swaps the letters around and another either removes the first or last letter (depending on the order). Now imagine that where there are 6 symbols, 4 input strings and 8 different paths through the flow. It then becomes a nightmare equation of letters. I had to answer 40 questions in 35 minutes and it was grim.

The last one, syntax reasoning, was more straight forward – making sure that lines of code in an imaginary language followed the correct rules given. Not hard, just tricky and I only got half way through.

Altogether not what I needed either on my birthday or after the weekend I’d had. The experience made me really quite down so I had a quiet birthday night with a Pizza Hut Meat Feast and an episode of Spooks. I've now got to go and finish the Screening Document for a different job application, 50 questions on why I’m the man for the job/company. Joy.

An action packed weekend all round! Friday night I stayed in, practiced for my test this afternoon. Saturday morning was the same, along with some work for my old job. Saturday night we went out for dinner to celebrate my birthday. I wasn’t really keen on celebrating it, I’m not big on celebrating my own birthday, but the girl organised it all and got the crowd round the table. My twin sister was there so we doubled it up and had twice the fun. We started with 3 bottles of champagne in the flat, kindly provided by the girlfriend, and then onto the Villager for a few cocktails before dinner. The restaurant of choice was the Point Hotel – I have to say the food was very nice indeed, as was the Viejo that went with it. Sadly, the service was atrocious – they were pleasant enough but totally incompetent and seriously under staffed (which finally climaxed in my sister tearing a few strips off the manager). Then we stumbled into the Hogshead for more shots and fun – I distinctly remember playing Mallet’s Mallet at one point. I don’t remember leaving, or going to the 24 hr shop on the way home, or making cheese and ham toasties in the flat but I’m sure I enjoyed that too.

Sunday brought much lethargy and a healthy hangover – but we dragged ourselves out of bed and went shooting at Cluny Claysover in Fife. It was my first time, and I only hit 1 in 3, but it was great fun and intensely satisfying. Look out for me on a rampage near you!

My birthday is actually today, so I’ve spent the morning opening presents. The highlights so far being a load of clothes (from the fashion expert girlfriend), some DVD’s and an amazing wireless mouse that controls your media centre! So now I can control the lappy when it’s playing tunes through my surround sound system. Happy days!

I’m not looking forward to my test this avo, it’s like being at Uni again and I'm heading to an exam that I've not prepared for and not even been the classes!

As part of my career development (ie not wanting to be unemployed) I’ve got several bites on the line – both contract and permanent. One of the permy jobs requires me to pass some Psychometric tests; verbal, diagrammatic and syntax reasoning. I’ve been practicing them, as much as it is possible to practice them, and they are bloody hard! I got 92% in the numerical tests, but that skill won’t be tested. I’m only average at the verbal and diagrammatic tests which are on the menu, so all in all I’m bricking it!

If you fancy giving them a go I recommend this one http://www.derby.ac.uk/careers/onlinepsychotesting.htm

Recruitment Consultancy is a cut throat business, one which I’ve never been overly impressed with. They make money being the middle men, you do the work, you have experience yet they get a little chunk of your earnings (or a lump sum) just for taking a handle full of people from a list and matching them to a job. Some would say parasite, other would say necessary evil.

Either way, I submitted my CV to a couple of websites yesterday and was immediately inundated with calls. Altogether 7 agencies called (many of them calling repeatedly throughout the day for more details). This was great, the market is more than alive in Edinburgh. However, this all turned sour today when I learned that I’d been put in for the same job by 2 agencies. This may have been my fault, so many jobs and agencies were being banded about and they rarely told me what company the job was in so how was I to know? So I told one of them thank, but no thanks. At this point it all turned ugly, the consultant could see his commission slipping away and used every tactic and coercion he could think of – but when I stood firm he turned ugly. I doubt I’ll be getting a job from them in the future.

All of this frantic behavior is well and good, but there is one role I specifically want. It’s in a large company who don’t move quickly, so what happens if I’m offered a contracting role before they have decided I should join their band of merry coders? What if I turn down £200 a day contracts and the large company in question turn me down? Suddenly redundancy isn’t the problem, it’s choice that’s keeping me awake at night now. That said, I've seen this before - it's all go for about 2 weeks and then, suddenly, noone calls with any jobs. I hate making decisions.

As of now I am officially redundant. But don’t panic, I have a few interesting options on the boil. I’ll keep you posted.

Spare some change mate?

Another top weekend under my belt. Friday night brought birthday celebrations at Berlin Bierhaus, the hardcore set did some serious drinking but I bailed early as I knew it’d be a long weekend.

Saturday was spent in Murrayfield watching squad Scotland’s Rugby Union squad get destroyed by South Africa. I was an honorary Scotland supporter for the event, but we had SA supporters in our party and they milked the win for all it was worth. Thankfully Ireland beat SA so I could still hold my head high. Once the sweet relief of the final whistle came we wandered back to the Walkabout to watch my native Ireland sneak a win from the Argentineans. Since when were they good at rugby? I always thought they were mince but their defence was first class and Ireland had few good ideas on how to break through. Thankfully the points came from O’Gara’s boots (he was able to find the gap between the posts ok, sadly he couldn’t find touch with both hands and a flashlight). Post rugby beers were in Pivo and then food in the Gourmet Burger Company on the Royal Mile. Great fun!

Sunday I met up with an Everton supporter to catch Newcastle v Everton live at the Walkabout again (they have good screens, shame about it being full of Aussies). Newcastle were the better side and deserved to win, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! They hit the bar twice and had the better ball possession. So there.

Last night was the xmas dinner event, although I don’t strictly work for anyone really. We went to The Villager (which is a Category B listed building) for cocktails to kick off the event, then to The Grain Store where I wasn’t overly impressed. I had the Cured Foie Gras to start, which was very nice but possibly a bit overpoweringly strong. For main the Halibut was incredibly dry, with next to nothing in the way of sauce to go with it. I had to drown it in wine (a great Rioja) just to get it down. The staff were nice though!

Apparently I have a virus - which running AVG repeatedly won’t get rid of. The Polall virus appears to be spyware and contains the signature of the worm Worm/Rbot.I.Q.03 – whatever that is.

NB. Install Ad-Aware SE now if you are reading this and haven't installed it already. It's free and it might just save your ass.

So it’s delete the contents of these folders:
C:\Windows\TempC:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temp
C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temp
Empty the "Recycle Bin".
Then it’s shutdown the PC, restart in 'safe mode', launch AdAware SE and run a full scan. I’ve no idea how these things get onto my pootah, I’ve got firewalls, anti virus software, adware protection and all are kept bang up to date. I’ve a feeling this one sneaked in through email, but that should still be protected and I don’t open attachments unless I’m sure of their origin.

OK, so Adaware has done it’s thing and found 195 dodgy Registry keys, 17 dodgy Registry values and 44 suspect files. This isn’t looking good, quarantined the nasty ones and I’ve kept the items where Adaware has over-reacted so, fingers crossed, I should be clean now!

permanent link # posted by muddyfunkster @ 11:11 AM 53 comments - Click here to leave a comment, go on, you know you want to!

Thankfully my team (Newcastle United) ended their run of bad form last night with a 4-0 win against Sochaux, a team I’d never heard of but one which seems to be doing very well in France – an unbeaten in European competition since 1976! Apparently the town is practically owned by Peugeot, they have a plant there and actually own 99% of the football team. They beat Monaco at the weekend and going into the match Graeme Souness (our manager) admitted he’d have been happy with a draw. But fate dealt us a different hand, Given made 3 spectacular saves in the first 30 minutes and then Bowyer netted against the run of play – knocking the stuffing out of the French side and setting up a huge win, largely against the initial run of play. After the first goal Sochaux battled hard but created little and after the second goal went in (40 secs into the second half) they sadly lost faith. However, all was not lost. The referee had an abysmal night, his judgment of free kicks was a testimony to video referees, and so a penalty was eventually awarded to Sochaux. The French side sold their regular penalty taker to Leon and have struggled to find a replacement, Mathieu showed himself not to be the heir as he scuffed his shot wide. A fantastic pass from Dyer split the defense for Hughes to pass to Bellamy to make it 3-0, and an awe inspiring free kick from substitute and fellow Frenchman Robert moments from time sealed the victory. The win equals the European record the team set the year we won the European Fairs Cup in 1968-69, although I doubt we’ll go on to win this competition.

Incidentally, for those more interested in what’s happening in that there jungle, Ant and Dec bought the rights to show the match in Australia just so that they could catch their team in such a crucial game. No one was showing it live over there, so they had to buy the entire commercial rights themselves, it cost them altogether £420 – so that’s £210 each! Not bad if they’d been able to sell it to the local pubs.....

I hate when sport infringes on politics or (more likely) politics infringes on sport. There’s been a lot of it recently, with the racism in Spain and now the cricket tour to Zimbabwe. Oddly, both are connected – Spain being white’s taunting blacks, Zimbabwe being blacks persecuting whites. Both should be boycotted. England should have walked off the pitch, any team should walk off the pitch when rivalry turns to racism. Otherwise the perpetrators have no reason to stop. England should not go to Zimbabwe when ex-pats are being killed and maimed over land rights in an undemocratic society.

However, my original point was that governments shouldn’t get involved. Politicians in the UK were fighting over each other to take the moral high ground over the Spain incident – it’s a matter or the sport’s governing body, not the politicians who want to score points off it. That said, cricket’s governing bodies (the ICC and ECB) have shown themselves to be both spineless and toothless over the Zimbabwe tour – despite all of the journalists being allowed access to the country.

Some people love it, some people loathe it. No, I’m not talking about whatever reality pop-idol remake is out at the minute – I’m talking about street art / graffiti / vandalism*. Personally, if it’s done well then I think it’s amazing, you have to admire someone who can great such colourful and imaginative works of art with just a few cans and not much time. I’ve found two sites that track street art in and around Edinburgh (and Glasgow), they are great for taking a second look at the ones you pass in the street and finding out more about what’s behind them – how they were done and what the mean.

In and around Edinburgh / Glasgow
existencil
Duncan Cumming in Edinburgh
Elph

Further afield
banksy - very funny, often offensive but still makes you think
Duncan Cumming's full set - same as before, but he goes all over
Wooster Collective

Oh, and just in case you don’t like that sort of street art, here’s some Street Photography instead (from Edinburgh and elsewhere).
Street Photography

*delete where applicable

Channel 4, the home of inane and often invalid best of lists, is trollying out another top 100 – this time it’s “The UK’s 100 Most Popular Movies Ever” (Sat 27th/Sun 28th), compiled from films over the last 100 years. So, what’s the definition of Popular? Is it voted for by a significant proportion of the UK? Is it based on the thoughts of industry pundits? Nope, it’s based on viewing figures. Personally, I don’t see how this is going to work. Surely there have been times when, due to external circumstances, a greater of fewer number of people went to the cinema – therefore films released at these times aren’t going to do as well as those released when attendance was high. All sorts of factors hit the “bums on seats” figures, and if you consider what’s happened in the UK over the past 100 years, 2 World Wars and countless other events it seems an odd way of assembling a best of list. Plus, according to the BFI who compiled the list, “Documentaries, short films, and silent films are excluded”. Since the first film with sound was released in September, 1925, then surely it’s only the last 80 years of movies?

That said, is there a better way to compile the list? We couldn’t vote, as there are probably more people alive who watched Spiderman 2 than the overall number of cinema attendees in the 1930’s, and the UK’s Favourite 100 as selected by industry officials, not the UK, was released (here) and shot to pieces almost immediately (in a scene Rambo would have been proud of).

So, in conclusion, there is no way to compile a best of anything. Best of is purely subjective and opinion based. You can no more select the best of ice creams than the best of the 80’s or the Best Garage Beats Ever (volume 3). Channel 4, please stop making these shows (more of shich are here) and go back to more cultured and informative program making – such as Big Brother, or EuroTrash!

My girlfriend went to get her hair cut the other day, an event which usually involves parting with a lot of money. This time, however, in addition to an expensive chat, she got a free gift as well as! She wasn’t overly enamoured by the contents of her goody bag, but I certainly was – a miniature bottle of Isle of Jura single malt (10 y/o). Sadly it wasn’t a big bottle, just enough for a large one, but you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth – so I cracked it open last night during Spooks (once the wine had run dry) and enjoyed the peaty, chocolaty taste of a fine whiskey. Already one of my favourites, it was made all the better by being free!

Not the most earth shattering weekend ever, in fact besides being out at a party on Friday night it was a complete non-event. This was perfect after the week I’d had – what with the redundancy, meetings to plan my future, 2 games of football and going to see the Thrills. I still wrecked though, it’s been tough. I polished up my CV and applied for a job today, although I’m still not sure I won’t just go back to consulting. The job was doing ecommerce for a large bank so it might be worth a go.

To indulge my love of words and their origins, I stumbled upon this – "A study of when new words became common during the past century". Did you know that “pissed off” first entered our vocabulary in 1943 – you’d have been really cool to be saying “That Hitler has me really pissed off” that summer, especially seeing as the term “cool” didn’t actually mean that until 1948 (after “mobile-phone” and just before “Fast Food”).

Bad news to end with, I'm out of Curly Fries - dark days people, dark days.

Went to see The Thrills last night at the Glasgow Carling Academy and they were great! Although their music can be a bit bland at times, they really put on a fantastic floor show. Plus the crowd were potentially more mad than than The Zutons - they screamed and shouted so much after each song that the band members just stood about stunned, waiting for it to stop so that they could continue, but the crowd just kept going. Glaswegians eh, strange bunch. I have a feeling that the band have been watching Franz Ferdinand live as their performance and stage movement was very similar. Of course the usual problems were there, the support were soul destroyingly bad, the Thrills didn't appear for about an hour after the support left the stage, the tallest man in the entire place stood beside me and kept trying to block my view and I couldn't drink because I drove. But, all in, it was a top night!

In a bid to avoid rewriting my code so that it can output XML, I’ve been playing around with Flickr as an alternative to Hello (Picassa) for storing online pictures. Hello is great for one or two pictures going to the blog, but if you want to stick a larger selection up then Flickr seems the ticket. That said, it’s not the easiest to use. The most sensible thing is to group the pictures together, i.e. all your holiday snaps from the Algarve in one group. But getting them into that group is painstaking, and it’s hard to keep an order. They have a thick client for uploading the pictures, why not for managing them too?

You can see some of my pics from My Fife Roadtrip plus some pics taken from my mobile Here. As a taster here is a pictures taken lieing on the Meadows during the summer, taken through my T610.

We all knew it was coming, the writing has been on the wall (some would say it’s been there for a year now), I’ve been made redundant. Despite being amazing, after another round of layoffs were fired out I couldn’t avoid taking the bullet. It's not too bad, I've been expecting it and all good things must come to an end (plus I'm the last true developer to go so I win!). So I’m going to have to go out and get a proper job, no more lounging in the house, steaming through the work without a distraction. I’ll probably have to go back to being an office worker – the thought fills me with pain.

Anyone want a .NET man in Edinburgh? I can do other things as well, including making the coffee! Don’t make me beg now…….

It’s been a few days since I last posted, apologies if you came here with high expectations and left disappointed. Not that it would have been any different if you’d had some of my spurious offerings to read!

Last Friday night I started drinking early, it had been a hard week and I needed to seek solace in alcoholic. So we went to the Park Hotel for a few pints then pub dinner (mine was rubbish, I should have gone for something with chips) then down to the Cowgate for a few more before watching a friend’s band (Bee Thousand) play in Bannermans. Altogether an enjoyable night, the rest of the weekend involved shopping, lounging, Indian meal with friends, more relaxing, rugby and finally Bridget Jones.

I have to mention Ireland’s historic victory over the South African Springboks in the rugby. To all you ‘boks fans: the better team won, we deserved the victory, the try was fair and accept defeat. The win was so much more enjoyable as the SA coach described Ireland as a “3rd rate team”. Well, I hope you’re eating your words mate.

Bridget Jones: The Sequel is worth watching, there are some genuinely funny moments that make it altogether bearable. Better than the first one, but still a chick flick.