Killing things by touch

Another day at work, taking control of the department one thing at a time.

Today, I've been practicing my Touch of DEATH.

The ability to kill computer systems that have worked fine for months by touch alone is something truely special.

However, during lunch I did manage to read a little more of the Dresden Files, which was good. It gives me ideas.

Nasty, evil ideas.

Youtube

Youtube is evil. All you want to do is sleep....and you end up looking up old favourites...

If I die...let me die. Let him live....bring him home....

Upstairs and Downstairs...and Offsite.

Second day into the new job and I've already got something to post about.

Lets take the office upstairs. It's a human resources office, and there's a number of points to mention. Every single worker in the room is female. All of them.

I stopped and looked round, to be sure. In a room of perhaps 40 workers, they were all women.

There also seemed to be a little bit of variety in terms of what they were wearing. It varied from rather short skirts with tight blouses screaming out one message, to power suit (no normal suit (for men or women) has shoulders like that) and summer dresses. Footwear varied from slippers to Knee high+ boots. I say knee high+ because I wasn't going to ask her how much further her boots went up, under her skirt.

Not on my second day.

Around were hundreds of things. Planets, flowers, pictures....even Balloons!

Compare this with downstairs, in the tech room...

The mix is about 3/13, women to men. The clothes are uniform - either shirts, ties and suits or for those who might get their hands dirty, official company gear.

Around us are no flowers, coloured things or bits to soften the place. Instead we have boxes of bits. Things that have been ordered for sites from here to Kings Lyn. All smart, presentable.

And then...then you have the Offsite technical offices. Which are dark, gloomy and full of strange components in piles. Blinds drawn against the sun. Mugs that don't see soap once a month.

And where do you thing I felt at home?

Things blowing up

I'm miffed.

In the last few days I've destroyed 2 electrical items at (as far as I'm concerned) the most annoying times possible.

First, I blow a five amp fuse in the laptop power supply. Lets be clear here though - a 5 amp fuse in a 240 volt appliance. So it can take 1200 watts of power at it's rated maximum.

My laptop draws (at worst) 90 watts. The power supply claims to never draw more then a single amp.

And I've got a dead 5 amp fuse.

--

The second thing I've destroyed is a multi-meter. Now this occured perhaps five minutes before I was going to perform the Ultimate Test. That is, how long will the laptop take to drain those batteries so dry they couldn't power a toothbrush.

But before that, I need to check on the solar powered recharging of some batteries. Ten minutes before the 4 AAA rechargeables had a combined voltage of 1.44 volts - so about bugger all (sorry, .37) each.

I flip on the meter, DC Voltage, no more then 20V...and it reads -1. It reads -1 one for voltage, ampage...I'm fairly sure it would say "-1 for president" if I let it.

If I'd done something to it, I'd understand, but...

Glue sticks and tinfoil

Now tell me, what can you make with a glue stick, some tin foil and a sheet of paper?

Well, today I've made one of these - a small, home made parabolic dish to aid my wireless stick. The problem being it's not a very good stick.

No - really - it cost about $16 (£8) and is such good quality that it doesn't even have a brand name. It can fail to pickup a wireless signal inside the same ROOM. For a reliable signal you want to be at least 15ft away from the transmitter.

No - really. Any closer and it drops every minute. Any further and it drops, every minute.

And yet....with the aid of this handy-dandy silver foil monster I can further away from the router. Rather then having the effective freedom of my bedroom, I'm now transmitting through the wall of the at an oblique angle.

That is - through 18 inches of building material (straight on, it would be 6 inches - but at an angle...) a load bearing wall. All this and the signal strength varies between 30% and 60%.

As opposed to 0%-30%.

Go tinfoil!

--
Edit for a really silly mistake

D&D Crisis

I've played Dungeons and Dragons for a very, very long time.

I remember the joys of second edition. The very concept of THAC0 - a complete reversal of what most people consider sane is, to me, an old dear friend. Twisting your mind around the concept that low numbers are good, negative is better and that a magical +1 item could mean +1 or -1 depending entirely on the topic....sounds so easy, doesn't it...

But I've run into a crisis - and it's a big one.

I can't create another character.

No, really - this is worse then it sounds. I've tried a number of approaches and failed them all.

I've sat there with the rule books (more as a prompt then a reference, really) and gone through the classes, looking for something to excite me. But where ever I looked I didn't see ideas - I saw a tree of options, with branches loped off, hacked back and bare.

Take a rogue - a simple ne're-do-well. A thief to some, a conman to others. Forger, plunderer and trap finder. Nimble fingered or silver tongued. All those branches.

Pick one - the thief, who picks locks and loots, with a careful eye out for traps and other nasty surprises left by the soon to be poor.

I pick this branch and already I see the pruning sheers of sanity cutting away at my options. Can't take a half orc or a gnome, half elf or dwarf. All their bonuses aimed at things that can't do, don't need or for some - half elf - useless for anything.

A human for the extra feat and skill points, a halfling for the dexterity, handful of targeted skills and the extra saving throws....or you've the the elf. Skill bonuses, dexterity (without loosing 1/3 of your movement speed), skilled with more weapons, can see better in the dark, immune to sleep effects and is always counted as searching for secret doors.

Well, that's an easy choice then. How you get your stats doesn't matter - dice, points, crazy ass array...doesn't matter. High dexterity and intelligence, medium strength and constitution and dump anything you want in wisdom and charisma. Though a wisdom of 10 is good if you can afford it....the will saves....

The skills are a straightforwards thing. Tick the ones you want, up to your limit, put max ranks in each - but there isn't really any "choice" here. There's the classics you need for your job - search, spot, open lock, disable device, hide, move silently, listen and tumble - then you get a couple of free choices. If you're lucky, that's 3 choices.

Feats...if you're first level you get one or two. The one you need you can't start with (weapon finesse) . So it's back to the classics - improved initiative (so you act before everybody else....essential for a class that wears next to no armour). Dodge to not die, if acting first wasn't enough. Combat expertise - to keep you alive if you were lucky enough to survive being hit for a round.

Just a few things left - name, personality...but the CHOICES just arn't there.

But I hear you cry - why not make something you want to play. Ignore the optional and play what you feel like, something fun.

Been there, tried that. See also the monk who has been (effectively) forced out the party, couldn't actually damage anything which wasn't wearing a redshirt and was, to be honest, "just" a character which wasn't built for anything special - laughed at and useless.

But I've also tried looking at what the party needs, right this minute. Which happens to be the rogue I built 2 minutes ago, above.

Maybe I should find a personality for the character then work the rules around that. Which really leaves me with the problem finding a character I can wrap my mind around and understand. But I've played so many that I can't bring to mind some facet that I've not played before.

Or I can leave it all to chance - I've done that, and it works a treat - if there's randomness. But in a game with a fixed point buy system, you can't roll the dice and let them fall where they may. My Thursday character was born of the dice, chance and a random comment made on the first day of play. But this time, I can't use dice.

So people, I'm stuck. Trapped between to much knowledge, certainty and hatred of playing a character that can't do anything.

In this game I've had a monk who I didn't "min max". I didn't build it to be godlike. I could have...but didn't. And so I had a monk who did less damage - physical, weaoon based damage - then a sorcerer with a crossbow.

I will not play something without something to bring, some shiny reason to exist.

Some soul

Feeding addictions

Now, you all know me.

You've all realised by now that somethings should never be said in my presence. Saying that it can't be done is one of them. If you do make this mistake, it can be rectified - just add the quibble "Well, not easily". See, problem solved.

What's set me off this time?

Well, I when visiting a certain manga fan the other day I saw a hanging poster - Megatokyo! To be exact...this one. That's new, I say.....no, it's been here since last Christmas....so it's new to you then.

An innocent comment followed, indicating that I was far behind on the comic and that I should read it again....

So I walked out the house with 5 books in coat pockets. The first took...um....four days to read. The second was less then a day. It's so easy to pick it up, read a page, put it back down. Or pick it up, read a page and keep reading.

But why is it so good? Well, it's much like the very best TV programs. There is a big story arc - well, we're told there is. Almost every single strip - all 1100 or so - are readable, more or less on there own.

Take todays strip - here. With no knowledge of manga, without knowing a single character name, history or even what language they speak it makes sense.

Possibly not perfect sense. What is a "Magical Girl" and why are they a threat? That takes a little knowledge. But the very basic idea is still readable, along with a good jibe at monster movies. "Never let anything become a zombie that's difficult to kill".

Always good advice.

But what makes this comic special is that in a few cells of picture the artist can drag you into his own little world and make you care. To empathise with things that don't exist - it's all too easy to say to empathise with people who don't exist.

But to do that means you're halfway there - you admit, they are people.

Absolute madness

At the start of febuary, I applied for a job at the local NHS trust. On the 3rd of febuary - so quite a while. I didn't hear anything for a month - so I assumed the worst and effectively forgot about it.

This morning I get an emailed link to a message, saying...you've not got it.

So it's taken them TWO MONTHS to get their arses in gear to inform the candidates that they've actual failed.

Where as in comparison another NHS group I applied for has read my application, arranged an interview, said no we don't want to give you that job, we want to give you this one instead and been accepted in all of 22 days. That's including 2 bank holidays and I don't know how many weekends.

It's laughable really.

Stats Stupidity

Let me start by saying that I fully believe that eating disorders are a serious issue to a certain percentage of the population.

I'm not going to have a go at eating disorders - I could as easily be talking about monkey abuse, pickpocketing pixies or singing stoats. The issue isn't eating disorders - its the numbers.

Now, disclaimer out the way, this afternoon at lunchtime I was watching the news at 1245ish - into the "human interest" section on a slow news day.

We had the (female, young, skinny, pretty and blonde) reporter Sensitively (and I really do mean that capital letter. She couldn't be more sensitive if she held up a sign, it was so choreographed) interviewed a pair of sisters (female, young, skinny, pretty and blonde) about their eating disorders.

Over the course of the interview a number emerged - 1 million Britons suffered from eating disorders, or so some organisation claimed.

That seemed like a reasonable number, right? It must be a major issue to be on the BBC....right?

Well, let's play with this a little. 1 million out of 60 million people is about 1.7% of the population - thats about one person in fifty. Which is believable, isn't it?

But its not spread evenly though out the population. Assuming that 90% of eating disorder sufferers are female (which is a fair assumption....for example see here) then 900,000 sufferers are female, so that becomes 0.9/30 = 3% of the female population, or about one in thirty three.

Now, assuming that 90% of sufferers are under thirty - a very good assumption for anorexia, not such a good one over all - but running with 90% of cases, thats...um... 810,000. Or about 8% of the female population 30 or under, data from here.

Now, here's the thing. That's about one in thirteen. Now, I know a number of women under the age of thirty. I'd go as far as saying I know quite a few. Possibly as many has 50, now that I start putting names to people.

In that number I should have atleast 3, perhaps 4 people with eating disorders.

I can think of (maybe) one.

So here we have some group of people declared to have some issue that's Serious, and Must Be Addressed.

We narrow it down to the "at risk" group - yes, I freely admit using a back of envelope technique with some Rather Big Holes.

With that number we relate it to our experiences and find...well, a bit of a flaw.

Either the number is a complete lie (unlikely) or it's been spun significantly. It might refer to probable incidence though out the population based on current trends. (Which population trends...? Based on what fashion trends..? "Curvy" has been "in" before...)

Perhaps it also includes people who arn't serious enough to need treatment. (So where do you draw the line between not eating chocolate often because it's fattening, against a real medical condition? Because by that definition, I suffer from one!)

Perhaps...perhaps...I could go on.

My point? Here we have a statistic, presented as the Gospel Truth to the public. It's presented in a misleading manner with a distinct purpose in mind - to change public perception.

If you can't take a statistic, poke it and prod it a little and it still makes sense....then it's either wrong, misleading or really complicated - and shouldn't have been released to the media.

But when has real honesty ever mattered to a pressure group?

Comedy

I've been for an interview today...and I'm back.

Feeling somewhat frazzled and nervy I've settled down with a cup of tea, an extremely unhealthy sweet snack and some comedy.

Now, I've got a choice of comedy here. There's usually something on one of the digital channels. Or I could look at any one of dozens of DVDs, VHS tapes audio cassettes (yep, recorded off radio all those years ago) or available online material. Yes - I could even watch the Adams Family.

Oh, Morticia....one of those rare goths who know how to dress...

But no - I've resisted all this quality culture. Decades of humour beyond the understanding of most mere mortals.

Instead I've turned to one of the last bloodsports available in the UK. Not hunting...banned. Not boxing or ring fighting.

I looked for and found both blood and comedy - and a true treasure I've found. It's called Prime Ministers Questions. Every wednesday at midday, broadcast via the BBC for all to see on the BBC Parliament channel.

Today the prime minister was absent...so he sent Harriet Harman to the chopping block podium. She didn't do to badly... but it was hugely amusing. On one side you've got the labour party currently in power, trying to ask questions that show off what the labour government has done in the last 10 years.

On the other you've got the conservatives, liberals and a few misc others...

I don't lie when I say that the opening 15 minutes is worth watching. The rest isn't bad either.

PMQs remains the only time when politicians are asked questions and have to answer...or try to.

But for me the best line was from Hague, complimenting Ms Harman on being the first women to take PMQs since Mrs Thatcher...of whom she and the prime minister are so fond of.

Priceless.

Two problems.

Good morning all - first, to the batteries!

Or...maybe not. I have proved the design in principle. With my AA horde I was able to power the laptop....just.

The problem though is not the batteries. The problem is with the power converter. And no, we're not going...



The issue is the conversion of DC voltage to DV voltage. The converter takes the 15V supply and boosts it to 19V. I beg forgiveness from anyone who actually knows electronics...

To convert the voltage it takes a junk of power at 15V into a capacitor, disconnects the capacitor from the batteries and then draws that power off at 19 volts. All well and good.

The problem is that this means that it's not drawing power at a constant rate. Instead you get a highly varied power draw from the batteries - between 0 and 10 amps, as far as I can tell.

Right now I can just about power it if I cheat - boot it up on laptop battery and AA bank, remove the laptop battery - and it will run. Until the laptop hard drive kicks in.

At this point the erratic draw rate can no longer keep up, and the whole thing powers down. I can fix this though - a few more batteries and a legion of winged monkeys at command, and I WILL RULE!

--

Oh yes, the other problem. I'm hearing things.

Music, to be exact.

Playing in my mind is the star wars theme...I know it's in my mind, because I can hear the fridge over it - and bonnie isn't hiding under the chair.

The problem is I don't want to hear it. It's distracting. It's unscrolling away like a relentless timer slowly counting down. I can't hurry it, or change it or just listen to something else.

It's there.

And there's not enough space in my head for an orchestra AND thought.

You couldn't fit a violin!