April 2012
2 posts
“Boris ‘has cut police numbers by 2,100 in a city about to host the...”
– From The Guardian
Londoners take note: Please don’t vote for Boris. Any other candidate is fine - just not Boris. Thank you.
Blah, Henry's Amazon Affiliate link
Push the button to buy books
February 2012
1 post
2011 Retrospective →
It’s a bit late in the year to be retrospective about 2011, but I just stumbled across Joel Goodman’s blog. Gutsy stuff!
December 2011
1 post
November 2011
1 post
October 2011
5 posts
Handy link showing Elektra Casa parts and... →
Handy Cooking Time Organiser →
I'm reading "Designing Obama". Getting a brilliant... →
September 2011
4 posts
1 tag
All new homes in London to have a private balcony...
I’m back from a fascinating Open House talk at Claredale Street with one of the architects responsible for designing these stunning copper-clad buildings.
Something I didn’t realise is that the Mayor of London’s new Housing Design Guide now requires all new publicly funded homes to have either a private balcony or equivalent outdoor space.
A minimum of 5 sq m of private...
1 tag
Preparing for parallel testing git stuff
More git notes for me.
rake parallel:prepare
rake pt
Done
How Toshiba dropped the ball and leaked my...
I bought a new Toshiba laptop last week. As part of this purchase I also got the opportunity to participate in Toshiba’s Rugby World Cup Competition whereby every point that Toby Flood scores earns me a £1 cash rebate.
We duly filled out the online form to enter the competition. On submission, we got an email containing a link to a Certificate of...
August 2011
7 posts
String Ray Pizza delivered →
Something to remember for next time we do an office party.
Streetcar to Zip car offer is epic win for founder...
This is a follow up to an earlier post.
OK, I admit it. I was wrong. I’ve just got off the phone with Ben from Streetcar. Who tells me that I’ve actually paid £150 deposit. This was impossible for me to check as it didn’t show in my online account and I didn’t have any bank statements that far back. I was going to have to go trawling through old email logs to work this...
Timezone checker →
Streetcar ultimatum #3 to loyal founding members
Update: Read this follow up post - offer actually turns out to be epic win.
Today I received the following ultimatum from Streetcar:
As one of our Founder Members, your support has been crucial to growing our car club. Last year we joined forces with Zipcar to create the world’s leading car club and very soon the best-of-both services will be launched under the Zipcar name, giving you...
Truly extraordinary speech by fearless West Indian...
Sums up everything nicely. She’d get my vote.
via @GarethAveyard
July 2011
4 posts
Looking forward to going here for dinner tonight →
How to stop Spam SMS text messages
O2 have a number that you can forward spam messages to. I didn’t realise this, apparently there are a couple of other carriers to offer this service too.
O2 Forward message to 7726
Vodafone Forward message to 87726
Orange Forward message to 7726
I get an annoying amount of spam on my mobile. Replying STOP is useless - I’ve already fallen into that trap. It would be nice if I could...
June 2011
4 posts
UK Census 2011 data hacked by LulzSec?
And now, LulzSec supposedly claims its biggest coup yet: The entire UK 2011 Census. Is this unofficial internet security awareness week?
Quite possibily true given reports Lockheed Martin was hacked only a few weeks ago.
Questions I’d love answered:
Will the UK government get the £500m it paid to Lockheed Martin?
Will Lockheed Martin get a chance to bid on future government data work?
Git Immersion →
Very handy step-by-step tutorial on git basics.
Random Git command line stuff I need to memorise
Do a rake db:migrate for parallel testing. Note it’s all case sensitive (as is everything in Unix).
rake parallel:prepare
Then to test it’s just
rake pt
Hopefully should remember all this now.
May 2011
3 posts
2 tags
Uludag - Turkish food awesomeness
More for my own reference than anyone else’s - but Uludag do yummy Turkish food on 398A Kingsland Road, London E8 4AA
And they do phone orders on 0207 241 1923
Open from noon to midnight contrary to what their business card says (which is the inverse).
2 tags
Hackney has highest Yes to AV vote in the UK
On the day of the Alternative Vote referendum, I conducted a simple exit poll in our office foyer. We have about 50 people working in our building and while the poll might not have been scientific or statistically significant, the results showed that AV was certainly favoured in our neck of the woods.
Interestingly, this seems to chime with the official results. The Hackney Citizen reports:
...
April 2011
4 posts
1 tag
Persian food + E8 + roof terrace = Fesenjan →
I was offered some tasty Persian treats by one of the guys from Fesenjan. This was a few weeks back and with all this lovely weather going on, I really should go there and check them out.
They are on the twitters too @Fesenjanlondon
1 tag
A bad day for NZ online ecosystem?
So, it appears the government in New Zealand is trying to sneak in its controversial “3-strikes” Internet disconnection law tonight as part of its emergency legislation dealing with the Christchurch earthquake. I’ve witnessed first hand some of the ridiculous disruptions this sort of legislation can do in the UK however the NZ legislation seems to be even more ridiculous.
My...
Unexpected filter brewed coffee discovery
Previously I’d been brewing 20g of ground beans with 300ml of water. However it’s just dawned on me that the ground coffee absorbs 165% of it’s own weight.
So this means that when I brew I’m actually not getting 300ml of coffee after all. I’m actually getting 267ml.
33ml is held in the coffee grounds.
Weird. I’d never thought about this before. I guess it...
March 2011
9 posts
HSBC Fraud Team
Random diary entry for my own benefit. Received a call from HSBC seeking confirmation of payments made on my debit card. Apparently unable to white list these recurring payments for:
Dropbox
Hoot Suite
oDesk
I wonder when they are going to do this again?
2 tags
1 tag
Git stash
Notes for me.
Unable to do a git pull because of updated file already conflicting with working copy
Stash the working copy changes
git stash list <- checks stash is empty
git stash <- if empty then stash the changes
working copy changes now in the stash
git pull <- I can safely pull the changes
git stash pop <- Apply the changes from the stash onto the newly update working copy
“I remember when mice had balls”
– Tim in the office. I blush!
A good place for a haircut in Bethnal Green →
E-mail: info@10gales.co.uk
Tel: 02077298416
Twitter: @10gales
Railway Arch 10, Gales Gardens Mews, London, E2 0EJ, United Kingdom
Two time capsules emerged in the Christchurch... →
February 2011
2 posts
2 tags
Baffled that Lockheed Martin won the UK census... →
I didn’t realise market research was one of Lockheed Martin’s business capabilities. Having been through government procurement processes before, I find this baffling. I’d love to find out what qualified them for such a specialist contract. I’d thought a company like YouGov or similar market research company would’ve been a more logical supplier for this sort of work.
1 tag
Woman beats of jewellery robbers with hand bag -... →
January 2011
4 posts
3 tags
One line review of Du Goudron et des Plumes
Saw these guys last night. Some really cool ideas and worth seeing. Very physical although perhaps the performers get a little too tormented in parts.
1 tag
“You don’t drink the last beer from a mate’s fridge and you certainly...”
Thailand closes diving sites. →
It’s good to see the Thai government taking bold steps to protect their marine parks. Unfortunately, this will completely screw up our diving holiday next month. Lying on the beach will still be good fun at least.