Alan's Blog

That volcano again ...

Maybe not the best joke, but I liked it:

Message from Europe to Iceland: "We said send us CASH, not ASH!"

Pet peeves 8

Two blog posts in one day! What is the world coming to? Will the server take the extra load?

This peeve involves shop and restaurant signs placed with no regard to passers-by. Going to lunch today I found that a new example of London's seemingly-ubiquitous roadworks had been started. This involved closing half the carriageway and part of the pavement (US sidewalk). However a shop and a restaurant still put out their signs which caused the pavement to become even narrower. Pedestrians passing the signs needed to walk in single file, waiting until no-one was coming the other way, before being able to get past. Since the street is fairly busy, that caused quite a bottleneck.

As I walked past one of the signs I pushed it closer to the wall of the shop to make more room; on my return journey I saw that it had been put back in its original position.

Poor timing

I bet the politicians are annoyed. We had the country's first-ever televised debate last night between the leaders of the three main parties. However, the news on TV and in the papers is dominated this morning by the plume of volcanic ash from Iceland that is drifting across Europe, causing the cancellation of virtually all plane flights in the UK, and widespread disruption across Europe.

Doing my bit to fight Global Warming

Most days I walk past an office building. Its automatic door is on a corner where I turn left, and usually I inadvertently cause the door to open, which allows an amount of warm air to escape into the cold street. Today I remembered just as I was approaching the building and took a slight detour so that I wouldn't set the door in motion. Alas, as I passed, someone turned the corner going in the opposite direction and set it off anyway.

Oh well. Perhaps I'll do my bit to save the planet another day.

Hitler v. Ofsted

The aftermath of an Ofsted inspection on one school:

(Hat-tip: Bob Hale)

The way it was

A BR video from 1963 showing how they coped with the snow:

Happy New Year!

I wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2010!

A Belated Merry Christmas

A rather late Merry Christmas wish to all! I hope you had a good one and thanks for reading. Have a great New Year.

Sorry I am late, I intended to make this post a couple of days ago, but forgot. I spent the last two days with my brother's family and it would have been rather rude to borrow one of their computers.

Pet peeves 7

This is another personal pet peeve, this time aimed at Microsoft, and in particular their Office applications. I suspect that many people will hold an opposite view.

In my job (and sometimes at home) I often need to copy and paste sections of text or data between different documents or applications. If I use the normal paste command the copied data are inserted using the same formatting as in the original document, which nine time out of ten differs from that in the receiving document. I then have to reformat my document. I know that I can use Edit > Paste > Special... or use a custom shortcut to paste without formatting, but it's a longer route and easy to forget.

There are also several non-Office applications that will take formatted pasted text, and they don't appear to have a Paste > Special... command. In such cases I often have to paste the copied item into a program that doesn't allow formatting (like Notepad) then copy/paste it into the other application. I'd find it easier if the default for the paste command were without formatting. I'd be interested to learn if others have the same issues, although I realise this blog, with its minuscule readership, is not the best place to ask for the opinions of the world at large.

Pet Peeves 6

This peeve is aimed at those working in the same office block as me, although I suspect it's fairly common in all offices. To those who are using the lifts at the same time as me: don't press the "doors close" button!

The doors close automatically. If no-one has called the lift from a particular floor they will close swiftly. If someone has pressed for a lift, the doors stay open slightly longer to give the person time to get on. There are four lifts in the area I use and it's not always possible to tell which lift will be stopping.

I've several times walked towards a lift, only for the doors to be closed before I could enter. Very often the doors have started to close as I enter, and I spot someone standing there with their finger on the "close" button. Why do these people bother? They save perhaps ten seconds maximum. Are they so keen to get back to work?