Journal Entries
Convince me
Posted Nov 9, 2006
Remember this thread: F66763?thread=3457794 ?
I will eventually be in a position where I have picked up the skills necessary to finish GuideDog: I will have completed a self-taught course in Visual C++ programming. I haven't been pursuing this course because I merely want to write GuideDog. I've been doing it to prevent my brain from seizing up.
I want to hear from anybody out there a convincing argument for my finishing this programming project. If anybody can tell me what it is that is so special about this site/community/project, and why any time I devoted to writing GuideDog to help support it will be time well spent, then I will finish it. Otherwise I will go and write a piece of software of more use.
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Latest reply: Nov 9, 2006
Does anybody know anything about sat-nav?
Posted Nov 1, 2006
Mrs Monk has to buy one because her new job takes her all over the place and she's finding it damn nigh impossible to get there without (a) speeding (she got 3 points last week) or (b) getting lost. So, I want to know what one expects on a modern sat-nav, how much they cost, and what the best ones are.
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Latest reply: Nov 1, 2006
Resurrecting the Cafe
Posted Oct 24, 2006
Remember the Penguin Cafe, that online book club? At A2819937
I'd just like to announce that I would like to resurrect the Cafe. The reason it failed beforehand is that too few people ended up reading the book of choice, with the result that there was not a lot left to talk about at the end of the day.
So, here are two modifications to the house rules that I'd like to propose:
* All books must be in the public domain. This means that they will be downloadable FREE OF CHARGE from an Internet site. A good place to start is Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
* Secondly, anybody can propose a book of the month. The ay to do this is to start a thread here with the title "Propose: for ", then all and sundry get to vote for it. Multiple proposal threads may be started for any month, but not by the same person.
Er, that's it.
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Latest reply: Oct 24, 2006
The wonders of modern technology
Posted Oct 17, 2006
I have a PDA as part of my job. I can never remember where I am supposed to be at any time, so they gave me one to help me. It's been a total godsend, I have to say.
It was a bit limited though until I bought a 1Gb memory card for it. This has allowed me to do lots of interesting new things. One of these is investigating the treasures of Project Gutenberg. PG - if you didn't know already - has a huge range of out of copyright books that you can download for free, so I have started doing this.
The memory card will probably hold about a thousand or so books, so I downloaded 'The Black Tulip' by Dumas along with several others. This takes a while to get going, and the style is more than a little prolix at first but it soon develops into a cracking yarn. The only drawback, I'd say, is that you have to read it on a tiny screen. Books have a tactile quality as material objects in their own right, and this is absent.
I also bought a memory card for my Pure Bug. I have found that I can record hours of radio in one swell foop. The radio connects to the computer via a USB port and functions as a disk drive, so you can see the programs you recorded and copy them to the PC's hard disk, so I now have a collection of Tony Robinson's Friendly Guide to Classical Music.
All these related developments are, to me, technology finally delivering on its promise. I'm not impressed by gadgetry for its own sake, for example multi-function mobile phones. I prefer it as a means rather than an end in its own right, and for me it's the means to appreciate the finer things in life that hitherto I had neither the time or resources to investigate further.
Back to the wonderful world of tulip breeding...
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Latest reply: Oct 17, 2006
A first:
Posted Oct 10, 2006
Mrs Monk Laughs at one of my jokes! Normally she hates them. She says they are awful, and that my sense of humour makes strong men weep and women reach for weapons. But, inspired by the tawny owl outside our hosue tonight I told he an old one she had never heard before:
Q: What's the difference between a bad marksman and a constipated owl?
A: One shoots but can't hit, but the other....
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Latest reply: Oct 10, 2006
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Felonious Monk - h2g2s very own Bogeyman
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