Journal Entries
Well, I'm back
Posted Oct 25, 2011
Whether this is a good thing for life, the universe, or indeed anything, is something that is yet to be determined. In the meantime, should you find yourself in the alternate universe known as Puzzle Pirates, you'll find me there, masquerading as the great prophet Zarquon.
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Latest reply: Oct 25, 2011
Portsmouth 7, Reading 4
Posted Sep 29, 2007
On behalf of Ladbrokes PLC Ground Operations (Fratton Park), I am authorised to issue the following statement:
Bizarre.
End of statement.
Other interesting (but not official things) to note.. Each week, we get asked for prices for various goalscorers to get a hat trick. We take various bets on various players to get a hat trick. The first time someone gets a hat trick at Fratton Park in recent memory, for some equally bizarre reason, nobody has asked for, nor placed any hat-trick bets.
Finally, for the benefit of the one person who just doesn't get it, the reason 7-4 is not listed in the correct score section of the match-day coupon is exactly the same reason that 139-57 is not listed in the correct scores section, namely that an A2 match day coupon (which is the size that such a coupon would need to be to make the writing on it anything near legible with that many combinations of scores on it) will not go through the till, nor the security camera. Thankyou for your cooperation. Have a nice day.
Regards,
Jim
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Latest reply: Sep 29, 2007
End of another season
Posted May 16, 2007
Final report from the shed for this season...
A good day for a settler of 500 bets is one where the opposition score first; so, Arsenal get a penalty in the second half, and we thing 'Eey up!'. Problem is that Portsmouth have David James. The score is still 0-0 and I am still looking at an enormous pile of bets.
Shortly afterwards, Portsmouth get a goal. Or perhaps not. Seems that the referee is hell-bent on ensuring Portsmouth do not get into europe and disallows a perfectly good (although confusing-looking) goal.
So, it finishes 0-0. The contingency measures I have in place swing into action. We sort the large slips by number because we are never going to get through them in the time available, so we can find the slips that people come back with, and settle the rest when we get back to the office. I've already got the small bets sorted by correct score, so there is only the 'mix' pile to go through (which is the pile of bets that do not fit any single correct score, due to having multiple bets on them, or first-player-to-score bets). Done and dusted after about ten minutes, we head back to the barn, cash up and go home.
Definitely makes a change from the hammering that we take each time Portsmouth win 2-1.
Anyway, the transfer window is open, and we'll see how well Pompey do next season. Whether we will be trading at the ground or not remains to be seen, as it is up for negotiation.
Until then (or until something else interesting happens), I'm off...
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Latest reply: May 16, 2007
Today was not a good day to be...
Posted Apr 7, 2007
...a bookmaker at Fratton Park.
So, we take a float with us. It's not much, just enough to give change really.
We take a few thousand quid around the ground.
This is usually enough to pay most bets that come up for payment on a match day.
Not today.
Taylor first to score = 16/1
Portsmouth to win 2-1 = 25/1
Scorecast (both above)= 225/1
When virtually every single bet wins, the following happens:
A) Goodbye takings
B) Goodbye float
C) Hello huge pile of paperwork. (We eventually finished the admin stuff so that people can get paid out at 21:10, some two hours after we got back.)
D) Losses on the day of near-enough £40,000
Of course everyone wants to be paid out, but there is no way any sane person would carry £40,000 to a football match, so we run out of cash. Of course, certain people stand around demanding cash until they are removed by stewards. If that person was you, go to a shop, you ******, because you cannot collect what we do not have. Argh..
My brain hurts, I am going to bed....
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Latest reply: Apr 7, 2007
A D'Oh moment
Posted Apr 4, 2007
Just spend many seconds configuring a new bleeding-edge kernel, and a few minutes compiling it.
Install it
Install the bootloader
Reboot..
Loading....
Blank screen.
OOops. System is still doing something in there, but I can't see what. Screen totally blank, but the system is responding to the network.
I carefully log in as root as though the screen was working, and type startx - Screen bursts to life.
Next time, I'll try and remember to put console framebuffer support in the kernel, and try to realise that this is what is missing before I start taking the monitor to bits to try and work out what is wrong...
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Latest reply: Apr 4, 2007
Caveman, Evil Unix Sysadmin, betting shop operative, and SuDoku addict (Its an odd mix, but someone has to do it)
Researcher U30753
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