Angus Thinks…

I’ve sort of just got back from a really wonderful trip to the Lake District (google map). It was great to get away from technology (mostly) and the demands of work. I really enjoyed the holiday and if you ever get the opportunity to visit that part of the country, do it. Windermere is a really great place to visit.

We spent all day doing outdoor stuff, the walking in the area is amazing. The views are amazing and although the weather was a bit wet, the walking is great. We were hoping to do some sailing as well, but the weather proved a bit difficult in that area, but we did get in a motor boat hire and several trips across and around the lakes. We also went horse riding, which is something that I haven’t really done much of, but I enjoyed it immensely.

There was also great food at various resturants and several ruthless board games (mostly monopoly).

Everyone was really friendly and the people running both the Windermere and Ambleside youth hostels couldn’t have been better.

I’m already hoping to go back 🙂

[edited to improve structure]

quango

quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation

from The Times

Recently I was reading an Article that was talking about venture capital funds and their need to rapidly invest or return big sums of money that they have sitting in their bank accounts. The VCs apparently either have to invest the money (about $25 Billion) OR return the yearly management fees on the money (about $3 Billion). The catch is that the money doesn’t have to be invested wisely or responsibly, it just has to be invested. The theory then goes that this will lead to another boom similar to, but perhaps smaller than, the 2000 boom.

Whether this will happen is difficult to guess, but a thought did occur to me as I was reading the article. Booms, bubbles and bankruptcies can be a way of comercially funding things that need to be built but aren’t, strictly speaking, viable in a financial sense.

There are lots of examples of this, the internet infrastructure is one and the British railway system is another. In each case investors were enthused with the idea that vast fortunes could be made in the chosen area, the investors where driven into an investment frenzy and the infrastructure was constructed (typically at vast expense). The bubble then collapsed, but crucially the infrastructure was still there and still usable. A bit of restructuring and some fiancial fiddling and now there is lots of shiny new stuff.

The investors of course have lost their money by this stage, but hopefully the more speculative investors have sufficient reserves and everyone should always be following the key rule:

Never invest money in a risky venture that you can’t afford to loose

I suspect that this topic has been written about already so I’m currently doing research to see if there are more examples of it.

The Spielberg of Hereford

includes a steam-train chase, several laser gunfights and an original score by a full symphony orchestra. Not bad considering his total budget was £20,000.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/space/mg18524911.600

(from slashdot)

Definitely worth a read.

If you need a ready reference for Lumberjack Jargon there is a page at wikipedia that offers such useful, everyday phrases as:

Hayburner

a horse

Homeguard

a long-time employee of a company

Hoot-nanny

a small device used to hold a crosscut saw while sawing a log from the bottom up

Why not use one or more of these phrases in conversation!

Unfortunately I’ve had to disable trackbacks for the time being due to excessive spam.

I’m not entirely sure if it is possible to do a test to see if trackbacks are from real people or not.

If I can come up with a better idea I’ll start using it.

Not that anyone really found the stuff on this weblog worth trackbacking anyway, so little is lost 🙂

I’ve been wondering whether it makes sense to try to implement a single sign on system.

I now have 2 bug tracking systems, a wiki, a webmail system and this web log. All of these have different authentication systems.

Maybe we need a common standard in web applications like RSS but for authentication?

Apple just anounced the Mac mini. A small, little mac that starts at £339 or $499.

At last the cheap mac that everyone has been waiting for. It doesn’t include a screen but it has an optical drive and a processor, USB and firewire.

It’s pretty much the equivalent of the current iBooks without screen or keyboard. And curiously similar to the mock up that somebody posted details of a few days back. Perhaps they had seen the unit but couldn’t actually photo it then?

Really great news. I hope it sells as well as I think it will.