Francis

05:09 pm - Many happy returns!

Happy birthday loreid

Happy birthday livredor

Happy birthday nitoda

05:26 pm - I hate incompetent letting agents

I've just been messed around by two letting agents for about three weeks - the first took a deposit and then gave the flat to someone else and the second faffed around then lied about the terms and conditions (again, the deposit will be refunded).

Therefore I need somewhere in London (within striking distance of either Eltham or Woolwch) for a couple of weeks before the new attempt at renting goes ahead - could one of the various Londoners on my friends list help out please?.

01:22 pm - Like a bat out of hell

I've just submitted my resignation to TRL as I have a new job at Queen Elizabeth's hospital, London (the poster child for PFI deficits). It wasn't a hard choice to make, and I'm moving back to London in the next month or so.

08:16 pm - Flanders and Swann update

Damnit! Outbid.

11:42 am - And Then We Wrote

The missing Flanders and Swann album has been found on E-Bay - and partly to prevent a bidding war between sections of my Flist, I thought it would be a good idea to form a syndicate to buy the thing. (And then MP3 it for whoever doesn't get the LP).
( Organising arguable piracy underneath )

02:29 pm - Singing

Over the weekend, midnightmelody decided to teach me to sing. It was interesting - the first realisation was that I tend to drift sharp and start on a new key with each new phrase. The second was that I apparently have a very clear idea of where a third is (two white notes away in non-technical terms), although am not so good at seconds or fourths. The third and most interesting is that one of the major reasons I normally don't sound good when singing is that I've been trying to sing the wrong part - I've been singing in the tenor range, and I'm actually either a baritone or a bass (I don't have enough experience to tell). And now I've tried singing in my actual range, I can hear why my singing sounds bad to other people (although it still doesn't sound the same to me as it would to someone else). And can at last start to correct myself when I go off key.

Anyway, thank you midnightmelody for the lesson and arkady for being the only other person I can think of who has told me I can sing.

09:22 am - Geek help wanted

I've just moved house and my computer currently isn't working properly. The main drive and the OS work fine - but when I try plugging in the secondary drive, it just starts whirring and won't stop - neither Windows nor Linux pick up its presence and the drive itself just gets hot. Any suggestions as to how to get it to work again?

Edit: It now seems to be working. I have no idea what changed.

02:20 pm - Leaving London

I should probably have posted about this before. But no time like the present...

I'm leaving London this weekend to start a new job just outside Reading. Working for TRL as a statistician. Normal Borders meeting is on tonight. (I'll post my new address in a friendslocked entry when I'm moved in).

02:38 pm - Everyone's a little bit racist

A recent musing on sexism caused me to remember one part of my experience in South America I was ashamed of at the time. Whenever in Brazil or Argentina an indigenous American approached me and started a conversation, I knew he was going to ask me for money. If it was a Latin American who started the conversation, I knew he was going to ask for money if and only if he had started out by calling me "Amigo". Therefore I found myself hoping that the indigenous Americans would not speak to me because I knew he was going to ask me for money. This, in the time I was in those countries was 100% accurate. But it meant that I found myself hoping that I would not be talked to by people of a certain ethnic group.

( Poll beneath )

Current Mood: quixotic

02:51 pm - It never rains but it pours

Work disrupted on account of burst radiator.

09:40 pm - More essays that started elsewhere

This one started on Ship of Fools ( explaining my views on contraception and why I think those opposing it side with evil )

Current Mood: relaxed

11:43 pm - Sense-Dominant language

ozarque has been doing a series on sense-dominant language which I've been thinking about for the last couple of weeks. She's also (rightly) been pointing out that there is a lot less touch-dominant language than there is other language.

Sense dominant language is language that uses one specific sense to the exclusion of others (e.g. "I hear what you say" is auditry language, while "I see what you mean" is visual language).

My problem with this approach is that I am not aware that I am particularly sense-dominant for any of the three listed senses*. Instead, each sense has a different meaning and set of associations for me.

Sight is the sense of the predator. It is long ranged, detailed, and often has a narrow focus, removing the wider surroundings from understanding. It is also limited to line of sight.

Hearing is the sense of the prey. It is long ranged, can hear round corners, and is overall a much broader sense but less precise (or possibly what you hear is less static) than vision. It applies in any direction, warns me when people are approaching, but I can get much less specific information out of it. It is also a much more passive sense than sight - you move your eyes, but not your ears. (And I've been told about active listening, but not active seeing).

Touch is the intimate sense. I only want people touching me if they are already relatively close to me. It is probably more precise than vision, and is the most intense of the senses, but has no range to speak of (yes, I can feel something hot if it's not touching me - but by the standards of sight this range is negligable). Note that just because it is the intimate sense doesn't mean that it is pleasant or nice - the scalding hot drink isn't pleasant, and the feel of my enemy's skull as I crush it beneath my feet is hardly nice. (Although just how unpleasant depends which side you are on).

The three senses are therefore different, and I consequently use them for different purposes. When I use visual metaphors, it is to indicate clarity (or occasionally complete lack of clarity where it should exist), understanding (for the same reasons as clarity), and activity. Where I use auditory metaphors, it is to indicate broad perspectives, lack of detail, passivity, waiting, and something I can't quite reach. When I use tactile metaphors they are usually to indicate intimacy, passion, understanding, and intensity. I also find an overuse of tactile metaphors sometimes to be uncomfortable because it indicates a greater level of intimacy than I find appropriate. I believe that this is the reason that formal language has fewer tactile metaphors than colloquial language - the distance is greater.

* This does not quite correlate with learning styles - I'm a kinasthetic learner.

Current Mood: contemplative

09:01 pm - Why do people create false dichotomies?

Moved to my journal because this was getting far too far offtopic.

In response to someone on abortiondebate claiming that socialism is discredited ( I demonstrated that it is necessary for capitalism )

Current Mood: calm

10:16 pm - Borders meets

I should have posted about this before - but three posts in a night is probably a personal record...

In mid 2004, karen2205 started running meetups to have coffee in Borders Oxford Street on Tuesday evenings. After a month or so we started rounding off the evening with meals.

A few weeks ago, Karen left London for Bury St Edmunds and I took over running the meetings.

When? 6:30pm every Tuesday
Where? Starbucks, Borders, Oxford Street (near Oxford Circus tube station)
Why? Good conversation
How? Bus, Tube, or walk normally.
Who? Everyone welcome - although please comment or e-mail me in advance if you are thinking of coming.

12:59 pm - Bloody Hell!

I've just found out about the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. A bill designed to allow ministers to short-circuit parliament and reform legislation or impliment the recommendations of the Law Commission arbitrarily.

Purpose
(1) A Minister of the Crown may by order make provision for either or both of the following purposes—

(a) reforming legislation;

(b) implementing recommendations of any one or more of the United Kingdom Law Commissions, with or without changes.

• create a new offence of incitement to religious hatred, punishable with two years’ imprisonment;
  
• curtail or abolish jury trial;
  
• permit the Home Secretary to place citizens under house arrest;
  
• allow the Prime Minister to sack judges;
  
• rewrite the law on nationality and immigration;
  
• “reform” Magna Carta (or what remains of it).

Current Mood: terrified

09:40 pm - 'O Hari's Game ... Or why I don't do personality tests

My Johari/Nohari results are in - and there was only one choice there I found anything resembling a surprise. I also think that everyone who commented would approximately agree on who I am. On the other hand, there was only one word (intelligent) that appeared in more than half the answers and three others (proud, energetic and calm) that appeared in more than one answer. Two of which (energetic, calm) are almost in contradiction (although midnightmelody knows me well enough to have put "calmly energetic").

When I asked for Johari/Nohari responses, I was wondering whether they would be any more reliable than self-administered personality tests. My problem with them is that they almost always try to split people between dichotomies that aren't IMO dichotomies (and there's never an option for "Stop. Think. Calmly assess the situation. Decide what to do. Dive in both feet first (if choosing to act). Move rapidly and on instincts." or one for "Extremely cynical but think that the world's a good place despite it all.") The result of this is that under testing I've ended up with 9 of the 16 Meyers Briggs types (I'm a ?NT?) and 5 of the 9 enneagram types (I'm an 8w9*).

So, what am I trying to say? I think it's that I don't trust any personality testing further than I can throw it because it fails with me, and that I am relieved to have the comments of a few of my flist come out as inconclusive as personality tests I take personally seem to.

(And on the subject of Johari/Nohari, tense and nervous are not positives and dispassionate is not a negative, damnit!)

* One of the reasons I like the enneagram is that this is the one personality system type I've found that actually fits me.

Current Mood: tired

11:52 pm - Meme - mostly because I'm curious

(Courtesy of shreena and others)

It's done the rounds a bit by now but was inspired by this article. Please pick five or six of the adjectives below to describe me and put them in a comment.

The adjectives are -

able, dependable, intelligent, patient, sensible, accepting, dignified, introverted, powerful, sentimental, adaptable, energetic, kind, proud, shy, bold, extroverted, knowledgable, quiet, silly, brave, friendly, logical, reflective, spontaneous, calm, giving, loving, relaxed, sympathetic, caring, happy, mature, religious, tense, cheerful, helpful, modest, responsive, trustworthy, clever, idealistic, nervous, searching, warm, complex, independent, observant, self-assertive, wise, confident, ingenious, organised, self-conscious, and witty.

Oh, and be honest rather than flattering. I won't be offended (especially as they are almost all phrased as compliments...)

Comments are screened by default to prevent cross-contamination. Please add a second comment if you would like them to remain screened indefinitely - otherwise I plan to unscreen the lot in a few days when I make a followup post.

ETA: As arkady pointed out elsewhere, the grauniad missed out the negative list - so here it is to provide balance.

incompetent, intolerant, inflexible, timid, cowardly, violent, aloof, glum, stupid, simple, insecure, irresponsible, vulgar, lethargic, withdrawn, hostile, selfish, unhappy, unhelpful, cynical, needy, unimaginative, inane, brash, cruel, ignorant, irrational, distant, childish, boastful, blasé, imperceptive, chaotic, impatient, weak, embarrassed, loud, vacuous, panicky, unethical, insensitive, self-satisfied, passive, smug, rash, dispassionate, overdramatic, dull, predictable, callous, inattentive, unreliable, cold, foolish, humourless

Current Mood: sleepy

08:55 pm - Oh f**k

Some bastard's created a virus that works through windows metafiles being able to impliment arbitrary code. The problem with windows metafiles is in legacy code reaching back to Windows 3.0.

That means that just by visiting a malicious website (and running windows), and by loading a picture in any web browser, my computer could be infected. And the rendering engine for .wmf files kicks in in Firefox and Opera.

Then there's the MS worm. Click on a specific .jpg link and the parser will automatically see that it's a WMF file and open it with the metafile reader - which then sends it to your entire friends list.

Just to add insult to injury, SANS doesn't expect MS to release a patch before the 9th.

Advice from SANS (and other sources is to run the (third party) patch and to unlink the vulnerable dll: From the Start Menu, select Run then copy and execute the following line:regsvr32 -u %windir%\system32\shimgvw.dll

Unfortunately I'm running Win98 - meaning that the OS is too old for the patch (but not for the virus) and that it's rejecting my unlink command.

Help!

Update: It looks as if only WinXP and Windows Server 2003 are vulnerable (by default anyway...). I hope they are right - SANS doesn't think MS is going to release a patch for Win98.

Update 2: MS have released the patch early. If you run WinXP, go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com to download the patch.

09:29 am - The ongoing rape debates - my take.

My basic principle is that this is an imperfect world or, to put it colloquially, shit happens. This has two corollaries:

1: Shit happens. You are responsible for taking precautions to avoid the shit and minimise the impact of it.

2: A lot of the shit that happens is the results of evil scumbags who deliberately produce and throw the stuff. People who deliberately generate shit are wholely and completely to blame for the shit they generate. There is no contradiction between this and point 1.

No exceptions even in the case of rape. Oh, and those well-meaning people who seek to deny the responsibility claim that they are seeking to reduce the damage done to individual rape victims. At the cost of increasing the actual number of victims if people don't take responsibility for some degree of protection. (And of increasing the number of victims in other fields).

09:49 pm - Neonchameleon's adventures with ADSL or "The problem with foolproof devices"

To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer.
Paul Ehrlich

midnightmelody

Current Mood: frustrated