New houses next door
Since the summer the vacant plot next door to where I live has been a building site. We knew that it would probably become one at some point when we moved in, having noticed the vacant premium corner plot next door and having observed on Google Maps that up until recently it used to have a house on it, since demolished.
So sure enough, one random morning in August some men turned up with some noisy machines and started clearing the previously overgrown plot, in readiness for the construction of two new 5 bedroom houses on it. The six day per week early morning noise of this project is what I've been moaning about so much on Twitter recently. We couldn't imagine how they would get two 5 bedroom houses on the plot but it turns out they both have three storeys, allowing smaller footprints.
My side bedroom window looks out upon this building site, which is chiefly why I have suffered so much with the noise. Angle grinders outside your window at 7.45am aren't funny. Still, regardless of this, I was able to slowly observe the construction and I took a number of photos of key points of progress. Even though the houses aren't complete, I cannot take any more than I already have because my vantage point is now completely blocked by the brick wall of the side of one of the houses.
Salford IT and AV installation job complete
Rack installed in the basement with 3x 24 port patch panels. It eventually contain a switch, router, server and amplifier for the garden speaker system.
I spent last weekend in Manchester finally completing the first phase of the IT and AV installation job in Salford that I have been working on on-and-off since February. The last time I was there was in June when the project was at second fix stage. Since then the builders have made great progress and the owner of the house has moved back in, requiring me to finish my work in order that he can start to buy toys to plug into the system.
All that remained was the installation of a few final CAT6 face plates that I couldn't install before (chiefly because the walls on which they were to be installed didn't yet exist back in June), the installation of the equipment rack in the plant room in the basement, and a complete test of all installed cables with a network cable test for the structured cabling and a multimeter for the home cinema cabling. Astonishingly, I'd made it to 35 years of age without buying a multimeter, which is something of an embarrassment for a geek, so presented with a genuine need for one I went out and bought one. A decent multimeter is only about ten quid. Regarding the structured cabling, out of 67 CAT6 cable runs, only three of them failed the initial test, which is a a good percentage for first test. They were quickly repaired and now all runs work perfectly.
These photos show the highlights of the work, since I'm obviously not going to post a picture of every single socket I installed. Apologies for the quality, they were taken with my iPhone (so, no flash) in artificial light during the evening.
Sockets in the "media room" behind where the home cinema equipment will be. The home cinema connections have their other ends at the appropriate places around the room. The hole in the plasterboard wasn't my fault and will be repaired by the builders!
The next stage is to consult on what my friend/client wants to buy to plug in to this impressive piece of infrastructure. Being a G.P., he doesn't have much of a clue regarding electronics, hence asking for my help, but does know that he wants a pretty kick-arse system and so is willing to spend a bit on it. However, since his house is still essentially a building site, regardless of whether or not he's living in it, I expect it's going to be a fair few months before we get to go shopping.
It was an enjoyable weekend away from home back in Manchester. I've not been there since Manchester Pride and I used the opportunity to catch up with H and see Saw 3D, which I enjoyed but was a bit "more of the same". I also don't think it'll be the last one, there's still loose ends. Given my recent pattern of visits it'll probably be another couple of months before I make it back.
What’s your favorite city?
New York.
When I first went to New York I wasn't a city-type person and the place scared the living shit out of me. I didn't like it at all. It was big and very fucking scary and I really wasn't comfortable there. It then didn't help matters that I left the day before 9/11.
But then a couple of years later, after having moved to Manchester, I ended up there again, quite randomly in fact, and this time I really loved the place and I've been going back there whenever I can ever since. It's an absolutely amazing place. Its scale, diversity, history and what it has to offer is breathtaking. Nothing in Europe even come close.
Ideally I would like to live and work there for a few years sometime during my life. I don't want to spend forever there, because I don't want to die young from the stress that it would inevitably bring eventually, but to have that experience I think would be a really fantastic thing to tick off my bucket list.
Who was the best boss you’ve ever had?
My first boss. I think a lot of people would say the same thing as your first boss more often than not has a very important role in shaping the future of your career. A manager taking on someone who hasn't had a ("proper") job before must taken on and embrace a very important mentor role, and if they don't then they're frankly not a very good boss.
I would like to think I've played a similar role on people who I've taken on under me in the past and I hope to continue to do so in the future. It's as important to me that I do this as Mr. Sandeep Sharma was to me when I started working. I have endless respect for the man.
Do you believe in angels?
I'm by no means a religious person whatsoever, I'm a scientist through and through. All I can process is 1s and 0s. However, I do believe in spirits. I lost my Mum 8 years ago to cancer and, although I've not been able to conclusively prove it, I do believe her spirit lives on, mainly in my cat, with whom I'm so in tune with and who looks after when when I'm upset and herself should have succumbed to a fatal illness when she was a kitten, but survived it. The vet couldn't explain it. The logical side of me would like to chalk it up to a freak recovery (because they do happen), but the human side of me wants to believe that someone else had something to do with it, because she could see that I was somewhat struggling without her. I still am to a certain extent, but I don't think that'll ever completely end.
Not dropped off the face of the earth
Apologies for not blogging so much recently, I've got a lot on my plate with work and home life at the moment. The Margobarge is off the road because she failed the MOT and needs work to correct it (specifically, the LCD dashboard display needs to be replaced so I can read the mileage, I need the mileage to get an MOT certificate, and I need the MOT certificate to tax it and get it back on the road). So I'm walking and training it to work at the moment and for a couple of month which has doubled my commuting time but since i'm going to be walking 4km each day it's not going to do me any harm. Would have been better if it was still summer though, obviously!
Ignore this is you are not a train geek: I'm back on the Class 323s which I was on when I was living in Manchester and worked in Cheadle Hulme, They're packed every morning and the uphosterly's a horrible green. The Class 323 is the one with the really whiny gearbox. In this area they're run by London Midland.
I did make it to Manchester Pride 2010 but only for a couple of days, it's kind of hard to make a whole weekend of it when you don't live 300 yards down the road from it any more, but for the time I was there I did enjoy myself. I especially enjoyed the debut Cubstars perfomance, which stars (amongst others) my friend Brian.
I will get photos onto this site once I've fixed the plugin that sucks them up from Facebook but which has stopped working properly since the WordPress 3.0 rollout. If you're friends with me on Facebook you'll be able to see them in my photo albums.
It wasn't the best of Prides I've ever had but I did make the best of it. I'm a bit skint and stressed at the moment and I'm chalking it up to my head not being in the right space for it. Perhaps next year when I can save up for it and do it properly, who knows. I shall be trying Birmingham Pride for the first time first, next summer.
It was a little strange being back in Manchester for the first time in a number of months. I still do miss the place, and I think one day I would like to move back. But I've got a lot of hard work to do and shit to sort out before I can even consider it. We'll see. Manchester has been such a big part of my life and had I been given the choice I would not have left. My current surroundings are by no means unpleasant but they are, basically, alien to me given my limited knowledge of the area, although in fairness that knowledge is improving every day.
I've got a lot of hard work to do between now and the end of the and I've no choice but to grit my teeth and bear it. I'm still looking for a few side consultancy projects that I can do in my spare time, so if you think you can take advantage of my skillset please get in touch.
If you had to shoot one person, who would it be and why?
It's going to have to be The Pope. Il Papa sprang to mind immediately, I tried to think of others, but they were always trumped by him.
That man and his wretched organisation is responsible for more misery and poverty on this planet than any other in history and it needs to fucking stop. It needs to drag itself into the last century, let alone the present one. It simply isn't on any more.
They had a fantastic opportunity when JPII died to modernise with a more progressive Pope, but no, they took a bad situation and managed to make it *even worse*. I was very (and genuinely) disappointed with this and frankly so should be all followers of the Catholic faith.
Who is the most famous person you’ve met?
I bumped into GLS or whatever they're called in Hilton Park services on the M6 once. That really is as good as it gets, I'm afraid, I don't seem to be a celebrity magnet like you are :)
I *have*, however, told a number of celebrities to fuck off. These include (but are not limited to) Jack Dee and Jools Holland. I'm not sure that counts as "meeting" them, per-se.
I also sat next to Joan Rivers in a New York restaurant and endured several hours of almost constant swearing throughout the meal. It was hilarious, but, again, this probably doesn't count as meeting since I never actually spoke to her.
Would your life be much different without the internet, and if so, how?
I've much to thank the Internet for and I'm only sorry that it didn't come along earlier. It certainly would be different without it.
It's provided me with a career if nothing else, although since I'm an old-school educated software engineer I can in theory turn my hand to any kind of software development, regardless of the application. It just happens that I cut my teeth on web software applications.
When I was coming out I didn't have access to the Internet and neither did the Internet have the sort of resources for gay people it has now even if I did have access to it, so I was pretty much fending for myself. I can only imagine how different my life would have been had I been born ten years later.
Glamourous visions of the future in old films told us that we would have flying cars and have almost everything automated. They never predicted that the whole world would one day be connected in the way that it is now. A flying car would be great, but I wouldn't swap it for the Internet.
Back in the saddle
I started my new job in Birmingham city centre (specifically, the Jewellery Quarter) on Monday, for Glide Utilities, a firm that sells household utilities (gas, electricity, telephone, broadband and TV licence) as a package to renting house-sharers, passing on a portion of the cost-savings brought about by bulk deals made with suppliers.
As I mentioned in my previous post, instead of paying separate suppliers directly, who will insist that accounts held with them are in one name only, house-sharers all pay a fixed sum every month to Glide who then handle the rest. It makes for easy budgeting and reduces household administration which can otherwise be a bit bewildering to people who are living separately from their parents and not in university halls for the first time. Glide is currently unique in its market and by all accounts seems to be doing very well.
My job is, with another member of technical staff, to maintain and enhance the somewhat complex software system that runs the company, which does virtually everything from internal company administration, accounting and billing right through to live ordering and status checking of utilities from suppliers. As with any existing system being started on by a new developer I will need a suitable gear-up period, but I'm making great inroads into it and I reckon that by the end of the week I'll be able to make some initial recommendations as to procedure and future development.
It's really good to be doing what I do full time again. It occurred to me on Monday morning that the last time I got up in the morning to go to a full time job in an office somewhere my life was very different, better in some ways and worse in others. It's very different now, still a long way from ideal, but I do know that I'm going in the right direction to get to where I want to be. Doing what I am good at every day is a critically important step towards my goals rather than wasting time on the amount of sales and marketing that self employment demands of me, because I'm absolutely hopeless at both. I'm creative and technical, always have been, always will be.
I've been told to get the train in on Friday and not drive in. I can only assume that this means there's going to be some sort of new-starter party in the afternoon/evening. It's a young company and everyone who works there is around my age or younger, so I think it's a fair bet that that's what it's going to be.
Gainful employment
I'm delighted to report that on Monday I start a new job as a Software Engineer for a utilities management company in the Jewellery Quarter in central Birmingham. The reality of being self employed is quite different to what is perceived and I was very much struggling with the sales and marketing side of working for myself, so I decided to move back in to full time employment in order that I may concentrate on and spend my time on what I'm actually good at rather than incur frustration at spending time on having to do things that I'm not so hot at. I've never been a salesperson and I never will be. You have to be a certain type of person to do that I'm just not that person. I'm creative and technical, always will be.
The company is unique in its market. It provides a service to landlords and tenants whereby all members of a shared rented household pay one fixed monthly sum for all their utilities, including gas, electricity, water, telephone and broadband. Primarily aimed at the student market where house-sharing is most common, the company uses its buying power to negotiate cheaper rates from utilities providers and passes a portion of those savings on to their customers. It's an exciting young company and I believe that I can make a difference to their operation and improve it through the ongoing enhancement of their existing software systems.
It's an 11 mile commute into central Birmingham every day, which is fine, it should take me around 45 minutes each way. I don't have to be in the office until 10.00am each day so that should allow me to avoid the worst of the traffic, which is ironically enough on the roads leading into and out of Sutton Coldfield rather than central Birmingham itself, once I'm past Sutton it becomes a lot easier. The equivalent train journey is less pleasant at 90 minutes in each direction including the two walks from the start and destination stations, so using the car is the way to go.
I'm looking forward to it.
WordPress 3.0 problem
After spending half a day on this I'm admitting defeat and calling on the great wisdom of the WordPress-using community.
As many WordPress users will have done recently, this week I upgraded to WordPress 3.0. The upgrade went without a hitch and I also upgraded all the various plugins that were presenting compatibility updates. Noting to report.
However, the other day I created some static pages, and now the default URL of the site redirects to one of these pages rather than showing the normal ten latests posts. I've checked the settings under Settings -> Reading, setting it to a static page and then back to "your posts" even, but to no avail. The main URL of the site continues to redirect to a static page.
As a hack I've put a redirect in the Apache configuration so that it forces a redirect to the 2010 archive, which for the time being is alright because I don't have many more than ten posts for the entire year, but this isn't always going to be the case and by the end of the year the main page is going to be huge. Not only that but as soon as I make my first post in 2011 I'll have to change the redirect to the 2011 archive and only one post will be shown.
I've done all the usual Googling but I cannot find anybody else who seems to be having this problem. I've found people who are having the reverse problem, and there seems to be fixes for this, but not this way around.
I'm reasonably sure that it's a 3.0 thing since I've created static pages in the past, before the upgrade, and this didn't happen. If you know what it might be please leave a comment :)
- Someone bring me this Matthew chap from Dancing On Ice, immediately.
- RT @TelegraphNews: 'Lazy Cow' syndrome spoof video becomes internet hit http://t.co/tXXaInZi
- #topgear must do better this evening. No more footballers' cars or rappers, please.
- You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You - Forbes http://t.co/tKEWfo50
- Dear Heathrow 3rd runway whiners: China are opening 97 new airports in the next 8 years. Why don't you go and have a whine at them instead?
- This dreadful Big Question programme on BBC1 is like Question Time except with more uncontrolled yelling and talking-over. Awful. #bbcbq
- Chris "Trousers" Huhne was supposed to be on Andrew Marr this morning but couldn't make it "because of the snow". We understand, Chris.
- Tesco lorry making delivery has had to park around the corner as cars are parked on the loading bay, drivers can't see markings due to snow.
- I'm at Ming Moon (16 Hurst Street, Birmingham) http://t.co/iZaX0mzI
- Dear Americans: This is why you are not allowed to have nice things: https://t.co/ru06NTiK
- GET POLLY TOYNBEE OFF MY TELEVISION THIS INSTANT.
- For the latest #uksnow related news in your area, LOOK OUT OF THE FUCKING WINDOW.
- RT @fatcouncillor: Dear the Left: Before you get on your soapbox, remember, we *remember* your 13 years of profligacy, authoritarianism ...
- thinks he might've been a little moody with a couple of people from work in the course of this week and will apologise if this was the case.
- SNOWPOCALYPSE LOOMS
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