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February 2004 Entries
Weird weather

Alex is about 100 miles north of me and they had around an inch of snow this morning. Here it's been glorious sunshine, but cold and frosty. On the south coast, where it's usually warmer, my brother had lots of snow. Weird. Still it gave my neice Katie a chance to build her first snowman.

posted @ Friday, February 27, 2004 10:37 PM | Feedback (0)
New Book Out

The latest version of ADO Programmer's Reference is now available. The ADO Prog Ref started life on 2.0, way back when I started writing full time, and I still believe it's the most comprehensive reference to ADO available.

So what's new? Well to be honest, not that much. The latest ADO version is really just a security update, adding restrictions to some potentially dangersous operations - accessing data from remote locations for example. It's also now with APress, so has the big advantage of not having a big ugly picture of big ugly me on the front.

posted @ Friday, February 27, 2004 3:10 PM | Feedback (2)
Series Covers

Oh, and while I'm on the subject of books, why is it that publishers insist on rebranding a book series when it's not finished. There is one series of books I've been buying for years and now they've reprinted them all with different covers, so the latest one doesn't match. They've done this with the latest Iain Banks fiction book (not his science fiction ones, although I dread what they'll do to that). I admit it's not a major catastrpohe, and it won't stop me from buying the books, but why do they do it? I'm quite sure the marketing people don't say "let's redo the covers because that's what the public want". About the only long running series that has stayed true to it's design is the Terry Pratchett Discworld series, partly I suppose to the glorious Josh Kirkby covers. OK, rant over, carry on.

posted @ Friday, February 27, 2004 2:12 PM | Feedback (1)
In search of the perfect dram

I am currently reading Raw Spirit by Iain Banks, who is one of my favourite authors, and I heartily recommend it. It's had a couple of bad reviews but don't let them put you off. I think they feel cheated because the book wasn't what they expected, but they've got it wrong. This isn't a book about Whisky, or a book about Scotland, it's a book about Iain, and his search. What he does, how he thinks, what he sees, while driving around the distilleries in Scotland. Sure he goes on a bit about cars, but that's Iain - he likes cars. And besides, he writes well and it's entertaining. You learn a bit about him, which I like. It's a bit like a Bill Bryson book, full of diversions.

Oh, and where can I find a publisher that will pay me to drive around all of the distilleries in Scotland?

posted @ Friday, February 27, 2004 2:07 PM | Feedback (1)
English by non-native speakers

I'm doing some English cleanup on a book written by someone whose first langauge isn't English. It's an interesting experience. Being completely lame at languages I'm automatically impressed by people who speak more than one, and writing a book in a foreign language is particularly amazing. And this is effectiviely what the author is doing - he's Austrian, so has very good English (as do most Europeans, unlike the British who, one the whole, are particularly (a)pathetic about learning foreign languages).

So, my role is to go through the chapters making sense of anything that doesn't. This means if I come across something I don't understand I have to work out what the author meant before I can change it. I also have to be careful not let my own writing style influence what I'm reading. I've already caught myself thinking "Hmm, I wouldn't have put it like that" over something that is perfectly well described, but just not in the way I'd describe it. I've done plenty of reviewing before, but never anything akin to editing. I wonder if editors who don't write have the same problems - how much of their own personality gets into their editing?

posted @ Wednesday, February 11, 2004 9:24 PM | Feedback (3)
Whidbey Beta 1
Scott Guthrie was over in the UK yesterday, doing some talks down at Microsoft Reading on Whidbey. I didn't stay for the talk (I was there fore another reason, and just dropped in to say hi - besides the room was packed, with overflow in another room), but he was showing the code complete version of Visual Studio .NET "Whidbey". I had a sneak preview before he started his talk, and it rocks. Apart from the new features, the UI is improved. Lots of little things too, that make working with it easier. Can't wait to get my hands on it.
posted @ Tuesday, February 10, 2004 5:08 PM | Feedback (2)
More music

Just got back from The Waifs gig, and for fun factor this was the best of the three. It's hard to say that one was better than the other because the bands are so different, but this was definitely the grooviest. Hugely entertaining. More really talented people. And jolly nice to boot - had a quick chat while they signed my new cd. Really good fun and great music. Catch them if they are at venue near you.

posted @ Monday, February 09, 2004 6:09 AM | Feedback (4)
Another Gig

Just back from another great gig. Mary Lee's Corvette supporting Po' Girl. Mary Lee's 700 Miles is a great album, so I was looking forward to seeing her live. I wasn't disappointed.

I didn't really know much about Po' Girl, except that one of the members was Trish Klein (from The Be Good Tanyas, touring with this group while the other Tanyas are on maternity leave. Blue Horse is excellent, but I haven't got Chinatown yet). I didn't really know what style it would be, but boy was I blown away. Alison's voice is amazing - such range and style. Great lyrics, good harmonies, and a simplicity to the music which is often lacking in today's over-produced world. Porch music, is how one person described it - good to relax to. Go buy their album now.

posted @ Wednesday, February 04, 2004 6:09 AM | Feedback (-2)
Site Statistics

Al has been busy, adding a web service to our site statistics pages. Cool stuff. Must get it working on the sites I host.

posted @ Tuesday, February 03, 2004 10:44 PM | Feedback (0)
Masters at Work

More tales of musical mastery. Tonight was the Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman gig. Support was Broken Machine (can't find a web site), but damn fine. Would have bought a CD if one of the band hadn't left the box at home. Am now on the mailing list, so will get one soon. Sean and Kath were great as usual. Tales of curried chips, hypnotism, and badger skinning (you had to be there). Oh, and some exquisite singing. Kath's voice really does make me all tingly. She also plays the piano, flute, and alto saxaphone. Too much talent by far. And to top things off she's gorgous as well. Sean is no less talented, but only plays the guitar. Well, that's all I've seen him play, but I wouldn't put it past him if there were a string of other instruments he's capable of playing.

posted @ Sunday, February 01, 2004 6:24 AM | Feedback (1)
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