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August 2005 Entries
Words I hate
Late, still working, and getting tired. But, irrespective of that, there are some words I just seem to have a block on. Parameters is one. Don't know why, but I always struggle, and always mistype it. Others include runat (I once asked Scott Guthrie if he's add ruant as a valid attribute for server controls) and words with double letters, such as tools, which often comes out as tolls. It's not Dyslexia, just the fact that sometimes my fingers seem to have no connection to my brain. OK, diversion over, back to work. Carry on everyone.
[Listening to: Animal (MC) - Sunhouse - Crazy On The Weekend [UK]]
posted @ Friday, August 19, 2005 11:01 PM | Feedback (3)
Match Drawn
Once again, sport at it's very finest. An exciting and tense end to the Test Match, with Australia escaping from the jaws of defeat. Ponting, redeeming himself, with a superb innings. 6am this morning and there was already a queue for tickets, with 20,000 being turned away. Support for cricket is not only alive, but thriving. A real shame (nay, a travesty) that TV coverage moves to Sky for (at least) the next three years; how many people will be deprived of one of its national games.
[Listening to: Bob Harris Friday - - ]
posted @ Monday, August 15, 2005 6:55 PM | Feedback (3)
Wanne be killed by a zombie?

Started by Neil Gaiman when he was trying to drum up support and funds for the CBLDF, a bunch of other authors are now auctioning of character names in forthcoming books, with proceeds going to the First Amendment Project. So if you are female, and fancy being mauled do death by a zombie in the next Steven King book, you can. Cool.

Read more here

[Listening to: Crazy Eyes ['02 Remix] [*] - Dave's True Story - Dave's True Story [2002]]
posted @ Thursday, August 11, 2005 9:08 AM | Feedback (-36)
Cricket

On Thursday I completely forget abnout the test, but put the TV on in the background on Friday. The sound is low enough not to disturb me, but I can watch the wickets, in what was a fantastic day. I was out all day yesterday, and got back to a message from Darren, asking me if I felt smug. Darren is Australian and like most Australians, takes delight in taking the games we invent and then becoming better than us. I sometimes think it's their major reason for living.

This morning I turned the TV on just as Shane Warne was out, and thought "yes, now we've got them". The remaining overs were some of the most exciting and tense cricket I've ever seen. I felt my heaert speed up as the time went on and felt myself thinking "how can we have lost this". But we got them. Just. Anyone who says that cricket is dull needs to watch a game like this, played by two magnificent teams at their very best.

posted @ Sunday, August 07, 2005 12:46 PM | Feedback (2)
GridView Inconsistency

I'd not thought about this before, but I'm just writing about how the GridView works and have come to the Columns property, which unsurprisingly defines the columns to be included. Why is it then, that within the <columns> element you have fields: CommandField, BoundField, etc. Does anyone else think that using column and field is confusing for beginners? Wouldn't a <fields> element have made more sense?

[Listening to: Low Red Moon - Belly - Star]
posted @ Friday, August 05, 2005 11:53 AM | Feedback (5)
Security Concerns
A mailing list I'm on has had a very off-topic thread regarding the London bombings and ID cards. I've steered clear of commenting because a) it's a web development list, and b) quite frankly I'm not sure anyone is interested in my opinions. But I wanted to say somethig, and I suppose that's what blogs are for. I have several objects to the ID card, not least of which is that it's just another damn card I have to carry around. Why can't it be combined with my driving license? Why can't we have a smart card driving license, instead of that additional bit of paper? A single government card I'd accept, maybe a bit grudginly, but I'd accept it. Anyway, my other objections to ID cards have nothing to do with civil liberties, but more to do with: 1. Will the government be able to implement the scheme on time, and on budget? 2. Will it actually work? 3. How secure will it be? I worry about these points, as we all should be. Time and time again we've seen goveernment IT projects fail, especially ones of this size, and quite frankly the implications of an insecure system scare the pants off me (not that I wear more than one pair at a time). I know the idea of subverting ID seems fictional, but I've spoken to police officers who have dealt with false IDs - some created by the police themselves (witness protection), and some by unscrupulous people at the places that issue driving licenses. For the latter, all it took was money and the right person to bribe. It's happened more times that you'd think. I've recently been looking into the social aspects of security issues, and worry it's going to be along the lines of chip and pin, which on its own is actually less secure for consumers. For example, if you see an entry on your bank statement that wasn't made by you, how can you persuade the bank of that. Chip and pin would indicate you made the purchase. No signature to check later. And it's so easy to get people's pin numbers - just stand in a queue and watch. Very few people actually hide what they try and type.
[Listening to: She Cries Your Name - Beth Orton - Trailer Park]
posted @ Thursday, August 04, 2005 11:55 AM | Feedback (0)
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