It’s been a while since I awarded a Donkey Award but I think you’ll agree, I deserve this one…

Tor has taken next week off, to enjoy (endure?) the splendour of the Welsh countryside, so my timing really couldn’t be better.

This afternoon, whilst compiling a quote for a new client, I needed to pop to the little boy’s room (OK, less of the little ). There is a door stop located behind the door of this little convenience, obviously to stop the door from crashing into unsuspecting erm… lets just call them ‘users’ :) of this room.

I decided that my life just didn’t have enough pain and, in my stocking feet, kicked said door stop.

OW!

After driving home, and getting bullied by the GF, I braved an uncomfortable drive to the medical ‘drop in’ centre to be woman-handled by a mini nurse (she was quite petite).
Toe broken
1x taped toe, 1x length of micro-porous tape, and another uncomfortable ride home later I’m hurting and feeling a little sorry for myself.

Perfect timing though – just when Tor takes a week off…

Typical!

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So last night it got a little late and my GF decided that cooking was off limits, so pizza was the culinary delight of choice ~ phone call, 30 minutes and about £10ish later and we are filling our faces eagerly.

The pizza was goooooood :mrgreen:

Sleep came a little slowly as I decide to compute rather than the (probably) more sensible option. Pretty typical for me though
Not far from the midnight hour, fatigue overwhelms the desire to play and I’m heading for the land of nod…
Cue “REVENGE OF THE PEPPERONI PIZZA” ~ loud stomach growls precede a night of discomfort… :twisted:

2-3 hours of sleep later and it’s up-time. Doing my best Neanderthal impression I drag myself to the bathroom, in a vain attempt to achieve full consciousness. Failing miserably I vacate the premises.

Rolls into the office, only to be confronted with a heap of stuff to do (not normally a bad thing), plus several issues clients need resolving via the remote support. By this time my keyboard is starting to look like the image, blurred to say the least…

At this point what I didn’t need was to confront the Micro$oft licensing beast; In this case a client needed access to his volume license keys to upgrade his [old] version of Office.

Just so you know ~ Microsoft’s website is RUBBISH!
Their own licensing documentation points you to a ‘Page not found’ error and, with little information of what you actually need, searching is practically impossible.
The ‘low tech’ solution to this problem?
TELEPHONE CALL TO MICROSOFT! Manually request the VLKs. Problem solved…

An early home time, sleep, and a good chicken dinner sorted me out, as will this early night

Nighty night…

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I have recently been bashing my head against the wonderful world of web development ~ in this case, specifically, the fun filled universe of Google Mapping and Geocodeing Post Codes.

I know what you are thinking:
#Cue sarcasm#
How can one man stand such excitement… How can it be that just a simple man could endure the endless, electrifying, thrill ride of such stimulation??
#End sarcasm#

Ahem…

I was tasked with the rebuild of a clients website – complete with a property search using the DezRez property database (they are an Estate Agents). This is where the fun begins, you see, the original builder of the website left me with a few problems to wrangle with.

Not being a full time web designer, and having to reverse engineer ‘interesting’ code didn’t help the fault fixing procedures either.

This is where I found out that the Post Office database of UK Postcodes seems to be in error – in the area of longitude and latitude of the actual locations of the properties.
The procedure was simple ~ find properties on the clients database and create a web page with the results ~ create a details page complete with a Google map of the property location once a property is clicked. The map was produced by ‘GeoCoding’ the Postcode via the Post Office database and sticking a pin in the Googlemap at the resulting coordinates.

This resulted in a pin in the wrong place, lots of telephone calls, and headaches trying to figure out why it wasn’t working.

Finally, today I got it figured out ~ we decided not the use the Post Office database, and instead use the coordinates within the DezRez system which can be corrected by the person inputting the data.

Oh what fun we have…

If you are reading this and need a website built using the DezRez system, call me; I am getting to be an expert at it!

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This made me chuckle – especially having had to point out to a potential new client, that Macs are not as secure as their reputation would suggest.
Data losses in Snow Leopard bug

It would seem that those users who upgraded their Operating System (OS; maybe that should stand for “Oh S#it” though ), and had a guest account enabled, are reporting an error where ALL your data is wiped when logging in ~ Just a small hiccup then

The article does go on to mention that users using a backup service can restore their data.

This comes hot on the heels of Microsoft’s own data centre going belly up ~ losing personal data for users of their ‘Sidekick’ phones (T-Mobile I believe).

Perhaps I could interest Microsoft and Apple in using our online backup solution?

Bear in mind that BOTH of the software giants in the world have now had MAJOR issues with data loss and you’ll start to see why we bang on about it all the time…

The bottom line is simple:
GET A BACKUP SOLUTION OR RISK LOSING EVERYTHING! :cry:

As a certain Meerkat says:
“Simples”

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It’s becoming more and more likely that workers in the UK will go on strike, rather than discuss with their employers.

The Post Office is now the most strike bound company in the UK ~ a sad fact that continually annoys their customers.
The recent decision to take industrial action in this climate of recession and businesses struggling to exist, belies belief.
It also seems to have little support from the public, who seem to think that Post Office workers have a particularly ‘cushy’ job to start with. ALL the business leaders who I have asked, simply roll their eyes and say something amounting to “Oh no, not again…”

Not that the unions seem to care, but the strike has far reaching consequences for small businesses who rely on cash flow and prompt deliveries to keep alive. Payments that are ‘lost in the Post’ can cause us major headaches.

It seems that the unions care not a jot for this though…

Also, the head-banging continues in the Leeds refuse collection dilemma ~ it’s looking more and more like we’ll be seeing this little drama play  out for some time to come as the two parties seem unable to come to an agreement.

Meanwhile Leeds is becoming an interesting place to live ~ soon to be rat central methinks. An explosion of the rat population in Leeds is apparently ‘expected’.
Are the local medical services equipped for an influx of diseases such as:

• Weil’s disease
• Salmonella
• Tuberculosis
• Cryptosporidiosis
• E.Coli
• Foot and mouth disease

All of which are carried by rats and definitely won’t be fun… :mrgreen:

Finally…
I have man flu, or H5n1, or any of the above.
I just know I feel rough ~ what a nice souvenir from Bulgaria! :evil:

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