2008-12-03T20:36:16Z James F. Carter Copyright 2008, James F. Carter SPHPBLOG This blog has ended up being mostly about walking and strange food and drink. How did that happen? Anyway, I'm sure this is another thing that everyone in the world has heard of apart from me, but today I bought my first can of Ubuntu Cola. I can't find anything on its web site linking it to the better known Ubuntu, but the poster in the shop was taking about it as a Cola for geeks, so they must be aware of it.

And the taste? Didn't do much for me, to be honest.]]> http://www.jfc.org.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry080801-163049 2008-08-01T00:00:00Z 2008-08-01T00:00:00Z
Well having taken the course, I'd now be wary of employing anyone who thought it was worth the cash to get certified. The material was five years out of date and littered with factual errors, many so bad they were funny. The course consisted of a week long death-by-powerpoint and the three phone-book sized course books were just a copy of the slides. The breadth was enormous but the depth really shallow, and I didn't really learn very much. The course presenter was, to be fair, in better command of the facts than the course material but nevertheless consistently made basic errors. He rounded off the experience with misogynistic "jokes" and anecdotes - yes, this is the IT industry, but it's also 2008 not 1978!

One particular pearl I have to pass on. One of the 3000 slides was on vulnerability scanners - software that can scan your computer systems and report any potential security issues with them. One bullet point on this slide mentioned software available for Linux. The software? SANE! Yes the software for scanning and digitising images of bits of paper. It even mentioned parallel and USB scanners! A bit of Googling revealed that someone had simply searched for "Linux scanners" and cut and paste the first bit of text they'd found.

I can safely say that it is the worst course I've attended. Ever.]]> http://www.jfc.org.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry080604-074546 2008-06-04T00:00:00Z 2008-06-04T00:00:00Z I felt like a cheesy radio DJ doing it, but I'm pleased Alice said yes to Ben's marriage proposal on PodQuiz 166. The question is though, is this the first podcast proposal?]]> http://www.jfc.org.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry080429-195921 2008-04-29T00:00:00Z 2008-04-29T00:00:00Z

I'm not sure whether the recent BBC story about the inventors of the Beeb reuniting at the Science Museum was an inspiration to the producers this week's episode of the consumer protection programme Watchdog. The Beeb makes an unlikely appearance in a story about fraudulent online shops, with a green-screen MODE 7 being used for the graphics. I seriously considered giving this an entry at Starring the Computer, but I think it's probably best if I stick to fictional features there. It was too good to let it pass completely, though, so I'm recording it here.]]> http://www.jfc.org.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry080325-074743 2008-03-25T00:00:00Z 2008-03-25T00:00:00Z
Surely this must have been done before, but it's the first time I've seen it.]]> http://www.jfc.org.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry080218-081211 2008-02-18T00:00:00Z 2008-02-18T00:00:00Z
I've spruced up http://www.jfc.org.uk/ a bit, including the addition of a new walking web page, including mapping data and photos from the various walks I go on.]]> http://www.jfc.org.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry080128-171013 2008-01-28T00:00:00Z 2008-01-28T00:00:00Z

Here's a, erm, fun way to waste half an hour. What's the longest route you can create on Google Maps without any extra waypoints? The longest I could manage was 7994 miles, which Google optimistically estimates an 8 day and 4 hour drive.

It's not as easy as you might think. Google can't route through a lot of countries, and can't route between others. Watch out for the funky routing algorithm too - changing the start and end point by just a few metres can make a thousand miles of difference to the journey length.]]> http://www.jfc.org.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry080123-212638 2008-01-23T00:00:00Z 2008-01-23T00:00:00Z
Jo and I just got back from a holiday in Portugal (very nice thanks, photo's are online). Anyway, I drank quite a bit of this beer - nothing special, just a cheap local brew from the supermarket (Lidl, I think). It wasn't until the last day that i took a closer look at the label. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a warning of potential side effects!]]> http://www.jfc.org.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry071119-131219 2007-11-19T00:00:00Z 2007-11-19T00:00:00Z West Highland Way, followed by the Great Glen Way hopefully with a climb of Ben Nevis in between. All told we'll probably cover about 200 miles.

Two weeks without touching a computer will be good for me, I'm sure!

]]> http://www.jfc.org.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry070816-112005 2007-08-16T00:00:00Z 2007-08-16T00:00:00Z decent beer.

On all previous occasions that I've visited I've ended up drinking whisky. Not that it's a chore, of course, as there's inevitably an excellent range of malts available, but I'd rather have a good beer and, up until now, that just hasn't been available with gassy, chemically lager being the order of the day.

So I was very pleasantly surprised on this visit to discover a number of bars serving really good local beer. The Castle Tavern is just down the road from Jo's mother's and they had some excellent beers from Cairngorm Brewery and the Isle of Skye Brewing Company. Elsewhere I also had good beer brewed by the An Teallach Brewery, and the Black Isle Brewery. All of these companies are new - starting in the least decade or so, and many more Highland breweries have started in the last five years.

There's been revival of real ale brewing across the country over the last fifteen years or so, but it's good to see that the Highlands aren't being left behind. So here's to the Highland renaissance - it will make visits to the in-laws that much more appealing!]]> http://www.jfc.org.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry070803-100103 2007-08-03T00:00:00Z 2007-08-03T00:00:00Z