Matts Meanderings

Disgusted in NatWest right now...

1. They advertise 'Phones answered 24/7'. Until you ring up and get told 'Our business hours are 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday'. Make up your mind.

2. Rang up the number on the back of the card, which said 'Press 1 for the cheque referral service, press 2 for other enquires'. Pressed 2, got a message that told me to ring customer services, and hung up, without even telling me the number. Could it not have transferred me?

3. Eventually found a number that worked, and rang up to enquire about something, and as soon as I started questioning why he was unable to do anything useful, he hung up on me.

Hmmm... Anyone know a decent UK bank?

Just did yet another Brainbench test the other day, as part of the hunt for a contract job...

Thought it might be interesting to share the results I've had over the time:

Date	Subject	Score[1]	Percent [2]
13/12/2004	VB.NET	4.31	98%
09/02/2005	MS SQL Server 2000	3.87	91%
09/02/2005	ASP 3.0	4.60	98%
09/02/2005	Visual Basic 6.0	4.34	99%
09/02/2005	XSL	3.12	77%[3]
22/10/2006	ASP.NET (Express)	3.25	56%[4]
22/10/2006	C# (Express)	3.62	83%
22/10/2006	MS SQL Server 2000	3.95	97%

Maybe I do know what I'm talking about.... Just need to brush up on the ASP.NET - thats the one thats letting the team down now...

^[1] Score is out of 5. Not a strickly linear score though.
^[2] Percent actually means 'better than x percent of respondants'
^[3] I'd say about about a gazillion times better on the XSL now - 18 months practice...
^[4] Really thought I'd do better on the ASP.NET test, and worse on the C#.

No idea what the point is, but its pretty cool...

Google has just announced that they're covering the roof of their buildings with solar panels to offset the power they use.

Good on you, Google!

Have a look at the front cover of today's 'The Sun', and the story that its about...

As ever, 'The Sun' is doing its best to calm racial tensions... Gah.

Got it installed, and 90% setup. Seems quite good, smooth, and stable. Very pretty too...

Only had three issues - it didn't want to setup while connected to my TV, and also that it seems that media centre shuts down when you connect to the machine by remote desktop:

---------------------------
Windows Media Center
---------------------------
Windows Media Center has been shut down because it was running in a mode that is not supported
over a remote desktop connection. Please restart Windows Media Center to correct this issue.
---------------------------
OK  
---------------------------

Really quite annoying, as it will kill any TV recordings you've got going if you connect to it at the wrong time.

Last issue is that it seems to think that i've only got two speakers connected to it, when I've got it connected to a surround sound system... Oh well, I'm sure there's a way to make it work - just got to find it.

Once I've got it sorted, I'll post a pretty picture to make you all jealous .

Is cleaning a crime? 'Graffiti' by cleaning grimey walls...

from Neatorama, via Dan Bartels.

Well, its official, its final, and I'm not worried about it at all.

I resigned on Wednesday from company I was contracting at^[1]. Finally.

I've got no new job, but judging by the fact that I uploaded my CV to a few job sites last night, and got 8 phone calls today, it doesn't seem like it'll be a problem.

If all else fails, well, I can survive till around mid December anyway. But, I'm positive I'll have something sorted, maybe with a week or so off in between.

Learnt some great stuff, had some great opportunities, but also didn't get the key opportunities I wanted, and well, politics reared its ugly head once too often.

Its a relief, and very freeing. Who knows what the next door will bring .

^[1] If you know me, or have been reading this for a while, you'll know which company...

Hadn't heard much about it, but seems that the fires in Hobart (down in Tasmania) were pretty scary.

A mate sent me this photo (by Ian Stewart):

Its only October - its gonna be a long summer downunder.

... sitting at home installing Vista RC2, reading blogs, and doing some blogging.

Okay, well maybe there is. But, in the interests of sharing the love, this caught my eye:

... some currencies, notably sterling issued by Scottish banks, is not legal tender but is accepted by longstanding confidence in the Scottish banking system.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_currency.

Interesting.

Anyway, be prepared... Few more random posts coming, and some news...

My nephew's now 6 months old... And has grown into a blanket monster, it seems:

How cute is he???

Downloading some stuff from Microsoft the other day, and I got these download speeds:

Bugger...

Just before I left Melbourne, back in 2004, I had a bit of a family dinner, just to say bye to everyone.

One of my younger cousins (Georgia, I think), said I had to take a photo of Platform 9 ^3/4 at Kings Cross Station, as in the Harry Potter books and movies.

So, a little late, but here it is:

And yes, I felt like an idiot posing for that one...

Just listening to The Waifs this morning, and I'm still loving 'London Still':

Wonder if you can pick up my Accent on the phone When I call across the country When I call across the world I see you in my kitchen I can picture you now As you toast to your small town When you drink the happy hour I’m in London still I’m in London still I'm in London still I took the tube over to Camden To wander around I bought some funky records With that old Motown sound And I miss you like my left arm That's been lost in a war Today I dream of home and not of London anymore I'm in London still I'm in London still Yeah I'm in London still You know it’s okay I’m kinda happy here for now I think I've finally grown up And got myself a lover now And if I ever come home And I, I think I will I hope you're gonna wanna hang at my place on Sunday still Oh yeah I hope you will Cause I'm in London still You know we got it sorted, yeah We really got it down To a fine art on Sunday In a sleepy Sunday town I wonder what I'm missing I think of songs I've never heard I'm dreaming of your voices And I'm dreaming of your herb I'm in London still I'm in London still I'm in London still Oh I'm in London still la-la-la-la-la London still I'm in London

Really liking this one. Kinda meloncholy, but in a good way.

Ran across an old post today thats quite interesting... To paraphrase:

If you're not passionate about what you're doing with your life, why are you doing it?

Check it out at awasu, and follow the link to the other article as well. Interesting.

From the RSS team blog:

It has therefore been our #1 guiding principle that we would aim for a secure experience first -- sacrificing functionality, if necessary, to achieve it.

Definitely a change in the mindset - it used to be all about enabling functionality, with little regard for security. I think thats what made Windows the dominant operating system. But, those scumbags that think creating viruses and spyware is fun killed the functionality and ease of use thing...

...has finally completely lost the plot...

Last week, the White House and three Republican senators announced a terrible deal on this legislation that gave Mr. Bush most of what he wanted, including a blanket waiver for crimes Americans may have committed in the service of his antiterrorism policies. Then Vice President Dick Cheney and his willing lawmakers rewrote the rest of the measure so that it would give Mr. Bush the power to jail pretty much anyone he wants for as long as he wants without charging them, to unilaterally reinterpret the Geneva Conventions, to authorize what normal people consider torture, and to deny justice to hundreds of men captured in error.

...

A dangerously broad definition of “illegal enemy combatant” in the bill could subject legal residents of the United States, as well as foreign citizens living in their own countries, to summary arrest and indefinite detention with no hope of appeal. The president could give the power to apply this label to anyone he wanted.

from the New York Times, via Ed Bott

Remind me not to visit the States anytime soon.