SezWho comment ratings system
Just installed SezWho on this blog. At least, it imported all existing comments (unlike Disqus). I would like to change the red colour to blend in with the theme but haven't worked out how.
Now just rate each other nicely or you will be sent to bed without any tea and the plug-in will be removed. Any feedback, just shout or comment.
Another interesting service but, again, the problem is that it needs to be installed on the majority of blogs/wikis/forums in the world to be truly useful. I think marketeers call it 'traction'. Pity the support email supplied is totally broken but still.
What a blessed shame SezWho doesn't currently support Blogger which means this superlative comment couldn't add 5 stars to my embryonic profile.
Top 10 UK blogs
I am still in shock at not being shortlisted for the 'Best UK Blog' but I decided to swallow my pride and enjoy a few hours enjoying the high quality content of the 10 finalists:- Ian Dale's Diary - A tagline of 'Commentary, analysis and gossip from the heart of Westminster' completely turned me off and I closed the Firefox tab before I was subjected to any more torture.
- Guy Fawkes - Hoping for top tips to blow up the Houses of Parliament but just got more politics. Yawn.
- Neil Clark - The winner apparently. Anti-war hack with a lot of posts urging readers to vote for him.
- EU Referendum - Simply couldn't summon up the enthusiasm to click through.
- Pub Philosopher - Promising title but yet more (right wing) politics. May as well buy the Daily Mail.
- The Devil's Kitchen - Considered outpourings on the wit and wisdom of David Cameron. No thanks.
- Baggage Reclaim - Much better. A blog recording amusing anecdotes from an anonymous baggage handler at LHR. Oh no - wait a minute - it's just a blog about dating and 'relationships'.
- Nourishing Obscurity - Promising title but this excerpt completely lost me: 'I see that the current crop of parents lost their moral compass long ago and this is the first generation to grow up "moral-code-lite".
- Bright Meadow - Soft porn alert 'She loved how the amber glinted off his bones'. I daren't read any more. Particularly as I am on a formal warning from my employer.
- Kickette - At last. A discerning blog all about football. Only this one is about celebrity footballers (Fat Frank), their tiresome girlfriends and pictures of Ronaldo with his shirt off.
- BlogStorm - Internet Marketing/SEO but, refreshingly, from a UK blogger.
- Caroline Middlebrook - a lady who took the brave step of quitting her IT job in favour of blogging.
- Donncha - WordPress employee #2 and aspiring photographer.
- Doug Burns - Scottish DBA with wicked sense of humour.
- Modern Life is Rubbish - Quality not quantity.
- Pete Ashton - Brummie blogger with varied mixture of music, photos and tech with no signposts or self-importance. Pure blogging.
- Random Acts of Reality - I help people read books. This guy saves people's lives for £10 an hour. Deserves first prize for the blog name alone.
- Tim Hall - Oracle DBA, film critic and Karate Kid. Another Brummie.
- Tom Raftery - Irish slant on IT, tech and all that Web 2.0 stuff.
- Who Ate All The Pies - Genuinely funny football blog.
Oracle Open Underworld
I decided to save Oracle Corporation lots of money by not attending Oracle Open World in San Francisco. Initially, my manager spent a lot of time trying to dissuade me but as soon as he uttered the words 'Billy Joel' and 'Prince', I immediately volunteered for some billable work in Sunderland to help pay for Doug's complimentary red sleeping bags. Doug Burns, Tim Hall and John Scott seem to have a real problem conquering jet lag while Mark Rittman just does 'the British thing and goes down the pub'. While I don't travel to the States that often, I did attend a Microsoft training course in Seattle last year. As I don't sleep on planes, I do recall being quite tired when we disembarked and slightly annoyed when my colleague volunteered to navigate and let me concentrate on driving. However, after checking into the hotel, having a walk around the lovely harbour and getting something to eat, I remember feeling pretty good. In fact, after a couple of drinks, I was ready put my Amex card behind the bar but my colleague insisted on dragging me back to my bedroom screaming 'But we must go to bed at 22:09' Anyway to OOW; Oracle Apps Lab launched Oracle Mix which is a version of an internal Oracle networking site (which I am ashamed to admit I only discovered recently) and there is a short discussion about Oracle's gradual adoption of such networking and community tools. I must say I preferred the name 'Connect' to 'Mix' but still, if anyone wants to link up, you know where to find me. Andrew Clarke has a typically British and impartial review on Larry Ellison's opening keynote while Eddie Awad has recorded some fun micro-interviews with Oracle staff and bloggers alike. Interesting to put a face and voice to people I only know from their Internet presence. The other announcement thus far of note is Oracle VM. Virtualisation is a strong growth area (I meet lots of Siebel customers deploying or planning to use VM) and this is an obvious market for Oracle to enter to complement Enterprise Linux.Solihull to Amsterdam via London
Norman - Your next post will be in the style of Micro-Blogging... Monday - NSCR. Plaintive request from a customer to truncate a Siebel intersection table. Siebel's official stance on the use of any direct SQL to modify data in Siebel base tables is well documented. However, for reasons that are too lengthy and tedious to divulge here, this particular request was approved. Mainly because they deposited £2500 into my offshore account. Tuesday - Team Meeting at BVP. Interesting to hear what my counterparts on eBusiness Suite do. Ate here. Not as dire as the reviews suggested. Few beers in the interests of team morale. Wednesday - Try (and fail) to avoid being dispatched abroad on my birthday. Cristiano Ronaldo keeps going till the very last minute and gets his reward. A lesson to us all. Thursday - Early start. Sleep downstairs on the sofa bed. Wake up 3 hours early. Fly to Amsterdam. Mundane Production Health Check for Siebel 7.7 on SQL Server. Set up various monitoring tools (perfmon, OM logging and Profiler) to identify low hanging fruit. There wasn't any. Staying close to Schipol (good), far away from the city (bad). Back to hotel. Tired. Process email while thinking about lyrics to 'Sappy' and listening to 'Low' on a tight loop.another mangerial casualty
London - 5 November 2007 The football world was left reeling after Norman Brightside was fired last night. The long serving manager of Whiteside Wanderers was summarily dismissed when the club released a terse statement on their website.'36 points. That's rubbish. You're fired.'After a pre-season of great promise, big money transfers and high expectations from fans, Whiteside Wanderers have endured a poor start to the season and are positioned second from bottom after a string of inconsistent performances and bad results. Brightside defended his record: 'Don't look at me. Look at the players. They just haven't performed. The team has continually been wracked by injuries (Scholes, Rooney), suspensions (Ronaldo, Carsson) and loss of form (Berbatov).' The Chairman offered a slightly different view: 'The manager's lost it. He has made some bizarre selections (Noble, McShefferey). His stubborn refusal to even contemplate the purchase of a Liverpool or Manchester City player was the last straw. I negotiated a deal with Liverpool to get Gerrard for £56 million but he refused. The man is a stubborn idiot and is living in a fantasy world.' Brightside was left fuming at claims he had 'lost the dressing room'. 'That's absolutely absurd. The dressing room is on the right just after the toilets. I can find it with my eyes shut.' Brightside was coy about his plans for the future and refused to confirm or deny rumours of a £7.50 pay-off. The tabloid press are convinced he will team up with Sammy Lee and take over at managerless Stevenage, a Subbuteo team languishing in the Ryman Premier League. 'Some think Stevenage would be a retrograde step but there's great potential there. Besides, Sammy wants to go somewhere where the players look up to him.'