M40 memorial
There is a memorial plaque on the northbound M40 motorway in Oxfordshire.
Out of morbid curiousity, I pulled over this morning to pay my respects and read the inscription:
'Do not stand at my grave and weep
Bring a picnic here instead
Just be careful opening the driver's door
Because that's what I did and now I'm dead'
BA launches bid for prestigious 'marketing campaign' award
British Airways, shocked at missing out last year's trophy, have launched a superlative campaign for 2008. Agency: Itchy & Scraatchi. Cost: £25,000 found in a digger after the completion of T5. Gate 3 - Newcastle airport.Together we can work wonders
Off to a gentle modest start.
Together we can get people talking about T5
That is certainly true.
Together we can make T5 world famous
Some wag has added a prefix of 'in'.
Together we can keep people smiling
Most people smile, dumped in Vancouver 17 hours late with no clean shirts and underpants, don't they ?
Together we can keep things moving
Well most things with the exception of the baggage carousels.
...and the final, closing, crowning glory.
Together we can get off to a flying start
Honestly, if you made it up, people wouldn't believe you.
resurrection of Disqus comments
Five months ago, I experimented with Disqus powered comments when this blog was running on WordPress. The trial was rather short-lived because I was disappointed that Disqus wasn't able to fully integrate with all the existing blog comments. Importing comments still isn't possible but Disqus says this feature is being worked on.
However, I have decided to reinstate Disqus for the following reasons:
- Disqus recently added integration with FriendFeed so any contributions I make on Disqus powered blogs will also be visible in my FriendFeed stream.
- I am encountering an ever increasing number of blogs using Disqus.
- I am hoping Disqus will help to trigger more comments, interest and interaction on the blog.
- Disqus provide a nice combination widget providing 'Popular', 'Recent Comments' and 'People'.
- The most recent release of Disqus included a raft of changes including support for Open ID.
- Disqus is being actively developed and, more importantly, listen to their users.
I still have some reservations that the couple of articles with decent comment threads included replies to earlier comments (which are no longer visible) so we are literally starting from zero. However, hopefully some comments will appear soon and the tabs will actually display something !
Aside: Unfortunately, adopting Disqus means I will no longer be using Matt Read's recently released Defensio plugin which is excellent and highly recommended for any Habari bloggers wading through a torrent of comment spam.
blogging bankruptcy
It's no good. I simply can't go on. I can no longer summon up the enthusiasm for blogging. All the warnings from the blogging 101 courses over the years have proven to be very true. I foolishly dipped my toe into Twitter and then FriendFeed but it's no good I simply can't go on with this any longer. I can't bear to miss my children growing up just because 'Facebook is so last year, Dad.' I can't bear to talk to my wife and be abrupt and terse simply because I am now limited to 140 characters. The time has finally come for me to declare complete 100%, unadulterated blogging and Web 2.0 bankruptcy. Thank you all from the pit of my burning, nauseous stomach for your comments during the past years. Tomorrow I will resign from Oracle Corporation and will devote the rest of my life to my one true love. Learning to play guitar well enough to cover 'Country Feedback' by R.E.M. Wish me luck. Peace, love, empathy The byte stream that is 'Blog in Isolation'.milestone release for Oracle database
Oracle Corporation - Redwood Shores, near California.
Oracle today announced the release of a major maintenance release of version 11g of the companies flagship database server product.
Charles Phillips took the world by surprise by making a major annnoucement a full six months ahead of Oracle Open World as he addressed the media (including 17 carefully selected representatives from the blogging community):
'This release is the culmination of years of engineering effort aimed at delivering deterministic and reliable performance with the very highest levels of throughput. Oracle 11gR7 offers proven scalability for all Oracle applications including universal support for third party (aka legacy) applications while simultaneously reducing the cost of ownership and maximising the return on investment for all our customers.'
'Oracle are delighted to annouce the immediate availability of Release 11.1.0.7.0 which is now available for every single platform (well apart from OpenVMS).'
'The release includes the productisation of a previously, hidden parameter known only to highly paid consultants. Previously, the configuration setting could only be invoked by dressing up in long white robes, waving a magic wand while dancing over sheep's entrails and simultaneously chanting holy, mystical incantations. The parameter previously known as '_GO_FASTER' is now available as a documented SPFILE parameter with possible values of 'FALSE, SAFE, CHEAP, TRUE or TURBO.'
Wall Street analysts were staggered at the news and, as soon as they sober up after yet another Web 2.0 lunch, they will give their carefully considered verdict but the Oracle stock price is expected to rocket following the press release.
Oracle also hopes to have a back-port for Oracle 10g and the legacy Oracle 9i database server available by the end of the month.