We’re having a little problem with the blog. It can be summarised thus: PlusNet, in their infinite wisdom, installed a new CGI web server. To be fair to them, the upgrade was much needed. But lo! Why did they have to change platforms (Linux to FreeBSD)? In the process, different versions of Perl, DB_File.pm and the associated system shared object were installed. So, whatever I did, I couldn’t do db_upgrade or db_dump/db_load! Read more...

A long but fascinating insider account of the build up to war inside The Pentagon, and the influence of the neoconservative Office of Special Plans (OSP) over the White House policy decisions that led to the war in Iraq: Saddam Hussein had gassed his neighbors, abused his people, and was continuing in that mode, becoming an imminently dangerous threat to his neighbors and to us—except that none of his neighbors or Israel felt this was the case. Read more...

I don’t often discover much arbitrary lockout stupidity these days. The Web Standards message seems to be getting through to the people at the code-face: developers at large corporates or their design agencies. Occasionally a site will crop up with 2000-era broken browser-sniffing, like O2’s XDA site. I surfed on over using my browser of choice (Mozilla Firefox) and was presented with the following message: This website has been optimised for Internet Explorer 5+ and Netscape 6+. Read more...

We run around in a 1994 Vauxhall Corsa 1.5 TD GLS, previously owned by Kathy’s dad. When we got it, in 2001, it had clocked up 139,000 miles. To date, it has done about 178,000 miles. Apart from a bad year in 2001 (alternator, radiator and who knows what else went wrong) it has been the most reliable car I’ve ever owned. It always starts first time, apart from yesterday, when it started second time. Read more...

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So His Gingerness is leaving Southampton at the end of the season. He will be missed, as he’s taken Saints up a notch from the annual relegation dogfight to pushing for European places. Southampton have confirmed that manager Gordon Strachan will leave the club in the summer to undergo a hip operation. — http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/southampton/3381791.stm Gordon: all the best—I’m sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Thanks for the memories, especially beating Spurs 4-0 last year and the Cup Final. Read more...

HNY!

Great day for The Saints yesterday: a comprehensive 3-0 win over local rivals Portsmouth, with a direct-from-a-corner goal by "The New David Beckham" (Jason Dodd), a superb individual effort by back-from-injury Marian Pahars and a diving header by James Beattie. Saints are fourth in the league again. Unless we keep winning, though, we could just as easily be in the relegation zone, like The Skates. We’re closer in points to our old rivals, 12 14 places below us, than to Chelsea, one place above us. Read more...