Category Archives: Asides

Randy Pausch RIP

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From Good Morning Silicon Valley…

Randy Pausch, the popular computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon whose appetite for life was only sharpened by a diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer in September 2006, has died.

Pausch’s inspirational “Last Lecture” a year later, titled “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” was posted to YouTube and became an unexpected sensation, viewed millions of times. It evolved into a best-selling book, and Pausch used his sudden celebrity to be an advocate for both cancer research and savoring life. Randy Pausch died this morning at his home. He was 47. In the “Last Lecture,” he said, “I mean I don’t know how to not have fun. I’m dying and I’m having fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left. Because there’s no other way to play it. You just have to decide if you’re a Tigger or an Eeyore. I think I’m clear where I stand on the great Tigger/Eeyore debate. Never lose the childlike wonder. It’s just too important. It’s what drives us.”

The key to the past

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The Donegal coastline makes one want to be a geologist. Walking it leaves one awestruck by the evidence of the forces which have shaped and tortured the trillions of tons of rock which makes up this landscape. Looking at the segment shown in the photograph (at Maghera, near Ardara) I fell to thinking that, to a geologist, it’s probably like an open book, whereas to me it’s just awe-inspiring and opaque.

And then I fell to thinking about Charles Lyell, the geologist without whom Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection would have been incomprehensible. Evolution needs aeons to do its work, and it was Lyell who provided the evidence that the geological timescale was sufficient.

Advantages of Lisbon

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One of the less-discussed advantages of the Lisbon Treaty is that it would put an end to the ‘rotating’ Presidency under which the EU is currently run. This is the Buggins Turn system in which the Prime Ministers of even piddling little states get to strut it on the world stage for six months, miming an importance and power that they do not possess. Each one embarks on his or her moment in the sun with a grandiose ‘agenda’ which, given the glacial pace of inter-governmental processes, is unachievable within the allotted term. (Nicolas Sarcozy is the current incumbent and he is determined to ‘sort out’ the Irish Referendum result.) And then the baton is passed to another, equally deluded, premier whose fantasies and pretensions have likewise to be taken seriously by EU officials.

I remember being in Ireland when we first held the Presidency. Sue and I stayed in the Westbury in Dublin, which was the official hotel for the EU Summit. We seemed to be the only non-EU residents in the entire hotel. Outside was permanent gridlock of black limousines and motorcycle outriders. I fell into conversation with a bored driver who was waiting for his assigned clutch of VIPs. “This is not a good weekend to die in Ireland”, said he. I inquired why. “Because”, he said, “the government has hired cars from every funeral director in the country. There’s nothing left out there except bloody hearses.”

Political science

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Spotted (and photographed) by Fiona in a Donegal field. At first we thought it a tribute to the literacy of Irish crows — and then realised that it was a hangover from the Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty

Sarkozy’s charm offensive

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We arrived in Ireland on Monday morning. So too did the French President, but there was rather more fuss about him. Virtually everyone in the country had been seething about reports (which were, of course, denied) that he had said to his advisers after news of the Referendum result reached Paris that “the Irish will just have to vote again”. Miriam Lord, the Irish Times sketch-writer wrote an amusing account of Le Prez’s visit. It closes thus:

“I do not regret for one second having come over,” cooed Nicolas, who was charm personified. You could see he has charisma, and he has a nice smile, mused the ladies. Très distingué .

“Three-minute man,” sniffed the lads.

It went swimmingly, until the president protested that he couldn’t force the Irish to do anything.

“Have you seen the size of the Irish Taoiseach, talking about shaking up. He’s not a man you shake up easily, or shake down for that matter. Do I look as if I’ve been shaken in any way?” he said, to a sharp intake of breath from the locals.

Right enough, beside the diminutive Sarko, Biffo looked a bit like the Queen of Tonga.

The offensive was working a treat. Our Taoiseach is a “brave, courageous man” and “Ireland is a a warm country with a tradition of hospitality, a great country”. Then it was over. But not before Nicolas, who is very touchy-feely, had caressed Brian’s hand. The Taoiseach put them behind his back in case it happened again. Then, the French president made a lunge for Biffo and kissed him on both cheeks.

Biffo air-kissed gamely, making a disconcerting sloshing noise, but you could see he was mortified. He’ll be the laughing stock of Clara, but at least he can say he puckered up for Ireland.

A French kiss for an Irish Taoiseach on the steps of Government Buildings.

That’s Europe for you.

Footnote: Clara, in Offaly, is the Taoiseach’s home town, where — up to now at least — he has been much admired.

Lotus Notes: the Marmite of the IT world

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Charles Arthur has a nice post on the effect that Lotus Notes has on otherwise normal people.

I’ve just come across a new (to me) site: I Hate Lotus Notes which, um, does pretty much what it says on the tin.

What’s always interesting though is that pro-Notes people who will leap into these pits of hating and try, vainly, to tell people that the fact they’re hating Notes is because (1) they haven’t had enough training (2) it’s not an email program, it’s an application development platform (3) they’re using an old version – the latest version, v. [What you’re using 2] solves all those problems (4) it’s better than Outlook, anyway (5) all of the above.

I think it’s still telling that Notes 6.5.5, which dates from December 2005, still doesn’t support the scroll wheel on the mouse on OSX – which has done so from its start, a mere four and a half years earlier.

But you have to admire the determination of the pro-Notes brigade. They’re like people defending the right to smoke in crowded spaces: everyone else is wrong, it’s just them who can see the right way to run the world.

I’ve seen both sides recently. My university Faculty has merged with another one which long ago surrendered its IT to a team of Lotus Notes True Believers. To me, the product seems so dated and kludgy: it’s the epitome of 1980s, DOS-inspired software. And yet the True Believers are deeply attached to it in the way that Jehovah’s Witnesses are to the Watchtower. They are unfailingly courteous and willing as they patiently explain that Notes can be made to do virtually anything you want; but when one explains that a teaspoon can also be used to dig one’s garden they look blank: they don’t get it.

One of the comments on Charles’s post gets it right: Notes is “the marmite of the IT world”.

Er, don’t get me started on Marmite.

Dublin airport ‘crippled by flakey network card’

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From The Register…

An air traffic control fault that brought Dublin airport to its knees last week has been traced to an intermittently flakey network card.

Sadly, while the problem was simple enough to diagnose, it’ll be weeks before the airport’s air traffic control system will be able to run at full capacity.

The system went for a little lie down last Wednesday, and while it was back up and running soon enough concerns over its capacity meant authorities had to slash the number of flights in and out of the airport.

It wasn’t until Wednesday that the Irish Aviation Authority was prepared to say “operations at Dublin Airport are now generally meeting demand” though “some minor delays may be experienced at peak times”.

Thales ATM, the makers of Dublin’s ATC system, conducted a review of the system, and after crawling around the airport with their little torches, “confirmed the root cause of the hardware system malfunction as an intermittent malfunctioning network card which consequently overcame the built-in system redundancy”. The flakey card had been responsible for previous problems since June 2.

Apparently, Thales ATM stated ”that in ten similar Air Traffic Control Centres worldwide with over 500,000 flight hours (50 years), this is the first time an incident of this type has been reported”.

So, problem solved? Er, sadly not. The IAA has slapped in further monitoring tools, and plans “an enhancement” to the failure recovery system. But whatever happens, the system will need to be revalidated, which could take weeks. In the meantime, it will “slowly add capacity“, but for safety reasons “will not operate the system to its limit until the system has been re-validated”.

The Irish Times ran several pieces on the ensuing chaos, including this one which, en passant, contained a gem of a quote from RyanAir’s CEO.

Another contentious issue for passengers and airlines is compensation. Under European consumer regulations, passengers must be offered help free of charge while awaiting a rerouted flight, with meals, accommodation if necessary, transport between the airport and accommodation and telephone calls provided. But some airlines resent having to reimburse the cost of disruption which was not their fault. When asked yesterday about his passengers’ complaints that they weren’t offered the courtesy of a cup of a tea or a taxi fare to their hotel, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said: “Personally, I think that’s a load of nonsense. You paid an airfare of €40. You saved around €150. Buy your own cup of tea . . . Why are we providing cups of tea because the IAA can’t run a radar system properly?”

On this day…

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… in 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon.

Thanks to Boyd Harris for the link to the background on how this image was ‘prepared’ for publication.

It was taken with that famous Hasselblad that they left behind (to save weight). According to this source it was a special version of the 500 EL strapped to the astronaut’s chest (and without a viewfinder). The film was a variant of Ektachrome 160.