It's been a very quiet day today - aside from Matthew, I'm the most senior engineer in the office, which is.. a little scary. But not a big deal 'cos there's not much going on that needs experience, fortunately.

I'm wondering how long it'll be before Questionable Content start to sell 'My Mommy Spanks People' t-shirts .

Very tired tonight, possibly because the last couple of nights I've had difficulty getting to sleep. Possibly, 'cos the duvet's a little too high on the bed. I've pulled it down further tonight in the hope that that helps.

Back to work tomorrow, and I'm not sure if I've really achieved as much as I'd have liked during the break. I watched some telly and stuff, and I've sorted some films. I've also written some little tools to show me what I've got so that I don't record things off telly that are already in the collection. And, it should help to determine that what's in the collection is poor and can be replaced by a recording. I've got one film here that's 2400Kb/s, but only 900Kb/s of that is video, and audio takes up the other 1500Kb/s as raw PCM. Seems strange, but there you go.

I don't want to talk about it; how you broke my heart. If I stay here just a little bit longer, If I stay here, won't you listen to my heart? [ I Don't Want To Talk About It, by Everything But The Girl ]

It's been going around my head for the last couple of days. Don't really like the Rod Stewart version, but that one's lovely.

The re-working of the video collection continues, slowly. I found another bug today, when files in 'Films2' weren't recognised as being Films (because of the '2' on the end of the directory name). Incredibly simple (and silly) mistake. Add test case to the regression suite and update the expected response to match which I should see. See the test fail. Fix the code to recognise the directory. Re-run test, see that it passes. Re-run other regression tests to check that nothing else is affected. Tada, fixed and a reasonable confidence that I've not broken anything else in the process and won't break it in the future if I make other changes.

I know my collection management stuff is all pretty simple really, and - as it's all private - it probably shouldn't need to have such tests, but I've become fed up with the adhoc nature of the development I'd done in the past and that the assumptions in one bit of code, when changed, break other code elsewhere in ways I'd not expected because I forgot my own requirements there.

Looks like the weather's cleared up a bit now. The snow's all gone today and the forecast looks like it's going to be warmer in general - at least continuing to be positive temperatures and not strong winds.

I think about you on a moonlit night And the stars all seem to weep. When there's so much to lose There's never any time for sleep. [ Stars All Seem To Weep, from Central Reservation, by Beth Orton ]

I managed, yesterday, to swipe my finger down the side of the door and put a big cut in it when I hit the latch. It's quite sore now.

And on the dreaming front, someone was coming to burn down the house with me in it 'cos I'd done something wrong (not actually sure what) so I had to get away, but I remembered that I wanted to take my computer with me. There were others but they're all faded now and I don't even have a vague idea of what they were.

I watched "Inception (2010)Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi, ThrillerDom Cobb is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb's rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible-inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming.Inception" yesterday, too. Not a bad film, and the special effects were unobtrusive (so much so that I don't really think there were that many - maybe it's just that building lots of scenes without mock sets is now the special effect and that's what people claim as special). I can't help feeling that it's like "Minority Report (2002)Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi, ThrillerIn the year 2054 A.D. crime is virtually eliminated from Washington D.C. thanks to an elite law enforcing squad "Precrime". They use three genetically altered humans (called "Pre-Cogs") with special powers to see into the future and predict crimes beforehand. John Anderton heads Precrime and believes the system's flawlessness steadfastly. However one day the Pre-Cogs predict that Anderton will commit a murder himself in the next 36 hours. Worse, Anderton doesn't even know the victim. He decides to get to the mystery's core by finding out the 'minority report' which means the prediction of the female Pre-Cog Agatha that "might" tell a different story and prove Anderton innocent.Minority Report" in the sense that it'll be quite immemorable in a few months time, despite being relatively decent in plot, acting, execution and general watchability. Plus, I'm not sure I quite followed some of the plot, 'cos I thought there were some holes...

It's also possible that I feel less strongly about it because I spent the previous day watching random The Outer Limits (1995, SciFi)Science-FictionLike the classic 1960s series of the same name, each episode is a celebration of the human imagination in which humanity's exploration of new frontiers in technology, outer space and the human experience reveal our greatest hopes and darkest fears. Stories on The Outer Limits have explored the consequences of such controversial and thought-provoking topics as genetic manipulation, alien visitation and life after death.The Outer Limits episodes.

Oh, I've just remembered I was going to knock up a simple script to collect fanart into a folder, but it's late and I'm tired. Although I did discover that brass, copper, gold and silver actually kill bacteria and viruses when exposed to them, although it takes time. Which makes them good for use as instruments and door knobs. There you go, something new for today.

I've been trying out AudioSurf more recently. It's quite fun to mix listening to music with games, and incidentally to beat Chris .

Regret, by New Order is incredibly busy and hard, in today's playing. And The Riddle, by Nik Kershaw manages to have a very busy and difficult end section, which is surprising, given that it's not that heavier than the rest of the track.

Christmas Doctor Who (2005, BBC One)Action and Adventure/Science-FictionThe Doctor looks and seems human. He's handsome, witty, and could be mistaken for just another man in the street. But the Doctor is a Time Lord: a 900 year old alien with 2 hearts, part of a gifted civilization who mastered time travel. The Doctor saves planets for a living - more of a hobby actually, and he's very, very good at it. He's saved us from alien menaces and evil from before time began - but just who is he?Doctor Who episode "A Christmas Carol" was surprising this year. Usually they're quite a disappointment, and a little way in I was expecting more of the same, but it managed to turn things around quite well. If anything, though, I think that leaving the episode on a sad ending was probably wrong - I'm all for things not being sugary-sweet, but it just seemed a little sadder than I was expecting.

Finally remembered to open my presents from Mum and Dad this evening - I've got some new pyjamas !

We got sent home early from work today, about midday, which was quite nice. Meant I had most of the day at home. I thought maybe I'd order some takeaway this evening, so I did, at about 7:20. At 9:50, having decided that there was no way that even the weather would make it this late, I rang them, only to find that they were closed. So... pretty annoyed by that. It'd have been nice if they'd not accepted the order if they weren't going to be open .

But I'm not going to let it bother me too much - too many things that can annoy me, so let's not let that be one.

I was watching an episode of Sliders (1995, FOX)Action and Adventure/Science-FictionIn his basement in San Francisco, boy-genius Quinn Mallory unlocks the doorway to an infinite number of Earths. During a test run, Quinn invites co-worker Wade Wells and his teacher Professor Maximillian Arturo to see his new invention. But an increase in power and an early departure leave all three, plus a washed-up soul singer named Rembrandt "Crying Man" Brown, lost in a parallel world. Now they must "slide" from world to world, not only adapting to their changing surroundings, but also trying to get back to their world. Will they ever make it home? Over the years, Sliders has become one of the most praised sci-fi shows of the 90's. The show has gained a cult following that rivals such longer running shows as Stargate SG-1 and even the Star Trek franchise. For years people have been asking for it to return to FOX with the original cast, or at least a major movie made. To this date, there are no plans for a new series or film.Sliders this evening, and there's a tiny segment when they rush past a bellhop who says a couple of lines. And I thought "I know them!", and it turns out I was right. 'Randall Disher' from Monk (2002, USA Network)DramaAn ex-cop suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder solves crimes with various (and usually exasperated) sidekicks in tow in this first-rate mystery with a breakout Emmy-winning star in Tony Shalhoub. The 'defective detective' may have an abundance of phobias (heights, crowds, and even milk, among them), but he also has razor-sharp deductive skills, which he uses to help the San Francisco police with especially baffling cases.Monk .

I saw Dirk Gently (2010, BBC Four)Action and Adventure/Comedy/Science-Fiction/FantasyDrama featuring writer Douglas Adams's holistic detective Dirk Gently, who operates based on the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. An investigation into a missing cat is inextricably linked to a chance encounter with an old friend, an exploding warehouse, a missing billionaire and a plate of biscuits.Dirk Gently whilst I was away with mum and dad last week. It was quite fun, and I enjoyed it - although quite a bit of enjoying it was seeing the parallels to the book. The re-painting of the whiteboard that had lots of references to the first book on it was amusing - and I'm sure the writer intended it as a nod to say that they were making a clean slate that wasn't based on that earlier work.

Most of the reviews that I've seen are essentially 'it's not Adams' Dirk Gently, but it's still quite good', with repeated comments that it's similar to other shows about ( Sherlock (2010, BBC One)Action and Adventure/Drama/Mini-SeriesSherlock Holmes and Dr Watson's adventures in 21st Century London. A thrilling, funny, fast-paced contemporary remake of the Arthur Conan Doyle classic. The update maintains some traditional elements of the stories, such as the Baker Street address and the evil Moriarty. Although the events of the books are transferred to the present day, existing elements are incorporated into the new characters to "ground the forthcoming tales in reality, and appease ardent fans of the classic tales"; for example, Martin Freeman's Watson has returned from military service in Afghanistan. When speaking to The Sherlock Holmes Society of London and discussing the fact that the original Watson was invalided home after serving in the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880), Gatiss realised that "It is the same war now, I thought. The same unwinnable war".Sherlock, in particular), that Helen Baxendale isn't as irritating in this as many reviewers found her in the past, and that Stephen Mangan was perfect as Dirk. I can agree with that, with the exception that Helen Baxendale has only really been irritating in Friends (1994, NBC)ComedySix young people, on their own and struggling to survive in the real world, find the companionship, comfort and support they get from each other to be the perfect antidote to the pressures of life.Friends when I saw her in that.

A quick look at figures says that Dirk got 744K viewers, compared to the slot-average of 277K viewers. Probably not enough to get it a BBC2 series, but maybe enough for BBC3/4. That said, it'd be interesting to see how they continued with a series in the same style without making it overlap with (say) Sherlock (2010, BBC One)Action and Adventure/Drama/Mini-SeriesSherlock Holmes and Dr Watson's adventures in 21st Century London. A thrilling, funny, fast-paced contemporary remake of the Arthur Conan Doyle classic. The update maintains some traditional elements of the stories, such as the Baker Street address and the evil Moriarty. Although the events of the books are transferred to the present day, existing elements are incorporated into the new characters to "ground the forthcoming tales in reality, and appease ardent fans of the classic tales"; for example, Martin Freeman's Watson has returned from military service in Afghanistan. When speaking to The Sherlock Holmes Society of London and discussing the fact that the original Watson was invalided home after serving in the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880), Gatiss realised that "It is the same war now, I thought. The same unwinnable war".Sherlock, Doctor Who (2005, BBC One)Action and Adventure/Science-FictionThe Doctor looks and seems human. He's handsome, witty, and could be mistaken for just another man in the street. But the Doctor is a Time Lord: a 900 year old alien with 2 hearts, part of a gifted civilization who mastered time travel. The Doctor saves planets for a living - more of a hobby actually, and he's very, very good at it. He's saved us from alien menaces and evil from before time began - but just who is he?Doctor Who, Paradox (2009, BBC One)Drama/Science-FictionIf you could see the future, would you change it? That's the dilemma facing Detective Inspector Rebecca Flint and astrophysicist Dr. Christian King when a series of rogue images transmitted into his laboratory from space, throw them together. The fragmented images appear to be of a major incident, but shockingly they suggest it has yet to happen; it's in the future! It looks like they have just 18 hours to work out the clues and prevent a tragedy.Paradox, etc...

Very tired today, and really not thinking all that straight. I guess those are the times that I tend to feel more out of sorts and fed up. They're also the times when things seem clearer and simpler - for minutes at a time. After that I just can't seem to hold whatever thought I had.

But I got to see Greebo; and Julian and Simon yesterday. Julian's passed his exams now so will be a Chartered Accountant, which is pretty impressive - to me, anyhow, as I've got no professional qualifications.

I've not slept well. My head's really sore and I'm not feeling at all rested. I had some strange dreams in those bits that I slept - one about a character who went on to work for a space squid farm, after their husband mutated into lots of little blobs and wasn't really there any more. Another was about how Nottingham castle is on a hill (I have no idea if this is true), with more hills around it, making it difficult to storm, and how it has a heritage going back to Thomas C Cook county in northern Scotland, and Thomas C Cook town on one of the islands north of Scotland (pretty sure this probably isn't true)- Thomas C Cook having been some well off person who set up those areas - and the bikers that were going on some kind of pilgrimage up there (which I'm certain is not true). Then there was one where I had seen the last Hannah Montana (2006, Disney Channel)Children/ComedyMiley Stewart might seem like an average girl but she isn't. She moved from Tennessee to Malibu and is adapting to a new lifestyle. Miley has a huge secret only known by her dad/manager Robbie Ray Stewart, her weird brother Jackson Stewart, and her two best friends Lilly Truscott and Oliver Oken. Miley Stewart's huge secret is she leads a double as the famous pop singer Hannah Montana along with her friend Lilly who also has a double life as Lola, Hannah's friend.Hannah Montana episode and knew what happened, and there was a big party going on in the park near where I lived and I went off to get photos of people so that I could send them to Caroline's daughter who might like that, so long as the people weren't falling down drunk, as appeared to be the case in the first tented area I came to. The main area was ok, though and I got some nice photos which I sent off, and kept from saying that in the last episode Hannah gets shot outside a stadium and nobody knows who did it and the scene pans away into the sky with her in shot (this, I'm relatively sure, is not true).

Anyhow, my heads and my eyes hurt and I'm tired.

I think Sarah's got me confused with the Actor, Justin. Which is a little hard to say. Sorry.

Can't sleep tonight; just not really getting there. Oddly I couldn't sleep last night either. Or the night before. Well, I did sleep, but only after a long time and I woke up irregularly again.

I was listening to some old music today, in Audiosurf, and it makes me sad. So now I'm sad all day...

... and then I'd feel sad and ashamed for a long time, and I've already done that for 11 years. [ Sad; Casey; Sports Night ]

Sports Night (1998, ABC)ComedySports Night ran nearly two full seasons on the ABC network in the US during the '98-99 and '99-00 seasons. Smart, fast-paced, witty and featuring a fine ensemble cast, Sports Night struggled in the ratings from the start, particularly during its second season, when it was routinely pre-empted and moved from night to night. Art imitated life imitating art, as the show took on a consultant, was hired to "tweak" the ratings. The show within a show continued to falter, amidst rumors of the imminent sale of its network and the subsequent gutting of its staff, until it, like its parent Sports Night, simply disappeared from the schedule.Sports Night just managed to give me a nice quote for this evening.

I found my self choking quite badly on my tea this evening. I amused me, whilst I was choking that all I could think of was...

I would think that a single woman's biggest worry would be choking to death alone in her own apartment. [ Dying alone; Jack; 30 Rock ]

... and then following it with the correction that I'm not a single woman, before wondering whether I'll just go dizzy first, or if it'll feel different before I die. This was rapidly followed by 'ooh, blurry... guess that's the answer' and then managing to cough up whatever it was.

I guess there's a sort of resignedness to that, which I can't really argue with.

Quick 'Hello' to Sarah, who dropped me an email this evening just as I'm about to drop off - actually, I'd just fixed up some small bugs at work that would have broken the nightlies, but ... you didn't want to know that. Um... bit fed up, lonely and - aside from being a little sore from choking - wondering what I think about the whole idea of dying alone. Not that that's a new thought.

Really, though, I think I'm just tired and need to sleep. Nice to hear from people again, but... I'm going to call it a night before the room gets any more fuzzy and maybe say more tomorrow...

I seem to have spent a little while this evening trying to explain how Picsel is actually quite good - well, the review process anyhow. I'd also go on about how ATS is really good as well, but then those are both systems that I know well and can say work pretty damn well. Certainly ATS beats BuildBot for general design and implementation, IMO.

Eek! Leo Spaceman's in the Christmas Eureka (2006, Syfy)Comedy/Drama/Science-FictionThe sleepy Pacific Northwest town of Eureka is hiding a mysterious secret. The government has been relocating the world's geniuses and their families to this rustic town for years where innovation and chaos have lived hand in hand. U.S. Marshal Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) stumbles upon this odd town after wrecking his car and becoming stranded there. When the denizens of the town unleash an unknown scientific creation, Carter jumps in to try to restore order and consequently learns of one of the country's best kept secrets.Eureka! So hard to take him even slightly seriously .

I'm tired today. I realised we're pretty close to Christmas now. I was thinking how nice it would be to enjoy the summer, earlier in the year. I guess it usually happens. Around September it hits me that the Summer's gone and there wasn't a lot to enjoy. And then we drift through Autumn without a second glance and it's Winter. It's never going to be an time that I enjoy.

I should probably try to just be happy with what there is, but there's always a chance that things will improve around the corner. Always that hope that things will be better. Always the relentless disappointment.

A minor up-side is that the server's been migrated to a new machine, albeit taking most of yesterday and today due to some minor mishaps and stuff. And I've added a simple udev script that will fsck the discs in the external boxes when they're connected, before mounting them. Because they're mounted on demand they were never getting checked, which wasn't so good. Anyhow, that seems to work. And the server's moved to just 3 discs, rather than 4 - and the root disc is now a more modern WD10EADS, (which gets around 75M/s) instead of the old PATA WD 300G disc that it used to be (which got around 50M/s). I'm sure it won't make that much of a difference but, in addition to the change from Celeron to Core 2 Duo, with far larger cache on it, I think it should make quite a nice improvement. Well, hope.

Tonight's Psych (2009, BBC Two)ComedyThe series revolves around five different characters from different parts of Britain: David Sowerbutts, a serial killer obsessed man-child who still lives with his mother Maureen; Mr. Jelly, an embittered one-handed children's entertainer; Oscar Lomax, a blind millionare who collects Beanies; Joy Aston, a midwife who treats a practice doll as if it is her real child; and Robert Greenspan, a telekinetic panto dwarf in love with his Snow White. All five are connected by a mysterious blackmailer who has sent them a letter each, all of which contains the same message: "I know what you did..."Psych episode was "Psych5x12
"Dual Spires"The episode kicks off with Shawn and Gus receiving a mysterious e-mail inviting them to the annual Cinnamon Festival in Dual Spires, a quirky Northern California town nearly invisible on the map. When they arrive the pair quickly find themselves embroiled in the mysterious death of local high school student Paula Merral. As Shawn and Gus unravel the many secrets of the town, they meet several local residents including town doctor/lawyer/veterinarian Donna Gooden, Sheriff Andrew Jackson, proprietors of the local diner Robert and Michelle Barker, the mysterious Woman with Wood and enigmatic bookish beauty Maudette Hornsby. The pool of suspects proves to be deeper than suspected as Shawn and Gus must work to figure out who killed Paula Merral.Dual Spires", and was entirely homage to 'Twin Peaks'. It was quite fun and I'm sure it'd be a lot more fun if I'd seen any of Twin Peaks (1990, ABC)Drama/Science-FictionThe body of Laura Palmer is washed up on a beach near the small Washington state town of Twin Peaks. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate her strange demise only to uncover a web of mystery that ultimately leads him deep into the heart of the surrounding woodland and his very own soul.Twin Peaks when it was on. Anyhow it cheered me up.

These last 4 or 5 days I've been stuck with Back For Good, by Take That in my head, and been unable to shake it. It's beginning to be a bit irritating.

It's a bit chilly .

I got a lovely mail from Christina with pictures of her little baby. Really glad everything's well with her!