Scratch

Here you will find older scratches, musings and other detritus that once were located on the front pages, but have now faded.

Filed away here to collect dust and cobwwwebs in perpetuity, links may break, facts may change and data may corrupt.

On occasion I may come down here to tidy, but for the most, I prefer to leave the past where it lies.

Monthly Archives

01/01/2008 - 31/01/2008 01/12/2007 - 31/12/2007 01/11/2007 - 30/11/2007 01/09/2007 - 30/09/2007 01/08/2007 - 31/08/2007 01/07/2007 - 31/07/2007 01/06/2007 - 30/06/2007 01/05/2007 - 31/05/2007 01/04/2007 - 30/04/2007 01/03/2007 - 31/03/2007 01/02/2007 - 28/02/2007 01/01/2007 - 31/01/2007 01/12/2006 - 31/12/2006 01/11/2006 - 30/11/2006 01/10/2006 - 31/10/2006 01/09/2006 - 30/09/2006 01/08/2006 - 31/08/2006 01/07/2006 - 31/07/2006 01/06/2006 - 30/06/2006 01/05/2006 - 31/05/2006 01/04/2006 - 30/04/2006 01/03/2006 - 31/03/2006 01/02/2006 - 28/02/2006 01/01/2006 - 31/01/2006 01/12/2005 - 31/12/2005 01/11/2005 - 30/11/2005 01/10/2005 - 31/10/2005 01/09/2005 - 30/09/2005 01/08/2005 - 31/08/2005 01/07/2005 - 31/07/2005 01/06/2005 - 30/06/2005 01/05/2005 - 31/05/2005 01/04/2005 - 30/04/2005 01/03/2005 - 31/03/2005 01/02/2005 - 28/02/2005 01/01/2005 - 31/01/2005 01/12/2004 - 31/12/2004 01/11/2004 - 30/11/2004 01/10/2004 - 31/10/2004 01/09/2004 - 30/09/2004 01/08/2004 - 31/08/2004 01/07/2004 - 31/07/2004 01/06/2004 - 30/06/2004 01/05/2004 - 31/05/2004 01/04/2004 - 30/04/2004 01/03/2004 - 31/03/2004 01/02/2004 - 29/02/2004

 

Sanyo

Looking at this link about Sanyo's 'Solar Ark', I think putting recalled photovoltaics to use as a constant reminder of an error is a good diea. Even if the by product has got to be the world's largest advertising board collecting 630kW as a side benefit

Now if only we could squeeze two of these on our roof we could power our machine room.

During the summer months.

Poo Sticks

Well at least my optimism and entusiams for the new year lasted three working days. Next year I shall set my sites more realistically and go straight to the down-trodden pessimism.

It should make it easier for all concerned rather than trying to fight the inevitable.

First Day Back

Work was nothing special. 'Tis always the same, you start getting into holidays and then they are over. Tonight I fixed the bathroom door handle so no more getting inadvertently trapped.

I think this productivity will tomorrow be applied to editing photos and perhaps building a PC.

Podcasting

Hmm, podcasting, or videostreaming as it is in my case fast becoming. Great idea in theory...communism works in theory etc etc.. But off the shelf software that doesn't do quite what you want, but gives you the tree, rope and a DIY guide to Famous Knots to let you get on...

Grrr arrgh.

Back to the mixing desk. I hope..

Thing N Wotnots N Stuff

Has been a long weekend so far.

Most of yesterday was spent at work with various contractors ironing out glitches and omissions in the design of the electrical supply, mainly to do with alterations to our flywheel UPS' to allow syncronisation of supply frequencies across a common bus bar to allow us to alter their respective loadings, but also changes to the cooling system to allow more accurate throttling when the load is transferred to the genset. Whilst his took me a little over 2 minutes to type, it actually took me leaving the house a bit before six in the morning, and then arriving back a little over twelves hours later.

Now I am just playing with technology of my own. Over the past few weeks, the server hardware and software that this site is housed on has been a bit problematic, so I decided to upgrade and rebuild it completely. This has the benefit that I can correct some underlying problems, but I always feel a a clean O/S with new programs is more stable than a heavily upgraded/patched system. I hope to do this out of spares so there should be minimum disruption (fingers crossed).

However, theres going to be on-off server downtime over the next few weeks, whilst inevitable problems are ironed out, but also whilst we move, which will effect this site, others and email, and whilst I will do the best I can to get it up and running, but it will also depend on arranging a new ISP.

All good clean fun.

Crispy Fried Electrician

What could be a better way of starting the working week than passing 240V across your chest at 8:30 on a Monday morning. I am so glad I was looking at the flash at the time. My eyes are still starry, although to be fair, probably not as much as his.

Only minutes earlier he was complaining about his worn screwdriver and having to buy a new one. I suspect had he known it would have been an charred worn screwdriver a few seconds later he may have actually not regreted forking out the money for a new one. To be fair though, he probably regrets not picking it up from his workshop.

Silly man.

Not The Norm

If you had asked me this morning as I got out of bed, whether today would hold anything different or unusual, I would probably have said I wouldn't have thought so.* What I wouldn't have said by any remote stretch, is that by the close of it I would be standing on top of a very windy twelve storey building helping aim a laser at another building a city block away.**

There are two reasons I wouldn't have expected this. First, the knowledge that aiming anything but the weakest laser at anything thats not both a) running; b) wearing a target; and c) enclosed in a warehouse, has inherent safety concerns; and secondly, my natural predisposition to keeping my feet in excess of five metres from anything over a one storey drop onto solid*** concrete. Actually, there is a third, and that is that I've never had cause to go onto the roofs of said buildings before.

What I hadn't counted on was the following series of events. One, having closed one of their buildings for refurbishment a month or two ago, the NHS would not secure it. Two, the building became occupied by undesirables of questionable legal title/rights. Three, said undesriables decide to cut all of our fibre links running through a shared basement with a view to selling for scrap as a means of providing income.

Whilst being a tad unusual and slightly unnerving for me, it was also inconvenient for several parties. First, those 500 or so staff who effectively lost network connectivity as the link went rather rapidly from a steady 2gb to flaky 100mb. The police who had to turn up and remove the undesirables. The undesirables who obviously couldn't sell their ill gotten gains on account of being arrested. I don't suspect that in the latter case it would have made much difference to their ecnomic standing anyway, as although copper has a scrap value easily in excess of £1000/ton they took fibre which has a neglible scrap value. Copper yes, but fibre?! Come on its glass. And had they not cut the links, they might have been able to live there undisturbed until work starts on site in late 2008. Fools..

Saying all this the one concillation, for me anyway, was the view(s). They were stunning. Standing on the South Western Corner, there is an awesome uninterupted view taking in the horizon from Hampstead Heath, taking in such noticeable buildings in the foreground as Kings Cross, Senate House, the Swiss Re Building, Shooters Hill, the Savoy, The London eye and then most of Kensington.

It makes you remember how much certain buildings, either through height or architecture, stand out, especially when compared with their neighbours - Euston Tower / Centre Point I'm looking at you. Saying that, even where I was at twelve storeys I could still fall under the shadow of the Post Office / BT Tower and it make me feel sick at just imagening how small people must look some 43 floors below.

Whilst I hope that such things aren't a regular occurance, and I don't think my stomach could handle it if it were, I wouldn't complain if it were to happen just prior to a particularly stunning sunset/rise.

Now all I have to do is wait and see what the weekend through to Monday holds****.

Brownie Points

I had never realised something that was apparently obvious to all and sundry, until it was pointed out to me today. I have always worked under the assumption that it was worthwhile to notch up brownie points at work whenever possible and for whatever reason.

Apparently though, the key element I was unaware of was, given the current exchange rate of in excess of 1500 brownie points to the equivalent one Mars bar, it transpires brownie points are about as useful as a chocolate fireguard, although probably not worth as much...

Milkround

I look forward to that small period of the year known affectionately as Milkround with a due sense of apprehension and dread. I don't particularly like the recruiters, or the flocks of people that invariably congregate between me and wherever I want to be, chatting and making sycophantic noises as they claw for attention, like vermin swarming over the refuse littered streets.... Erm, anyway, it does however, have one redeeming feature.

The freebies.

Todays milkround was notionally 'Science and Engineering', although in my experience this bears no resemblance to the freebies themselves, and the haul was quite impressive:

• 18 biros of assorted types. (Special mention to SIEMENs for a particularly nice model and teachfirst.org.uk whose managed to dismantle itself after only two minutes of use)
• 4 stress toys in various colours
• One key fob/strap thingy from Merrill Lynch.
• One mini rugby ball from UBS - and not the cheap type either but complete with stitching and dimples

However, special kudos goes to Credit Suisse for their provision of:

• The obligatory biro; and
• a small bar of chocolate; and
• a stress toy; AND
• a tin of Jelly Bellys

I shall look fondly upon them in future should they wish to headhunt me. Although if I am joined by any of the vermin that I saw today...

Thoughts

Another day another dollar....That which doesn't kill you only makes you stronger....Yada yada yada.

As another weeks begins, I shall mostly be quoting Victor Hugo:

A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.

For the foreseeable future, I will be thinking.

Do not disturb ;)

Grrrr

So I sit down on Sunday afternoon with the full intention to upload the new stylesheets and start tweaking all the templates and my phone vibrates on the kitchen counter. I pick it up to read the message, and find out that one of our UPS' at work has a general alarm. Not too much info to go on, but its not immediately bad. As I begin to log on, my phone goes again. Hmmm. This time its the A/C unit for that room, with the added detail that both compressors have tripped out and that the room temp has soared to a warming 54C. Power cycling remotely fails, and as my phone begins to let me know that certain system units have had enough and turned themselves off, I head into work.

Five and a half hours later, I return home. Guess the uploads and updates (which I really have been stalling with) will have to wait till another day..

Oh Dear

You know things are bad when you can't work out how to hole punch some paper having just picked up the telephone receiver.

Woohoo (2)

No it didn't quite go to plan, and no the first two bits I've looked at aren't interesting.

Roll on summer.

Woohoo

Today sees the completion of a three month project I've been running that over the last few weeks has monopolosed my life far more than it should've. By 2pm today its should be done and dusted.

I wonder whether any of the ones sitting in my in-tray will be more interesting and less onerous.

Bleurgh

When I returned from trying to freeze/cut my fingers off on an outside condenser unit, I found a nice letter from occupational health stating that I had been 'selected' as a member of staff identified as having a role in ensuring business continuity should the need arise, and as such they had a small needle with 0.5ml dose of inactivated concocted suspensiony goodness.

Winning the lottery this is not. Nor is it nummy nummy, here comes the plane, open wide fun.

Among other things I had envisaged myself doing this evening, I had wanted to update some of the site, perhaps upload some photos. Sadly though, I appear to have lost all will to do anything, it being replaced by drowsiness, fluctuating temperature and a general lethargy.

My last day (actually a week) off was September 04 when I had a minor op. Before that nothing since the January, and to be honest that was rather self inflicted.

Subsequentially, as I lie here, aching, restless and uncomfortable, all I can think of is how glad I am that my work cares about my well being.

Birmingham

Yay. I get to visit another industrial estate in Birmingham today. My cuppeth brimmeth with excitementth. woop.

A New Day...

...a new contractor to shout at.

I know I isolated the local fire detection and suppression systems, but if you do set off the alarm at least call me *before* you sneak off for coffee.

Oops

How embarrassing. Locked out of my own user account and I don't have the rights to sort it out. Where are the helpdesk when you need them...

Work Fridges

Does anyone else have this sort of problem?

To follow on from the pink yoghurty liquid alert - it's out of control! It's all in the door and leaked onto many things - whoever owns the pink stuff could you please rescue the fridge?

Wonder if its pro-biotic, and if so, I wonder if the fridge is feeling healthier for it.

Public Safety Announcement

If you are going to damage any two fingers, make sure they are not the middle or index fingers on your main, in my case right, hand. Trying to lift things, type or even drink coffee is vastly inhibited when accompanied by shooting pain with every slightest contact.

Don't Forget the 6 'P's

As we prepare for EDF switching off our local grid supply this weekend, I find myself in a state of calm, the lull before the storm as it were.

Having moved our computer room from one supply to a temporary via a half mile long three inch diameter cable, whilst the original was moved onto generators, and then switched it back without losing any services (me anyway - one of the systems guys actually ran the shutdown script on the wrong box and promptly shut off a bit more than a few terminal servers for an hour) I can safely say that putting a changeover panels upstream of our UPS aswell as the building supply at the last outage was probably a good idea. Even if the UPS only has a life of about 4 minutes at full load, it saves the day to shut down and the day to bring up (not to mention the day to go round replacing crap fuses and smoking power supplies). Saying that I do get nervous sitting in the dark after switching a mega watt onto a different supply as I wait for the dirty lights to come back on and the UPS' to stop beeping and sending warnings to my phone.

Now as I wait for any 'problems', all that is left to do is sit in the sun and sip iced tea. Afterall, I wasn't so prepared that I remembered to connect my office to a different supply in preperation for the glorious bank holiday weekend, but as chance would have it a spare wireless antenna managed to find itself on a nearby roof in close proximity to a sun lounger and ice bucket.

On The Road

Today sees the first of several work trips (normally I would say jolly but there isn't anything jolly about today) which will see me heading off round the country, today specifically to Birmingham. Normally, I don't mind work trips as they're something new and often have some freebies attached. Today, unlike a recent trip to Coventry, I suspect that wont be the case and there will involve lots of paper and lots of 'umming' and 'ahhhing'.

Hopefully the trip to Glasgow I have in a couple of weeks should be more entertaining. I have never been to Scotland as anything other than a toddler (I think), so I am quite looking forward to it, although I suspect there will be more computer and network components than haggis and distilleries, but hey. And at least I will get to go by plane and then get picked up, so that's probably actually easier than interconnecting trains, taxis etc.

Catch ya laters.

Hmmm

If id've known that I was going to be called into meetings today, then perhaps I wouldn't have worn my "Group Sex - A Great Concept" t-shirt today...

Work

Grrr...arrgh.

Mental Note

Pick up server case, client, usb connectors and extenders, spare HDDs scsi and IDE and a couple of gig of memory. Perhaps a new processor?

Attack Of The Serious Boredom Pt 1.

Today has to be one of the dullest days ever. A continual stream of new work, that needs to be done "yesterday" - which begs the question why not give it to me sooner - but none of it too taxing or, to be honest, interesting. I suppose it puts of the project work for a while, although the sheer volume of paper there doesn't really appeal. Also it puts of my evaluation and subsequent re-grading of my post, which might not be a good thing...

Free Goodies

Tomorrow sees me in my continuing quest to accumulate free goodies courtesy of the reps and salesman that I was lambasting only earlier today. However, rather than electrical parts, furniture, post it notes or pens, the latter two of which I haven't bought in years and can't get use as quick as they pile up on my desk (I concede salesman have their uses or rather their marketing budgets do), tomorrow sees me travelling up to Coventry to attend the IIPSEC (International IP in Security) conference where there is a good opportunity for some serious toys.

Now, if only I could get the goodies without dealing with the reps. Or having to go to Coventry.

IT Salesmen

I was just thinking the same thing the other day...

Conscientious?

Conscientious as I am, I try to get on site at least 5 minutes before I'm due. I may sit around and not do anything for, ooh I don't know, seven hours or so, but nobody can say I am not punctual. I am not sure whether this is out of duty, or rather because I can then make subtle hints about access and swipe card logs, saying things like "there must be a security flaw as surely that can't be him arriving at that time" and the like..

On occasion I may be slightly late or even ontime, which potentially means moving into a glass house and a hold on career advancement. However, when I did arrive, it was still dark, still not that shy of 7:30, and nobody else will be in for for a good two hours giving me plenty of time to adjust the logs. ;)

Oooh, the coffee has run out...

For My Next Trick

I will be heeding the advertising slogan, depositing my penny and breakfasting at Milliways.

Oh God

In less than fourteen hours I shall be at work again. So in my final hours I have a choice, X-Men Legends or project work. Hmmm.

Well, it looks like in fifteen hours time I will be explaining to my boss how our fish ate my laptop ...

Scrooge?!?

I fail to see why declining to put an inflatable Santa, Rudolph et al outside my house and covering the roof in lights a la Lampoons Christmas Vacation makes me a Scrooge. From the conversation with a sparkie that this stemmed from, I feel that we obviously pay our contractors too much if they can afford such extravagant OTT luxuries. They'll regret this when I get their next tender document.

Bah Humbug.

Laptop RIP (4)

So, the nice man at DHL drops my laptop back, I unpack it and look at the detailed works chart. It appears they have replaced the CPU and the Button (or possibly bottom) board and performed a "Full Disoil Ace uV". Great I think. All back in time to do some work I would like to finish before the weekend.

I plug it all in, press the on button, and yes, you guessed it, absolutely no difference. A small whirr, a quick LED flash, then zip. Personally, I'dve thought to check it works before sending it back to a customer.

Lucky I kept the packing for when the DHL man arrives late today...

Laptop RIP (3)

So having dismantled my laptop and sat around waiting for the static to discharge, I pieced the laptop back together again (with only one spare screw, yay!) pressed the "On" button and waited in anticipation. In reality I knew it was never going to start, but hey, hope springs eternal.

Well it does till you talk to a Customer Service helpline.

When I spoke to HP Technical Support again, they sounded perplexed that the discharge hadn't worked and solved the problem. The situation only got worse when I pointed out that it might have worked, but the static might not have been the problem. Once we'd managed to overcome that hurdle (bless work placements), we arranged for the nice people at DHL to collect the laptop sans power leads, peripherals or anything else that can be lost. The last thing I was advised to do was backup my hdd as HP wouldn't accept any liability for the data, which strangely enough was the only thing I care about. I wouldn't be that worried about the whole situation had I remembered to back up the laptop, or perform the work via a citrix server. The joys of hindsight...

Off to the shops I went to find a 2.5" to 3.5" hdd adapter, and having located one proceeded to dismantle my under the desk desktop. Having attached the drive I stepped back and powered up the machine. Needless to say, I was happy it came on, and happier that it could see the laptop drive, and even happier that the data was all still there. I quickly securely archived all the data/MP3s/movies/software/etc that work frowns upon you keeping, then a quick drag and drop later and it was copying away to its little Pentium 4's content. Off I went to grab a congratulatory coffee, and upon my return seeing it hit 100%, I sat back down. It was at about this point I kicked the drive, which was still hanging out of the machine via the power and ata cables, sending it scuttering across the carpet before being yanked back by the power cord. Oh well, I should ask HP to look at that. A quick power down and the drive was back in its proper bay, and my desktop was back up, in one piece, and working. (I also managed to use my spare laptop screw in my desktop somehow. Yay again!). Having handed it over to the DHL man, when he arrived filling out the obligatory twenty forms in triplicate, using ones own blood, in Swahili whilst reciting the complete works of Shakespeare backwards and all that is left to do is sit and count the 4 business days till I get it, or a replacement back.

If I do get it back, they better not have played Evil Genius before I have, and they damn well better not have tweaked my Unreal controls. Grrrr.

Laptop RIP (2)

Ok, the nice man at HP technical support suggests that the symptoms point to a static build up, which obviously needs to be dissipated (go figure). Now where is my screw driver set.

Laptop RIP

Hmm, its official, my work laptop is officially not very well.
After pressing the power button, the power LED flash up, the keyboard lights flash, then nothing. Zip. Not a sausage. Perhaps warranty information will shed light on improtance of said sausage...

Designing a "Pedagogically Oriented Ergonomic Room"

Don't ask me. I only work here.

Laugh, I Nearly Cried

Picture this.

You're standing in a corridor in the basement of the building, having a conversation you don't want with someone you don't like. With all exits blocked, all excuses pre-empted (even the ones about imminent flooding) and with no likely resolution in sight, all you can do is pray to the God of mistimed accidents and inconvenience.

With the conversation going badly, no sign of the GoMAaI and having already promised minor disruptions to colleagues by re-patching the telephones, I was about to promise inconvenient power outages or leaky toner, when out of the fluorescent lights at the far end of the corridor an angel appeared.

As my draw dropped and my finger began to raise, time slowed. As my tormentor turned to see what I was looking at, the angel dived in a beautiful curving arc, before impacting with a dull thud into his rather shocked face, miraculously having turned into a pigeon en route.

Given the success of this at only the cost of some telephone operator getting annoyed, weekend rights to my soul seems a small price to pay for such a helpful and amusing service.

If only I could get 24-7 cover, with some form of frequent user reward.

Education Education Education

The Sunday Times University Guide 2004 is out, and a quick cursory read shows all things relating to me being good and how they should be, and whilst not topping the league, UCL have picked up some recognition.

How Nice

With a minimum temperature of 25C, and a relative humidity of 82%, I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be than working in an enclosed light well, where an additional 200kW of excess heat (or 682800 Btu/h) is being dumped. Or put another way, enough heat to melt 56 tons of ice a day.

Uncomfortable is not the word.

Days Like This

For the days when neither Mr Williams or Mr Bacharach can help, I find a bit of Van Morrison helps put things in perspective.

Yesterday...

The afternoon started well, sitting in the Chiswick House grounds watching the ducks, coots, swans, geese and their little uns all scavenging for food by the lake. A gentle breeze offset the summer sun, and all in all it was very pleasant sitting there, doing some work and listening to some jazz.

With the first cloud in the sky, I knew this was not how it was going to continue.

After about an hour a family wandered by, little kid in tow. They passed him some bread and he dutifully pelted the birds with it. As is the case anywhere in London the local birds were soon swamped as the 5th airborne pigeon division descended, scattering them and sending discord through the locals. After a while, with no bread left they left and I was back to peaceful harmony.

This harmony was not to last however as a group of 10 or so adults and kids descended and set up a picnic about 20 yards away. I wouldn't have minded so much, but there is a whole park to sit in, arguably with better views. Perhaps my aftershave is more effective than I thought; either that or they were lured here by the warbling of Norah Jones. I tried shifting to The Lost Prophets, but that didn't shake them.

Now I don't mind kids playing. Its what they do. What bugs me is that parents don't point out that in an area bigger than 10 football pitches, they a) shouldn't play chase round my bench; and b) shouldn't kick a football at me. Once on the foot I can live with, but then to have to duck to avoid a shot to the head is more than enough. You try doing this with a laptop on your lap. This coupled with the sounds of footballs bouncing against railings, kids screaming and the adults playing softball was enough to test Jesus.

Sadly, I am not Jesus, and at this point was losing my patience.

It was beyond all reach by the time an elderly foreign lady sat by me on the bench and proceeds to talk to her husband about something very important. Well it must've been judging by the volume. I turned up the Lost Prophets, and she just talked louder. I began to loose all hope of attaining my earlier relaxed state.

Strangely enough, you may think there is no happy ending in this story. To be honest there isn't really, except for the random coincidence of events that were to follow. Luckily, or unluckily if your the old lady in question, for some reason she attempted to head the softball as it careered towards me at full pelt. Given the thunk her forehead made as it connected with the ball, I am confident of the fact that had the old lady not been sat next to me, there would've been a good chance that the offside drive would've hit me either in the head or the laptop screen, thereby destroying my mood, possibly for the rest of the weekend. She left shortly afterwards, leaning on her husbands arm. The adults stopped playing softball following several unsuccessful attempts to retrieve the ball from the lake where the lady had headed it. The kids fell over through exhaustion. I enjoyed the peace and quiet with Norah for a couple of songs. Then I called it day and went to work.

Priceless

Cost of using pre-existing 12 seater room: Nothing

Cost of partitioning 70 seater room on floor above for three months: Approx £5,000 + unquantifiable disruption to staff and students, not to mention permanent damage to the floor and ceiling

The expression on my face as I bang it against the desk at hearing the decision made: Priceless.

So I know there has been this project that is going on in HR for some time now to do with migrating information from one db to another. Rumours are its going to go very tits up and they are looking for a scapegoat. This is where IS come in.

As part of this migration they are employing 12 temps for a period of 3 months to do data entry of confidential information (presumably including my own so I do have a vested interest, although why they don't write some script I do not know, but hey). They don't believe its safe to have the documents leave the building (but they think its safe to get 12 people off the street - go figure), so need to locate a suitable room within the 12 floors/14,000sq ft available. They have approached the Head of Estates requesting the room, who not being able to see further than his nose hair or wanting to be a scapegoat has designated they have part of one of our rooms for the duration as there are no other rooms available. My arse. No, really. My arse.

However, I have been told we are not going to argue, because if we do we will get the blame for holding the project up. We did suggest alternatives, such as the 12 seater computer room on the floor below, but no, this is not what their boss has told them to do.

As such they will be taking a 72 seater computer room complete with fully functional AV equipment, and build a stud partitioned wall to restrict access to 12 machines (although a further 12 will rendered inaccessible), restricting usage for lecturers, disabling the AV, and generally ruining the floor and ceiling when its taken out. All of this because the Head of HR is looking for a scapegoat, the Head of Estates doesn't want to either be said goat or be perceived as having the intelligence of one, and no one in their respective departments will point out the stupidity of this project to either.

"There are some things money can't buy(intelligence for example), for everything else there's Management."

I wonder if I hit my head hard enough the pain will stop...

Pa$$word$

I may have continuing problems with networkable UPS equipment, but I think that the Computer Security Team at work is in even deeper trouble.

"More than 70% of people would reveal their computer password in exchange for a bar of chocolate, a survey has found ..."

Mine's a snickers.