Todo list

I'm between contracts at the moment (if you're in the UK and want a systems engineering toolsmith, my CV is here) so there are a few projects I've been meaning to get round to:

• Review Artisan's free version of their SysML tool


• Sort out automating backups rather than just using hg now and again


• Convert lots of m4a and import CDs into my new toy, a SqueezeBox network music player


• Get a coherent prototype of a kin interpreter running, at least to test whether tuples, traits and relations work for the sorts of problems I write code for


• Get rid of lots of junk currently in storage which I haven't used for years


• Get rid of the TV. My new monitor + iPlayer is good enough to watch, and there's no digital reception here.

Update

I haven't posted since November, as I've been a bit busy.

I got married on the 29th December.

I left my job writing an interpreter for real-time simulation in South Wales so I could come to Glasgow and had employment at Crocodile Clips in Edinburgh, writing electronics and physics simulation software for schools. Unfortunately, Crocodile lost a large order so failed to honour that contract, so by the start of December I was unemployed.

By mid-December I had got an offer from Telelogic AG, to work turning the DOORS runtime into a peer-to-peer model, but I was also in discussion with Doosan Babcock for a more applied-math role. Babcock couldn't arrange final interview in the time scale to make a reply to Telelogic's offer, so I let Telelogic go.

I then got married and went on honeymoon to Harris.

When I returned, I had a final interview with Babcock, which was successful, but somewhere higher up in the management the salary - which we'd discussed in the first interview - was revised downwards by 15,000, so that failed to complete.

Since mid February I've been working down south doing a short-term contract writing a strategy for unit testing and integration testing a hybrid electronics/software project. I've now finished that, so am back in Glasgow with my wife (actually she's off on an academic conference this weekend, but we did get to spent the evening together yesterday) and I'm again trying to find any interesting technical lead roles that don't mean we're apart.


Pete

Life Among The Mammals: The Elves and the Shoemaker

Link: http://lamammals.blogspot.com/2006/11/elves-and-shoemaker.html

Life Among The Mammals: The Elves and the Shoemaker

Amen

A life

I seem to have been having more of a life outside of the tin lately, due to working to a deadline during the week (met on Friday), and to spending time with a fine woman at the weekends.

Anyway, I'm more-or-less free this weekend, so I'll finally finish writing up XTech, and maybe some other stuff that's pinged my radar.


TME

Comprehending Engineers

Link: http://www.mcgeesmusings.net/2006/05/25/comprehending-engineers/

Part 1: To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

This had me laughing out loud. My Dad's a retired structural engineering lecturer and consultant; one of my uncles was chief civil engineer on the new Seven crossing, along with several other well respected bridges. I'm a systems engineering toolsmith - my degrees were from electronics and mechanical schools, but I spend all my time making computer tools. So I've had the 'targets' one several times from my Dad. All too true.


TME

iPod 8Ball

Link: http://lilleyvision.blogspot.com/2006/03/moderately-diverting-way-to-spend-five.html

1. What do you think of me, iPod?
Planetarium -- Delia Derbyshire
Quietly electronic, doomed to die in obscurity but revered after death as a prophet.

2. Will I have a happy life?
Soulus -- loop guru
I remember dancing in a tent or two to this, and all the Japanese soup warriors. I'm happy dancing in tents.

3. What do my friends really think of me?
Oh Green World -- Gorillaz
"Don't desert me now | I'm made of you and you of me | But where are we?"

4. Do people secretly lust after me?
39 -- The Cure
"the fire is almost out and there’s nothing left to burn"
Eeek!

5. What should I do with my life?
Get Behind The Mule -- Tom Waits.
"You've gotta get behind the mule in the morning and plow"
Sound advice from Mr Waits.

6. Why must life be so full of pain?
Good Riddance -- Green Day
"It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life."
I nearly cried - sad man that I am - GD lyrics do do that to me sometimes.

7. How can I maximize my pleasure during sex?
La Main Verte - Les Negresses Vertes
I don't have good enough French to understand this song, but the babelfish translation seems to be about having green fingers for growing pot. Not really my thing - I'm paranoid enough already.
Not that stops me loving LNV for the funk and the feeling of it.

8. Will I ever have children?
Whatever you say -- Over the Rhine
Well, I guess you can't get all the answers off an iPod, and it's nice to have the option.

9. Will I die happy?
Calliope -- Tom Waits.
An instrumental piece sounding like a bizarre wheezing fairground organ with a laugh at the end.
I'll take that as a yes then.

10. Can you give me some advice?
Reverence [Tamsin's Remix] -- Faithless.
"Slow, slow, it's gotta be slow", but with a driving bass and a fast beat, slow riding on top of fast 'cos "I make no apology | for linking my thinking with computer technology. | 'cos this is like a modern day hymn | for the new church"

11. What do you think happiness is?
Outro -- India.Arie
A beautiful sentimental little song where she names a few relatives who were inspiration for her music. iPod 8Ball believes in family. So do I.

12. What's my favorite fetish?
It's Alright for You -- The Police
High energy low life

13. Am I a complete freak?
Ali's Waltz -- Beth Orton
I'm sure the versions of the lyrics for this on the web are wrong. Honest.

Somehow I'm not surprised that my iPod is channelling Tom Waits, electronica and nu-wave punk.


TME