December 23, 2005
'Tis the season

It was my work do yesterday - photos here. I was dissapointingly well behaved; I'll have to make up for it at the company dinner and dance in January.

It's going to be a great Christmas - I have the girls on the day for the first time in years.

Have a good Christmas, all. Or a good festive season if you are American. ;-)

Posted to Beer by Simon Brunning at 11:41 AM
December 21, 2005
Two for the Price of One

Perhaps I spoke too soon - The Daily Express had a go at snatching the small-mindedness crown from from the Daily Mail with this fabulous headline; Registrars fear flood of bogus gay weddings by asylum seekers.

Posted to The Big Room by Simon Brunning at 01:35 PM
December 20, 2005
Gay and Lesbian marriage

I noticed while listening to the report about gay and lesbian marriage on Radio 4 this morning that they were playing Lady in Red in the background. Does this mean that gay and lesbian people are now allowed to have appalling taste, too? This would be another great step towards true equality - gay and lesbian people deserve to be free from the terrible burden of having to be stylish and cool.

Back to the marriage thing - let's not be too down on the civil partnerships, but I do think it's a shame that the legislation didn't go the last yard and allow total equality. I do like the concept of the civil partnership - I'd be happier with that than marriage myself - but I think that both marrage and civil partnerships should be available to all, regardless of orientation. Still, it's a move in the right direction.

The headlines in the lesser newspapers were a little snitty, I felt - "Here Come The Brides", "Mrs. and Mrs.", that kind of thing - but not out and out bigoted, so again, progress.

Posted to The Big Room by Simon Brunning at 01:52 PM
December 18, 2005
Christmas Shopping

Chistmas shopping is Hell - except that even in Hell you don't have to queue up three times to buy one thing. Only in Argos do you have to do that.

Still, nearly done.

Posted to Apropos of nothing by Simon Brunning at 08:04 PM
December 16, 2005
Wish Me Luck

Right, off to see We Are Klang with the Roar boys. There are still tickets, I gather, so it's not to late - we'll be in the Dog and Duck from 7:30 or so, if you fancy it.

Christmas shopping all weekend. :-(

Next week, there's Sam's Non-specific nerd evening at Cubana on Tuesday, and my office party on Thursday. I'll try and behave better this time. Plus whatever ad hoc stuff comes up. It's going to be brutal.

Posted to Beer by Simon Brunning at 04:49 PM
December 14, 2005
London 2.0rc1

I was off yesterday. I was feeling a little under the weather. Can't think why. Perhaps I had a dirty glass on Monday night.

I met a lot of nice, interesting people, some for the first time, many not - more on that later.

The night ended with Chris, Edward and I at the Roadhouse. What a flea pit! I was home at four...

Posted to Beer by Simon Brunning at 10:32 AM
December 12, 2005
London 2.0rc1 Tonight

Right - I'm off to The Old Bank of England, Fleet Street, for London 2.0rc1. See you all there.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 04:35 PM
DRM Madness

I screwed up last week - I carelessly bought a DRMed nearly-CD; K.T. Tunstall's Eye to the Telescope. Great musically speaking, but playing it on my CD player (actually a DVD player), it sounded like a record with a scratch. Rather a nostalgic moment, actually. ;-)

Ironically, I ripped it to my Mac without any problem whatsoever, and the CD that iTunes burned for me plays perfectly. They only thing they prevented was the legitimate use.

I'm not going to take this one back, but I'll be more careful to avoid not-quite-CDs in future.

Posted to Music and Film by Simon Brunning at 03:59 PM
December 09, 2005
Don't forget London 2.0rc1!

Don't forget, London based nerds of whatever stripe, Monday night is London 2.0rc1. I hope to see a whole bunch of you there.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 07:58 PM
Thinking the Unthinkable

Bloody Hell, the Tories are talking tough on climate change. Do they mean it?

Actually, I doubt it very much. They've always been in business's back pocket, and I can't see Eton boy David Cameron changing that.

But, just as a thought experiment, what if they did mean it? What if, going into the next election, they were actually promising to take some drastic action, and I believed that they'd fulfill those promises?

For me, climate change is the number one priority by a long way. Health, education, justice, all very important, but climate change dwarfs all of these. If we don't get it sorted out, we are looking at gigadeaths, and the end of civilization as we know it. These would be Bad Things.

So even if I disagreed with every single other policy they had, an electable party serious about climate change would be...

Nah, forget it. It'll never happen.

Posted to The Big Room by Simon Brunning at 07:53 PM
Klang

A top night at Roar With Laughter last night. For those few of us who bothered to turn up, that is. 30 people! Scandalous.

On an avarage night at Roar, I'd say you would get two good acts out of three, which is good enought for me, but last night, all three were good.

First up was Michael Legge. Very nice chap - I had a chat with him before the gig. He had a pretty hard job to do, warning up a cold, underfilled room. There was a South African chap at the bar, ordering drinks with the kind of volume of voice that ony white South Africans seem to have. Let's call him Tom. (Makes sence, since that was his name.) He made Michael's job very hard - you don't want to be drowned out by drinks orders! - but after a bit of a shakey start, he turned it to his advantage by making Tom his target for the night.

This was a bit of a relief, since I was one of only two on the front row.

Anyway, it turned out to be a good if somewhat scattered set.

Besides, declairing the night "Get Simon Laid" night was bound to get him on my side. If only it had worked...

Next up, Kerry Godliman. I knew her face, but it was only after I looked her up for this post that I realised that it was from The Quatermass Experiment. If only I'd known! I would have asked her for Indira Varma's phone number...

Anyway, I paarticulary liked her "Dating" gag. Dating is an American thing - the English don't really do it. We just get pissed, shag, and work backwards into a relationship from there. "Good morning. And you are?" If you can stand them through the hangover, hong on to them.

Been there, done that.

Lastly, We Are Klang. Sketches rather than stand up, and totally barking mad. I won't attempt to describe them - I'd only fail. I'll just say that they are so good that I'll be going to see them at The Soho next week with Dave, Antony and Ed...

Then, well, the bar was open late, wasn't it? ;-)

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 07:40 PM
Small Mercies

Well thank heavens for the Law Lords. The government may hold human rights in little or no regard, but they do, and they've blocked the use of any evidence obtained by torture. It's the second time within 12 months that they've twarted the government in its attempts to ignore fundamental human rights - last year they ruled that imprisonment without trial is illegal.

It's a bit of a shame that we have to rely on the unelected Lords to point this sort of thing out, but there you are. Here's to you, your Lordships. Perhaps there's some hope after all.

Posted to The Big Room by Simon Brunning at 07:05 PM
December 08, 2005
Brunning's 1st Law of System Hassle

All IT systems have roughly equal hassle rates. Should you improve the quality of your software (by means of thorough automated testing and so forth), other components of the system (such as the RDBMS, or the hardware) will take up the slack by failing more frequently.

Posted to Software development by Simon Brunning at 01:39 PM
December 07, 2005
The Duff Fairy

I've just replaced the fairy at the top of our Christmas Tree:

DSC00018.JPG

Oooh, Amy is going to give me such a slap when she spots that. I wonder how long I have?

Update: Homer has been interfered with. :-(

Posted to Apropos of nothing by Simon Brunning at 06:57 PM
December 05, 2005
London Python meetup, January 2006

We have a special guest for January's London Python Meetup; c.l.py regular Steve Holden, perhaps best known for the terribly good Python Web Programming.

The date will be Tuesday the 10th of January (see, a Tuesday - I do listen!), and the venue will be announced nearer the time, though it will certainly be somewhere in central London. It will depend in part upon whether we'll be teaming up with other groups à la London 2.0 or going it alone. I've not yet heard back from Sam and Jez on that. I'll update nearer the time.

In the meantime, make a note in your diaries. And as ever, please leave a comment if you plan on coming.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 04:54 PM
The Constant Gardener

I went so see The Constant Gardener last week at The Clapham Picture House.

Top film, I thought. It had a very 1980's French film to my eyes - bleak in plot, cynical in outlook, and naturalistic in the way it was shot. In particular, the way the main characters' relationship was built up then re-interpreted in the latter half was masterful. Recommended.

Besides - Rachel Weisz with her kit off was worth the ticket price by itself.

Bit of trivia for you - two spaces behind me in the ticket queue was Keira Knightley. Shorter than she looks on screen, but very pretty in a teenage sort of a way.

Posted to Music and Film by Simon Brunning at 04:43 PM
December 02, 2005
Three quarks for Master Mark

At least I hope Mark's coming.

On the 6th, we have The quandary of the quark at The Royal Society.

It's usually worth a visit, the odd theist nutcase notwithstanding. Be there early, if you fancy a seat. RS virgin - but an old friend of mine - Paul M will be along, and we are thinking of popping along to Ed's for old time's sake afterwards.

Posted to Science and technology by Simon Brunning at 07:32 PM