Freesteel Blog » Quick mentions

Quick mentions

Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 5:18 pm Written by:

I’ve redone the FAQ, taking out a lot of the references about our on-line interface, thinking that no one was using it. But then Martin showed me the logs and proved that it was being prodded at all the time, which is interesting. Why haven’t we been getting any feedback?

I’ve added the question Why is your blog so unprofessional and full of ranting. See how long it lasts.

Meanwhile, I went down to Sheffield earlier this week to write some Python scripts to help automate what goes on in an NHS cancer registry office. It gives me the incentive to make sure this business works, because I don’t want to be trapped in a soul-destroying office ever again. I managed 450 lines of code in a day, after spending the previous day working out what was necessary for it to do. Unzipping password protected zip files — Python can’t do that! Found something called 7-zip, which got it done.

Then yesterday I was in Manchester visiting a guy who’s setting up the National Open Centre who was looking for people to be on an “advisory board”. No one has ever asked me to be on a board before, so that was cool. He’s employed by the National Computing Centre, which is a semi-government derivation of something set up in 1967 during the white heat of technology when computers were like rocket science.

Since they’re there to “champion the effective deployment of IT”, which is directly in opposition to big computer business — who do not desire the effective and efficient use of IT when there’s so much money to be made from failure — what they’re supposed to be doing is worthwhile. Anything that supplies experts who can be trusted by government, who are not walking conflicts of interest, is a good thing. Business has no place in giving the government advice, yet it’s their leaders who always have unqualified access to ministers.

All trains back from Manchester were cancelled due to gales. There was chaos. Then I heard of one going to Liverpool while I was trying to phone home about it, and was lucky to catch it. It was half empty.

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