Random disconnected diatribes of a documentation engineer http://blogs.msdn.com/alexhomer/default.aspxen-gb Alex Homer http://blogs.msdn.com/alexhomer/about.aspx ahomer@microsoft.com ahomer@microsoft.com Perhaps it's just anecdotal evidence, but it seems like you often hear about people who are afraid of the countryside. For those of us brought up amongst fields, trees, and wildlife, this seems an extraordinary concept; though I guess - as I have a deep-rooted fear of cities - the converse is not as unlikely as you might imagine. Personally, I hate the bustle, noise, and smell of city centres such as London and Birmingham, and I can't imagine living in the midst of a constant rush of people, cars, and trucks; and the torrid sense of panic that life in general seems to require in these kinds of places. ahomer@microsoft.com Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://blogs.msdn.com/alexhomer/archive/2010/03/07/Location-Dependent-Narrative.aspx Like most computer geeks, my needs are simple and few - a quad core box with a big disk, a decent connection to the 'Net, plus occasional injections of coffee and cold pizza. My daily bread-winning tasks generally involve only three applications: Outlook, Word, and Internet Explorer. Perhaps, when I feel exceptionally expressive, Visio might have an airing; though it's generally limited to a few boxes and arrows in boring colors. ahomer@microsoft.com Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://blogs.msdn.com/alexhomer/archive/2010/02/28/Image_2D00_inary-Complexity.aspx I was rather concerned to discover this week how little I know about socks. I have a colleague who is a sock expert - even to the extent of knitting her own in a most startling range of textures, colors, and styles. But it's not a topic that I personally considered to be vital information for life. OK, so I've been wearing them for more than 50 years, but - other than when playing rugby or being a boy scout - I've stuck with just plain boring black ones on the grounds that the daily foot adornment process then consists of simply grabbing any two from the sock drawer and putting them on. ahomer@microsoft.com Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://blogs.msdn.com/alexhomer/archive/2010/02/21/Sock-It-to-Me.aspx Maybe we've just been lucky with car insurance. When somebody reversed into the side of my wife's parked car some weeks ago, our insurance company sorted it all out with one phone call, got the car fixed within a week, and even aggressively pursued the other insurance company to get the excess we paid refunded. Somewhat different to a friend's experience where their budget insurer led them a merry dance for several weeks, and left them severely out of pocket at the end. After paying the premiums for years, they suddenly discovered they were barely covered for anything. ahomer@microsoft.com Sun, 14 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://blogs.msdn.com/alexhomer/archive/2010/02/14/In-Search-Of-An-Up_2D00_to_2D00_Date-Definition.aspx Why is it that the U.S. manufacturing industry seems unable to make anything with an electric motor in it that works without generating enough noise to wake the dead (or, at least, the sleeping)? Its 2:00 AM in the morning, so the bathroom light has been turned off for more than three hours. And I'm not much in the mood for a Margarita, so I can quite happily manage without a constant supply of ice cubes. Though, as it's about 40 degrees (F) outside, I would like to have some heating please... ahomer@microsoft.com Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://blogs.msdn.com/alexhomer/archive/2010/02/07/Cum-On-Feel-The-Noize.aspx Reading a UK computer magazine last week, I came across the delightful phrase "like playing a recording of a swarm of hornets to a group of blindfolded mime artists". It conjures up a vivid mental picture of events such as might occur at a product development meeting where somebody suggests rewriting a whole legacy application in Objective Fortran and linking the components using DCOM. Or allowing the marketing department to choose the name for your wonderful new product. ahomer@microsoft.com Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://blogs.msdn.com/alexhomer/archive/2010/01/31/Your-Giraffe-Is-Upside-Down_2E002E002E00_.aspx Funny stuff, wireless. We take for granted that we can wander aimlessly about the office or home while maintaining a robust connection to the outside world, or just to the server down the hall. Let's face it, modern kit and the connection it provides is pretty reliable. And, rather annoyingly, after the not inconsiderable effort of hard-wiring my house with CAT-5 and a 10MB switches, it even seems that the new generation of Wi-Fi is faster. ahomer@microsoft.com Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://blogs.msdn.com/alexhomer/archive/2010/01/24/Living-in-a-Cage.aspx If any UK-based Internet users noticed that the Web was running a bit slow last Thursday, I apologize. Probably I was partly to blame. I managed to send an extremely large zip file on a four hundred mile round trip just to move it three quarters of an inch. I'm expecting a large invoice from my ISP to arrive any day now. ahomer@microsoft.com Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://blogs.msdn.com/alexhomer/archive/2010/01/17/Honey_2C00_-I-Shrunk-The-Internet.aspx As a full-time 'Softie, I am - of course - a fully converted Binger. However, I occasionally pop across to the competition just to see what graphic they've used for the search engine name, designed to illustrate the particular day of the year. It's an interesting way to keep up with other cultures and see how clever the artists are that create meaningful designs using images that look like letters. ahomer@microsoft.com Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://blogs.msdn.com/alexhomer/archive/2010/01/10/A-Picture_2700_s-Worth-a-Thousand-Wg8nX.aspx ...possibly. ahomer@microsoft.com Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://blogs.msdn.com/alexhomer/archive/2010/01/06/Derbyshire-Does-Global-Warming_2E002E002E00_.aspx So we're out of the noughties and into the tens, and I suppose I should decide on some New Year (or, more likely, recycled from the last several years) resolutions. Of course, one of the nice things about being a married man is that you generally don't have to spend a lot of time trying to think of suitable topics to be resolute about. You can usually rely on "the better half" to provide some useful direction in these matters. Suggestions such as losing weight, getting more exercise, giving up smoking, going to bed earlier, and generally increasing the possibility I might live to see old age. ahomer@microsoft.com Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://blogs.msdn.com/alexhomer/archive/2010/01/03/Being-Resolute_2E002E002E00_.aspx Archived posts from 2008 and 2009. ahomer@microsoft.com Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.daveandal.net/alexh2009.xml