Total facebook FAIL

Wow. Not impressed this is the only way I can post anything to FB at the moment.

It seems facebook's glorious transition from interpreted PHP to cross-compiled C++ has not gone smoothly. In addition to totally screwing with the look and feel of FB again, they appear to have completely FUBARd the actual guts of the site.

Apparently the idea was to save cash and trouble reatnig ever larger server farms, by making the existing machinery work more efficiently - by running compiled code rather than PHP. They got quite a lot of kudos for this but my guess is that, as usual, not enough testing was done, and it's blown up. Very messily indeed.

Currently my iPhone will get some status updates (not all of them) - I can't log in to FB at all, or reset my password (everything is closed for "maintenance", that lowest of innuendos for "We're screwed right now, try again later")... oh dear.

As Dylan put it the other day - what's this Google Buzz business? Sounds interesting, even if it will always be in Beta, at least the bloody thing might work?

Or does all of this just feed my emerging belief that modern software systems are so huge and complex that we will either have to be connected and spend a lot of time with low-level angst and annoyance (with our Windows installation, our 27 inch iMac screen, our OS in general, OR our social networking sites) - OR - disconnect and go back to the way stuff was a few years back.

I'm getting v. close to closing the FB account for good, I suspect it wasn't doing me any good even when it was working...

Bloody snowy hell! It's like childhood out there!

I've been working from home for 2.5 days now, it's been rather productive. The valley we're in still hasn't had its' road treated, so I'm stuck. In fact, I pushed a Peugeot and a Porsche up both sides last night to rescue the poor idiots.

Today according to the met office things are supposed to get better; the sky looks bloody grey to me, with gathering darker clouds on the horizon. And it's getting colder again.

The view from the kitchen as I type:




I think we'll be walking to the supermarket and laying in a whole shitload of grub very soon. :-)

Merry Xmas to all. Especially the poor humps who abandoned their BMWs in Whitley wood and went to retrieve them only to find them minus alloys an radio. Jeez, that’s low.

Have to post a wintry pic.

I was forced to walk a mile or so today to get some milk, as our road didn't get gritted or cleared (still lethal!). On the way there I got some really picture postcard shots.




Who'd have thought anywhere near Slough could look nice?

New equipment.

Under-keyboard CAT add-in. Complete Audio Triumph.

Killing in the name of... Reality TV

There's a lot of talk about the race for Xmas no 1. I've bought my first online music by purchasing a copy of Killing in the Name Of by Rage against the Machine, as prompted by a facebook group, starte by a couple who got tired of preprocessed pap from Simon Belt-navel Cowell.

I thoroughly endorse their approach, but all the news reports I've seen on this seem to be missing the salient point with the UKs population now so tired of reality TV that they are willing, whenever possible, to subvert them through voting strategies, and now by deliberately pushing a reality TV "winner" (let's face it , long term his outlook isn't great) off the top slot.

Mr cowell's public annoyance will turn into something else a la the Jedward 180, I bet.

So buy a copy of the RATM track and be a rebel; be different; and actually recapture part of the spirit of Christmas by telling the prepackaged hypnosis-fest which is the unholy alliance of TV and music industry to "F@&£ you, I won't do what you tell me"

Breeze at the Flowing Well, Friday night

Good to see them again. Sounding awesome with new keyboard player who can get in there on bass and guitar as well. They do Queen now! And it's getting like the osmonds up there with Steve's nearest and dearest doing drums and vocal guest slots!


- Posted on the move

Last toms of the season

Yay! Before the frost sets in, look what was on the plants... And now rescued! I see lots of salsa. Mmmm!

Now, where's me fretless and the ashbory. Have a rap track to work on.


- Posted on the move

Alan Carr - chatty tw@t

I've never really seen this latest of our great British tradition of camp humourists before, but I just caught a few minutes of his show on BBC1. Bit tragic. I thought mercilessly taking the pee out of that slightly mentally fragile bint off x-factor last year who has "White horses" out on single was last years' tired character assassination based humour?

Seriously though, is this guy actually gay? Gay people are often naturally funny I reckon. The audience sound like they've been beaten around the head with applause cards. It's like listening to a giggling bath tap.

Not funny.