Everything, Everything

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May 2012
@RobNicholls81
Thursday 31st May, 2012 21:50
Potential BitLocker annoyance averted. Managed to find my backup of the key, it was securely stored on my old laptop. *wipes dust off hands*
@RobNicholls81
Thursday 31st May, 2012 21:03
Stupid BitLocker. I do know why you want my recovery key, I just wish I had it to hand. Hoping I won't need to rely on the backup software.
@RobNicholls81
Wednesday 30th May, 2012 10:13
It's 21 degrees outside, so why am I so cold? Thank you office air conditioning. *shiver*
@RobNicholls81
Wednesday 30th May, 2012 10:12
Overheard two colleagues talking about The Wire. Turns out they were talking about a Cat 5 Ethernet cable and not something interesting.
@RobNicholls81
Sunday 27th May, 2012 20:26
Teddy Sheringham should have received a yellow card for that foul against Gordon Ramsay. Hope it's not too serious, get well soon #SoccerAid
@RobNicholls81
Saturday 26th May, 2012 19:22
Is it just me or is there an annoying audio lag on Eurovision? Also is that @sarapascoe doing a Bjork impression for Albania?
@RobNicholls81
Saturday 26th May, 2012 19:15
Good to see the United Kingdom take Eurovision seriously. On the plus side, we definitely won't win and have to host it next year. #thehump
@RobNicholls81
Friday 25th May, 2012 20:10
Funt. What a great word. Thank you @charltonbrooker :)
@RobNicholls81
Monday 21st May, 2012 23:09
Nmap 6.00 Released http://t.co/TWkI0ZXC
Nmap 6.00 Released
Monday 21st May, 2012 20:55
One of the few perks of being involved with the Nmap project is that I've spent the last month playing with a release candidate for Nmap 6.00. It's not actually that different to what's in SVN right now, but I was still running 5.61TEST4 on most of my systems due to its stability. I decided to run my usual long script command. This meant that this was the first time I'd tried the new scripts that make use of the httpspider NSE library. It turns out that for hosts with websites, the following three scripts will cause the scans to take ages to run (it also doesn't help if one of the targets is www.google.co.uk, for hopefully obvious reasons):
  • http-open-redirect
  • http-unsafe-output-escaping
  • http-backup-finder
After specifically excluding them, my scans ran a lot quicker. This is presumably why they're not part of the default category.

I tried Nmap 6.00 on Linux (Fedora 15) and Windows 7 and both versions seemed to work fine.

You can download Nmap 6.00 from here and here's a link to the announcement of this major new version.

I'm still gutted that the latest version of http-php-version is only available in SVN.
@RobNicholls81
Monday 21st May, 2012 18:30
Poorly kitty saw the vet today, has a high temperature so is on antibiotics and anti-inflammatory. I blame the evil ginger cat.
@RobNicholls81
Sunday 20th May, 2012 19:45
As soon as one cat's better another one seems to be unwell. The downside of having 3 lovely kitties. That and being woken by them at ~3AM.
@RobNicholls81
Saturday 19th May, 2012 21:30
Well done Chelsea! Bad luck Spurs.
@RobNicholls81
Saturday 19th May, 2012 18:32
Can we vote to get rid of everyone on #thevoiceUK tonight? Not enjoyed any performances :( Hope the football later is far more entertaining.
@RobNicholls81
Friday 18th May, 2012 13:44
I wish Twitter was more like Facebook and Facebook was more like Twitter.
@RobNicholls81
Wednesday 16th May, 2012 20:34
Has a slightly poorly sleepy kitty :( http://t.co/JuoP6rvX
Traffic Lights
Wednesday 16th May, 2012 09:30
There's an article on BBC News asking whether we could do without traffic lights. I thought that could be an interesting article, but I lost faith after reading the first sentence:

We rely on traffic lights to tell us when to go. And when to stop. We should replace that with common sense, argues traffic campaigner Martin Cassini.

Ah, good old common sense. Except, it turns out, a lot of people seem to lack common sense. At times common sense seems to be an aspirational thing, like "I know I shouldn't run with scissors, but sometimes I need to do something quickly", other times it seems to be based on past experience (I went to school with a lovely and very intelligent girl that allegedly tried to cook baked beans on a tray in the oven, rather than heat them up in a saucepan like a normal person).

First, the statistics. The latest annual figures show there were 24,500 deaths or serious injuries on the roads in a year in the UK.

The numbers have been declining steadily but it seems to me that a traffic control system that presides over those sorts of figures is still getting something profoundly wrong.


The article doesn't attempt to determine how many of those deaths or serious injuries were caused by traffic lights, caused by bad driving (e.g. falling asleep at the wheel, or not driving slowly/appropriately in bad weather conditions) or something else like because of confusing road markings. I'm pretty sure that traffic lights rarely tell everyone to go at the same time, so my guess is that human error is the main cause.

There's also no attempt to compare the number of cars on the road or the average length of a journey. If the number of cars has remained the same and the length of the journey has gone up, then a decline in death/injuries suggests that something is getting better. Possibly driver awareness, more likely because of reduce speed limits in urban areas, and I suspect the main reason is that cars are slowly getting better at protecting the occupants during a crash.

As a driver, when you see a green light, are you watching the road? You're probably watching the light.

No, I'm pretty sure I'm looking at the light, at the road, at my rearview mirror, and taking in as much information as I can in order to improve my awareness.

Driving recently, I was about 20 yards away when lights changed to amber and I thought, shall I put my foot down and try to beat the amber.

I knew it would be a long wait at this set of lights.


Ah, now we're getting to the problem. People often try to bend the rules. People are selfish and impatient. People are stupid.

People think traffic lights are a guarantee of safety but the latest audit from Westminster City Council, for example, has shown that 44% of personal injury accidents occurred at traffic lights.

I don't think they guarantee safety. Does anything guarantee it? I'm not surprised that a large percentage of accidents occur at traffic lights. Traffic lights tend to be near junctions, where cars join, cars leave, and people cross the road. That sounds far more dangerous than a nice straight stretch of a motorway, especially if the slip roads are long.

That trial has gone permanent and the monitoring has shown that journey times fell by over half with no loss of safety.

So, one trial. I think I need to see more than just one trial.

As people have pointed out in the comments, traffic lights at pedestrian crossings are very beneficial (some might say essential) for visually impaired people.

Removing some traffic lights, or improving the timings, is definitely worth considering. Removing all of them everywhere doesn't sound very sensible. I suspect the author lacks common sense.

PS More proof that people lack common sense, it's amazing how often people try and fail to drive their car through a ford.
@RobNicholls81
Monday 14th May, 2012 14:36
Oh chocolate, you make life so much more bearable.
@RobNicholls81
Sunday 13th May, 2012 15:15
Joey Barton is such an idiot!
Lost - The Ring
Saturday 12th May, 2012 12:25
I know it's been almost two years since the series finale of Lost, but it still annoys me. JJ Abrams has a better track record with films compared to his TV shows, but it made me wonder what would have happened if he had been given the opportunity to direct the Lord of the Rings trilogy. If he had, would it have been one 90 minute movie instead of three epics? I can imagine it'd begin with the opening of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, taking us up to where Frodo volunteers to take the Ring to Mount Doom. Then it'd cut to black. Out of the darkness, we'd see blurry white text rotating toards us, saying "L-TR" as the THX sound effect gets louder. Then we'd cut back to the very end of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, where Aragorn leads his remaining men to the Black Gate of Mordor as Frodo is carried up Mount Doom. After the ring is destroyed, and Aragorn is crowned King, the four hobbits would be bowed by all of Gondor for their courageous efforts. Then it'd cut to black with the Lost-style thud, saying "L-TR". Leaving us with lots of unanswered questions. During interviews several months later, we'd probably be told to use our imaginations to fill in the gaps. After two years, you'd think I'd be slightly less bitter about Lost. Well I'm not.
@RobNicholls81
Saturday 12th May, 2012 11:45
Lost - The Ring http://t.co/x2djtSSY
@RobNicholls81
Friday 11th May, 2012 19:48
Andy Hamilton is clearly a kindred spirit when it comes to blood! #wilty
@RobNicholls81
Friday 11th May, 2012 17:47
Why are two of my cats covered in oil? Is it camouflage? It's not working, I can still see them.
@RobNicholls81
Friday 11th May, 2012 17:47
Bombay aloo with pork sausages. That's not weird to have for dinner, right? Maybe I'm pregnant (clearly I'm joking about the pregnant bit).
@RobNicholls81
Thursday 10th May, 2012 07:43
Train is late, ticket machine declined my card (before PIN). Paid in station okay (they plan on closing it someday). Public transport sucks.
@RobNicholls81
Tuesday 8th May, 2012 22:32
Misses Start-I when using Windows 7. Who would have thought I'd actually like something in #Windows8 (other than Hyper-V)? I'm such a #geek.
Newsgroups
Tuesday 8th May, 2012 10:35
I spotted a comment on The Register and it took me back several years (around a decade?):

Back in my day we had a thing called "alt.possessive.its.has.no.apostrophe". Kind of hard to forget when there's an entire newsfroup dedicated to it.

It's interesting to see how people seem to have moved discussions from newsgroups and IRC to forums on websites and ICQ/MSN to the currently popular Facebook and Twitter services. I wonder what will happen next.
@RobNicholls81
Tuesday 8th May, 2012 08:24
My laptop is running slower than me today. Coffee will fix that (for me, pretty sure it won't help the laptop go faster).
@RobNicholls81
Monday 7th May, 2012 22:43
I wish Channel 4 did a live stream. 4oD and Sky+ are great, but useless if you want to watch it live in bed on a laptop.
@RobNicholls81
Monday 7th May, 2012 15:43
Avengers Assemble was really good. Still think the next Batman movie will be better though.
@RobNicholls81
Sunday 6th May, 2012 18:30
Hope that Ruth-Ann goes tonight and Toni covers herself up with a cardigan. Or did last night, because it's not live. #TheVoiceUK
@RobNicholls81
Saturday 5th May, 2012 18:46
Hannah was sooo much better than Ruth-Ann. #TheVoiceUK
@RobNicholls81
Saturday 5th May, 2012 18:37
OMG Ruth-Ann's shit. She can't sing. How did she get this far? I'm literally cringing at the TV. Did you see the face on @iamwill
@RobNicholls81
Friday 4th May, 2012 08:23
Had to click twice on the "one-click unsubscribe VMware Subscription page". Once for the checkbox, once to submit.
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