My Format? Guardian: To Mend and Defend...

It's hard to describe the nature of our work. 

In the development world, you try to buffer deployments through procedures and testing, implementing changes through software over software but in every programmers life, the management will need a quick fix.  And when they do, they need a fool-hardy geek with nerves of steel and an addiction to danger so strong, he isn't afraid to press that execute key. 

The commands lined up stretch on forever, spiraling through the ether of virtual space below the centre fold of our dim small portal into the other world.  A world in which our minds move gracefully through the boolean returns of success or failure, and the gremlins of coders gone by lay in waiting to strike our upgrades down.

In the real world, time ticks on... money haemorrhages from the business giant that only hours ago stood so mightily.

Damn the risks!  The admin department need that system unlocking NOW!

The F5 key sits... starring... daunting... daring:  'Go ahead - you're as sure as you can be.  Run the code.  You wont have missed a coma, or added an unknown space now will you?  There's no hidden mistakes... unknown errors that will destroy the flow of data and make lost forever the structure on which all things rest.  Are there?  Come on... press the key.  Be a hero.'  The voices laugh in sadistic torment.  You stare at the function button as if to see down the barrel of a loaded magnum.

A moment of silence that last forever, I look to my reflection in the dark glass wall behind my screen.

Deep within those databases... I am that crazy maverick.

Execute!
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Phil
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Blizztivision

Blizzard, owners of Warcraft are merging with Activision, owners of... some stuff... umm.. ooh, they make a lot of the Star Trek Games, oh, and Guitar Hero.  I'm sure they do lots of other things too but they're the only ones that come to my mind.

Combined, they're still smaller than the industry giant EA, but both Blizzard and Activision have solid fan bases and very very very lucrative franchises (WoW being chief amongst them), this merger is certainly setting them up to take at swing in EA's league.  It will be interesting to see what happens to the Blizzard franchise set though - in the past, Blizzard have stood their fans by not messing with a good thing.  Over the last 13 years (13ish?), they've sported only 3 main brands (Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo... and Starcraft is really just Warcraft with a a different backdrop), which they've not messed about with because the fans have loved them as they are.  Activision on the other hand are more the 'Let's do something completely different' kind of company, experimenting with hardware and game types, putting a new title on every production.  While the franchises will no doubt remain independent in many ways, in time, we might see a joint ethos shape their attitudes closer together.

To read more:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7123582.stm
http://blizzard.com/press/activision-faq.shtml
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Phil

OASC

I just got back from OASC (pronounced Os-ack for some reason).  It stands for Officer and Aircrew Selection Centre, and is involves 3 days of extensive mental testing.

I'll blog about it in more detail shortly, but for now, I'll just say it seemed to go well - I got to the end of it and now I have to wait 3 weeks to hear the final result.

Eek.

Anyway, thanks for all those who prayed and supported me in preparation of this, it really made a huge difference.  Course this is not the last I'll be needing of that, as there is still the physical testing portion to come!

That's all for now - will tell ya'll about it more depth soon :)
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Phil

Bap bap badda ba! Bap bap badda ba! Bap bap badda ba! Ba!

Start spreading the news, I'm leaving
today... I wanna be a part of it – New York New York!

Sorry this is a little bit short notice
everyone, and sorry I haven't had time to let anyone know
individually – I'm just hoping people who notice I've disappeared
will come here for clues and read this :)

I'm going to NY with Caleb for a
spontaneous (as in... booked it last night) adventure. 8 days in
Manhattan, with no sane explanation that I can offer. Only this –
We're living the dream.

Be good! Have fun! Read all about it
when I get back! :-D
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Phil

Nuu Pee See!

I have a new PC.  An Acer Aspire GemStone 5920G.  It is beautiful and does everthing with Core2 Duo (2GHz), 2GB of standard RAM and 1GB of Intel's new TurboRAM, an NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS, which has 1GB of dedicated memory and runs Dx10.  250GB HDD, 15.4" Widescreen, Dolby's 'Virtual Surround Sound with Subwoofer'... whatever that means on a laptop, and thier Home Theatre System, including a HD output connector for HD TV's, and a HD DVD Drive.  In built mic, cam, bluetooth and wifi.

Tis Hot.

My only wish is that it had a 124 pin MiniPCI socket, because without one I can't use the docking station I got in a bargin purchase under the hope it'd work with it.  Ah well - there's always ebay for that.

It's smooth as silk, though I have managed to make it struggle for a few moments when I ran a second screen at max resolution, WoW on highest video settings, Napster, MSN, Yahoo, 3 browsers with a good number of tabs in each, one on heavy .NET pages, and voice recognition.  When I did that, WoW got just slightly less smooth, so it does have limits.

Yeah ok I'm showing off - but I'm allowed :-P  Nuu Pee See!
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Phil

Normally, I only ride Epic Mounts... but... let's talk

I got me an Epic Flying Mount :-D  It's a Golden Gryphon in Green Armour Plating, and it's beautiful.  On the ground it travels about 60, 65% faster than I can run, and in the air it travels about 260% faster than I could run with the added bonus of avoiding obstacles (for you WoW'ers who are confused by those figures, they're less than what you expect not cos I got a dysfunctional gryphon, but because I can run faster 30% than the average bear... and person).

 

I took it for a quick spin last night from ShadowMoon Valley to Shattrath and I sware I felt tingly feelings in my stomach.

This is sad I know.  And it's in fact, 30% sadder than it would be for the average bear... and person, since I fly in real life and *still* get that excited about the Gryphon.  The very same day in fact, I'd been up in the microlight from St Micheals Airfield (North of Preston) to Caernafon in Wales (West of Snowdon) and back again, following the coast, over the mouth of the Mersy with the city scape spanning the river a short way in land, and between and over the beautiful Welsh hill tops to have a big fried breakfast in the airfield cafe as we chat with the other flyers, families who've come to see the planes fly in and out, and to the RAF boys who'd come to sit about the club house.  As an added bonus, one or two of the airfield staffers were *hot*.  I'm talking diet coke ad hot - everything went slow motion.  We had a look round the air museum and I spent a while getting tips from the RAF crew about passing selection which is going to be very helpful indeed.  I've asked service men of the RAF for tips before but wearing a normal business suit.  The answers you get are 'Be yourself', 'relax in the tests', 'do your best', etc etc.  This is useful, but when you ask whilst wearing a flight suit, you get much different responses, 'In the interview, they'll ask [this] - and it's a bit of a trap cos most people say [this], but it's much better to say [this]...' and 'In the hanger exercises there's a bit where they do [this] and they'll be observing you not for [this] and [this] like you'd think, but in fact, they watching [this] - the situation is all just enduced to make you drop your guard in [that] way', etc etc...

Woot.

Britishness

Political subject today.  Actually no... political material - no blog post really.  I'd really love to hear your thoughts on these articles form the BBC Website - honest thoughts as they come, and I'll maybe do a blog about it soon after reading any comments I get back.

The first one is about the Union Flag.  Apparently there's some plan coming in to fly it more often.  Scotland will be opting out of this activity.  From the article:

"SNP leader Alex Salmond, now first minister, previously said Britishness "went bust long ago" in Scotland."

"Culture Secretary James Purnell said: "The Union flag is a powerful symbol of both our heritage and modern, diverse Britain. It brings us together in solidarity and shared identity."

And here's the link to the article - It's pretty short (the article that is):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6920895.stm

Next up, Britain's Asian Culture.  It's entitled "Many Asians 'do not feel British'"

From the article:

"38% of the UK residents of South Asian origin polled felt only slightly or not at all British."

"84% were satisfied with life in Britain and almost half thought they have more opportunities here."

"Half of the South Asians and nearly two-thirds of the white people interviewed agreed it was too easy for immigrants to settle in Britain."

"Three-quarters felt their culture was being diluted by living in the UK and nearly half believed white people do not treat them as British."

"Many British Asians consider themselves to be British but at home they are more in touch with their cultural and ancestral roots."

And the link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6921534.stm

So whatever ethnic origin or nationalites you have, any thoughts?  Email's, phone calls, or grabbing hold of me to discuss in person are all welcome if prefered to comments, but it'd be interesting to see thoughts bounce of each other.
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Phil