today represents the first day back to work for lots of people. summer hols are officially over after the Bank Holiday.
and so it was with great delight that I saw the vagabond / tramp chap who sits outside the back of Middlesex Hospital. he’s not been on his usual step for the last 4 weeks and i was starting to worry. i suspect he’s been off on holiday somewhere. probably down to the back of a hospital south of the river
i use windows terminal client to access a server at work. i always forget the shortcut keys. particularly the ones to change the screen size (leaving me unable to get to my ‘real machine’ without disconnecting from the server).
here is a handy reminder for me:
186624 – Terminal Server Client Shortcut Key Combinations
what’s behind this door in our office you ask ?
click for the answer
here for my remembrance as much as anyone else’s is a link to a voice-conferencing service called powwownow.
You call a national rate number 0870 22 333 44 and enter any old PIN number. there is no set up fee, registration or extra usage charges.
So to make a voice conference you just need to make up a 6 to 9 digit long PIN number (eg the last load of digits from your phone number), tell the other in your voiceconference the PIN and what time to phone the 0870 22 333 44 number.
It’s all very good.
Advert over …
i write to you as a sad failure. i just tried to whip my office in to a frenzy by holding an impromptu disco (an illegal desk-based rave maybe). we had music by Apples In Stereo pumping out from my PC and I even jiggled my shoulders slightly.
unfortunately after approximatly 40 seconds i realised no one else was interested so i turned the music off again and steadied my shoulders.
i’m not sure where i went wrong. might have something to do with the auditors being in the building and most of my desk-mates being accountants ? either on its own could stop the groovest of discoteques. together they are a lethal combination.
i await feedback from my colleagues as to why my ‘disco project’ failed.
i got annoyed today at work. doesn’t happen much, but i’m sick of people commenting when i leave to go home at 4.45pm. i often work on the train on the way in, i’m in the office around 8.15, usually don’t stop for lunch and usually end up doing extra work in the evenings. when i work from home i usually do even longer hours as i’m keen people don’t think i’m skiving.
you have to feel sorry for the machines in this weather. people and animals can have a drink and cool down. if you are a machine you are simply a slave to your environment. especially if your job is to cool the environment.
the aircon in the building is having a very bad day today. Here is a small snippet of some of the sounds it is producing this morning:
Download wav file (25KB) It sounds rather poorly. aw bless.
update: what it actually sounds like is a deep fat fryer
it’s sara’s brithday tomorrow so she has brought some cakes today. cake eating in the office is good.
I used to work for an organisation which would shut down for 15 minutes every morning and the whole company would go to a common room and drink tea. they would do the same in the afternoon and drink coffee. it had a really cool laid back atmosphere. they also used to have a company meeting once a week where people prayed for the work of the organisation.
it was over 13 years ago I worked for UCCF. maybe the tea/coffee breaks are gone now ?
ooops. i accidentally sent an email entitled “mad french people” to the MD of one of my company’s european subsidiary.
The email was an invitation to go see LesGrooms at lunchtime. i suspect he won’t fly over to the UK for that particular treat.
my advice to you today is to send your most random email to a senior member of staff in your organisation. To enhance the effect, send to someone who lives in another country/culture who you have never met
it looks like another hot day today. news reports say the trains are going to be bad again, so i’m glad i’m working from home today. no aircon at home though …
i checked my local station online timetable and it’s currently (7am) showing train times from 5pm yesterday. this happens when the trains are so delayed they don’t know what to put on the boards. oh dear.
commuter misery promised for journeys home tonight. seems trains are to run slow because it’s too hot according to the BBC news.
it’s times like these when people turn to the church. their cool interiors are ideal for days like these. Though not ideal for transporting people from work to their earthly home, they are good at pointing you to your spiritual home.
following the table dancing of a few days ago, arjan has decided to prove he can go from one side of the room to the other by dangling from the roof.
unnoticed by most people, the communications act became law today. this marks the beginning of a new era for telecommunication (and tv) regulation.
oftel marked the occasion by sending me a pile of paper in 12 different envelopes.
total height of the combined contents is 2.2cm.
the sentence everyone is asking today is “did you feel that”. Our whole building is shaking because of a drilling digger thing going on next door.
herve was sceptical this morning, prompting Sara to repeatedly ask “can you feel it now”.
here is the beast causing the tremours:
i once got an email from one of our sales people who speaks in ‘jive’. he ended one very cryptic email with the phrase “do you feel me ?”.
I didn’t.
see how the elderly gentleman standing next to me is admiring my new found fashion sense (shirt: liquidation sale £6, wooden tie 6euros)
here i am again, this time with some ladies.
photos by herve
Bringing my two favourite applications together – SQL and Excel. jummy.
Run SQL Queries in Excel
interested in phone numbers ? you should be. they are grrrrreat.
Phone Search Locator
How to produce a list showing all the different values that appear in a column in Excel