I’m always ready to moan about PC - whether that’s Personal Computer or Political Correctness.

However before we had PC we had to deal our own cards at solitaire and had adverts (and attitudes) like this

http://www.icanhasinternets.com/2010/05/25-horribly-sexist-vintage-ads/

Legal disclaimer, this is a joke, do not take this seriously, quoting this in your exams may result in a fail.

Sorry if you’re looking for genuine information,  well funny tho’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/extra/video/p006b9w2

Last blog I confessed to exercise, today I will confess to - no not dieting, ignorance. Have you seen books, articles, web adverts… for the GI diet? I have, I always assumed it was based on US Army rations (GI, General Infantryman). Only today did I get a mail from BUPA extolling the virtues of slow release carbohydrates and the evils of a sugar rush. All to do with Glycemic Index apparently.

That’ll be GI then.

Maybe one day I’ll discover while this Police Constable on my desk doesn’t like having a windows disk inserted…

I may not a mathematician but I know enough to be irritated by football managers and politicians exhorting us to give more than 100%. When we have given everything where is the extra 10% supposed to come from? Are we expected to steal it from someone else?

However, I did go training the other day (yes, I do some exercise from time to time) and the session ended with circuit training. Four exercises, press ups, narrow grip press ups, wide grip press ups and big dippers (a form of, can you guess? press up). I hope you can see a theme there. I did my best but wimped out a bit - but maybe I didn’t wimp out enough. Yesterday my triceps (the ones under you arm that extend it, opposite biceps that bend it) had stiffened up so much I was drinking my coffee with a straw and having to ask friends to scratch my nose for me - I just couldn’t reach it!

So, maybe I did give 110% - it was certainly more than I should have done

Oh, well holidays are over. I expect plenty of you have been back at work for ages / got no break at all / … but for many of us today is the first day back - deep joy.

For those of you who don’t understand the reference here’s a link to the joke and it even has an explanation!

http://www.proz.com/kudoz/English/other/3621722-back_on_your_head.html

(In my version the rooms only vary in the depth of the sewage.)

As an aside I thought this was the name of an album (complete with sewage illustration) by the groundhogs but google hasn’t found it - have I got that wrong?

If you’ve never been to http://thereifixedit.com/ you’ve missed treat of ingenuity and stupidity. As a fan of Scrap Heap Challenge (http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/S/scrapheap2008/index.html) this kind of thing is obviously right up my street.

Unfortunately they don’t seem to have a best of, so just browse through the tags - my favourite is There, I Fixed It: Epic Kludges + Jury Rigs ingenuity « which is a bit more positive than http://thereifixedit.com/tag/stupidity/

Maybe I should set up  site just for coding kludges, or maybe I should send in a pic of the leaf blower I tried to make by gaffer taping a bag over the outlet of my Dyson.

It’s a fine line from ingenuity to insanity  or indeed insanitary http://thereifixedit.com/tag/bathroom/

I’m a bit late in slagging Investors Business Daily (and all Americans by implication) in their announcement that Stephen Hawking would be dead if he were British. A great story for national stereotyping (racism?) in that it uses American stereotypes of Brits (accusing us of having a naff health system) whilst conforming to British stereotypes of Americans (being ill informed and assuming anything good must be American). I’m sure the father from Goodness Gracious Me is even now saying “Stephen Hawking? He’s Indian!”.

However, with the power of the web over paper and ink the article has been miraculously changed. IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor’s Business Daily — How House Bill Runs Over Grandma

A fine example of why software should be released via the web rather than committing to hundreds of CD’s before realising there is a minor glitch.

Maybe all that being able to hand your course work in then get it back and fix it is good training for the real world after all.

Pleas come back and read this entry again next week - I may have changed it to make it more interesting by then…

I read over at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/29/young_usaf_predator_pilot_officer_slam/ that when it comes to remote piloting drones a combination of automatic pilot and non-air trained pilots do better than “real” pilots. Describing those with no real air experience as “X box pilots” seems spookily reminiscent of “The Last Starfighter”. It’s always been a fantasy of gamers that they could do it for real - I guess even as far back as “Flight of the Phoenix” (the 1965 one - I haven’t seen the 2004 version).

Interestingly much of the article focuses on rank - normally pilots are officers - however because I’m a bit of a spitfire nut I can tell you that many of “the few” that won the Battle of Britain were Sergeant Pilots. Although they had a separate mess and had to salute their officers on the ground they could be flight commanders and give orders in the air. Indeed Ginger Lacey who shot down the He111 that bombed Buckingham Palace was a sergeant and when the King visited the squadron to congratulate him bought HRH a pint of bitter rather than his usual sherry as he talked him through the dog fight.

Anyway, if you’re on an aeroplane and worried looking stewards are looking for “anyone with piloting experience” maybe you can quote your 3,00o hours logged on MS Flight Simulator.