I'm sad to hear about the death of Terry Shannon, who was a champion of VMS, among other things. Just a few days before his death, he posted an article saying that he was struggling with clinical depression and that was affecting his ability to write. For various reasons I found that particularly poignant.
See www.shannonknowshpc.com if you're

On Thursday I went to Bristol for the AGM of the Monkton Group PLC - a company in which I have taken an interest for some time. It was quite encouraging. The group seems to be progressing well and the discussions I had with one of the directors was a boost to my desire to try and pursue my interests in this area ( Read more... )

On Wednesday afternoon I went to see the HHGTTG film with my friend. There was only one other person in the cinema. In some ways I think a film like this is a bit like a Shakespeare film. The story is so well known that what's interesting is when the film deviates from the script in your head. I was thinking how much I laughed when I first heard ( Read more... )

I came across this site recently:
www.gmail-is-too-creepy.com and it makes interesting reading. I've become increasingly nervous of a lot of modern services of this sort and don't participate myself, but look - here I am on LiveJournal, which probably owns everything I put here in perpetuity. These things are insidious and the side-effects of ( Read more... )

A recent letter I got from the Soil Association contained the following information:

• The carbon content of UK soils is falling because of intensive farming. The amount of carbon released from the soil into the atmosphere tripled between 1945 and 1986.
  
• Farm chemicals account for 59% of the total energy use in agriculture.
  
• In 2003, transport of ( Read more... )

In the spirit of chard's recent posting about his dinner, here's some soup:

• 1 head of broccoli, broken into florets. Chop up the stalk also
  
• About the same volume of chopped savoy cabbage leaves
  
• 1 large potato, cut into 2cm cubes
  
• 2 medium-sized red onions, sliced
  
• 2 fat cloves of garlic
  
• some olive oil
  
• the juice from one small lemon
  
• ground black ( Read more... )

I've finally managed to join LJ after having some difficulty with "prove you are a human", which will come as no surprise to people who know me.