Minimal

I often find myself pondering my impact on the environment. One such issue that concerns me is the impact my gas-guzzling car has. Recently, I’ve been averaging 27.9MPG (23.2MPG (US) or 10.1 litres/100km), which is pretty hard to justify given that most of it is on the commute to and from work.

Given that Satan will be wearing ice skates before I give up sporty cars altogether, would the world be better off if I got a second, more frugal car for commuting to and from work? Or would the impact of this car’s production be a worse deal overall? I wish there were somewhere I could go to ask an expert about this kind of thing.

Next week, using the toilet at work: paper towels, hand drier, or wipe-them-on-your-trousers? :)

It’s not a topic I tend to keep up with, but when having a quick browse on The Register, I spotted this tidbit in an article about another IE bug:

A report published in September by Symantec rated Internet Explorer as safer than Firefox. The report found some 25 flaws in Mozilla’s Firefox internet browser, almost double the number it discovered in IE.

First time I’ve heard that, although it doesn’t really surprise me. Mind, saying that Firefox is less safe is stretching it a bit. Just because something has more vulnerabilities doesn’t mean you’re more likely to be attacked. That rather depends on how hard people are trying to attack you and Microsoft no doubt wins hands down there.

The other day at work, I came across a diktat stating that any bug fixes should be given a code comment pointing the reader to the relevant issue in our defect tracking system. Well, until someone explains the rationale to me, I’m going to ignore that.

To look at how dumb this is (IMHO), here are a couple of analogies to consider:

• When you write a document in Word, do you insert comments throughout it, saying things like “Used to say ‘in order to’, but that’s too wordy (MR)”? Sure, they might not print out, but they’re still getting in the way for the person editing the document.
• When you’re doing the CSS for a web page, do you litter it with comments like “Tried using javascript for this, but it wasn’t reliable (MR)”? No! It would just be getting in the way.

So, why the hell should I litter my C# code with comments that refer to a bug that’s no longer exists? What do I care if there was once a bug there? What’s important is that the code now works—we can record the bug fix in our check-in comments. What valid reason might I be overlooking for this behaviour?

Update: the diktat is no longer a diktat; more a recommendation. And it now sits alongside another recommendation that says “where reasonable, write a unit test to prove the existence—and resolution—of the bug”. Result. :)

Just a quickie: Gav gets back from his latest snowboarding adventures tomorrow later today. I’m already looking forward to both the photos/videos and the write-ups. I just wish I’d been able to join the crew out in Tignes, but work kinda got in the way. :(

More than just an insult, it’s an MP3: You’re Gullible. Enjoy.

This coming Friday afternoon, a friend and I are booked in for a 3-hour beginners’ snowboarding lesson at the XScape snowdome in Leeds. Unfortunately, my friend now can’t make it and the lesson’s already booked. Would anyone out there be interested in taking her place?

The lesson costs £72 (incl. equipment hire), but I’d be happy to cover transport costs from Newcastle to Leeds and back. I’ll be leaving town at around noon. Please get in touch ASAP if you fancy it.

Yes, that’s right: Google Mars. Kinda like Google Maps, but for the red planet. Nicely timed to fit in with NASA’s latest mapping mission. Cute.

Updated: links to photos added.

7½ hours I was there today and still I didn’t see everything. Geneva is a serious motor show. Serious enough for me to run out of space on my 128MB CompactFlash card, in fact. That’s a first. Only took me 4 hours as well.

So, live from Lausanne (hence no photos available yet), here are a few of the highlights:

BMW Z4 M Coupé

Very nice indeed, although photos on Pistonheads meant it wasn’t a surprise, like some of the other cars I saw later. Absolutely swamped with punters too, which made getting a decent pic damned difficult.

Mini Cooper S John Cooper GP edition

A very pleasant surprise, although I do vaguely remember hearing about it a month or two back. Still, they’ve done a beautiful job on it and I loved the bracing tube in place of the back seats. That car means business. :)

Peugeot 207 RCup

Suspect this was a racer rather than a proposed production model, but it just about rescued the otherwise bland new 207 range. How come Peugeot are making such uninspiring cars when Citroen and Renault are getting it so right? Speaking of which...

Citroen C1

Cute, cute, cute. It was also the most beautifully executed 5-door supermini I’ve seen, with the rear doors going right to the tailgate lights and around the wheel arch.

Volvo C30 ‘concept’

Roughly the size of an Audi A3 and sporting two-tone metallic paint, this little Volvo was great. Looks like the ideal way to break into the hatchback market. Highly desirable.

Focus Cabriolet

Had no idea such a thing was in the pipeline, but it worked really well. It’s another automatic hard-top job and looks just as good either up or down. Well, ok, maybe the trunk boot looked a bit American, but other than that, it was pretty impressive.

Honda FCX concept

Let’s face it, we only go to motor shows to see something new and exciting. Concept cars are a rich source of such “Wow!” moments. This one, it turns out, is not only beautiful, but is powered by fuel cell technology. Sweet.

Toyota 2005 F1 car

Of all the F1 cars on show—and there were quite a few—this was the best mounted for getting a good look at the details. Ferrari, on the other hand, did a crap job of showing theirs off. Guess they were concentrating more on the 2006 model this winter.

Wiesmann GT

Only on the BBS stand to show off some tasty alloys, but this car was a semi-retro delight. I don’t care how it drives, I just want one. And in the same ivory colour they had it at the show.

Speaking of colours, it really did look like white was the colour to be seen in this winter. BMW had a plethora of white cars, Aston Martin had one, there was an ivory SLK, the ivory Wiesmann, white this, white that and white the other. Have to say, they all look absolutely fabulous, darling. Hopefully, Flickr will attest to this once I get stuff uploaded.

Finally, a quick bit of nuttiness to leave you with. When you first walk into the event, you’re landed right in the Kev-Zone, full of modders and modded cars. Incredibly, one of the very first cars you see is... wait for it... a chipped Enzo. An Enzo, FFS! Does it really need it?!

Is it just me, or did Mick McCarthy almost ask to be sacked? His comments after the last few games have sounded like a man who was desperate to lose his job. Only... that wouldn’t have meant a pay-off, would it?

Cynicism aside, I feel McCarthy should be publicly thanked for making Newcastle’s season easier. Even at the grimmest times in Souness’s reign, we knew we could rely on the mackems to be having an even worse time of it. For that, sir, we salute you.

On the 26th May last year, I was given a real lesson in what power means when a friend (Hello, Dave!) took me for a ride in his Caterham 7. And when I say power, I mean approximately 400bhp/ton. Yowzers! I wrote it up on the night, but, for some reason, never got around to posting it. Time to put that right, methinks, so here it is...

You know how, after they’ve just pummelled an adversary, gorillas go bounding around, thumping their chests and grunting like loons? That’s what I want to do right now. But I’m at work. It might not go down too well. :-/

For reference, I’ve just defeated a particularly truculent pair of UI controls that have been giving me grief all week. Gerrin’ yer bassers! Who’s the Daddy?! Huh? Who is it?! Yeah baby, that’s right, it’s me! I rule. I totally own those controls! I am the wolfman!

Thanks for bearing with me on this. I just needed an outlet. :)