The eyes have it!

This is a non-OU post but comes as way of explanation. You may have noticed that the picture of me in my profile isn't really me [Ed; you're kidding surely!]. In fact it is a composite picture - the main face is a large metal construction that sits outside the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury (Incidentally, the Marlowe Theatre is named after Christopher Marlowe, tragic contemporary fellow playwright of one William Shakespeare. Marlowe was born in Canterbury but left it. Geoffrey Chaucer, on the other-hand, was born in London and, rather famously, wrote about Canterbury. But we don't have a Chaucer Theatre - just Chaucer Hotel).

But the eyes are real - but not mine. In fact they are taken from a photo that I took of my daughter a few years ago - thats kind of spooky I know - and I haven't yet owned up to her about that!

Its not too dissimilar from how I really look - although I don't have the crinkly top to my head [Ed: have you looked at your self in the mirror recently?].

One day, when the world is ready for it, I might put a picture of the real me there instead. You have been warned!

Dono Treply

I was reading an article in 'Computer Weekly' this week about Somerset County Council that has entered into partnership with IBM to provide all sorts of useful services. One of the targets that has been set - and that IBM must meet - is to reduce the amount of acronyms that they use. That really is rather telling I think. We all know that the world of IT is full of acronyms - and they do have their use as a form of shorthand for those in the know. Its not just IT of course - my wife is a nurse and her work is full of acronyms and specialist words - we can sometimes have conversations in which neither of us knows what the other is talking about [Ed: doesn't that also apply to normal everyday conversations that you two have?].

Today, I was showing my son (13 years old and car-mad) an email that I had just received confirming that I had bought two tickets for the MPH Show in London - which includes a Live Top Gear show. The email had a return address of donotreply@seezz3.com. My son said to me 'Look dad, its come from someone called Dono Treply). I looked puzzled and then realised what he meant. And a quick google shows that he's not the only one to have made that mistake.

MT262 - TMA03

Really getting into the swing of this course, and quite enjoying it. Results for TMA03 are back and I got a rather cool 97% - not bad for an uncool-nerd such as me. Now, regular readers (all two of you - you know who you are!) may remember that I prattled on a while back about how to lose marks - well, 'consistency' is my middle name [Ed: what foolish parents you must have] ..... two of the three marks I lost because the TMA said 'create a button and and put "Cancel" on it' (or words to that effect)...so what did I do...I put the word "Quit" on them instead. What a stupid, half-numbskulledvomitprovoking mistake to make. My tutor, quite correctly, docked me a point for each error.

But how did I manage to do that? It was there in black-and-white no-thinking-required [Ed: perhaps thats the problem Simon, no-thinking-required...no-thinking-performed].

TMA04 is underway is a great fun already!