Maybe it’s the time of the year or something. I’ve had several emails recently from people deep in my past (well, from up to 15-16 years ago anyway).

The biggest thing was an email from one of the old Telecom Gold Noticebd users. This was the first electronic community that I came across. TG was an email service, all text-based with modem speeds from 300 to 2400bps. The Noticebd was a latest-first bulletin board that any user of Telecom Gold could post to. I found it in 1988 when I started work at the aforementioned TG, and the community was well-formed by then.

There were a crowd of users on there, some of the earliest were named after characters from A.A.Milne’s Pooh stories, others just picked whatever name appealed. We used to meet-up at “eyeballs” (from the old CB lingo) in a variety of generally excellent pubs around London. Many of these were followed by a post-pub trip down to Brighton for breakfast at “The Market Diner . There were all sorts of people involved; a few from TG itself, some from BT, others from ICL, P&O, charities and a whole load more. There were also some deaf and deaf-blind people (the blind users had braille keyboards and readers to access the system). I even met one of my (now ex-) girlfriends through the system.

So it was great to hear from Asterix again after many years. He now runs Sound Associates which he has takenover from his father. Asty emailed a whole bunch of us to suggest a reunion, and it looks like this is now going to happen in mid-March this year. There have been various emails from the other people on Asty’s list too. I’m really looking forward to meeting some of the old crew and seeing how they’ve all got on in the past few years.

I also got an email from Peter Lee, who I worked with at BT in 1994-96 when I was working in the OA part of . I haven’t heard from Peter since I left that department, and he seems to be doing very well for himself, married with a kid and currently working in the Netherlands.

Last but by no means least I also got a mail from Bill Parker (who now runs some gites in France). Bill worked at BT at about the same time Peter and I worked together. Bill’s just taken part in the Elefant Treffen motorcycle rally in Germany, and by all accounts it was a bit of an adventure.
Continue reading More Than A Blast From The Past →

Coming soon to a TV screen near you, the sequel to such successful shows as “I Love 1974” and “I Love 1976”, yes, it’s time for “I Love The BBC”.

Reminisce about that funny old institution, the British Broadcasting Corporation. Listen to old people who used to be on TV telling you what they used to watch on the BBC, and remember why those people aren’t on TV any more (and wonder how the hell Kate Thornton ever got on there in the first place).

The whole huroosh of the past week has had enormous media coverage, with ITV crowing (despite the fact that the only significant investigative reporting they do is the occasional celebrity interview), and the BBC doing a painfully self-aware, let’s-report-the-facts-but-occasionally-concentrate-on-the-possibility-that-it-wasn’t-all-the-BBC’s-fault job of it all. Which of course, it wasn’t.
Continue reading I Love The BBC →

Stupid things I’ve been sent or found over the past week:-

* Happy Tree Friends – See cuddly cartoon animals horribly maimed
* Waste Paper Bin – Throw paper in the bin
* Bat the Penguin – What it says…
* Googlewhack – Been around for years but still a stupid way to pass time

I’ve found a few Googlewhacks myself, but I suspect that if I list them here they’ll cease to be.

I’ve also finally got my lazyllama.co.uk pointed at this server. Not that anyone will notice….

It’s snowing outside now, and the cat wants feeding (one of those is more unusual than the other… can you guess?). We’ve changed the little git’s food as he’s recovered from his blocked bladder and lost a lot of weight. He’s still on a special diabetic food but I don’t think he’s actually diabetic, just lazy. The new wet food is sloppier and he gets some dry stuff too, and he’s very confused by it all. He hasn’t worked out that mealtimes should remain at the same time as they were before, even though he gets different food. He thinks that the new food regime should be made available in plentiful helpings several times per day, on demand. And this cat knows how to demand!

Braving the freezing cold tonight to go and meet up with Danny and some other ex-Netscallies. If I don’t return, check the snow drifts around The Market Porter near London Bridge.

Nice little gizmo.

create your own visited countries map or vertaling Duits Nederlands

I met up with a few of my former Netscalibur colleagues today.

Dan Daemonn and I agreed to meet up in Canary Wharf. We had lunch at the Gourmet Pizza Company with incredibly slow service, and starters and main courses all turning up at the same time.

After that we retired to a coffee shop (no way we were going to spend any more time waiting for a coffee at Gourmet Pizza Company). While we were there, Daemonn mentioned that Danny had been getting mail bounced from my server and at that exact moment, I spotted Danny walking past the window. We hauled him in and had a bit of a chat.

Of the four of us, only Daemonn is working at the moment, and he’s only doing a couple of days per week. Dan has been away in Japan to visit his in-laws, and is looking at doing some bits and pieces with Cobalt servers Danny is applying for jobs, and I’m ummm… idling.

It was great to catch up with the others, and have a gossip about what’s been going on. Everyone seemed much happier than when they were working (no great surprise, I suppose). It also made a change for me to get out of the house, and we’ll probably be meeting up again in the next couple of weeks.