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Idea for a new TV series - ‘When Ethernet cables go bad’ - A fascinating 60 minute documentary into the wide range of issues people have with wireless networks. The program would also include some ‘C’ list celebrities and a phone/text in competition to win something. I have had a wireless network in my house for at least four years. Perusing the annals of this blog reveals that while I have experienced various, sporadic issues over this period, by and large, the wireless network has been pretty reliable with three PC’s, a laptop and an iTouch device using it without problems....

Working title: the dangers of Facebook, online dating, stranger danger and gross stupidity. The (now defunct) Chameleons remain one of my favourite bands but were responsible for the most embarrassing night of my life. After the band reformed, I went to their London gigs and occasionally frequented the (now defunct) Wishville forums for discussion about the band, concert reviews, banter about football, discovering new bands - all the usual stuff we did before Twitter and Last....

I’m not sure if it was Doug or Michael who first pointed me towards David Thorne’s 27bslash6 site but his latest exchange of correspondence with Michael Harding of the South Australian police is hilarious and had me in stitches. I’ve read the article four times now and am still smiling. You can’t really quote sentences in isolation to pay justice to the brilliant humour so just enjoy the full article. The guy is a truly brilliant writer....

London, near England - Thursday 18 February 2010 British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, astounded the world today by announcing the total and immediate withdrawal of all British troops from the current areas of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. Speaking exclusively to Piers Morgan on a prime-time chat show with tears in his eye, Brown explained: ‘During the course of the Chilcott Inquiry (led by that England rugby prop forward), a few facts became clear; Tony Blair misled Parliament and lied to the British public....

‘Who’s there ?’ ‘It’s me - Jamie.’ Thinks to myself - I don’t know anyone called Jamie. My son isn’t called Jamie. My daughter isn’t called ‘Janie’. Even though the wife is visiting her parents and I have the house to myself, I don’t suppose it’s that bizarre, twisted fantasy featuring Jamie Lee Curtis. I reached for a 3 iron to defend myself and finally get myself in the Daily Mail as a selfless vigilante, wrongly imprisoned for 7 years for simply defending his own property....

Those 2010 Brit Awards in full: British male solo artist - Dizzee Rascal British female solo artist - Lilly Allen British breakthrough act - JLS British group - Kasabian British Album - Florence & the Machine - Lungs British Single - Beat Again (JLS) International male solo artist - Jay-Z International female solo artist - Lady GaGa International album - Lady GaGa - The Fame Outstanding contribution to music - Robbie Williams …and Liam Gallagher swearing and throwing a microphone into the audience....

One of the reasons for the reduced blogging frequency, Kenneth, is that I spend every waking hour devoting time to the thorny problem of monetizing this humble blog. Previously, I experimented with Adsense but sadly the revenue stream was insufficient to enable me to retire. I am now pleased to announce the results of my research and contemplations. Do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Be patient. Wait. Don’t get frustrated. Just wait....

Rich Manalang is taking a back seat and suspending some but not all of his online activities which is an interesting exercise I will follow as it unfolds. Or, rather I won’t, because he won’t be blogging about it. I suppose I could always email him at work. I suspect Google Buzz was the final nail in his Web coffin. It certainly was for me. The privacy issues, the multiple, loud and prolonged orgasms from the Technorati, the same old avatars gradually showing up in my ‘Friends’ list quickly followed by the immediate same sense of ‘Emperors New Clothes’ and the inevitable post coital cigarette: ‘How was it for you, darling ?...

Many years ago, in a parallel universe not far from here, I worked for a small dot com Internet company. One day, the boss walked in and proudly announced: ‘Right - I’ve bought everyone three sessions at the London Float Centre’. I thanked him but told him I wasn’t interested and he could give my three sessions away to a more needy case but he was insistent and he was the boss....

AND TO_NUMBER(TO_CHAR(appt_start_dt + 9/24, 'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS')) <= TO_NUMBER(TO_CHAR((TO_DATE(:b1, 'DD/MM/YYYY HH24:MI:SS')), 'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS'))` Please can a clever Oracle person explain, in English, the precise semantics of this WHERE clause snippet in the comments below. I realise this construct and variants thereof have probably been discussed ad infinitum on Oracle WTF but I just don’t get it. I don’t know whether this SQL was written by a human being or a third party ETL tool but it doesn’t matter....