mattypenny

Full Post List

Dec 21, 2024: In honour of the day Here Comes The Summer - The Undertones

Dec 21, 2024: Panto and post-panto pints put paid to my plan for Solstice at Stonehenge, but here are some pics from previous years

Dec 21, 2024: Possibly the best thing I’ve seen in a theatre since The Clash at the Lyceum Sleeping Beauty at Salisbury Playhouse

Dec 18, 2024: Things that annoy me #1035 When you need a password and MFA to see some IT documentation. Especially when it doesn’t work in my default browser

Dec 18, 2024: I enjoyed That Christmas last night. It’s a sweet film. It said in the credits that it was based on three different stories, which does make …

Dec 18, 2024: Gratuitous seaside postcard

Dec 17, 2024: ​Powershell to get a list of micro.blog posts Set your headers: $headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $Token" "Content-Type" = "application/json" } …

Dec 17, 2024: Want to read: Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth by Cathi Unsworth 📚 I listened to this podcast in which the author spoke to Mark Ellen and David …

Dec 17, 2024: The two best songs which start with the same two words, imho Goin' back - Dusty Springfield Going back to my roots - Odyssey

Dec 17, 2024: I know next to nothing about Mongolia, so this was interesting My young friend Tom’s podcast about Khorloogiin Choibalsan - the Stalin of the …

Dec 14, 2024: I’m mucking about with the idea of doing some #sketchnote pages on Powershell basics #Powershell

Dec 13, 2024: I read in this month’s Record Collector magazine that: [David Essex’s] performance of Che Guevara in Evita led to a personal invitation …

Dec 13, 2024: These numbers are quite something ⚽ Brentford have the unusual distinction of being the Premier League’s best side at home (22 points from 24) and …

Dec 13, 2024: For some reason, I was thinking this morning about books named after song titles, or lyrics, and whether they’ve ever been of interest to …

Dec 13, 2024: Like weekends, December is too short

Dec 13, 2024: Back in the olden days, when Twitter was still a nice place to be, there was a hashtag called #PostASongLyricYouLove “And I can play hide and …

Dec 11, 2024: I’m not a fan of the works of either Freddie Mercury, or Kenny Everett and Cleo Rocos, but I’m sure they’d have been great fun on a …

Dec 11, 2024: I’m thinking about writing and running a Powershell script to upload my twitter archive to micro.blog I want to confirm whether or not to upload …

Dec 11, 2024: The Hogwarts Express came through Salisbury station just now

Dec 11, 2024: The German rendering of Ben Lyttleton’s Twelve Yards reads like it’s about monitoring elves I’d read that book too

Dec 10, 2024: By my calculations, it’s only 15 sleeps until Gavin and Stacey

Dec 10, 2024: Melvyn Bragg once perceptively said that the 1970s McCartney had made a “magnificent attempt to be seen as, and to behave as, a very ordinary young …

Dec 9, 2024: This is a lovely Christmas wreath on a lovely Salisbury building…but it looks a bit out of proportion - as if there’s been a …

Dec 9, 2024: Just saw this in town. Salisbury to Norfolk would be a decent walk

Dec 9, 2024: Thoughts on yesterday’s Tottenham - Chelsea match ⚽ wasn’t it marvellous? caicedo was maybe lucky to stay on, but not as lucky as …

Dec 7, 2024: it’s windy out

Dec 5, 2024: Many of the COVID signs, warning people to keep their distance, are fading now I wonder when the last one will disappear from view

Dec 5, 2024: Annual-ish post / toot / tweet / skeet…. Please could you all continuosly stream my daughter’s version of Blue Christmas from now until …

Dec 5, 2024: Spotify tells me that I’m in the top 0.2% of listeners to Elvis ….so the year hasn’t been entirely wasted

Dec 5, 2024: I’ve never seen Back to the Future. I only realised today, when I saw this poster, that the name of the band ‘McFly’ is a Back to …

Dec 3, 2024: Lovely BBC radio doc about Shane Macgowan, with his wife, and his sister, and Nick Cave, and Bono, and Geldof, and Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all I particularly enjoyed the detail about the Broad Majestic Shannon from Shane’s sister Bob Geldof initially dismissing the Pogues as …

Dec 3, 2024: To Trowbridge by train today. In quick succession you go past the White Horse at Westbury, as in Ravilious' painting, and Dilton Marsh, of John …

Dec 3, 2024: David Squires on … the Fifa Man’s plan to make Saudi dreams come true

Dec 2, 2024: Happy Cyber-men Day to all who are celebrating it today

Dec 2, 2024: Good news …well, good news for old folks who like to plod around like me, anyway “There’s a far lower association of knee pain in runners in …

Dec 1, 2024: I would very much like to do a Desi Pub Tour of the UK Jay Rayner on restaurants - Desi Yew Tree, Wolverhampton: ‘Part of the brilliance of Desi pub …

Dec 1, 2024: Thoughts on the Chelsea match this afternoon lovely to see a bit of proper ice-cold Cole Palmer magic again Caicedo man of the match imho great …

Dec 1, 2024: in honour of the season Siouxsie and the Banshees - Il est ne le Devin enfant

Nov 30, 2024: As people who’ve followed me on various social media are probably sick of hearing, the first record I ever owned was Blue is the Colour by the …

Nov 29, 2024: I found out today that one of my favourite songs, I Say A Little Prayer is a song about Vietnam. Growing up in England, this maybe never would have …

Nov 29, 2024: I really like SSMS as a query tool, but i found it much easier to pronounce ‘Toad’

Nov 28, 2024: I’ve never been able to imagine Cary Grant speaking in a Bristol accent (For those outside the UK, think of Speak Like a Pirate Day…..but all the …

Nov 28, 2024: According to the Times, Kemi Badenoch has appointed 20 whips to look after her 121 MPs According to Google, the DFe says that it’s good to have 1 …

Nov 28, 2024: #TodayILearned that Mike Batt wrote 3 hit singles about Julianne White, who is now his wife A Winter’s Tale by David Essex, Please Don’t Fall In …

Nov 28, 2024: My most un-English opinion is this. I find the Shipping Forecast really boring

Nov 28, 2024: Happy Thanksgiving Day to all who are celebrating it today

Nov 27, 2024: I don’t really see much of the Great British Bake Off I’m sad when it ends though…just the thought of nice people doing nice things …

Nov 26, 2024: Love and cannibalism in the Yorkshire Dales I’ve never thought much about the folk song ‘Ilkley Moor Baht ‘at’ before Paul Sinha mentioned it on his radio show. I think …

Nov 26, 2024: Lauren Laverne is the host of the Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs. She used to be in a band, called Kenickie I’m kind of sad that, so far, …

Nov 24, 2024: The job title ‘Platform Engineer’ sounds to me like I’m working on an oil rig

Nov 24, 2024: Like many English blokes of a certain age, I’m fascinated by Winston Churchill…so this looks great - the Imperial War Museum has an …

Nov 22, 2024: Podcasts and radio shows I’ve enjoyed recently The Political Party Show 203 - Margaret Beckett In The Road to Surrender, Evan Thomas examines …

Nov 21, 2024: 5 discovered songs - The Revels, Ann-Margaret and Elvis, Susan Cadogan, Lee Thompson, and Lorne Green This is the first in what might possibly be a continuing series of songs I’ve discovered in the last couple of weeks The Lady Loves Me (from …

Nov 21, 2024: I like the Scottish ‘outwith’, which I think is ‘outside’ in the sense of ‘outwith the realms of possibility’

Nov 20, 2024: It’s a sunny-but-cold day in the Shire

Nov 20, 2024: I’m trying to replace the phrase ‘Maternity Leave’, or ‘Mat Leave’ with the phrase ‘Parental Leave’ So far I …

Nov 18, 2024: I don’t know whether watching Paddington and Gladiator II together might become a thing, like it didn’t with ‘Barbenheimer’ If …

Nov 18, 2024: Thoughts on Gladiator II I very much enjoyed it Not having seen the original film, it was more gory than I was expecting I thought it might have worked better as an 8 hour …

Nov 15, 2024: British tabloids have an awful lot to answer for but I did enjoy this sub-headline BOFFIN REVEALS SURPRISE CHOICE FOR NEW MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE IN …

Nov 15, 2024: Nice to see these guys again, in the Chantry Centre in Andover I expect they come to life at night….when the shopping centre is all shut down …

Nov 15, 2024: I enjoyed Paddington in Peru, too Preferred it to Paddington 2, although that might just be because Paddington now reminds me so much of the dog.

Nov 15, 2024: Very much enjoyed a folkie night out with Cara Dillon last night. It was just her and her other half, Sam Lakeman, but I really liked the intimacy of …

Nov 15, 2024: There’s a nice picture of the Salisbury ‘Spoons on the cover of their latest magazine

Nov 15, 2024: A thought that consoles me a bit, hearing about the President Elect’s various appointments Populists don’t tend to keep things together …

Nov 13, 2024: I went to see my footballing friend Fred Fieber’s fab friezes

Nov 13, 2024: I feel that Christmas songs are acceptable at any time after Remembrance Day Other opinions are available

Nov 12, 2024: Calling monarchs by their first names makes them seem cuddly I’m listening to this excellent podcast episode about Anne Boleyn. It occurs to me that part of the reason that King Henry VIII isnt always seen …

Nov 12, 2024: How to post to a test instance of micro.blog with powershell Source the micro.blog token $BlogToken = $(import-csv /stuff/GeneralParameters.csv | ? parameter -eq 'BlogToken').value $headers = @{ …

Nov 12, 2024: My last four posts have been about the weather, the class system, the football, and a saucy seaside postcard As, ironically, Chandler Bing might …

Nov 12, 2024: I read or heard a thing about the British class system recently. I don’t know where but it’s stuck in my head if you shower before work …

Nov 12, 2024: #TodayILearned that this postcard sold more copies than any other via Paul Sinha - Paul Sinha’s Perfect Pub Quiz Series 3 South London - home to …

Nov 10, 2024: I have to say I prefer it when we’re 6-0 up at half time #CheArs ⚽

Nov 10, 2024: If I’m honest, I’m quite enjoying the anti-cyclonic gloom. UK weather England has 10th of expected sunshine amid ‘anticyclonic gloom’, Met …

Nov 8, 2024: I enjoyed the cover of this month’s Cfcuk…I remember a similar cover featuring David Luiz Also, nice to know that at least a couple of …

Nov 8, 2024: Thoughts on this evening at Chelsea Vs Noah Mudryk often needs to drop 5-10 yards. He’s fast enough that he doesn’t need to be level with the right back it felt a bit mean to sing …

Nov 8, 2024: The view from under the banner in the Matthew Harding Lower , #ChelseaFC ⚽

Nov 8, 2024: We had a good night tonight but managed to miss one of the highlights there was some light relief near the home bench. Nicolas Jackson was very …

Nov 7, 2024: At Chelsea Vs FC Noah The players are coming out two by two ⚽

Nov 7, 2024: Like James Brown, I’ve taken it to the Bridge Not before time tbh ⚽ #ChelseaFc

Nov 7, 2024: I feel that, if I live long enough, the stones will turn out to have come from Antarctica, or a passing asteroid or something Seeking a Scottish …

Nov 7, 2024: Just read this bit, at the end of the Pickwick Papers Let us leave our old friend in one of those moments of unmixed happiness, of which, if we seek …

Nov 7, 2024: We missed out on Southampton - Chelsea tickets….I think my hit rate is down to 1 in 5

Nov 7, 2024: Random painting of Salisbury Merritt, H. S. - St. Ann’s Gate, Salisbury, 1943 I used to go through this gate to go to school, but not in 1943 V …

Nov 6, 2024: Today seems a good day for a rom-com I just finished this. Lovely show. The proportion of rom to com is maybe higher than I’m used to, but I …

Nov 6, 2024: I shot this at Hengistbury Head a couple of weeks ago. I find it quite relaxing Wish it was longer really…

Nov 6, 2024: I’m sure these are all really good and well worth going to…..but the phrase ‘festive theatre shows’ seems to me to translate …

Nov 6, 2024: I didn’t know this existed but I want to read it One of my favourite comics has written a memoir about following my favourite team ⚽📖 #ChelseaFC

Nov 5, 2024: Good luck, America 🤞🤞

Nov 4, 2024: Paul Merton on Have I Got News For You No one is irreplaceable in show business. But we’ll keep going until the sun explodes and consumes the Earth, …

Nov 3, 2024: The hashtag for Man United Vs Chelsea always reminds me of ….. ⚽ #MunChe (annual-ish toot / tweet / post)

Nov 3, 2024: I like it when people use the word ‘weblog’ but I often read it as something like’wedding-blog'

Nov 2, 2024: I’m enjoying the #Powershell tips module. I’ve already learnt a couple of things….and I’ve been using Powershell for about …

Oct 31, 2024: It was some while before MGM was off to see a profit from the wonderful Wizard of Oz – specifically, until it was reissued in 1949. Over the Rainbow …

Oct 30, 2024: That’s what girls have to think about all the time I was half-listening to Graham Norton the other night but I missed this ​In a development that absolutely must not catch on, something interesting has …

Oct 30, 2024: Not sure how, all of a sudden, I’m quite so old….but I’m lucky to have lasted so long

Oct 30, 2024: “The British constitution is puzzling, and always will be” - Queen Elizabeth, on a visit to a new college building, to a politics seminar …

Oct 29, 2024: It seems to have got dreadful reviews and I’ve not seen any of the other films but I enjoyed Venom 3

Oct 29, 2024: Not sure if this’ll work…but this is my Halloween playlist Halloween playlist on Spotify

Oct 25, 2024: I don’t think I’ve posted this before. A sketch note/map that i did a few years ago of the walk from Salisbury to Stonehenge

Oct 25, 2024: I saw these today, near Canary Wharf. I imagine they come to life at night, when everyone’s asleep

Oct 25, 2024: I can’t wait Oh no I can’t… #Panto

Oct 24, 2024: If I ever meet Daniel Ek who, I believe, is “Mr Spotify” I’m obviously going to tell him off for how little he’s paying the …

Oct 24, 2024: I enjoyed Play On at Salisbury Playhouse last night It’s a jazz musical based on Twelfth Night I should probably have looked up Twelfth Night …

Oct 22, 2024: Easy or easier cryptic crosswords I can sometimes get a few answers in a cryptic crossword, but I’m not very good at them I can do these though Quick cryptic - The Guardian …

Oct 21, 2024: I’m enjoying the second series of D.I. Ray

Oct 21, 2024: I thought this was very interesting Does the Irish Republic Want Reunification? BBC Seriously podcast Personally, I think the short answer is …

Oct 21, 2024: ““Fifa always shout that they want the game to be inclusive, and they want the game to lead by example. Well, if so, then make sure that …

Oct 20, 2024: I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about the appointment of an England manager as I am about Thomas Tuchel He got Chelsea punching …

Oct 18, 2024: In France, it is described as “a delicious little thing that only British television knows how to produce”. I’m not sure about that…but …

Oct 17, 2024: This is worth a listen if you have an interest in UK politics - Matt Forde interviewing Rob Burley about political interviewing. The Political Party …

Oct 16, 2024: You would think that Spotify, with all its money and its smarts and its AI, would be able to distinguish between: the Showmen who were “a New …

Oct 16, 2024: Watching an episode of the Cleaner and they refer to a sea monster called the Oilliphéist Apparently “an Oilliphéist cuts the route of the …

Oct 16, 2024: Nick Hayward, of Haircut 100, recounts how shocked he was seeing Sparks wandering around his home town - Beckenham. There is something particularly …

Oct 14, 2024: Thoughts on the Bournemouth half marathon yesterday Hengistbury Head is nice. Outdoors-y but with a nice cafe and visitor centre lovely …

Oct 13, 2024: wish me luck! 🏃

Oct 13, 2024: Hengistbury Head and the Needles in the background

Oct 13, 2024: Hengistbury Head - I read that it doesn’t really have much to do with Hengist

Oct 12, 2024: Enjoying a stand-up LP by the-lady-from-Fisk on Spotify Kitty Flanagan - Seriously?

Oct 11, 2024: Theresa May gets it right here. It was appalling that Putin tried to assassinate someone on British soil, and it was just unbelievable that they …

Oct 10, 2024: the temperature has dropped, and the fingerless gloves are back on I feel Dickensian

Oct 9, 2024: Some music-related AI pub signs Oasis: The Pogues: The fifth Beatle: The Waterloo Sunset:

Oct 9, 2024: James Cleverly has been knocked out of the Conservative leadership race This seems like fantastic news for Labour, and probably also for Nigel …

Oct 9, 2024: #TodayILearned that While humans are split between right-handers and left-handers, elephants have a preference for which side of their trunk they …

Oct 8, 2024: Beautiful day in The Shire…if you can avoid the rain

Oct 8, 2024: After years and years of having an Android phone, I’ve only just discovered the usefulness of the Gboard personal dictionary, with the …

Oct 8, 2024: I enjoyed Supacell, but it did make South east London seem a bit grim. I was hoping a bit for superheroes in capes laying waste to Lewisham High …

Oct 5, 2024: As the commentator pointed out, it looks a bit like Everton are playing Saudi Arabia :(

Oct 5, 2024: Pam Ayers has a pile of wood and rubbish in her garden which provides a habitat for hedgehogs and insects and such She has a genius word for it. …

Oct 4, 2024: A friend has met Paul McCartney a couple of times I thought about what I’d say if I ever met him. I came to the conclusion that I’d ask …

Oct 2, 2024: One of the Conservative candidates for their Leadership was just on the telly. The reporter asked if she’d speak to him (and therefore to the …

Oct 2, 2024: I still miss Jose The Fenerbahce manager, José Mourinho, was booked by the referee on Sunday after he protested against a VAR decision to disallow a …

Oct 2, 2024: My favourite pub name is The Conquered Moon By the way…everyone should have a favourite pub name - what’s yours? The Conquered Moon was a …

Sep 30, 2024: New powershell group “dedicated to bringing together professionals with a passion for PowerShell, DSC, Configuration Management, DevOps, …

Sep 30, 2024: For me this is a music podcast of Avengers Assemble - the blokes from Sodajerker meet the blokes from Word in Your Ear I particularly enjoyed the …

Sep 29, 2024: That’s kind of irritating….the much-used-by-me ‘Format Document’ command in VS Code has a different keyboard shortcut in …

Sep 29, 2024: Strange country Hollywood actor Damian Lewis has taken part in an “eccentric” tradition dating back hundreds of years by herding sheep …

Sep 28, 2024: I enjoyed Scott Minto talking about Cole Palmer at half time He danced around making the comparison, but eventually uttered what he’d previously …

Sep 28, 2024: Listening on the Chelsea app, and getting slightly worried for Jason Cindy #MastodonFC ⚽

Sep 25, 2024: “1000 copies were pressed (which sell for £1000 upwards)” I sold my copy for £25…although to be fair I was glad of it at the time

Sep 25, 2024: Had a nice evening in a pub with some old chums, half watching some football that I don’t really care about Shockingly, the pub didn’t do …

Sep 25, 2024: Slippers 3.0 is still incompatible with Dog 1.0

Sep 25, 2024: Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water….in Paris! I enjoyed this amiably over-the-top Jaws-meets-the-Paris-Olympics film on …

Sep 24, 2024: When I was very young I had some sort of old book about football. It mentioned Barrow as a 4th Division team, but by then they’d dropped out of …

Sep 23, 2024: The Wicker Man soundtrack is on Spotify now I think it’s got some extra bits compared to my CD, too open.spotify.com/album/72d…

Sep 23, 2024: I very much enjoyed The Hour on Netflix Wikipedia quotes Nancy Franklin in the New Yorker “almost absurdly gratifying. With its casting, its …

Sep 22, 2024: Marking the changing of the seasons, and the turning of the great wheel of the year with this semi -annual-ish post / tweet / toot The word …

Sep 21, 2024: Lovely to see empty seats towards the end of a Chelsea away match ⚽ #MastodonFC

Sep 21, 2024: The Bible tells us that i is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. I feel that …

Sep 20, 2024: Powershelling my twitter archive I’ve been looking at my twitter archive, with a view to importing bits of it into micro.blog (the automatic import didn’t quite …

Sep 20, 2024: I’ve been watching The Hour on Netflix. It’s set in an office in the 1960s. I’m particularly enjoying the fact that they refer to …

Sep 18, 2024: I don’t agree with Marina and Richard about twitter but I like this quote “To be insulted by you is to be garlanded with lilies” - …

Sep 18, 2024: Spoiler alert for 1930s play Gaslight I learned today that the play Gaslight was renamed Angel Street in the US. It was being performed as such into the 1970s The other thing I learned …

Sep 16, 2024: I’ve got a cold. Please send chocolate and curry.

Sep 15, 2024: Happy Hope-They-Both-Lose-Day to all who are celebrating it today Spurs - Arsenal #MastodonFc ⚽

Sep 15, 2024: “in a way that has no analogue in the world of conventional commercial transactions, customers continue to give their custom whilst vociferously …

Sep 13, 2024: A small part of me is pleased that Old Street roundabout has retained its character, even if that character is being a bit crap “Boasting …

Sep 11, 2024: This evening’s Quorn chilli will be enlivened, and hopefully enhanced, by this sauce I’m slightly dubious about chilli sauces with overly …

Sep 11, 2024: #TodayILearned, from watching the TV quiz The Chase, that “Originally, rhinestones were rock crystals gathered from the river …

Sep 10, 2024: Something I didn’t know… Henry VIII’s disappointment with Anne of Cleves began when she failed to recognize him when he was in …

Sep 7, 2024: I google-ized ‘England fixtures’…and as well as tonight’s fixture it gave me a little summary about our national team. All …

Sep 6, 2024: " “Processing fee”, “service fee”, “delivery fee” – truly it has 100 ways of saying “because-we-can fee”. If that feels like you accepting a wage …

Sep 6, 2024: Since I’ve seen a few posts about people using or not using Linux, I thought it might be time to explain my personal IT strategy. It’s …

Sep 6, 2024: I’ve been creating a page of podcast episodes I’ve liked I’ve extracted all of those I’ve commented on on Mastodon …

Sep 6, 2024: The photos in Salisbury railway station, and the Clock Tower Took a picture of this to say how much I like the old photos that they’ve got at Salisbury railway station now ….but my inner smartarse …

Sep 4, 2024: I asked Alexa to play the Sisters of Mercy this morning (yes….I’m an aged Goth, I guess), and got this I quite like it, tbh …

Aug 28, 2024: If I watch enough tech videos at 1.75 speed, will I start dreaming in 1.75 speed? 😟😟

Aug 27, 2024: I’m pleased for fans of Oasis, but it’s triggered a form of Fear of Missing Out They’ve reminded me that I’m never going to …

Aug 26, 2024: I’m not much interested in the Oasis reunion from a musical point of view, but it would be nice if the Gallaghers are …

Aug 24, 2024: Ruddy Arsenal ⚽

Aug 22, 2024: I always enjoy the annual list of top 10 one-liners from the Edinburgh Festival…but none of them are as witty as Barack Obama’s physical …

Aug 22, 2024: I’ve started watching the 2009 Day of the Triffids I don’t know what I was expecting, exactly….but I’m finding it a bit grim

Aug 22, 2024: Disappointed to discover that my favourite ever sports commentator, Barry Davies, is Spurs….but impressed that I never twigged

Aug 21, 2024: Rock sages Mark Ellen and David Hepworth discuss musical plagiarism lawsuits in the attached At one point I think Hepworth refers to …

Aug 19, 2024: I enjoyed the 1970s Death Race 2000 It’s Wacky Races meets Russ Meyer, with shades of the Running Man and the Hunger Games 📽️

Aug 18, 2024: Chelsea v Man City Potential title decider, obviously ⚽😃 #Cfc #Ktbffh #MastodonFc

Aug 15, 2024: I maybe need to get this tattoo-ed on something prominent “The road to programming hell is paved with “best practices” applied too …

Aug 14, 2024: They are not having it back “The six-tonne Altar Stone at the heart of Stonehenge came from the far north of Scotland rather than south-west …

Aug 12, 2024: I enjoyed Trap….but there’s very little you can say about the film without giving away some of the story 📽️

Aug 10, 2024: That was a terrific match. 🏀

Aug 9, 2024: A marvellous pub name Johnson grew up in the Two Puddings pub in Stratford, east London, a Kray twins haunt before his father, Eddie – the landlord …

Aug 7, 2024: Lovely Department of Putting the Best Possible Spin on a Situation: high-jumper Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy, who lost his wedding ring in the Seine …

Aug 6, 2024: He’d get my vote, just for this ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday [ in 2023] signed a bill into law that renames a …

Aug 5, 2024: It’s not Barca and Bayern on the way to winning the Champions League, but it’s a start ⚽ #MastodonFC #ChelseaFC #CFC

Aug 5, 2024: These are fun photographer Hector Vivas has created a series of astonishing images called Layers of the Games, which aim to show in one image the …

Aug 5, 2024: I read that there’s an iceberg slowly spinning around and around the same spot in the South Atlantic It would be a good place to deport …

Aug 3, 2024: This would almost make it worth doing jury service “I swear by the River Roding, from her source in Molehill Green to her confluence with the …

Aug 2, 2024: SPOILER ALERT re: ‘Gaslight’…. although, given the play came out in 1938, maybe I shouldn’t worry too much This is an …

Aug 2, 2024: Chelsea’s new signing Kieran Dewsbury-Hall has followed the new manager from Leicester The other players are therefore calling him “the …

Jul 28, 2024: Good quote: “Churchill was a racist and an imperialist, and also the most important anti-fascist who ever lived” Origin Story - Churchill, …

Jul 27, 2024: Chelsea 1 Celtic 4 …and I thought we might still have some of the momentum from the end of last season ⚽ ☹️☹️☹️

Jul 26, 2024: Thoughts on this evening Paris looked lovely, despite the rain the catwalk-y bit was ‘different’…as was the blue fellow I …

Jul 26, 2024: Words I like - Missing You Who did you murder, are you a spy? I’m just fond of a drink, helps me laugh, helps me cry So I just drink red biddy …

Jul 25, 2024: Podcast episode about a 19th Century outfit called the British Israelites who went digging on Tara Hill to find the Ark of the Covenant More sensible …

Jul 25, 2024: An odd coincidence of my social circle My two best friends at university didn’t know each other - it was a modular course, and the American chap …

Jul 24, 2024: Magic Johnson used to shoot 200-300 three-pointers a day in the summer 🏀 I’m not sure I could physically do that …

Jul 23, 2024: Finished reading: Fake Heroes by Otto English 📚 Great book. Some of the targets are maybe a bit soft. For example, it’s no great shock to learn …

Jul 21, 2024: Well played, Joe Biden.

Jul 20, 2024: The Crowdstrike thing reminds me of the time I brought down about 80% of of a mobile phone network for around half an hour I will type that up one …

Jul 19, 2024: Giving good epithet This is good, particularly the bit ive put in bold. It’s from Otto English’s “Fake Heroes - Ten False Icons and How They Altered the …

Jul 18, 2024: Annual-ish tweet / toot / post to say thay the blackberries seem early this year

Jul 16, 2024: Im not sure if this counts as a metaphor but i like it ⚽ “Southgate has seemed a little more drained than usual at this tournament, adopting …

Jul 15, 2024: Peter Butterworth and the Wooden Horse #TodayILearned that Carry On actor Peter Butterworth auditioned for a part in the 1949 film ‘The Wooden Horse’, which was about an actual …

Jul 15, 2024: There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen. - Lenin

Jul 15, 2024: It’s Saint Swithun’s Day today Saint Swithun is very much the British equivalent of Punxsutawney Phil St Swithin’s day if thou dost …

Jul 14, 2024: Oh, well….

Jul 14, 2024: I’d like to say ‘may the best team win’ tonight…but I’d rather England did! ⚽

Jul 14, 2024: I’m enjoying Alan Carr’s Changing Ends auto-bio-pic on ITV I think I’m right in saying that as well as having a dad who was a …

Jul 14, 2024: People I have seen on the train between Salisbury and London The two writers were in second class the other two were in first

Jul 11, 2024: We’re voting again today There’s a local council byelection. It will feel a bit flat after last weeks hullabaloo and history-making

Jul 11, 2024: This morning, instead of putting coffee granules in my coffee mug, i put them in the pint glass that I use for orange squash This does not bode well

Jul 10, 2024: never a penalty…but never mind! ⚽

Jul 9, 2024: I didn’t know this Guardian series existed, but I like it 📖 Where to start with - www.theguardian.com/books/ser…

Jul 9, 2024: I was in the middle of posting very slightly off-colour and then lost eveything i’d written This was probably through my incompetence…. …

Jul 9, 2024: I like this statue of Oscar Wilde, near Charing Cross Wilde isn’t someone who has had a huge impact on me, but I’ve always thought …

Jul 9, 2024: #TodayILearned that the chant We know what we are We know what we are Champions of Europe We know what we are ….is Shakespearean, almost we …

Jul 9, 2024: Recommended show: Kiss Me Kate at the Barbican, with him out of Line of Duty I really enjoyed Kiss Me Kate at the Barbican, at the weekend. Here are some bullet points it’s a traditional Broadway-style …

Jul 9, 2024: I’m sure there will be disappointments and muck-ups ahead. But for now i am enjoying the thought of ‘Prime Minister Kier Starmer’, …

Jul 7, 2024: I was reminded, the other day, of something Tony Blair said “When we came to power we were at our most popular but least effective. When we …

Jul 7, 2024: I had a wonderful time yomping around Salisbury Plain on Friday, but at this point my feet are half human, and half Compeed blister plaster

Jul 7, 2024: The origin truth of football is that outstanding individuals doing outrageous things is no basis for a team. The origin truth of international …

Jul 7, 2024: Because it’s easy to take a good photo of Stonehengeq

Jul 5, 2024: Not sure who i want to win - Germany because Rudiger used to play for Chelsea, or Spain because Cucarella currently plays for Chelsea And they say men …

Jul 5, 2024: Because it’s easy to take a good photo of Stonehengeq

Jul 5, 2024: Liz Truss has lost her seat….jeepers Much as I disagree with her about pretty much everything, that must be tough

Jul 5, 2024: Wish me luck

Jul 4, 2024: I’ve been and gone and voted

Jul 3, 2024: June in sketchnotes What I did in June saw the magnificent Fly Yeti Fly curry at the Elai lots of training walks possibly my best header in 40 years ate a cornetto …

Jul 1, 2024: I thought England should have done much better against Slovenia It looks like I underestimated Slovenia ⚽

Jul 1, 2024: For the first time ever, I just got asked to take part in an opinion poll One of the questions, after they’d done the serious ones, was who …

Jun 30, 2024: As a wise man once said, “Football. Bloody hell.” ⚽

Jun 29, 2024: It would be a shame if Joe Biden is mainly remembered as the guy that enabled the second Trump presidency

Jun 29, 2024: Call me a pedant but this week I have been particularly irritated by BBC Radio 5 calling itself “the home of the Euro’s” when the …

Jun 28, 2024: I can’t think of another example where father and son have been current on the same team I’m wondering what it will be like, for both of …

Jun 27, 2024: In defence of Rishi and Kier A bloke called Robert, a member of the audience in the debate last night, got a lot of applause for asking this question “Are you two really …

Jun 27, 2024: #TodayILearned that “The word “Bronx” originated with Swedish-born (or Faroese-born) Jonas Bronck, who established the first …

Jun 26, 2024: My new, not necessarily improved, sketchnote heiroglyphic for ‘a JSON file’

Jun 26, 2024: Words I Like - Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home) Jules Rimet, still gleaming Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home) by Baddiel, Skinner …

Jun 26, 2024: Here’s a cheery thought ⚽ If England don’t win the Euro’s this time, then, by the time if the next World Cup it will be 30 Years of …

Jun 26, 2024: I didn’t enjoy the football, but I did enjoy the Guardian’s headline ⚽ Woe de Cologne www.theguardian.com/football/…

Jun 25, 2024: This came up, from 11 years ago, in my Photos app I was going to a work thing in Eastleigh, which I think was Benny Hill’s birthplace The fact …

Jun 24, 2024: I like a good , flowery political metaphor, and this is a particularly vivid one, from Andrew Rawnsley “Rather than scotch Reform, going early …

Jun 23, 2024: Scotland fans win the European Championships of singing, by some distance ⚽

Jun 22, 2024: A friend who is a painter and decorator introduced one of his colleagues as a ‘brother of the brush’ I thought that was cool

Jun 22, 2024: An Elvis story I hadn't heard before Songwriter Mike Stoller was in a mid-Atlantic ship collision in the 1950s. He abandoned ship into a ‘broken life boat’, and was eventually …

Jun 21, 2024: I may be a 1970s throwback……but the idea that there could be any debate about that being offside seems crazy to me ⚽

Jun 21, 2024: Some nice solstice pictures from the Stones and elsewhere www.theguardian.com/world/gal…

Jun 20, 2024: I’m wondering if opposition coaches tell their teams that England will always drop away after they’ve scored ⚽

Jun 19, 2024: I have one thing to say today, and it’s this. ‘Get Over You’ is a better song than ‘Teenage Kicks’. Get Over You by The …

Jun 19, 2024: Well….I like it! ‘Pile of old wood’: Salisbury residents say sculpture spoils cathedral view - www.theguardian.com/artanddes…

Jun 19, 2024: I’m listening to Rolling Stone’s The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History. It’s good fun Coincidentally I was scrolling through …

Jun 18, 2024: I hope the blackberry berries are as prolific as the blackberry flowers are this year

Jun 18, 2024: As Dickens almost said, of all the good old days in the good old year, fixture list day is one of my favourites Chelsea’s 2024/25 Premier League …

Jun 17, 2024: Allez les bleus! Don’t vote for the far right, French sports stars urge public www.theguardian.com/world/art…

Jun 17, 2024: I linux-ified my aging windows laptop over the weekend All good, in general, and I’ll be able to get another couple of years out of it I found that: I had to run the installer twice before it …

Jun 16, 2024: I couldn’t really see the point of playing so many long, aerial balls against a team so particularly big and so particularly physical as …

Jun 16, 2024: So far, so ok-ish The BBC guys seem to be wearing rose-tinted glasses ⚽

Jun 15, 2024: Three different players beginning with B have scored so far Broja has just got to score ⚽

Jun 15, 2024: From a bit in last week’s Times in which various writer-y types recommend books for the new Prime Minister (I hope) The last thing the next …

Jun 14, 2024: I got an alert from the BBC just now. It alerted me to the fact that I can now discover who Chesney Hawkes, Nina Nesbitt and Aitch think will win Euro …

Jun 13, 2024: Words I like - The Limerick Rake “Now there’s some say I’m foolish, there’s some say I’m wise, Though being fond of the …

Jun 12, 2024: Very much enjoyed reading, and simultaneously listening to, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner 35 minutes well spent Text at : …

Jun 12, 2024: I often find myself thinking, if not saying out loud, “He’s doing his best, but then so was Liz Truss”

Jun 12, 2024: I take a disproportionate amount of pleasure from surrounding a word with stars to make it bold

Jun 11, 2024: Shortcuts to fold and unfold text in VS Code #VsCode

Jun 11, 2024: Not the nicest of thoughts Microplastics found in every human semen sample tested in study - www.theguardian.com/environme…

Jun 9, 2024: Would’ve liked to have been at Stamford Bridge for SoccerAid again - it was a good afternoon out last time

Jun 9, 2024: I’m compiling a mental list of results to look up on July 5th Basildon and Billericay is one of them www.theguardian.com/politics/…

Jun 7, 2024: The dog, on instagram www.instagram.com/p/C7ZZPhW…

Jun 7, 2024: This was my May, in doodles

Jun 6, 2024: Congratulations, USA! 🏏 www.theguardian.com/sport/liv…

Jun 6, 2024: On days of remembrance, as well as gratitude for the sacrifices, I think of the people I knew who fought in the war, and to some extent my thoughts …

Jun 5, 2024: This is slightly weird I am a politics geek. I did politics at university, i listen to various politics podcasts, and i rarwly miss Peston or Question …

Jun 5, 2024: Which absolute idiot wrote this? $ThisTimeYesterday = $(Get-Date).AddHours(24)

Jun 4, 2024: Interesting episode about Chanira Bajracharya, who went from being designated as a goddess until puberty to being a financial analyst 🎙️ From a …

Jun 4, 2024: I hadn’t heard of David Fricke before - he’s very Cool, but in a really cool way Rolling Stone’s David Fricke plus signed Velvets …

Jun 3, 2024: i’m sorry to be a dreadful football snob, but for me the highlight of an international friendly is when the Chelsea player goes off uninjured ⚽

Jun 3, 2024: I like this, from Austin Kleon’s newsletter: As the poet Donald Hall wrote in Essays After Eighty, everybody who works with their brains all …

Jun 2, 2024: The work on Salisbury’s new riverside walk has been a nuisance, especially for the wonderful Elai restaurant, but its great that it’s open …

Jun 1, 2024: Only 13 more CLs and Chelsea will actually be level with Real Madrid ⚽

May 31, 2024: This Blinken chap has got something about him As we reported earlier, Russia has accused the White House of trying to “eliminate” a …

May 30, 2024: Another proposed entry for the next edition of The Meaning of Liff, this one for people of a certain age Lydiard Tregoze: the amount of time it takes …

May 30, 2024: Proposed entry for a future edition of The Meaning of Liff Lockeridge: the time spent staring into space, wondering what that password that you use …

May 29, 2024: #TodayILearned that tomatos were thought very poisonous in North America until a chap called Colonel Johnson publicly ate one in 1820 You are there - …

May 28, 2024: This has been one of my favourite reggae songs over the last couple of years #TodayILearned, via Record Collector magazine, that ‘Niney’ …

May 28, 2024: I’d give this article a solid 4.5 :) ‘Entire evenings of my life have been shaped by the internet’s review culture’: why we’re obsessed with …

May 28, 2024: Recommended TV: Avoidance The blurb says: “Newly separated Jonathan has no home, no friends and no ambition. Can a slightly useless single dad …

May 27, 2024: Bette Davis on Jackie DeShannon’s song, Bette Davis Eyes Bette Davis was also a fan. “She said the song made her cool to her grandchildren,” …

May 27, 2024: I may be wrong, but I think that if we’d had more working-class people in the House of Commons, and fewer professionals, then we’d have …

May 25, 2024: Alan Shearer finishes every other sentence with ‘and rightly so’….and rightly so. ⚽

May 25, 2024: Harold Wilson, Leonid Brezhnev, and 'all the football' This is fun, although the first bit is a tad unfair on Rishi, who does seem to be a proper football fan ⚽ This is on Harold Wilson and Leonid Brezhnev …

May 25, 2024: Hoping for wins for all the ‘S’s this weekend - Saints, Seltic and Siteh ⚽

May 24, 2024: I’ve been wondering whether I could come up with 47 reasons why the election’s on the 4/7…..I reckon I could do 20, but not 47

May 23, 2024: Music news. I much prefer Shakira’s latest LP to Beyonce’s latest LP I hope Beyonce won’t be too upset.

May 22, 2024: One guy I’ve not seen mentioned in relation to the vacancy at Chelsea

May 21, 2024: Hopefully I’ll be proved wrong when we win the Premiership at a canter next season……but letting Pochettino go seems like a daft …

May 21, 2024: It’s been a while since I posted a picture of HobNob. Here he is with the Giant, as depicted in the mural by my footballing friend Fred Fieber

May 20, 2024: I think it’s important, on a Monday morning, to set one’s goals for the working week. My goal for this week: stop spelling …

May 18, 2024: There was a Crass poster stuck up at Salisbury station yesterday - not seen that in a while I don’t know what ‘My Catholic Enemy’ is …

May 17, 2024: Listening to Rob Delaney on Sean Keaveny and Iszi Lawrence’s Your Place or Mine Delaney is clearly a comedy genius, but his sensibly or sense of …

May 17, 2024: The Most Grim-Faced of Churls - #AnyoneButArsenal “Only the most grim-faced of churls would refuse to recognise the progress Mikel Arteta’s outstanding Arsenal side have made this season.” …

May 17, 2024: Last night I was reminded that: jogging in the countryside, and being a man of a certain age who needs to pee fairly frequently, and it being …

May 15, 2024: Recommended podcast: Origin Story I’ve only discovered this podcast recently, but it seems very good The blurb says “[Lynsky and Dunt] “focus their attention on …

May 15, 2024: There was a recent story in the UK about a local council dropping apostrophes from road signs because “All punctuation will be considered but …

May 15, 2024: Possibly the most British thing ever…Midge Ure doesn’t have his OBE to hand, but he does have a framed copy of a mickey-taking Viz page, …

May 14, 2024: This is well worth a listen if you’re at all interested in football The main things I got were: refereeing is more art than science, often …

May 14, 2024: I’m not going to name the pub, but we had a Sunday roast at the weekend. They said they’d do a nut roast as a veggie option…it …

May 12, 2024: Today in the UK we are celebrating Oh-my-god-i’ve-somehow-forgotten-mothers-day-oh-no-i-haven’t-its-just-the-rest-of-the-world Day …

May 12, 2024: Thoughts on yesterday (includes swears) Malo Gusto made a big difference when he came on we need to get the ball to Mudryk earlier and oftener …

May 12, 2024: Our AI overlords may be about to take over and enslave us all, but I’m reassured that St Pancras still auto-corrects to St Pancreas

May 12, 2024: Kettering has a pretty station

May 12, 2024: Went through London today, and managed to see the statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras If I hadn’t gone through London I’d have gone …

May 11, 2024: Finished reading: The Innocents by Bridget Walsh 📚 This wasn’t entirely my cup of tea, but i did enjoy it. SPOILER ALERT - im not aure if it is …

May 11, 2024: I slept through what seems to have been the Lightshow of the Century last night, but it’s been lovely seeing social media awash with greens and …

May 11, 2024: Nice to see that the universe is beginning the celebrations for my 60th, albeit a couple of months early :)

May 9, 2024: Just tried connecting to IP address 15.0.4365.2….which, sadly, is not an IP address, it’s a SQLServer version #NeedMoreSleep

May 9, 2024: Out dog-walking this morning, and saw a mum and son walking to school, with the mum blowing bubbles as they walked along I don’t know whether …

May 8, 2024: One man’s proverb is another man’s ‘wtf?’

May 8, 2024: When someone else is screen-sharing, and I’m trying to point them to the right link or button or drop-down on some over-complicated screen, …

May 8, 2024: This is very good…on getting physical fitness into perspective “I always regarded fitness as my superpower. Something that I worked hard …

May 7, 2024: Room 101 was a meeting room #TodayILearned, via mastodonapp.uk/@Probertd… that “The original Room 101 was not in Broadcasting House as the BBC maintains but in 55 …

May 6, 2024: Was up in London over the weekend and went to see the now not-very-new statue of George Orwell, at the BBC I liked it very much - it reminded me of …

May 2, 2024: An amusing UK political story The bloke who made it compulsory to bring photo id to your polling station got turned away today… because …

May 2, 2024: We had to vote for a Police and Crime Commissioner today. It turns out every one of the candidates were for the former, and against the …

May 2, 2024: I’m slightly worried that Alfie Gilchrist is going to spontaneously combust at full time ⚽

May 2, 2024: 📷 photoblogging challenge #mbapr - unputdownable Somewhat negated by the fact that I have clearly put them down on the floor for the photo, but I …

May 1, 2024: I really enjoyed all the hometown photos in the photoblogging challenge. Call me nosey, but it’s nice to get a sense of where everyone is. Thank …

May 1, 2024: This was my April, in #SketchNotes From top left to bottom right Guinesses in the Wig and Quill 🍺 studs in the Achilles ⚽ first Old Sarum run of the …

Apr 30, 2024: 📷 #mbapr photo-blogging challenge - hometown I’m not 100% sure whether this is the photo I took, but if not it’s very similar. The Giant …

Apr 30, 2024: 🎙️ Podcast episode in which A.J. Jacobs tries, and largely fails,to live day without plastic www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/…

Apr 29, 2024: 📷 #mbapr photo-blogging challenge - drift I’ve got a vague feeling I’ve seen flowers like this described as a …

Apr 28, 2024: #TodayILearned that ‘scarper’ is rhyming slang, derived from Scapa Flow, rhyming with ‘go’….at least according to the …

Apr 28, 2024: This podcast episode includes my favourite tale of quintessential British upper middle classness A young Hugh Laurie asks whether his father can …

Apr 28, 2024: I got a bit damp last night marshalling for the Salisbury Hospice Midnight Walk.Terrific event though- congratulations to everyone who did it

Apr 27, 2024: Only saw the last half hour, but that half hour was a great Chelsea performance ⚽

Apr 27, 2024: Karaoke doesn’t half make you appreciate professional singers 🎵

Apr 26, 2024: Football has come a long way since ‘Ron Manager’ ⚽ I “created an animation with my kids to explore how the mind works, emphasising …

Apr 26, 2024: This week the powers that be decided to stick with Ofsted’s 4-point scale of assessing schools - outstanding, good, requires improvement and …

Apr 26, 2024: I’ve been to the theatre a few times since COVID, but I’ve not really managed to get involved in the same way I used to, apart from …

Apr 26, 2024: I was standing just now next to someone who stank of cigarette smoke I’ve never been a smoker, and I used to hate the smell, but for me …

Apr 24, 2024: There are days when the notion that exercise is good for you is totally counter-intuitive. This is one of them. ⚽

Apr 24, 2024: “Drummers are like hockey goalies. No-one knows how to talk to them apart from other drummers” #TodayILearned how much of a drummer Karen …

Apr 24, 2024: I listened to this yesterday. It’s fascinating, ridiculous and disturbing, often at the same time 🎙️ The Rise Of QAnon - Fresh Air …

Apr 23, 2024: 📸 #mbapr photo-blogging challenge - dreamy This is from November 2022. It was a sound and light show in Salisbury Cathedral. It felt a bit like being …

Apr 23, 2024: In honour of it being Saint George’s Day, this is Ralph Mctell, the ‘Streets of London’s bloke, singing what should be our national …

Apr 22, 2024: 📸 #mbapr photo-blogging challenge - blue I couldn’t not pick something Chelsea-related for ‘blue’. ⚽ If you were to zoom in on this …

Apr 22, 2024: Always stressful watching Child 2 play 🏀

Apr 22, 2024: I enjoyed The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore 📚, although I maybe don’t have a full appreciation of the place of Wonder Woman in …

Apr 22, 2024: #TodayILearned the phrase ‘gish gallop’. It’s means to create a deluge of rubbish in argument, to overwhelm your opponent Mehdi …

Apr 20, 2024: 📸 #MbApr Winter Solstice 2010, in the dawn’s early light, when all was ice and snow

Apr 20, 2024: #TodayILearned that Richard Whittington really was apprenticed to someone called Sir Ivo FitzWaryn and married his daughter Alice (For the benefit of …

Apr 20, 2024: #TodayILearned that the TV audience that is most disproportionately Labour voting is Taskmaster, followed by Rupaul’s Drag Race, and Big Brother …

Apr 19, 2024: When I’m the first in a one-to-one Teams meeting, and the other person is late, so there’s nothing to do but stare into …

Apr 19, 2024: There’s a photo of a Salisbury road sign in the Guardian today I’m thinking about resurrecting my website on the meanings of …

Apr 18, 2024: #OnThisDay in 1930, which was Good Friday, the BBC News Announcer announced, in the evening bulletin, that ‘There is no news’ and then …

Apr 18, 2024: I enjoyed this combination of headline and photo - Harry Kane reacts to knocking Arsenal out of the Champions League Arsenal’s season seems to …

Apr 17, 2024: This is lovely Frank Cottrell-Boyce talking about how the Queen jumped out of a helicopter for the 2012 Opening Ceremony 🎙️ When the Queen …

Apr 17, 2024: Chelsea's pre-penalty playground squabble dissected by The Athletic I thought this was amusing The Athletic has a typically nerd-level-detail bit about Cole Palmer’s wonder goal on Monday Branthwaite lunges …

Apr 16, 2024: I got 11 out of 16 Liz Truss quiz: did she really say that in her book? Can you guess which things Liz Truss actually claimed in her book and which …

Apr 15, 2024: #TodayILearned that Chris Spedding, who produced the Cramps, and possibly the Sex Pistols, and had a hit with MotorBikin' was also one of the Wombles …

Apr 14, 2024: Arsenal, Liverpool, and Tottenham all lost. I just need a Chelsea win tomorrow night and my happiness will be complete🙏🙏⚽ no

Apr 14, 2024: I had a lovely day out going to Saint Mary’s yesterday It reminded me that, when Child Two was in Brazil, his friends there had never heard of …

Apr 12, 2024: Todays browser wallpaper is pleasantly familiar - I’ve not seen Pulteney Bridge from that angle

Apr 12, 2024: I’ve been doing this, after a fashion, for a few years…but I didn’t know ‘weeknotes’ were a thing. I’ve not read …

Apr 12, 2024: “At this point, I’m pretty sure, that if I lost my .zsh_history I probably wouldn’t be able to do my job anymore. Most of the …

Apr 12, 2024: This used to be the shop next door to the house I grew up in Then it was ‘Spire Models’ And now it’s ‘Pi e Ode’ …

Apr 11, 2024: I keep looking at my phone and seeing that Strava is open Either I’m opening it by accident, or my phone is nagging me to stop being so ruddy …

Apr 11, 2024: A good article about xz and open source and ‘source-available’ companies The threat to open source comes from within

Apr 10, 2024: Interesting point in this, at least for politics nerds like myself Famously, JFK performed better in the Presidential debates than Nixon, according to …

Apr 10, 2024: It’s clearly not the main point of my friend Tom’s podcast, but #TodayILearned that ‘Kosovo’ is derived from ‘Kosovo …

Apr 10, 2024: Fiona Wilson for PM! “Fictional Labour frontbencher better known than real ones, survey finds Fiona Wilson was known to 47% of respondents, with …

Apr 9, 2024: Today’s newly-acquired superpower is remembering that, in vim, ‘*’ jumps you to the next occurrence of the word the cursor is on. …

Apr 9, 2024: I’ve very much enjoyed everyone’s thoughts about, and photos of, the eclipse. Thank you.

Apr 8, 2024: Chiming podcasts and the importance of any other business I like it when un-related things chime. In this instance, it’s two podcast episodes that I listened to last week The first tells of a minutes …

Apr 7, 2024: Achievemt unlocked. Wetherspoons breakfast and Toby Carvery, on the same day If you keep believing your dreams can come true

Apr 5, 2024: April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 5: Serene I took this a couple of weeks ago All around is chaos and flood, but Daffodil is serenely doing …

Apr 5, 2024: #TodayILearned that the first known use of the word ‘celebrity’ was by Geoffrey Chaucer, translating someone I didn’t catch the name …

Apr 4, 2024: I’d buy this as a t-shirt, or a mug, or a tattoo, or something ⚽😃😃😃

Apr 4, 2024: This isn’t perfect, in that it doesn’t cope with the ‘nd’ in ‘2nd’, bit it’s good enough A vim mapping to …

Apr 3, 2024: I don’t really play vinyl any more, but the card it came in gives me a big hit of nostalgia #mbapr Micro.blog photo challenge

Apr 3, 2024: #TodayILearned that to comment out the currently selected text in VS Code you can do Ctrl + / itsfoss.com/comment-m…

Apr 2, 2024: Neil Young is on Spotify. I bought this as a CD, but the thing wouldn’t play. When I got Spotify, he had withdrawn his music, for which I …

Mar 30, 2024: Liz Truss and Brian Clough I’ve always enjoyed unusual political metaphors - for a while I collected and tweeted a #BrexitMetaphorOfTheDay, possibly the only thing I …

Mar 30, 2024: The thing I find slightly tricky with non-fiction audio books is that it’s easy to lose track of headings, sub-heading and changes of direction …

Mar 30, 2024: I rather half-heartedly collect old postcards of Salisbury and Stonehenge There are a few different cards, none of which I’ve ever bought, of …

Mar 29, 2024: #TodayILearned that the first Beatle’s concert in the United States was at Boneyard Bocce Ball Club in Benton, Illinois. The first Beatles …

Mar 28, 2024: Good podcast: The Hated and the Dead The blurb says: “Kissinger said that ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad name. Each week, a guest and I discuss the …

Mar 28, 2024: ‘Angertainment’ is a great, and useful, word ‘It got vile very quickly’: how Alex Jones turned a tragedy into a battleground

Mar 28, 2024: I don’t think I’m going to move off of pinboard, but raindrop.io looks neat raindrop.io/pro/buy

Mar 28, 2024: I ❤️ the NHS part 103 I’ve been fixed up after a spot of comedy goalkeeping earlier in the week

Mar 28, 2024: Annual-ish tweet/toot/post to say I think it’s amazing that Oxford and Cambridge have both reached the Boat Race final again I have chips on …

Mar 28, 2024: Harry Houdini and the Barrel of Tetley's #TodayILearned that, when he was in Leeds, Houdini was sponsored by Tetley’s Bitter to perform his ‘escaping from a locked milk churn full …

Mar 27, 2024: #TodayILearned that the Galway Girl in Steve Earle’s song, but not in Ed Sheeran’s song, is called Joyce Redmond, and she plays the …

Mar 27, 2024: “As Mr. Pickwick beautifully observes, it has somehow or other happened, from time immemorial, that many of the best and ablest philosophers, …

Mar 25, 2024: 9 months until Christmas. 🎄🎅

Mar 25, 2024: How to continuously run a set of Pester tests from the commandline while ($(get-date).hour -lt 19) {invoke-pester .\tests-folder\*.tests.ps1 -output …

Mar 25, 2024: ”A year ago the Beatles were known only to patrons of Liverpool pubs. Today there isn’t a Britisher who doesn’t know their names, and …

Mar 23, 2024: Currently reading: The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim; Kevin Behr; George Spafford 📚 My main learning so far, is i really, really want to kill Erik. …

Mar 21, 2024: #TodayILearned that: Initialisms are made from the first letter (or letters) of a string of words, but can’t be pronounced as words themselves (e.g. …

Mar 21, 2024: How to set default parameters for other people's Powershell cmdlets Not exactly #TodayILearned because I vaguely remember learning that you can do this, but had never got around to doing so. This is how you can set a …

Mar 19, 2024: As an ex-resident, I love this, from Sara Pascoe: “i live in Lewisham, which is brilliant. If you haven’t been there just go south-east …

Mar 19, 2024: #TodayILearned that a ‘wolf tone’ is “an undesirable phenomenon that occurs in some bowed-string instruments…. It happens …

Mar 18, 2024: To save you looking…..I’m not a member :) “Garrick Club’s men-only members list reveals roll-call of British establishment” …

Mar 17, 2024: I was sure Jeremy Clarkson knew the answer to the last question on Who Wants to be Millionaire and I’m pretty sure he raised his eyebrows when …

Mar 17, 2024: Really enjoyed the Bath Half today. Bath is as lovely place…not as good as Salisbury though, obviously Huge thanks to organizers and volunteers …

Mar 13, 2024: #TodayILearned that the lyric is “You don’t have to say you love me Just be close at hand” …not ”You don’t have to say …

Mar 13, 2024: Mark Steel’s impersonation of George Galloway is worth this year’s license fee on its own 🎙️ The News Quiz

Mar 13, 2024: One of the odd things about being a year behind in my podcasts is listening to people and knowing what happened in their lives over the next 12 months …

Mar 13, 2024: Four men discussing a threat against a woman MP but not letting her speak is not great …

Mar 13, 2024: I’m wondering whether Google will soft-pedal their ‘best take’ ads after the recent royal kerfuffle

Mar 13, 2024: R.I.P. Freddie. Two years gone. So very sad BBC News - Freddie Fontete-Jones' mother backs anti-violence campaign

Mar 12, 2024: Saw this on Facebook…..I’m not a huge fan of Fleetwood Mac, but this happened about a 15 minutes walk from where I live, and I really …

Mar 12, 2024: I found this recording of a thing I was at just 43 years ago - Killing Joke playing in Trafalgar Square. Very atmospheric . The band were very …

Mar 11, 2024: #TodayILearned that Charlie, Ronnie and Reggie Kray got £255,000 from the 1990 film 📺📽️🎙️ The selling of the Krays: how two mediocre criminals created …

Mar 11, 2024: I need to decide whether I’m going to use $SplatParams or $SplatParameters….and then get that tattoo-ed on the inside of my eyelids or …

Mar 11, 2024: Watching a Word in Your Attic video which features a vaguely disappointing David Bowie Monopoly set I was thinking you could make a good, slightly …

Mar 11, 2024: Being an Elvis nerd of many years standing, in the normal run of the things I don’t often come across any new Presley trivia….but …

Mar 8, 2024: I got an email about HIMSS24. It stands for ' Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society 2024'….and I’m sure it’s …

Mar 7, 2024: It’s a beautiful thing

Mar 7, 2024: I really enjoyed G’Wed Like a mixture of Inbetweeners, Derry Girls and Grange Hill, but ruder, and Scousier Worth putting up with the ITVx …

Mar 7, 2024: Setting up a file-specific (not filetype-specific) colorscheme in vim Setting up a file-specific (not filetype-specific) colorscheme in vim is a two step process. First, you need a ‘modeline’[^1] in the file …

Mar 6, 2024: #TodayILearned that the word ‘cockamamie’ is possibly related to ‘decalcomania’ which has to do with ‘decals’ - …

Mar 5, 2024: I’m putting together a chronology of stuff thats happened and stuff i’ve done, or been to..and i enjoyed memories of the Elephant Fayre …

Mar 5, 2024: #TodayILearned that the passengers in the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ got $5,000 compensation for lost luggage, a refund for the price of …

Mar 5, 2024: Hoping everyone has a super Tuesday

Mar 4, 2024: #TodayILearned that the 1967 Beatles Christmas record was produced by Kenny Everett Danny Baker - tracing the Beatles through their Christmas record

Mar 1, 2024: The Spotify graphic for Neil Diamond is a bit ‘1984’ 🎵

Mar 1, 2024: There’s something particularly sad about the death of one half of a double act

Feb 29, 2024: The stations on this line sound like they should be in the Lord of the Rings

Feb 29, 2024: #TodayILearned that Cinderella’s slippers may have been squirrel fur (‘vair’) rather than glass (‘verre’) …

Feb 29, 2024: This is definitely better than the view from the M5

Feb 29, 2024: Sir Keir/Kier Starmer needs to be Prime Minister for at least 10 years for me to have any hope of me spelling him with any confidence, or even with …

Feb 29, 2024: When Kier Starmer gets on the blower and asks me what he should do in government, I shall tell him to make February the 29th a Bank Holiday It’s …

Feb 29, 2024: #TodayILearned the phrase "cheese it-the cops!" #TodayILearned the phrase cheese it-the cops! “A warning that the police were coming. “Cheese” might be a variant of “cease.” It might also …

Feb 29, 2024: If you squint hard enough, and use your imagination, you can just about make out the ruins of Sherbourne Old Castle, which belonged to Sir Walter …

Feb 28, 2024: #TodayILearned that one way of getting a list of data available from Microsoft Graph API is to type ‘graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/user… into …

Feb 27, 2024: I bought an old postcard of my chums from Salisbury Museum - the Giant and Hobnob. I’m just about old enough to have seen them going through the …

Feb 27, 2024: Agree with virtually every word of this A more sympathetic take on Chelsea’s defeat #cfc #ChelseaFC ⚽

Feb 27, 2024: Vim commands to write out parameter list Executive summary :) For each line 0 D PP From the colon prompt: %s/^ */ write-dbg "` %s/ *\$/: <\$ %s/$/>" %s/,//g The gory details …

Feb 27, 2024: #TodayILearned that in 1929, the USSR replaced the 7 day week with a 5 day week, with a fifth of the workforce resting on any given day This was a …

Feb 26, 2024: Lee Anderson MP thinks that Sadiq Khan is “controlled by Islamists” I think Lee Anderson is controlled by idiots …

Feb 25, 2024: That was a shame….could have easily gone the other way. We’ll be back⚽

Feb 24, 2024: I just saw Wicked Little Lies….absolutely adored it. It won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, but probably my favourite film so far this …

Feb 24, 2024: We had a lovely, long lunch yesterday at the Lahore Kebab House, just off the Commercial Road lahore-kebabhouse.com

Feb 21, 2024: On 10cc I listened to the Word in your Ear podcast about 10cc and it occurred to me that I really like one of their number ones, and really, really, really …

Feb 21, 2024: #TodayILearned that Lloyd Cole, of the Commotions, and Perfect Skin, is Chelsea 🎵⚽ youtu.be/vg9tlux7e…

Feb 20, 2024: I’ve been told that, ergonomically, the top of your monitor should be level with your eyes. I’m sure this is good advice, but I’m …

Feb 20, 2024: I think my work laptop is being converted to Windows 11 I think ‘trepidatious’ is the word for how I’m feeling right now

Feb 20, 2024: Watched Catch Me if You Can. I really enjoyed it, and my enjoyment wasn’t at all marred by discovering that the ‘true story’ on …

Feb 19, 2024: The crocuses (croci?) are out

Feb 19, 2024: The Smiths' first album came out 40 years ago this week 🎵 40 years 🫨 www.instagram.com/reel/C3ho…

Feb 18, 2024: How to post to a test micro.blog from powershell Sorry about the formatting of this post…I’m having trouble getting markdown not to convert the url to markdown links, even within code …

Feb 18, 2024: How to post to micro.blog with powershell Get the token Go to the account page in micro.blog, scroll down to the bottom where there is ‘App tokens’ and click on the link which has …

Feb 17, 2024: So obviously I’m hoping for and expecting a win for Chelsea, but I’d settle for another 4-4, and if we did lose it would keep City on …

Feb 17, 2024: People who followed me on Twitter may remember this quote, which I tweeted both before and after people here were poisoned “When people ask me …

Feb 16, 2024: I finished Trigger Point last week. It’s a cracking show and ‘her off Line of Duty’ is very good. It was shame the way they used …

Feb 16, 2024: What I learned in 2018 (according to my twitter archive) Dec 18, 2018 #TodayILearned that (the) Buzzcocks' song ‘Ever Fallen In Love’ was inspired by a line from Guys and Dolls. And the sleeve …

Feb 16, 2024: #TodayILearned that for #Powershell’s Get-ADUser, using -identity will return an error: $ $ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop' $ try {Get-AdUser …

Feb 15, 2024: Listened to this discussion of Juan Peron. Interesting stuff EP67: Juan Perón The Hated and the Dead

Feb 15, 2024: My slightly late-in-the-day New Year’s Resolution is to use #Powershell’s Out-GridView more often and Format-Table less often

Feb 14, 2024: Terrible news Piece of London’s Jewish East End feared lost as Beigel Shop shuts

Feb 14, 2024: Listened to this 🎙️ Made me realise how little i know about Irish history Although tbf i dont know much about England in the eighteenth century either …

Feb 14, 2024: Saw this in the paper the other day. I think its a bit misleading in that whereas Jose, for example, inherited a great team, Poch has come in after a …

Feb 14, 2024: “No” is no to one thing. “Yes” is no to a lot of things. I’m not big on self-help-y type stuff, or the associated slogans, but I liked this: “No” is no to one thing. “Yes” is no to a lot of things. …

Feb 14, 2024: I love Irish folk music but I can’t get on with Lankum or John Francis Flynn or any of those. I wish I could I must be turning into an old git

Feb 14, 2024: I love the idea of Steve Wright travelling to New York, and just sitting in a hotel room for a week listening to local radio, picking up ideas🎙️ Not a …

Feb 14, 2024: What I Learned in 2019 (according to my Twitter archive) Nov 25, 2019 #TodayILearned that Tony Fitzgerald adopted the name ‘Christie’ after seeing a film starring Julie Christie BBC Radio WM - …

Feb 13, 2024: Watched Assault on Precinct 13 Quite enjoyed it. The soundtrack sounds a bit Kraftwerk-y which seems weird with the dated, 70s look of the …

Feb 13, 2024: Roll on Christmas! Gavin & Stacey to return for Christmas special after five years

Feb 12, 2024: I had access to Github Copilot over the weekend. I’ll type up some thoughts about it later….but in the meantime, I can say that …

Feb 12, 2024: Another injury at Chelsea.☹️ I dread to think what the injury list would have been like if we’d been in Europe, too I reckon I could’ve …

Feb 9, 2024: I don’t want any DDOS attacks, but I did like the idea of a toothbrush-based botnet ”Near as I can tell, a German reporter talking to someone at …

Feb 7, 2024: Do remember to keep your toothbrushes updated Millions of hacked toothbrushes used in Swiss cyber attack | The Independent 🦷

Feb 7, 2024: Charles Dickens on my hometown On the occasion of his 212th birthday, this is from Martin Chuzzlewit Mr Pinch had a shrewd notion that Salisbury was a very desperate sort of place; …

Feb 7, 2024: it’s one of those mornings when I’m doubting the wisdom of a 50-something continuing to play football with a lot of 20-somethings ⚽

Feb 6, 2024: i love this. Noddy Holder says he had more number one singles than yhe rest of the chaps in Slade because he was singing along at the side of the …

Feb 6, 2024: Function to return markdown link for a URL This function accepts a URL and returns a markdown link for the URL: function Get-MarkdownLinkForUrl { <# .SYNOPSIS Get the webpage, extract the …

Feb 6, 2024: “I look at it and think what an awful job I did retouching the horizon. It looks like I did it with a toothbrush” Sleeve designer Kosh on …

Feb 6, 2024: #TodayILearned that there’s a Coney Island in County Down, in the North of Ireland as well as the Coney Island near New York (I gave up …

Feb 4, 2024: What I learned in 2017 (according to my twitter archive) Dec 27, 2017 #TodayILearned that Morrissey is a cousin of Robbie Keane irishmusicdaily.com/blog/oasi… Dec 21, 2017 #TodayILearned that …

Feb 3, 2024: TodayILearned that the Egyptian pyramids were built by people doing something like National Service rather than slaves …

Feb 3, 2024: This is a great long read from the Guardian, and a great collection of photographs. I particularly like Stephen Twigg’s smirk, Liz Truss' …

Feb 2, 2024: #TodayILearned that Phil Bowdery, who was one of Mud’s roadies who did the “Tiger Feet” on Top of the Pops, is now executive president of Live …

Feb 1, 2024: #TodayILearned that “In the year 2000, the average house deposit was £9,865. In 2023, it was £62,500. To put things another way: 20 years ago, …

Jan 31, 2024: What I learned in 2016 (according to my twitter archive) Dec 23, 2016 #TodayILearned that Angelina Jolie has a Christopher Marlowe quotation as a tattoo goinswriter.com/austin-kl… via @jeffgoins 1 Nov …

Jan 31, 2024: There’s a chap in this bit in the Guardian who says American football is rigged so that Taylor Swift’s boyfriend gets to the Super Bowl …

Jan 30, 2024: The only thing more nostalgia-inducing than old TV adverts are TV adverts for companies you once worked for. Anyway, I got a big Proust-y rush from …

Jan 30, 2024: Some good news in the news [BBC News - Northern Ireland: Sinn Féin hails ‘day of optimism’ after DUP agrees return to power-sharing - BBC …

Jan 30, 2024: #TodayILearned that here are whole books about the Beatles in Bath, the Paul is Dead nonsense, and how John Lennon sold his soul I might describe this …

Jan 29, 2024: M’young friend Tom refers to Putin’s eventual successor as ‘he or she’ The idea that it might actually be a ‘she’ …

Jan 29, 2024: #TodayILearned that “With VS Code release 1.30 you can type Shift + Enter in the search box to add a newline character” Find and replace …

Jan 29, 2024: #TodayILearned that the first two lines of Billy Bragg’s A New England are taken from Simon and Garfunkel’s Leaves that are Green I was …

Jan 28, 2024: Spring hasn’t yet sprung….but it’s on its way in the Shire

Jan 28, 2024: Call me a nerdy pedant but the football pyramid.is shaped more like the Eiffel Tower than a pyramid, imho At best it’s a triangle rather than a …

Jan 27, 2024: I think I might struggle to score 73 points in 48 minutes even if I was alone on the court 🏀 Doncic equals fourth-highest NBA scoring total - …

Jan 26, 2024: Commentator just said there’s a battle developing between Sterling and Cash I don’t know how that works but someone should inform the …

Jan 25, 2024: Only eleven months to Christmas

Jan 25, 2024: I always hoped I’d get a cheque meant for poor old Matthew Perry, but sadly it never happened Tom Hollander says he received seven-figure …

Jan 24, 2024: As a constitution geek, I absolutely love this “Lord Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, should take questions from MPs at the “bar” of the house …

Jan 24, 2024: Chelsea FC are returning to Stamford Bridge North 😃⚽

Jan 23, 2024: Commentator just referred to cole Palmer as cole porter Well, did you ever? ⚽

Jan 23, 2024: Words of the day Before Elon Musk got his hands on twitter, I tweeted ‘my word of the day’ for the best part of a couple of years, I think. This is a list …

Jan 22, 2024: In which David Owen refers to the Department of Health and Social Security as ‘the Department of Stealth and Total Obscurity’ :) I’m …

Jan 22, 2024: This is good, from Austin Kleon’s newsletter: On the asshole who lives in our brains: “Were we to meet this figure socially, this accusatory …

Jan 21, 2024: There’s a book of the punk rock fanzine that was local to where I live. Something to ask Father Christmas for in a few months Vague book

Jan 21, 2024: Finished my run tonight and discovered I’d forgotten to press ‘Start’ in Strava. Some people have never experienced that feeling 🏃

Jan 20, 2024: I meant to post this while it was actually a hit….but Kylie Minogue’s Padam Padam always reminded me of the bit in the Buzzcocks song …

Jan 20, 2024: Haiku is terse verse

Jan 19, 2024: if the beatles used adele's naming system for their albums... Adele has so far used her age as the title of her LPs. So, her LPs have been called: 19 21 25 Using Paul’s age for the album title, I think …

Jan 19, 2024: I can only ever remember git add, commit, diff, rm and push...and I couldn't be bothered to rtfm (Confessions of a powershell numpty, #1) I don’t use git much, and I’m far too lazy to consult the docco so to find a command I’d probably used before I did this: hhh git | …

Jan 19, 2024: 20 House Points to whoever it was at Record Collector magazine who came up with the headline for their Abba feature: ‘That Was The Bleak That …

Jan 19, 2024: #TodayILearned that in YouTube, you can “press the comma key to go back one frame and the period key to go forward one frame.” This could …

Jan 18, 2024: The NHS is wonderful ‘Waddle like a penguin’: NHS shows how to walk safely in icy conditions

Jan 18, 2024: I worked at Sony at the time that HD telly was coming in, and I thought that a good cheese-y advertising slogan could be “It’s a high …

Jan 17, 2024: I did a one page ‘‘What is Powershell?’ slide I’m happy enough with it, but the penguin is probably too prominent. I was …

Jan 17, 2024: #TodayILearned that if you type a cryptic crossword clue into a search engine, you seem to typically get the answer….but more importantly you …

Jan 16, 2024: I don’t use the ‘Close Others’ option enough in VS Code….and I end up with a couple of dozen tabs

Jan 16, 2024: I really, relly want to stick with Poch….but could Jose be a latter day Dick Whittington, thrice mayor of Chelsea? ⚽ Jose Mourinho sacked as …

Jan 16, 2024: A year ago yesterday we went up to Stamford Bridge for the first Chelsea match since the death of Gianluca Vialli #ChelseaFC #cfc ⚽

Jan 15, 2024: The Telegraph breaks down its latest poll by constituency I don’t think it’s to be taken seriously, but it’s quite fun for the …

Jan 15, 2024: Dickens on the lamentable necessity of ghost stories I read this in Pickwick Papers. He’s describing pubs in The Borough. Great, rambling queer old places they are, with galleries, and passages, …

Jan 15, 2024: I very much like the phrase ‘the depths of winter’

Jan 15, 2024: #TodayILearned that Windows-. (i.e. the windows key and the full stop together) bring up all the emojis on Windows 😊

Jan 15, 2024: I’m hoping this means Chelsea aren’t being charged…but I’m not optimistic on this one ⚽ Everton and Forest charged with …

Jan 13, 2024: Chelsea v Fulham - thoughts Thoughts on today’s game Willian is still a good player ….but I’m glad he wasn’t at Arsenal credit where it’s …

Jan 13, 2024: I enjoyed Wonka last night. If Hugh Grant doesnt get an Oscar then there’s no point in Oscars

Jan 12, 2024: #TodayILearned that the ‘Naga’ in Naga Munchetty means ‘snake’ - she says her mum dreamt of snake when she was pregnant. It …

Jan 12, 2024: There is supposed to be a shortage of dart boards, after Luke Littler’s progress to the Darts Final. It wasn’t that long ago there was a …

Jan 11, 2024: Out running tonight. It was still Christmas-y in Salisbury Cathedral Close, which was lovely, but still flood-y along the Town Path, which was less so

Jan 11, 2024: Doing a sketch note about processing of joiners, movers and leavers (and inactives).

Jan 11, 2024: Marvellous news TFL considering installing fake steering wheels at front of DLR trains

Jan 11, 2024: #TodayILearned that to remove the two different timestamps I tend to use you can do this in Powershell # Strip YYMMDDHHMISS $ErrorText = $ErrorText …

Jan 11, 2024: After the Flood I very much agree with the Grauniad After the Flood is about how big global changes play out in microcosmic terms. The local councillor’s flummery …

Jan 10, 2024: Hello, world (again) After running a blog of some description on Bloglines, then Blogspot, then Wordpress at Bluehosts (boo!), then WordPress.com, …

May 26, 2023: Jakub Jares - Common Mistakes in Pester Tests Probably best to do Right Click, then Open in New Tab to make this legible

May 24, 2023: one-liner to create an excel changlog from git commit messages git log --pretty=format:%ad,%h,%an,%s $filename | convertfrom-csv -Header Date,HashThingy, Who, Comment | Export-Excel c:\temp\ChangeLog.xlsx …

Aug 8, 2022: Javascript bookmarklet to create markdown-style link This bookmarklet creates a markdown-style link for the current webpage javascript:function …

Jul 26, 2022: [IO.Directory]::EnumerateFiles vs. Get-ChildItem On my laptop, with a fairly random set of files, I found that [http://IO.Directory]::EnumerateFiles ….is a lot quicker than get-childitem …

Jan 16, 2022: Why Powershell

Jan 1, 2021: My $Myvimrc set nocompatible source $VIMRUNTIME/vimrc_example.vim source $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim behave mswin set guifont=Consolas:h12:cANSI syntax on colorscheme …

Jun 6, 2020: podcasts I listen to - some episodes I’ve split the list into three posts, depending on whether I listen religiously to every episode, or just most episodes, or whether I cherry …

Jun 6, 2020: podcasts I listen to - some episodes I’ve split the list into three posts, depending on whether I listen religiously to every episode, or just most episodes, or whether I cherry …

Feb 18, 2020: Hugo error: execute of template failed: template: _default/list.html:8:23: executing 'main' at <.Pages.Date.Reverse>: can't evaluate field Date in type page.Pages Got this: Building sites - WARN 2020/02/18 18:08:30 .File.Dir on zero object. Wrap it in if or with: {{ with .File }}{{ .Dir }}{{ end }} Built in …

Jan 11, 2020: Script to Setup Markdown Pages for All the Sketchnotes tbc

Jan 8, 2020: blog

Jan 8, 2020: linux Linux

Jan 8, 2020: other Other Anything that isn’t powershell, sqlserver or other stuff I’ve got as a category

Jan 8, 2020: powershell

Jan 8, 2020: sqlserver sqlserver and related

Jan 8, 2020: Adams, Ryan - Always On

Jan 8, 2020: Agarwal, Sunil - Clustered columnstore index

Jan 8, 2020: Bailey, James - Msrc, Packer, Powershell and Terraform

Jan 8, 2020: Banerjee - Amit -and - Agarwal - Sourabh - Sql - Azure

Jan 8, 2020: Barthel, Esther - Azure Automation

Jan 8, 2020: Bergmeister, Christoph - PSScriptAnalyzer

Jan 8, 2020: Berry, Glenn - Dr DMV part 3

Jan 8, 2020: Berry, Glenn - Dr DMV pt 1

Jan 8, 2020: Bertrand - Aaron -50 - Things - Developers - Should - Know -higher -res

Jan 8, 2020: Boulton, Nigel - Multi-threading in Powershell

Jan 8, 2020: Bourgon, Michael - Tracking changes - real time in your environment

Jan 8, 2020: Brasser, Jaap - ChatOps

Jan 8, 2020: Brasser, Jaap - Powershell, a one-trick unicorn

Jan 8, 2020: Brezis, Noam - SQL the bug talk

Jan 8, 2020: Cain, Robert, Ball, Bradley and Strate, Jason - Powershell and SQL

Jan 8, 2020: Chapman, tim - Troubleshooting like an Ms Engineer

Jan 8, 2020: Colas -gael -devops

Jan 8, 2020: Colas, Gael - Configuration management

Jan 8, 2020: Colas, Gael - Leverage Test Kitchen Develop Dsc

Jan 8, 2020: Cucen, Ebru - Powershell Module Lifecycle

Jan 8, 2020: Cucen, Ebru - Prompts And Customizations

Jan 8, 2020: Dave, Pinal - 7 tips

Jan 8, 2020: Davis, Robert L - Licensing SQL on VMs

Jan 8, 2020: Davis, Tony - Uncovering Sqlserver query problems with Executio

Jan 8, 2020: Ehrenmueller-Jensen, Markus - Simple rules for clear visualizations

Jan 8, 2020: Emad - Hash tables

Jan 8, 2020: Emmett, Ben - Stop your application killing database performanc

Jan 8, 2020: Fernandez, Argenis - Securing sql

Jan 8, 2020: Fritchey, Grant - 3 ways to identify long running queries

Jan 8, 2020: Fritchey, Grant - A partly cloudy future

Jan 8, 2020: Fritchey, Grant - AG Monitoring0002

Jan 8, 2020: Gardner, Chris - Module design

Jan 8, 2020: Glantser, Guy - From Xml to Json

Jan 8, 2020: Gossa, Mark - You can do anything with Powershell but should you

Jan 8, 2020: Hicks, Jeff - powershell v5

Jan 8, 2020: Hicks, Jeff - The ISE

Jan 8, 2020: Hicks, Jeff And Siddaway, Richard And Gavin, Lawrence - Whats New In Powershell V5

Jan 8, 2020: Higgins, Michael - Kemp Products Cloud Deployment Automation

Jan 8, 2020: Hirt, Allan - Availability Groups and Failover Instances

Jan 8, 2020: Hirt, Allan - The SQL Availability story on Linux

Jan 8, 2020: Hofman, Katja - AI and the world of Minecraft

Jan 8, 2020: Howlett, Martin - Powershell And Restful Apis

Jan 8, 2020: Inge-Larsen, Tom - Markdown, PlatyPs, mkdocs

Jan 8, 2020: Jares, Jakub - Legacy scrips and pester

Jan 8, 2020: Jelen, Bill - Mr Excels Favorite Tips and Tricks

Jan 8, 2020: Jones, Steve - A practical approach to version control for sql

Jan 8, 2020: Jones, Steve, Galbraith, Simon and Smith, Alexander - Let Your

Jan 8, 2020: Kamman, Andre - Deploy And Manage Ola Hallengrens Scripts With Powershell

Jan 8, 2020: Kehayias, Jonathan and Stellato, Erin - Extended Events

Jan 8, 2020: Kellenberger, Kathi - Sqlserver data compression

Jan 8, 2020: Klee, David - SQL-Virtualization-499

Jan 8, 2020: Knight, Brian - Tuning SSIS

Jan 8, 2020: Koesmarno, Julie - Powerview

Jan 8, 2020: Kogan, Dan - Data Warehousing with SQL and hAdoop

Jan 8, 2020: Kokkinos, Constantine and LeMaire Chrissy - Powershell loves Sqlserver

Jan 8, 2020: Komo, Darnadi - Sql 2014 Hybrid cloud

Jan 8, 2020: Korotkevitch, Dmitri - Sql Internals

Jan 8, 2020: Krebs, Daniel - Chef Habitat and Powershell

Jan 8, 2020: Krebs, Daniel - Chocolatey and powershell

Jan 8, 2020: Krebs, Daniel - Recap of Powershell and Devops Summit

Jan 8, 2020: Krebs, Daniel - VS Code and Powershell

Jan 8, 2020: Leach, Brandon - Log Shipping

Jan 8, 2020: Learning Tree - Technical Writing Introduction0020(1)

Jan 8, 2020: Leech, Guy - Trouble-shooting windows with Powershell

Jan 8, 2020: Lehrer, Christian - Powershell remoting

Jan 8, 2020: Lemaire, Chrissy - Simplifying Sqlserver Migrations With Powershell

Jan 8, 2020: LeMaire, Chrissy - Sql Migrations with Posh

Jan 8, 2020: Lemaire, Chrissy And Walz, Jon And Rottenberg, Hal - Powerscripting Podcast Episode312

Jan 8, 2020: Little, Kendra - Why did my clever index change backfire

Jan 8, 2020: Lopez, Pedro - SQL-2014-Changes-to-Query-Plans

Jan 8, 2020: Martin, John - Get sql server right first time

Jan 8, 2020: Martin, John - SQL Server Setup First Time

Jan 8, 2020: Martin, Mike - Azure and DSC

Jan 8, 2020: Martin, Mike - Getting Your Devops Operating

Jan 8, 2020: Mauri, Davide - Agile data warehouse

Jan 8, 2020: May, Jimmy - Columnstore indexes 2014

Jan 8, 2020: Medd, Jonathan - Ansible

Jan 8, 2020: Medd, Jonathan - devops

Jan 8, 2020: Medd, Jonathan - Going further with github

Jan 8, 2020: Medd, Jonathan - Google Cloud Powershell 101

Jan 8, 2020: Medd, Jonathan - Powershell And Different Types Of Data

Jan 8, 2020: Messina, Chris - Augmenting Conversations

Jan 8, 2020: Mitchell - Tim - S S I S

Jan 8, 2020: Mitchell, Allan - Realtime analytics

Jan 8, 2020: Mitchell, Brian - Polybase

Jan 8, 2020: Mitchell, Tim - SSIS

Jan 8, 2020: Moyle, Jim - Posh Gui

Jan 8, 2020: Murawski, Steven - Desired State Configuration

Jan 8, 2020: Murawski, Steven - DSC

Jan 8, 2020: Nocentino, Anthony - Linux fundamentals for the sql admin

Jan 8, 2020: Ozar, Brent - How to think like the Sql Server Engine

Jan 8, 2020: Ozar, Brent - who needs a DBA

Jan 8, 2020: Ozar, Brent and Darling, Erik - Last Seasons Performance Tuning Techniques

Jan 8, 2020: Penny, Matt - Confluence Shortcuts

Jan 8, 2020: Plesner-Jacobsen, Martin and Shelemin, Alexander - Veeam and sql deep-dive

Jan 8, 2020: Plevsner, Martin and Shelemin Alexander - Veeam and SQL - Always On

Jan 8, 2020: Porteous, Craig - PowerBI and powershell

Jan 8, 2020: Porteous, Craig and Broadwith, Paul - Powershell Standards Agency

Jan 8, 2020: Pot'Vin, Kellyn - DevOps and the Agile DBA

Jan 8, 2020: Potvin-Gorman, Kellyn - Devops and the agile dba

Jan 8, 2020: powershell and rundeck

Jan 8, 2020: Prajdic, Mladen - Optimizing database access and diving into dot Net

Jan 8, 2020: Presley, Chris, Weiss, Richard and Chaves, Warner - Running Sql Server on Linux

Jan 8, 2020: Procida, Daniele - What Nobody Tells You About Documentation

Jan 8, 2020: Purnell, Craig - the professional networking toolbox

Jan 8, 2020: Ricken, Uwe - Analyzing SQLServer Wait Stats

Jan 8, 2020: Robinson, Jay - A guided tour of the sqlclient namespace

Jan 8, 2020: Russo, Marco - Create a PowerBI Solution in one day

Jan 8, 2020: Scruggs, Richard - Getting Started with Sql Server Compliance Auditing

Jan 8, 2020: Sewell, Rob - Making Powershell useful for your team

Jan 8, 2020: Sewell, Rob - PowerBI0003

Jan 8, 2020: Shaw, Chris and Morehouse, John - SQL 2014 migration

Jan 8, 2020: Shaw, Gail - Statistics, Heuristics and Raw Estimations

Jan 8, 2020: Siddaway, Richard - 2018 Keynote

Jan 8, 2020: Sirosh, Joseph - Augmented Decisions

Jan 8, 2020: Sketchnote_visual_vocabulary

Jan 8, 2020: Skinner, Simon - Sql and System Center

Jan 8, 2020: Snover, Jeffrey - Desired State Configuration Day Two

Jan 8, 2020: Snover, Jeffrey - MVA DSC Day 1

Jan 8, 2020: Stad, Sander - Automate Glenn Berrys Dmv Script With Powershell

Jan 8, 2020: Stirrup, Jen - BI Toolkit

Jan 8, 2020: Stirrup, Jen - Data democratization

Jan 8, 2020: Stuewe, Mickey - The Silent Killers Lurking in Your Schema0013

Jan 8, 2020: Stuewe, Mickey - Tsql-habits

Jan 8, 2020: Thomas, Russ - Stress

Jan 8, 2020: Trinidad, Max - The Essential Powershell On Error Trapping

Jan 8, 2020: Tripp, Kimberly - Execution and Plan Cache

Jan 8, 2020: Turkeslan, Selzin - Migration to SQL Azure

Jan 8, 2020: Tuson, Toni-anne, MacLellan, Stuart, Stirrup, Jen - Implementing hybrid acrchitectures

Jan 8, 2020: van Bobaeys, Damien - powershell and rundeck

Jan 8, 2020: Van Der Leek, Rob And Obrenovic, Zeljko - Building Maintainable Software For Sustainable Business Growth

Jan 8, 2020: Van Robaeys, Damien - Powershell with Rundeck

Jan 8, 2020: Vanover, Rick - Advanced VM Backup and Recovery - Veeam

Jan 8, 2020: Vanover, Rick - Veeam and SQL - Backup and Recovery

Jan 8, 2020: Vargas, Luis - Always On

Jan 8, 2020: Verloy, Filip - Automate the boring out of backup - Rubrik

Jan 8, 2020: Verloy, Filip - Rubrik

Jan 8, 2020: Watson, Hamish - Overcoming fearops by adopting devops

Jan 8, 2020: Webb, Joe - Hiring the right people

Jan 8, 2020: Weston, Richard - How not to use plaster

Jan 8, 2020: White, Allen - Baselining Sql with Powershell

Jan 8, 2020: Why Powershell PC

Jan 8, 2020: Wild, Martin - Sqlserver on linux - dont be afraid

Jan 8, 2020: Williams, Dave and Saxby, Antony - SQL 2016

Jan 8, 2020: Winterboer, Lynn - Writing agile user stories and slicing epics for DW-BI teams

Jan 8, 2020: Woodward, JL - keynote0003

Jan 8, 2020: Wragg, Mark - Cross Platform Development

Jan 8, 2020: Yates, Ryan - Whats New In Powershell

Jan 8, 2020: Yungman, Matan - MongoDb for the Sql professional

Jan 8, 2020: Zacharias, Melody - Distributed Replay

Jan 6, 2020: Colas, Gael - Configuration Management Dos and Don'ts

Jan 4, 2020: Yet Another Getting Started With Hugo Post Install hugo PS C:\matt> choco install hugo -confirm Output: Chocolatey v0.10.15 [Pending] Removing incomplete install for 'hugo' Installing the …

Dec 31, 2019: What I learned about powershell in 2019 For ease of finding, I’m separated out powershell learnings from general trivia Dec 20, 2019 #TodayILearned that -ExcludeProperty only works if …

Dec 2, 2019: hello world (for the fifth time) Bonjour tout-le-monde!

May 8, 2019: Pester script parameter passing not working Problem I was trying to parameterize a Pester script. The script looked like this: param ( [string]$ComputerName, [string]$IPAddress ) write-dbg …

May 8, 2019: Pester script parameter passing not working Problem I was trying to parameterize a Pester script. The script looked like this: param ( [string]$ComputerName, [string]$IPAddress ) write-dbg …

Dec 31, 2017: What I learned about powershell in 2017, according to my twitter archive Nov 24, 2017 #TodayILearned that: $Content = get-content somefile.txt | out-string …preserves the line breaks in the text file via …

Nov 14, 2017: Get day of week number in cmd (dos) This is a slight tweak to code at: …

Nov 14, 2017: Get day of week number in cmd (dos) This is a slight tweak to code at: …

Dec 31, 2016: What I learned about powershell in 2016, according to my twitter archive Sep 27, 2016 #TodayILearned you have to: export-modulemember -alias * -function * to define aliases in a Powershell module …

Jun 21, 2016: pester: Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Actual' because it is an empty string. I’m just getting started with Pester and I got this error Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Actual' because it is an empty string. at line: 18 …

Jun 21, 2016: pester: Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Actual' because it is an empty string. I’m just getting started with Pester and I got this error Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Actual' because it is an empty string. at line: 18 …

Jan 26, 2016: extracting post details from wordpress xml dump with powershell Get the xml into a variable [xml]$xmla = get-content D:\repair_websites\salisburywiltshireandstonehenge.wordpress.2015-10-03.xml Extract the details …

Jan 11, 2016: powershell equivalent of linux 'ps -aux | sort -k3n' I’m not entirely sure how I managed to not find out about Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfProc_Process before now. I think the ‘sort …

Jan 11, 2016: powershell equivalent of linux 'ps -aux | sort -k3n' I’m not entirely sure how I managed to not find out about Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfProc_Process before now. I think the ‘sort …

Nov 20, 2015: 'properties' option is greyed out for ssrs instance when you right-click in ssms To adjust some of the properties of a SQL Server Reporting Services instance , for example, how long the execution logs are retained, or whether or …

Nov 20, 2015: if the beatles used adele's naming system for their albums... Adele has so far used her age as the title of her LPs. So, her LPs have been called: 19 21 25 Using Paul’s age for the album title, I think …

Nov 19, 2015: powershell error: 'Cannot perform operation because operation 'ReportWrongProviderType' is invalid' I got the following error from a Powershell script I wrote to run SQLExress backups on a remote server. The script runs on a Standard Edition server …

Nov 11, 2015: how to see veeam backups in powershell This allows you to see veeam backups for a specified server over the last week. The code Enter-PSSession yourveeamserver Add-PSSnapin VeeamPSSnapIn …

Nov 10, 2015: list AD users in powershell This shows all the users with ‘dba’ in their username. Obviously you could leave out the filter clause altogether to get a complete list …

Nov 3, 2015: how to get a list of images uploaded to wordpress.com website Go to your media library and switch to the ‘List View’ Then under ‘Screen Options’ bump up the ‘Number of items per …

Nov 3, 2015: how to get a list of images uploaded to wordpress.com website Go to your media library and switch to the ‘List View’ Then under ‘Screen Options’ bump up the ‘Number of items per …

Nov 2, 2015: listing database roles granted to database users in sqlserver The output from this is unlovely, but it does the trick for the time being. $DatabaseUsers = dir …

Sep 18, 2015: Powershell function to get Sqlserver errorlog recent lines I’ve started knocking up a function to return the last few lines of a sqlserver errorlog. This is a little way from being finished….but …

Jun 16, 2015: how to edit lots of files and keep a log First I built a list of files FileList=dir -recurse C:\temp\folderx -Attributes !Directory | ? name -notlike '*exe' | ? name -notlike '*dll'| select …

Jun 9, 2015: getting a list of aliases ordered by the aliasee This is fairly trivial…and I’ve no idea if ‘aliasee’ is a real word or not, but I found this quite useful today: get-alias | …

Apr 16, 2015: how to rdp to several desktops one after the other For reasons that aren’t necessarily relevant, I wanted to use Remote Desktop to visit a list of servers1. I tried doing this: foreach ($S in …

Mar 30, 2015: how to extract tweets about... This was the Powershell code I used to create the all the podcasts I’ve ever tweeted about post. I downloaded the tweets from Twitter itself - I …

Feb 25, 2015: show sql errorlog messages since a specified date This almost speaks for itself…but it might be worth noting that: I’m only interrogating the latest file here it’s a teeny bit …

Feb 17, 2015: system databases not included in powershell sqlserver provider 'databases' folder I hadn’t noticed this before. If you do a dir listing of the databases for an instance within the Powershell Sqlserver provider, it …

Feb 4, 2015: penflip markdown cheatsheet This is extracted from Adam Pritchard’s Markdown Cheatsheet. It’s what I would see as the useful bits….but of course my useful bits …

Jan 27, 2015: sql server 2005 install hangs at 'Removing Backup Files' I’m installing sqlserver 2005, and it seemed to hang towards the end of the installation. The installer hung while it was installing …

Jan 27, 2015: sql server 2005 install hangs at 'Removing Backup Files' I’m installing sqlserver 2005, and it seemed to hang towards the end of the installation. The installer hung while it was installing …

Dec 12, 2014: Problem: php commenting out not working in wordpress This was a bit of a ‘Duh!’ moment. I use the following to ‘comment out’ chunks of Wordpress pages that I’m still working …

Sep 26, 2014: How to do a sql server equivalent of Oracle 'set feedback on' I haven’t been able to find a T-sql equivalent of the Oracle ‘set feedback on’, which outputs a line telling you how many rows have …

Sep 1, 2014: How to generate the t-sql to disable all your triggers This seems to work: SELECT 'disable trigger ' + USER_NAME(trig.schema_id) + '.' + trig.name + ' on ' + USER_NAME(tab.schema_id) + '.' + …

Sep 1, 2014: How to generate the t-sql to disable all your triggers This seems to work: SELECT 'disable trigger ' + USER_NAME(trig.schema_id) + '.' + trig.name + ' on ' + USER_NAME(tab.schema_id) + '.' + …

May 21, 2014: How to use t-sql to show SSRS permissions I’m not great at T-sql, and I know that cursors are unfashionable in Microsoft world, but this gives me the output I want, as below: …

May 19, 2014: Problem: ssrs error: 'System.Data.OracleClient requires Oracle client software version 8.1.7 or greater' A quick post on a quick fix. I installed Sql Server Reporting Services 2008 R2 on the report server, then installed Oracle client 11.2.0.4. I copied …

May 19, 2014: Problem: ssrs error: 'System.Data.OracleClient requires Oracle client software version 8.1.7 or greater' A quick post on a quick fix. I installed Sql Server Reporting Services 2008 R2 on the report server, then installed Oracle client 11.2.0.4. I copied …

Mar 6, 2014: Powershell pattern matching to check if a string is hex I’ve been playing with pattern matching in Powershell. I was trying to use ‘-match’ to ‘Check if the string is a hexadecimal …

Nov 14, 2013: notes about wordpress version of salisburyandstonehenge.net This page is a bit of documentation for how I do stuff on the multifarious websites that I’ve perpetrated over the years. These are very much …

Oct 11, 2013: Problem: SSIS: 'Hresult: 0x800703E6 Description: Invalid access to memory location' Problem came up trying to connect to a remote Oracle source: Started: 12:03:03 Error: 2013-10-09 12:03:03.84 Code: 0xC0202009 Source: Description: …

Jul 31, 2013: 24Hop Notes Clustering Conundrum - Allan Hirt Running some HA classes in Europe. Loose definition - networked servers. Used in different contexts in sqlserver - …

Jul 3, 2013: Problem: 'Access is denied. [0x80070005]' when changing sql server agent login Trying to change the sql server agent to run as a non-admin user, I couldn’t get Sql Server Agent to work without giving it administrator …

Jul 3, 2013: Problem: 'Access is denied. [0x80070005]' when changing sql server agent login Trying to change the sql server agent to run as a non-admin user, I couldn’t get Sql Server Agent to work without giving it administrator …

Dec 7, 2012: Mis-spelling in Powershell This was spectacularly incompetent even by my high standards of incompetence. It illustrates that if you spell the name of a column incorrectly in …

Sep 25, 2012: How to report mp3 tags in Powershell I’m slowly getting to grips with Powershell. # ----------------------------------------------------------------- # Script - Catalog-MP3s.ps1 # # …

Nov 9, 2011: SQLServer Maintenance Cleanup Task not working I set up a Sqlserver Maintenance Cleanup Task, but couldn’t get it to delete the appropriate backup files. The log looked like this: Maintenance …

Oct 13, 2011: Sqlserver Management Studio I spent a couple of lunchtimes going through Sqlserver Management Studio’s ‘Object Explorer’ panel, typing up all the different …

Jul 26, 2011: Nid(dbnewid) hangs I had to run nid (also known as dbnewid) on a database as part of a test refresh at the weekend. This changes the dbid of the database. Out of sheer …

Apr 19, 2010: Mucking about with analytic functions I’ve never really used the analytic functions in anger, so consequently I don’t really have the skills at my fingertips. By way of …

Feb 24, 2010: ORA-01552: cannot use system rollback segment..... Another post that’s unlikely to be all that useful….but you never know. As per a couple of my previous posts, I’m re-doing my …

Mar 1, 2009: Convert an html table to excel spreadsheet A quick and dirty post for a quick and dirty technique that I used to get the Oracle CPU Database Risk Matrix into a spreadsheet. This won’t …

Mar 1, 2009: Convert an html table to excel spreadsheet A quick and dirty post for a quick and dirty technique that I used to get the Oracle CPU Database Risk Matrix into a spreadsheet. This won’t …

Jan 19, 2008: opatch error: Perl lib version (v5.8.3) doesnt match executable version (v5.6.1) at x:/oracle... Got the following error: C:\oracle\ora92\OPatch>perl opatch.pl version Perl lib version (v5.8.3) doesn't match executable version (v5.6.1) at …

Dec 31, 2007: instType uknown Started getting this error from a batch job which was using oradim to do a shutdown. instType unknown: db not started; use RDBMS as default I think …

Dec 31, 2007: instType uknown Started getting this error from a batch job which was using oradim to do a shutdown. instType unknown: db not started; use RDBMS as default I think …

Dec 7, 2007: Determining which CPUs have been applied The question of how to determine which CPUs have been applied to a database came up at a couple of presentations at the UKOUG, including mine. A quick …

Dec 7, 2007: Determining which CPUs have been applied The question of how to determine which CPUs have been applied to a database came up at a couple of presentations at the UKOUG, including mine. A quick …

Sep 24, 2007: Problem: TNS-03505: Failed to resolve name We’re in the process of migrating from Oracle Names to LDAP, and found the following fairly trivial gotcha. If you have a space between the word …

Sep 18, 2007: Oracle options - update from Niall Subsequent to the previous post I got a note from Niall, saying that at least in 10g you can query dba_feature_usage_statistics as follows SELECT …

May 10, 2007: Most used tiddlywiki commands for MainMenu I put this into my MainMenu tiddler to give me a quick reference for my most used tiddlywiki formatting commands. !Cheat sheet …

Apr 18, 2007: DOS equivalent to unix find -name -print I’m planning to type up a couple of DOS and Windows equivalents of some of my most used unix commands. These are very much limited, partial …

Apr 18, 2007: DOS equivalent to unix find -name -print I’m planning to type up a couple of DOS and Windows equivalents of some of my most used unix commands. These are very much limited, partial …

Mar 29, 2007: Bookmarking Oracle Metalink in IE or Firefox This may well be obvious, but…. If you try and save the link to a Metalink note whilst you are actually in the Note, it doesnt always work very …

Mar 29, 2007: Bookmarking Oracle Metalink in IE or Firefox This may well be obvious, but…. If you try and save the link to a Metalink note whilst you are actually in the Note, it doesnt always work very …

Feb 20, 2007: DOS script to output contents of latest file matching a given spec Some of our batch jobs write log information to standard output. Others create dated log files. Our scheduling tool kind of works best if log …

Feb 20, 2007: DOS script to output contents of latest file matching a given spec Some of our batch jobs write log information to standard output. Others create dated log files. Our scheduling tool kind of works best if log …

Nov 9, 2006: Moving to netbackup - its case sensitive.... We’re currently migrating our backups from TSM to netbackup. I know TSM quite well, but I’m learning netbackup. The first lesson was that …

Sep 22, 2006: Missed email alerts because 'Sent' date missing I scripted our backup jobs to send an email to me if there’s a problem. This works well enough, usually. However this week the backups started …

Sep 22, 2006: Missed email alerts because 'Sent' date missing I scripted our backup jobs to send an email to me if there’s a problem. This works well enough, usually. However this week the backups started …

Aug 31, 2006: Changing the DOS prompt I’m mucking about with VSS from the command line. To do this you need to be in the VSS directory, which looks like this, for me: C:\Program …

Aug 31, 2006: Changing the DOS prompt I’m mucking about with VSS from the command line. To do this you need to be in the VSS directory, which looks like this, for me: C:\Program …

Aug 8, 2006: How to create a spool file in the format <specified prefix>_databasename.lst This is relatively handy, particularly when running the same thing against multiple databases. I’ve saved this in a script called spool.sql, so …

Jul 3, 2006: How to use sqlplus substitution variables I didn’t know you could do this. Its quite handy! SQL> column name new_value dbname SQL> select name from v$database; XXX1 SQL> spool …

Jun 26, 2006: Query to compare parameter settings between databases Create a link to the remote database then supply the name of the link as &1 set pagesize 1000 col name format a28 col local format a20 col remote …

May 12, 2006: SQLserver 2005 New Features Here is some stuff I learnt yesterday evening’s SQL Server 2005 New Features session at Microsoft in Reading Enterprise Manager Enterprise …

May 12, 2006: SQLserver 2005 New Features Here is some stuff I learnt yesterday evening’s SQL Server 2005 New Features session at Microsoft in Reading Enterprise Manager Enterprise …

Mar 8, 2006: Problem: opatch fails with 'The patch directory area must be a number' opatch failed with the above error. Again its really a problem with the wetware (i.e. me), but worth typing up as its fairly obscure. The problem …

Mar 8, 2006: Problem: opatch fails with 'The patch directory area must be a number' opatch failed with the above error. Again its really a problem with the wetware (i.e. me), but worth typing up as its fairly obscure. The problem …

Feb 13, 2006: ORA-02074: 'cannot analyze table' calling a package from perl I got this error running an analyze from within a package called by perl: [Oracle][ODBC][Ora]ORA-02074: cannot ANALYZE TABLE in a distributed …

Feb 13, 2006: Re-naming the listener - check for dependencies This is a fairly foolish pitfall that I stumbled into last week. One of the recommendations from our external security audit was that we rename the …

Jan 25, 2006: opatch - make sure there's no space on the end of TRUE I’ve been having problems with opatch. todo - fix the link Setting ACTIVE_STATE_PERL=TRUE cured at least one of these (although I’m not …

Jan 16, 2006: How to record and use keyboard macros in gvim Keyboard macros in gvim are much easier than using the map command. Basically you do: qx - to start recording a macro called ‘x’ q - to …

Jan 12, 2006: Raptor, 10G and Oracle Names So, Raptor seems to need 10G client. I knew there was not going to be a 10G version of Names, as it was going to be discontinued in favour of OID. …

Jan 12, 2006: Raptor, 10G and Oracle Names So, Raptor seems to need 10G client. I knew there was not going to be a 10G version of Names, as it was going to be discontinued in favour of OID. …

Jan 11, 2006: ORA-29260 because of a problem with the mail server? I think this is because we had a problem with our corporate mail server, because: a) I have a vague memory (but sadly no notes!) that it happened …

Jan 10, 2006: Raptor - no ocijdbc10 Having a first look at Raptor, I got an error message to the effect that it couldn’t find ocijdbc10. This was because I didn’t have Oracle …

Nov 15, 2005: Problem: opatch doesn't appear to be doing anything - set ACTIVE_STATE_PERL=TRUE I always used to find it a nuisance that applying the lower level Oracle patches was such a manual activity - you got a bunch of exe’s, …

Oct 6, 2005: Disabling/Enabling wsh Here are instructions for disabling wsh. This is particularly used by DBAs to run RDA (Remote Diagnostic Agent) to gather Oracle and Oracle-related …

Oct 6, 2005: Disabling/Enabling wsh Here are instructions for disabling wsh. This is particularly used by DBAs to run RDA (Remote Diagnostic Agent) to gather Oracle and Oracle-related …

Sep 19, 2005: ORA-29850: invalid option for creation of domain indexes I got this error trying to specify the tablespace for my text indexes. I was moving them from a default tablespace because they are taking up quite a …

Sep 19, 2005: ORA-29850: invalid option for creation of domain indexes I got this error trying to specify the tablespace for my text indexes. I was moving them from a default tablespace because they are taking up quite a …

Jul 26, 2005: PL/SQL doesnt recognize privileges granted to roles My procedure has a create database link in it: v_exe := 'create database link temp_security_monitor ' || 'connect to ' p_username ' identified by ' …

Jun 22, 2005: Loss of SQL connectivity - a problem with the wetware The problem I lost SQL connectivity to all databases between about 11.29 and 12.06 today (21st June). According to the trace files whereas normally …

May 4, 2005: Not got ODBC administrator on the start menu But on my PC its at: C:\WINNT\system32\ODBCAD32.exe On one of the users XP boxes it was C:\WINDOWS\system32\ODBCAD32.exe

Apr 26, 2005: Oracle Text - some counter intuitive behavior I had a query from a user about Text not retrieving the expected data for a given bit of Text The Text field (‘Solution’) contains: 1. …

Apr 19, 2005: SQLServer: 'Cannot generate SSPI context' error message Started getting the error above this morning. The SQL server involved supports our Alteris installation. None of the users could get on either. The …

Apr 18, 2005: Synonym resolution oddity Well, it seems odd to me anyway…. If you set up a synonym pointing across a database link…. SQL> conn elvis@old_db SQL> create …

Apr 18, 2005: Synonym resolution oddity Well, it seems odd to me anyway…. If you set up a synonym pointing across a database link…. SQL> conn elvis@old_db SQL> create …

Apr 12, 2005: BJS Jobs going into 'Awaiting Execution' state BJS is the scheduling tool we use on our Windows servers. Its produced by Camellia Software: Camellia website ….and it’s very good. I …

Apr 12, 2005: BJS Jobs going into 'Awaiting Execution' state BJS is the scheduling tool we use on our Windows servers. Its produced by Camellia Software: Camellia website ….and it’s very good. I …

Apr 8, 2005: JDBC fails to connect to 9i Oracle In the course of trying to sort out the problem outlined in the previous post, I hit a problem trying to get the jdbc to talk to the 9i database at …

Apr 8, 2005: JDBC fails to connect to 9i Oracle In the course of trying to sort out the problem outlined in the previous post, I hit a problem trying to get the jdbc to talk to the 9i database at …

Apr 8, 2005: JDBC: Unparseable date This is a problem we had a month or so back. I’m going to cut and paste from my notes at the time… We are trying to upgrade our warehouse …

Apr 8, 2005: Non blocking block-rocking locks Or something….. Blocking locks are easy enough to spot, through utllockt or v$session_waits or the goo-ey of your choice. The situation we had …

Apr 8, 2005: Oracle's External Tables Looking at Oracle’s External Tables feature, which ‘uses the ‘sql-loader’ engine. Links include: …

Apr 8, 2005: Unix for windows Going to try this out: http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/f/2/5f26ad97-ace1-4454-975c-bca19dbd61d1/sfu35intro.doc#_Toc59604538 SFU 3.5 includes …