pjd's New Writeups

Jungle Fever (thing)

2006-10-31T22:03:04Z

"AAAAaargh..."

My eyes opened wide. I had gone from gently slumbering to fully alert in an instant. My ears strained to hear if anything followed. Nothing but the sway of the trees lining the jungle opening we were camped in. I threw back the blanket protecting me from from the open air and reached for my upturned boots beneath the hammock.

"Who was that?" I shouted, "Speak up, who's still here?"
"Jameson, sir."
"Andrews"
"I'm here sir, Godfrey. And so's the guide."
More name called out. As I laced up the boots I head Jameson barking out orders on my behalf. Ge was a retired army sargent now serving as my second on this expedition. "Who was it, Jameson? Get them lined up."
"Yes sir. RIGHT, you 'eard 'im! Get roused and get in line." The whole camp was moving now as people jumped into their boots and formed a ragged line.
"Looks like it's young Scott sir." said Jameson,

…

July 21, 2004 (idea)

2004-07-21T16:37:06Z

Here is a short account of my recent holiday. Ihave tentatively titled it "Sore feet, bruised knackers, AIDS clinics, crazy horses and stupid police officers - a story of bad luck on holiday!" I wouldn't normally write something about my holidays but so much happened to me I thought I'd inflict it on everyone. (A problem shared etc.)

First some back-story: me, my girlfriend and another couple have been planning to go away to El Arenal, Majorca for a bloody long time! We talked about it for a few months and then in february we bought plane tickets and booked the time off work. With me so far? Suffice it to say, I've been looking forward to this holiday!

Problems started on the first night, we went out for a couple of drinks. Feeling particularly care free that night, I decided it would be a good idea to wear my brand new never been worn (hence not broken in) flip flops. Many drinks and some dancing gave me a huge blister between my toes that meant I had to…

aperitif (thing)

2004-05-26T08:00:47Z

It is customary in France to have a small drink before the meal starts. It's not a formal custom so there is no official procedure.

L'apero usually goes something like this:
The person doing the cooking announces that the meal is nearly ready and the table needs to be set. When this is done everyone gathers around the table and each persons aperitif of choice is served. In most cases this is pastis (a mixture of an aniseed based spirit (some people think Pernod is acceptable, real conneseurs use Ricard 51) and ice cold water which turns a milky yellow) or a light wine, sirop for the kids of course. Plain crisps and other small snacks might be served including my favourite croutons - hard, almost hard biscuit like croutons heavily coated in garlic powder.
Things continue like this until the food has finished cooking, which is usually about the time you finish your drink.

As a general rule, the bigger the occasion, the bigger…

I'll give up printf() when you pry my cold dead fingers from it (thing)

2003-06-30T11:53:36Z

I once told my boss "I'll give up printf() when you pry my cold dead fingers from it". Well, he was happy to oblige.

Now I'm not saying that coding without the use of both hands is easy but not having printf() really hurts.
The injury first occured when I started programming on embedded systems. I thought I would never be able to cope. Embedded systems usually = no debugger, which is when I would use printf(). I soon learned that there are ways to get around the problem and get some work done.

Alternatives to printf():

Trace
Some fortunate embedded systems programmers are able to transmit character strings from the hardware to another computer over a serial cable, called trace. This can be quite a sophisticated system usually achieved by calling specialised functions that get the string and send it on. They can even

…

Celebdaq (idea)

2003-06-27T15:40:27Z

So you've got an account on Celebdaq and you've bought some shares. But you don't seem to be able to earn anything. The 'About the game' tab on the side leads you to lots of helpful stuff but here's some tips on how to go about the business.

There are basically 2 ways of making money on Celebdaq:

Having the value of your stock rise
This depends on the demand for a particular share at the time, so David Beckham(DVBECK) is VERY popular at the moment and is at Â£182.58 a share but at this price if it goes up by Â£1.80, every Â£1 you have invested is now worth Â£1.01. It you own shares in Gwen Stefani(GWESTE), currently at Â£1.01, a rise of Â£1.80 is huge ~180% increase. Lower value shares are also more sensitive to demand. It doesn't take much to move a low value share price! It isn't how many shares you own in a particular person that matters, it's the % change for that share that matters.
End of week

…

June 25, 2003 (person)

2003-06-25T10:50:45Z

Have you ever worried if someone that has been in you life is still alive?

I lived with this guy for around 6 months in halls in my first year at uni.
He was best friends with another flatmate (who is now my best friend). Ken is/was(?) gay and Mark was not, but they had a laugh and Ken was a great person. Anyway, Ken was prone to buying Mark more drinks than was necessary when we went out and even spent Â£50 on him for his birthday. (After living there for 3 months - you know where this is going) At the end of Ken's stay with us, he took Mark out for an expensive dinner which they both enjoyed and then, at the end Ken said he wanted to say a few words.
These were words to the effect of (paraphrased) "I have AIDS and I've been in love with you since the moment I saw you".

Ken moved out the very next day. I suspect he had already packed. I don't think it was the AIDS thing that bothered Mark, we both had a chat about it and neither of us had…