we are all responsible

Far too often these days, I hear the comment "not my responsibility" when someone is trying to evade the issue. Whether it be a pedestrian walking on the cycle track where I am riding, the cyclist in front of me going through a red light, or the project manager looking for explanations of poor performance, people seem to want their 'rights' but not take the responsibilities.

I believe the world would be better if we all took a look at how we handle our responsibilities - attendance at school or work and doing the best we can, helping others less fortunate than ourselves, helping in the family. In short, setting a good example to others.

so much time and so little to do

Actually, I find it is quite the reverse. so much to do and so little time to do it.
Apart from my full-time employment, which now seems to be taking over more and more of my time, I am also spending time helping others with their computing needs - training in web management, or simply how to use a computer for those who as yet have still never used a computer before. Then there is to support of the local village Gala, and the meetings to arrange all the details, and my meetings with the local inter-faith group, and of course my work in teaching the Baha'i Faith, giving presentations and running classes for children.

I find that turning to God in prayer, especially at sunrise, is the source of great inner strength.

This is my favourite time of the year, with all the plants putting out their flowers, the tree blossoms and new leaves everywhere. Perhaps I like it because it is also the time when, many years ago, I declared my acceptance of the teachings of the Baha'i Faith.

"A new life is, in this Age stirring within all the peoples of the earth"

thought you were dead

Sent an email out the other week, and one of the recipients replied "thought you were dead".
Their reasoning was that because I had not been active online for some months, then I must have died, because everyone is online all the time.

How strange. I know many people who never use a computer, but who are most definitely alive. They go shopping in real shops, meet people face to face or use that old fashioned thing called a "phone".

I have myself spent several months (apart from my full time employment) attending committee meetings of various charities that I am a trustee of, sitting talking to friends, visiting relatives, helping a reading scheme in a local school and going for walks in the countryside with my dog. And all of them without a computer in sight! What a relief for me not to be staring at a small screen for hours on end.

So I make this comment, partly to reassure all my friends across the world, and acquaintances, that I am still very much here.

Customer support

I have just spent a few very frustrating days trying to get hold of customer support for an internet based company. There is no address or phone number that I can find on their web site - just the email address for their help desk.
Well, I have posted a series of questions relating to a payment and a supposed upgrade of my service, but I have not had any reply in the last three days.

How does any company expect to retain its customers if those customers cannot get any help for the products they have purchased? The most visible aspect of any company is its customer support department.

ill? - see the vet!

Coming home by bus from town yesterday, I saw an interesting notice on the side of a Veterinary clinic. "Special Senior Citizens Clinic, come for your vaccinations here".

Well, I know older people need special treatments, but I did not realise that they had to go to the vet to get treated!!

paperless society - who me?

At work, we are (like all other companies, I hope) trying to cut down on waste and one measure is to stop needlessly printing out emails. However, it is still true that most staff have notebooks that are taken to meetings.
I remember reading an article years ago that heralded the advent of the paperless office. But paper is still so much easier to handle in many situations.
And at home? Well, I have just bought a new bookcase, to hold my overflowing collection of books - crime novels, books on science, geography and travel, religion, cookery and education. I find nothing more relaxing than curling up with a good book. Especially after a day spent staring at a computer screen!

early wake up

getting up early during the fast is a bit of a problem to many people. However, yesterday I had help from an unexpected direction. I live on a bus route and the nearest stop is just a hundred yards away. Anyway, workmen have been repairing a cable by the stop, so it was temporarily moved.
At 5am yesterday morning I was awoken by the sound of a bus waiting at the bus stop -right outside my house!

after the Feast, the Fast

Well the Intercalary days have come and gone, and we are now in the month of fasting. It has been a good few days this year in our family, with some nice presents, visiting family and friends and going to the cinema one evening.

Really looking forward to fasting for the next few weeks, as it involves getting up before sunrise for breakfast and dawn prayers. Actually, I suppose the evening meal should then be called 'breakfast' for this month! Certainly a time to reorient the "spiritual compass".

tea and biscuits

It has been a long family tradition through several generations, that mid afternoon we had tea and biscuits. Never just a cup of tea. Well I have been trying to lose weight recently but I still find myself going for the biscuits. It is the same at work. Whenever someone comes back from holiday, celebrates their birthday or some special event (fund raising for charity) out come the biscuits, cakes and even jam donuts.

So what did I take in to share with my team yesterday, to mark the Baha'i calendar "Intercalary days"? Yes, of course - biscuits! (OK there were some apples and oranges as well.)

documentation required

an old point this, but worthwhile repeating. Keeping notes is important. You may be the one that comes back years afterwards trying to make sense of the material. The notes that you made at the time may save much time later on. That goes whether you are writing a computer program, running tests on computer programs, or just (as I have recently been doing) going through lots of old photographs. Actually there are over 1500 slides that I am digitising - and the notes I kept (each slide is numbered) are proving invaluable.

My aim is a comprehensive family archive on the one hand, and a new, updated set of slide shows (now called 'presentations') for the Baha'i Faith. Years ago I travelled the country, and across America, Canada and Europe, giving talks on the Baha'i Faith and carrying sets of slides to be shown at the meetings.

Headphones and Acer Aspire with Linux

Finally I have a working set of headphones on my Laptop! I have been trying to sort the problem out for some time, and have scanned many (hundreds?) of messages trying to get to the solution of my problem - why is there no sound from my headphones.

I have discovered that it is nothing to do with the version of Alsa that I am using, and nothing to do with the version of Linux or the kernel drivers. My problem is now solved.

It all comes down to the fact that in the sound chip used in the Acer there are several channels, and thus about a dozen volume controls in the mixer. Well, the control that deals with the output to the headphones is the one marked "surround sound". I just would never have guessed. Having unmuted the surround channel, I can now get sound in the headphones.

Where are you, or why are you not online?

I had an email from a friend recently. He thought that just because I had not been regularly posting on my blog, that maybe something had happened to me again. Well, I have news for you, dear friend. I am alive and kicking. Just because I do not feel the need to get a daily dose of electronic life, does not mean that I have ceased to exist.

There are many, many people who happily go about their daily life totally untouched by email, mobile phones, or any other online activity. (Several members of my own family for starters.) My activities over the last few months have kept me very busy both daytime and evenings, and I will admit that I have then been too tired to go online for weeks at a time. Attending charity meetings, regaining my fitness (cycling, swimming and this last few weeks even skiing!), and that usual one of "spending more time with my family" as well as my full-time employment and going to Baha'i prayer meetings and such.

I am online now because of the snow having stopped our plans to go out, and because I have been looking up information to help sort out getting sound on my Acer laptop running Linux.

thought for the day

As we come towards Inter Faith Week in the UK, I thought I would share this with you -

Religion is like pieces of coloured glass that people are holding. Some picked up their piece of glass, others were given theirs by their parents, whilst others had a piece of one colour but exchanged it for a piece of a different colour. Some become very attached to the colour of their glass and feel it is the only colour worth having, even arguing with others about what is the 'right' colour, but others feel there is no point in having any piece as they can see nothing through it.
But there are those who accept all colours as equally nice to have. And a few who realise that if everyone put their pieces together it would make a beautiful picture.

"Consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship" Baha'i Writings

back after enforced absence

It has been a challenging few months. I have been off with a hand injury after colliding with the road whilst cycling to work, back in May. Well the choice was either collide with the road or collide with the car that had suddenly appeared in the cycle track. Ho, well, the police say I lost control of the bicycle and are not taking any action. Several days in hospital, and several weeks of physiotherapy before getting use back in my hand.

At least with a cycle helmet, gloves and other safety measures it was not too bad. Broken hand, bruises and a lovely black eye.
Just as I was ready to get back to the computer, my home laptop died a death, so I had to select a replacement and then reload all the archives and other material from backups that I regularly take. (You *do* backup your computer, yes?)

So here I am again, with one of my favourite pastimes - sitting in front of a computer.

FUNdraising for charity

Just received a letter today, inviting me to take part again in a charity bike ride. I have taken part each year for a number of years, either on my own or with my family, and raised quite a bit of sponsorship (never kept a total, though).

Will seriously have to think before entering this year, as my health has not been too good of late after an operation earlier in the year. Apparently been eating too much of the wrong sorts of food (sugary cakes and things) and not enough vegetables and it has played havoc with my digestive system. I suppose I have been so concerned in helping others that I have not looked after my self.

Perhaps I should give it a go again this year, as long as I do not try to race round the 20 mile course. It has always been a fun time, meeting other cyclists, getting out in the country and usually a nice sunny day and finishing with a picnic in the park.

same office, new team

Well, one of the products being worked on in our office has been "put on ice". That is, a totally reasonable decision was made, in view of the current economic climate, not to continue with it.
Of course, it happens to be the one that I was working on. Anyway I was quickly "snapped up" by another team who needed more staff to cover their work load.
The old team had a 'wake' to mark the end, as we are all going to different projects and moving desks so we will not be sitting together. All down to the local hostelry to mark the occasion. Well, I missed it as I had other commitments that day - but no big deal. Everyone knows my view on alcohol, and I know theirs. Funny then that some are quietly coming to me and saying they wished they had my courage to say 'no'. For me, courage does not come in to it, as I was brought up in a family where there was never any booze in the house.

Now to start again, learning a new product, reading all the documentation, going through the 'new starter' training material. I have already found a number of omissions, created an updated introduction, corrected a couple of web pages and been thanked for my hard work by my new team leader. Not that I found it hard work; it was all rather fun and quite enjoyable. Next couple of weeks will be hard work though, as I have to devise and run some performance tests on the system to see the maximum load it can handle.

start of a new year

Well, the new year has come. We celebrated with a party at the weekend - hall packed with people and not a drop of booze anywhere. Fruit, rice, vegetable stew, bread, juices, tea and coffee, and cakes. Then music performed live by some talented young people.
That was the New Year party for members of the Baha'i Faith and their friends in Nottingham. New Year's day itself (March 21 in the Gregorian calendar) was a day for visiting the sick and elderly, hospitality and making new friends.

When a support team can make things worse

I have just had a bad experience with a support team. My query has taken over a week to resolve, and even then it was I who found the answer. Each time I sent in a question, it was answered by a different person. None of them answered the question I had asked. Instead they said it was a programming question and I should learn programming, or that the answer was in the FAQ that they kindly attached to their reply. (Needless to say, I had already read the FAQ and found that it was factually incorrect). They 'helpfully' offered suggestions covering questions on a completely different topic, or simply said that their support did not cover my question.

If as a computer programmer with decades of experience in user support I struggle with their help desk (no I am not going to shame the company), then I shudder to think what less experienced users are feeling. Is it any wonder that companies suffer high rates of "churn" when they put inexperienced staff on the support centre.

Business managers will come to realise that they need to have technically competent staff.

I just hope it is a long time before I have to call them again, and the staff have had a modicum of training in that time.

sharing the load

(or, not everyone can be expert at everything)

I began my career in computing by learning FOCAL, and then BASIC, FORTRAN and COBOL. Later on it was pascal and Delphi, then C and Perl. Now I am brushing up my skills in Java (first looked at about 7 years ago) and particularly threads. One of the comments in the book I am reading struck me, and got me thinking about 'sharing the load'. It is not just applicable to a multi-processor computer or a collection of computers. We people need, I think, to make use of this idea also.

No one can be an expert in everything, and no one person can cope with all the demands modern life puts on us. We have to learn to share. Call on our support network. (What do you mean, you don't have one?) In these days of world encircling communications, you may get help from someone thousands of miles away, even someone you have not met.

Social networking websites are great for keeping in touch with friends, and the open source model of software development means we can share work with others.

"God loves those who work together in groups" - Baha'i Faith

In praise of knowledge

I have just been seeing some of the unkind comments made regarding the young lady who showed herself to be so clever and knowledgeable on the TV quiz show "University Challenge".

Why are people so afraid of learning, that they have to attack those who have made efforts to do so? I would much rather meet, or read about, those who have put knowledge to use for the benefit of society - the scientists and engineers whose efforts have shaped much of the world around us. Not for me, speaking personally, the pop stars and media 'celebrities' who seem to seek only fame and fortune.

But then, I would say that, as I have been a teacher of science and continue to take an interest in promoting science.

"Regard Man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasure, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom." Baha'i Writings