Blue

Our good dog Bluey died today, aged sixteen years. He was a gentle, good natured dog with a deep interest in black socks. Like most dogs he also loved to eat, although when his sister was around he would only get what she allowed him. His most favourite food of all, however, was whatever you

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Alistair the Eagle

I always thought Alistair Darling looked like a Thunderbird, but today realised who those eyebrows really reminded me of: Sam the Eagle from the Muppets.

The messages of cities

Paul Graham has written an interesting essay on great cities and the messages they give out and why it is that a city should have such an effect on a person and their ambitions. No matter how determined you are, it’s hard not to be influenced by the people around you. It’s not so much

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Gafurjon's Sportswear, Tajikistan

I just received a notification that my first Kiva loan has been repaid! Kiva is a micro-lending website where you can make loans directly to entrepreneurs in the developing world. You can see who I am lending to on my Lender Page. It’s a great way to help people improve life for themselves and it

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SFO Library & Museum

Where’s the best place at SFO to kill an hour? Not the Northwest WorldClub where I’m typing this (although it is a fairly nice lounge – mmm, chocolate chip cookies). No, the best place is the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library & Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum. Who would have thought there is a

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San Francisco Symphony

After a very long week I could do little more than lay around in Huntington Park on Nob Hill today but tonight I caught the F Train to Davies Symphony Hall to see Michael Tilson Thomas conduct the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in an all Brahms concert. Lief Ove Andsnes played the Second Piano Concerto

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Conferences

The 2008 conference season is in full swing and I’m a little sad I couldn’t make it to the MySQL conference this year as I had a great time in 2007 – but not that sad because the reason is I’m going to JavaOne in May and don’t think I could have got approval for

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Banksy

Over the weekend a new work by Banksy appeared on a wall outside the Post Office sorting building in Newman Street near my work. There’s no tag, so it’s possible it’s not by him but it certainly looks like a Banksy and the fact that, according to the Mail, it required three stories of scaffolding

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