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1 May 2008 Subversion for Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther)This is to remind me (and perhaps help others by noting) that a recent version, 1.4.4, in 10.3-friendly form can be found here. I do dislike Subversion intensely, buggy heap of crap that it is, but 1.4.4 does seem marginally less evil than older versions. In particular, it allows you to rm .svn/all-wcprops to get round the infuriating version problem that keeps cropping up. 27 March 2008 Still can't quite believe this oneWe were over in Bisbrooke this weekend and Mum had Classic FM on. There was some programme about 'The Stories Behind Your Favourite Music', where the idea was that they'd play the same music they always play, but preface each piece with a longer-than-usual background. It was "hosted" by John Suchet, though as any connoisseur of GCrap radio stations will recognise, he clearly drives into the studio a week beforehand, reads out the links, then it's all stitched together by the backroom guys before transmission. Anyway, the first piece was Beethoven's Fur Elise. And he introduced it with this inordinate spiel about "this piece by Beethoven is, without a doubt, the most famous piece of piano music ever, and everyone who's ever played the piano will be able to play it". (By this time - he hadn't named it yet - both Mum and I were both expecting it to be the Moonlight Sonata. So much for "without a doubt".) He then continues with this really snitty little homily about how Uneducated People call it "furr eleeze" when, as any fule apparently kno, it's "Fieeur El-EEEsuh", delivered in a terrible cod-Teutonic accent. Ok, whatever, I'll remember that next time I'm in Munchen. Finally, it's time for the music and we're duly expecting to hear E-D#-E-D#-E-B-D-C-A, which is, as we now know, the most famous piece of piano music ever. At which point an entirely different piece comes out the speakers. A little bemused, we look at the whizzy scrolling display on the digital radio and it informs us that it's playing the Bagatelle No 4 in A Major. Ok, fine, the backroom guys cued the wrong track. Three-and-a-bit minutes later Mr Suchet reappears to say "that was the most famous piece of piano music ever, Beethoven's Bagatelle No 4 in A Major, better known of course as Fieeur El-EEEsuh". Hello? I mean, ok, this is Classic FM, listeners may not expect the presenters to know the exact opus number - or, in this case, lack thereof - that's a bit Radio 3 territory. But they should at least, at least, get a slight feeling of unease when reading out a script that claims Fur Elise, the most famous piece of etc. etc., is in a major key. Especially if they've just lectured their listeners on a fairly minor matter like the pronunciation of the title. Next week: John Suchet introduces Wagner's Ride of the Valkyrie Eleisons. 5 March 2008 BloggingWIll people (people I know, obviously) please stop starting blogs and not telling me about them. I mean. Tsk. Honestly. Pffrt. I wouldn't mind so much but the one I've just stumbled upon describes me and Anna as "fiends [with a] narrowboat". It might be a fair description but if I'm going to be described as a fiend then I'd like to know about it. Speaking of the narrowboat, I have recently installed a new piece of equipment:
Yes, it's a 20-litre cider tank. All I need now is for someone to invent a 20-litre bag-in-a-box pie dispenser and I'm sorted. I've intermittently started twittering as richardf. I figure that, given that I update this blog once every two months or so, once every two weeks would be a good twitter cycle. 5 March 2008 CCD PR are spamming wankersSome excerpts from my Sent mail folder.
Has this stopped them? Has it my arse. "Them" are CCD PR (Sarah Summerfield, Siarah Khan, Rachael Parkman), possibly the most clueless PR agency in world history. The five "please stop sending me this shit" e-mails above were sent in response to releases about Sage Organic St John’s Wort, Naturtint sensitive hair colourant, Patch-it! ("placed on the soles of the feet overnight to stimulate healthy circulation"), Patch-it! again (which now apparently will "banish nasty drainage-clogging toxins out of your system to give you picture perfect pins"), and last of all, Zotrim, an "over-the-counter herbal formulation based on three South American herbs, that has been proven to boost satiety" (sorry, wtf is satiety?) "by delaying gastric emptying" ("gastric emptying"? is that "having a crap"?) "so you eat smaller portions at mealtimes and snack less between meals". Needless to say, there is absolutely no chance of us printing anything based on these releases. Some may feel that people like this deserve a mildly reproachful epithet such as "snake-oil salesmen" or "unprincipled charlatans". But, you know, I get several dozen unsolicited e-mails a day for "over-the-counter herbal formulations based on three South American herbs". I'm sure you do too. It's not generally called "PR". It's called spam, and the people who send it are called spamming wankers. 5 February 2008 Sainsbury's Basics CutleryI have just broken a knife by attempting to cut a mushroom with it. |
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