Tangential Ramblings

I was set a challenge recently, in which the business requirements kept getting more complex. I rose to the challenge, but the final solution was made more complex by the fact that the requirements were iterative as opposed to being defined upfront.

The requirements evolved such:

• Can you find the difference, in hours, between two times in Excel
• Oh, can you exclude weekends
• Oh, and on the weekdays, can you exclude the times that are out of hours (i.e. before 9am, after 5pm doesn't count)

Here's the solution. It works, but because of the way it evolved, I no longer know how it works. So if you have any problems with it, don't come running to me!

I'm not a huge online shopper. I dabble here and there: the odd router from dabs.com, flights from Expedia, quite a bit of stuff from Amazon and odds and sods in and amongst from various other companies.

I was surprised recently on finding out that most shopping baskets empty when you either leave the site in question or leave your decision-making process that bit too long.

This strikes me as stupid on the part of the retailer.

I think the principle behind the decision is that if you don't get around to checking out, then you mustn't actually want the products. I disagree.

Often, I'll put something in my shopping basket either fully intending to buy that item or prompting me to buy something similar—an iron, for example, but not necessarily that iron.

The retailer's decision to remove the iron from my basket may result in my forgetting completely that I need a new iron, causing either irritation on my part when I next need to iron my shirts, or an impulsive buy from an offline retailer (Robert Dyas?) when I next see an iron in the flesh/metal/plastic/Teflon™.

Surely much better for the retailer to have a conveniently placed Empty Basket button to allow those shoppers annoyed by the persistent basket to let its artificial bottom fall out ready for their next shop, which may also never see the light of the check-out. Windows shopping, if you will. ([Dan bows] I thank you.)

That way, I get to save stuff indefinitely in my basket, the online equivalent of leaving my Sainsbury's trolley on aisle three while popping for a haircut, returning to find it where I left it, contents still intact. Not that I do that, of course. That'd be madness!

It seems that the title used in digg articles is of paramount importance in attracting hits, and associated diggs. Which is the likely reason this article received so many diggs (653):

How to make a homemade gun that can send a penny ripping through a can

I struggle to imagine a post better geared to attract the geek's mouse-click.

Yesterday, I heard a guy in Whitehall start a sentence to the guy with him, "On what was a rare Thursday...". I find them as rare, and indeed plentiful, as any other day, each occupying a little over 14 percent of my time. (If anything, Thursdays have the edge for me, as I was born on a Thursday.)

As an aside, there should be a word to describe an acquaintance of unknown closeness, as was needed above. Possibly there is and I just don't know it.

There are three lines in Simon and Garfunkel's Mrs. Robinson for which my ears can hardly wait. They're crying out for the lines to arrive, each of which brings unbridled, somewhat inexplicable joy. They are, in playing order:

• Put it in your pantry with your cupcakes
• Koo-koo-ka-choo, Mrs. Robinson
• Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio (the real reason for the eagerness being Joe himself, the preceding four words merely providing a delicious appetiser for what is to come).

I hope the lines are similarly enjoyable for others.

This evening, the BBC's ticker informed its readers that President George was giving a warning to Iran.

I think it's quite nice that we're done with the formalities of politics. He almost sounds like a hurricane, which some would argue is accurate: unfathomable power leaving nothing but destruction in its wake.

From now on, we should refer to all our leaders in this way: President George, Prime Minister Gordon, France's duo of President Nicolas and Prime Minister François), Germany's Chancellor Angela, Prime Minister Stephen of Canada and China's General Tso. (This last one was a red herring: China's leader is actually President Hu.)

I wonder if anyone, the BBC included, captures on a regular basis the surfacing trends of the BBC News website. Not the content within the articles, but how they are presented to users over time.

It would be interesting to catpure, say every five minutes, the article that was surfaced in each location on each of the main navigation pages (Main, UK, World, Technology, Entertainment, Sport etc.), complete with link title, link summary and the picture of choice.

It wouldn't be difficult either (although obviously it's beyond my limited capabilities), and wouldn't need much disk space. My calculation gives about 150kB including images per captured page. If 20 navigation pages are captured, then that's 3MB every five minutes, 864MB per day, or 315GB per year.

And it would provide a great insight into the ever changing priorities of what is perhaps the most authoritative news website out there.

Just a thought.

Astronomers have found a void in space measuring one billion light-years across. That's 9,460,528,000,000,000,000,000 kilometres. Let's put that into context.

Count the number of square millimetres on the earth's surface, including the oceans. (Before you start counting, there are 6 billion billion of them, a billion for each person in the world.) Now, tick them off one at a time, taking a flight each time you do. For the first one, fly from London to Naples, Italy. For the second, fly back to London. For the third, fly back to Naples, and so on, flying from London to Naples on the odd numbers and back to London on the evens. By the time you've ticked off all of the square millimetres on the earth's surface, you'll have covered the same distance as the void is wide.

For completeness, assuming you don't have to waste any time checking in, waiting for your bags etc., your journeys would take you 125,000 times longer than the universe has existed to date.

It's quite a big void.

This was put together following the Texas Rangers' 30–3 thrashing of the Baltimore Orioles, the highest single team run total in 110 years.

Here it is. Funny how they don't mention America's 18½–9½ battering at the hands of Europe in the 2005 Ryder Cup. Although they did include the Boston Tea Party at number 96.

I got a comment from Hannah this evening, who was searching the web in an attempt to answer her homework assignment: what is the difference between latitude and longitude?

I'm happy on two counts: one, that she stumbled upon my post on this very subject; and two, that she felt the urge to comment.

I also enjoyed re-reading my own post. Not sure if that's wrong. I also have no idea whether any of the content therein was used by Hannah in her response to the question.

Polymath: a person of great and varied learning.

Just used in reference to Stephen Fry in celebration of his 50th birthday. Lovely word.

A few car adverts are currently boasting a low carbon emission of 120g of CO₂ per kilometre of driving. That still sounds like a lot.

At 15°C, CO₂ weighs 1.977kg per cubic metre, so 120g equates to 60,700 cubic centimetres, or a 39 centimetre cube, full of carbon dioxide. So a trip to Yorkshire and back for me would equate to 41 cubic metres of CO₂ or a 3.43 metre cube. Quite a chunk. If it's cold, then the carbon footprint is reduced, I guess.

Here's the article. Maybe James Doohan didn't come back to earth after all.

osirra is Spanish, meaning harmony. It is pronounced uh-SI-ra, pronounciation rules as follows:

• Accent on the middle syllable
• uh as in uh-oh (the uh, not the oh)
• SI as in symbiotic
• ra as in Andorra

[That first sentence is not strictly true but it's a nice thought, and I'll be promoting its introduction into the Spanish dictionary. Please join me in this quest.]

BBC News' articles have gone all techie, each now succeeded by a little box inviting readers to bookmark the page through any one of del.icio.us (quaintly written Delicious), Digg, reddit, Facebook or StumbleUpon.

Interesting way to go. Not one I'd associate with the BBC.

The Tories have unveiled a new plan to apply inheritance tax on axes handed down from one generation to the next. That's how I interpreted the headline, on first reading. I love it when the BBC's attempts to get content to fit in the available space results in odd, often confusing headlines, usually bereft of prepositions and joiny words™.

After last night's games, Newcastle are still top of the table (average points 3, average goals 3, average difference 2), followed by Everton (3, 2.5, 1.5) and Chelsea (3, 2.5, 1), Arsenal (3, 2, 1), Blackburn (3, 2, 1) and Liverpool (3, 2, 1) taking the remaining European spots. I was wrong in suggesting that Spurs (0, 0.5, -1.5) were bottom of the Premiership under this new sorting algorithm—West Ham (0, 0, -2) prop up the division, with Spurs and Middlesbrough (0, 0.5, -1) joining them in the relegation zone.

The biggest beneficiaries from the revised sorting are Newcastle, jumping four places, while Man. City are crying with a five place demotion from second to seventh.

The Premier League, along with every other British footballing league (and indeed all foreign ones, I think), is ordered by points scored, with other measures (goal difference and goals scored) kicking in to rank teams with equal points. Under this method, it's always struck me as unfair, particularly early in the season, that teams that have played fewer games are penalised.

Surely a more equitable initial measure would be average points per game played, with average goal difference and average points scored kicking in as the secondary and tertiary differentiators.

I've thought this since childhood, yet I was only prompted to put it into words on seeing Everton leapfrog Newcastle last night as a result of beating Spurs.

So far, Everton has 2-1 and 3-1 wins under its belt, giving an average points per game of 3, an average goal difference of 1.5 and an average goals scored of 2.5. Newcastle's sole 3-1 win gives us figures of 3, 2 and 3 respectively, putting us top, no? For completeness, under either scenario, Spurs are bottom.

I scored 32. You?

American woman to fellow tourist, while visually comparing Parliament and Westminster Abbey: no, that one looks more like an abbey (pointing at Westminster Abbey, phew).

I use the ALT short-cuts in Word and emails to make sure that my em and en dashes are correct (ALT+0151 and ALT+0150 respectively). It's slightly annoying that in my font of choice (Georgia 12-point), the em dash seems to be a pixel taller than its sibling characters, shunting down a smidgeon the line of text which it graces. The result is, I'm sure, more noticeable by me than by my limited, highly appreciated readership.

So Newcastle top the Premier League table after the opening weekend. (When did it cease to be called the Premiership, btw?)

In the last seven seasons, the league's winning team has always won its first game. (As an aside, only one team winning its first game has gone down in the same period.) Assuming the same will be true this season, we'll be fighting it out against Man. City, Chelsea, Arsenal (only just), Blackburn, Everton, Liverpool and Sunderland.

So we've got an 8–1 chance of winning the Premier League, right? Odds that must be shortened given that we're already leading the rest of the bunch.

Let's see how it pans out.

I bought my daughter a 100th birthday card on Bastille Day, to celebrate 100 days on the planet. She is 128 days old today. Happy birthday! Thank to both my wife and daughter, for making those 128 days the most fabulous I've ever experienced. (They don't do cards for 128.)

Her 256th birthday will be on 17 December.

How many times can you use cling film* after internally saying to yourself: "Shit, I'm sure that cling film* is running out. I really should buy more."

I'm figuring 30.

* America: please substitute cling film with Glad Wrap™.

Me: do you know where the nearest post box is?
Numpty: oooh, I'm not sure. I've seen one somewhere.

Plain flipchart pad
Bloc papier pour chavalet de conference
Flipchart-block
Bloco de papel para cavalete de conferencias
Bloc de reuniones
Flipoverblok

Not sure of the language, but I love the last one. Also, bloco de reuniones suggests dreams beyond those of a humble flipchart.

Me: oh bugger
Lady wife: what?
Me: oh, nothing
Lady, wife: go on, tell me
Me: [reluctantly] I missed a programme about the atom on Thursday night
Lady wife: [raucous, somewhat uncontrollable laughter]

I need an extra flag in Google Reader. Currently, posts can be. starred: they're either good or they're not. And you may have noticed, unless of course you read my posts through Google Reader, that I now have a little widget on the right hand side of my blog exposing my last five starred items.

But often there are posts that I want to flag for reading at a later date. It's because either I don't have time to read the full post right now, or I'm skimming through my unread items on a device that's unsuitable for the content. (I skim through a lot of my subscriptions on my MDA Vario on the way to work, a device that's fine for text, but cumbersome for anything more advanced.)

So Google, I'd like a new flag, one that says "judging by the title, this article may well be of interest. But I'm not able to qualify this possibility right now, so just keep it to one side for me will you until I can, there's a good chap."

Thanks.

The BBC reported this morning that according to research, "the price of an average house in England will break through the £300,000 barrier by 2012." That's an average, run of the mill house (not Millhouse). And only one. So by 2012, one or more bog standard homes in England will have sold for £300,000 Hasn't that already happened?

BBC Sport's article covering the Community Shield between Man. Utd. and Chelsea was written by Caroline Cheese. Great name.

I saw a response to a defect recently. It read:

Can't be fixed, so it's a feature.

What a wonderful approach to development.

If you want to go from Euston to King's Cross St. Pancras, you can either take the northbound Victoria Line or the southbound Northern Line (Bank branch).

Confusing?

With the Summer Holidays well and truly upon us, kids are often seen with their working parents meeting for lunch and the like. Today I spotted one such kid of about 14 years stopping occasionally with his dad on the Strand to look at the menus outside the various eateries. Nothing untoward, until you notice (without the need for a second glance) that said dad is a Town Cryer or some form of Beefeater, dressed to the nines in his full red cloak and accompanying garb. All credit to the kid for going ahead with lunch.

While picking up some essentials for my daughter in Sainsbury's Clapham this evening, an announcement came over the tannoy calling Chris Martin to the Customer Service desk.

How the great have fallen. I hear Gwyneth is working in the Elephant & Castle branch of Superdrug.