An interesting Facilities Management blog that you might like to take a look at.
Daylight Analysis Software being developed for Security Camera Analysis | FM Expert’s Blog.
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Tag Archives: blogging
Daylight Analysis Software being developed for Security Camera Analysis | FM Expert’s Blog
Filed under business life
Education vs. Experience – The Trump Blog
You’ll find this topic here and there amongst my blogs here and on Monday Musings (ThatConsultantBloke). Given that many graduates I meet these days don’t actually have a great education then I tend to favour experience, but the Trumpster has a valid point here, and you don’t build a business empire like his unless you’re right more often that you’re wrong.
See what he has to say here: Education vs. Experience – The Trump Blog.
Filed under business life
10 things to do with business cards
Some free advice with 10 top tips over on the Gulfhaven web site Click here to check them out
Filed under business life
letters to the editor number 6 – bad language in public
Sir
Filling up the Jaguar with unleaded this morning the Wonder of Wokingham pointed out a bumper sticker on the car in front. I’ll not repeat it here, but it contained a four letter word that we both felt should not have been there.
How is it that the Police can prosecute a child for chalking a hopscotch pattern on the pavement and yet others are freely allowed to print, sell and display offensive bumper stickers?
Yours faithfully
Disgusted of Dorcan
letters to the editor #24 – a hung parliament?
Sir
My enthusiasm for a hung parliament has waned since it was brought to my attention that it will not require the use of many lengths of rope and most of the lamp posts along the embankment as I had first thought.
I therefore formally withdraw my support.
Yours faithfully
Disappointed of Dorcan
letters to the editor #37 – car parks and saving the planet
Sir
At what point did the Government rule that one way systems in car parks did not apply? Why are car park owners allowed to waste the planet’s precious resources on painting arrows and erecting signs that no-one follows?
Or could it be that 90% of people operating vehicles (they could not be called drivers) are either blind, stupid or just ignorant? If so, surely getting them off the roads would make a significant reduction in emissions?
I think that we should be told.
Worried of Wiltshire
letters to the editor #57
Sir
The young lady, twenty-something, ahead of me in the supermarket queue bends over her trolley to unload. The usual expanse of bare skin is revealed, punctuated by a hint of buttock cleavage.
I cast my gaze up to inspect the ceiling, but wait! Something is amiss. I look again and there it is (or isn’t). The flesh on display is devoid of decoration.
My dilemma? Should tell her that her tattoo has fallen off, or have I just spotted a rare member of the species; the un-tattooed twenty something woman?
Yours faithfully
Surprised of Swindon
Driving Logs #2
Not much of a trip this time, just a run of less than 70 miles over to Milton Keynes and back, but I felt it was worth recording as it represents a trip I have done regularly for 25 years (at least to the MK area if not this specific address). It is also, for part of the run, one leg of a longer journey to and from the North.
As an aside, I got my route planner software to propose a route. It suggested the fastest way was to go down the M4 to the M25, round to the M1 and up there to MK. That trip was estimated at 111.1 miles and taking 99 minutes, but the software would have not known about the several sets of 50 mph restrictions on that route, let alone the likely congestion. The route I used is virtually a straight line on the map, and the distance and timing make an interesting comparison.
My route across country involves a mixture of rural and urban roads, some 2 lane single carriageway with speed limits between 30 and 60 mph and others 4 lane dual carriageway. The Oxford Western by-pass still has a 40 mph restriction around the bridge works at Peartree, but that was my only issue with road works. I chose to drive straight through Bicester both ways rather than use the ring road. Rush hour traffic was worse on the way out, especially towards the Oxford end of the A420 and around Buckingham.
Note that the stop at the Kingston Centre retail park added 1.2 miles to the journey – big places these.
| Way Point | Time | Elapsed | Distance | Speed MPH |
| Home (depart) | 719 | 0.0 | ||
| A420 (join) | 724 | 5 | 2.6 | 31.20 |
| A34 (join) | 800 | 41 | 27.6 | 40.39 |
| M40 (cross) | 810 | 51 | 36.6 | 43.06 |
| Finmere | 825 | 66 | 46.3 | 42.09 |
| A421/422 Buckingham | 836 | 77 | 51.0 | 39.74 |
| Watling Steet (cross) | 852 | 93 | 61.1 | 39.42 |
| Kingston Centre (stop) | 901 | 102 | 64.6 | 38.00 |
| Kingston Centre (depart) | 912 | 113 | 64.6 | |
| Magna Park (arrive) | 917 | 118 | 66.9 | 34.02 |
| Net driving time | 107 | 66.9 | 37.51 | |
| Way Point | Time | Elapsed | Distance | Speed MPH |
| Magna Park (depart) | 1600 | 0.0 | ||
| Watling Steet (cross) | 1609 | 9 | 4.6 | 30.67 |
| A421/422 Buckingham | 1621 | 21 | 14.6 | 41.71 |
| Finmere | 1628 | 28 | 19.2 | 41.14 |
| M40 (cross) | 1646 | 46 | 29.0 | 37.83 |
| A420 (join) | 1656 | 56 | 38.4 | 41.14 |
| A419 (cross) | 1729 | 89 | 63.1 | 42.54 |
| Home (arrive) | 1734 | 94 | 65.7 | 41.94 |
Filed under cars planes and trains, journey logs
driving logs #1
This is the first of my driving logs. I used to keep regular logs of my trips my road, rail and air, but got to the point in my business life that I was just doing so many journeys I couldn’t keep up. However, I’ve had to keep one form of log for my back to the floor driving and have just re-read a book from my personal collection that covers a number of road trip logs, both of which have inspired me to start again.
The basic principles of the logs are that the time is taken from the dashboard clock as I put the car in gear to start, as I join, or cross, each new road and as I apply the parking brake at each stop. I carry a voice activated recorder slung round my neck for recording random thoughts, so the waypoints are recorded using that and I do not include the odometer reading as it is too much of a distraction to note that each time. Mileage is taken from Autoroute 2002 instead. Unless otherwise noted, journeys are in my 2003 Jaguar S Type 3.0 SE (V6 petrol)
This first one is on a Friday morning in February 2010 and I’m up early for a trip from Swindon out to Bishops Stortford on the Essex/Herts border. It should take just over 2 hours, but allowing 3 for road works and traffic. Last time I did it on a Friday it took 5 hours to get home. This time we are starting the meeting earlier, so I’m hoping for an earlier finish and the chance to get on the M25 and M4 before they get too busy.
My log for this trip shows that, even with the 8 minutes stop at Birchanger services (why name them after an obscure, if local, village when they are just as close to Bishops Stortford and barely off the end of the runway at Stanstead?) the outbound run was quicker than the non stop return. The latter featured a number of undesirable stops on the M25 and M4 and both journeys were slowed by 5 sets of 50mph restrictions, two of which were lengthy.
| Point | Time | Elapsed | Distance | Speed MPH |
| Home | 600 | 0 | ||
| M4 | 607 | 7 | 4 | 34.29 |
| M25 | 704 | 64 | 63.2 | 59.25 |
| M1 | 724 | 84 | 82.6 | 59.00 |
| M11 | 748 | 108 | 106.5 | 59.17 |
| Exit M11 | 800 | 120 | 120.4 | 60.20 |
| Birchanger Services Stop | 802 | 122 | 0.00 | |
| Birchanger Services Start | 810 | 130 | 0.00 | |
| Bishops Stortford | 817 | 137 | 122.4 | 53.61 |
| Point | Time | Elapsed | Distance | Speed MPH |
| Bishops Stortford | 1451 | 0 | ||
| M11 | 1458 | 7 | 2.7 | 23.14 |
| M25 | 1511 | 20 | 16.9 | 50.70 |
| M1 | 1532 | 41 | 40.2 | 58.83 |
| M4 | 1608 | 77 | 60.6 | 47.22 |
| Exit M4 | 1713 | 142 | 119.6 | 50.54 |
| Home | 1717 | 146 | 122.2 | 50.22 |
Filed under cars planes and trains, journey logs
is nature out of control? no, the media can’t use their language
I’ve just read that statement on a news channel talking about the earthquake in Chile and the possibility of a resultant tsunami in the Pacific.
What a stupid statement; when was nature ever under control? Nature is nature. It’s part of the life we live in sharing this planet and every now and again it will bite us. Of course I’m sorry that people have lost relatives, homes, property or whatever when we have these disasters, but this post isn’t about that.
It’s about the stupid things that the media say. A personal peeve has long been the soccer writer or commentator who says that such and such team were saved by the woodwork/crossbar/post. Now I’ve played, watched or refereed hundreds of games and have never seen the woodwork move to save a shot. If the ball hits the woodwork and goes wide or back into play then the shot wasn’t quite on target. Saved by the woodwork is a stupid thing to say.
Another one that has been prevalent of late is that someone has died in Afghanistan after being hit by a mine. No they weren’t hit by a mine; their vehicle drove over one. It’s of no consolation either way to those killed or maimed and their families, but can’t the media show some respect by reporting accurately?
Another of my blogs will, on Monday next, be critical of education standards, but what chance have folks got when the media, hugely influential as they are, can’t get it right?
Somewhere along the way the news went into the entertainment business. I can’t quite work out when, but standards went South with the change. I started to realise it had happened when it dawned on me that news bulletins had started to refer to TV programmes, the bulletin effectively promoting the channels own entertainment programmes. I can rarely sit through a news bulletin these days, and don’t often read a newspaper cover to cover any more. The standards or reporting and use of words irritates me so much that the topic gets lost.
Another example of getting old? Just a grumpy old man moaning about how it wasn’t like that in my day? Maybe, but something well written, whether for reading yourself or having it read to you, is a joy. Our language allows great expression and should be used to good effect. Why waste it?
Filed under random rants, writing
The Voice of the Bloke at the Back 