I recently found a forgotten half-bottle of Tobermory 10 year old, in the back of a cupboard. Here are a few tasting notes about this long-forgotten friend.
This whisky is a light straw colour, quite thin in consistency. However, its insipid appearance belies a splendid if subtle flavour. With overtones of honeyed vanilla, it’s a sweet […]
I wrote a few months ago about how Ryanair had started charging for web check-in despite it being a cost saving for them — and how this was not the Ryanair that I understood. Well, I was proved right last week when they switched surcharges. Now you have to pay if you want to check […]
Got back to the appartment last night to find police on High School Way, interviewing somebody innocuous-looking. When I went to the door to the appartment complex, it turned out that there were upwards of a dozen police, with six patrol cars, on Castro St. Most were standing around doing nothing but one of them […]
Over the past few months I have been asymptotically approaching being able to make a good cappuccino or latte. (I'm way better than the glassy-eyed morons who are usually behind an espresso machine but nowhere near "good barista".) However, over the last few weeks I have noticed that sometimes I was not able to steam […]
I asked an interviewee how long it takes for a disk seek, and he replied that he thought it was between 4 and 8 milliseconds. Speaking with colleagues, the conventional wisdom was that it was around 10 ms. I was unsatisfied so I thought I would try it for myself.
time sudo perl -we '$disk="/dev/sda"; $n=1500; […]
I am no longer even nearly homeless, having just started renting an appartment. Because I'd be lonely on my own, I'm sharing with another Googler, Carlo Contavalli.
Here’s the weird thing. We were chatting over lunch and it turns out that, unbeknown to either of us, we are both Debian Developers. Only in Google could this […]
I have long felt that many airport security measures are just for show — "security theatre", as Bruce Schneier puts it — but I now have some anecdotal evidence to back it up.
I fly frequently: from Dublin to my family in Durham, and I make the occasional transatlantic flight too. Before I realised it last […]
Okay, perhaps it’s a little exaggeration to say that I'm nearly homeless, since I have a perfectly nice house in Durham. However, since I'm working in Dublin this is not especially helpful for my weekday accommodation.
If any reader has a room they could rent me near Grand Canal Dock, for around €400-450, please get in […]
We went to Scotland on a family holiday this week (brave or stupid, answers on a postcard). You would not believe the number of puns you can get from the simple town of Ayr. For example, R: "You should have turned right there!" Me: "Oh well. To Ayr is human." I shall spare you the […]
I don't generally post whilst annoyed — which could explain why my postings are generally of a whimsical nature and (hint hint) don't get enough comments. However, this post is different.
I am angry that people see fit to write things for public consumption or wide dissemination when they obviously have little regard for the language […]