Stuff Michael Meeks is doing
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This is my (in)activity log. You might like to visit
Collabora
Productivity a subsidiary of Collabora focusing on LibreOffice support and
services for whom I work.
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yourself by going to Unraveling Wittgenstein's net or if
you are feeling objectionable perhaps here.
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feed.
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- Up early, credit card expires today, the new one
in England; hmm. Went to Kelly Tarlton's underwater world -
which had a particularly amazing arctic section. Penguins
a plenty with newly hatched babies being fed, and a glass
sided tank to watch them swim.
- Lots of amaing facts about the antarctic, and
Scott & Shackleton's voyages, the incredible cold - down
to -70 degrees Celcius, and the background behind their
treck to the pole. In stark contrast to the Norwegian
expedition, when they found the frozen bodies of Scott and
his team their sledge was still laden with many pounds of
fossil specimins and scientific finds.
- In an effort to save the team from starvation,
Oates walked out of the tent to his death with the noble words
I am just going outside, and I may be some time .... In
the words of Scott It was the act of a brave man, an English
gentleman. We all hope to meet the end with a similar spirit
and assuredly, the end is not far
- On March 21st 1912, in a blizzard, tied down
only 11 miles from their next supply depot Scott wrote his last
journal entries; Surely misfortune could not have exceeded
this last blow. I do not regret this journey which has shown
that Englishmen can endure hardships .... and meet with death
with as great a fortitude as ever in the past. Had we lived,
I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance,
and courage of my companions that would have stirred the heart
of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies
must tell the tale...
- Also - the amazing story of how Shackleton
managed to save his men when his ship was crushed and
destroyed by ice. Well worth the read. Also an under water
aquarium made of perspex with large amounts of fish -
impressive.
- Back into town by bus, a beer - asked if we
were on honeymoon by the waitress - lunch, back to
the hotel, and then off to the airport. Upon checking in
and after a lovely stay in NZ - the experience was soured
by the spectacularly short sighted, small minded,
inefficient, offensive and generaly inexplicable need to
pay an extra charge of $22 to board the aircraft. Rather
than charging the airline for the pleasure of using the
port and hence putting it on the ticket - they insist on
charging the individual unexpectedly. Wonderful ! instead
of a tiny adjustment in the fee the airline pays anyway -
we get to go through a siginificant amount of hassle.
Clearly a punative reciprocal 22UKP tax for Auckland bound
flighers at the UK end is neccessary to encourage clear
thinking. Doh.
- A pleasant flight in a 747, got to hacking
at-spi - (again). Got really into it - sigh, grief ! what
utter evilness lurks within; you start looking at one
problem only to find a mess of leaks you can see reading
the code - great swathes of cut and pasting of complex
( buggy ) code etc. etc. Massive cleaning all flight.
- Got back home, unpacked, bite to eat & bed.
My content in this blog and associated images / data under
images/ and data/ directories are (usually)
created by me and (unless obviously labelled otherwise) are licensed under
the public domain, and/or if that doesn't float your boat a CC0
license. I encourage linking back (of course) to help people decide for
themselves, in context, in the battle for ideas, and I love fixes /
improvements / corrections by private mail.
In case it's not painfully obvious: the reflections reflected here are my
own; mine, all mine ! and don't reflect the views of Collabora, SUSE,
Novell, The Document Foundation, Spaghetti Hurlers (International),
or anyone else.
It's also important to realise that I'm not in on the Swedish Conspiracy.
Occasionally people ask for formal photos for conferences
or fun.
Michael Meeks (michael.meeks@collabora.com)
