/* Rambling comments... */

Spam problems Posted by Len at 21 Apr 2008 08:14 AM
This morning a spammer somewhere seems to have used my main email address as the return address on a whole bunch of random spam that has been sent out from all over the place. As such I have around 3000...

Comments, captcha and blacklist... Posted by Len at 17 Apr 2008 05:40 PM
I've turned the blacklist back on. I turned it off yesterday and have had a couple of spam comments get through. The blacklist itself doesn't always catch the spam comments but it does give me a one click method of...

Where did August and September go? Posted by Len at 17 Sep 2007 05:51 PM
What with holidays and having my head down doing x64 and CLR hosting stuff for a client it seems that the last month and a half has rushed by... The good news is that the x64 port is slowly slipping...

Back in the UK Posted by Len at 31 Jan 2007 02:25 PM
Normal service is about to resume... I arrived back in the UK yesterday evening after lots of good skiing in France and Switzerland. Conditions in France could have been better (it's still best to hire skis or use your rock...

Comments should now be operational again... Posted by Len at 28 Dec 2006 05:59 PM
I've adjusted how I deal with comment spam and the comment system should now be active again......

Something that has helped Posted by Len at 12 Jul 2006 09:55 AM
It's been a difficult few months for me recently. One of the things that has helped a lot was something that, thankfully, I discovered relatively quickly and have since refined somewhat. The refined version sounds very simple; "appreciate every moment"...

No, this recent activity doesn't mean that normal service is about to resume Posted by Len at 12 Jul 2006 09:06 AM
I just realised that I hadn't posted to here in two months. As I said a while back, my head is not really in the right space for me to be as effective, or interested, in my technical stuff at...

What this blog is ACTUALLY about Posted by Len at 3 Apr 2006 11:01 AM
Given all the publicity that this blog has received recently over my relationship break-up I thought it might be a good idea to give any new visitors a jumping off point into some of the more popular technical pieces. Believe...

Comments and trackbacks are now back Posted by Len at 3 Apr 2006 10:38 AM
I've fixed the MT-Blacklist problem and so comments and trackbacks are now working again....

Comments disabled for a while Posted by Len at 2 Apr 2006 10:45 AM
My hosting provider has changed something in their perl instalation which means that MT-Blacklist (the thing that protects this blog from comment and trackback spam) is broken and not doing its job properly. I've located a fix but need my...

Hosting problems Posted by Len at 22 Nov 2005 12:55 PM
As you may have noticed I'm having some hosting problems at present. The server that hosts www.lenholgate.com was hacked and it's taking my hosting provider longer to fix than they expected... Right now comments and trackbacks don't work because...

RSS feeds for Microsoft Knowledge Base articles Posted by Len at 2 Nov 2005 08:31 PM
This is quite nice, a whole list of finely targetted RSS feeds for Knowledge Base articles for various products....

Classic hits Posted by Len at 22 Oct 2005 06:13 AM
Jacob Nielsen has a list of Top Ten Blog Design Mistakes. Number 5 is "Classic hits are buried" where he suggests that it is useful for readers if you list your most 'important' entries prominently as well as regularly back...

Quote of the week Posted by Len at 8 Oct 2005 02:06 PM
"Desire to know why, and how, curiosity; such as is in no living creature but man: so that man is distinguished, not only by his reason, but also by this singular passion from other animals; in whom the appetite of...

Back in time Posted by Len at 8 Oct 2005 11:27 AM
I find it quite interesting to have so much information about my past available on the web. I often use my own blog like a database that I can search for past solutions to problems, or for locating some text...

Normal service is about to resume... Posted by Len at 4 May 2005 04:04 AM
My ski trip is over and I'm back in the UK for a while so I expect my technical writing will resume real soon now....

NFOFY JTDPN are the victim of spamy morons Posted by Len at 4 Sep 2004 11:59 PM
[Updated:15th October - Original domain name hidden with a simple caesar cipher to stop them getting bad press via search engines...] [Updated: 6th September - It seems "NFOFY JT" were possibly the victim of a vindictive ex employee and that they didn't originate or approve of any of the recent comment spam in their name.] See comment on this entry from Jacob Jones. NFOFY JTDPN is a professional web design and consulting company for businesses, schools, churches, non-profits, and individuals. We provide full internet services to clients who are serious about having a successful online presence. Our services includes but are not limited to: graphic design, logo and corporate identity, internet marketing/SEO, 3D animation , illustration, consultation, web hosting, album cover, prints, interactive CDs and DVDs, flash, database programming, posters, flyers and much more. Strategic thinking, and aesthetic presentation is what we are about--welcome to NFOFY JTDPN. Looks to me like NFOFY JTDPN are a bunch of morons who think it's good idea to spam other people's blogs and think they might get business from doing so; like D'oh! ...

Hmm, so I'm wet, huh? Posted by Len at 11 Aug 2004 10:20 PM

You are water. You're not really organic; you're
neither acidic nor basic, yet you're an acid
and a base at the same time. You're strong
willed and opinionated, but relaxed and ready
to flow. So while you often seem worthless,
without you, everything would just not work.
People should definitely drink more of you
every day.

Which Biological Molecule Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Busy... Posted by Len at 19 Jul 2004 10:54 PM
I've been really busy these last few weeks. Too much to do, too little time. This week is looking better, so hopefully I'll find time to finish the next couple of installments of the Practical Testing story, post a few updates on some of the code I've been writing and repost a few more google grabbing reprints...

Outage... Posted by Len at 11 Jun 2004 06:13 PM
Sorry for the recent outages. My hosting provider upgraded a server and it took longer than expected to find all the things that were installed on the old server but were not on the new server. It seems that I'm the only one that uses them... Blog was down for a few hours, comments and trackbacks have been hosed for a day or so. All seems fine now.

20 years on, 60 years on, thoughts on D-Day Posted by Len at 6 Jun 2004 10:47 PM
20 year's ago I traveled with my dad and the remaining members of my grandfather's unit to Normandy for the 40th anniversary celebrations. I was 17, around the same age that some of them were on the day. My grandfather, Frank Holgate (also 'my F.'), survived the war but died from heart disease when I was far too young. I've found the news reports of the 60th anniversary to be far more moving than I expected; possibly because I spent some time with these amazing people.

A time to move on Posted by Len at 6 Jun 2004 09:40 PM
The one problem with building a dream flat from scratch (well, a shell) is that once you're done, you're done. There just isn't anything that needs doing for a very long time. If you're someone who enjoys the doing (to a point) then, although it's nice to sit back and relax and appreciate what you've created for a while; the time eventually comes when you start getting itchy feet and want to be able to start crafting the next masterpiece... So, after some soul searching, we've decided that it's time to look for another space to work with. We love what we achieved at The Canal Building but it's time to start again. We've already seen a couple of lovely large spaces that have lots and lots of potential and the creative juices are flowing... So, we're looking to sell. If you're looking for a contemporary apartment with approx 1324 sq ft of space that's been done in a two bed/two bath, large living area and open-plan kitchen style. If you want somewhere with lots of storage. If you want outside space (we have a shared terrace that's 3m x 4m (big enough for a BBQ) and only shared between 4 other apartments. If you want cat5 everywhere, a central 'machine cupboard' for firewalls, servers, switches and broadband connections. If you want a very high quality finish. If you want to be able to walk to work in the City of London in 25 mins or wander the bars and restaurants of Upper Street and Essex Road after a 10 min walk and be able to leave your car parked in a secure underground parking space. If you want 24 hr security/porter. If you want air conditioning. If you want a building where a group of the residents take an active interest in keeping service charges under control and take a very close interest in the behavior of their managing agent. If you want a high quality fish monger, butcher and green grocer within 5 minutes walk and a wonderful Italian deli just 3 minutes away. If you want the Regents Canal just a stone's throw from your bedroom window... Then I suggest that you get in touch, and soon... It's early days, but there's only one flat quite like this in the whole building, so buy early ;) So, in summary; 1324sq ft flat for sale in Canal Building N1. Floor plan is here. Photo diary of the conversion from shell to apartment is here. Details of the 25 Beautiful Homes photo shoot (March 2003 edition) is here. Includes all appliances, lights, blinds, etc. If you like the furniture then that might be available too, make us an offer. By the way, I reserve the right to get all 'estate agenty' in the near future and start using phrases like 'benefits from', etc. Asking price: £599,000.

Gripe of the day; explorer's desire to scan entire folder trees Posted by Len at 26 May 2004 08:08 AM
OK, so who was the bright spark that decided that when I click on a folder at the root level of a drive Explorer goes off and scans the entire folder tree from that point down before expanding the one folder I'm interested in? More importantly, can I turn it off? Surely the most you really need to do when I click on I:\Blah is list the files and directories in Blah and do a lazy directory content check in the background to see if you need to put a + next to any of the directories in Blah... At present, on XP SP1 it seems that the directory check isn't a background thing, so I have to wait for it to complete, and when the sub dirs contain many many files this can take too long...

Monday Mornings Posted by Len at 17 May 2004 08:56 PM
Tell me about it. This morning I was shaving and thinking how I was actually early enough to be able to walk to Bank Tube station rather than jumping on the tube at Old Street. It looked like a nice morning and I had lots of plans for the code I was going to write today. It's a busy week, and I had spent an hour or so late on Sunday making sure I was in a position to hit the ground running.

Blog's a year old Posted by Len at 7 May 2004 11:33 PM
Been a busy week, I meant to post this on The Day. I've been writing this stuff for just over a year now. I didn't really know what to expect when I started, I just wanted a place to ramble on about this and that. During the year I've learned a few things about blogging....

Bizarre Googling Posted by Len at 26 Mar 2004 08:01 PM
As Gavin pointed out in a comment yesterday, if you type "cure for rsi" into Google right now my hair-brained babblings about how drinking lots of water helps is top of the pile... If only I could do that with technical posts that would bring in work ;)

Happy Birthday to me... Posted by Len at 25 Feb 2004 08:11 AM
37 today....

66% Evil, seems about right... Posted by Len at 23 Feb 2004 10:11 PM
Er, I blame him, him and hiiim, oh and that little voice inside my head...

Do blogs without comments have any value? Posted by Len at 20 Feb 2004 12:36 PM
I've noticed that quite a few blogs I read have turned off comments and trackbacks and removed all trace of any previous comments/trackbacks. I realise that the comment spam problem is a pain but I find that I treat blogs without comments/trackbacks as "less reliable sources"...

Looking for more blogs to read Posted by Len at 5 Feb 2004 05:16 PM
I want some new and interesting blogs to read, so leave a comment if you have any suggestions. I subscribe to quite a few (opml file here) but I'm a bit tired of the Microsoft Employee Bleading Edge Blog stuff... Ideally I'm looking for technical blogs with a "working programmer" slant. It would be nice if they were biased towards C++ but I don't really care. I think these guys are good, so more like this would be nice: Stan Lipman, Eric Lippert, Raymond Chen, Wesner Moise, etc.

Oh good, comment spam Posted by Len at 25 Jan 2004 10:40 PM
Just removed my first spam comments... It's almost nice that the spammers think I'm worth spamming, but only almost... If this is anything like my email spam then I expect that this is just the start of a flood... Does...

Retiring Princess Leia Posted by Len at 31 Dec 2003 11:22 AM
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... I made a contraption to enable me to strap a camcorder to my head whilst I skiied. As you can see, it wasn't the most subtle of devices.

Thought for the day Posted by Len at 23 Dec 2003 04:09 PM
I have only ever made one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it. Voltaire From a comment in ESR's blog. Given our current dealings with our building's mismanaging agents this seems particularly appropriate right now.

Mismanaging Agents Posted by Len at 18 Dec 2003 08:01 AM
I still have my 'director of the management company for a building of 78 apartments' hat on. It seems to have one of those little straps that goes under your chin. I don't seem to be able to undo the strap...

Not a lot of coding going on Posted by Len at 30 Nov 2003 01:35 PM
I've been really busy this last week. The building in which I live is having some issues with its managing agent. I'm on the board of directors for the "company" that runs the building and this week things finally came...

The Maytag customer service experience Posted by Len at 21 Nov 2003 05:50 AM
We have a Maytag fridge and very nice it is too. However, sometimes it seems to be too cold and things freeze up. After far too long procrastinating and just excepting that cold was how fridges were supposed to be I called Maytag for support...

Murphy's Law Posted by Len at 4 Oct 2003 08:16 AM
This is a nice story about the birth of Murphy's Law. Yes, there was really a Murphy... From the 2003 Ig Nobel prizes, via Barry.

We'll be right back, after this word Posted by Len at 13 Sep 2003 07:26 AM
Normal service will resume shortly. Thank you for your patience....

Introspection on INTJ Posted by Len at 12 Sep 2003 12:43 PM
It seems that iNTj's are big into contingency planning and, in general, most other people aren't; that explains a lot......

I'm sorry but... Posted by Len at 8 Sep 2003 10:59 PM
Who are you? and why are you here? 2003.09.05 11:11:45 62.188.56.137 'Len' added entry #157 2003.09.05 11:45:49 62.188.56.137 'Len' added entry #158 2003.09.06 13:26:52 4.64.105.117 Search: query for 'FX' 2003.09.07 11:00:14 62.188.56.137 Search: query for 'udp' 2003.09.08 00:32:01 62.188.56.137 'Len'...

So, who's the smart arse who thinks it's OK to move keys on a keyboard? Posted by Len at 5 Sep 2003 11:45 AM
My space bar got sticky. I bought a Microsoft Wireless Multimedia keyboard on impulse. Why Oh Why was the 'end' key moved?

What did I do to deserve... Posted by Len at 3 Sep 2003 11:52 PM
So, family members having PCs that you feel obliged to look after for them. That's some form of punishment for something, right?...

Site update Posted by Len at 23 Jul 2003 12:15 PM
I want someone to quote for converting my company web site, www.jetbyte.com, to use Movable Type as its content management system. Anyone interested in the work?...

The style sheet made me do it Posted by Len at 5 Jul 2003 12:19 AM
If I don't write enough blog entries then the way I have my CSS set up means that the front page starts to look ugly as the number of entries on the left side of the page shrinks and the columns on the right go all squigly...

Full bodied, or not? Posted by Len at 26 Jun 2003 12:24 AM
So, I have the standard MT rss 1.0 syndication feed that I hacked to include the full body of each entry and I have the all new, funky, MT rss 2.0 feed that I have left as is and which...

Timezone... Posted by Len at 24 Jun 2003 07:37 AM
Just realised that my MT setup was wrong and that all my stuff is being posted with a timestamp of an hour in the future. Just fixed it, I wonder what will happen now... Hmm, nothing, so I've edited the...

Real Greek Posted by Len at 21 Jun 2003 01:47 AM
Went to a really cool local restaurant tonight. It's Greek Jim but not as we know it....

Weekend's hosed Posted by Len at 13 Jun 2003 11:40 PM
Michelle's on her way home, but she'll be working all weekend drafting an agreement that needs client sign off by Monday morning. So that's her hair appointment down the pan and the 30th birthday party we were going to tommorrow...

Slacking Posted by Len at 13 Jun 2003 04:46 PM
It's a lovely day out there today......

Blog is 1month old! Posted by Len at 4 Jun 2003 10:25 PM
Well, the site is 1 month old and I'm still rambling on. I think I have about 4 readers now too ;)...

CSS, IE 5.x and the box model bug.. Posted by Len at 31 May 2003 12:44 AM
Ok, the blog looks crap in IE 5.x I've seen the stuff about hacking around the css bugs in IE but I'm not clever enough to hack the css sheet that I have to do that. If anyone knows what...

Last orders... Posted by Len at 17 May 2003 11:34 AM
Last night I had some beers with some guys I used to work with. They were celebrating the latest round of redundancies. What was interesting was that generally the people that I spoke to that were still employed seemed less happy than the people that had been 'let go'...

Busy week Posted by Len at 16 May 2003 11:10 PM
Refactoring project going well; Just in time requirements project moving into a phase where we finally get end to end connectivity; skating hurts - lesson two, 2 falls and, well, my body is old :( I know why I ski...

What kind of thinker... Posted by Len at 8 May 2003 01:31 PM
I just took the What kind of thinker are you test over on the BBC site. Interesting results......

Day 0 Posted by Len at 3 May 2003 07:01 AM
Anything posted before today is stuff that was posted after today...

Welcome Posted by Len at 3 May 2003 06:38 AM
I've been meaning to put up a personal web site for a while now. This is it...