Disqus - Latest Comments for andycowl

Re: Behold, the Podcast | jonbeckett.com

Andy C — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 10:04:46 -0000

On the Stacey episode, you discuss married/committed couples using separate, individual bank accounts.

Like you, I find this really odd and surprising but have friends who do this. Maybe it's because I'm incredibly lazy but the day we got married we opened a joint bank account, joint mortgage, joint everything. I think if you're married, you unequivocally share everything. Without question. Otherwise, there is no trust and hence no relationship. For richer, for poorer etc.

Funnily enough, recently my wife of 30 years expressed surprise that I did this so willingly from Day 1 as I earned more than she did and she wondered if I would want my money separate and she would have her money. I can honestly say the thought never entered my head...

The logical extrapolation is - who 'owns' the children - do I own my son and she owns my daughter ? :-)

Re: Keep on Running | jonbeckett.com

Andy C — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 04:38:15 -0000

When the missus occasionally says 'Why do you never help me in the garden ?', I always reply 'Same reason you never help me configuring the router or printing out documents'.

Re: One Step at a Time | jonbeckett.com

Andy C — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 09:45:11 -0000

That's why Zoom invented Virtual Backgrounds or green screen. My room/home office is tidy enough but do I want people (strangers) gawping at my family photos and bookshelves ?

Re: Begin Again | jonbeckett.com

Andy C — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 08:38:26 -0000

Please, please tell me this is the last blog migration. I now have 147 'Jonathan Beckett' entries in my RSS reader. Can't you just go to Asda and wait for a new delivery of toilet rolls like everyone else ?

Re: jonbeckett.com — Everything Changes

Andy C — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 05:15:56 -0000

Yeah - we also all enjoyed 'Friday Night Dinner'. One of a few programs a whole family (well teenage children) can enjoy together.

I think Paul Ritter is a superb actor. Great in this and also superb in a very different role in Chernobyl.

Re: Talking to Ian Hope about Half Time Pie

Andy C — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 06:48:30 -0000

Ah football, football, football. First time in all the time I have followed you, I have ever heard you mention the word. Plus 'Manchester' (where I originally hail from). Superb !

Re: Fighting Fires and Making Plans

Andy C — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 04:58:31 -0000

You have a strange (albeit rather honourable) attitude to expenses. Think again why you're going to Frankfurt. You're working for your company. You're earning money for your company - more than you will be paid for that week. You're visiting a client in Frankfurt. You're helping that client in Frankfurt. You didn't choose to visit Frankfurt. You didn't choose to go with just 3 weeks notice. You didn't choose to go during Oktoberfest - they did. So if they subsequently have to pay a premium, so be it. Staying in a hostel out of town - are you mad ?

Re: On the Yak Shaving Habits of a Writer

Andy C — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 07:14:33 -0000

Yeah - so what's wrong with all that. All of those diversions, multi-tasking and procrastination are perfectly normal. We are normal. It's the rest of the world that's flipping weird. PS. Any blog post featuring the words 'Recursive yak shaving' deserves the highest praise.

Re: Music For Sheep - Blog in isolation

Andy C — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 06:56:56 -0000

'All The Wine' added 18 July 2014.

Re: Brain Dump 2013 - Russell Beattie

Andy C — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 05:36:47 -0000

There is an OpenSource Twitter clone called StatusNet (created in 2008) which is now moving to a different architecture - pump.io.

Re: Diamond Geezer's audience - Blog in isolation

Andy C — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 04:47:04 -0000

I have tried a lot but never even heard of Greymatter :-)

Re: Diamond Geezer's audience - Blog in isolation

Andy C — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 04:46:36 -0000

Hi Joel

Thanks for popping by. Yes - I am aware of some Disqus comments are currently lost in the ether. Don't worry - you haven't been blacklisted. They are lost in limbo associated with an old URL that has since moved. I am gradually re-pointing them to the new URL so, over time, the comments should re-appear. If you know of a specific URL, let me know.

Also, thanks for the pointer that '/blog' is a 404. I have created an automatic redirect to cater for that (although I think Octopress should handle that better).

Andy

Re: left back - Blog in isolation

Andy C — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 16:46:14 -0000

I'm here all season.
PS. Congrats on keeping on my tail through all these blog migrations :-)

Re: Autumn migration

Andy C — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:57:36 -0000

What about his Grandma ?

Re: the awkward second post - Blog In Isolation

Andy C — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:49:23 -0000

This is a test of Disqus comment support. I suspect my permalinks are not 100% correct so I may or may not have preserved any pre-existing comments.

Re: Abducted By Aliens - Another Url, Another Planet

Andy C — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 04:13:51 -0000

As always, a fantastic, hilarious piece of creative writing and loved the pictures. Glad you got the all clear.

Re: +1 | Blog in isolation

Andy C — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 04:58:02 -0000

As always David, your comment is welcomed and worth 1,000 '+1's. seriously.

However, I'm fighting a losing battle - we have other fragmented feedback in Plus (Tim) and Buzz (Cutts).

Re: Google Music - available by 2017 | Blog in isolation

Andy C — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:54:06 -0000

That might be a little unfair, or at least, premature. You can Like/Dislike songs, create playlists and all the album art magically appeared. However, I wouldn't use it on Android - the main use of my HTC is as a music player when I am *offline*.

Re: TurkishDaughterInLawOfAFriendBuntu - Another Url, Another Planet

Andy C — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 05:08:35 -0000

I note this installation actually took place 6 months ago. What would be really fascinating to me would be a followup post about how the young lady is getting along using the PC in real-life.

Dis she import all her photos into Shotwell ? Did she rip any CD's and ditch Grooveshark ? How many times has she fired up Wine ? Has she ever printed anything successfully ? Why does she never write or call any more ?

What did she like/hate ? All that sort of stuff.

PS. If her boyfriend subsequently bought her a new, shiny Windows 7 netbook, just say that you've lost touch.

Re: TurkishDaughterInLawOfAFriendBuntu - Another Url, Another Planet

Andy C — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 04:46:44 -0000

Very interesting to hear the story and how you set the machine up and the applications you installed.

Interesting that Unity was a no-go on older hardware - which previously was one of Linux's selling points.

PS. Here's how to configure AbiWord to default to .doc format although I found so many compatibility issues (even on simple documents), I had to install Open Office Writer for my own use case.

Re: essential modules for your new Drupal 7 site | Blog in isolation

Andy C — Tue, 17 May 2011 19:01:33 -0000

All the modules mentioned above *are* available for Drupal 7. I should know because I am using them as it says in the post.

Re: the joy of Markdown | Blog in isolation

Andy C — Tue, 17 May 2011 18:56:09 -0000

Most modern text editors include native support, extensions or plugins for Markdown. Even vim.

Re: Scripting News: Nuremberg does not apply

Andy C — Fri, 06 May 2011 11:29:34 -0000

The Americans had no jurisdiction to extradite Bin Laden from Pakistan to face trial.

Re: echo "hey, it works" > /dev/null

Andy C — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 03:49:13 -0000

Yes. It's incredibly easy to blame micro blogging for conventional blogging outputs being reduced to a occasional trickle and it's a tired, old predictable excuse I have used myself on many occasions.

However, on reflection, it's wrong. If you want to blog, you can. If you prefer to spend your time reading and posting trite, clever one liners, you can. If you want 6 months of radio silence without any explanation you can. If you want to destroy your blog and every single post, you can. It's down to choice. We're all grown adults capable of making that decision.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing some of these 20 drafts appearing in my feed reader soon.

As an aside, I simply hate having any Draft posts. I simply can't stand it. My blogging workflow tends to be: get an idea, write post, fix typos, publish and be damned. I think that Drafts tend to taunt me from afar saying 'This post isn't finished yet because it's not good enough. Finish me. Finish me now.' But that's probably just me.

Re: why Arsenal lost the Carling Cup | Blog in isolation

Andy C — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 08:53:07 -0000

So do I. Neither do I particularly like Arsenal. However, during the match, I found myself torn and had to rein myself in as my lad supports Arsenal.