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Three minutes, as in the period of time. It sounds like something you'd be expected to write about in school after annoying the teacher. I mean, what is there to write about the topic of three minutes? What if we then multiply those three minutes by five, as in the number of days in a working week. We now have a number of 15. Fifteen minutes is enough to actually do something useful... Or not, but it is enough time to do something. It is also the amount of time on average that Southeastern, the train company I find myself cursed to use to get to work take from me each and every week through delays. Multiply this number by a 48 week working year and you now have a cool twelve hours of delays from a mere three minutes a day!
Well, that was quite a month. Today is a rather wet and cold haloween night and this is the first post I've had a chance to put together this month. Admittedly a lot as happened, both for me and in the wider world.
The technology press talks about how Steve Jobs had a "Reality Distortion Field" that he used to convince idiots to buy his underspecified and overpriced products. Yet even he couldn't have achieved what has happened in London over the past fortnight. For two short weeks we have gone from being a country worries about debt, spending cuts and a double-dip recession to jumping on our seats cheering Mo Farah onto his two gold medals and Usain Bolt as he took the trebble in style, if not humility. The London olympics set out to showcase the best of British, and save perhaps for the mess with G4S, I think we have performed admirably.
Since we're all going Olympics crazy, I thought I'd share todays XKCD comic strip...
On Friday night, along with a billion other people, I sat in front of the television to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Having been billed as the greatest show on earth and following hot on the heels of China four years ago it had to be something special. After the fiasco of G4S and the Korean flag cock-up, what we were presented with was a potted history of British culture with some a celebration of art, literature, film and music. In short, we didn't disappoint.
I have never had a good relationship with Lexmark printers since the 3000 series from the late 90's. Sadly they seem to have remembered this and are now determined to frustrate me on a daily basis.
Well, after a frankly pathetic June where I managed to publish just one article through a combination of sheer laziness and being busy with other projects, I'm back! Which is a good thing as today is a special day. Today marks the fifth anniversary of CallamMcMillan.com being launched on July 3rd 2007.
As I promised when I launched this site, I would get guest writers to help me out. Today I would like to introduce the self-proclaimed professional trouble-maker Mitul Patel. Mitul is a few weeks away from completing his masters in Computer Science at Loughborough University where he is completing his thesis project titled "Simulating mobile nodes in ad-hoc systems."
Outside of university Mitul is studying for his CCNA and is looking to become a full time network engineer. Mitul also enjoys lock picking, white-hat security and interesting TV. Mitul's computer setup includes an overclocked Sandy Bridge i7, five monitors, a Cisco 2821 router and a Cisco 1252 Aironet.
I would love to be a fly on the wall in a meeting between Martin Whitmarsh, Ron Dennis and Lewis Hamilton. I can't imagine it would be a very pleasant meeting after the latest cock-up. Anybody that knows me knows that I am a Lewis Hamilton fan, I like his driving style and as I have written previously I think he has approached this season with a really good attitude which at the start led to a series of consistent podiums. Conversely, this is the third race in which he has been penalised by issues beyond his control.
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All films tend to have a message in them, usually about how the good will always win, however there is usually an alternative message.
In the Shawshank Redemption, the main character is sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit. While there he uses his skills in finance to help the Warden launder money in return for privileges which he uses to help other inmates prior to escaping with evidence of the crimes.
The alternative message is that whatever happens in life, take full advantage of opportunities that present themselves and always keep dirt on those you work with!