Standards for success

In the middle of my panic about losing a heap of data, Steve sent me this link.

http://xkcd.com/349/

I remember an older and wiser colleague once telling me that you could track the disintegration of a project by the equipment that was being installed in the office. I don't know if it still works this way, but it used to be that all projects started by installing desks and computers, then as the schedule slid, and the working days got longer, they brought in coffee machines, then toasters, fridges, microwaves, and finally mattresses. (One of the big advantages of doing this stuff at home is that all those are already to hand).


These things are funny because we recognise a truth that isn't so funny, but they are the kind of comment that helped skewer me to my original plan, and stop me from just walking away. Now I have (pretty much) all the data back, and a (pretty much) working network. And Chris should be pleased that I've also got a working copy of Linux, that hosts a working GIS database, which I can access from elsewhere on the network.

So I'd say that standards for success didn't slip much at all. I lost a little bit of data, through my own incompetence. And for some reason that I can't fathom we are unable to use one of the printers from an old Windows laptop. Otherwise we are not just back where we started - some progress has been made.

In some ways this has all been a bit of a blast from my past. I may not be a technical wizard, but at least I've still got that stubborn determination not to be beaten by some stupid machine (whatever it costs in lost sleep).

Until I mess it all up again, I am going to give myself a little pat on the back, then get to play with my new GIS database.

Oh heck, that'll be after I've done the tax form.

Panic over

Now that the dust has settled, and I know that I have all my business critical work secured I realise how close I came to losing something really important. That's my cycling spreadsheet, with a record of nearly three years of rides.

In the wee small hours of this morning I was worrying about the relatively trivial matter of re-entering a year's worth of book-keeping activity from the paper records in my little black box. Losing track of my Eddington number would have been a far more serious issue, and far more difficult to recover.

Many years ago I was a system programmer on mainframes. Screwing up the accounts database, along with the backup copy would mean that virtually an entire organisation would grind to a halt until it was sorted. More than thirty years on, I still remember a meeting with the Chief Accountant the morning after we did just that. You'd think I would have learned.

At times like this I repeat the little ditty that we used to recite in those days:

I hate this damn computer
I wish that they would sell it
It won't do what I want it to
Only what I tell it

It's my reminder that whether it's Linux, Windows, Mac OS, or the 1970's mainframe that we used to grapple with, there's not a lot of point blaming the software. The operating system didn't decide to over-write the back-up with corrupt data, or install the wrong version of a software package.

Anyway, I think we've got everything sorted now. Until it returns to normal the office is looking nice and tidy. I'm certainly going to to have another try at Linux, but I think I'll take a somewhat different approach next time. And I can go on working on my Eddington number, without having to reboot it.

The most dangerous thing in the world: the enthusiastic idiot

Much of this week has been spent sorting out the office at home.

I can't quite believe it myself, but the previous sentence is true. I have spent almost a week sorting stuff out in the office. Unfortunately I'm no good at throwing things out. So I've accumulated a ridiculous amount of junk over the years, and when I say "sort out" it really means that some stuff goes, but most just gets rearranged, boxed up and stuffed into the loft. This isn't new, so the loft is already full of stuff that's been boxed up during previous efforts to get sorted.

So it was necessary to make some room in the loft as well.

Making room in the loft meant throwing out a lot of even older junk, including some old computers that have been stored up there since the days of Babbage, or thereabouts. The reason we kept them in the first place was that I wasn't sure what was left on the hard drives. The machines pre-dated USB ports, proper network connections, or any writeable media bigger than a floppy drive. So I decided that the best thing was to remove the hard drives, and install them in a newer desktop. That way I could transfer the contents to a removable drive. Of course the really sensible thing would have just been to trash them, but I wasn't thinking too clearly. Anyway, it all went surprisingly well. I stripped out three old drives, re-installed them, transferred the contents, and discovered that they didn't contain anything worth saving.

So it was really a waste of time, but at least I satisfied myself that the old computers could safely go to be recycled. And they did. At the same time I managed to fix a long-standing problem with a flaky graphics card on the newer desk-top.

Flushed with success, it then seemed like a good idea to re-configure the newer desktop so that I could dual boot Linux, and experiment with some open source stuff that isn't available on Windows. In practice all that proved a bit more difficult than I expected, but by this morning I had Ubuntu up and running, and I thought I was a wizard.

I played around or an hour or so, then I rebooted to get Windows back. Oops. Unfortunately I had messed up somewhere, and I discovered that I could no longer boot Windows on the machine that contains a chunk of useful stuff, including the company accounts.

I'd backed everything up, of course. Or at least I thought I had. But I hadn't.

Now I'm in the process of trying to rebuild everything. I seem to have access to most of the files. I've installed the main applications, and at the moment I'm struggling with re-connecting to the network. (I'm writing this on a different machine). I can see the files that hold the company accounts, but I haven't yet worked out how to get them working - which is probably the most important thing.

Time will tell, but I think I'll get there in the end. But it's been a terrible waste of time, not to mention a humbling experience.

Still, the office is looking a lot better, and one day I'll look back and laugh at what an idiot I am. Maybe.

---

Later: I've got the network back. Starting to install updates.

---

It's now gone 1:00 am, the network is working, the printers are working, I can access the external drives as well as the internal drive, and I seem to have got all the old files still.

The accounts package is working. I can import my last backup. But the contents are all garbled.

Not garbled in a normal way. Garbled in a completely different way.

Tomorrow is another day.

---

It's 10:00 the following morning, and I now have my accounts back. I'm a happy bunny. The only issue I have to face now is everyone telling me that you don't get these problems on a Mac.

Hambleden again

No messing about today. Nothing complicated or remarkable. Just a variation on a regular loop up through Marlow, Fingest, and Hambleden doing the usual stuff.

Even the variation wasn't much of one. In the past I've experimented with different routes home from Hambleden, but I've never tried the most direct one. That would be over the weir at Mill End then up Aston Lane to Remenham Hill, to join up with another regular route around Crazies Hill (yes, really). I think the only reason I've not returned this way before is that a couple of years ago I rode the reverse direction, down Aston Lane. In those far-off days it stuck in my mind as a long steep climb. It isn't though, and it made for a change.

The weather was a bit cold, but bright and sunny. We'd had a frost overnight, and there were still patches of ice around, but nothing to worry about. The Thames seemed very full, and the flow over the weir at Mill End was quite impressive.

It was nice to see plenty of other people out and about enjoying the day.

It's been great, and I've only done two rides so far in 2011, so plenty more to go.

Clarts

Definitions of "clarts" (noun) and "clarty" (adjective) in online dictionaries describe them as words used in Scotland and the North-East of England to mean dirt or mud. I've always used "clarty" more specifically for particularly sticky and messy mud. But I may be confusing "clarty" with "claggy". Either would be useful for the state of some paths on this morning's walk in Hodgemoor Wood (near Chalfont St Giles).

We had fun getting messy, followed by a pleasant lunch in the nearby pub.

There are comments on the web site from people who had got lost in Hodgemoor Wood because maps of the paths are lacking.This is one of the bigger areas of natural woodland in the Chilterns, with quite a mixture of ancient trees. It isn't huge though, so when we were reading up about it beforehand we had a chuckle at people who couldn't find their way around. It was our first visit, but we didn't see how you could get lost in a wood that's only a couple of miles across. It wasn't quite so funny as we made our second circuit through the claggy clarts looking for the car park.

The comments seem fair. A better map would be useful. Chastened, I checked on OSM when we got home. Some of the paths are shown, but not all of them. It would have been a good idea to trace and map our wanderings. Unfortunately I didn't. We'll have to go back.

Pickles and Hammond save the world

Tonight I will rest easy in my bed, secure in the knowledge that Eric and Philip (assisted by the mighty Greg Clark) are allowing Local Authorities to attract shoppers by setting competitive local parking charges, and allowing developers to provide as many car parking spaces as they want. They tell us that this will bring an end to drivers being unfairly penalised, over-zealous parking enforcement, and unsightly parking congestion. They also seem to think that it will improve the environment by encouraging people to drive into town centres instead of shopping out-of-town.

So, whoopeee!

They are spinning this as the end of the war on the motorist ("Today the Government is calling off Whitehall's war on the motorist".... says Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles. "This is a key step in ending the war on the motorist" says Transport Secretary Philip Hammond).

The spin is the most appalling nonsense, but presumably they think somebody out there is daft enough to swallow it. The reality (at least as parking charges go) is rather mundane.

This is the actual change made to the Planning guidelines on parking charges...

Before: As part of an overall approach on parking, covering both the local transport plan and development plan, local authorities should adopt on-street measures to complement land use policies. Car parking charges should also be used to encourage the use of alternative modes. The RTS should set out the context for parking controls and charges by each local authority. Within this context, local authorities should set out appropriate levels and charges for parking which do not undermine the vitality of other town centres. Controls over public parking (both on-street parking and in car parks) need to be backed up by adequate enforcement measures.

After: As part of an overall approach on parking, covering both the local transport plan and development plan, local authorities should adopt on-street measures to complement land use policies. Local authorities should set out appropriate levels and charges for parking which do not undermine the vitality of town centres. Parking enforcement should be proportionate

It also seems that parking enforcement need no longer be "adequate". In future it will be "proportionate", whatever that means.

If the political ambition of Pickles and Hammond is to go down in history as the government ministers that removed a couple of irrelevant sentences from section 13 of a 25-part document on planning guidance, then lets hope their ambition is realised.

Meanwhile these are still decisions for local authorities. The planning guidelines still say that local authorities should:

• use parking policies, alongside other planning and transport measures, to promote sustainable transport choices and reduce reliance on the car for work and other journeys
• give priority to people over ease of traffic movement and plan to provide more road space to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport in town centres, local neighbourhoods and other areas with a mixture of land uses

Existing guidelines from the Department for Transport on local authority parking (in place since 2008) say this....

The setting of charges for parking on-street or off-street in designated areas is a matter for the [local] authority...

Parking charges and penalty charges should be proportionate, so authorities should not set them at unreasonable levels...


Authorities should never use parking charges just to raise revenue or as a local tax...


When setting charges, authorities should consider the following factors:

• parking charges can help to curb unnecessary car use where there is adequate public transport or walking or cycling are realistic alternatives, for example, in town centres...
• charges should be set at levels that encourage compliance with parking restrictions
• charges can reflect the value of kerb-space...
  
• if on-street charges are set too low, they could attract higher levels of traffic than are desirable

Of course it could be that the government anticipates that local authorities are about to increase parking charges to cover some of their funding shortfall, and they are trying to ensure that their own hands are clean.

If that's not the reason, then apparently three government ministers think there is so little to worry about that they can spend their time tweaking a document to make it clear that local authorities have the freedom to do something that they can do anyway.

Maybe that should be reassuring - but somehow it isn't.

Longest ride of the year

There's nothing very special about riding an easy 21 miles on a Sunday afternoon, but it was pleasant enough for the first outing of the year. I went down the Jubilee river, then on to Datchet, and back through Eton and Eton Wick. On the way I located and mapped a few more of the local war memorials, but the real point was just to get out for a bit of a stretch. There were a few other cyclists around, and we shared a little bit of sunshine and some quiet roads.

I hope this won't rank as my longest ride of the year for very long, but just at the moment I'm proud to declare that I'm 20% ahead of schedule on my annual mileage plan. It won't last.