A disconnected collection of Ian White’s thoughts

The light is on but nobody is home !

Mon, 7 Jul 2008 19:01:40 +0100

This website is a bit unattended right now - mainly because all the action is over at http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/it-collaboration-technology-blog/. So if you are interested in what I am thinking or doing have a mosey on over and check out the content.

Passing

Wed, 6 Feb 2008 16:25:48 +0000

If a blog is about anything it must be about those things that are important to us as individuals.

I learnt that last week Milos Vainer, father of my friends Richard, Martin and Peter passed away. I have known Milos for around 30 years and he was one of nature’s gentlemen and like most diamonds not without flaws.

His life was amazing, some of which has been recounted here.

Not flamboyant, just s very nice person.

Happy New Charolais

Tue, 1 Jan 2008 14:27:04 +0000

Last night London came to its annual standstill, no not floods, nor the wrong type of snow or the State Opening of Parliament, just a bunch of drunks wandering aimlessly around waiting for midnight and a £1m worth of fireworks to go bang. My better half and I decided to walk slightly on the wild side, we settled for theatre (theater for for my US friends), dinner and a wander down to old man Thames to watch the illuminations.

Theatre was cracking, we had quite decent (or is that decadent) seats to watch Cabaret, very provocative both visually and intellectually. As a play it really adds an edge somehow missed in the film. Amy Nuttall adds an English manic edge that gives the headline song a completely new and powerful set of emotions.

But where to eat, 10.30 on New Year’s eve is not the time for a random selection, using the highly recommended TopTable we were taken to ‘Cafe des Amis’ which is certainly not as run down as the classic image above.

The Cafe felt really French, not the psuedo-French of Cafe Rouge, and the quality and style of the food was so believable that I felt it could be found in a nice provincial French setting. Service was not fast (but I was not expecting to be - and I would have been disappointed if it was) but the food was really well cooked, well presented without being fussy and for one of the biggest ‘eating out’ nights of the year very reasonably priced. Our highlight was the Charolais filet steak, I felt that my taste buds had been transported to Limoges - it was a real delight. Desert for me was cheese - An adjacent diner left half because it was too ‘strong’ for him - the poor child needs an eating education!

Summing up the Cafe - great place, great pace, we never did get to see the fireworks, but a complimentary glass of New Year Champagne made up for that and without doubt this is a restaurant to return to for the appreciation of the regular food on offer.

Its tough being Belgian

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:26:03 +0000

I spent three very happy years living in Belgium, Antwerp in particular, and I am pleased to report that I was treated very nicely by all who I met. Belgians however can be quite vicious to each other, living in Flemish district a visiting French speak friend was un-politely ignored after querying some produce in French. Belgium is not big, it has not had a government for around 6 months and they moan about that, however if this is the best they can offer a beauty contestant they have real problems : Miss Belgium booed for language lapse (thanks BBC)

2008 - the buzz starts here

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 08:51:33 +0000

Lotusphere has always been a highlight of my year. Since the last century (gosh that makes me feel ancient but it was 1993) on two continents is has been one of the focal points of both my technical and business social year. The nature of the event and the nature of the people who attend would seem to be ideal material for very active Facebook activity but I have been quite surprised at how little has been apparent over the last month.

This is particularly interesting with the push by Lotus to focus on Social Networking type tools as part of the emerging portfolio. It will be interesting to see how much action the Lotusphere Facebook groups engender over the next month and whether this can become a self sustaining community.

Sex, drugs and rock & routers

Fri, 7 Dec 2007 23:58:29 +0000

If you want serious postings then my Computer Weekly blog is normally the place to visit. But in the spirit that because we in the IT community can be a bit po faced from time to time, it is nice to show we have a human touch; I bring you a fantastic YouTube clip brought to my attention by my colleague Gareth Howell

A big 'up' to the man who composed and performed this, Gary Feldman.

Follow the Money- December Quote

Tue, 4 Dec 2007 10:24:58 +0000

Yes, I am a bit late this month but stuff happens. With all the political shenanigans going on right now I thought the famous quote from the Watergate scandal would be most appropriate. Where are Messrs. Woodward and Bernstien when we need them?

Finger pointing 101

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:39:54 +0000

There seems to me to be a lot of sanctimonious IT luminaries pointing their gnarled and pasty fingers at HMG either saying ‘told you so’ or ‘we wouldn’t do it like that’ - the fact is all of us have dropped clangers over the years, the difference - we weren’t found out. Life, if it was a film you would never believe it.

Almost famous

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:39:42 +0000

My Computer Blog is now on-line - I shall have to be more serious now :-( Read and enjoy

How many blog posts

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 11:25:58 +0000

The trials and tribulations of Her Majesty Revenue & Customs are the stuff of legend and frankly I do not intend to add more commentary to an already well documented round of governmental incompetence. I am sort of intrigued roughly 24 hours after the story broke to see how many posts can be found, this is a game we can all play!. If you click on this Google string it will launch a simple search I have constructed that will report on the hits the search engine has crawled, about 32,000 right now, I might do this daily over the next week and graph the results. I will be interesting to see how this story has exercised bloggers.
Update 23 Nov: Post count now hits 57,000
Update 25 Nov: Post count now hits 95,000