It's not all werk, werk, werk you know

So we’re having the annual furore about record A level and GCSE results, declining educational standards and concerned members of the CBI. Does anyone else find strangely depressing the implication that education should simply be a process of inculcating in the young the habits, values and skills that are most useful to employers?

Registry

An easier way to do it would have been with this script, which allows you to use regedit.exe to edit the registry. I have a feeling that this is all going to end in tears.

allowreged.vbs

Registry

These are a couple of VBScripts to allow one to change one’s homepage and internet explorer title bar (e.g. to get rid of the “provided by”), despite the fact that, say, one’s IT bods at work have removed the option to do the former from IE and have restricted regedit.exe to admins only. The final script allows one to check the value/existence of a particular known registry key. Open on your own computers at your own risk. These files will make changes to your registry.

homepage.vbs
changeIEbar.vbs
checkregkey.vbs

Worthless and weak

I feel terrible. Headache, sore throat, aching bones, high temperature, large quantities of corrosive green snot. I seem to be breaking a sweat by picking up a cup of coffee. Doesn’t bode awfully well for a track day at Donington tomorrow.

London

London pictures on Virtual Traveller.

Seat sniffing

Hmmm, not sure about the seat sniffing thing so far. Because we’re all so irredeemably middle class we’ve got these fancy seats at work and it seems that the mesh bottoms allow air to permeate so they don’t really smell of much at all — still, at least they don’t smell of farts; typical mediocre, risk–averse middle class approach, I guess.

Oh Brother

Ha, ha, ha; Julie Burchill really is a dick. Apparently, thinking Big Brother is a load of crap means you are a culturally constipated snob who hates the human race in general and the working class specifically. Presumably, she gets paid to write this? What crap.

And what is it with this “seat–sniffer” thing in every damn thing old Julie writes these days? Sniff my seat, lady. In fact, thinking about it, I swear there’s like a computer they’ve programmed to write this shit automatically and Julie is like sat on some tropical island somewhere laughing her ass off. Middle class, mediocre life it may be, but I’ve got better things to do than watch Big Brother and I’m certainly not going to apologise for being middle class — if that’s what I am — besides which, since when was being an author and journalist like Julie Burchill “working class” anyway? Oh well — toodle pip — those seats aren’t gonna to sniff themselves, and all that.

Marathon III

Korean guy dies of exhaustion after gaming marathon.

Appropriately named?

Surprised I hadn’t heard of Wright Hassall solicitors until now.

FPR WSBK

It’s all been a bit political around here lately, so on a lighter note, I am pleased to report that I have just returned from a great day out at Brands Hatch watching World Superbike racing as a guest of Foggy Petronas Racing. Unfortunately the FPR riders didn’t have an especially good day, but their team’s hospitality was top drawer. It was interesting to see top racers going around some of the same corners that I went around on my last track day, including the infamous Druids hairpin, where I came off. Ticket, paddock pass and hospitality pass were courtesy of one of the team sponsors, via a mate of a mate.

Bin Laden Busters

Perfect, from Geoff

Photoshop

Alright, which one of you arty people with Photoshop wants to make me a Bin Laden Busters logo, as discussed below? If it’s any good, it will certainly be displayed on the site but I’m not committing to having it tattooed at this stage.

Galloway or the highway

The representative in Parliament of many of us who usually get on at Aldgate tube in the morning is covering himself in glory again I see. What planet is this guy on?

“Iraqi resistance is not just defending Iraq. They are defending all the Arabs and they are defending all the people of the world against American hegemony”.

Hang on a minute. I should be grateful that I am at least being defended from American hegemony while our friendly terrorists, “with the lightest and most basic of weapons”, are busy trying to blow up me and my neighbours. Now, like many of the people who get on at Aldgate tube of a morning, I am an average office–working stiff of no particular intellect, wealth or significance and not a member of the political elite like Mr Galloway. Hence, I am not privy to what is really going on the world and am no doubt unaware of all the clever schemes and conspiracies by which those of the elite may continue to get bloody rich at the expense of the rest of the world, so that they can ride around in a Bentley rather than getting on the damn tube. But I have an intuitive, dumb grasp of who my friends are and the act of attempting to reduce my person to its component parts via the medium of high explosive puts you outside that category. Incidentally, I haven’t seen George on the tube lately.

London terror

The four week anniversary of the first bombs and another tedious journey into work. Roads cordoned off around Aldgate, police on horseback, chopper hovering overhead. I’d already decided to to walk before being blocked from getting anywhere near the tube, but it necessitated a bit of a diversion. Blasted terrorists. I’m thinking of getting a “no Bin Laden” tattoo, in the style of the Ghostbusters’ logo but with Bin Laden instead.

Nice whistles

A conversation with Chrishola made me think that it would be cool to get a bespoke Saville Row suit. A look on the internet led me to this site, of a Saville Row Tailor. A few points to note:

1. Hey, it’s Duncan Sinclair.
2. A two piece–suit from this guy comes in at a cool two grand, so is unlikely to be realistic unless I win the lottery.
3. That given, it is interesting that this tailor endorses my view that M&S make as good a VFM off–the–peg as anyone. I’m a fan of M&S tailoring, because you can mix and match jacket and trousers to get the right fit, there is a combination that fits me without alteration, you can get the whole job of getting a suit sorted in about 20 minutes and they look perfectly acceptable for work.

Boring stuff

My girlfriend went off yesterday to the States for a while, with the result that I had some time to myself to think last night. I will note the results here to remind myself to do at least consider doing something about them:

1. My flat really needs decorating. Which is always a pain in the ass. Anyone know a good decorator in central London?
2. My flat is too damn noisy and it irritates me and disturbs my sleep. Consider moving. Which is always an even bigger pain in the ass. Anyone know a nice place to live?
3. There is a weird clicking sound, like the old telephone dialing noise, that emanates periodically from behind the wall in the bedroom. Which is a total pain in the ass. What the hell is that? Can we stop it?
4. The car needs an M.O.T. this month. Which is always a pain in the ass when you work during the week. Anyone know a good garage on the east side of central London?
5. I want to swap my boring car for a fun sportscar before I get too old. Look into the financial implications of a Lotus Elise, Vauxhall VX220, Toyota MR2 or something similar.
6. In the interests of achieving (5) without going bankrupt and also in the interests of not killing myself (having just repaired the bike from my fifth crash since I started riding), <the eternal question>is it time to sell the bike and become sensible in my life?</the eternal question>

A downside is that putting any of the above thoughts into action is liable to cost a fair amount of cash and involve a fair amount of hassle. Another downside is that having the above thoughts in the first place is clearly indicative of my arrival at middle–age.