Senseless waste of time

So I get asked why one of the guys can't view a flash demonstration he wants to look at on the web and please sort it out now.
Now, I don't by default grant administrative rights to users. They don't really need them and it stops them from installing all kinds of dangerous rubbish on their machines. This guy was set as a power user and for some reason MS Server & XP Pro doesn't want Flash Player installed without admin rights. After 15 minutes of sodding about I give up and grant the user admin rights, and Flash is his to behold.
I tell him he should be good to go now, and out of interest what exactly was it (ie the URL of the page) that he was so interested in looking at...
Can you guess what happens next?
He doesn't remember. He knows the keyphrase he gave Google to find it, but there are 74.6 trillion results and which one he was looking at is (after 15 mins) a distant memory. Now I could at that point showed him how to use his browser history (ie a fairly basic operation with any web browser I would have thought) but he seemed to have lost interest in the whole idea at that point. I certainly had.
Anyhows, now he has admin priviledges, so the scope for cocking things up on the network multiplies about 20 fold. Looking forward to tomorrow! With a bit of luck someone will ask me how to find file>print. I'm not joking.

Traffic lights

So I'm sat at the traffic lights, and the lady next to me had been driving in front of me really slowly as we approached the lights. So I think to myself, take off quickly when they go green and I'll be able to get home a bit quicker.

Oh no. This lady decides it' a matter of honor for her not to be "beaten" at the lights and takes off, tyres screeching when we get green. Fair enough - I wasn't about to do anything dangerous, so I let her go ahead. Low and behold, having secured her prized pole position, she immediately starts driving at 28mph or so - on a 40mph limit.

I honestly wonder what this type of idiotic driving achieves. Writing a blog post about it might give the impression that I'm seething over the episode. Not so. If people want to behave like idiots on the road, that's their lookout. I just feel sorry for the cyclists. I used to be one, but there's only so many times of getting knocked off before you give up on that option if you are able to, which I have.

Life, the Universe and Everything by Andy Fletcher

Investigating God and the New Physics

Most book reviews end with either a recommendation or otherwise as to whether you should read/buy the book in question. I'm going to open up by recommending you DO at least read, and (from the authors point of view of course - no, I'm not him) ideally buy a copy.

I started reading with a slight sense of dread, that maybe the book (the author is American) would have an overbearing pro Christian theme and that I'd struggle with the points and conclusions. It doesn't. Anyone can read this book regardless of their personal beliefs and take something useful from it - I know I have.

Andy is evidently an accomplished mathematician, and no stranger to science (although he is quite modest about his prowess when it comes to science). He presents some fascinating facts about the universe we live in. Here's a few things you get to read about:

Relativity. One of my favourite subjects. Many books read on this subject, will never truly understand it though.
Quantum Mechanics. But in a way even I understood, and from an angle I hadn't considered.
Chaos Theory. This one will drive you nuts. Includes some interesting conclusions about:
The Second Law of thermodynamics. Entropy always increases with time. Andy doesn't actually mention Eden, but the implication of this law is that for there to be any order in the universe today (which obviously there is - you're reading this for instance!) then the initial conditions at the beginning of time must have been perfect. Absolute order. Eden.
Complexity. A group of "brainless" larvae arranging themselves to imitate another creature. If that sounds incredible, read the book and see what they do next!

Throughout the book I was reading stuff which I felt I simply wasn't even qualified to have an opinion on (particularly the maths!).

Here's Andy's website. To get a copy of the book, I'd recommend ordering via the net. Waterstones and WH Smith don't appear to stock it, although I am sure either could order it for you if requested. I got my copy through Amazon.
As a footnote, I've had an e-mail from Andy who should be in the UK later this year. I'm very much hoping I'll get the opportunity to meet him (and get my copy of his book signed!).