What do you do with your empty Illy cans?

I used some of them (8) to build a small shelf over miss Silvia:

Unfortunately another bunch of them is piling up… anyone got any ideas?

Espresso Knock box

We all (well some of us do) like to have a good knock box at the side of our beauty (in my case Rancilio Silvia) but before going ahead and blowing 30 punds on a fancy looking Gaggia knock out box just hold on to your money a bit! What you could do (and I did) is this:

1. Buy a simple plastic container like the ones you use for keeping food in the fridge

2. Buy a wooden mop handle (you can get this in any hardware store)

3. Buy a Victorinox Hunter (no household should be without) or just use your old wood saw

4. Measure the width of the plastic box and add 4 centimeters (2 centimeters on each side)

5. Always mark what you will be cutting: it will not help you while cutting but at least you will see where you should have cut the darn thing

5. Cut the wooden handle according to the measurements

6. Mark the width of the box on the wooden handle (leaving the 2 centimeters on each side)

7. Make two half way cuts in the wooden handle

8. Put the pieces together and you have your knock box

Observations:

When buying the plastic box keep in mind what you’re gonna use it for. Make sure the plastic is sturdy enaugh and that it can take a hit. Plastic boxes these days have fency edges to make them airtight when you put the lid on. Look for one that has the edges as regular and simple as possible. If you can, buy a lidless plastic container.

When buying the mop handle make sure you buy a wooden one. Pretty convincing aluminum made wood imitations exist.

Make sure your half cuts will fit tightly on the box

You can also measure the space you have available and buy a box that fits:

That’s it, I hope you’ll enjoy doing it yourself!

Internet

The Internet isn’t working!

Yeah… well… there are a number of problems with the ISP: the bandwidth is fairly unstable and their ADSL modem / wireless access point is maybe not the best one. It often needs resets in the morning. Sort of a wake up call. Also the wireless signal strength is not excellent.. far from it if you ask me.

The frustrating part only follows: I’ve been for quite a while network admin for a small ISP (round about 400 users) and usually when there was any kind of problem with the internet connection I could almost always fix it. But now I’m just as helpless as any other home user. And some (read my girlfriend) still expect me to fix things. Hmm… either I’m missing something or they’re missing something…

Loads of bandwidht to ya all!

On life, the universe and everything

Following is part of a conversation I had a while ago with a friend of mine who’s now a network admin somewhere in Germany (hence bastard operator from hell).

BOFH = Bastard operator from hell

BOFH says: good IT = lazy IT
BOFH says: we’re 2 lazy to do it ourselves so we write a small program
BOFH says: or do some quick hack or something
BOFH says: or …. or …. just watch a youtube vid and maybe the problem goes away in the mean time
BOFH says: because, you see, the problem has to stand the test of time before somebody starts looking into  it
BOFH says: if it’s not urgent enough it can wait until it becomes urgent
BOFH says: for you see, we only deal with urgent matters
BOFH says: anything below urgent is also below our dignity as well
BOFH says: and another thing: whatever you do, never explain to anyone anything; if they can understand it, they don’t need you
BOFH says: you can also spice up the life of your qa department by adding snipets of code such as this one
to the prouction version of your app:

int remainder = DateTime.Now.Ticks % 666;
remainder = remainder % 7;
if (remainder == 0)
throw new RandomException(“This is a random exception. It just occurs.”);

BOFH says: Where 7 is a prime number that you can adjust if the code returns null more often than you like.  The higher the prime number the smaller number of occurences. I use 13 when I don’t really feel like working.

Qué tal?

Ioana Radu: buna dimineata (Good Morning)
Serban: hello
Ioana Radu: ce faci? (How are you)
Serban: work.. some youtube… some more work
Serban: getting excited…
Serban: getting bored…
Serban: thinking of times passed and times to come
Ioana Radu:  o gramada de activitate (a lot of activity)
Ioana Radu:
Serban: feeling the woofer (bass)
Serban: missing the time to listen to the music that’s playing
Serban: things of that sort…