Can i really?

You want what now? 2006 March 2 13:33

Posted by diamond in : Work , add a comment

One of my tasks for today is to fill out some application forms for a security clearance at shannon airport. Mostly it’s just the usual mindless details (name, dob, place of birth, address, phone number, etc). Fine. However, it’s not all sane. One part of the form, which is destined for the gardi (for them to do a background check etc) asks for all the usual stuff, including ‘present home address’ and ‘original home address’. I don’t really have a clear answer for the latter, so i’ve gone with where i used to live in mullingar. Ok. I turn over the form to see 3 more places to write down past addresses. At the bottom it then says “In signing this form I certify that all addresses resided in have been declared including time spent overseas”. You what?! At the last count i’ve resided in 15 houses, so far. How the hell am i supposed to fit them all onto this one form, even if i could remember all the addresses (which i can’t)? Gah -/

treo, weight, stealth switches, cycling and cpp on record again

Posted by diamond in : Work, Random, Cycling , add a comment

My beloved treo 600 has died. I took it out in the pub on saturday to find it had locked up, with a black screen. I reset it, and it proceeded to display a white screen for about 1 second, a black screen for about 2 seconds, a white screen for about 1 second, a black screen for.. you get the picture. I think it stopped that after about an hour and just went back to staying black. The next morning it powered up fine, but had wiped the contents of it’s memory (which was expected. yay for backups.). It locked up again later that day, and after being reset it brought up the ‘powered by palm’ startup logo and sat there. Nothing i did would get it past that point. Eventually i just left it like that overnight and by the next morning the battery had run flat and it was off/wiped again. So, it’s as good as dead, and i’m pretty lost without it as my memory is shot. I’m currently trying to get a replacement off ebay *sigh*.

In work one of the things i’m currently working on is a set of motes. I spent an entire day trying to figure out how to program these devices from a pc. After much digging (and some pointers from mikael), i found some relevant documentation, and followed the instructions. It didnae work. No leds came on on the board, and the programmer s/w got no respose from the device. I checked the power, checked the voltage, checked the wiring, tried reversing one of the cables a few times, tested with the other mote etc. I was stumped. After much head scratching, i finally spotted something. There was a tiny unobvious switch on the board that i hadn’t recognised. “Hmm” i thought, “what happens if i flick that?”. *click*. Lights come on, it lives! Insert some swear words here ,-)

I was at the clubs and societies council on Tuesday, and managed to get myself into the minutes again as Captain Pedantic Pants. Long live the Plan -)

Over the last year or so i’ve been steadily putting on weight. Back before i started cycling last summer i was up to about 82kg (~13st). Over 3-4 months of cycling regularly, i was down to 75.5kg (11st 13lb). My target weight is about 70-72kg (~11.5st) (and yes, i do need to lose weight, despite the fact that it doesn’t generally show). Unfortunately, being off cycling for 2 months due to the eye issues undid most of the progress -( At the moment i’m back up to 80kg (12st 8lb). Hopefully that will start to go back down now that things are mostly back to normal.

The other factor is the amount of food i tend to eat. As any of ye who’ve shared a table with me will know, i like my food, and frequently consume vast quantites of it (after all, i am a student, and winter is coming…). In particular, my breakfasts for the last 6 months or so are even larger again than my norm. I couldn’t understand why i would stuff myself so full, to the point where afterwards i was uncomfortable, but wouldn’t realise that it was happening till afterwards. Yesterday it finally clicked. I remember reading the leaflet that comes with the medication i take to help me sleep. One of the listed sideeffects for it is ‘increased appetite’. Now that i understand what’s going on, it’s easier to monitor things, and try not to over-do it so much. We’ll see how this works out in practise.

Cycling summary: