Blair; Brown; Flooding; Save Net Radio; Post; Grass; Mini-Me; Jeliot

Well there we are another week draws to an end - what have I been up to and what is happening in the world around me - hmmm! now let's see . . .

In the world around me it has to be the terrible floods down South - North East of England - the picture is of Worcestshire and as you can see they have flood defences in place - areas like Sheffield were not so lucky - supposedly the wettest June - I nearly wrote winter - but of course its Summer - I keep forgetting. Speaking of which I met Petr today and he is from Czech Republic - and I was asking him whether he liked Scotland and he said yes nice weather - I had to ask him again to make sure I had hear him correctly - but he says it is nice and mild here - never gets too cold he is used to -28 degrees in winter - 2m of snow etc., - so enjoys the mild weather in Scotland.

Blair - they finally managed to get him out of No 10 - kicking and screaming I believe - he has been interviewed by the police since leaving - cash for honours row continues. Brown now in power - can he be any worse - OK, I know I could rue the day I said that . . lol yes we'll see - I am not convinced by him yet - just a trifle too nervous and or controlled for my liking - anyway I hope he surprises us all but I am not holding my breath - the cynic that I am. As for making Blair special peace envoy for the middle east - give me a break - he doesn't stand a chance in hell - they have given hima big drum and set him loose in the field - and occaisionally we will hear a bloody noise - but he has no credibility on the ground and as Bush goes will loose all support in the end - I do not see a continued role for Balir like Clinton - Hilary stands a good chance of getting in - no don't even think of mentioning it to Cherie.

There is a major prblem facing Internet radio stations like congress in America - actually some large businesses in States are pressurising congress to pass a bill so that they have to pay millions in royalties . . to these businesses - Wednesday 27 June - all the Internet radios played no music in protest and played an appeal which repeated itself all day asking people in America to contact their congressmen to counter this bill - very annoying for the likes of me who just wanted to listen to music - but very effective at the end of the day . . . hopefully enough people contacted their congressment so that I can continue to listen to my favourite station.




Well I am still hard at work on my dissertation. It looks like the environments I will be having a look at are:

• BlueJ


• Eclipse


• DrJava


• Jeliot


• JGrasp


• Alice

Each has its own advantages - at the moment if I had to make a quick guess I'd say a hybrid of Jeliot & Alic in the very beginning because of what they both offer by means of visualisation and make the learning part fun to start with and BlueJ as the actual editor in the first year and probably migrating to Eclipse in year two - when the programs become more involved and students are more used to and understand things a lot better. But we will keep an open mind and see where things take us. Alice is a uique story-telling tool - whenre you compose a story by means of what is avaiable to you - but you are actually programming all the time. Jeliot actually illustrates all the algoritms and BlueJ gives you UML type diagrams and hide some of the complexity of the syntax from you.

I wanted to send some football tops to Arran, my son, (picture in right) for his birthday 15 July - walked over to the post office thinking I'll just insure it as they are notoriously bad in South Africa - when it comes to stealing the post etc., (apologies for generalising) - but blow me over when the postmaster said no problem but I can't insure as they are not prepared to take that chance - so I can send it but they won't insure the goods because there is a good chance it will not arrive on the other side. Turns out Jessila, my ex, knows of someone coming to Glasgow and she will ask them if they are prepared to take it for me - thank goodness - otherwise it would have to have waited until I go over in March next year.

I have been a BAD BOY - since last year I have been refusing to cut my grass - I went the whole of last year / season - I was working in Edinburgh remember - and I refused to cut it - I offered to pay if the housing would do it - they said OK but then backed out saying no they don't do that - anyway cut a long story short (that is what this is about) - the housing chapped on the door and told me that I am actually no longer in accordance with my tennancy agreement and they will have to write me up / send me somethign or just kick me out - not sure which - I half heartedly argued but in the end had to admit that I had had a good innings and Tuesday I got out there and cut me grass - its still a bit of a mess - takes a few cuts before it will start to take shape but it went from wiast height to ankle height - so I'll play the game now and try and more or less keep at this length.

Just back from the Bellsmyre Blue Chip Computer Club AGM - an excuse for a barbecue - I always enjoy one and tonight was no exception - nice to see everyone again - would not have know about it had Isabell not mentioned it to me recently. Some new faces - Jean's daughter amongst them . . . .

Went to Ndebele last week Saturday a South African shop where I can stock on Mrs Balls chutney - now to South Africans - Mrs Balls is to us what HP sauce used to be to the British or - vegemite is to the New Zealanders' - and to top it all according to Judi she is happy to have found them as they make a mean cup of coffee . . . we had breakfast there . . .

Some of the photo's I suppose need some explanation - opposite is a photo from the Guardian - ala a photo competition and it was about Australia and this Roo in a phone booth won it - looks as if he was just looking for some shade . . . probably just made a quick phone call - no doubt a blind date! Blair leaving Downing street - Blair being parachuted into save the Middle East (Steve Bell) - yeah right! Mini Me - is actually a Scottsih company WeeWorld - who advertised for Graduate programmers at our Dept at university - the rest is history - or rather Mini Me - some screen shots of my dissertation Java environments . . . Mont St Michel (Philip Plisson) - where I believe you really have to keep an eye on the tide - Mags reminded me of this - a place I'd really love to go to still - and will . . . . lastly flooding in Worcestershire.