http://samjwatkins.com/blog A collection of thoughts, reactions and general comment Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:49:15 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I had this weird dream, as a child, of things lost being found centuries later and I have just had the same thing flash now. All in a strange bullet time but things surviving in one piece despite the odds. Two completely different scenes which then reoccur in the dream ... http://samjwatkins.com/blog/?p=572 Twitter has easily replaced RSS as the communication channel of choice. Only 5 years ago, RSS was seen as the most effective way to allow web viewers to receive federated content. Two things changed this. First: Firefox 2 and IE 7, launched within days of each other in October 2006, both chose to ... http://samjwatkins.com/blog/?p=563 Having, quite proudly, reached the grand old age of 37 there are some thoughts I'd like to share on my observations of the world. You cannot understand someone until you've walked around in their shoes Harper Lee's famous line from To Kill a Mocking Bird.  I've had some wonderful things said to ... http://samjwatkins.com/blog/?p=561 I also talk about my first computer a lot: my Amiga bought in 1993.  One of the things the Amiga OS and apps were aware of was the migration of users. Eh? What'ya on about? When people adopt new skills they go through four stages: unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence and ... http://samjwatkins.com/blog/?p=559 You could blame it on the suits and the make up but I really love the way politics is coming to life at the moment. I don't know if the "prime minister debates" have really livened it up for me or whether the interesting policies - reform over tax, parliament and ... http://samjwatkins.com/blog/?p=553 So what's been happening my end? Well, I finally took my advanced motorcycling test and passed and I am finally taking some piano lessons. The skiing trip went well and I finally have enough skill to fake being confident on even quite high mountains and even enjoy myself while doing this ... http://samjwatkins.com/blog/?p=542 So the pain relief looked like it was going to be really painful and where was Jon? The nurse caught my face and twigged what was going through my brain: "no, you drink this one :-)" I laughed and downed the syringe that was handed to me.  Morphine would definitely either make ... http://samjwatkins.com/blog/?p=538 I landed, and checked my arm.  My hand was pointing backwards and there was a lot of swelling.  I knew I had to straighten the wrist so grab my hand and yanked it straight.  No one had noticed I'd fallen, but it was suddenly very quiet and Willow's mum came over ... http://samjwatkins.com/blog/?p=347 I love better ways of achieving something.  Talking, demonstrating and presenting on this subject always makes my day.  It also scares me more than anything else I do regularly. There are many sites giving you great advice on how to get your message across but I often find it's the little ... http://samjwatkins.com/blog/?p=532 OK, I'm not belittling Terry Pratchett, but many people have incurable conditions that end up killing them and it often takes a lot longer than his particular brand of Alzheimer’s. Sir Terry would like to be able to petition for assisted death.  I think that is an awful thing to ask ... http://samjwatkins.com/blog/?p=507