Tuesday, June 27, 2006

We're all going on a ...

Summer Holiday!

Hoorah! Our summer holiday is rapidly approaching.
Oh, No! Our summer holiday is rapidly approaching
.. and we've got precious little ready.

That's this week's evenings sorted, then.
To be fair, we have got the tickets, renewed the passports, updated my driving licence, had the car radiator replaced, and - wait for it - made a list. You know the ones: a back-of-an-envelope, scribbled list in pencil of "things to take on holiday". Our list centres on things to entertain the children.

I hesitate to point out that there will be no updates to this blog for a few weeks. Regular readers will know, however, that I'm not a regular blogger. C'est la vie.

No more worries for a week or two ...

Monday, June 19, 2006

It's a bittersweet symphony this life ...

I don't know why, particularly as I'm not a footie fan, but I feel this particular news item is worth a mention:

Comedian dies covering World Cup

It seems strangely bitter-sweet that someone should die doing something they love - and are loved for.

R.I.P. Claudio Besserman "Bussunda" Vianna

Thursday, June 08, 2006

99 Bottles of beer of the wall ...

Darn it! I'm slipping .. into blog apathy.

At least my blog hasn't disappeared off the net ... What did happen to Stray Toaster?

[a slight pause is inserted here - for comic effect - as one of my colleagues across the office spectacularly spills his full glass of water over the entire desk and surrounding area]

Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Apologising for lack of posting. Well, it's hot: that's my excuse. Yes, I know it's only just started being hot .. but I'm going to stick to my flimsy excuse anyway.

As for news, I've just entertained the office with the Befunge programming language - which they'd somehow got to where they are without knowing about. In case you're wondering, try reading the Wikipedia pages or the Dictionary of Programming Languages. There's even a delightful JavaScript interpreter - so you can try it at home.

What to Befunge programs look like? Try this for size:


9::*\2*+00p0v"."0<
>310p0"," >"llaw eht no "v >#v_ ^
^_210p0"--:" v ,
: v " of beer" < :
- >"selttob"00g.^ < <
1 >00g1-#^_$" elttob erom enO" ^
>00g#^_$" selttob erom oN" ^
^_110p0",dnuora ti ssap ,nwod eno ekaT"^
^:-1_010p00g1-00pvv:-1g01_@#g00,*25<
^ <


just copy & paste it into the interpreter & away you go.


Take one down, pass it around ...