Category Archives: Top Tips

Advice, sometimes frivolous

GTP Teachers | Transform your life, transform their futures.


Via GTP Teachers | Transform your life, transform their futures, a strong initiative to place skilled graduates into teaching: GTP Teachers specialise in placing accomplished professionals into Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) placements with secondary schools in both the private and state sectors. We have nationwide coverage an a large candidate bank to choose from. GTP Teachers provide high quality recruitment services to the UK education sector. We like to form a bond of trust built over time between school and candidate […]

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Married only 13 years, today


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Today, Beth and I have been married only thirteen years. I’m a lucky man 😀

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Holidays 4 Heroes


Via Holidays 4 Heroes, the armed forces show how to deliver “quick reaction welfare”: Holidays 4 Heroes is an informal group of people, including serving and retired personnel from all the UK Armed Forces and civilian supporters. We try to assist serving and former military personnel and their families, in a variety of ways that might otherwise fall outside the remit of the better-known Forces Charities. We work together through an Internet web-site used, mainly but certainly not exclusively, by […]

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“Bad Thoughts, a guide to clear thinking” — Jamie Whyte


Jamie Whyte’s book “Bad Thoughts” is a tremendous guide for those who are seriously interested in the welfare of everyone in society, and who are not prepared to separate moral and intellectual seriousness. Whyte’s 152-page book is entertaining and relevant and I do recommend it. In the meantime, I offer a brief and possibly inadequate guide to the key points here.

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Recommended: Pitstop-Racing


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Today, I discovered and I am delighted to recommend Pitstop-Racing of Brize Norton. This is a proper workshop, where you can not only get your suspension set expertly for your own style, you can meet the mechanic and have a conversation about camber, toe-in and understeer. This may not matter to you, but if you are a driver, it will. The inside shoulders of my winter tyres were chamfered when they came off, suggesting too much toe-out or camber. It’s […]

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A really easy pack


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As its last pack was in the dark, I thought it best to repack my main parachute before jumping it. Finally, getting this 210 sq ft canopy in the bag was easy. Follow the link from the photo for more*: In the container, originally uploaded by stevenjbaker. It turns out the secret is not just practice, but practice in the packing shed with the packers on a slow day. Thanks Skydive Algarve. WARNING: This image and this sequence of images […]

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Spam Arrest – Sender Verification


A terrible idea: agreeing to be fined $2000 for every spam email that might be spoofed in your name: You represent and warrant to Spam Arrest and the Recipient that any e-mail you desire to send to the Recipient is not “unsolicited commercial e-mail” i.e., the e-mail does not primarily contain an advertisement or promotion of a commercial product, service or Web site; unless the Recipient expressly consented to receive the message, either in response to a clear and conspicuous […]

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Now Chancellor Alistair Darling under fire for expenses – Times Online


Including a neat summary of the latest dramas: Alistair Darling has claimed thousands of pounds in expenses on his family home while renting out his privately owned London flat and living in a grace-and-favour apartment in Downing Street, it was reported last night. The Chancellor has on a number of occasions swapped the title of main home between his house in Edinburgh and his flat in London, reportedly enabling him to claim expenses for both dwellings while also earning rent […]

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Zauchensee Panorama


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Inspired by the documentation for Wee Planets, I created this panorama with Hugin, an outstanding tool for aligning, joining, blending and correcting images. I simply followed the installation instructions and threw six relatively carelessly-taken photos at it to obtain this result. It was reported as a “very bad fit” by Hugin, which may indicate the quality that can be achieved with care. The original size is available here. Hugin includes everything needed to quickly create panoramas: I did not have […]

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Well done BT!


We have moved house every two years or less for as long as we have been married. For the first time (IIRC), today, BT swapped our phone line and broadband within a few hours on the specified day. And I only had to make a single journey through a labyrinthine telephone system. Who would have thought it?

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