Having just ported our [www.numeracyintervention.net] to a Linux server; we have troubles with our database: IPS Driver Error There appears to be an error with the database. You can try to refresh the page by clicking here So, having paid good money for this, we ‘called’ Technical Support. The reply was: “I have reviewed your account and it appears that the tech support on your perpetual license has expired. You may renew your license by logging into your client center and ... Read Full Story

Thought it might be interesting to post these here. A two part article on Wolfram|Alpha I did for Computer Weekly [WARNING: may contain traces of coin tossing references]. Here’s a pdf of the first bit, and here’s a link to the edited version on Computer Weekly’s website. And - wait for it … Here’s a pdf of the second bit, and here’s a link to the edited version on Computer Weekly’s website. Just in case you do compare the version, I should add that... Read Full Story

You are what’s on your Amazon Wishlist? Just mucking about with a little regular-expression stuff - interestingly [frighteningly!], it adds up to £908.66 The Man Who Changed Everything: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell From a Life of Physics £6.00 Essential Epicurus: Letters, Principal Doctrines, Vatican Sayings and Fragments (Great Books in Philosophy) £6.29 The Art of Richard P. Feynman: Images by a Curious Character The Best of Monty Python’s Flying Circus Volumes 1-3 / L... Read Full Story

I’ve just notice what I believe to be a subtle logo that’s been going right over my head for quite sometime. I’ve noticed things like this before with Amazon and Superman/Carrefour, but I believe I should have ‘got’ this one somewhat earlier! I think the i> bit is meant to look like a play button - yes [or am I wrong]? Read Full Story

This stuff makes me wonder! I can’t believe that for SP1 [Office 2007] that there are 322Mb of actual code changes - I mean the complete bloody product is only [only!] 532Mb to begin with!  [BTW, despite what the text says ragarding Ultimate Extras, the chosen updates were *just* the Office 2007 SP1 updates] So what we’re getting here is component updates as opposed to, for want of a better term,  code updates - it goes like this: Microsoft fixes a bug with a code change.... Read Full Story

I’ve been doing a little free web-development for some pals of mine, and, in the course of that, trying to get their website towards the top of all search-engine’s results. So I was interested when a few days ago they had a call from a company that claimed that given a few keywords, they could guarantee to get them at the top of Google’s search results. Hmmm, interesting! When I told my pals that I doubted the credibility of such a claim [I got starry-eyed stares when I tried to explain to th... Read Full Story

Imagine tossing a fair coin successively, and waiting until the first time a particular pattern appears; say HTT. For example, if the sequence of tosses was HHTHHTHHTTHHTTTHTH, the pattern HTT would first appear after the 10th toss. Ok, now let’s take two such patterns – HTT and HTH.  Given both these sequences, and a lot of trials [where you conduct this, "it first appears when" experiment, and then average the number of tosses], is it more likely that you’ll: hit HTT in les... Read Full Story

Watched 21 last night - not a bad film, in fact, regarding entertainment vs. cost value [it ran us just £3 from Matalan!] it was rather good. The film is based upon the MIT Blackjack team, and as I’ve read/and-seen quite a lot about them before, I was quite happy to have the film thicken the plot [maybe that should be 'have one'?] - and there’s a nice twist or two at the end.  As to the film’s inspiration, you can’t do much better than watch the BBC Horizon doc... Read Full Story

If you’re a Times reader, you’ll have no doubt played ‘Find the start/end of Times 2 [T2]‘! So, here’s a suggestion - flip the T2 section over 180 degrees; so that its folded-edge is easily visible from the main paper’s cut-edge!  Simple, and easy to implement I reckon! Read Full Story

I hate gaming/gamers!  Probably because A) I can’t see the point [read a book, go for a walk, ...], and B) because two people I [thought I] knew very well are very sadly addicts - one for The Sims [or practically anything else that might distract them from normality/life], and the other for the World of Warcraft [where she's a kiss-ass Elf, or some such shite!].  Oh, and C), my twelve-year-old son also plays too much!  Sad individuals indeed.  I truly can’t see the point. Anyw... Read Full Story