The beer selection really is exceptional and I hope to god they can keep it in the same condition as it was tonight past the first few weeks. We work in the Electric Works opposite and the immediate area is so desperate for a proper beer house / after work stop-off that this is a godsend.

The setting is very traditional and it’s certainly got loads of character - reminded me of some of those impressive Victorian city centre boozers in Liverpool. On the downside I found the seating arrangement pretty uncomfortable and didn’t get the impression I’d want to hang around too long chatting.

The big downer though is that they were playing god awful music and in a big high room with terrible acoustics it’s just a waste of time. Mind you it was a party and maybe they’ll not bother with music normally. I hope not cause it’s got real potential otherwise.

I don’t know if they are planning to do food. They had some on tonight but it was just party food (very good mind you). I really hope they can knock out some good grub as well as the beer. The area is completely crying out for a decent Friday afternoon lunch spot and I’m sick to death of M&S salads.

Put your article here

I love how basic tools can be used to such great effect as this.

I’m off to Sudbury in Massachusetts next week. Googling I found their police log. Nothing too unusual, you can read a paper here for a similar thing (a bit more depressing in Sheffield than in New England mind you). But the comments just make this. This is where a web community meets a real one, with great effect.

What is operating to endanger anyway? ;-p

As much for copying later on for my own model, but also because the underlying project is something I think works so well and every company should do, I’m highlighting Uservoice.

Good work chaps. Another thing I don’t have to worry about when the time comes and I need ya.

Ian

Tasty cats can be cheezeburgers?. From http://catrecipes.com/recipes/index.html

I’m going from Heathrow. The flights are the cheapest and direct, but that means I have to get from Sheffield to London to arrive before 9 in the morning. Not a problem you’d think. We have these great things called trains. 

Think again sucker

It’s not that there isn’t a train. There’s enough, even for a peak morning into the capital. But what I wasn’t expecting was the cheapest return fare available, more than a week in advance, of £178. YEP. You read that right. £178. Which by the way is the same price as the direct flight from Heathrow to San Francisco. 

So, here I am, stuffed. Until someone suggested something I wouldn’t even dream of. Fly to London from Sheffield. Excuse me? What? That’s just silly. 

But it’s true. An hour and £116 later I’ve booked a return flight from Manchester to Heathrow and I’ve just brought myself an extra hour in bed into the bargain. I’m pretty appalled by this - I know enough about the reasons why it’s the case, but the fact is it’s plain wrong / bordering on criminal. It should not cost the same for me to go from Sheffield to London and back as from London to California. It should not be cheaper to fly to London than to take the train. Never ever ever. 

And so there it is, I’ve had to compromise myself stupidly and I’m pissed off about it because it’s so totally avoidable. How the Daily Telegraph can spend two weeks exposing MPs with two houses but it doesn’t give a shit about a scandal like this is about everything that’s wrong with this country. 

Only a moron would choose the train.

The process of Subversion replication is remarkably simple, which is really the exciting thing. The WANDisco replicator is implemented as a network proxy - a Java app running in-between the server and the client. The replicator takes over listening to client requests, and when ever it sees a write command, it passes this down to Dcone, which then replicates the same write command on the other sites.

Subversion Multisite is implemented as a proxy in front of the Apache server

The simplicity of this is unbelievable. All of the servers stay exactly the same because they all effectively see the same communication from the client. Logic within the Dcone engine ensures all the Subversion servers recieve the same transactions replayed in exactly the same order they are recieved. As such all the servers are exact copies of each other and stay in synch at all times. If one goes down, it catches up as soon as it’s back automatically and in the right sequence. The behaviour a user sees is no different to what would happen if the client were writing directly to multiple servers at the same time, except the client only has to make its changes against the local server. WANdisco handles the rest. 

This simple two-part model has many possibilities for future products, but for now the most popular WANdisco product is Subversion Multisite. I guess that’s because it has the most impact for developers and because the alternatives in Subversion land really aren’t good enough. These alternatives include svnsynch and the write-through proxy, both of which are variants on a master-slave model of replication that although better than nothing, doesn’t provide the advantages of having every server as a live independent fully functioning copy running at a local site. 

I’m really looking forward to learning more about the products and to being part in the evolution of the business as the Dcone engine is applied to other products. There are many obvious applications for the WANdisco syncronising technology and the challenge seems to be where to start rather than what to do. It’s certainly an interesting place to be.

- I order Oreilly’s Subversion book from Amazon. I have just started working for WANdisco who sell a Multisite and replication solution for Subversion. 

- I didn’t ask initially, but when I do my boss is happy to pay for it on expenses, so I just need a VAT invoice.

- I go to Amazon website to print one to PDF so I can claim it (no paper here nosiree)

- “You can’t print an invoice from the Amazon website, but if you contact us we’ll send you one”.

Honestly… It’s true.

I mean. I just don’t get this. They are going to post me an invoice, at their expense, so I can scan it in?

WTF.

Yep. After nearly 10 years, with just over three in my second stint, today I handed in my notice and will leave Plusnet at the end of February. Although I’m one of a few long in the tooth Plusnetters to move on recently, it’s certainly nothing sinister. I’ve simply decided that a change is as good as a rest, and an opportunity for an interesting new challenge in a much smaller business than BT is something I found it hard to say no to.

Plusnet has been a heap of fun and I’d like to wish all of my colleagues past and present my best. The business is certainly still viable, and BT’s plans set the Sheffield operation in good stead for the forseeable future. That said, the realities of such a tough market mean some compromise on the old Plusnet way of doing things is inevitable. BT have their own way of running a business which is not wrong, but certainly is a challenge to what has come before. So long as the connection between customers and staff at all levels is maintained then I don’t see the transition as a massive hurdle to overcome.

I’m going to work with WANdisco, a growing Silicon Valley start-up who are relocating their European operations to Sheffield. This is a new industry for me, and I am really looking forward to the discussions and learning generated from solving such interesting problems as these guys do. I’m also excited about getting my teccie hands dirty again. There is a heap of stuff that I’ve played with as a hobby but now need to get serious about understanding.

Finally, I wouldn’t go without piling on some huge thanks and appreciation to all of the customers I’ve worked with over the last ten years. Our customers have been responsible for all of my best moments (and some of my worse, but that’s all good learning right?). Whether it’s PUG, forum posters, or random members of the public, I’ve enjoyed my biggest rewards as a result of your words, and for that I thank y’all. I’ll spend some time in the next few weeks getting in touch with as many of you as possible to make that thank you a bit more personal.

With any luck I will have a bit more time for this blog too, and I may very well choose to document some of my observations of the UK Broadband industry and of the Plusnet / BT journey at some point. But for now suffice it to sign off with the unoriginal, but still the best:

So long Plusnet, and thanks for all the fish…

Edit: Leaving do details to be announced, but I expect to do two - One on Friday the 27th after work, and another for Plusnet Allumni, friends and anyone else who likes on Saturday the 28th Feb.

Captcha Fail

I tried to add some more comments but for all the rest what I was offered seemed pretty random. Maybe it’s a special captcha script. If so I might have a go myself

Also, I wonder if I’ll find out why Plusnet Sucks?

Edit: I’m informed it’s definately a random google captcha, but I still don’t know why Plusnet sucks (at least not for this guy).