Depressed before Christmas

Well, it was the start of Christmas shopping yesterday so we went off to Exeter. I had been ill for two days beforehand so we didnt get there until about 3:30 but that was fine. We only intended to get a bit of a head start as the main attack on the shopping will be next weekend when Christopher will be going too.

Exeter was busy enough for the time of day and it was really chilly - typical Christmassy conditions.

Typical that is, until we went into Woolworths. The place looked like it had been burgled. There were empty shelves, the aisles were littered with stacks of cardboard and there was hardly anyone in there shopping. At one point I could see from one end of the store to the other without a single person in the aisle. The CD/DVD shelves behind the counter were becoming empty - surely not sold out already, lack of supply I suspect? I have heard that the company is £385 million in the red and that some suppliers are no longer providing goods on credit. We went upstairs to have a cup of coffee and it was like the Marie Celeste - fewer shoppers and the cafe was pretty much deserted.

Woolworths is a shop that I have grown up with. Literally my earliest shopping experiences are of a Woolworths where I used to live and its quirky, special sort of feeling. It has wooden tile floors (parquet?) and almost everything you could want to buy - clothes, sweets, toys, hardware, garden furniture, records (you know, vinyl 45s and 33s), newspapers and magazines, radios, .. the list would go on and on. That particular shop shut a long long time ago as that town was generally in decline but another close by is still there.

I have enjoyed taking my children into Woolies - one to view the toys at first and then he moved onto PC and console games, the other to look at magazines and music.

I have a sad feeling that they wont be taking their children in.

815 stores;
25000 staff;
founded in UK 99 years ago;
details
apart from the public facing shops there is also a CD/DVD media distribution arm that supplies other stores such as WHSmith, Zavvi and Asda. They are having to find other suppliers - with 4 weeks to go to Christmas.

Spending The Woolworth Billions

not sure if its connected but the Woolworths website is offline as I write this...


/* UPDATE */
Monday 1st December
The BBC website is saying the Woolworths website has been suspended and that there are several parties interested in parts of the business.

You v raptor - who wins?

I could survive for 1 minute, 32 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Created by Bunk Beds.net

Well, I was impressed

 

Its nothing important but, for the record, its 10 seconds faster than my previous best.

Roots Manuva + Ice Cream = Buff Nuff

Roots Manuva TV on MUZU.

They're doing Five blades

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33930

The Unfinished Swan - Tech Demo 9/2008 from Ian Dallas on Vimeo.

For Sale

 

email me if you would like to buy this horse. She's quite expensive but is amazing.

smart new suits

 

Gorillas

More people join in with this event than there are actual gorillas in the wild:
http://www.greatgorillas.org/news/unprecedented-press-at-gorilla-run

how screwed up is that?

Post the Third

 

Fwd: Bloody Marvellous!

I dont suppose the sandwich man will have these either ....

Bloody Marvellous!!! They're back because you nagged us!   Available now and throughout the Winter from your favourite foodshop. Our delicious spicy tomato flavoured chips are deal before lunch on Sunday, or anytime for that matter. Sadly though, they contain NO VODKA!!

This message was sent to jonathanallen69@gmail.com by Burts Chips using NewZapp Email Marketing. Follow this link to Unsubscribe.

todays news

Email is down.

It's Friday.

Pink's new song should be covered by a band of Pirates.

Faster Broadband

summary:
Right, old phones in th UK had a wire specifically to make the phone make a noise (ring) when someone was calling your number. Modern phones dont need that wire as tone dialing took over from pulse dialing years ago. The bell wire as it is known is still in the phone line and terminates in the master socket in your house. Apart from being there and doing no harm it attracts electical currents from the surround envirnment and as it is wrapped up right next to your phone line these voltages affect your broadband connection. BT have a solution that could be offered with new connections or to troublesome connections but ...

idea:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/227712/isps-to-give-away-broadbandboosting-iplates.html
feedback:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/09/10/iplate-boosts-broadband-connections-by-60/
do it :
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm

achewood

just the last frame - genius

nowhere else that I could find it, so here for the good of man (and the odd ASP.Net developer

I have a website that I want to show reports to the users. We use Reporting Services on SQL Server 2005 and I develop the reports via Visual Studio 2005, deploying them to a normal Report Server. I would like the user to be able to view these reports via their .Net application and ideally to select the report they need from a form control (like a Drop Down List maybe?) and then see the report in the page.

So...

• create two or more reports (we need more than one to demonstrate that the selection is working) and deploy them to your server.


• create a stored procedure to return a list of the reports on your server
• create an ASP.Net web page
  
• drag onto the page
  
  
  
  • one data source (dsReportList)
  
  
  • one drop down list (ddlreportlst)
  
  
  • one reportviewer object (reportviewer1)
  
  
  
  


• set the data source to reference the stored procedure


• set the drop down list to reference the data source


• set the report viewer to be
  
  
  
  • a server report
  
  
  • reference the report server url - the locations where the reports were deployed
  
  
  • if you want the report to have data in it then also set it to a specific report
  
  
  
  • edit the code behind for the SelectedIndexChanged section of the drop down list code to be:
    
    With ReportViewer1
       .ServerReport.ReportPath = "/vms/" & ddlReportList.SelectedItem.ToString
          .ServerReport.Refresh()
       End With
  
  
  
  

Make sure the AutoPostBack value for the Drop Down List is True so each time it is changed the page refreshes.

Should work now.

Very odd

On Sunday evening I will be fixing my Ex Wife's catflap.

Free Stuff from Microsoft

only geeks will be interested...
http://blogs.technet.com/blogms/pages/microsoft-free-software.aspx

My 2nd Post

 

Cheap HD ready Aerial (Antenna for US visitors)

This guy just straps sometin foil to a plank of wood and wires it into his TV...

OK its slightly more complicated than that - he has a motor on it to turn it around in his loft - but its an upgrade over the signal he got from a shop bought one.

anyone else know how to make stuff that works better than shop bought?

HAIR

I have hair issues. Its very long and I have no interest in keeping it tidy. I also have no interest in giving away a bunch of ££££'s in getting it cut. I have a choice of combing it tidy, leaving it grow longer (outwards) or (s)trimming it myself ....

Unexpected day

Wow, nothing special happened.

I didnt move a bed or wardrobe.

I didnt give anyone a bunch of kitchen equipment.

I didnt get kicked in the groin.

I didnt win the pools, lottery or bingo.

I did buy a big bottle of beer - mmmmmmmm.

I did wash up the dishes from last night - that unexpectedly took an hour.

I did cook dinner

I did clean out the truck.

I didnt go for a bike ride.

I didnt do any overtime

Old and latest

Last weekend:
12.4 miles
1h 37m
7.6 mph avg

hideous ride through swamp and brambles

Today:
7.93 miles
36m
13.1 mph avg

nice ride along old railway line from Sourton to Okehampton stn and return. Just made it before dark...

cold. sore knee

I loves Republican peoples!

 

 

Sent to you by Jonathan via Google Reader:

 

 

I loves Republican peoples!

via Why, That's Delightful! by Graham on 17/09/08

A 29 year old Republican got himself drugged and robbed by a prostitute during the RNC. Nothing unusual there, I hear you say. Republicans and prostitutes go together like gin and tonic. But, you see, what's really delightful is the haul. Oh, my, the haul! It's quite a list!

"The haul included a $30,000 watch, a $20,000 ring, a necklace valued at
$5,000, earrings priced at $4,000 and a Prada belt valued at $1,000,
police said."

Ah, me! The Republicans really do represent the man on the street, don't they?

'"It's embarrassing to admit that I was a target of a crime. I was
drugged and had about $50,000 of personal items stolen, not the
inflated number that the media is reporting from an inaccurate police
report," he said.'

So–not a hundred and twenty thousand! That's a ridiculous inflated number! It was only fifty thousand dollars worth of things you wear around your wrist and neck!

Hurray! Hurray for every last aspect of this story!

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Why, That's Delightful! using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favourite sites

 

 

wednesday mystery #2

Who messed with my keyboard?

wednesday mysterty #1

right, I have been awake since 4:18; lying in bed thinking about all sorts of crap that fills my life and not being able to sleep. If that is the case, how has it taken me until 8:30 to get out of bed, bath, shave, eat my breakfast and drive 30 minutes to work?

Thats FOUR hours.

Still, on the flip-side in four hours time it will be dinner time.

J

flash back

i climbed a tree this evening to get a football down. brilliant !!

Sainsbury's punts 'Innocent kids juices' for £2.99 • The Register

Sainsbury's punts 'Innocent kids juices' for £2.99 • The Register: "Yup, we're thinking the same as you: How on God's Green Earth can an organisation as big as Sainsbury's fail to spot the missing apostrophe here? That's 'Innocent kid's juices' or 'Innocent kids' juices' - depending on how many innocent kids have been milked for their juices."

.Net

ASP.Net v3.5
Love it and Loathe it in equal amounts, just wish it was more of a smooth ride. I would like the middle ground, not too great, not too shabby. Mediocre if you like, but consistently mediocre.

Fwd: Harry Hill - Newsletter number 4

My mate Harry Hill sent me this.

I'm looking forward to tasting his nuts soon...

If you are having touble viewing this email, you can view it online here

--
Regards

Jonathan

http://www.allenequestrian.com

Volunteers required for intense social experiment

Foss needs a girlfriend.

His attempts thus far have been without assistance and have met with failure. We are looking for willing volunteers to apply for the role of his “other ‘aff”.

<<Cx Xmas Party 057.jpg>>

 

<<P1010044.JPG>>

Please leave a comment below with your contact details if you are interested.

(right Foss, cant see how this will fail, lets go to the pub)

---

Damn Junk mail

goodnight

Dragonfly

Well this was nearly two years ago. Wonder where it is now?

STOP PRESS

MONKEY - JOURNEY TO THE WEST
Entertainment for both young and old alike, Monkey: Journey to the West features a cast of over 40 Chinese performers including acrobats, martial artists, volcano soldiers, silk dancers, skeleton demons, contortionists, a Mongolian Kung Fu pig, a singing starfish, and a Monkey born from a stone egg on a monk’s great journey to retrieve scriptures from the West. A must see!

A Mongolian Kung Fu pig !!!!

Post

Misty Saturday

On the way to Ted Hughes memorial stone. N Dartmoor.