…same as the old site (shite).

We’ve got a new look going on here, obviously.

It’s the same old content but with a shiny new wrapper. Me likey. Do You?

You can now choose which theme you like, cause all of you kept asking for different ones.

Have a look and let me know which is your fave?

One of my fave shows of all time, ReGenesis - is no-where to be found.

Their site (regenesistv.com) is no longer alive, which has caused me to panic and worry that there will not be a Season 3.

This show has brought me such beautiful people like Peter Outerbridge and the delicious Dmitry Chepovetsky.

You can’t go away.

YOU

JUST

CAN’T!

WAIT!

I see the sites have loaded now.

Panic somewhat diminished.

Norbac
ReGenesisTV

Am I the only one that remembers/used iPhone back in 1995 made by Vocaltec?

That program was fantastic. Talking to people around the world over your 14.4 connection was cool. (Well, the audio quality was like a POTS line back in the 70’s, but hey, it rocked!…Well, it rocked until CuSeeMe came along.)

There was a guy on the chatrooms who called himself ironside (he was in a wheelchair) and we used oi have such a laugh - I often wonder whats’s happened to the people who used it.

If you know of any, drop me a line - I may reveal what my handle was

1. Code does not move
In films and television code is always sailing across the screen at incredible speeds; it’s presented as an indecipherable stream of letters and numbers that make perfect sense to the programmer but dumbfound everyone else. I understand that to the non-savvy person the abilities of a programmer might seem amazingly complex, but do they honestly think we can read shit that isn’t sitting still? It’d be like trying to read six newspapers flying around in a tornado. Sure, I can watch a kernel compile, tail a log file, or simply monitor the scrolling output of a program - but the most value I get out of those activities is when execution stops and I can actually scroll back to read what the hell happened (unless the output was going slow enough I could read it as it happened).

2. Code is not green text on a black background
Sure, code can be green text on a black background if you want it to, but most programmers use syntax highlighting and sysadmins configure their shell to use ANSI color.

3. Code has structure
According to the movies all programmers abhor the space bar and enter key. In the real world code has structure - it’s got line breaks, spacing, and indentation. Granted, we’ve all written our share of unreadable hacks: I used to write a lot of perl and I had a knack for writing nasty regular expressions that moved many of my successors to committing seppuku, but those days are over. It’s all about clarity now.

4. Code is not three dimensional
Remember in “hackers” when the gibson is depicted as a three dimensional city that the hackers must navigate through? Bullshit! We may use a dash of color in our shell to make things a bit clearer, but last I checked my terminal app doesn’t require OpenGL. I’m working here, bitches - I’m not playing quake.

5. Code does not make blip noises as it appears on the screen
This goes for ANY text, not just code. When text appears on my monitor it doesn’t make blip sounds - this isn’t 1902 (or whenever monitors used to do that).
This is one of the most common offenses in Hollywood films, almost every movie that has a scene where a character is composing an email or surfing the net has the text make blippity-blip sounds as it appears. Do they have any idea how fucking irritating that would be in real life? This article alone would be like thirty thousand blippity-blips.

6. Code cannot be cracked by an 8 year old kid in a matter of seconds
Sorry, no. Just no.

7. Not all code is meant to be cracked
Hollywood loves to endorse the notion that programming, encryption, and complex computing in general are all the same thing: a jumble of secretive data that must be broken by a seriously (srsly!) clever hacker. This is somewhat understandable because the term “code” itself is ambigious. In the realm of computing, code typically has two definitions:

1. The symbolic arrangement of instructions that a computer can understand - like “Your PHP code is shit”
2. The disguised transformation of a message - “The Navajo code talkers in WWII”

Hollywood usually applies #2 to all of a programmer’s computing activities. There are no windows to drag, no enclosing brackets or IF statements, there’s no desktop. Everything on the computer takes the form of an encrypted message, which must make looking at hot steamy pr0n a real bitch (md5 makes me flaccid).

8. Code isn’t just 0100110 010101 10100 011
Sure, when you get down to the binary level it’s a bunch of 1’s and 0’s, but who does that? I’ve never met anyone who codes binary.
Hey Hollywood directors: programmers use this neat thing called the ALPHABET. It’s got letters that you put together to form words. We even put spaces between those words (see #3).

Also, the whole joke about everything on a computer being just a bunch of 1’s and 0’s has become painfully not funny. It ranks right up there with the joke about the user who uses his cdrom tray as a cupholder, I’m pretty sure I’d heard that joke a thousand times by 1997. Just because all data on a computer is ultimately represented by one or a zero doesn’t mean that the basis behind it is as simple as a one or a zero. That’s like saying all humanity ultimately boils down to a bunch of carbon atoms (or whatever the hell we’re made of), so the next time someone steals my car I can laugh it off and say “Oh those silly carbon atoms!”

9. People who write code use mice
According to Hollywood most programmers haven’t discovered how to use a mouse. Sure, we type fast, but a mouse is a very useful tool and there’s no reason we’d abandon it. While we’re dispelling stereotypes, I’d also like to say that not all programmers are hot-pocket eating virgins who play WoW. Some of us exercise and have active social lives. Some have even had SEX! Holy Crap!

10. Most code is not inherently cross platform
Remember in Independence Day when whatshisface-math-guy writes a virus that works on both his apple laptop AND an alien mothership? Bullshit!
If real life were like film I’d be able to port wordpress to my toaster using a cat5 cable and a bag of glitter.

Any others you can think of?

Been an interesting read over on Tea & Podcasts - here is one of my snippets:

First off, thank you Jen for sending me this link.

I can completly relate to many of the things that Jen has said.

I am a fully-trained in medicine, and have one friend who is also a doctor who suffers with ADD (ADD can be of benefit, see).
ADD/ADHD is a medical condition, andthe quicker people start to recognise this, the better.

I came to the UK almost 10 years ago, and the condition is extremly hard to get treatment for, as it is not recognised as a culture here.

My condition cycles through severe depression (often accompanied by self-loathe, the wish to not exist, uncontrollable crying, self-destructive behavious, and sleeping as escapism), to euphoric mania of hyperactivity, too.
My ADD/ADHD has similarities in many respects to Manic Depression/Bi-polar. I have been diagnosed in past with Manic Depression, but have since had numerous doctors tell me that it was a misdoagnosis.

I have a high-pressure, deadline-oriented position (software developer and business owner).
I, too, am able to get up, go to work (am ALWAYS late - anyone else?), function (just, at times), and then go home to crash.

I often do the “I’ll get everything done tonight” bug, do so when I shop, too, cause I may forget to buy it and I need it NOW.

Have often done the “Is my insurance due? (next 1.5 hours spent hunting for my certificate with increasing frustration)” - I have even purchased two house contents insurance plans because of this.
I used to blame my housecleaner for this, but I have since changed housecleaners and bought one of those fireprrof file storage boxes to try and get some sort of system going.

Sometimes I can’t get to sleep - too much to do, damn it I can’t forget! I find that having the ceiling fan on helps.

I, too constantly blurt out the most inappropriate things or say things that make me seem brutally frank. I nip out for sandwiches at lunch and often mention to work colleagues how much I hate the giro scum that are about pushing their prams and cashing their welfare cheques at lunchtime.

I often sleep through weekends to disappear, and most weekends spend at least one day in my pyjamas, refusing to leave the house, thanks to Rob for nipping to the shops when I need something, (does anyone else do this - cause its damn frustrating to those around me).

I also struggle with some ordinary things, and some extraordinary things are a walk in the park (I have degrees in both medicine and comp science and like to continuously challenge myself).

I often talk about my ADHD/ADD on my blog, www.thegeneva.com

I was taken to many specialists as a child, I was classed as having a genius mind that worked on numerous more levels than those around me, but my behavious and acting up and being so easily distracted hindered me.
At the time, it was ADD, but we didn’t know it. Imagine being told at 12 that you were a genius but couldn’t do anything with it? I was so very frustrated.

Here is a snippet from one of my initial posts about having ADHD/ADD.

What is it like to have ADD?

You get one idea and you have to act on it, and then, what do you know, but you’ve got another idea before you’ve finished up with the first one,and so you go for that one, but of course a third idea intercepts the second, and you just have to follow that one, and pretty soon people are calling you disorganized and impulsive and all sorts of impolite words that miss the point completely. Because you’re trying really hard. It’s just that you have all these invisible vectors pulling you this way and that which makes it really hard to stay on task.

Plus which, you’re spilling over all the time. You’re drumming your fingers, tapping your feet, humming a song, whistling, looking here, looking there, scratching, stretching, doodling, and people think you’re not paying attention or that you’re not interested, but all you’re doing is spilling over so that you can pay attention. I can pay alot better attention when I’m taking a walk or listening to music or even when I’m in a crowded, noisy room than when I’m still and surrounded by silence.

What is it like to have ADD? Buzzing. Being here and there and everywhere. Someone once said, “Time is the thing that keeps everything from happening all at once.”
Time parcels moments out into separate bits so that we can do one thing at a time. In ADD, this does not happen.

In ADD, time collapses. Time becomes a black hole. To the person with ADD it feels as if everything is happening all at once. This creates a sense of inner turmoil or even panic. The individual loses perspective and the ability to prioritize. He or she is always on the go, trying to keep the world from caving in on top.

I change channels a lot. And radio stations. Drives my friends nuts. “Can’t we listen to just one song all the way through?”

The way I go through a museum is the way some people go through the sale at Ikea. Some of this, some of that, oh, this one looks nice, but what about that rack over there? Gotta hurry, gotta run.
It’s not that I don’t like art. I love art. But my way of loving it makes most people think I’m a real Philistine. On the other hand, sometimes I can sit and look at one painting for a long while. I’ll get into the world of the painting and buzz around in there until I forget about everything else. In these moments I, like most people with ADD, can hyperfocus, which gives the lie to the notion that we can never pay attention. Sometimes we have turbocharged focusing abilities. It just depends upon the situation.

Lines. I’m almost incapable of waiting in lines. I just can’t wait, you see. That’s the hell of it. Impulse leads to action.I’m very short on what you might call the intermediate reflective step between impulse and action. That’s why I, like so many people with ADD, lack tact.Tact is entirely dependent on the ability to consider one’s words before uttering them. We ADD types don’t do this so well. I’ve learned how to say these inappropriate things in such a way or at such a time that they can in fact be helpful. But it has taken time. That’s the thing about ADD. It takes a lot of adapting to get on in life. But it certainly can be done, and be done very well.

As you might imagine, intimacy can be a problem if you’ve got to be constantly changing the subject, pacing, scratching and blurting out tactless remarks. Some of my friends have learned not to take my tuningout personally, and they says that when I’m there, I’m really there.

Many of us with ADD crave high-stimulus situations.In my case, I love having lots of people around. Obviously this tendency can get you into trouble, which is why ADD is high among criminals and self-destructive risk-takers. It is also high among so-called Type A personalities, as well as among manic-depressives, sociopaths and criminals, violent people, drug abusers, and alcoholics. But is is also high among creative and intuitive people in all fields, and among highly energetic,highly productive people.

Which is to say there is a positive side to all this.Usually the positive doesn’t get mentioned when people speak about ADD because there is a natural tendency to focus on what goes wrong, or at least on what has to be somehow controlled. But often once the ADD has been diagnosed, and the child or the adult, with the help of teachers and parents or spouses, friends, and colleagues, has learned how to cope with it, an untapped realm of the brain swims into view. Suddenly the radio station is tuned in, the windshield is clear, the sand storm has died down. And the child or adult,who had been such a problem, such a nudge, such a general pain in the neck to himself and everybody else, that person starts doing things he’d never been able to do before. He surprises everyone around him, and he surprises himself. I use the male pronoun, but it could just as easily be she, as we are seeing more and more ADD among females as we are looking for it.

Often these people are highly imaginative and intuitive.They have a “feel” for things, a way of seeing right into the heart of matters while others have to reason their way along methodically.This is the person who can’t explain how he thought of the solution, or where the idea for the story came from, or why suddenly he produced sucha painting, or how he knew the short cut to the answer, but all he can say is he just knew it, he could feel it. This is the man or woman who makes million dollar deals in a catnap and pulls them off the next day. This is the child who, having been reprimanded for blurting something out, is then praised for having blurted out something brilliant. These are the people who learn and know and do and go by touch and feel. These people can feel a lot. In places where most of us are blind, they can, if not see the light, at least feel the light, and they can produce answers apparently out of the dark. It is important for others to be sensitive to this “sixthsense” many ADD people have, and to nurture it. If the environment insists on rational, linear thinking and “good” behavior from these people all the time, then they may never develop their intuitive style to the point where they can use it profitably. It can be exasperating to listen to people talk. They can sound so vague or rambling. But if you take them seriously and grope along with them, often you will find they are onthe brink of startling conclusions or surprising solutions.

What is the treatment all about? Anything tha tturns down the noise. Just making the diagnosis helps turn down the noiseof guilt and self-recrimination. Building certain kinds of structure into one’s life can help a lot. Working in small spurts rather than long hauls. Breaking tasks down into smaller tasks. Making lists. Getting help where you need it, whether it’s having a secretary, or an accountant, or an automatic bank teller, or a good filing system, or a home computer, getting help wherey ou need it. Maybe applying external limits on your impulses. Or getting enough exercise to work off some of the noise inside. Finding support. Getting someone in your corner to coach you, to keep you on track. Medication ca nhelp a great deal too, but it is far from the whole solution. The good news is that treatment can really help. Let me leave you by telling you that we need your help and understanding. We may make mess-piles wherever we go, but with your help, those mess-piles can be turned into realms of reason and art. So, if you know someone like me who’s acting up and daydreaming and forgetting this or that and just not getting with the program, considerADD before he starts believing all the bad things people are saying abouthim and it’s too late.

ADD is a way of life, and until recently it has been hidden,even from the view of those who have it. The human experience of ADD ismore than just a collection of symptoms. It is a way of living. Before the syndrome is diagnosed that way of living may be filled with pain and misunderstanding. After the diagnosis is made, one often finds new possibilities and the chance for real change.

The adult syndrome of ADD, so long unrecognized,is now at last bursting upon the scene. Thankfully, millions of adults whohave had to think of themselves as defective or unable to get their acts together, will instead be able to make the most of their considerable abilities. It is a hopeful time indeed.

I have been to the Maudsley Clinic that Jen mentions, and have had a pretty good experience with them.

Alot of my diagnosis criteria came from my childhood and discussions with my mother - she lives in the USA and they did lots of phone confrences.
She was great throughout all of this.

I personally haven’t gotten into podcasting itself, perhaps I should.

Have you ever wanted to say any the following to a colleague or stranger?

• There’s nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won’t cure.
• They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.
• His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.
• Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.
• He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts…for support rather than illumination.
• I wave my private parts at your antics, you cheesy lot of second-hand electric donkey bottom biters.
• If you had two heads, you would be twice as stupid.
• You were born from your mother’s arse because her pussy was too busy.
• His mind is so open - so open that ideas simply pass through it.
• Don’t let you mind wander - it’s far too small to be let out on its own
• Better at sex than anyone; now all he needs is a partner.
• He is the kind of a man that you would use as a blueprint to build an idiot.
• Go ahead, tell them everything you know. It’ll only take 10 seconds.
• One thing about bureaucrats is that they never swallow their young. Leave them alone and you’ll find them increasing every year.
• Nature, not content with denying him the ability to think, has endowed him with the ability to write.
• I have 2 minutes. Tell me everything you know, and we’ll find something else to do for a minute and 50 seconds.
• It’s a good thing your parents forgot to give you a brain, because you would just take it out and play with it

Have any more to add?

Jen is totally rocking the “stealth disco” here - I think she may have started a new trend with this one.

Can you “stealth disco” anyone you know?

Watched a documentary last night that not only brought back memories, but also made me ponder many questions.

The documentary was:

BBC Horizon -2005- Living With Adhd (click links to the torrent file - a must for any other fellow ADD/ADHD/ODD people and my mum - I am posting her a copy on CD).

When most UK doctors see a child with a disability or behaviour problem, they know that will see them for ONLY 30 minutes and then move on to the next patient. The parents cannot move on. This programme showed some of what parents of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have to put up with.

Dr Philip Asherson, a Senior Lecturer in Molecular Psychiatry at King’s College and a highly-regarded specialist in the field, contributed to a programme about a mother and her two children who suffer from ADHD. Dr Asherson has also written two articles for the Horizon website on this subject.

Some of the questions it raised within me are:

• How can we identify the comorbidities associated with adult ADHD?
• Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) - understanding it, does it affect adlts with ADD/ADHD, and is it becomming more common as a co-diagnosis (comorbidities)?
• How much to do we really know about comorbidities?
• How can we treat them?
• If the potential clinical importance of comorbidity has been recognized in children, has it been recognised in adults?
• It appears that ADHD/ADD subjects are vulnerable to earlier development of adult depressive disorders, so therefor, should all ADHD/ADD subjects consider anti-depressants as well as their stimulant medications?

I have been reading alot of the Journal Watch articles, and some of you may find it interesting.

The shortage of child psychiatrists in the United Kingdom will not be resolved in the next decade, so most ADHD will continue to be diagnosed and treated by community paediatricians, often without the ideal package of behaviour support as well. Depressing, isn’t it?

We (well, most of the Western scientific community, with the exception of the UK) are truly coming to terms with ADD/ADHD, and I am hoping that in my lifetime, we understand and learn more about it.

This could be the very minute
I’m aware I’m alive
All these places feel like home

With a name I’d never chosen
I can make my first steps
As a child of 25