50+ and proud of it.

Sadly, my mother managed to break her left hip the Saturday before Christmas and we had to take an unplanned two day visit to Wolverhampton early last week. We always were going to visit for Christmas despite my Mom telling everyone that she was going to "be alone until January". So it was Wolves Monday/Tuesday, back home Wednesday and Wolves again Thursday to Sunday. We spent a very odd few days up there which included visiting the hospital on Christmas & Boxing Day and having Christmas Lunch in her house without Mom actually being there. Mom treated the injury with scant regard - "it is a bit sore" was the only complaint, despite the hospital having to fix it with a pin. It reminded me of the Black Knight in Monty Python And The Holy Grail - "It's only a flesh wound...". We took the opportunity to do some "sales shopping" on Boxing Day in the town centre. This included a visit to Marks And Spencer in Dudley Street. We were browsing the ...

Yesterday I searched for a long-standing problem to do with sending faxes automatically using a VB (Visual Basic) program. In a nutshell, I was using some software that had been written eons ago which printed documents to the Printer object (Printer.Print / Printer.EndDoc, that sort of thing). The trick was that if you "Set" the Printer object to an installed FAX printer (in the Printers Folder) then you could simply fax it off around the world. The problem was that no matter what fax software you used you always got prompted for the fax number - which of course is no good if it's an unattended server. So, the now-since-retired people who wrote it came up with the ingenious solution to use VB AppActivate and SendKeys to enter the fax number into the fax number dialogue. This works just fine when it's WinFax; and when you have a telephone line within earshot of the server - which we don't. The "modern" solution to faxing where I work now is to send an ema...

Here's a cautionary tale for all people with cars on the road - so, about 30 million of us. And it's especially for those of us with insurance too... The first question the man from the insurance company asked me after writing off my son's car last month was "Whose name is on the log book? (V5)" Why did he ask? Simples, in the dark world of insurance, the "registered keeper" (according to DVLA) is in fact the "owner" (according to the insurance company). This in itself is probably contentious, but continuing with this premise the logic now proceeds thus: The policy holder's name isn't on the V5. Thus, the policy holder is not the owner. Thus, the policy holder has no insurable interest in the car. Thus the vehicle is not insured (3rd party still is). Thus the company won't pay your losses in the event of an accident. My name was on the V5. I rang up the chap I bought it from - "Alan?" "Yes?" "Have you p...

Here's an extremely good reason why you shouldn't write off a car the first day you own it. Buy car; sign V5 to transfer ownership. Smash car into the back of a van on the way home. Call insurance company. Insurance company write off car who inform DVLA of this by phone or computer. Post V5 to Swansea - required to get insurance money. Man takes away, and crushes, written off car. V5 form arrives at Swansea. DVLA computer says "Hang on this car is an insurance write off, why d'you want a V5?" This form arrives in post a few days later: ...Please take your vehicle to the nearest Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) site and get a Vehicle Identity Check (VIC) before we can give you a V5... Tricky.

I arrived at work this morning to find the phone with a dozen missed calls and one of the management team in a panic trying to find the keys to the store room. "Err, there's been a flood in Sales & Credit Control, do we have any spare PC's?" "No" "Ok, do we have any spare PC's?" "Still no." The conversation went on like this for a while. I had to unlock the store cupboard to prove the point. "Look - none!" "Oh." and he rushed off. Soon someone with a little more sense rang me up. "D'you think you could bring the pool car round 'cos we need to bring all the wet PC's which were on the floor back to the IT Suite and dry them out." I duly drove the Skoda round to the offices and remember thinking that there wasn't much rain, if any, last night. I was intrigued. I arrived and the full extent of the problem became apparent, but first a little background... Paper is made from fibre (in our ca...