2006 — Day 33 - Keep It Simple, Stupid!
Time and again in this web markup malarkey I try something, break it, elaborate on it, tweak it, further (over)-complicate it, almost get it to work, reluctantly decide it looks OK-ish, maybe even discuss it with Junior (when I'm particularly desperate), sleep on it (or, in this case, watch a Hitchcock film with less than 100% attention), and finally see a much neater, simpler (completely obvious) solution. Case in point: the much simplified Home page. Look Ma! No more B****y image map.
At least it's payday!
But, alas, for the very last time. Poverty beckons... unless the taxman turns merciful. Hence, despite browsing through the fascinating book recommendations by Lesley Hall (here and here) and even allowing my mouse to click on the associated Amazon links, I have so far resisted the dangerous siren call of "Proceed to Checkout"! I predict I may yet succumb to the biography of Alice Sheldon (aka James Tiptree Jr.).
Swish of the Switch department
Although I resisted the blandishments of the tall youngster from Southern Electric a few minutes ago he did set me to thinking and a spot of research at uSwitch.com has, with luck, just saved me over £200 a year on my combined gas and electricity bills. We shall see!
I couldn't make this up department
Contrast my measly £200 a year saving with the $5m or so made by my ex-boss Sam Palmisano in one day of IBM share trading last month! Yahoo! actually pinpoints such "insider trades" for you... (He's not really my ex-boss until January, of course.) I'm reminded of one of my more biting quotations:
The salary of the chief executive of the large corporation is not a market award for achievement. It is frequently in the nature of a warm personal gesture by the individual to himself.