Rob's Blog

The fluctuating price of... milk?
06th Nov 2009 13:11

As I was riding into work this morning I couldn't help but swear into my helmet when I noticed that the price of petrol seems to have quietly risen up to almost £1.07 per litre again. Although I'm surprised by the rising cost of petrol I can't exactly claim that I didn't see it coming, much like the way the month of November managed to creep up on me despite the fact that my calendar clearly shows it's been scheduled to occur presently for quite some time.

The reason I saw it coming was because the gradually increasing price is displayed in two-foot high illuminated signs outside the same petrol station that I ride past ever single day. That single fact makes petrol a unique product in my weekly spend. I don't see the price of a pint of milk on a giant billboard outside the same supermarket. But, why?

More importantly, which came first: the requirement to regularly fluctuate the price of petrol, or the boards outside petrol stations which enabled the fluctuation to be displayed so readily?

I'd always assumed that the price of petrol was displayed to ensure that I got the best possible deal. After all, if I'm running low on petrol the last thing that I want to do is to have to drive around looking for the best deal. Or to unnecessarily pull into a petrol station before concluding that the price was too high.

So the prices are displayed for the good of me, the consumer, right? If that's the case then I'm not sure why I can't help but harbor the feeling that if petrol stations couldn't publicly adjust their prices at the touch of a button that they would fluctuate less...

I wondered if there was a legal requirement for petrol stations to display their prices. According to Data Display UK, a company that sell these price towers, there are some legal requirements from "UK Trading Standards for Weights and Measures with respect to displaying prices for goods". I wonder why the prices of a McDonald's drive through aren't similarly regulated? After all, if I'm hungry the last thing I want to happen is to pull into McDonalds only to find I'm not happy with the current price of a Big Mac...

I suppose the question I'm asking is: if the price of a pint of milk was displayed on a large variable message sign outside supermarkets, and we were used to the fluctuating price, would we all be paying more for our milk?

Creative versus technical
05th Nov 2009 23:11

Today Ange finished recording track 13 of her 14 track studio album. By the end of tomorrow she should have all 14 tracks recorded, then it's on to additional instruments, mixing, mastering, and world domination.

Whilst I'm sitting downstairs enjoying a bottle of beer and watching the fireworks on EastEnders she's listening through the first 13 tracks upstairs with a notepad...

... okay. Well, actually I just missed the end of EastEnders because Ange wanted some opinion on harmonies. Still, I think I was helpful with at least some of my comments.

Ange's sheet of notes has two columns, the technical glitches in one and the creative additions in the other. I get the technical glitches - they're all very black and white. But whilst she's sitting there saying things like "Descending piano scale needs to kick in at 2:09" or "I can hear the percussion staring to ascend there" and "Do you prefer the lower, higher or third harmony?" I do quite often just have to resort to: "Yes dear. I'm sure that'll be awesome. Whatever you think best dear".

Put simply: I'm a technical musician and not a creative one.

I can play you a beautiful piece of ragtime blues that I've learnt note for note. But ask me to improvise and I have all the creative flair of a catfish.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. I like to think I'm particularly good at my job precisely because of this. A technical project - whether it's a database structure, technical document or PHP script - is effectively either broken or working. A website which needs usability tweaks is to all intents and purposes broken. A database which isn't optimised correctly is broken. A technical document which misses out vital information or is unnecessarily vague or ambiguous is broken.

I don't 'create' code, I simply fix it from the ground up.

My transcribed piece of ragtime is either played correctly or incorrectly. It's either perfect or broken, just like the left hand column in Ange's list.

But when Ange plays me a beautiful piece of music and then asks me for my creative opinion there's not always a right answer. While it's being created music isn't either broken or working; it just exists in a variety of forms which are all equally valid.

That's the difference between my musical ability and Ange's. I think it's most likely the same creative dichotomy that seperates programmers and designers, musicians and sound technicians, novelists and proof-readers around the world.

Keyboard shortcuts
03rd Nov 2009 14:11

I'm quite a dab hand with a PC keyboard. Having used Windows since I was a child I know my shortcuts and I can touch type at a very respectable rate. All of that equates to the ability to navigate around Windows very quickly and efficiently. Moving to a Mac last week had the equivalent affect of putting oven gloves on my hands. I'd instinctively hit a variety of keyboard shortcuts only to find that entire sections of code would disappear from Coda, or that rather than switching to a new tab the Mac would start dictating code to me. In Russian. This was all very frustrating. However, it's nice to see that the shortcuts are still very much here. I've just discovered that to indent a selected block of text on a mac you hit Command+]. Obviously, on a PC that was normally done with just TAB, but on the Mac that seemed to inadvertently delete the selected text. The more I get to grips with the shortcuts, the easier this transition is becoming. It's like being on Linux but graced with Photoshop and native Spotify, bloody brilliant.

No excuses really
02nd Nov 2009 14:11

I've just moved my blog from one server to another, and am taking the opportunity to upgrade to the latest version of WordPress. That's why the theme has reverted to it's lovely default version... I have to admit, I thought it would have changed slightly over the years! It's been far too long since I took the time to blog, and It's hard to think of any good excuses really. It's not like I've not been up to anything exciting. Here's a quick synopsis of things I really should have blogged about:

• Ange and I got married
• Ange is currently recording her first studio album
• Amy is growing up quickly
• David and Gem have a baby due in March
• We've tiled our kitchen
• Work at HigherSites is continuing to be good

... strange. I thought I had a lot more to say than that... oh well, nevermind. At least I've started the ball rolling again!