Update
It just occured to me I've not posted in ages. The highlights since the last post are pretty varied.
Starting a new contract starting in early January. The reasons for jumping ship include the new contract being 83% closer and paying 26% more.
For the first time ever, I actually paid attention to what I'm paying for various things, which yielded startling insights. So, I'm cancelling subscriptions for various things that I've not actually used in nearly a year, and switching various contracts to cheaper suppliers. Which leads me to a matter of my ADSL broadband connection. I'm currently paying 22/month for a 512Kb/256Kb connection with a block of 8 static IPs. An LLU provider is offering a service in my area (as of 3 days ago) for 22/month for 24,000Kb/2,500Kb for 22/month. But there's a catch - it comes with only 1 IP. Having multiple IPs is useful, and without them I wouldn't be able to cut my spam volume down by a factor of 1,000. The new provider can provide 8 (5 usable) or 16 (13 usable) IPs for an extra 10 and 20/month respectively - which would push the service from being 48/10x faster for the same price to actually being 10/month more expensive with the same number of IPs. And there is temptation to get the 16 IP option, too... So - do I spend an extra 20/month for this or not... *ponders* Any insights my fellow readership may have to offer will be welcome.
In other news (if one can call this sort of thing news), in the process of deciding that some of my monthly spends take the piss, one of the things that came near the top of the list is the amount I spend on petrol. It is quite a ridiculous amount (but I guess I do do spaceship mileage). So I decided that I need a car that does more to the gallon than the Sierra (driving a V12 XJS all the time at 15mpg is as bad for fuel costs and the life expectancy of my licence as it is good for the grin-giving effect). Still some restrictions on this had to be made. I refuse to drive anything with front wheel drive. That is non-negotiable. For fuel economy, something with a diesel option seems to be the way forward. And no, I will not consent to driving a Smart. So, a diesel read-wheel-drive car. This narrowed down the options to a late 1.8td Sierra or a BMW. Most manufacturers have stopped making RWD cars in the mid-90s. The only ones still made don't have diesel options. Sierra was a preferred option (better the devil you know, et al), but sadly, I couldn't find a suitable one (1992 or 1993 hatchback 1.8td) in the 3 months of looking. The BMW 318tds Compact seems to be impossible to acquire for less than around £1700 for a good one (and I refuse to spend that much on a car unless it is really something special, and a diesel daily runabount doesn't fit that description), so in the end I got a BMW 525tds manual. Despite the mocking from the likes of winterdreamer, it is actually a remarkably nice car. It's quiet comfortable, reasonably quick, moderately nimble (not as much as the Sierra...) and it drifts beautifully - the weight distribution on it is really good! :-) And it gets more to the gallon than my old Sierra - enough to more than offset the higher price of diesel. Of course, a diesel Sierra would probably be better still, but I'm quite pleased nevertheless.
And instead of taking a few days off, I'm actually working from home over Christmass, which is great, because in addition to providing income where there'd be none, it more importantly means that I'm not going nuts without pressures of work. :-)
Right, then, I'd better get back to working on the server cluster. :-)
Starting a new contract starting in early January. The reasons for jumping ship include the new contract being 83% closer and paying 26% more.
For the first time ever, I actually paid attention to what I'm paying for various things, which yielded startling insights. So, I'm cancelling subscriptions for various things that I've not actually used in nearly a year, and switching various contracts to cheaper suppliers. Which leads me to a matter of my ADSL broadband connection. I'm currently paying 22/month for a 512Kb/256Kb connection with a block of 8 static IPs. An LLU provider is offering a service in my area (as of 3 days ago) for 22/month for 24,000Kb/2,500Kb for 22/month. But there's a catch - it comes with only 1 IP. Having multiple IPs is useful, and without them I wouldn't be able to cut my spam volume down by a factor of 1,000. The new provider can provide 8 (5 usable) or 16 (13 usable) IPs for an extra 10 and 20/month respectively - which would push the service from being 48/10x faster for the same price to actually being 10/month more expensive with the same number of IPs. And there is temptation to get the 16 IP option, too... So - do I spend an extra 20/month for this or not... *ponders* Any insights my fellow readership may have to offer will be welcome.
In other news (if one can call this sort of thing news), in the process of deciding that some of my monthly spends take the piss, one of the things that came near the top of the list is the amount I spend on petrol. It is quite a ridiculous amount (but I guess I do do spaceship mileage). So I decided that I need a car that does more to the gallon than the Sierra (driving a V12 XJS all the time at 15mpg is as bad for fuel costs and the life expectancy of my licence as it is good for the grin-giving effect). Still some restrictions on this had to be made. I refuse to drive anything with front wheel drive. That is non-negotiable. For fuel economy, something with a diesel option seems to be the way forward. And no, I will not consent to driving a Smart. So, a diesel read-wheel-drive car. This narrowed down the options to a late 1.8td Sierra or a BMW. Most manufacturers have stopped making RWD cars in the mid-90s. The only ones still made don't have diesel options. Sierra was a preferred option (better the devil you know, et al), but sadly, I couldn't find a suitable one (1992 or 1993 hatchback 1.8td) in the 3 months of looking. The BMW 318tds Compact seems to be impossible to acquire for less than around £1700 for a good one (and I refuse to spend that much on a car unless it is really something special, and a diesel daily runabount doesn't fit that description), so in the end I got a BMW 525tds manual. Despite the mocking from the likes of winterdreamer, it is actually a remarkably nice car. It's quiet comfortable, reasonably quick, moderately nimble (not as much as the Sierra...) and it drifts beautifully - the weight distribution on it is really good! :-) And it gets more to the gallon than my old Sierra - enough to more than offset the higher price of diesel. Of course, a diesel Sierra would probably be better still, but I'm quite pleased nevertheless.
And instead of taking a few days off, I'm actually working from home over Christmass, which is great, because in addition to providing income where there'd be none, it more importantly means that I'm not going nuts without pressures of work. :-)
Right, then, I'd better get back to working on the server cluster. :-)