other miscellaneous links

I collect trivia, but never knew where to store it ...
and then I discovered the Web !
And what doesn't fit there ends up in my Commonplace Book .

I like Classical, Gaelic, and Meat Loaf.
Can you spot the common properties? No? Neither can I.

what I saw on 11 August 1999 (and at other times)

for a (blackly) comic view on life as a programmer, try Dilbert ,
or for a more upbeat view, try Microserfs or User Friendly

I have had former lives , as an astrophysicist, and as a formal methodist, before becoming a non-standard computation scientist. I am also an SF fan. I have no middle name. I am not • a Welsh Cob breeder from Canada • a Valedictorian Essex County College student • long dead

(because it's where I live, even though I work in York...)

Cambridge is was a great place for bookshops . My favourites includes Forbidden Planet, Heffers, Galloway & Porter, and Waterstones, to name but a few. Plus loads of second hand bookshops and market stalls. Many of these are no more, and I do most of my browsing and shopping on line nowadays.

Nov 2002: Stephen Eldridge kindly reminded me of the old Cambridge bookshop song (TTTO Frere Jacques ):

Heffers bookshop, Heffers bookshop,
Bowes and Bowes, Bowes and Bowes,
Galloway and Porter, Galloway and Porter,
Deighton Bell, Deighton Bell.

But, as I said, times have changed: Bowes and Bowes is now a Cambridge University Press bookshop; Deighton Bell was taken over by Heffers, and, after Heffers was taken over by Blackwells, closed down, the site currently being a branch of Laura Ashley.

May 2010: And now, even Galloway and Porter is no more .

Dec 2011: John Deutsch asked if I knew the history of the song (I don't). He first heard it in 1958 (when the first line was "William Heffer, William Heffer"), so it's been around a while! He and his wife Ann have their own take on reworking the tune, their "Northern Line song":

Finchley Central. Finchley Central,
Woodside Park, Woodside Park,
Totteridge and Whetstone, Totteridge and Whetstone,
High Barnet, High Barnet.

A place that I personally have found good for buying computer kit in Cambridge is World of Computers

• Guide to Cambridge (UK) Web Sites -- (non-University) sites of interest around Cambridge
• Cambridge City Council
• Cambridge Corn Exchange -- "The City's Centre for Arts and Entertainment"

• Near-Cambridge crop 'circle'

• Cambridge-based science fiction :
  • Greg Benford . Timescape
  • Peter F. Hamilton . Mindstar Rising