I think the phrase is f***ing fuming.

I've been waiting 4 weeks now for the paperwork for the transfer of my registration plate onto my new car. This has enabled me to get a nice little (though expanding) snagging list going. However, as the paperwork had not turned up, I phoned the DVLA - they've not recieved the paperwork. This is (amazingly) not a DVLA fault - it's the dealer.

Now, this means that I can't put my plate onto my car. It also means my car parking permit is in the old plate. I can't update my permit, and they are now refusing to extend my temp cover note, which in turn means very soon I'll be using my visitor permits to park my own bloody car outside my own house.

The dealer is going to get a roasting. I'm not in a good mood.

Bangle

BMW have released a lot of new cars in the last few years, all of which the design has been Chris Bangle influenced. For those who don't know who he is, he's a car designer who was responsible for the Fiat Coupe, a slashy masterpiece in it's day.

Now, some people hate what he has done to BMW, some love it. I think he's made some initially very challenging cars to love at first, however as time passes they seem to grow into what are very "of it's time" design. The best example would the 5 series - when it came out nobody liked it. But now, it looks right. Same with the 7 series as when it came out it was pigging ugly (it was also the first Bangle BMW) with it's huge rear end platform - a design that has continued now with the latest 3 series, although it's not so pronounced.

The 1 series BMW has always been challenged in the looks department. It's too small to do a full Bangle on it, the front end works, the back end is too abrupt, the middle looks ungainly. BMW have released a 3 door version of the 1 series, which is the most pointless thing in the world as it's got no rear seats anyway and has just made it more impractical. However, they have gone one better (or worse?) with this - the new 1 series coupe:



Seriously - how ugly is that!!! I've no idea who the terget market is for this either. They've upped the power, so there are (finally) some seriously hot versions but they will sell in low numbers as for the same money as a hot 1 coupe, you can get a low end 3 series coupe, which actually looks much nicer. The 1 looks too high, too long, and the boot looks like an afterthought, which it is as the car was never designed to be a coupe.

Pig ugly.

Bangle - must do better.

Two games of squash in two days and I feel much better about this daft sport. I'm really enjoying it just now, mainly as I'm playing ok, apart from the serve!.

Off to Wimbledon tonight for the first time in 10 days, can't wait to get into my own bed. WIth the impending bad weather, I'd rather get off sooner rather than later, but with a conference call in the afternoon it may not happen.

Petaflop

So the new IBM BlueGene/P has been proved to run at 3 Petaflops, or 3 Quadrillion operations a second (although in real life situations, it's designed to run at 1 petaflop). Now that is a lot. Some of the numbers are mind blowing.

4 - the number of PowerPC cores in each chip running at 850MHz each.
32 - a 2x2 foot circuit board can contain this number of chips
435 billion - the number of operations a single board can handle a second
32 (again) - the number of these boards that fit into a 6 foot rack
72 - the number of these racks required to hit a single petaflop
216 - the number of racks to hit 3 petaflops (which is 884,736 processors)

Big numbers. However, the image in my head of how large it is this:

If you stacked up a pile of Thinkpads to give you same power, you'd end up with a pile of 1.5 miles high.

Like I said - big numbers.

A long, but fairly uneventful drive down from Glasgow to Worcester last night. I expected the roads to be horrible however, bar a lot of spray, they were fine. It helped I left it a bit later so there was less traffic.

The date has now been set for my stag do, early March next year which means March and April will be as mad as May and June has been this year. Ah well, at least I can get some chill out when I'm on honeymoon :-)

Dublin

2 nights of Dublin life with some very good friends has left me with a warm glow. And also very tired!

One of the problems I have at times with my job is that to actually have a home life I've moved to the south (as well as my others half family being there, but regardless if she had been there or not I would have moved down) so the chance to catch up with friends is not one I can turn down. We had a riot, lots of fun, lots of Guiness, lots of laughes. Had dinner on Saturday in a place called FXB in Pembroke Street - I had one of the best steaks I've ever eaten in there on Saturday and it comes recommended.

I certainly enjoyed Dublin again, it's the 3rd time I've been and every time I've had a good time. I'd certainly recommend it!

So we arrive in Edinburgh and have a quick look about yesterday, went to see the new Parliament building as I've not been there yet. I also went past my old flat and had a nose from 4 floors down - the same curtains are up in the flat when I had it! And they were there when I bought it (albeit just newly put in) - that was 1999!!! A quick drive over the Glasgow were my other is working and we are staying in a stunning hotel, wonderful dinner last night and I slept like a log last night. Much needed snooze!