Pubs and Programming

Paul and I got cold sitting outside the Slug & Lettuce (Paul especially as he had ice cubes in his cider and black...) We moved on to the Sir Ralph Abercromby on Bootle Street. We used to come here for "Spikey Watching" but there was no Spikey about. As we approached, I wondered whether X Factor or Big Brother would be on the TV in the bar. It turned out to be Sky News, and the TV had been upgraded to a flat (LCD wotsit) one. Big Brother was put on after a while by the barman, probably bored of hearing the repeating "Breaking News" swoosh noises that appear on Sky News (the news was something to do with John Prescott). We had a few more pints here and then I cycled home.

I didn't manage to get up early, but somehow was only slightly late for work. I worked on my barcode reading software, which I'm still finding exciting. They're actually going to be used in production on green paper, so I printed a barcode on the same green paper to give it a try. I scanned it in and read gobbledygook. Hmm, not very impressive. But then I had an idea to change the algorithm and then it seemed to work better than ever, even on green paper! This excited me, but then I had to go and observe some user training, and I observed the software not working. I had to fix this, and I think I have done, ready for another attempt on Friday.

I've been in touch with IT, and we're going to get hold of a reasonably speedy sheet-feed scanner for use at main enrolment and for other stuff. I'm also getting a traditional style CCD barcode reader to test out my barcodes for real. It's like Christmas :)

Went to Gareth's parents' on the way home to pick him up. Had dinner, then came home for a beer before bed.

I'm really enjoying the "Monster" song by The Automatic, a band of four teenagers from Wales. It's out next week. Also out next week is the winning Eurovision song, Hardrock Hallelujah by Lordi. It's coming out on Tuesday because of the 06/06/06 thing. Sweet :)