- accept no substitutes -
If you really want to know what I look
like
All complaints, suggestions, etc. to...
k.mcmanus@gre.ac.uk
Dr Kevin McManus,
School of Computing and Mathematical Science,
The University of Greenwich,
Park Row, Greenwich
London SE10 9LS
England
Tel +44 (0)208 331 8719
Fax +44 (0)208 331 8665
A Virgo, so tormented by life's
imperfections.
Who needs opinions?
Note that I place my following list of likes before my list of dislikes and yet my list of dislikes grows at a faster rate than my likes. I suppose that the psychology here is that, I want to be thought of as a likeable, regular kinda guy, but in fact I'm actually a miserable old boot. It seems inevitable that open forum for intellectual discourse I actually use this page to grind my axe. Note that these opinions are not given in any particular order and they are subject to change without notice, remember, the only constant in the universe is change - it would be boring otherwise.
My philosophy on life was "Try anything once, you never know, you may like it", until Joanna pointed out a flaw in this approach. I now adopt Joanna's maxim; "Try anything twice, just in case you missed something the first time".
Likes
Freedom - especially from unwarranted interference - the problem here is that some folk given freedom will do daft things with it, like foxhunting (was it Newton's eighth law about having absolute power over idiots?)
Radio 4 - a beacon of sanity in an otherwise insane existence.
Mornington Crescent - the game not the place, and all of the other insanity in `I'm sorry I haven't a Clue`. Willie Rushton and Humphrey Lyttelton you are sorely missed.
Linux - Linus you're a hero, where's your home page?
FSF - The software that we all depend upon was developed as open source, let's try to keep it that way.
Peace - what's so funny about peace love and understanding? Why not give peace a chance?
Anarchy - a ridiculously unrealistic utopian state populated by people with enough common sense not to need laws to stop them from upsetting each other.
Rationalists - or as I jokingly call us, militant atheists. I have refrained from including Dawking in this list as I'm not sure that I like him but he has written some very good books.
Salman Rushdie - upset lots of people without breaking any laws, what do you mean there's a law of blasphemy, this is not the middle ages - ("I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire)
Irving Welsh - Choose life.
Hunter S Thompson - May he rest in pieces
Ralph Steadman - For
graphically illustrating the gonzo.
Intelligence - the ultimate aphrodisiac according to Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer - who proved that it is possible to be a mathematician and have a sense of humour (and be a political musician without being political).
Paradoxes - see Salman Rushdie and Freedom.
Eraserhead - the film not the pencil, thanx David, even though I still don't understand it.
Purple - the colour not the film, sorry Whoopi.
Fish - they taste good and have the decency not to scream when you kill them.
Swimming - get on down to the pool or better still... get on down with your finny friends.
Sashimi - while we are on a fishy theme one of my favourite foods is Japanese, not just sashimi but tempura, teriyaki, sushi, shabu shabu.
Beer - As a Geordie I may be criticised for praising the London brewers; Fullers and Youngs and mustn't forget the southern brewers Shepherd Neame (for the amusingly titled Bishop's Finger, cue joke from Humph) but best of all are the Belgians, Chimay and Kwak.
Food - Mentioning Belgium reminds me that some of the best food that I have ever eaten was in Brussels, truly wonderful, it even includes copious quantities of raw fish. The big surprise was China, despite all warnings to the contrary the food was wonderful.
Motocross - arguably the most exciting way to seriously injure yourself and certainly the most fun I've ever had with my clothes on.
Parachuting - safer than motocross and nearly as much fun.
Richard Dawkins - for committing to print what I had always thought.
Jeremy Hardy - we are so similar it is scary, apart from him being significantly funnier than I.
Will Self - for his genius, vocabulary and voice.
Douglas Adams - a cynical comic. So sorry to lose him.
Novelty - you never know what it will be like until you try it.
Google - what on earth did we do before they arrived with their pictures and their maps? Breathtaking brilliance! Those guys deserve every penny of their hard earned billions.
Humour - a vital part of human existence.
Life - the Universe and Everything - it's funny old game... make the most of it... revel in your time, carpe diem.
John Peel - much loved and sadly missed. The greatest DJ ever. Thank you for playing The Defendants
Ridley Scott - for Blade Runner and other stuff, but mostly for Blade Runner.
Cynics - accept nothing, even proof.
David Byrne - for his true stories and plenty of other good stuff.
William Blake - was he off his head or what?
Poetry - to move the soul.
Wikipedia - it took a wee while to get going but this is now (2006) an awesome testimony to the power of collaboration and it is by no means finished. Don't just sit there, make a contribution.
X windows - congratulations to MIT (and PARC) for getting it just about right in the first place.
Dislikes
Nectar points and air miles, we never liked green shield stamps, so why bring the whole nightmare back? This is a completely pointless industry. A futile waste of resources which contributes a big fat zero to anything. All employed in it should be packed onto the B-Ark along with the hairdressers and telephone sanitisers - no! - at least hairdressers and telephone sanitisers do something even slightly useful, there should be a C-Ark for all involved in the loyalty card industry. If ever there were an indication that this civilisation is now doomed, this is it. The time for armageddon is upon us when children starve and climate changes and yet we participate in the all time biggest ever waste of time and effort since man crawled out of the trees. Burn you loyalty cards now! Mock those who continue to use them!
Microsoft - For being so good at selling less than good products. Amuses me every time they are hit with yet another fine for being so annoying.
Belief - a poor substitute for knowledge. (Dr David Jenkins is good on this topic)
M$ Office - possibly the worst piece of software ever and going steadily downhill with every new release.
Politics - the art of fooling as many people as possible, for as long as possible.
Fundamentalists - Voltaire said something along the lines of 'if you can believe absurdities you can commit atrocities'.
Football - 22 Prima Maradonna's, a field, a pigs bladder and an audience that should know better than to take it seriously.
Home Pages - of the kind that offer no real information only flatulent opinion - errr.... This really deserves an update since the arrival of facebook, myspace, bebo, etc, etc.
Thought Police - only actions are important, freedom of thought is a fundamental human right (see above for freedom of action).
Guns - Freud associates firearms with the physical inadequacies of their owner.
The A Team - who sought to convince a generation that firearms were not only harmless, but jolly good fun.
Margaret Thatcher - who not only made greed acceptable, but gave it a government subsidy. She foiled my plans to tramp the dirt down by being cremated. Seems the Iron Lady will rust in peace. Jimmy Saville was unable to attend her funeral.
Tony Blair - is he scary or what? How come it took so long before the rest of the world figured it out?
Television - the drug of the nation, breeding ignorance and feeding radiation.
Loyalty cards - all employees of Nectar should be loaded onto the 'B' Ark.
Bad perfume - illegal in public places in parts of Canada (ever the sensible (boring?) nation). Why do some people cover themselves in tear-gas before setting out in the morning?
Idle banter
Freedom of speech is considered to be a fundamental human right, if you don't believe me, go ask Voltaire, but under British law this is certainly not the case.
Consider slander, threatening behaviour, blasphemy, incitement to racial hatred or even breach of the peace. Do these laws violate human rights??
Web surfing is an interesting expression which conjures an image of
some glamorous sporting pursuit, which is I suppose, about right.
I like to think of myself as a serious web user, tracking down specific
areas of interest, which has given rise to my expression Web Safari.
Very sad, only the truly nerdy could have come up with such
justification for nerdling.
But soft, what light from yonder window breaks?
Steve Jobs has stolen my expression and called his new browser Safari.
(Fair play - I 'borrowed' the circuit of an Apple IIe for an embedded 6502 controller back in '83)
Reflecting (not again!) on my list of likes and dislikes I am aware
that the dislike list has lately been growing at a faster rate than the
like list. If I could afford an analyst, what would they make of this?
Most of this page was written around 1997/8 which makes it all a bit
too prophetic for my liking.
Most prophetic is that this actually exists. Back in 1997 my colleagues
were all convinced that I was a weirdo to even consider disclosing
anything personal
on the new fangled WWW.
How things have changed.
Now it is people who have no web presence who are considered peculiar (or dead).
After a life of almost 12 interference free years I have had to
moderate
the content of this page. Which is OK. Back in 1997 only adult
researchers
and scientists were surfing, now there are children online, although
they
would no doubt consider this all dreadfully old fashioned and prefer to
access my Facebook site, even if it lacks any content.
deksta
