Interesting Links for 14-02-2016

• Clark Kent is a master of improv
  • superman comics
• Before You Get Too Excited About That GitHub Study On Sexism In Technology
  • technology sexism research
• What if we changed "pandering to [group]" to "being enjoyable for people who are not me."
  • funny society games
• Write code that is easy to delete, not easy to extend
  • programming advice
• Supporting a bid for cannabis legalisation in the UK
  • uk marijuana legalisation libdem
• Enforcing your boundaries makes life easier for other people
  • boundaries
• Lesbians earn more than straight women. Married straight men earn more than either.
  • gender LGBT pay money
• Mount Rainier leaves its shadow on a fiery sky
  • mountains sky photos beautiful
• Nine tactics to help you win any argument
  • argument
• This Drug-Fueled, Multimillion Dollar, Supermodel Snowpocalypse Has Been Fashion's Best-Kept Secret Since '77
  • fashion snow models chile
• After Sanders' Big Win in New Hampshire, Establishment Figures Want to Scare You with Superdelegates. Here's Why It's Bullshit
  • politics USA democrats
• How Blizzard stayed laser-focused on quality games for 25 years
  • games WarCraft WorldOfWarcraft diablo history
• 14 Valentine’s Day Cards You Could Only Get From Your Cat
  • valentines_day cats funny
• If Republicans block Obama’s Supreme Court nomination, he wins anyway
  • As a note, coming from a country which doesn't stack the courts at all (that I'm aware of) the whole US court system seems massively broken.
  • USA Obama law
• How to 3D Print Your Own Digital Sundial
  • sun time 3dprinting
• Lothian Buses discontinues Adult City Single tickets
  • buses transport Edinburgh Scotland
• Two Australian birds have learned to use fire, picking up smoldering sticks and dropping them in unburnt territory
  • fire birds
• Long-lost Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Salieri composition found in Prague
  • music

Sometimes, my life gets a bit surreal

So, I was at a party on Friday night when my watch suddenly tells me that I have messages from a work friend on both SMS and FB Chat. Something urgent has happened to a server, and could I check something out.

I'd only had one drink, and I only get asked stuff outside of work hours if it's an emergency (last time was over two years ago), so I don't actually mind too much. But I'm a 30 minute walk from work, so I asked the host if she had a Windows laptop I could borrow to remote in*. To which the answer was no, but she did have a Windows desktop. Which was hooked up to the widescreen TV. In the middle of the living room.

So I end up sitting cross-legged in the middle of the living room floor, with a party going on around me, a stage magician giving demonstrations of card tricks behind me, and a 10-month-old trying to crawl into my lap. While connected to work machines from a 37" TV, trying to work out if I even knew which server this was (there are _thousands_ of them, each with a unique name that means nothing on first glance), and whether it was something important. While people around me are offering amusing (if not helpful) commentary.

Thankfully it only took me fifteen minutes to show that this server probably wasn't that important, and that it could wait until Monday for someone to fix it. And then I got to go back to the party.

(And play with the 10-month-old, who was terribly cute. Obvs.)

*I'm sure it would work from a Mac as well, but I didn't want to faff around when I have no idea how to hook up Citrix from a Mac. Probably not that complex, but I had a party to be at.