Why the UK is a great place to live

There is a list someplace, probably something the home office do not know about, so I decided to create my own list, I have been here 3 years, and my Visa is up for renewal in 2011. So here is a list, in no specific order, but perhaps the order I discovered them.

• Royal mail, I can put a CD in the post to a friend on the other end of the island in the morning for early collection, and it will be there the next day.
• Online shopping, for almost anything you desire. If it's in stock, you get near instant gratification without leaving your home. Decent internet access is easier to get too.
  
• Walking in the dark. It may seem a simple thing, but general security is miles better except if you live in the big-city. But then anything goes in big cities, and village life is a gas.
• Friendly people. You get these everywhere, but because there are so many cultures, you get accepted as a foreigner (still a foreigner, but you can come over for tea).
• Great for Kids. Childcare is expensive due to this silly organisation called OFSTED. But for kids themselves it is magic, tonnes to do and learn in safety.
  

There are a whole list of things that come to mind after more than a few minutes, great transport - offset by overcrowding. Great holiday spots, child-play equipment. child safety....

IBM or ISM?

What happened to ISM? Well todays rant is about an IBM product, called Clearcase.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1IC50214

The problem is when the client is used disconnected. That's fine you say, but the client insists on doing pop-ups from a Visual Studio plug-in. It's a over simplified diagnostic, and in-ellegant to say the least.

---------------------------
ClearCase
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Error determining type of current view.


---------------------------
OK
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...I am just annoyed that there is so little help to be found to help users work around this problem, because it is possible if someone just put a tiny bit of effort into the plug-in to add a checkbox into the code, it's about 10 lines of code, but unless more folk stick out their tongues....

Or do we?

It's better than Africa, but for most of the wrong reasons.
1. You are not going to get jumped walking home from the pub.
2. Literacy is high, but indigence is still indifferent
3. The grass is green

I think I get grumpy sometimes because I miss having these kind of things in plain sight when they are and are not as they seem in Southern Africa. Life was simpler in some ways, but in other ways it was an environment of hope and of dispair. Mixed? Yes, but not the mix I get here, so while the mix in the UK is good, it starts to feel comfortable, and eventually like home. At the end of the day, the people here are great - and that is what counts. I hope they will count on me someday too.