tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56561792009-04-28T05:54:29.098+01:00I have been programming for nearly 40 years. In that time I wrote Artemis, the project management system, amongst other things. Here are some of my thoughts.James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.comBlogger1199125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-56084538753861595872009-02-15T10:21:00.003Z2009-02-15T10:24:50.705Z

I mentioned a couple of posts ago, that I was alive and well and working on a new project. Now all can be revealed and I am one of a team developing a new Project Management System. It's loosely called MX73 and you can read about it on the blog, that I'm starting for the program.

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-82135719070412260322008-12-26T09:16:00.001Z2008-12-26T09:19:05.779Z

I like sculpture and they've just created an archive of all of the public sculpture in Suffolk and Norfolk.Very interesting and well worth looking at.

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-13791770735428145132008-12-11T07:49:00.003Z2008-12-11T07:59:48.943Z

Celia died this day a year ago.I like to think that I've moved on, but I'm still fragile at times. I've travelled a lot and I can cook a bit too. I've also been to a lot of football including matches at Wembley, Minsk and Florence.But perhaps today is the biggest moving on at all.I'm starting a new software project.What it does is not for disclosure at present, but if I say, that hopefully it

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-55250899361908206382008-12-04T16:25:00.000Z2008-12-07T16:25:47.069Z

I lend money on a peer-to-peer lending site on the Internet. Rates to borrowers have gone up despite the cuts in base rate over the last few weeks. So this probably reflects what the banks are charging. i.e. More. Savers are also being screwed.The only people who seem to be benefitting are those that got us into this mess in the first place. The bankers!

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-56292168698948302412008-11-28T10:23:00.005Z2008-11-28T15:03:44.590Z

As the dreadful events in Mumbai unfold, I can't forget that I was in the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, just two weeks ago.The picture shows how the hotel stands in a prime position on the waterfront, by the India Gate. The hotel is actually in two parts, with a new tower to the right of the original building.This picture of the India Gate was taken from the Souk restaurant at the top of the tower of

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-16239525068243031912008-11-19T07:17:00.004Z2008-11-28T10:35:32.034Z

I used to own and fly a Piper Arrow with the registration G-JMTT. Strangely despite doing about 500 hours in the plane, I never took a photograph. Or at least I can't find one.The plane had a sorry end, as it was crashed into a mountainside in Scotland. Three people were killed, due to a pilot who shouldn't have been flying the aircraft in that weather at that time and place.Read what the BBC

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-79142183317384202972008-11-18T16:21:00.000Z2008-11-18T18:13:48.372Z

We have poured trillions of pounds, dollars and euros into the banking system to prop it up. Yvette Cooper reckons it’s been caused by the US housing market. Surely though the amount of money spent would solve that problem many times over!Can anybody tell me where the money has gone?

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-10190946439294189272008-11-17T21:48:00.002Z2008-11-17T21:53:27.245Z

Celia's tutor at Liverpool University was Robert Kilroy Silk. She hated him and this was partly due to his habit of smoking all the way through tutorials. Or so she told me! But then who's to know what really happened. I hope some of her fellow tutees read this!Her least favourite person, has now been voted to do the Chamber of Horrors. Perhaps, Celia is manipulating things from the other

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-41325283444265207572008-11-16T08:07:00.000Z2008-11-18T18:15:14.660Z

Kilroy-Silk was the tutor of my late wife, Celia, at Liverpool University in the 1960s. Allegedly, the tutorials were not the most cosy of places, as at that time he had the unsocial habit of chain-smoking Capstan Full Strength, from start to finish. I think he has since given up.I think, she would have really enjoyed seeing him get humiliated in the jungle.

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-26937333898370517462008-10-28T10:29:00.002Z2008-10-28T10:46:53.342Z

I have small feet of just a size six, although they are quite a wide fitting. So typically, I've been wearing Church's shoes in a 6G. But their shoes unless you can find them at an outlet like Bicester are just too expensive.I get my shoes repaired at Busy Bee in Newmarket, which is one of the last proper repairers who can rebuild leather shoes. It is at a price, but then it's a lot cheaper

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-44605379910089746642008-10-21T18:29:00.000+01:002008-11-18T18:30:01.892Z

You talk about a recession, but how many people are like me. Reasonably cash-rich and feel that they need to have a few small jobs done around the house. Or in my case, the stud. I’ve probably got about forty days of work that I need done, from digging holes and filling sand-bags to re-skinning a barn, installing a shower and wiring up new lights.What is needed is a web site to tie all of

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-609151718965759312008-10-19T21:00:00.004+01:002008-10-19T21:06:25.774+01:00

Yesterday, there was racing at Newmarket and football at Portman Road. I have season ticket at both.This is the e-mail I wrote to the BBC.Not really about a long journey, but today is the best days racing of the year at Newmarket and Ipswich are at home. I’m a member at Newmarket and a season ticket holder at Portman Road. There are quite a lot of people who are the same as me.It’s not the

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-49929976027828014472008-10-17T20:11:00.002+01:002008-10-19T20:53:35.625+01:00

So was the trip worthwhile? Was it fun? Would I go on an England trip again?I know the answer to all these is yes.Perhaps, I'll go to the Ukraine or Kazakhstan. And I won't dress like Borat!It might even be more fun to do the Ukraine overland in my Lotus. After all Kiev has strong links with Haverhill.

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-6863718655860456262008-10-16T10:00:00.004+01:002008-10-19T20:58:55.522+01:00

As I said earlier the Belarus Hotel was rather tired.Unfortunately, it didn't leave me unscathed, as the door-stop in the bathroom kicked my foot when I bent over to put something in the bin. At least the toe was only bruised and not broken.But that incident does sum up the structure of the hotel. My room wasn't very good, the curtains didn't close, the bath didn't hold water and the shower

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-59075009945597675102008-10-15T21:00:00.001+01:002008-10-19T20:11:24.475+01:00

When you see David Beckham play, you realise what an icon he is.I have only seen him play twice in the flesh in recent years and both were in the last week; Kazakhstan at Wembley and Belarus in Minsk.In Minsk, his cameo appearance was greeted with a large amount of goodwill by both the England and the Belarus supporters. He gave everybody a good and friendly greeting, which is something many

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-66745549552531189982008-10-15T20:30:00.007+01:002008-10-19T20:56:40.460+01:00

Sitting next to me in the stadium was a Russian. And he was a fully paid-up England fan too, complete with a large Saint George's cross.We chatted, exchanged cards and he took the photo of me below.I mentioned this story and apparently there are a couple of Dutch who also support England.Strange.But then I also remember when Ipswich played in the Olympic Stadium in Moscow in 2001. The Town fans

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-64877009298598319812008-10-15T19:00:00.005+01:002008-10-19T20:27:45.027+01:00

The real reason to go to Minsk, was to see England play Belarus for the first time. Pages and pages have been written of the result, which was a good one for England, so I will leave that out of this report.The stadium is reasonably modern, having been built for the football of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and holds about 40,000 spectators. It doesn't have a roof, but then it didn't rain, whilst we

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-18813455942201405832008-10-15T12:00:00.002+01:002008-10-19T16:25:28.863+01:00

I may have given the impression that because of the past history of the country, Belarus is a grim and very sad country. It is not!As I walked out of the city on the morning of the match, I walked through Yanka Kupala Park, which lies close to Victory Square and the River Svislach. This group of girls, probably in their late teens or early twenties, were playing with the leaves, throwing them

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-21286711627439863502008-10-15T11:30:00.005+01:002008-10-19T07:37:15.106+01:00

My father brought me up in a printing works and whenever I get the chance, I always sort out what I call proper printing; i.e. letterpress.The image shows a simple printing machine in the Great Patriotic War Museum, that was used to create a rudimentary newsletter during the war.If you don't know, type is laid out in the case in a non-alphabetic and almost random manner. It would appear from the

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-86717182420205937142008-10-15T11:15:00.008+01:002008-10-19T10:01:58.797+01:00

I took this picture in the Great Patriotic War Museum of the citation of Jelena Valendovitch, who helped save a Jewish mother and child from certain death.Here is an extract of what Jelena did from a book called The Path of the Righteous By Mordecai Paldiel.After the fall of Minsk, in June 1941, the city's 90,000 Jews were herded into a ghetto set up in a nearby suburb. In a single night (

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-49605415362408338482008-10-15T11:00:00.006+01:002008-10-18T22:47:56.286+01:00

This is a sombre place tucked away in the Central Square. In the picture it is the plain building to the left.If you go to this museum prepare to be shocked. But then if your country loses so much of its population, then you have the right to tell the truth exactly as it is, without any mellowing of time.

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-76279396371302120122008-10-14T19:00:00.005+01:002008-10-19T17:03:39.893+01:00

I did not want to be adventurous with my eating in Belarus. As a coeliac, there is nothing worse than having to travel on a plane or drive down the motorway, with your guts telling you in no uncertain way that they are unhappy with the gluten. Your best course of action when this happens, is to sit near a toilet. Or sometimes permanently on it!I had prepared by bringing a good box of supplies

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-61572101673102691702008-10-14T16:00:00.004+01:002008-10-19T10:19:20.447+01:00

My father's ancestors were probably Jews called Muller, who came over from Germany or Eastern Europe in about the 1820s. If they weren't Jewish, they were certainly German, but my father always maintained that they were Jewish, although he was very much an agnostic. He was also proud that he'd fought Oswald Mosley and his black-shirted fascists at the Battle of Cable Street. Interestingly, he

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-30160446681740567332008-10-14T15:30:00.007+01:002008-10-19T17:19:36.360+01:00

Minsk has a lot of street statues. These are a few pictures I took whilst walking around the city.This little ballerina was down by the station, which you can see in the background. Note the Stalinist tower block, which is one of a pair. They did have spires but the concrete wasn't that good, so they were removed for safety.The next pictures show three of a larger set of scupltures set along

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5656179.post-28070001409559758252008-10-14T15:15:00.005+01:002008-10-19T10:54:15.232+01:00

I am an atheist, but that doesn't mean that I have no interest in religion and the buildings in which it is practised. Minsk has several large churches and cathedrals; some of which are Eastern Orthodox and some of which are Roman Catholic.The Cathedral of the Holy Spirit is stunning and one of the last surviving monuments in Old Minsk.This is the Roman Catholic Cathedral, which is not so

James Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03476591571607719674noreply@blogger.com0