Dave Holland's home page

Biscuit disaster
8:45pm, Thursday 7 June 2007

Inspired by Dalek biscuits I got Gina to find me a biscuit recipe, but the mixture ended up too runny and they all blobbed into one, and then they stuck to the baking tray. Luckily the bits that I hacked off still tasted OK. What went wrong?

Stress management
3:32pm, Wednesday 4 April 2007

(Seen in uk.rec.sheds, of all places...)

1. Picture yourself near a stream.
2. Birds are softly chirping in the cool mountain air.
3. No one but you knows your secret place.
4. You are in total seclusion from the hectic place called "the World".
5. The soothing sound of a gentle waterfall fills the air with a cascade of serenity.
6. The water is crystal clear.
7. You can easily make out the face of the person you're holding underwater.
8. See, you're smiling already.

Power
1:51pm, Wednesday 14 March 2007

A co-worker lent me a plug-in power meter and I spent an evening measuring stuff...

	standby	on
CD player/amp	7W/15VA	15W/22VA
tape player	3W/7VA	5W/7VA
MD recorder	7W/11VA	10W/11VA
Freeview box	5W/14VA	6W/14VA
CRT TV	2W/3VA	60W/78VA
VCR	3W/7VA	12W/22VA
DVD player	7W/14VA	15W/29VA
100Mbit switch		5W/11VA
WY-60 terminal		25W/44VA
Sun Sparcstation LX		37W/63VA
N.I.C.		41W/70VA
14" CRT monitor		60W/100VA
17" TFT monitor	2W/7VA	39W/66VA
PC: Athlon 1.5GHz	4W/11VA	110W/170VA
electric "tube" heater		220W/220VA

I was slightly surprised to see that the TV/hi-fi/etc in the living room consume 34W in total when they're not actually doing anything.

How appropriate
8:47pm, Thursday 1 March 2007

The OED's word of the day is "leek". The "A Word A Day" word of the day is "omphaloskepsis". (Ahem.)

Napping is good for you
10:53am, Wednesday 14 February 2007

The BBC reports on a Greek health study: "those who took a 30-minute siesta at least three times a week had a 37% lower risk of heart-related death."

Excuse me, I'm just off for a snooze...