Weblog on the Internet and public policy, journalism, virtual community, and more from David Brake, a Canadian academic, consultant and journalist

Archive forFebruary, 2009 | back to home

28 February 2009

I’ve been going through my thesis and checking all my chapter and sub-section references so they point to the right section after edits. A friend (thanks Bruce!)  just pointed out that there’s a feature in Word that – if I had known about it – would have saved me the trouble.

“If you did your section and chapter headings with a suitable heading style, and put in the references with insert cross-reference -> numbered item, it should indeed renumber them automatically.”

I can’t believe I have been using Word for over 20 years (!) and never discovered that feature.  I am also a little put out that nobody told me about it. So I hope this helps someone else (though I fear it may be a little late for me).

25 February 2009
Filed under:Arts Reviews at9:50 pm

I’ve been following Lost since it began and at first found it really engaging but regular readers will note increasing disenchantment setting in. Even though I know I only need to ‘hang in there’ for a season and a half to find out what is really going on I have (rather belatedly) decided that I just can’t be bothered. The main weaknesses I despair of being addressed are:

  • The characters are thin and their behavior is inconsistent
  • Relatedly, they seem irrationally swayed by any ‘authority figure’ who comes by. This results in characters holding diametrically opposite views for no better reason than they blindly believe the last person who seemed to know what was going on (eg Ben, or Charles Widmore).
  • Lots of misunderstandings arise which would have been easily cleared up if the characters just shared information with each other or talked over what had happened to them.
  • There are just too many loose ends to tie up.

I think I’ll probably watch the last season finale just to see how on earth they try to make it all make sense but that aside, I’m done. It’s a pity, as it started really promisingly…

2 February 2009
Filed under:Current Affairs (UK),London,Personal at8:53 am

I know SE England is not great at handling snow but this is a new level of uselessness. All London buses cancelled? No taxis available? And it’s not as if it arrived without warning – forecasters have been warning about it for days…

From London discoveries