Ian Nelson

Here’s a damn useful piece of information which should be in the armoury of every modern codemonkey: In Java, if it is required to round up the result of dividing m by n (where m and n are integers), one should compute (m+n-1)/n Source: Number Conversion,…

Some days I feel like I’m spitting in the wind.

Isn’t it funny how one’s tastes change as maturity progresses?

If you like maths problems, and you like programming (and hey, who doesn’t?)

Paul Welter has backported the System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch class from .NET 2.0 to 1.1.

Holy cow, one of the limestone towers at Australia’s Twelve Apostles park has collapsed into the sea!

I know it’s a rather geeky and dry subject, but I found this MSDN article on new recommendations for using strings in .NET 2.0 quite interesting.

I succumbed to temptation and bought another book at the MSDN briefing yesterday, pausing only out of concern that the guy who mans the Computer Manuals stand at these events might think that I’m stalking him (or fancy him!).

Up at 0500 yesterday and onto the early GNER Mallard down to that London town for the MSDN briefing on eXtreme programming with .NET.

Elizabeth Keogh has been blogging her advice for software-developer apprentices, and recommends buying and reading a selection of good software development books.

There seems to have been a lack of .NET-related stuff on this blog recently, so let me show you something I cobbled together for work purposes last Wednesday: A common requirement we have in our ASP.NET applications is how to reliably persist object insta…

Never underestimate the stupidity of users—or the benefits of a little field validation.

Via Eric G.

Ooh, this is great news: http://nxopinion.robertsoninstitute.org/blogs/rcecil/archive/2004/11/11/167.aspx It’s a little thing, to be sure, but I often find myself wanting to make a setter internal or private while leaving the getter public.

Woohoo!

Late last night I was doing some development work on a website for our investment club.

There’s so much good open-source .Net development going on these days – .Text, nGallery, nUnit, etc – it’s a really interesting time to be a developer.

A major project I’ve been working on for the last ten months has just gone live, giving me some time recently to take stock, do a bit of R&D, and catch up on some reading.

Update (25/02/2006) – Hey, we now have String.IsNullOrEmpty, you know!

For months now, I’ve been desperate for a decent excuse to make a custom ASP.NET server control, so I was secretly pleased today when a CustomValidator originally coded for use on a single page was required elsewhere.

Once more into the breach, dear friends.

Remind me again why I do this kind of thing in January?

Popping my Torridonian cherry on Beinn Alligin.

Two of the hills that rise above Glen Carron.

A superlative day in the hills with Richard, Melanie, Hugh and Harriet.

A great day bagging the two Munros that make up Beinn a’Bheithir – Sgorr Dheargh (1024m) and Sgorr Dhonuill (1001m)

The little sibling to Buachaille Etive Mor.

A couple of fine Grahams bagged on a short, steep lunchtime walk.

Four big ones in the bag, thanks to an overnight stay at Corrour Bothy: Braeriach (1296m) The Devil’s Point (Bod an Deamhain) (1004m) Cairn Toul (1291m) Sgor an Lochain Uaine (1258m) It was at some point on this day that my Nokia 5510, won during last yea…

On which I bagged the UK’s highest peak, Ben Nevis (1344m), via the curvaceous Carn Mor Dearg arête.

The Foot and Mouth outbreak fortunately did not prevent us from having a fine day bagging Bla Bheinn on the Isle of Skye.

Another great day on snow-kissed hills.

On which we summitted the seventh-highest mountain in Scotland, the 1234m Aonach Beag.

A couple of days in the wonderfully remote Fisherfield Forest, staying at the delightful Shenavall Bothy.

Similarly to my traverse of the Aonach Eagach ridge last year, the scale of the perilous drops aside me were hidden by cloud.

May Day weekend 2000.

Messing about on Stanage Edge, near Hathersage.

Cona’ Mheall (978m) Another long walk in and only a single munro bagged, in the mist and rain.

On which we climbed Beinn a’Chleibh (916m) and Ben Lui (1130m).

A misty day scrambling along the Aonach Eagach ridge.

Bidean nam Bian (1150m) Stob Coire Sgreamhach (1072m) Bruce’s last Munro.

A hot spring day taking in a circuitous route around the Glen Lyon four.

Meall nan Tarmachan, 1044m / 3425ft

Stac Pollaidh (612m) You can read more about this day in the original entry in my Fear and Loathing in Middle England journal

Beinn Dearg (1084m) Cona’ Mheall (978m) You can read more about this day in the original entry in my Fear and Loathing in Middle England journal

Conival (987m) Ben More Assynt (998m) You can read more about this day in the original entry in my Fear and Loathing in Middle England journal

Ben Wyvis (Glas Leathad Mor) (1046m) You can read more about this day in the original entry in my Fear and Loathing in Middle England journal

Gulvain (987m) You can read more about this day in the original entry in my Fear and Loathing in Middle England journal

Buachaille Etive Mor: Stob Dearg (1021m) Stob na Doire (1011m) Stob Coire Altrium (941m) Stob na Broige (956m) You can read more about this day in the original entry in my Fear and Loathing in Middle England journal

Beinn a’Chroin (940m) An Caisteal (995m) You can read more about this day in the original entry in my Fear and Loathing in Middle England journal