20 Questions with Hamilton

[Detectorist]

I’ll take a punt here that you didn’t even realise that – for example – google has/has had (not all still supported) this many search operators

That would be a safe bet.

Scenario #3. TCP/IP fails for whatever reason. The end of civilisation as we know it.

I have only a vague idea what TCP/IP means (This Computer Program/Is Phenomenal?) Obviously I could Ask Jeeves Google it, and might, but meanwhile I'm headed out in the rain with my bike for some museum hopping in London.

It's customary to arrive at a question at some point, so here it is, without any judgement intended whatever your politics – I'm just remembering the memes at the time: What did you make of Margaret Thatcher?

[Ham]

Ahhh Thatcher.

What a polarising name. I have no problem declaring my politics are left leaning, not really aligned with any partry, and that I m unhappy with many of the policies enacted under Tory governments, but not exclusively Tory ones. I also don’t see Thatcher as the demon so many do.

“She broke the unions”. Arguably at the time they really needed breaking. Print, car, coal – it would take a very blinkered view of anyone living at the time to say that those institutions were being run ultimately for the benefit of their members, as their leadership took them down paths of immediate gain vs inevitable change.

And ultimately around any leadership, of political party, union or any other group, look around the figurehead an you will find the true enablers, venal to a person.

During the time of Thatcher I was mixing it with what might arguably be called the movers and shakers, those in the shadows who sit on think tanks, the house of lords and the like, and it was they who I found intensely unpleasant to a man (yes they were all men).

So, Thatcher? While I don’t much like what her era represents, I don’t confuse her with the issues, however unpleasant they were. I have a grudging respect for her, her personal success against the odds of being female, her principled outlook – something apparently entirely absent across the board these days.  I find those who celebrated her death in a personal manner – “I’ll dance on her grave” – as morally suspect as the worst of her enablers.

[Ham]

I should add a small claim to fame, that around those years I started a small group of finance heads of meeja companies, and we met in the upstairs room at The Gay Hussar, a glorious location with a huge round table that was built in place, and legendary links to politicos.  The group of Tory wets who did for her allegedly met in the same location.

Our agenda was to make the very most that could be done with an 80's media company expense account.

[Detectorist]

What sort of things did you discuss? And was there any dancing?

Wikipedia tells me you rubbed shoulders with the ghosts of T.S. Eliot, Aneurin Bevan, Michael Foot and Barbara Castle.

I see the space was taken over by Noble Rot.

[finestre]

(If I may interject, as you've given me the opportunity, I am also a former Gay Hussar. I used to entertain, in the expense account way, a bunch of surgeons as my boss at the time 'found them to be terrible bores' and apparently I needed 'feeding up.' She firmly believed academia resulted in 'a sort of mental and physical anaemia' and was the first real upper-class person I ever met. I was under strict instructions to run up the biggest bill possible. Which worried me at first, but apparently it all went back to the Royal College and she was singularly dedicated to giving their accountant an aneurysm.)

[Ham]

Dancing. Ok, let's see.


Dancing

Me

Nope. No way those two words go together anywhere on this God forsaken earth.

What did we talk about? Apart from the goulash? Work of course. Which in our case was things like, how much should a satellite transponder cost? (That's the bit that receives the signal from earth and beams it down the dishes on earth). How can we survive until at least ten satellite dishes have been sold? Even better, 100,000. Will anyone notice if we disappear? (Ans: no). We were the vanguard of satellite tv in this country and I was one of the Grand Old Men of the business with a minor reputation for accurate forecasting. Gained by the incredibly scientific method of taking the lowest growth estimate and dividing by two, in an industry where most were using numbers ten times higher, because that's what the research said.

At least I learned how to pronounce 5 puttonyos properly.

I have to say, (I don't, but I will anyway) if you think you've seen expense account entertaining without having experienced 80s TV,  you probably haven't read Bonfire of the Vanities. Chateau Yqem, anyone? Ah, it was fun. Unreal, but fun.

[Detectorist]

The book is named for the historical Bonfire of the Vanities, which took place in 1497 in Florence, Italy, when the city was under the influence of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, whose followers burned objects considered sinful or morally corrupt—such as cosmetics, mirrors, luxury items, certain books, and artworks.

For my 'learn something new every day' file, that happened on Mardi Gras.

What's the last thing you've learned that you'd like to share?

[Ham]

Hmmm, there's a thing.

It appears that as you turn into an old fart, without going to work and with a day circumscribed by stuff (childcare, projects, other stuff) random interesting stuff like  what the Internet is full of tends to fall into short supply.

From things I have learned recently I could.....

....tell you how to solder SMD devices successfully (use a piece of ceramic tile and tape it down)

....tell you that reading the Cornish Trilogy on  a Kindle is interesting because you can look up the words you don't know (yes, I was prompted to buy it following that ^^^^) (I hate authors that use unnecessary vocabulary to show off, Davidson is not like that, and while you can infer meaning it is always good to know)

.... talk about how different the Kindle experience is from the dead tree version (There are not many fiction volumes that show up the prime failing of the Kindle, in Random Access)

.... talk about how to improve a portrait drawing (find the bit that doesn't look right, use that rubber. Keep going with the shading)

et c.

But all of those have limited interest for sharing in nugget form.

[Detectorist]

talk about how different the Kindle experience is from the dead tree version

We're all ears.