So, you have a Mazda with MZD-Connect and Nav but the address you’ve tried isn’t found. What now? Well, you can enter co-ordinates but doing so isn’t as straight forward as you’d expect.
Here’s how to do it…
(more…)Random thoughts on life

So, you have a Mazda with MZD-Connect and Nav but the address you’ve tried isn’t found. What now? Well, you can enter co-ordinates but doing so isn’t as straight forward as you’d expect.
Here’s how to do it…
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When I got my job at Automattic one of the added perks that I was looking forward to was decreased insurance for both my home and car.
Well, as you can probably already guess, it didn’t work out that way and, even now, I have no idea why.
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Every morning, to stretch my legs, I go for a nice walk. A short walk up my road leads me to a long, tree lined path to a nearby canal. It’s a nice, gentle walk and I pass friendly dog walkers, joggers and canal boat owners, all willing to exchange a nice “hello”. It gives me some interaction with the world around me, exercise and, generally, I return happy and content.
But not recently. Instead I’ve been laughed at by a dog-owner when their animal attacked me, and had abuse shouted at me by a driver for crossing a road.
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Visiting Next in Derby today, my daughter (8 years old) headed straight for the ‘boys’ clothes section. Why? Because Next still divide their children’s clothes by old-fashioned views of how different sexes should dress and all the non-pink, glittery clothes are labelled for boys. Can somebody remind me which year it is?
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Initialisms can be great (and, yes, I mean ‘Initialism’ rather than ‘abbreviation’, as it’s the correct term in this case). However, when they’re simply not required and it may not be a universal term then you should always be careful of their use. I mention this when I had an email today stating…
I am OOTO today
I didn’t catch on at first but soon realised they meant ‘out of the office’. I’d come across OOO and OOF before (the latter is a Microsoft thing – “out of facility”) but not this one. Except, this is an email responder and not Twitter – no shortening was required. How much clearer would it have been to have simply said “I am out of the office today”. They’re rarely this short overall anyway, with messages often looking more like this…
I am OOO until Wednesday. In my absence, please contact Bob for any urgent queries.
Now, seriously, what is the point of shortening “out of office” here? At Automattic we use AFK (“away from keyboard”) but I wouldn’t think of using this externally.
Be professional and be clear – anyone receiving your reply shouldn’t be puzzled (even if just at first) by what you mean.