I'm finally back on the airwaves, after a database server meltdown as well as a knackered connection.

Our business broadband line went down Sunday past and never got reinstated until Monday evening. Then, a busted motherboard on the database server which powers both this blog and the Fuzzy Orange website meant even more downtime.

As I was recovering on Monday from a serious hangover (Sunday was my 30th birthday) I never got around to things until Tuesday, but I was booked in for meetings up until yesterday ... well, I've only just got around to getting things going again.

Typically this had to happen now, and not in a weeks time when all our new kit from Dell arrives. Four swanky new Quad core servers with 4gb ram that is going to replace the current hardware. Yummy.

All the servers will be running Linux - no more Windows baby - and I'm grinning like a maniac as I'm also awaiting the arrival of my MacBook Pro. The only machine left running Windows natively will be the accountants laptop (for Sage purposes).

Ah, good times.

When I'm in full blown coding mode, like I am just now, I need music. I'm sure someone could tell me that music helps to stimulate my creativity, or that it helps block out other distractions...

Anyway, the point is that for me it's a necessity and I thought I'd take a quick 5 mins to blog what has been on the jukebox today

• Machine Head - The Blackening
• Dragonforce - Inhuman Rampage
• Children of Bodom - Are You Dead Yet?
• Lamb of God - Sacrament

And there will be more to come.

So what do other folks listen to when coding?

Is there something other than music that stimulates you when coding?

Some of you may remember one of my Ramblings of a Scottish Madman posts from last year, where I spoke about currency here in the UK. Well, there was an interesting story in the papers over the weekend about the exchange rate for Scottish notes, compared to English notes at a hotel in Hong Kong. Although the value of Scottish and English notes is identical, this particular hotel has in fact decided they are different. The hotel in question is the Sheraton in Tsim Sha Tsui. The hotel pays 14.10 local dollars to the pound for the English notes, but only 11.90 for the Scottish variety. I'd like to say that if I ever make it to Hong Kong I'll avoid this hotel like the plague, but as it's a luxuary 5 star, I doubt I could afford it anyway.

I made it through to Edinburgh last week to catch Bill Bailey on his Steampunk show at the Fringe Although I've been a fan of Bill for some time, this is the first of his shows I've seen live. He does have a habit of mumbling a bit, but for me that makes up an essential part of the show. He managed to spend a fair bit of time ranting about Jennifer Aniston, hobbits, the evil legions of our world; Bush, Blair, bin Laden, pot plants and a Kraftwerk-cockney-flavoured version of the Hokey Cokey. Splendid. Also, I saw in the Metro that someone was quoted as saying "You don't need to see my identification - these are not the tickets you are looking for" as they headed into the One Man Star Wars Show at the Underbelly Cow Barn. Staying in Festival mode, actress Charlize Theron has joked that she's moving to Scotland. She's over here doing something Festival related and has acquired a taste for single malt. I'd like to be first on record stating that 1) yes, she should move to Scotland, and 2) she can move in with me any time :) Moving away from the Festival, I was having a discussion about bank notes late last week. In particular, the topic of "being legal tender". It's a funny topic here in the UK. The discussion came about because on the odd occasion you still get businesses in England that refuse to accept Scottish bank notes. There have been occurances of English notes being refused in Scotland but it's mainly "down south" where the fun occurs. So what's the story with all this bank note nonsense? Well, it's a complicated one. All Scottish banks are entitled to produce their own notes, of which three do. The Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and the Clydesdale Bank. However, these bank notes are not legal tender. Not even here in Scotland. Interestingly, only Bank of England notes under the value of £5 are legal tender in Scotland, but seeing as how the Bank of England no longer produce a £1 note (in fact, it's only the Royal Bank that produce them now - cheers Neil) only coins are legal tender in Scotland. But wait ... There is actually a legal limit on the value of coins that can be used. For example, I believe it's a maximum of £10 in 50p that can be used at any one time, whereas there is no limit on the £1 or £2 coins. Oh, and just for completion, Bank of England notes are legal tender in England, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Bank of Ireland notes, just like the Scottish varieties, are not legal tender anywhere. To make things more interesting, Cheques, Credit Cards and Debit Cards aren't legal tender either. However, just because something isn't legal tender doesn't mean it's illegal to use it. So, those establishments that refuse to accept Scottish notes (or indeed English or Irish notes) are simply cutting off their nose to spite their face as it's widely recognised (by the banks, most businesses, the courts, etc) that they are obliged to accept anything commonly accepted as money. Oh, and the Bank of England was formed by a Scotsman. And finally (thank God I hear you say), a loan shark was jailed last week... what's so interesting about this? Well this particular Glasgow based loan shark was sharking 11,000,000 percent interest a year.

Craig Ferguson is a funny man. Seriously though. I was reading that Alice Cooper is appearing on the Late Late Show, which Craig Ferguson now presents, so I decided to go have a shufty at the Late Late show website. On there you will find a bunch of clips from the past weeks shows, and the one from the 10th of August is particulary good as he talks about the Edinburgh Festival, which officially kicked off August 6th. Watching these clips made me think back to his excellent BBC comedy show he did back in 1994 called The Ferguson Theory. In particular, his sketches involving the Reverend Barry Lauder are nothing short of fricking hilarious. I defy you not to spurt milk out of your nose when watching them! Interestingly, he's the older cousin of a guy I went to school with, and he also presented a heavy metal documentary sometime back (1991-ish) where as part of the program he played drums for my favourite band, Xentrix. Back in February this year I was hanging out with the guys from Xentrix after a reunion gig they did for the bass guitarists 40th birthday. And funnily enough I brought up the documentary and the guys fondly remember it ... except for poor Den, who never got to appear on it because Craig had taken his seat :) Anyway, on the topic of the Festival, and something Craig mentions in the clip from the 10th is that there is an adult version of Jim Henson's Muppet Show. Ah, elbow deep in cloth ... well, at least that's how today's Metro newspaper put it. Moving on swiftly, but remaining all things Scottish, lets all raise a glass and toast the 25th anniversary of Scottish Barbie ... complete with tartan lingerie, apparently. And to finish, my local football team Albion Rovers lost their first home game of the season 1-0 to East Fife.