Back in Turin this week, the usual one-nighter which usually leaves me exhausted by the end of the week. Stayed at the Atlantic hotel in Borgaro so no change there!

The taxi ride was the standard white-knuckle affair but this time I could see the mountains and they were absolutely splended, for some reason they looked much closer than usual (maybe because they weren't half hidden in the smog) and their snow topped peaks looked fantastic. I was brought back to earth with a bump when I saw the orangy-yellow walls of the Alenia buildings in Corso Marche and realised I had to start earning my salary

Kevin contacted me last night - seems there are problems with the UCS bus on BT001 - guess next week is going to be interesting.

I want to change kbiff.

I don't like the way that e-mail accounts are held within a profile and you can't share them between profiles. I could request a change from the author but I would really like to do it myself.

I've had a look at the source but there is so much that is new to me:

• KDevelop IDE
• KDE programming environment
• Qt programming environment
• Autoconf and Automake

It all seems like too much just for a small change, I have no time to spend at it but still I've got the urge.

What is the point of Personal Performance Reviews? I've just finished the end of year (2003) reviews for my team (a bit late). It's great getting them finished, I only had six to do this time instead of the usual twelve or thirteen, but honestly what's the point?

I don't have the time to do them, the interviewees don't want them and they're not linked to anything like pay so why do we do them. I'll tell you why - it's because some faceless oik did a HR course and was told it was "best practice". Now we're wasting precious time and money talking face-to-face and getting nothing out of it. No wonder this company's in a crisis

If someone needs to discuss work, training, personal matters, in fact anything, they can see me at any time. I really am approachable and I believe that I'm a reasonable person. I don't actually need a process that forces me into behaviours that are not needed.

Got the girls this weekend which is nice, I miss not seeing them.

It's the start of a new year and I'm at work. Designing the next generation of fighter aircraft ought to be exciting and interesting but after nearly twenty years of doing it I'm getting a little jaded. The Fuel System software is undergoing an iterative development with each release being just like the last and I'm ready for a change.

Applied on-line for another job - an ISP in Sheffield, probably F9 or PlusNet, as software manager, well you never know.

Had the usual PC crashes only slightly worse than normal - Dr. Watson paid a visit 8 or 9 times! An old Pentium PC with 64M of memory doesn't mix well with Windows NT 4.0 and Outlook 98. I wish the company would get a clue with its IT.

Eve's first full day at nursery, I hope she likes it, at nine months old it's a big change.