Enjoyed reading the synopsis of Edward Luttwak's new book on Byzantine Grand Strategy: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/017/131xyleq.asp?pg=1

I have read Luttwak's book on the grand strategy of the Roman empire, and I'm intrigued by the idea of the same style of analysis being made of the Byzantines. In some ways, it cuts to the core of my interest in Byzantium, which is to do with the continuity of policy making as a result of the mechanisms of the imperial administration.

So once this is released in the UK, I think you might just find this on my bookshelf.

Posting again from my Perl script. I need to post the source to this at some point - although I'm sure that it won't be useful to anyone else, it's certainly useful for me. I couldn't find anything that allowed me to do quite what this does...so that's good enough for now.

Where to start with what's happened over the last few days?

Well, first off I'm now more connected on my 'phone after signing up to an all-you-can-eat internet deal. This means I can pick up my email properly - something I've been after doing on my mobile for ages (although I don't have push email, I can still set it to collect by POP3 every 15 minutes). This means I can now ditch my Palm TX completely (a sad moment). The last thing I was using it for was to pick up the Guardian every morning using Plucker. Now I just read it on the web.

The other news is that I have been offered a job on promotion. Woo hoo! Very nervous because it will involve lots of travelling, but I'm not about to turn a promotion down. It's also shaken me up because I'll then be very close to my 'target' grade. I just never thought I'd make it this far. So very happy.

I'm on the bus again at the moment. Need to stop before I start to feel nauseous from looking at my 'phone screen too much!

This update is me testing whether the Perl script I've written to run updates to blogger is working. It's the first draft, so it will be lucky if it is!